Knights of Equestria: Page

At night, Blizzard tossed and turned in her sleep. In her dream, a she was being chased by a large shadow in a huge, dark corridor as crystals that were pure black shot up in her path, causing her to rapidly change course constantly. She was galloping as fast as she could, but it wasn't enough. The shadow was almost upon her, when suddenly, there was a bright flash and a large blizzard sprang up and blew the shadow away, breaking the crystals as well. A whirlwind appeared and when it cleared, it revealed a pure white alicorn with a mane that was reminiscent of a severe blizzard.

"Child, rest your mind, your time is not now." the alicorn said in a kindly and relaxing voice. She lowered her horn and spread her wings. "Sleep, and do not worry."

Blizzard was transported to another, more pleasant dream, soon to wake up and not remember anything about her strange dream. She would not notice a certain other alicorn with a dark blue hide and a flowing mane filled with stars watching, a troubled expression on her regal face.

Later in the morning, Blizzard set about the task of convincing her parents to let her join the Knights of Equestria as a page. They were adamant to not let her join, until she told them that the knights would teach her academic things as well as how to be a knight without her parents paying tuition on a good school. After that, they were beginning to be won over to the idea, but they still had their doubts.

"Well dear, since you seem to know a lot about what's expected of a page when one starts to train as one, will you be expected to fight for Equestria as soon as you know how to?" her mother asked, worried.

"Well, pages are sworn to protect the innocent until they die, no matter how deadly the circumstance...." she trailed off when she saw her parents' expressions, "but pages aren't expected to do anything other than learn, carry messages, and serve the knight instructors, unless it's absolutely necessary. I mean, it has to be an all out 'we won't survive unless everyone helps in the fight' sort of situation, which I highly, highly doubt will happen while I'm a page."

"Well that's...nice to know, I guess." her father said, uncertainly.

This was going to take some time. Blizzard sighed inwardly, thankful that the knight who was supposed to recruit the prospective pages wasn't going to be in town until Thursday. She read about the dates that the recruiters would come while she listened to her friends read the letter from the Princesses to their subjects. Truth be told, Blizzard was waiting for something like this to happen ever since she read about the knights when she was just five. She had been inspired by them and what they stood for. In fact, the hope of joining the knights is what drove Blizzard to learn how to fight, not as well as a soldier or guard, but well enough to defend herself. It is quite useful for the occasional bully that came along.

"Well, I'm going out to play with my friends, see you later." she said as she bolted out the door.

"Honey, wait! Your breakfast... *sigh* What are we going to do about that child?" her mother said.

"Well, there is the knight training she wants. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to like the idea." her dad said.

"Alright, I will admit that the idea appeals to me. It seems she isn't going anywhere in life anyway. It probably would be for the best." her mother said, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and be as supportive as possible."

Finally, it was the weekend. Blizzard found it surprisingly easy to convince her parent's after the initial talk she had with them. In fact, all they asked her to do was to be careful and write them as often as possible. Her friends had similar luck. In fact, the day she had that first talk with her parent's, she went out and inquired what her friends' success was with their own parents. It took little convincing for all of them to agree. For Fog, who's parents were on the edge of divorce because his dad is a complete jerk and alcohol addict, his mother viewed his asking to become a page as a blessing and agreed to it almost right away, while his dad couldn't have cared less. Quartz and Flame had the same amount of difficulty Blizzard had, but it only took them three days to convince their parents.

The knight herself came on Thursday. She was an extremely light gray with a pale golden mane. Her full title was Lady Knight Ash Sky, but she insisted on just being called "Ash", or, if a pony insisted on being somewhat formal, "Lady Sky". Though, if a filly or colt had joined as a page, she ordered them to follow protocol and call her "Instructor Sky".

Predictably, Blizzard and her friends were the first to join due to their parents agreeing so quickly. Being the instructor for the pegasi and the hoof to hoof combat teacher, Ash studied Blizzard and Flame closely, somewhat surprised that the two were doing the same to her. In her mind, Ash thought that Quartz would interest Magma Glow and Fog would intrigue the  Earth pony instructor. She took a critical look at Blizzard. To an observer, it would look like Blizzard and Ash were staring each other down. Liking what each saw in the other, Ash had the fillies and colt sign their names on a form and had them recite an oath. This is what it was:

We promise to to uphold the rules of our instructors, and the laws of Equestria. We agree to protect the innocent, the weak, the sick, and anypony who cannot defend themselves for any good reason, as well as the peace when needed. Until our death, or the end of our time as pages, we swear this unto our honor as ponies and as defenders of Equestria and the Princesses.

Each of the young friends had different thoughts after they swore the oath. Blizzard was thinking of what the oath meant when it said that she was now a defender of Equestria. Flame was thinking about the protect anypony who had a good reason to not defend themselves bit. Fog was contemplating the entire meaning of the oath. Quartz was stuck on the until death or the end of being pages bit. All of them were brought out of their reveries and told that they had two days left with their families to say goodbye, and that they were to report to the town center at four in the morning on Saturday to leave with Ash to the fortress that the knights had to begin training the pages. Blizzard thought This will be interesting.