//------------------------------// // Brave Spirit, Heat Wave. // Story: Time to hire some extra teachers // by Light Heart101 //------------------------------// Lone Wolf was just finishing moving into his new apartment. It wasn't very big, but he never had a need for a train full of stuff. He had the habit of only owning the bare necessities. He soon had everything set up, but the rooms still felt empty. He shrugged and decided to grab some breakfast before he went to the school. As he looked into the empty fridge he remembered that he had no time for buying groceries since he arrived. He groaned as he started to think about where to eat. He still wasn't familiar with Ponyville so it only made things harder. As he started thinking about what to do, he heard a knock on the door. Wolf opened it to reveal a pony with a large box. "I have a package for Lone Wolf." Wolf knew that it was most likely his armor and the supplies from his locker in Canterlot. He sighed as he held the door open. "Just set it anywhere. If you have a second I'd like to ask you if you know any good places to eat." As the pony set the crate down Wolf could see that he was a tall earth pony with a smokey grey coat and a brown mane and tail. His cutie mark was a shield with angelic wings on it and he had red scar across his chest. Wolf could instantly recognize him from his military experience. Wolf quickly stood at attention. "Corporal Lone Wolf reporting sir!" The pony gave him a strange look. "You are a lunar guard, aren't you? How do you know who I am?" Wolf stood still while he was still saluting. "You are First Lieutenant Brave Spirit. You finished 3rd out of 313 in your class. Your nickname is the iron wall. You are one of the fiercest warriors who strive to protect Equestria." Brave sighed as he pulled out a clipboard. "The time for saluting me is over. At ease soldier." Wolf lowered his salute, but he still stood up straight. "Yes sir!" Brave rolled his eyes as he pulled out his clipboard. "And cut it out with the sirs. Call me Brave. Can you sign for this?" Wolf looked shocked by his informality. He quickly signed the papers. "Yes sir... I mean Brave. If you don't mind my asking, why are you delivering packages?" "I'm a delivery pony. It's my job." "But you were a great officer. You lead the charge against several threats. Why are you here?" "Because I resigned. I'm a civilian now and comfortable with it." Wolf was shocked. "Wait, what! You were a legend. Why would you give that up?" Brave stopped in his tracks. He took a deep breath as he tried to explain it. "How many friends did you make in the military? I'm pretty positive it's a few, but how many of those lasted? How many of those ponies were reassigned, retired, or worse? Maybe I just got tired of being alone, or that's just how the world wants me to be. I was good at what I did, but I was tired of being alone. Being an officer didn't help. It felt like I was distanced from everypony else. It was like all they could see was an officer and not a pony. As a civilian I'm not as distanced anymore. I'm just a stallion who delivers packages." Wolf was startled about what he said, but he started to think about his career. Wolf didn't make any friends until he joined the school. He didn't think about how alone he really was. Wolf had only seen this look on a few other ponies. As Brave was walking out the door Wolf grabbed him. "Um, before you go I'd like to ask you something. Would you like another job? I know you have always felt alone, but maybe I can help you find those friends you've always wanted." Brave raised an eyebrow. "One, are you talking about Twilight's school?" Wolf nodded. "Yeah." Brave bit his lip. "Two, I don't think I'd make a good teacher." Wolf chuckled. "It's alright. You can be a security guard. If that doesn't work you can be a assistant like Blaze or Flash. You'll be great." Brave still looked skeptical. "Three, would the princess be okay with this?" Wolf smiled. "It's fine. She'll love the idea." =================================================================== Wolf led Brave into the school after they stopped by Brave's house to grab some stuff. Because it was still early there weren't many students moving around yet. They soon made their way to Twilight's office. Before they could walk in Brave stopped in his tracks. "Uh, I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Even if this isn't the military I still know that you are supposed to have an appointment." Wolf didn't looked worried. "It's alright. I know her pretty well now." Blaze was instantly suspicious. Wolf rolled his eyes. "Alright, I've only been here a couple of weeks, but she's not busy right now." As soon as he said that a pony opened the door. He was a pegasus with a yellow coat and a dark yellow mane. His cutie mark was a pen. The face of the pony lit up when he saw them. "Hey cousin! How are you doing?" Brave's face lit up as he saw him walking out. "Doing good Heat Wave. It's great to see you. What are you doing here?" Wave grinned. "I just got a job here. I am now a teacher. I'm going to be teaching kids about simple principles for writing. Are you here for a teaching position too?" Before Brave could answer Twilight walked forward. "I didn't schedule any more appointments today. What's going on?" Wolf stepped forward. "Good morning. I know that this is a little short notice, but I thought you'd be interested in hiring another pony. This is lieutenant Brave Spirit. I think his experience could be highly valuable to the school." Twilight looked interested. "Well, I haven't gotten an application from him yet, so it could be a while before I can schedule an interview." Wolf pulled a couple of files out of Brave's saddlebag. "He filled it out on the way. He also has his military record here." Twilight was curious about Wolf taking the reins of this conversation. "Well... I do have some time before school starts. Come inside Brave. I have a few questions that I'd like to ask you in private." Brave nodded as he walked in. As he sat down Twilight went through the files that were handed to her. He waited for a few minutes before she spoke up. "So Brave. You have had a pretty good career, but it seems like you have had some rough history. You placed the royal guard as a reference, but nopony by name. " Brave shrugged. "All I knew was rank, nothing more." Twilight frowned as she continued going through the file. "You have combat skills, but we are doing fairly good for having ponies who already have combat experience. So why did you apply here?" Brave sighed as he sat forward. "To be honest it wasn't my idea. Wolf thought I could make some friends here, but we both know that's not how this is going to go down. I've tried having friends and fate took them away from me. I don't know why Wolf thought this would be a good idea, but this isn't going to work out. I'm sorry for wasting your time." As Brave started to walk out Twilight called out to him. "Wait! You said that Wolf was trying to help you make friends? Why?" He lowered his head a bit as he looked like he was reflecting. "I've tried making friends before. Fate didn't like the idea so things would always fall apart. If I was twelve years younger I'd be a student here. Just forget it. You already said you had enough security here. You don't have any need for me." Twilight could feel like there was something more to this if he had truly given up on friendship as a whole. She quickly called out to him again. "Hold on! Maybe we can use you here. Um... Maybe you could help your cousin in his class. We are trying to incorporate more assistants and we could use your help in overseeing the students." Brave looked a little confused at her sudden change of mind. "Are you serious? I have my own problems that would make anybody else's issues look like paradise." Twilight walked over to him. "You'd be surprised how many ponies here have said that. I just want to help you out and I think Wolf was trying to do the same thing. Just give it a shot." Brave paused for a moment considering it. "Alright. I'll give it a shot for today. It would be good to work with Heat Wave." As he walked out Twilight started to write a letter. After a while Spike walked in. "Hey Twi. How did the interview with Heat Wave go?" Twilight nodded as she sealed the letter. "It went well, but we also have another pony who is going to help him. Can you send this to princess Luna?" Spike looked a little curious. "Alright, but what is it about?" Twilight looked deep in thought. "I don't know, but I found a few parts of his file that were blacked out. It tells me that the is something classified about him, and I hope to find out what." ======================================================================= Brave slowly made his way to Heat's new classroom. He didn't mind the idea of helping Heat, but he didn't feel good with the idea of trying to open up again. He was still stuck with the memories of his last failure. As he walked up to the door he heard a bunch of talking and laughing inside. He walked in to see all of the students chatting with each other. It wouldn't be much of a problem if Heat Wave wasn't busy trying to get the class started. Heat's voice was being drowned out by all of the students. "Uh, guys? We need to get started. Can we quiet down in here? Please?" Brave watch this play out for a moment before stepping in. "Attend hut!!!" All of the students quickly quieted down. Brave made his way past Heat as he made his way to a chair behind him. "Now I expect you all to pay attention. You can have fun talking when the time calls for it, but right now it's time to listen to Heat wave." Gallus raised a hand. "Um, Twilight already introduced Heat Wave, but who are you." Brave took a second to remember that he wasn't dealing with soldiers. "My name is Brave Spirit. I will be your assistant teacher. My job is to make sure that you all listen and get good grades. Now if you all have a question then you can wait until you are called on or until the end of class." As Brave sat down Heat leaned over to him. "Hey, thank you for calming them down, but you my want to find a new method. I don't think the drill Sargent style will work here." Brave gave him a small nod. He knew that in a school of friendship he was outranked in every way. Heat turned his attention to the class. "Alright. Today we are talking about writing stories. Now there are many things that you can write about. Cooking, nature, technology, or even fantasy books. I could spend all day on what all you could write, but there is one rule about writing. Make it about what you love. Not everybody can write about daring adventures or how to make a toy bear, but you can write about what you know. Many of you have probably read Twilight's journal. That was something that she was passionate about. Think about what you know about and start running with it. Right now I want you all to write down what you enjoy. There are no wrong answers here." Brave watched as all of the students started thinking and writing notes. While they did that Heat walked over to Brave. "Hey, it's great to see you here." Brave didn't want to look him in the eye. "Yeah, it's good to be here." Heat could sense that Brave was just going through the motions with talking to him. "I'm getting the sense that you didn't want to be here. Is this about your last mission?" Brave scowled a bit. "You know that I don't want to talk about what happened." Heat never could find out what exactly lead him to become so distanced. All he knew was it had to do with the long scar on his chest. After the incident Brave ended up resigning. Heat always wanted to help him, but he couldn't figure out what the problem was. Heat sighed as he placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Listen, I know you'll never explain what happened, but you can't give up on making friends. You have had a rough track with friends in the past, but maybe things can change." Brave just shook his head. "How are things supposed to change? I've had a life full of being alone. How is a school supposed to change that?" Heat shrugged. "I have had one guy who is planning to teach my more about helping with counseling. I don't want to force you to do something you don't want, but maybe you can find somebody who can relate to you." Brave bit his lip. After a few minutes of thinking he finally spoke. "Alright. I'll give it a shot, but I don't think anybody would be interested." Heat could tell that he was half hearted with his response. He always said that he would open up, but it never seemed to happen. It burned his heart as he nodded and turned back to the class. =================================================================== Brave was walking out of the door. He didn't feel any different than when he walked in. All he really cared about at the moment was getting home. As he made his way down the path he heard a voice call out to him. "Hey, do you mind stopping for a chat?" He turned to see Desert Rat sitting on a bench. Brave didn't pay him much mind. "If you are here to talk to me about staying then you are wasting your time." "I know soldiers can be stubborn, but you take the cake. My name is Desert Rat, and I think we need to hash this out." Brave felt like somebody just tried to a weak jab at him. "Tell me, what makes you think that you can change my mind." Desert leaned forward with a look of authority. "Because I'm not some young kid or a princess. I'm a warrior who has probably seen more war and pain then you ever had. So why don't you talk to someone who has been where you have." Brave wanted to walk away, but he could feel the aura of experience around him. Brave slowly sat down next to him. "So, you said you have experience, but I've never heard about you. What's your rank and outfit?" "That's classified, and even if I did say what it was you wouldn't believe me. Tell me, what makes you believe that you can take on life alone." Brave didn't like being kept in the dark, but if anyone had to respect what classified meant it was him. He sighed as he tried to figure out how to phrase it. "I've lost a lot of friends. I am always kept distant from everybody. It seems like every time I get close to somebody they are taken away." Desert raised an eyebrow. "And the solution is to hide away? Listen, I've lost more friends then I like to admit. I only have two members of my family left and they don't even know we're related. I have also had made more mistakes and bad decisions then you could ever imagine. I spent a long part of my life as a drifter. If I could go back and change one thing it would be living alone. I don't like what I became. I spent a long time my own and the best moments of my life were the ones with what friends I still had. I know what it is like to feel like life is trying to tear you down, but that's no reason to give up. You aren't even trying right now. I know I'm not the first pony who said this, but give us a shot." Brave lowered his head. "I know, but it seems hopeless. The only pony who I can consider a friend is Heat Wave, and he's family. How am I supposed to try something which already fell apart on me before?" Desert thought for a minute until a grin formed on his face. "Tell you what. Saturday you can bring Heat and I'll bring Wolf. We'll go out to the forest and spend the weekend living on the land. We'll show you two how to live." Brave chuckled at the idea of his cousin going camping. "I don't think Heat would thrive in that type of environment." Desert just smiled. "Is he the type of friend who would give it a shot just to help you?" Brave thought about it for a while. He knew that Heat always wanted to help him open up, so it could be an option. "Alright, I'll ask him if he's interested." Desert smiled. "Great. Only bring the essentials and expect us to reduce it even more. Don't bring a tent, but we might allow you to bring some freeze dried food. You will either love us or hate us, but you'll learn to trust us." As Desert started walking away Brave called out to him. "Hey! How do you live with your bad choices?" Desert gave him a sympathetic look. "You move forward and don't look back. Just think about what your life will be like now." As Desert and Brave started walking home Twilight was watching from a window. She smiled as she held a file marked classified. She started writing a letter to Celestia she started to think about them. "Thank you Desert. You might have been the only one who could have related to him. I just hope that Brave and Heat can work together. They can be a great team for our kids to look up to."