//------------------------------// // 2. The Gathering of the Recruits // Story: One Tin Pegasus // by GreyGuardPony //------------------------------// Lightning Dust had always been an early riser, even before she had joined the Everfree Rangers. Landowners always made sure to chase poor, wandering ponies like herself off of their farms, so waking with the sun had become par for the course to avoid angry pitchforks and the like. It had been convenient for when she joined the Rangers, for it had saved her having to adjust to getting up early for the order’s training. Thusly, it was something of a surprise to find Aria Blaze’s hawk perched outside the barracks window. Lightning blinked, cocking her head at the bird’s hunched over form. Hawk body language wasn’t exactly her strong suit but if Lightning didn’t know any better, she’d swear that Deathclaw was sulking. “Hey there little guy..,” Lightning said, trotting over to the window. “What are you doing here? Where’s Aria?” Deathclaw glanced her way. “Kreeeeeeeeeeeeee," he rasped out in a display of avian disdain. “...Okay, you’re angry..,” Lightning muttered to herself. It didn’t take long to guess where Aria might have gotten too. The door to the raven tower was wide open. The dome roofed tower was where the Black Rooks kept their flight of ravens. The birds acted as both mascots and messengers for the order and were generally allowed to come and go as they pleased through the tower’s open windows. They always came back. They knew how good they had it here. Lightning flew over to the doorway, pausing as she saw one of the strangest sights she had seen since joining the rangers. Queen grump Aria Blaze was cooing over a raven like it was a foal. She was hovering in the middle of the room, ravens flitting back and forth from between their perches, swirling around her and generally engaged in an enthusiastic bit of morning ruckus. Even more surprising was the fact that the room was spotlessly clean, a few wooden buckets of now dirty water and stained rags piled up near the doorway. “I know little guy,” Aria said. Her voice was soft and gentle as she lightly stroked the back of a raven perched on the edge of her hoof. “A sore wing can be a real pain. But just take it easy for another week or so and you should be fine.” The raven in question cawed in response. “Yeah, yeah. You’re a cutie. I’ll make sure you get fed a bit better.” With that the bird took wing, quickly becoming lost in the larger mass of ravens. Lightning smirked. “A cutie, huh?” Aria stumbled in mid air, her wings actually forgetting to flap for the barest of moments. Slowly and surely she turned to face down Lightning with a truly bone chilling glare. “You breathe so much of a word of this to anypony else and I will kill you!” “Awwww! But smoopshie-poo, what about us? Us and our dozens of bird children?” “Lightning!” “We’ll need to start planning for their futures! Do you think there’s bird universities we can send them to? Then again, apprenticeship might be the better option.” “...That’s it!” The next thing Lightning realized, Aria had tackled her to the ground and yanked her into a rather effective headlock. “Am I still your smoopshie-poo now? Huh? Huh?” Lightning giggled, going limp in her friend’s grip. “Darling, please! Let’s not fight in front of the kids!” “I...just… Argh! Do you take anything seriously?” Aria huffed. “...Very little. Or did you forget what element I have?” Aria sighed and let Lightning go. “Hmmph. Then let me give you a bit of honesty. You’re not going to be able to laugh your way out of your current situation. You’re in charge now. You have to be willing to lay down the law.” Lightning sat up, taking a moment to brush herself off. “Aria? No offense but of the two of us, I’m the actual ranger. I survived Spitfire’s training regimens. I know what to do.” “And no offense back but of the two of us, I’m the only one here who has been in charge of other ponies. Your recruits need to be able to follow your lead.” “Alright, alright. I get the point,” Lightning sighed. “Way to take the wind out of my sails Aria.” Aria shrugged. “Sorry,” she said though her tone said that she was anything but. “But since we have some time before everypony else shows up, I wanted to talk to you about your birds.” “What about them? ...Your hawk is sulking by the barracks, by the way.” Aria smirked at that. “Ahh, he’s just jealous that I’m spending time with other birds. He’ll deal. But your ravens...you aren’t feeding them right.” Lightning looked across the way to the stone bins that were still full of grains and dried fruit. They had always used the ravens as a mixture of mascots and messenger birds. As far as her memory went, the rangers had always fed and trained their birds well. Picking up on her confusion, Aria continued her explanation. “You can’t just feed them grains and fruit, Lightning. Sure, they can live off just that. But ravens aren’t ponies. They need protein. Bugs, eggs or meat. While they could- and probably are- foraging themselves, you might want to just add some to their diet yourself.” Of those three things, eggs would probably be the easiest to get in bulk. Just a simple question of buying them from Ponyville’s local farmers. With a plan already in her mind, Lightning glanced towards Aria. “You really like birds don’t you?” “Yup,” Aria said, shrugging. “They’re cool. They make nice sounds and calls and junk. ...But I’m not kidding. You tell anypony about me cooing over your ravens and I will kick your flank!” “Alright tough girl. My lips are sealed.” Aria nodded. “Good. Now let’s get ready for everypony else.” - - - - Adagio and the others arrived a little while later and the work to make sure the Black Rook Lodge was up to snuff began. They split off to tend towards their own specialties. Sonata went to the kitchens and storerooms to take stock of the lodge’s food supplies. Meanwhile, her assistant Sugar Coat would do a tally on the lodge’s medical supplies. Suri and Iron Will went to examine the armory and see if there were any armor repairs they could cobble together if needed. The former would mend any broken seams she could on the suits of tatzelwurm leather, while Will concerned himself with the chainmail and all things metal. Starlight, along with her assistants Night Glider and Sugar Belle tasked themselves with cleaning out the main barracks. The mess hall was Aria’s responsibility, though she insisted that someone join her as soon as they finished their section, as she had already cleaned the rookery herself. That left the officer’s quarters and offices for Adagio and Lightning. The work proceeded at a steady pace as items were tallied, chambers were swept and gear inspected. Despite the size of the complex, due to the discipline of its previous occupants the task was less work than it could have been and they finished their first pass through the complex by what was about noon. Sonata, having shown a bit of foresight, had brought along some of her own cooking spices and had made lunch around midday. So the group sat down at the mess hall for a bit of a refreshing lunch. Lightning smiled, taking a deep whiff of the spicy vegetable stew that Sonata had whipped up. “Thanks again for the help girls. I probably could have gotten this done myself, but I appreciate the extra hooves.” “Awww. Like we were gonna let you get this place ready all by yourself,” Sonata chirped. “You’re still pretty well stocked in food by the way. Probably won’t need to restock for another few weeks, assuming you have the same number of rangers here as last time.” “We’ll probably have some more at first. A lot of ponies try to make it in and a lot wash out. Out of my group, I was one of two successful recruits. And ten made the attempt.” Iron Will chuckled dryly. “Ahh. The high standards of the Everfree Rangers.” “You’d think that they’d struggle to get recruits,” Suri observed. “But aren’t there like...fourteen of these things?” “Well, every lodge has its own standards for recruitment. The Black Rook Lodge is one of the oldest of them, so Spitfire set the bar as high as she could go. On the other side of spectrum you have The Horn Breakers. The only standard that Primal Fury set was that you had to have been hurt by a caprataur somehow.” She paused for a moment, idly tapping her chin. “Hmmm. I wonder if that’s one of the reasons Sombra has this Harshwhinny mare-” Adagio almost choked on her wine, sputtering as she spewed half the glass of red across the table. Everypony stared as she tried to recover her dignity. “Harshwhinny?” she croaked, gasping for breath. “The Bloody Battleaxe is in charge of this inspection?” “...The Bloody Battleaxe?” Lightning blinked. “W-why is she called that? Does she torture ponies or something? Bathe in their blood to stay young?” She laughed, hoping to lighten the mood with her usual sense of humor. But Adagio’s expression didn’t lighten. “No. She doesn’t do anything like that. In fact...I’d almost say that she’s one of the few incorruptible ponies in Sombra’s court…” “...I’m sensing there’s a but coming on…” Adagio squeezed her eyes closed. “She’s completely uncompromising. You either meet her standards, or she wants nothing to do with you. And those nobles stupid enough to actively cross her, deceive her, or run scams in her territory? She eviscerates them with the law. She knows every loophole, every proclamation, every decree and every precedent. And those that she can’t get with the pen? For them she has her judicial champion.” “A judicial champion? Like...trial by combat style judicial champion?” A curt nod was Adagio’s only response. “Who still does trial by combat? I mean, besides us and the knighthoods I guess,” Lightning said with a deep frown. “But even for us it's more of a duel kind of thing. Lets members vent off steam with each other. I’ve never seen it go lethal. Don’t we have magistrates and courts these days?” Starlight sighed. “While The Heartlands has been moving towards a more independent judiciary, trial by combat is still technically legal. I tried petitioning Sombra and Chrysalis to finally overturn the stupid law last year. I mean, it’s like you said. Nopony really uses it anymore.” “We worked so hard on laying out the reasons why it needed to go too,” Sugar Belle said, visibly slumping. “We spent days writing that proposal.” “I thought we had a real chance too,” Starlight said, patting her assistant on the back. “The head of the Royal Guard...what’s her name...Gleaming Shield? She wasn’t keen on trial by combat either.” “Then why is it still a thing? What happened?” “Your boss happened,” Starlight grumbled. “The Grand Marshal and the leaders of most of the knightly orders all pulled strings to keep the laws intact. Citing ‘ancient rights of honor’ and other complete nonsense. And of course, since no one really uses it outside of specific circumstances, Sombra didn’t see the harm in letting them hang on to it. What a load of cr-” “That’s not important right now Starlight!” Adagio snapped. “If Sombra is using Harshwhinny and the nobles pledged to her directly, then this is bad for Lightning!” “How bad?” Lightning asked. “Incredibly bad! She’s not going to give you any wiggle room. She’s going to want to see this place run with absolute precision and professionalism. She’ll be probing your training techniques, the ponies you take on as recruits, even your own character for weaknesses.” Adagio slid off the bench and began to pace. “Which is the point, of course. If the Everfree Rangers are going to remain independent and not the pawns of whatever duke, baron, or viscount they’re unlucky enough to be near then they need to be cleared by somepony whose own reputation is practically unblemished. If Harshwhinny says that the rangers meet her standards, then the nobles trying to take control of the lodges won’t be able to use the rebellion as an excuse to try and do it. Which then gives Sombra and Chrysalis stronger grounds to deny their claims.” A sigh hissed through her teeth. “Admittedly, the Black Rook Lodge would be okay, as it would be mine, but the others-” “Wow,” Sugar Coat interrupted. “Did you just admit that you’d take control of your friend’s lodge right in front of her?” Adagio blinked, the implications of what she said settling over her. Then she frowned and shot Sugar Coat an annoyed glare. “Yes. I did. Because if that situation happens, I’m clearly the best option for Lightning Dust’s sake. Especially compared to that buffoon Count Copper Coin-” Lightning squirmed in her seat. “Can we not talk about that unless it actually happens?” “...You’re right,” Adagio said, rubbing the side of her head. “I just don’t want to see you trapped under the hoof of some uncaring baron like I was or worse.” Nothing that there were two possible ways to interpret that sentence, Lightning groaned. “Ugh, I hate nobles.” Adagio raised an eyebrow. “...Present company excluded.” “Of course. But I do hope that you have an actual plan for training your replacement lodge?” Lightning allowed herself a wide smile. “Oh, I think I can scare something up. In fact...can I count on you all for some help at certain points?” “Of course!” “Not a problem.” “Whenever I have time, sure!” “Good! Now, for this first bit, I’ll need some buckets of paint and Iron Will,” she said, smiling at the minotaur. “Up for putting some newbies through their paces?” Will grinned back. - - - - “This is…a lot more than I had been expecting,” Adagio muttered. “Me too,” Lightning gulped. Over the course of the following week, ponies had begun to filter into Ponyville from Canterlot and the surrounding areas. As Lightning had expected they came from all walks of life, from the very poor who were looking for a better future, to the sons and daughters of nobles seeking the boost in prestige that would come from being part of the esteemed Everfree Rangers. It seemed that despite the mass betrayal of its members, the idea of the Rangers still held pull in The Heartlands. Or perhaps the nobles were desperate in their own ways. Whatever the case, the trickle of arrivals had rapidly become a flood. With the inns filled up by the early arrivals with money to their name, those who didn’t have enough golden livres or silver sous to cover the bill or who had simply arrived too late resorted to camping. A sprawling tent city had rapidly sprung up along either side of the section of the Great Western Road closest to the lodge. Starlight had been keeping tabs on the number of potential recruits and as of her last counting, there were a hundred ponies clambering for the thirty beds that the Black Rook Lodge now had open. This, combined with the strained tensions that came from so many ponies of different classes staying so close together, had lead to a brawl within their first day. So now Ponyville’s militia patrolled the winding streets of the tent city. Ponyville’s merchants certainly appreciated the influx of ponies seeking wares though and they prowled the canvas corridors as much as those who came to join the rangers. “I hope that you’re ready to start your trials,” Adagio muttered. She had joined Lightning Dust as the two wandered the haphazard rows of tents. “I hate how they’re just kind hanging out in the open here. If the caprataurs decide to get uppity, it’ll just be the militia to defend them.” She paused, her eyes lighting up with a sudden idea. “What about the militia? Can’t we tap them for recruits first? They’d be better than this rabble.” Lightning shook her head. “Any who want to try out are welcome, but I can’t give them preferential treatment.” “Why not?” “Adagio...I had nothing before joining the Rangers. The original ranger lodge was founded by refugees fleeing the fall of Roam by a mixture of commoners, nobles and soldiers. It’s written into the original charter that ‘all are welcome to prove themselves’ and I’m not going to throw away that keystone of an organization I’m trying to save.” Adagio chewed on her lip for a moment before sighing. “Alright Lightning. If that’s important to you, I’ll trust you to get this done.” “I’ll work as fast as I can. But they won’t be alone. Sombra’s leaning on the Everfree adjacent nobles to step up their patrols until the Ranger ‘crisis’ is done with.” “When do you start the training then?” “Tomorrow morning. That should give any remaining stragglers time to file in.” Adagio nodded and frowned. “Just...be careful with Will then. I know that he looks healed up from Chroma’s attack, but he still took an alicorn-charged lightning bolt head on. Don’t…” Lightning lightly bumped her flank against Adagio. “I won’t push him too far. Trust me, alright?” “I’m not worried about you pushing him too far. I’m worried about him pushing himself too far.” “And that’s why I’ll stop him well before that.” “...Thank you.” “Any time.” - - - - The next morning the crowd of prospective rangers- now sitting at one hundred and twenty four- had gathered around the doors to the Black Rook Lodge. Lightning stood just outside the doors, flanked by Adagio and Starlight. Adagio’s horn glimmered with magic and musical notes softly escaped her lips as she wove an enchantment over the trio of them. As the spell settled into place, Starlight stepped up onto a wooden platform they had constructed. “Good morning everypony! I would like to thank you all for gracing Ponyville with your presence on this fine day!” she said, Adagio’s spell carrying her voice clearly across the crowd. A light rumble of agreement rolled through the crowd. “You’re all here to try and join the prestigious Everfree Rangers! Baroness Dazzle and I are happy to have you all here. We just ask that you please keep things orderly and calm while undergoing your trials! We’re all friends here after all.” While most of the assembled crowd laughed, Lightning noticed a few nasty glares fly between some of the applicants. That could easily wind up being a problem. Adagio took the stage next. “While it is true that we are all friends here, allow me to make one thing clear. I don’t care what social rank you have come from. While you are within the walls of the Black Rook Lodge, this mare is in charge.” She motioned towards Lightning to make her point. “Her decisions will be based on merit and merit alone. Do not come to myself or Mayor Glimmer expecting us to overrule Lodge Master Dust’s decisions.” More than a few ponies grumbled at that, most of them the lesser nobles present. “House Dazzle wishes all of you luck. May the odds ever be in your favor!” Now Lightning Dust took the stage. “Alright you bunch of sniveling wannabes! I need everypony to line up in front of the gates! We will be conducting the initial round of screenings in groups of ten. And since we have a whole lot of ponies to get through, we need to get moving! Let’s get to it!” - - - - “Alright everypony! Grab yourself a paintbrush on a stick, pick a paint color and load up your brush!” Lightning shouted. The first group of recruits looked utterly baffled as they trotted over to the ten different colored tins of paint, lined up in a row along the far edge of the practice field from the barracks. This group was mostly lower class ponies. Though there was a pale yellow coated pegasus with a two toned blue mane that carried herself like she was more important than anypony else here. Once everypony had managed to put paint on their brushes, Lightning began to fly back and forth along the line. “Alright everypony! The Everfree Rangers have to be brave! Brave enough to fight whatever comes out of that forest!” “I’m plenty brave!” A cerulean coated pegasus stallion with a short cropped light green mane declared. His bravado was not shared by the mare at his side, an incredibly pale green almost to the point of white pegasus. “Then you’re going to have to prove it!” Lightning declared, spinning to face the barracks. “Iron Will!” The doors to the barracks slammed open and Iron Will came barreling across the field, a paint soaked mop in both of his hands. Lightning dropped back behind her recruits with a lazy flap of her wings. “Mares and gentle stallions?” “I WILL BEAT YOU LIKE A DRUM!” Iron Will bellowed at the recruits. Lightning Dust grinned to herself. “Defeat that minotaur!”