My Little Changeling -- "I" is Magic

by Wing Dancer


Chip The Trainee

Chip’s return was mostly ignored by the recruits in the barracks. The changeling registered a few sympathetic notes coming from the corners of the room, but they were rather fleeting emotions, overshadowed by smugness and a sense of relief. As advised by the Captain, the stallion wore a face of anger hidden beneath a deadpan. It seemed to work and nopony even questioned him about the subject of Shining Armor’s need to see him.

With some relief the disguised colt fell down on the only available bed, right next to the entrance. He wasn’t really that much exhausted, but thinking about murder all day long had its ways to put a changeling on edge.

* * *

“EVERYPONY UP! C’MON NOW, UP AND AT' EM!” hollered a magically enhanced voice.

Most of the fresh recruits woke up with girlish screams of surprise, some of them even going so far as jumping or falling out of bed. The more hardy colts, those that would become excellent guards in the future, woke up instantly and began making their beds, knowing that an inspection would be made further on.

Chip was still prancing about happily in lala land. Naturally, his changeling senses weren’t any duller in his changed form – his body felt the Captain approach several minutes before he showed up. His instinct just didn’t find the order justified or as urgent as it sounded, allowing for the changeling to sleep peacefully in the racket of a scrambling team.

Shining Armor saw that and gingerly, tip toing, approached the bulky red form wrapped in a pale green bed sheet. He ignored the snickering and hushed excited whispers going through the room. Everypony was looking forward to the Captain entertaining them first thing in the morning.

“Private Redberry,” whispered the white stallion, gently prodding the changeling on the side. The changeling gave out a loud, undignified snore and wriggled around a bit. “Private Redberry, wake up sleepy head,” tried Shining Armor again, tugging at the bed sheets. In response, the fake colt turned to his side, tightly wrapping himself in the cover and smacking his lips loudly.

Everypony in the room was silent and focused at the scene at hoof. Way in the back of the barracks there were even bets on the way that Shining Armor would wake up the unfortunate recruit. So far, the most bet on was “a cold shower”, while the least probable was “gentle and dignified awakening”, bet on by just one colt.

With a small, totally not evil smile, Shining Armor shook his head and exited the barracks. He came back a moment later with a bucket and horn held in his magical aura. The sight elicited a ruckus at the back – nopony bet on a combo and everypony was arguing whether or not somepony actually won.

The light rose aura around the horn shone brighter as the Captain drew the instrument to his mouth. At the same time the bucket positioned itself above the changeling’s head.

Everypony was blown back by the sound of the horn, a single note that roared out with the force of a hurricane across the barracks. At that point, Chip opened his eyes. He saw a bucket. It was tipping over. His body told him to roll off the bed, then roll under it and assault the enemy’s ankles, preferably with razor sharp teeth or his jagged horn. Chip’s barely conscious mind suppressed the motion however, embracing the situation. It was for the good of his mission.

With a ‘surprised’ yelp Redberry, soaked to the skin, flailed his hooves around in his bed, fighting the wet blanket that held him in its ginger embrace just moments before. His struggle caused him to slip off the mattress, producing a satisfying wet slap upon impact with the ground. Everypony laughed and pointed at the unfortunate changeling.

To Shining Armor’s surprise, a single colt made a move towards the dramatic scene, but seeing the overall commotion decided not to step out of line and simply gave a half-hearted smile.

Will have to definitely remember that one, thought Shining Armor, refocusing on the growling recruit before him. It was time to scream some more.

“Private Redberry!” yelled Shining Armor, bending over the sore and soaked changeling. “What hour do you think it is, huh? What hour?!”

“Huh?” managed Chip, earning himself a slap on the muzzle.

“Huh? Huh?! ‘Huh’ isn’t an hour you excuse for a hillbilly maggot! I want NUMBERS! One, two, three!” counted the captain, slapping the red colt on the head repeatedly. “Get my drift? HUH?! Or do I need to teach you to count to sixty?!”

“Sir!” yelped the changeling, “I don’t know what hour it is Captain Shining Armor Si-yelp!” squawked the recruit, rubbing his sore cheek.

“That is not an answer, recruit!” spat Shining Armor, causing Chip to shrink on the ground. The white colt raised his head, causing the other ponies to drop their grins and puff their chests out. “Recruits! Can you tell me and dimwit Redberry here what hour is it now?!”

The bolder ones tried to mumble out an answer, but the hard look in their superior’s eyes made everypony go silent.

“It’s 0500 hours sir Captain Shining Armor sir!” barked somepony at the back of the room.

“Who said that?” asked the white stallion, straining to see the owner of the voice. As if by magic, the ponies leaped out of his line of sight, exposing a single gray coated stallion with yellow eyes. His short mane was an electric blue, similar to Shining Armor’s. \

“What’s your name private?”

“Thunderlane, sir Captain Shining Armor sir!” replied the stallion, saluting with a hoof and gluing his eyes to the ceiling.

“So, only one? Only one colt in this room of featherbrains knows what hour it is?! Or does EVERYPONY need me to teach them personally how to count?! Huh?!” Armor stepped over the huddled Chip and approached the nearest stallion who began sweating like a pig. “Private! What hour do we have now!”

“Um, sir! It’s 0500 hours! Sir! Captain Shining Armor!...sir!” stumbled out the pony.

A meaty slap followed by a yelp made the whole room flinch. “Of course it is not, you pathetic excuse for a pony!” shouted Shining Armor, literally barking down the future guardspony into a shivering ball of fur. “Do you think time will stop so your stupid head gets your dumb answer right?! Huh?! Time stops for nopony! And it always, marches, forward!” said the captain, accenting each word with a higher tone of voice. “You!” suddenly shouted the colt, pointing to an adjacent recruit, “do you think it’s still 0500 hours? Do you?!”

“N-no! Captain Shining Armor, captain!” stuttered out the recruit. “It’s uh, sir! More like 0502 hours now, sir Captain sir!” he said, squinting and bracing for a slap to the face.

Shining Armor’s brows went up and he put a hoof around the tense and somewhat surprised colt. “Sweet sun, son, you are a bucking genius!” barked the captain, shaking his recruit in an overly excited manner. “When I get the chance, I’m going to write a letter to your parents, and tell them that their son has a bucking IQ of over 120! Why can’t I have more soldiers like you, huh? Or do I?” asked the white stallion, grabbing and drawing in the next pony. “What hour is it? Huh? C’mon, tell me!”

“It’s 0503, sir Captain Shining Armor sir!” said the recruit, closing one eye and leaning away from the iron embrace of his superior.

“Celestia bless this day! Are you colts twins or something? Amazing intelligence! And you’re not even unicorns!” roared Shining Armor, hugging and shaking the wildly grinning recruits. “You know what guys? I’m so afraid the next stallion will turn out to be an idiot, I’m going to settle for you two and Thunderlane! You’re going to be my second in commands! So intelligent, so brave! This is what the Royal Guard needs! You are the shiniest examples of what a real stallion should be! I’m so touched now!” shouted the stallion, wiping a non-existent tear from his eye. “In fact you colts got me in such a good mood, I’m going to let the whole team do the morning exercises and then go for breakfast! Ah, what the hay! Double rations for everypony!”

The room exploded with a mighty cheer. The hollering and excited voices hushed down as soon as the captain stepped away from his chosen ones and opened the door.

“Well? You fillies need an invitation?! JUMP TO IT!” shouted Shining Armor, observing with smiling eyes as his recruits scrambled and nearly trampled each other. The door frame gave a strained groan as everypony fled the room. Everypony except Chip, who barely managed to pick himself up and shake off the water from his coat.

From the corner of his eye the changeling saw one of the recruits glance at him for a split second before disappearing behind the door. A fleeting emotion of compassion and perhaps understanding rubbed over his senses, quickly overpowered by the mixture of feelings Shining Armor had. Chip had to hoof it to the pony – he was really good at what he did. During his whole scene act, all the emotions he bore were naked and true. He was really angry, really proud and really generous. Now, he was mildly annoyed on the surface, and thoroughly apologetic on the inside.

“Well Redberry? Get your bucking flank out there! On the double! One two three four, one two three four!” yelled the captain, bucking (but not too hard) the poor changeling outside, where the rest already assembled in a more or less tidy line.

* * *

Morning exercises were a pain, at least for Chip. In his earth pony form, he felt quite limited. Most of the stuff they did, such as crossing mud, running, climbing walls, could be done with a proper amount of wings or horns. The changeling was surprised that those that could did not use their special talents. Everypony acted like they were earth ponies.

There was also the question why were they doing what they did. These tame conditions, the flat landscape, the lines that supplemented their climbing, it was all so dumb to Chip. But even with all this, there were ponies that failed to complete some exercises. Falling off the wall, faceplanting into mud or falling behind on running was met with shouting so fierce even the fake colt was impressed. Shining Armor had amazing lungs, and his intimidating posture kept everypony focused on the task.

The air was filled with tension, mostly in the form of rivalry. Ponies were trying to match up to the three chosen ponies, Thunderlane in particular. That colt, compared to the others, was probably the strongest and seemed to know what he was doing. He got praised a lot by Shining Armor, set as an example more so than the other two, which were mediocre at best.

Chip himself got shouted at the most. For one, he did not understand most of the things they did, so he got smacked repeatedly while Shining Armor ‘beat into his head’ the knowledge how to do something. Incidentally, the changeling was always the first one to do a new exercise. He would have to ask the captain about it later – as much as he understood that the colt had to keep the game going, he could tone it down just a little bit.

Another matter were the punishments for being ‘smug’. When somepony observed that something was wrong or could be done better, he was praised to the high heavens, with Shining Armor almost kissing the ‘genius’ who exhibited ‘perception and intelligence beyond anything that he has ever seen in a recruit’. When Chip noticed something wrong, like the hoops that they were jumping through being arranged in a suboptimal pattern, he got called names and forced to do pushups or other physical exercises as punishment.

At the end of it all, most ponies were wheezing and out of breath. Chip had to simulate being tired – this type of play was a lot tamer than the stuff he did back at the hive, where the heat of the scorching sun made everything harder. Thunderlane was less tired than the others too, drawing in deep, steady breaths and standing at attention.

“Sweet sun and moon, you colts make me so proud!” shouted Shining Armor, going back and forth along the line of tired recruits. Each one tried to stand straight and mimic Thunderlane’s pose. “You all did great! You have shown me today that you do, indeed, have the guts to become real stallions, ones that will one day protect our Princesses! I can see so much potential in you! You! You too!” said Shining excitedly, pointing at everypony but Chip. “You make your parents proud. You make me proud! You’re going to make Equestria and every single bucking pony that lives in it proud!” he shouted, pumping his hoof in the air. The other ponies calmed their breaths and puffed out their chests even harder. “Now! What time do we have! You!” asked the captain, pointing to a random pony.

“It’s 0700 hours, sir Captain Shining Armor sir!” barked back the pony, a smile on his face.

“Yes, yes it is!” applauded the white colt. “And that means it’s time to grab some grub! Go on, you’ve earned it! Double rations for everypony!”

* * *

Of course, Chip got a half ration. He also got to sit alone at a table in the corner of the room. For some reason, he didn’t like this face of ponykind. They all looked so full of themselves, so cocky and careless. They had their bellies full, everything provided for them, they didn’t have to do anything, or at least not much, to get what ‘they deserved’.

The food was tasteless, and Chip could tell it wouldn’t have much taste even if he had working taste buds. He kind of missed the jolly chef pony, Gustav. He made food sound and look like a whole new world. The bowl in front of the changeling might as well have been the primordial soup a new world could crawl out from. Gustav would call it an abomination and probably nuke it into oblivion, quickly whipping up porridge so fragrant and spiced even the changeling would understand its peculiar beauty.

The fake colt’s stream of thoughts was disturbed by a shadow that appeared next to him. Chip looked up to meet the face of the pony who, for some reason, kept taking sneak glances at him during the morning routine. He smelled nice, much kinder than the rest. With a butter-yellow coat and striped purple-pink mane, he looked down with kind and uncertain eyes at the empty seat opposite the changeling.

He obviously wants something, thought Chip, staring back and feeling a rising note of awkwardness slip into the air. Why is he staring at that chair so much? Does he want it? It’s not mine, so I guess he can take it. Or can he? Are pony chairs public property, or do they belong to the ones that have their flanks on it? But would that mean that everypony is struggling and fighting over territory and the right to rest their bodies on pieces of wood?

“Um…can I sit with you?” asked the newcomer, again crashing Chip’s train of thought. The changeling shrugged and took another bite of the bog-like stew they had for food.

The recruit sat down and placed his bowl in front of him. Chip observed with mild interest as the Pegasus positioned the dish and operated a spoon with just his feathers. In that regard, pony wings seemed to be much more durable. They might not have been as compact and light as changeling ones, but they gave a whole new degree of freedom in manipulating objects. On the other hoof, changelings used magic to move objects around, a thing pegasi couldn’t do.

At one point the recruit stopped, noticing Chip staring at his wings intently. The yellow colt blushed slightly and withdrew his wings, folding them tightly at his sides. He reached for the spoon with his hoof.

“I-Is something wrong?” he asked the changeling.

“No,” replied Chip, dipping his muzzle in the bowl and slurping down another bit of the porridge. One more such gulp and he’d be done with his portion of the food.

“I,” started the Pegasus, throwing a quick glance left and right before continuing, “I think that the Captain is treating you…a bit unfairly. I mean,” he paused again, looking away, his ears dancing up and down as he strained to present his opinion. “I mean, it’s like he’s bullying you. It’s not nice. We’re all here to learn to protect others, not be shouted at for nothing.” His last words were hushed and barely audible.

The changeling finished his proto-soup and considered the colt’s words. For one, the stallion seemed too nice to fit in around here. During exercises, he didn’t do better or worse than others, and he seemed to take his fair amount of shouting as well as the rest. Upon closer inspection, the changeling sensed a drive and sense of justice the others were lacking.

“Ehm…I,” started the colt again, putting his spoon down and looking around bashfully. This was one awkward stallion. “I don’t think I can eat more. You had less for breakfast, and you’re bigger than me...do you want some?” asked the yellow colt in a hushed voice.

Chip didn’t sense pity. The feeling was sweet, something akin to care, perhaps love, but different. It was something he felt near Celestia while he was trying to prove his trustworthiness. It was an air of caring for a greater good. Not towards Chip specifically, or anypony for that matter. A form of altruism, one that prefers those who truly needed it. Something a changeling couldn’t naturally understand.

“Thanks,” cautiously replied Chip, “but I don’t think it’s a good idea. Sticking around me can get you in trouble.”

“Oh,” sighed the stallion, staring at his food for a longer while. “Well, uhm…I don’t know. This seems wrong. I can’t handle wrong very well. A-And I don’t mind what others think of me,” he murmured out, an inaudible ‘much’ following. “If you’re hungry, just go ahead.”

“Thank you,” stiffly replied Chip, moving the food towards him. He wasn’t really hungry, at least not swamp-water-eating hungry, but he understood that this porridge was more of a symbol than actual food. It would make that pony happy and feeling good about himself. If Chip could do so little to give so much, why wouldn’t he?

* * *

When everypony finished their food, it was time for lessons in law. Chip stayed at the back of the group, having already been shoved and pushed around by the ignorant recruits at the front. If it wasn’t for the Princess, they would all be healing particularly deep fang wounds on their throats down at the field medic tent.

Contrary to exercises, theory lessons were held in a giant room full of chairs arranged in a half-moon, all focused around a single desk and blackboard. Chip sat down at the back, and the stallion from before, who finally introduced himself as Butterscotch, sat next to him.

The lessons were quite enjoyable. There was no shouting from the teacher, a bearded brown unicorn, and the things he talked about were fascinatingly outlandish for the changeling. Pony laws were indeed complex, and many a time Chip noticed they had loopholes that could be easily used to avoid punishment.

At some point, the fake pony reached a conclusion that, by comparison, changeling law was easier, as there was no law. The queen did everything and there was nobody to judge whether it was wrong or right. The whole definition of those two words was non-existent for the changeling race, in which only a single mind could actually make them up.

To his right Butterscotch was furiously writing down the teacher’s words in a notebook. Chip had no such thing and was worried that it was yet another pony thing that slipped past him. Others seemed to not mind the teacher at all, so it must have been just the pegasus fussing over details. Chip would simply remember all these laws, precedencies, sentences, dates and figures. Pretty much like the rest of the knowledge that dwelled in his spark-mind

* * *

Apart from law, the recruits were also given an introduction lesson in hoof to hoof self-defense. Everypony was whiny by then, mainly because dinner time was just around the corner. One pony even tried to complain.

The teacher, a rather tiny and nimble Pegasus mare, shut him up by flipping his large body across the room almost effortlessly. With a smug smile she stared down the others, who suddenly learned to shut their traps.

“Whoa,” sighed Chip, truly impressed by the might of the tiny warrior. “How did you do that? Is it magic?”

“Magic? Nope,” replied the teacher approaching Chip. The colt didn’t even move, contrary to the others around him who visibly took tiny steps to the sides. Even Butterscotch edged away slightly, but not enough to move away from the changeling’s side. “It’s simply practice, some practical knowledge and a black belt in martial arts. I can bet my right hoof that I could defeat all you stallions, even if you came at me all at once.”

Everypony was silent, much to the disappointment of the trained.

“Oh, really?” asked Chip, raising an eyebrow. “That’s impossible, I mean-”

The changeling made a fatal mistake. He tried to point to the teacher’s small size, noticing how the others could just crush her with their mass. His outstretched leg was immediately grabbed by the instructor’s firm hooves. Chip lost balance and tripped, starting a dance in the air that made use of his own weight and confusion. His instincts managed to take control of his body mid-technique, however.

Instead of landing face-down on the floor, the changeling spun around causing the teacher to lose her balance and sit on her rump. Before she could recover, Chip was already on top of her, his open jaw inches away from her throat. Satisfied with its work, the changeling instincts let go just in time to prevent Redberry’s jaws from closing on the teacher’s neck.

Everypony was silent, either too afraid to talk or too amazed at what just happened. Chip was merely embarrassed and hoped that ponies would let this slip up go.

* * *

Of course, word of Master Nindo being beaten by a fresh recruit in hoof to hoof combat traveled around the castle fast. The other recruits were impressed and even spared Chip a word or two of praise before dinner.

Despite his bashfulness, Butterscotch was rattling about the incident all the time during dinner, which consisted of the same muck-soup they had before, but in a more solid form.

“And I mean, wow! The way you just flipped around her hoof and pinned her to the ground! Amazing! And you even had the balls to kiss her after that!”

Yes, that was another fairy tale that Chip had to quickly extinguish before it got out of hoof. Apparently nopony noticed that the changeling was going to rip out his teacher’s windpipe. Everypony saw a bent over Redberry, with his face near hers, and they automatically concluded that he went in for a kiss. The teacher herself, after dislodging the apologetic changeling, was very red on the face and wafted of embarrassment and arousal.

“I’m telling you. I did not want to kiss her,” repeated Chip, all the while chewing the sorry excuse for a dinner into a form that could be swallowed without choking hazard.

“Then what did you do? Huh?” smiled Butterscotch, taking a sip of water and grinning.

Chip had nothing to say to that, which seemed to be the same as saying that he indeed wanted to steal a kiss from the ‘hot teacher’s’ lips.

* * *

Shining Armor’s hollering and slaps were a welcome change after the awkward self-defense class. Of course, the captain addressed the incident in a manner most appropriate – by beating Chip repeatedly on the head and having him do a couple hundred pushups, complemented by additional rounds of running or swimming.

“What Redberry did was dimwit’s luck!” hollered Armor, pushing Chip down with a hoof while he did his pushups. “You see, ponies that are less intelligent, or just blatantly stupid can sometimes do things like this. Luck isn’t something that is allowed in our line of work! Each and every one of you must rely on your skill, training and intelligence! You are bucking geniuses, I know you understand it all too well! We don’t want our precious Sun and Moon to be protected by dumb luck.” The captain lifted his foot and took on a dopey voice, prancing around Chip like a school filly. “Oh, look, Ah’m Redberry, and I wants ta’ save tha Princess! Ah didn’t train and tripped a teacher at school, so I can beat those mean big bully ponies wielding spears!” He stopped and stepped onto Redberry, who collapsed on the ground due to his armored superior’s weight. “What do you colts think would happen, in such a situation, huh?!”

“He’d get beaten down into the dust, sir Captain Shining Armor sir!” replied Thunderlane, everypony else repeating after him.

“See, Redberry?!” yelled Armor, lowering his head to look into Chip’s eyes. “Everypony in your team knows you can’t rely on luck! I think that you were given here to me so that the resultant IQ of the group wouldn’t exceed the predicted value! You are a tool, Redberry, a tool! The same kind you use to harvest the crops in your fertilized hillbilly farm!”

“No,” said a small voice behind Armor’s back. When the colt turned around, it was obvious who spoke up – the rest of the recruits moved away quite obviously, leaving a yellow Pegasus in the open. He tried to look hardy, staring into the air, but his legs were shaking like leaves on the wind.

“What did you say, recruit?” asked Shining Armor, slowly approaching the distressed colt. It was the same pony that the captain observed before – the one that actually showed some compassion towards the mistreating of Chip. An interesting gem that could turn out to be a diamond.

“Speak up son, I didn’t quite hear you. What did you say to me?” asked Shining Armor in a calm voice, silently wishing for an answer.

“N-n-n-o,” stumbled out Butterscotch, his whole body shaking like jelly.

“No what?”

“I-I-I,” stuttered the recruit, glancing nervously at his superior who was just a hoof away. “Unfair,” he finally gasped out.

“What? You think that I’m being unfair? You really think that?”

The yellow Pegasus nodded slightly. Shining Armor decided not to push the poor soldier further, at least for now. The recruit looked like he could soil himself any moment now.

“Of course it is unfair!” yelled out Shining Armor, eying the rest of the group who (by now) were a good few feet away from Butterscotch. “I’m surprised you bunch noticed it only now. What’s your name, son?”

“B-B-B,” said the Pegasus, gulping down an enormous clump in his throat before squeaking out an answer: “Butterscotch, sir Shining Armor Captain s-sir!”

“Butterscotch, I can see you have the proper instincts and balls to become a great guardspony!” applauded Shining Armor. “You already had your first law class, did you not? What were the first things you learned? About injustice? About what justice is? Well, do you think that me beating the living crap out of Redberry for no reason is just? That I am above the laws that bound our kingdom for over a thousand years? That this fancy helmet,” he continued, dropping his helmet and unbuckling his chest plate, “and this expensive armor gives me greater power than words written down in Ancient Equis, a language so old that the Princesses have trouble reading it? Do you?”

“No, sir Armor, sir. It shouldn’t. It doesn’t” replied Butterscotch, who now seemed taller and stronger than before.

“Of course, that should be as plain as day! And why do I see only one pony, one colt standing up in the face of injustice? What in Tartarus and Discord’s name is this place? A theatre? A place that you can stand by and watch? Huh?!”

The others remained silent, looking at the floor. Before Shining Armor managed to continue, Thunderlane broke the line and trotted over to Butterscotch, saluting.

“Sir, permission to speak, Captain Shining Armor sir!”

“Granted,” barked back Shining Armor, hiding a smile.

“I believed that you being our superior gave you the right to form us into soldiers according to the best ways you found fitting. Now I have understood that there are bounds, and you have crossed them, sir! I request that you stop punishing private Redberry, Captain Shining Armor sir!”

“I won’t,” dully replied Shining Armor. To his delight, Thunderlane didn’t even flinch. The now confident Butterscotch remained calm as well. “I am your superior, and I have not made a mistake here. I did what I thought was right. And that is another thing you must learn, Thunderlane. And you, Butterscotch. Your superior is always right. Your superior is always smarter and knows more than you. What you did was admirable, and everypony should question the orders of their superior if they find them crossing the line between morality and villainy.” The white stallion took a few steps back and looked at his recruits. “You must understand. The guardsponies are not machines. They are all colts and mares, all having their own minds, eyes and hearts. No two are alike, and that is both a strength and weakness. Some of them will be above you, ordering you around and making you do things that you might not agree too. Others, when and if you advance in rank, will give their lives in your hooves just the same. All this, it is not an invitation to being yes-men. It isn’t an excuse to be rebellious either. When you stand up to your superiors, be ready to face the consequences. If you follow an order you know is wrong, be prepared for after-effects. You, Butterscotch,” said Shining Armor in a much kinder voice. “You stood up to me. You disobeyed your superior because you thought it was wrong. The others apparently didn’t think so, maybe except for Thunderlane. I commend you for that. At the same time, I will have to punish you for standing out of line. Do you understand all this? Do you know why?”

“Sir…I think so, Captain Shining Armor. Sir,” calmly replied the yellow Pegasus.

“Fine. Then, as punishment, you will help Redberry here do his pushups. You too Thunderlane. All three of you will do a sum of two hundred push-ups. I don’t care which one does how many. I wanna hear two-hundred at the end of it. The rest of you,” smirked Shining Armor, “you will do two hundred push-ups too. Individually. For being cowards, or not listening to professor Lawson. I know you boys ain’t dumb, so I’ll just assume you were too shy to speak up.”

Everypony did their punishment in silence. Some were mowing down the concept of justice that Shining Armor just revealed to them. Others didn’t care much and concentrated on hating Redberry for being such a tool and irritating Shining Armor. The brighter ones decided to put more effort into watching Butterscotch, Thunderlane and Redberry.

* * *

Supper and evening exercises were pretty much uneventful compared to the afternoon drama. Chip noticed that Shining Armor eased up on the shouting and beating a bit, all the while observing Butterscotch who seemed to tense up each time the white-coated superior would raise his voice.

It was half past nine when everypony came back to the barracks. Groups of friends strolled around the room, talking, laughing or, more often than not, complaining. Chip didn’t have an occasion to sit down alone this time – Butterscotch stuck to his side like glue.

Now out of his shell, he turned out to be a good-natured and chatty pony, content with talking without much input from Chip. In return, the changeling enjoyed listening about the Pegasus, his life, how he decided to join the guardsponies and what were his life plans. For some reason, Thunderlane was leaning on a wall nearby, his ear twitching every now and then as he eavesdropped on the two.

“So, you know, mares really like the uniform. I heard that the Captain himself had somepony from higher society as a fiancée. Nothing’s official yet, but rumor has it she’s a real beauty, and that they’ve been dating in secret for some years now.”

“Interesting,” replied Chip. Apparently the captain was good with secrets. Butterscotch would never guess how good indeed.

Before the clock struck ten, the captain entered the barracks and called Redberry to his office. Butterscotch tried to object but was held back by Chip with a hoof and a wink. Whatever the pony understood, it was enough to allow the changing to go out without a scene, almost unnoticed by the ponies who were preparing to go to sleep.

* * *

“What an eventful day,” said Shining Armor, relief crawling into his features. “Good thing this group is learning fast. I don’t know how much longer my throat could stand this shouting and all. Everypony learned quite a few valuable lessons thanks to you and Butterscotch. That pony will go places,” smiled the white stallion.

“How so?” asked Chip, sitting down.

“Let’s just say that it is thanks to ponies like him we can sleep peacefully during the night and enjoy the sunlight during the day,” said the captain, pulling out a big tome from a drawer. “Anyway. Today I think we’ll expand on what you learned about pony law, since that subject already bubbled up today. You ready?”

“Of course,” replied Chip, smiling.