//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: The Edge of Madness // by SaltyJustice //------------------------------// Wasting no time, I shot past the crowds of ponies who were assembling outside the gymnasium. A dozen pairs of eyes looked wildly at me as I tore past them, banking around the corner and traveling at a full run down the hallway. I couldn't tell the exact location of the feeling but it was close, somewhere inside the building. I picked up speed and prepared to take another corner. Somepony had recently waxed the floor, and I had not accounted for this as I made my turn towards the source of the feeling. It was down one of the locker-straddled hallways, and now very close. My turn slid around the corner as a solitary brown colt came into view. I was certain he was the source of the disturbance, or its victim. I turned towards him and barreled at full speed. The waxed floor caused me to nearly slip as I tried to slow down upon reaching the colt. I very nearly collided with him, and yet, he didn't notice. He was staring off into space, at what, I had no idea. He continued to stare at the wall, facing away from me, as I slid to a stop in front of him. All at once, the feeling evaporated and I was left bewildered. The threat had passed, as soon as it had come, and I was not even sure I was responsible. Had I made a mistake? The colt didn't notice me, so I tapped my hoof on the floor next to him. The sharp thock made him snap out of his trance and start walking the other way, without even turning to look at me. I watched him go for a second before I heard something behind me. "Excuse me," said the voice. I turned around to find myself face to face with Tax Break, staring at me with a disapproving look. I hadn't even heard her sneak up behind me. "Why are you running in the hallways, miss..." She looked at the ID card still hanging around my neck. "Miss Autrena?" My mind reacted with lightning speed. "Bathroom, almost ran over colt, bathroom! Where!?" I said, trying to take a pained expression. Her eyes widened and she pointed behind me, at the conveniently placed "Fillies" sign just down the hallway. I gave her a forced smile and darted off towards the room. As always, play it cool, Cadence. Disaster averted. I took a stall and waited a little while to make it seem like I was actually using it, in case she was suspicious and was waiting outside. I don't know why I thought she might be, but I couldn't take that chance. In truth, our bodies are not quite the same as those of a regular pony. Technically, I could forgo eating and sleeping if I had to, indefinitely if it came to that, since those things were not absolutely necessary to a Princess. I had done them before only because I thought they were necessary, and now I did them out of habit, and the fact that I really do enjoy grape jam on my toast. Fortunately, everyday regular Pegasi had to use the washroom and it would serve as a fine cover. When I got out of the bathroom a few minutes later, the hallway was empty. I truly was a smooth operator. There were no signs of disturbance either, though it reinforced my belief that something was badly wrong in this school. I hadn't gotten a feeling from the basement, and I had no feeling from the colt, whatever it was could hide itself. If the faceless ones had returned, it was not characteristic of them to try anything clever, they had always just attacked and attacked until there was nothing left to destroy. I fought back the sense of dread that crept up on me as I made my way back to the entrance hallway. I would deal with it when it came up, whatever it was. It was certainly nothing I couldn't handle. By the time I had made my way back to the front entrance, everypony had already split off to do their various building tours. There were a few staff members milling about, so I asked them how to catch up. "Excuse me, do you know where the combat flying class is?" I asked. He didn't even try to hide the look of shock on his face. "Combat flying class?" he asked, in disbelief. I just kept looking at him dumbly. "Err, check the flight deck on top of the building, or the runway out back," he said, still shocked. I thanked him and headed outside to fly up on top of the building. When I reached the flight deck on top, I found a group of about ten ponies, all much bigger than me. Seven males, three females. Since combat training was considered voluntary, Tia and I hadn't really paid much attention to gender selection, though I had been noticing there were more males in the guard corps. If war came back to Equestria, that was going to change, but I put that out of my mind for now. I landed next to the group as the instructor was talking about launch drills or somesuch. I wasn't here for the military discipline, I had picked this particular course because I knew quite well I could ace it without having to worry about studies, and could thus focus on finding the source of the disturbance. It also had a fairly sparse schedule, as cadets were expected to be training in their off time as well. A few of the other ponies gave me a confused look as I landed, but the instructor just kept talking. "... two at a time, and if you find the pony ahead of you is incapacitated or not present, then take his or her place in line. Ideally we can launch a whole squadron in under a minute, and we will be testing you both individually and as a group as the semester goes on. Any questions?" she asked the crowd. "Very well, please follow me to the sparring range," she said, taking off and flying upwards towards a cloud far above the school. I hadn't noticed it earlier, it must have just been placed here this morning. The cloud was a simple nimbus, untethered to anything, with a flat floatstone floor and not much else. There was what looked like a tether for a weapons rack, but the tether wasn't attached to anything, not even the cloud. The instructor walked over to the tether and tossed one end into the crowd. "One of you, attach this to the hook on the bottom of the cloud, okay?" she said. One of the mares grabbed the other end and disappeared off the edge of the cloud, and the instructor took the other side of the tether off the other side of the cloud. They both reappeared a few seconds later. "This is the sparring range, this is where we'll meet for aerial and ground weapons proficiency training. We have a range of practice weapons, so please take a look and make sure one of your specialties is present. We don't have much exotic equipment, so if you need anything let one of the instructors or flight marshals know and we'll get it for you," she said, while she tested the tether with her hoof. One of the stallions raised a hoof, and the instructor motioned to let him speak, "What's this tether for ma'am?" he asked. "Recovery drills, you'll find out tomorrow since that's your first lesson. All right, follow me down to the runway," she said as she leaped off the cloud and glided down. I got to learn the ins and outs of the school's layout, finding out where all the equipment and classrooms were. The information would come in handy during a crisis, so I paid extra careful attention. This was so much better than chemistry classes. The tour wrapped up in under an hour, and we were debriefed by a guard captain wearing a fancy looking dress armor, with gold and blue paint on it. To his credit, I could tell he recognized me, but his face didn't betray that at all. He merely let his eyes linger on me for a moment as he scanned the crowd. "Greetings cadets, I am Captain Wintermere, head of the Los Pegasus garrison. I don't know if you all knew this, but I am an alumni of Hummingbird, in fact, I was trained by Mr. Van der Belt himself," he said. A murmur spread through the cadets, and stopped as soon as the captain began speaking again. "Yes I know, it's very unfortunate what happened, but I'm sure Ms. Break will be a fine administrator. However, you are still cadets and that means you report to me and the other officers first, is that understood?" "Yes sir!" the cadets all said, in unison. I was caught off guard, not used to this sort of thing, and I didn't say anything. I really hoped this hadn't been a mistake, it'd be a shame to get busted by the other cadets since I didn't know military stuff. I had always done irregular fighting and improvised everything, I wasn't used to drills and marching or whatever they make cadets do these days. Fortunately, Tia had thought of everything. Unfortunately, she had decided not to tell me that. This was becoming a running gag of hers, except it had been running for millennia. "I'm told we have a last minute addition to the recruits this year, is that correct?" the captain asked of the instructor. She nodded. "Specialist Autrena?" she asked, looking at me. "Yes, that's me," I said, taken aback. Specialist? What did that even mean? "We're honored to have you here, and we hope you have a good influence on the others. If any of you want to have Ms. Autrena as a sparring partner," the captain said, addressing the crowd, "then I suggest you hone your skills. I've been told she's the best." I wondered if Tia's brilliant plan to draw attention away from me somehow involved drawing lots of attention towards me. That was exactly the kind of thing she did, often. She'd be getting a nasty letter from me. Some of the stallions gave me a questioning look, as the captain cleared his throat. "That's all for today, I'll be paying each of you a visit in the barracks individually so make sure you have some time off this afternoon. Your schedules have been posted on the chalkboard. Dismissed," he said. The cadets all saluted, including the instructor. I did my best to salute as well, though I couldn't tell if it was convincing or not. I decided to try to find Rainbow and Fluttershy's tour group, but I gave up after sweeping the building a few times, and just waited near the front entrance. I had neglected to bring my books today, so I took to counting the notches on the floor. I got up to 153 before somepony stood in front of me while I was counting. "Autrena?" she asked. I tried to keep the number in my head as I looked up to respond. 153. One five three. Thinking it a few times helps to memorize it. "Yes, that's me." I said, for the second time today, "Or, just Miamore." "Hi, I'm Midnight," said the mare standing in front of me. She was a light brown mare, with a very rough look about her, particularly her unwashed blue mane. Her clothes were filthy, I could barely make out the yellow "Cadet" marking near her shoulder. What, had she been mud-wrestling recently? Where would you find mud in Los Pegasus? "Er, hi? Are you a cadet? I didn't see you earlier," I said. For all I knew she stole the outfit she was wearing. From the trash heap. "Yeah, I had to miss the tour. I'm not even supposed to be here until tomorrow, but I can't stay away, you know?" she said. "Yeah, I guess," I said. I didn't know what she was talking about. "You wanna be my sparring partner?" she asked, quite suddenly. This aroused suspicion. "Well sure, but why me?" I asked. "Because I heard you're the best! And I'm the only cadet in this class who uses a sword," she said. I could tell there was something else to that as well, I didn't think Midnight was a very good liar. "Okay, so why me, really?" I asked. She sighed, "Nothing gets by you huh?" she said. I shook my head. In truth, everything gets by me. She's a worse liar than I am, that's bad for both of us. "All the other cadets are already partnered up, okay? They all know each other," she said. "And you don't?" I asked. "I'm a transfer, just like you. Hey, we're like transfer buddies!" she said. One hundred fifty three - still got it. "That's okay then, yes I'll be your sparring partner," I said, "but I don't know the formalities around here, I was kinda hoping you could help me out. But if you're a transfer - " "Oh that's no problem, it's all the same everywhere. Ponyville's barracks wasn't this big, but all the drills are the same," she said. "This is a flight school," I said. "It is?" she said, looking shocked. "Yeah, didn't you see all the fillies and stuff? How could you think this was a barracks?" I asked. I have no formal training and even I know what they look like, though that might just be because of the guard detail posted in the palace. "Ohhhhhhh yeah I get it," she said, looking sheepish. 153, one five three. "Where I'm from, there are only like, sixty Pegasi, so we didn't really have anypony to train me," she started. "Oh really," I said, idly. It's not like I was busy, but I still didn't want to hear her life's story. "Yeah, where are you from?" she asked. "Canterlot," I said, impatiently. She did not take the hint. "Oh cool! Is it really fancy? Did you get to meet the Princess? Do they actually have metal weapons there?" she fired out a flurry of questions. Suddenly I realized that this was worse than Minty. Is it something about how I smell, or maybe look, that makes everypony like this want to be friends with me? Not that I regretted Minty, but sometimes this sort of thing wears on you. "You don't have metal weapons? Where did you say you were from?" I asked. "Ponyville, it's waaaaay out there. We used wood weapons to practice with, I must have broken like two hundred of them," she said, chuckling. Wait, was my notch count 160, or 253? I was starting to lose track. I tried to clear my head, but it wasn't working. One sixty three, definitely. "Okay, great, I'll meet you after class tomorrow okay?" I said. "Er, did you know when that is? I mean, are you the A or the B group? Because A goes at 8:30 and B goes at 9:30 so should I meet you at 10:20?" she asked. I completely lost count of the notches, though I could have sworn it was somewhere around 196. I sighed. "I didn't check, so meet me at the sparring platform at 10:20 if I don't see you, okay?" I said. "Okay!" she said happily, smiling and trotting off. I started counting the notches again when I heard a squeak. "Is she gone?" asked the little voice. I looked up to see Fluttershy peeking around the corner. "Who, Midnight?" I asked. "She's scary," said Fluttershy, shrinking back behind the corner. "Really? I think she's just annoying," I said. "You're scary too," she said. "I know, but I have a pink bird at home so you put up with me," I said. I took her home. The twins hadn't arrived yet, since it was still the middle of the afternoon and I suppose their classes decided to have full lessons on the first day. Mr. Labamba was waiting for us when we got home, and perked right up when he saw Fluttershy. I was beginning to think I had underestimated just how intelligent birds are. There was a lettuce and hay sandwich on the table in the kitchen, and I could not fathom how the twins could have made it and then just left it there, that didn't make any sense. Did Labamba make it? How? He let out a squawk and Fluttershy hopped into the air, struggling to keep herself level as she gave him a hug. He put his wing around her and led her over to the sandwich as I stared in awe from the doorway. What did I just watch? "I have to go back to the school, will you be okay here until the twins get back?" I asked her. She mumbled something as she took a big bite of the sandwich. Labamba turned his head clear around, like an owl, and squawked something at me. I think he was trying to smile, but he was bad at it, so I just left him and the filly there and headed back to the school. It had been my intent to check my schedule and then simply wander the halls for a while, acting as a patrol. I was no longer quite certain just where the source of the attacks was, but this morning's events had told me the threat was still present. They were here, somewhere inside the building, and the sooner I tracked them down the better. My suspicion still lay with the basement, but anywhere dark and isolated could do the job, the dark ones had no concern for things like air flow or moisture. The bathrooms, a closet, anywhere could be where they were lurking. I hadn't brought my sword along this time, since I would probably need some sort of trainee's badge to mark that it was okay to carry it without getting accosted. My coat was fine but I had no intention of wearing it everywhere, especially not with how hot it got wearing that thing. I would need to speak to Captain Wintermere about that. I checked the chalkboard outside of the passage to the on-campus barracks. I had seen it during the tour earlier, it was really just a squat little room with bunk beds for the cadets and trunks to keep their stuff in. I was glad I was rooming off campus, considering how small the place was and the total dearth of privacy, a mare has certain needs, you know? Sometimes you need a few minutes to yourself, and being stuck in a room with a dozen other ponies would push you to do stupid things. I was in the 'A' group, and Midnight was as well, somepony had hastily scrawled a set of schedules on the chalkboard and then evidently ran off, since the chalk was broken in pieces on the base of the board. The writing was otherwise barely legible, there were a few student's names I couldn't even read and, towards the end, the schedule started to become monosyllabic nonsense that didn't fit together into a sentence. "Clean run use squish," said the bottom-most words, in the 'assigner' section, though it didn't say who was assigner'd to clean the run, using a squish. Clean the rug? Using a squid? Before I could figure out how to use a cephalopod notorious for shooting ink everywhere to clean the rugs (there were no rugs in the building, to my knowledge), I heard a commotion coming from down the hall, followed by a slamming door. Somepony was yelling, so I started towards the sound. As I took the corner, I saw Cpt. Wintermere and the flight instructor from earlier, and it looked like they were arguing with Tax Break about something. "-wrongful dismissal, you haven't provided a clear reason for this, and you can't simply dismiss staff from the military division without a clear reason," Wintermere said. "If you read the contract, as I have, you would have noticed that I was only required to get your sign-off for a dismissal if the staff member has been working in a position for over six months, and that is not the case," Tax Break said, keeping her voice steady. She looked ready to explode, but she kept herself held back to avoid ceding the argument. "Argent has been an instructor here for ten years, the position only existed as of six months ago, and she's occupied it for the duration of its existence. You don't consider that an extenuating circumstance?" Wintermere asked, doing his best to stay steady as well. "I don't consider extenuating circumstances, I abide by the letter of the contracts that I signed, or were signed by my predecessors. And, you shall find that contract under review when it comes time to renew it," she said coldly, shifting her glare from the captain to me as I walked up. The flight instructor from earlier looked like she was about to cry, but was desperately fighting back the urge. I could see her name tag close up now, it said, "A. Scythe". Presumable this was the Argent that the captain had spoke of. He sighed, took a moment to think, then said, "I can see there's no changing your mind. Can you at least tell me why you're replacing her on such short notice?". "I've had somepony ready to fill the position since before I took over here, it's as simple as that. If there's nothing else, I believe you have a student who needs to talk to you," Tax Break said, before turning briskly and trotting into her office. The door nearly slammed behind her as the air sent a shock wave through the three of us, rustling our manes. Argent seemed to be unable to speak. "What's going on here? What was the shouting about?" I asked. Wintermere ignored me for a moment, putting his hoof on Argent's shoulder and speaking calmly to her, "It'll be all right, we'll find a spot for you at the garrison." "Sir," she said, saluting. She walked off towards the student's barracks room. I heard the sound of a locker getting bucked shortly after she rounded the corner. "Sorry you had to see that," he said, addressing me, "we'll be able to talk privately in my office, Ms. Autrena." He led me into his own office, which was just across the hall from Tax Break's. Given the way this school was laid out, these offices were more or less in the center of the buildings, surrounded by gyms and classrooms. The only light coming in was through the skylight on top, which looked like it had been carved out fairly recently from the floatstone on the ceiling. The office contained two desks, one with a nameplate that still said, "Scythe, Argent" on it. Some of the drawers will still open, and the trash bin was full of papers. Wintermere closed the door behind me as I entered, then moved to sit behind his desk. "Well Princess, are you enjoying your first day here?" he asked. I was taken aback momentarily, before I realized that he had seen me earlier. It was jarring to have to hop between the persona of a student and that of my true self, but that snap would be come easier with time. Tia would have told certain ponies about me, or, perhaps he had been paying attention and had seen a picture of me somewhere. The resemblance was fairly obvious, though I hadn't even gotten a second glance in this city from any random strangers. "Argent Scythe?" I asked, "What happened? Did she do something?" The captain's face took a pained expression before he spoke, "Argent has been the flight marshal here since, well, forever. We first negotiated a training contract with Hummingbird just under a decade ago, and she was the first on the list for marshal." He let out a chuckle, "You know, she actually trained me when I was just a colt. She's the best" "Really? Then why fire her? I mean, I don't know anything about anything, but that seems like a dumb move," I said. "She's not the first, but you know how it is, restructuring and all that," he said, though I could tell that simply brushing it off was not so easy for him. "No I don't know how it is. Has this been happening a lot?" I asked. "Oh, I'm sorry Princess, I forgot this," he said. He stepped out from behind his desk and bowed towards me, eyes closed. "Cut that out, no need for formalities here," I said. I paused before I remembered, "and please, just call me Miamore? I don't need any extra attention." "Of course. Yes, Tax Break has been moving around a lot of staff since she took over. It's like I don't know anypony here anymore, hmm," he said, looking at something on his desk, "I'll need to make sure this new pony is properly certified. It's been nothing but trouble around here, hasn't it?" There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Wintermere said. Midnight walked through the door, and was surprised to see me inside. "Oh! I'm sorry, I can come back later," she said. "No, it's all right. Have you found a partner yet?" he asked, idly. I could tell he was distracted, he kept looking over at the now-empty desk to his side. "Yes I have! It's Specialist Autrena, right here," she said, putting one leg around me suddenly and yanking me in close. I couldn't breathe, and this pony was strong. As in, Gabby strong. She could buck through a rock with legs like these. "Ahh- yeah," I wheezed out. "Very good, your weapons permits are in the top drawer of Argent's desk," he said, and no sooner had he than Midnight released me from her death-grasp and jogged over to pull them out. She tossed one to me, a little diamond piece of cloth with a spear logo on it and a Velcro adhesive on the back. I didn't even have a anything to stick mine on, but Midnight immediately placed hers on one of the few not-filthy spots on her cadet's shirt. She looked like she had just won the lottery, a big ear-to-ear grin on her face. "Right, thank you sir!" she said, nearly shouting, and gave a salute. "Dismissed," said the captain, saluting back. Midnight left as quickly as she had come, and the door clicked behind her. I was still gasping for breath. "She's got some fight in her, I hope you're ready," he said. I think she crushed a rib, I ran my hoof over my chest gingerly, checking each bone. "Oh yeah, ready for anything, come what may," I said.