Twilight was busy cleaning off her desk. She had no clue how hard it was to train a new staff. From teaching Light to be more patient to teaching Blaze about the same lessons he was helping to teach her students. She knew it was taking a lot of time but the payoff will be worth it in the long run.
As Twilight took a long sip of tea she could hear someone knocking at the door. "Come in."
A bat pony walked in. He had bark blue fur, raven hair, and a white tail. His cutie mark was a moon with the shadow of a wolf on it. When he approached the desk he proceeded to salute her. "Corporal Lone Wolf reporting you highness!"
Twilight blushed at the formality. "Please call me Twilight. I never did like the formalities. Um, at ease."
Somehow his form of "at ease" didn't look different from his "at attention" stance. "I'm here to operate as a teacher and a security officer. I'm currently a part of the lunar guard. If you wish to hire me then I promise to increase security and help lead the next generation to a brighter future."
Twilight pulled his file out of her desk. She whispered to herself as she started to read it. "I haven't heard a lot of good things about the royal guard recently."
Wolf gave a snarky grin. "The inefficiency and general stupidity of the day shift is not my fault."
When Twilight looked back up to him the grin quickly disappeared. She took a deep breath as she looked back to the file. "Let's see what we have here. You specialize in outdoor survival. You were recruited as a night patrol in Canterlot in the Lunar guard. You were 47th out of 278 in your class. You have some combat skills from fighting trouble makers and thieves. You also fought during the changeling invasion. You are currently trying to get promoted to lieutenant. I'm impressed by your military career. I have a brother who is the head of royal guard in the Crystal empire and I know it isn't easy. Why are you interested in joining my school? You have no family in the area. It doesn't seem like something you'd try."
Wolf took a deep breath as he slowly leaned forward. "How many times has Ponyville been under attack from monsters, or anything else for that matter?"
Twilight never thought to keep track of that. As she started to list them in her head she could feel a small headache coming over her from remembering how many of those threats she and her friends had to face themselves. "More than I'd like to think about."
Wolf pulled out a list. "This is a list of all of the currant threats in the area. Equestria and the surrounding nations have been at peace for a long time. This ended up allowing us to grow soft and lower our guard. Equesstria and it's surrounding allies have been attacked several times in the last few years. This school itself has been attacked several times already and it isn't even old enough to produce any graduates yet. Equestria has always tried to make peace with the other nations and it's worked so far, but what happens when a certain ex-queen comes along looking for a fight? I want to help you protect these kids and our nation as a whole. I can teach them how to keep calm when these threats come along. I can show them basic skills and strategies so they don't hurt themselves. As a teacher I'll show them survival skills so they are able to protect themselves. I know you don't like the idea of turning a school of friendship into a boot camp, but they need protection, and I can give it to them."
Twilight leaned forward in deep thought. She thought about the dangers that they have already faced, not only from wild creatures and evil ponies, but from smaller things like drowning and falling. Some students have already shown some cleverness in situations like this, but not all of them could think on the fly. Many of them could end up freezing in place.
Twilight finally made her choice. "You're right. You aren't the first one who brought this to my attention. As much as our primary focus is on friendship we need to help them make quick decisions when they do face danger. If you can give them some plans for when trouble comes it can be a great help. I'll be happy to make you the head of security here, on one condition."
Wolf raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"
Twilight pulled out some of her books. "According to your file you don't have much of a life outside of work. I don't want your teaching to completely revolve around survival skills. I expect you to study these books and try to make some new friends here."
Wolf took a deep breath. "Yes ma'm!"
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The next day Wolf watched from the rafters as the students made their way into the lecture hall. He knew that Twilight was planning on just introducing him, but he didn't feel like a normal introduction would do justice to what he needed to teach those kids. They needed to learn how to act on the fly without warning. Earlier when Twilight was getting ready for him to introduce him he told her that he was going to have a surprise for the kids. He wanted to make a baseline to see how the students will currently react in a emergency.
Twilight made her way onto the podium. "Good morning everybody. For the last few weeks I've been thinking about some of the recent emergencies we've had. It has come to my attention that you all should know how..."
Wolf knew that she was giving a lot of his plan away before he could enact it. Before she could say anything else he dropped a firecracker and a smoke bomb behind the rest of the class. As the sudden pop went off and smoke started to spread across the room everybody jumped out of their seats.
After a few moments of chaos a voice called out from the back of the room. "Peace everyone! The strife is over! It was a smoke screen and a light jumper!"
Everybody was confused by the words used, but they looked to see a Zebra with a smoke bomb still burning in her hooves. They watched as she proceeded to stomp it out. As everybody made their way back to their seats Twilight spoke up. "Excuse me Trail Dancer, but how did you figure it out so fast."
Trail made her way back to the front as she was explaining it. "Teacher had no fear. There was smoke without a glow. The smell had no burn to it. Kids in tribe used same tricks for laughs."
"She looked at the problem and found a solution." Everybody turned to see Lone Wolf landing on the ground behind them. "Sorry for the scare, but this was necessary to give me an idea of what I'm working with. I'm Lone Wolf. I'm a corporal in the lunar guard and I specialize in survival tactics. My job is to teach you how to handle yourself in an emergency. Consider this a test. Only thing is we took the test first and now we move to the lesson. I have to say I wasn't expecting you all to handle this so quickly, but it was mostly Trail Dancer who found the problem.
There are four groups of people in a crisis. The first one is the leaders. The people who can keep their cool, find the problem, and know how to deal with it. From watching you all I found six leaders. Even though only one of you found the source the rest were trying to calm everybody down and were following some form of improvised fire plan. The second group is the fighters. After the explosion some of you thought we were under attack and were darting around looking for a threat. You wanted to protect your friends and yourself by any means necessary. The third group was the flighters. You saw danger and ran for the doors. Your plan was to get away as quickly a possible. There were quite a few of you in that category and in a situation like this it really wasn't a bad thing. The last group which is also the group that I'll be working the most with is the freezers. You couldn't act, you didn't know what to do, so you froze like a pony in the winter time who fell in a pond. There are quite a few of you who fit into that category and that is the one you never want to be in. Don't worry! I will give you the tools to know what to do in a crisis. When you have the tools at your disposal your odds of freezing go down drastically. Weather in a team one on your own I'll give you the knowledge on how to survive almost anything."
Ocellus raised a hoof. "Did you say by yourself?"
"Yes. You never know when you'll be caught off guard."
Ocellus had a scared look on her face. "We always have each other when something happens, but being alone? I don't know if I'm brave enough to do that."
Wolf grinned. "Which is why today I'll give you one of the most important tools you'll ever need. A mental trigger. There is only one thing worse than freezing in a crisis, and that is giving up. When you give up then you have lost all chances of survival. That is why you always need a reason to fight. You need something in your head that will tell you that you can't give up, and you need to keep living."
Ocellus raised her hoof again. "So what's your mental trigger?"
Wolf was taken back by that question. He never had to explain it before. "Uh, well... I guess it would have to be my family. They have always supported and encouraged me. They taught me a lot of what I know, and I never can imagine what would happen to them if I..." Everybody watched as a few tears rolled down his face. It was the only time he showed any sign of fear as he thought about what would happen if he ever gave up.
Slowly his look of fear changed to a look of determination. "I fight for them. That's why I joined the lunar guard. I thew myself at danger so no one else had to. They are my reason to fight and live. I know nothing I've ever faced has probably faced up against what Twilight and her friends have faced, but I know that they have their reasons to never give up. Friends and family are some of the greatest motivators. Always keep them in mind when you face the darkness."
Everybody looked like they were taking it into thought. Some of them were looking at each other. After a few moments Wolf got back on topic. "Alright. I hope that gave you something to think about. I have some papers here for you all to go through. Twilight helped me come up with a few plans for if something happens in the school. This list ranges from fires, getting hurt, attacks, and other scenarios. Pay attention and keep those papers. We will have drills in the future, but for now let's get into some reading and get this stuff memorized."
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The class was pretty successful. Everyone found the new class pretty interesting. The only hard part for Wolf was the fact that he had to adjust his sleeping schedule. Going from a night job to a day job was a tall order.
As Wolf was making his way to the door he heard a voice from behind him. "You did a pretty good today. I didn't think you could mix survival and friendship together, and somehow you taught about both of them."
Wolf turned to see Desert Rat behind him. Wolf chuckled. "I usually go alone whenever I go out on one of my "trips". I'll go for 48 hours with only a handful of supplies. I had to start changing my mindset from being solo to working with a team when I joined this school. I'm utilizing so much more of my knowledge than I'd ever thought I'd use."
Desert grinned and gave Wolf a pat on the back. "You know something, you know how to camp right. I didn't think I'd find another guy around here who goes into the wild with only minor tools to cover his needs in the wild."
Wolf felt like he received his respect, and he also felt like it wasn't an easy feat. Desert had a aura of experience around him, but he could also tell that they use two different styles of survival. Wolf decided to thank him. "Well, I take that as a compliment. It's not often I meet an experienced survivalist."
Desert smiled. "Well I guess that's one way to describe me. Tell you what, I'll treat you to dinner and we'll trade notes. I'm interested in how the young ones play the survival game."
Wolf felt puzzled. "Wait, you want to trade notes with me? I would guess you'd know more."
"Maybe, but I think it'd be worthwhile to look at things from another perspective. The second you stop learning is the second you become an idiot. Come on kid. Show this old war horse what you know."
While the two of them started to walk off Twilight watched from a distance. As she got started making her way to her house she started thinking to herself. "Well Wolf, I'm glad to see you won't go at this alone. Just don't turn my school into an army."