When the chimneys of the big factories finally stopped to spit their dirty-grey smoke and to poison the air, streets of Ponyville would suddenly become the theater of impressive crushes. For those who had always lived there, this was nothing surprising.
In Cloudsdale where he had always lived, things were different. They were making the weather and townspeople had to work day and night to supply the cities of the North Shore with clouds. The employees of the two factories relieved each other without a break. As the pegasi were the only ones who could live there or the unicorns able to perform a spell allowing them to walk on clouds, this kind of melee never existed.
Here, like in a lot of wide urban areas of Equestria, earth ponies formed the bulk of the population. The end of the working time was the moment where the streets got really crowded. The inhabitants were going home or were deciding to run a few errands. All the streets were jammed, hectic. The day time Militia was hanging around, on the look-out. Theft were the most common of crimes during this period of the “day” – even worse in the winter, with the advantages that represented the Ceaseless Night for some of the bandits.
He had always wondered. If ponies knew this winter was suitable with all kinds of offenses, why did they not find a way to create other seasons? They were making the weather after all. He had had an answer to this mystery only a few months before, when he asked one of the employees of a factory. Some of the creatures and animals living north needed this long and tough winter, they needed the darkness. It was about not being selfish by thinking only about the ponies’ cause. It was a matter of balance. A balance that could not be disturbed, at the risk of messing up all the rest.
Caramel had promised him if he came to Ponyville, he would get the chance to see an Aurora Borealis. This spectacular sight, in the opinion of many, was one of the major advantages of the life in the conurbation, the second most important after Canterlot.
For now, all he could see about the city was a hundred, if not a thousand of ponies rushing on the paths that had been sketched at dawn by the city’s employees. They came and went, in an organized mess that made him feel dizzy. As if they had no sense of priorities.
Up in the air, there were very precise rules that each ponies had to respect. Whoever contravened gambled on problems. If these rules were not followed properly, the accidents ensuing from it could be deadly.
Everything about the North Shore was new to him. In the Great Guts Region, the climate was different, more humid. Cloudsdale had a strategic spot. Nested in the pit of the highest mountain, she was not the victim of whims of the wind, the only element the ponies were not able to control.
Here everything was freezing. The thick snow, the guts chilling blood and bones, like skinless whiplashes. Without the torches to light up the city, it probably would have been impossible to go forward without bumping into somepony. With his teeth, Soarin tightened back up his thin cloak around his shoulders.
“We’re almost here”, Caramel told him with a huge smile.
He was very cheerful. There was no way that his arrival in Ponyville could be the only reason why his friend looked so euphoric. Something else had obviously sent him in this very sunny mood. Caramel was not a pony to be easily upset. Even so, Soarin knew him well enough to know he had not told him everything.
But it was no longer the time to ask questions. Already, the huge walls of The Militia’s headquarter and training camp stood out before him in the shadows. He could not help his mouth and eyes from widening. Caramel had warned him, yet he had been expecting something austere, not these gorgeous precious wood doors shining under the lamppost torches around it. Furthermore, the walls were protected by a magic spell. It broadened the whole with an additional radiance, some kind of aura with changing colors, similar to those of a rainbow. It rubbed it in to its splendor.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”, Caramel questioned, patting his ribs. “And you haven’t seen everything yet.”
The earth stallion came closer to one of the doors and searched for his key through his saddlebag. Members of The Militia only had the keys which all had a spell that was unique to its user, allowing them to penetrate into the fortress.
In case of an assault, this headquarter had to be used as an emergency shelter for the inhabitants. Secret undergrounds were hidden there, in fact. For the public safety, only the Members of the Head’s Council were able to locate them. Around here, “too much” was a forbidden expression when it came to cautiousness.
The balance reigning over Equestria since the Princesses’ enthronement was precarious and fragile, it never stopped the continent from being the cradle of horrors, but at least all of the Great Wars were over. Everyone in The Militia knew it would only take a speck of dust to make it all crumble down again.
Caramel had done well to tell him he had not seen everything yet. When he opened up the doors, Soarin set his eyes on a hundreds of ponies dressed in red, manes tied with a black ribbon, training tirelessly with their swords between their mouths.
Cloudsdale’s Militia, yet renowned, had not so many members at its heart. From what he was gazing upon, moves and attacks looked way more elaborated though pegasi like him were not the majority. Myths about Ponyville’s earth ponies said they were not like the others. It said that the Spider God had chosen them to represent his strength through Equestria.
He had not wanted to believe. Yet what was under his nose seemed to be confirming the rumors. Or it was because he had been through so much that everything seemed extraordinary to him. And nevertheless, an almost divine manifestation seemed to be contained in the air. As if… As if this place avoided rationality.
No pony paid attention to him while he was trotting in the huge central yard. When one of them greeted Caramel – and they were few who dared to talk to him – the only attention he could get was a cold piercing look.
At home, Soarin was some kind of local celebrity. Each ponies in Cloudsdale would reward him with a smile or a pleasant word. It was not sure he would fit in Ponyville if the ponies’ behavior was as icy as the thick layer of snow under his hooves.
If he had had the choice, he would have returned home with no hesitation. The thing was that he did not have any other choice than leaving, turning the page and start afresh somewhere else. He had chosen Ponyville because it was the only other city where he had a friend close enough to receive him and maybe even to find him a job. All the ones he loved were in Cloudsdale.
As for the job, nothing was for sure. Caramel had told him the Head had agreed to make him go through the Warrior Test but had made no promises. All the rest rested upon his abilities. And it was the main problem.
Before he had come across him, before he had to suffer from this cruel humiliation, he would have sworn with a shrug and a half-smile that he had nothing to fear and that this Test would have been a mere formality. Now Soarin was no longer sure about anything. The very thought of fighting sent cold sweats along his spine. Despite it all, he would never stop fighting. Fighting and flying were the only things he could do.
At the end of the yard there was a building almost as high as the walls around it, divided in two wings. The room where the Members of the Head’s Council trained as well as the one where they gathered once a week to discuss about the many operations led during the previous days, all were in the very heart of the structure.
He followed Caramel while he climbed on a few steps leading to a door on which “Head’s Council” was written. He thought his friend would ask him to step inside with him in order to introduce him to the Head, but he turned around instead with a big goofy smile.
“Don’t forget to take off your boots before you enter. Rainbow Dash doesn’t really like when somepony ruin the training mats with soles.”
“Aren’t you… coming with me?”, Soarin asked while feeling stupid to state the obvious.
“No, sorry. I got a rendezvous in the other room. With the mare of my dreams, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Soarin was a bit upset that his friend was so delighted about what was happening to him, while himself would have to face one of his biggest fear. This all maybe for nothing. Caramel was not to blame, he was. He had been self-convinced that the stallion would have been present during his Test though he knew undoubtedly that these kind of things were impossible. Warrior Tests always were behind closed doors. It was not about the other members. It was the Head of the Militia’s business and no pony else’s. If the Head decided a fighter was worth it, none could reconsider the decision.
“Come on, don’t worry. I’m sure this is going to be just fine. You should be going; Rainbow Dash might be expecting you.”
Without further ado, Caramel started to trot along the platform like a pontoon which went around the building, and dived into the closest door with a blissfully happy smile.
In front of his own door, Soarin swallowed. A sharp lump had appeared in his throat. His lips were dry, his forehead was hot and his heart… his heart had fun tormenting him as if he had been the master of chaos himself.
He knew nothing about the Council's Head. Nothing personal, only rumors. All he knew for sure was that the pony was dreaded and respected, that the name itself was a synonym of fear for some and an exciting challenge for the others.
If he stayed there staring at the door with an absent-minded and nervous glance, he would not learn more. It was not as if he could avoid it, anyway. It was not only about himself. Caramel had to insist to get him this “job interview”. It also was his words he would take the risk to reassess if he did not at least try. His future and his only solid friendship in this town were at stake as well.
Soarin breathed out deeply and pushed the heavy door with his head. Right on time, he remembered he had to take off his boots before. For a short moment he wondered whether it would not have been better for him to knock or to announced himself before stepping inside. The place looked empty…
The place was not empty. Without warning, his heart skipped a new beat and started to dance within his chest. All Caramel had said about the Head had been gender neutral, and as weird as it seems, he had not suspected for half a second that Ponyville’s Head of the Milita was a mare pegasus.
She was at the back of the room. Her shadows stood out on the spongy mats and licked his hooves. Two oil lamps lit up the room with a pale and dimmed luminosity which made the vision even more seductive. The mare, her wing unfold, was busy tying her long rainbow-colored mane with The Militia’s traditional black ribbon.
It was the first time he ever saw such a mane. Other ponies had two shades of horsehair but he would not have thought it possible to see such a collection on a single one mare.
The picture was so alluring he had forgot about his fears. Nothing else mattered right then. He was feeling as if sucked up in an alternate universe where nothing could go wrong, where the sun would shine at each second of the day and night only lasted for a few hours.
He quickly came back on Equestria when she stepped closer and stared at him with her magenta eyes.
“Are you Soarin?”
All he was able to do was to nod silently, his mouth half opened. Caramel had told him he had seen nothing yet about beauty. He was right. But suddenly everything that had vanished away when he had met her face to face went back to the surface. Stronger and more violent. Soarin had to do his best not to let Rainbow Dash see him shaking.
“Well, what are you waiting for? I don’t have all day! Take off this cloak and put on some real clothes. I don’t know if you’d noticed but it’s kinda cold around here.”
In Cloudsdale, ponies wore no clothes. Ponyville’s climate did not allow such a leeway scope. Even the winter coat was not warm enough for the harsh conditions of what they called the Ceaseless Night. Rainbow Dash herself had put on some kind of dress matching her mane, lined with wool. The skirt was short enough to permit her a freedom of movement.
“I have no clothes”, he finally said in a sort of whisper.
“I knew about it so I asked outfits to be prepared for you. You’ll find them in the locker room.”
Silence. She kept on staring at him, as if she could read through his coat and see the real nature of his soul. Everything that was concealed in the depths, what he was afraid to dig up.
“Why are you still here?”
Outfit. Prepared. Locker room. The pieces of information finally went up to his grey matter and after he nodded a second time without even being sure of why he did this, Soarin started to trot. Of course, he did not know where the locker room was but while going forward, he swept the room with his eyes and thought he noticed a door with a pony on it, at the back of the room. Unless this was…
One of the solid wooden sword the recruits used for practice bounced on his head. Soarin had a startle and only after this did he hear Rainbow Dash’s upset voice.
“It’s the loo… Locker room is on the other side!!”
A quick glance to the spot Rainbow Dash had been on a few minutes earlier was enough to make him understand his mistake. A square of wood with “locker room” written on it was pinned on a half-open door. Shoot! He had acted like a fool and this, from the very first minutes. There was only one chance to make a good impression… he had just screwed his up.
It did not matter what he was feeling when looking at her. Even his fear did not matter. All she would remember forever was this goofball behavior. Now all he could hope for was to be able to fight and not to let fright paralyzing him. It was his last chance.
The room in which he had just stepped was merely lit up by the lights from outside. It was an even colder place than the room in which Rainbow Dash probably was waiting on him. The dark tiles on the floor and walls increased the gloomy impression. Undoubtedly, once crowded with ponies, everything would feel different. For now, there only was Soarin here.
Rows and rows of red-colored lockers were staggered under his eyes. He did not really know which one was for him and knew if he turned back to ask the mare pegasus where were the clothes intended for him, the answer he would get would not be quite nice. There was no way he would take that risk.
When looking more closely, he noticed that the name of each of the recruits was written on the lockers’ doors, along with a representation of the Cutie Mark on their flanks. All he had to do was to look for the nameless one. If there was a nameless one. After three minutes wandering between the rows, Soarin started to feel unsure. Maybe he had not heard the right words.
He was about to give up and too bad if she torn the strip off him when, at the end of a row, he found a locker which door was ajar. His Cutie Mark was not on it, but a sticker had been put there with “newbie… maybe” followed by a winking smiley written on it. First, he thought this was Caramel’s action… then he told himself this could as well have been made by Rainbow Dash.
She could not be nothing but the strong-headed mare he had met earlier. A mare with such a charm… Impossible. It probably was because she had to be impressive given her position. Things would get better with time.
He took off the sticker with his teeth and opened wide his locker’s door, barely lit up by the weak outside torches which only let a faint ray filter.
He thought his heart would stop beating when a pink mare with a curly mane bounced off from the iron compartment, her hooves in the air, with a rain of streamers falling on his head.
“Welcome, newbie!”, she cried out while insisting on the last syllables.
Sitting against a row of lockers behind him, his hoof on his heart, Soarin stared at the mare getting out of his own locker with a wide smile on her lips, obviously unaware of the fright she had just gave him.
“How—How—How can you do—this?!!”
In his concept of things, it was impossible for an adult pony to fit into such a confined space. Unless her special talent was contortion…
The mare smiled at him while tilting her head and, without warning, climbed on top of the rows in front of him.
“Do what? Oh, the locker? That’s a secret! I’m Pinkie Pie, by the by. And you are the newbie, right?”
He nodded then stood back up to return to his locker, hoping no other pony would bounce out of it. The outfit intended for him was some kind of red sweater with no collar, along with a thick belt with many bands on which a sword could be hung. No need of instructions to know what each piece of garment was for.
While dressing up, Soarin thought the least of things would be to show liking to the pony who had made an effort to welcome him, though it had been in the weirdest and scariest way ever. After all, oppositely to all of whose he had met until then, she smiled and seemed most likely to behave with him in a pleasant manner. If he had to be a part of Ponyville’s Militia, the least of things was to try his best to fit in. Harmony between the members was an essential element of the good operating of the organization.
“Are you a Member of the Head’s Council?”, he asked her while trying to put on his “sweater”.
“Me? No. I’m not 'officially' a part of The Militia.”
“So, err… Well, I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry”, she said while hopping on the other row of lockers in front of her. “If you get into our group, you’ll understand quickly.”
“Alright.”
Soarin did not know what else he could answer. There was nothing more to add. Because “if” was a key word. Nothing told him he would pass his Warrior Test. There was no use in knowing more than what was necessary for now. He did not want to think about what came after or even about what was going to happen as soon as he would leave this place.
While going to the locker room’s exit, not without a struggle to put up these “clothes” he was not used to, he sensed Pinkie Pie following him. She had jumped from row to row with agility and had landed on the tiles floor with suppleness, proving that, if she was not an official Member of the Militia, she had what it took. Now she was hopping by his side as if this day was the happiest of her life.
She probably wanted something…
“Hey, can I give you some advice for your Test, Newbie?”
“My name’s Soarin Skies, not “Newbie”. But, everyone simply calls me Soarin.”
“But can I give you some advice anyway?”
“So be it”, he said with a sigh.
He did not want to think about it so he would not get stressed out yet started to understand this was not a profitable approach. He would have to think about it, whether he liked it or not.
“Don’t be too impetuous. Be strategic. Rainbow Dash isn’t just swift, she’s also really, really, really, really fast. You have to be sly to fight against her.”
He opened his eyelids wide. This was not some stupid advice. It was even undoubtedly worthy of interest.
He turned around to thank her but much to his surprise, he noticed that Pinkie Pie was missing, without him to understand how.
Despite himself, Soarin remembered the essential pieces of information and stored them in a corner of his mind. The rule of the Warrior Test was not to be able to defeat the Head to be accepted, but to show your skills while being able to fight with a mix of strength, liveliness, flexibility, strategy and intelligence. But if he could prove Rainbow Dash he was more than a goofball with a pair of wings by taking the advantage on her at least one time during their dual, that was something he would not go without. And his position within The Militia would be a sure win.
He returned to the training room, backed by a brand new determination.
The room was bathed in a different atmosphere. All around the white foam mats completely layering the floor, oil lamps had been settled. It projected bursts of light all converging toward the center, forming a halo around Rainbow Dash sitting on her hind legs, two wooden swords at her hooves.
As soon as Soarin stepped closer, she took one of them between her teeth and threw it in his direction. He reacted swiftly by using his wings in order to take it before it would fall on the floor. Leisurely, he trotted to the center of the room where she was waiting, her long mane tied on the top of her head with her black ribbon.
The Head of the Militia had to have the longest mane of all the members. The longer the mane was, the most powerful the pony was. Only a few resistant like him rather had theirs quite short, not to be bothered during fight.
“Please, I got plenty of time to look at you trotting.”
Her voice was sharp, dry. Obviously, she did not feel like joking. Yet Soarin was sure they had plenty of time before the night watch to begin. Nothing to rush for. Unless there was another reason. She tried to drive him into a corner.
As soon as he was facing her, Rainbow Dash stood back up and took her own wooden sword. These swords were not real killing tools but the fact remained that they were heavy and hard to manipulate. Without a little bit of mastery, it was easy to let the shaft go and to let it fall down. This was the kind of mistake which could be deadly with a real sword, except if, by chance, the fighter also was experimented with bare-hooves attacks.
“Are you ready?”, she asked him, settled in position.
Soarin nodded.
“Fine. In this case, en garde… you good-looking stallion!”
This nickname immediately made the blood flow toward his cheeks. It was the first time since he had saw her magenta eyes that she made him a compliment. The wink she gave him after that quickly made him go back on earth. She was still manipulating him in order to unsettle him. He would not get trapped.
His sword between his teeth, he settled as well in the right fighting position. Do not think. Do not think and remember you have to fight. Just fight and put the rest aside. Do not either forget about the advice given by Pinkie Pie. This was going to be difficult, if he had not to think.
As if to show his will to prove her he had the skills of a good fighter, Soarin did not hesitate for too long. He was the first to leap forward. Barely impressed, Rainbow Dash only had to leap back using her wings in order to give herself more room to avoid his first assault.
He rose up in the air and pricked up his sword toward her flank on which the symbol of her Cutie Mark – a cloud with a rainbow thunder – was embroidered. He did not really believe in his action since Pinkie Pie had insisted that Rainbow Dash was of violent speed yet he had to try. If he pulled it off, he would probably be able to knock her to the ground with ease.
Unexpectedly, it was around the small of her back, right into one of the stitch of her dress that he planted the edge of his sword. It was not exactly what he intended to do yet Soarin could hardly believe he already had touched her after only a minute of fighting.
They said she was so redoubtable that Wind Rider, a former dangerous mercenary who had been in her uncle’s pay, had gone as far as the Macintosh Hills not to risk to meet her again. How had himself been able to overpower her so fast while being still terrified at the idea of fighting again?
But by being too enthusiastic about his beginning of a success, Soarin lowered his guard. So, with a move from her tail, Rainbow Dash was able to send the sword flying the other way, the object rising into the air with him missing it.
Maybe the ponies’ tails were made of nothing but horsehair, yet with a bit of concentration and skill, it could be useful during bare-hooves fights for cases like this one. Just like whips, they had the power to get rid of some items or to hurt those who felt its slap against their coat.
He had no time to try and fly toward his sword that Rainbow Dash already was at his neck, and knocked him down with one strike from her hind legs against his sides. He fell on his back indirectly, his breathing altered for a couple of seconds.
It all happened so fast it was hard for Soarin to digest every bit of information. He had been so close from victory, just an inch close from fulfilling a miracle. What got him was that he had underestimated the mare pegasus in front of him, just because he had been able to graze her. Intoxicated by this small triumph, he had been overwhelmed.
Soarin rolled on his stomach, his back and wings aching from his fall, as if electricity was going through his body. Rainbow Dash landed by his side and threw the sword which she did not even use on the floor.
“This is what happens to smart-asses showing off… From the moment you pricked up your sword toward me I knew I had won.”
Yet Pinkie Pie had warned him. Not to be too impetuous, to act methodically, to keep her amazing speed in mind. In the end, he had not listened to the shrewd advice and he had been pig-headed. The result of this was that there was no way he had passed his test, seeing the little of skills he had been able to display.
Soarin was surprised when he saw Rainbow Dash softening and holding her hooves out. With hesitation, he held one of them, in fear she would make the most of it to pin him against the mats. But she did not, simply helping him to stand back up. The pain he still felt made his wings tremble, as if a million of needles were unceasingly planted into his feathers.
“Training takes place every day. I’ll give a key for your own use to Caramel. You’re going to have your first night watch tomorrow so you’d better feel fit and train before.”
He opened his eyes wide, unable to believe what he had just heard. Did she just tell him he was accepted into The Militia, despite his disaster of a test?
“Am I in?”, he asked with quavers in his voice.
“What have I just said? You’ll be First Class Lieutenant just like in Cloudsdale.”
“But I screwed it up completely…”
“Not completely. You screwed it up but you got potential. A lot of potential. All you have to do is to concentrate and to think”, Rainbow Dash finished while showing her own head.
For the first time since they met, she smiled at him. All the emotions he had felt when he first saw her rushed back full force in his face, with the swift and the violence of a hooves blow in his nose.
A few minutes later, she was gone, letting him take his cloak back into the locker room. Although she was no longer here, Soarin had his mind full of Rainbow Dash. He liked mares of her kind, the unpredictable, the strong-headed, the reckless. The impress she left him was powerful, an indelible mark. He promised himself. One day, she would feel the same for him.