San Palomino
San Palomino Air Base
REAF Field Training
One year later…
Nimbus stood under the shower head, letting water flow over his sore, fatigued body. The water was cold, and as always was a shock to his system, but he didn’t care. It was liquid, and right now that was all that mattered. He opened his mouth, letting some of the water flow in, and gulped down a mouthful of the stuff, letting his eyes close as he enjoyed the tranquility of the moment.
“Hey buddy, save some for us, okay?”
Nimbus looked towards the voice that had called him. Peering over the stall next to him was the head of a dark blue Pegasus, grinning like a lunatic. Nimbus shook his head and grinned. “You know they said we weren’t supposed to talk in the shower, right Storm Runner?”
“To hay with that!” Storm Runner said, “we’re only stuck on this Celestia-forsaken base in the middle of nowhere for one more day! That’s worth celebrating, isn’t it?”
A cry of “hey you- the jabberjaws in the showers- hurry up!” sounded from the back of the line of ponies waiting their turns to get into the shower and Nimbus ducked back down.
“Oops,” he said, grinning sheepishly as he cleaned himself up. Storm Runner had been right, of course. Today marked the last day of official training activities for Nimbus’s Field Training, part of his introduction to the Aviator Training School at the Royal Equestrian Air College. The training consisted of five weeks of hellish mental and physical tests, each designed to both push the new recruits to their limits and develop their teamwork characteristics. Nimbus could still remember the day well when he bid his parents goodbye to board the carriage for San Palomino. He remembered most vividly the worry in their eyes. They’d tried to hide it of course, behind genuine smiles, but when he’d left that day, Nimbus knew that the only way to completely convince his parents that he wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes he’d made at the Wonderbolts Academy was with results. He’d made up his mind then and there to deliver said results as soon as possible.
Field Training had been tough from the start, and all of the incoming cadets hit the ground galloping. Literally. The cadre in charge of training had sent them on a five mile run only an hour after the carriage ride. For most of the cadets, the run was made even harder by the fact that they weren’t used to such a hot and arid climate. Several ponies threw up. At least two fainted. Nimbus was determined not to be one of them, and managed to avoid either fate, but just barely. He was used to the somewhat cooler climate of Hollow Shades, where he’d lived for most of his life, and moving down here, away from the cool valley breezes of his home, was quite a shock. Nonetheless, he’d forced himself to adapt, along with the rest of his fellow cadets, and his efforts had paid off. Despite weeks of obstacle courses, endurance gallops, wing-ups, and basic field training, he’d made it to the end. According to the final tally, at least ten cadets did not. Nimbus had felt sorry for each one as they left. He knew the pain of leaving a dream behind. It was this, however, which forced him to continue, and it was for this reason that he was here now.
Nimbus left the water running, out of courtesy for the shower’s next occupant. The showers tended to warm up after a steady water flow for five minutes or so, and it was the polite thing to do. He toweled himself off next to Storm Runner, who was cheerfully whistling a tune of some sort. Nimbus didn’t know how the guy did it. He hadn’t seen Storm Runner upset at any point during the entire five weeks. He’d made up his mind after the third week to ask him what his secret was, to which Storm Runner replied “what? You don’t think this is fun, too?”
Assuming Storm Runner had been putting on a false display of courage, Nimbus avoided him for a while. Braggarts never sat well with him, and he felt Storm Runner would be no different. As time went on, though, Nimbus had begun to realize that the pony was just seriously happy all the time, and the two of them started to develop a brotherhood of sorts. Nimbus had been told that Field Training usually had that effect on most ponies.
“So,” he said, once he was finished drying off, “back to the campus tomorrow afternoon, eh?”
Storm Runner stopped his whistling. “Yeah, we finally get to start normal college. It’s gonna be awesome!”
“Have you had a good look around the place yet?” Nimbus asked. “I only saw it for about five minutes before they herded me onto the carriage to come here.”
“Oh yeah,” Storm Runner replied. “I got there a day early for a tour. Wonderful place. You know when they built it, they hacked off the top of a mountain in the Unicorn Range. You don’t really appreciate how high up you are until you look down sometime. And a couple of the campus buildings are actually connected with bridges. I guess building a college on the top of a mountain requires a bit of creativity.”
“I guess so,” Nimbus said, folding his towel up and placing it in his saddle bag. “Well, I’m heading back to my room. See you tomorrow!”
Storm Runner chuckled. “Like you have a choice. We’re in the same flight.* If you don’t see me tomorrow, something’s probably gone wrong.”
Laughing, Nimbus exited the bathroom and headed for his bunk. He finished up the rest of his nightly duties quickly, brushing his teeth and preparing his bed in the manner he’d been instructed to for the past few weeks. It’d be nice to finally have a change of pace for once. For him, of course, that change of pace would bring just as much challenge as Field Training. This time, though, instead of working to keep up with the daily exercises, he’d be trying to keep his head above academic water. As the lights went out in the bunk room, Nimbus closed his eyes, still working out just how he was going to keep ahead of his academics in the coming year. It was going to be a restless night.
…
“Wake up, wake up! Did you think we were done with you yet?!”
Nimbus sat bolt upright and slid out of his bunk, floating to the ground as he’d done so many times already in Field Training. The cadre were galloping around, pounding on whatever objects they felt would make the loudest noise, urging the confused ponies to get up and out as fast as possible. Nimbus had no clue what was going on. There wasn’t supposed to be training on the last day, yet the cadre were still waking everypony up as usual. Galloping into the hallway, he saw Storm Runner and shot him a questioning glance. Storm Runner responded with a shrug, and bolted downstairs. Nimbus followed him and ran down the stairs and out of the barracks, to his flight’s form-up spot. Nimbus took his place at the front right corner of the square of ponies. He’d earned the position of element leader during the first week. It wasn’t necessarily an enviable position, as it had earned him plenty of extra attention from the occasional cadre walking by, but he still considered earning it a small victory.
Standing at rigid attention, Nimbus didn’t dare look anywhere other than straight ahead. The world around him was a sea of moving bodies, and the yelling of the cadre was everywhere, drilling into his ears. He noticed without much enthusiasm that they’d once again been woken up before the sun’s rise. He’d joked around once about writing princess Celestia a letter asking her to raise the sun a little earlier. It’d all been in jest, of course, but some days it seemed somewhat practical. Today was one such day.
“Flight, tench-hut!”
Nimbus was snapped out of his morning daydreams with the arrival of his flight commander- a grey earth pony wearing a black beret. He stood in front of the group of tired, bedraggled ponies, fixing his steely gaze upon them, until another voice cut through the morning air.
“Groups!”
Nimbus instantly froze. The voice was that of the group commander- the pony essentially in charge of training. She’d only spoken to them on two occasions- once during the beginning of Field Training and once sometime in the middle- and both times she’d been rather upset, to say the least.
Her call was echoed by cries of “squadrons!” and “flights!” as per custom, to which she responded with “tench- hut!” If any pony hadn’t been at the position of attention before, they were most certainly there now. Nimbus listened intently, waiting to see what would come next.
“Cadets,” the group commander began, “the last time I spoke to you, I was disappointed. You were not a team, and you were disappointing me at every turn. I told you that you’d have two more weeks to prove yourselves to me. Those two weeks are up, and now it’s time for me to decide if you really are ready to advance in your training. You don’t believe I can extend your training? Think again. This is my call and mine alone. That said, it’s time for me to reveal what I think of you. In the past two weeks…” she paused, letting the tension hang, “you have not only met my expectations but exceeded them. You’ve learned what it means to be a team. I’ve done my job, but your work is far from over. When I formally complete your training, you will move on to the academic year. I assure you that its challenges will be no less difficult than those you faced here. I expect your teamwork to continue through the next year until graduation, and I want to see each and every one of you at graduation- yes, I will in fact be there. I know this won’t happen. Every year we lose some good ponies to the pressures of academics, but I want you- I’m expecting you- to watch over each other and help your comrades out.” She paused for a moment, then finished. “That’s all I have for you. Good luck, and I now consider your training complete.” The group commander stood tall and saluted. The rest of the chain of command turned towards the cadets and followed suit. Nimbus felt pride swelling up inside- the kind of pride he hadn’t felt since he entered the Wonderbolts Academy a year ago.
“Cadets, at rest,” the group commander ordered. Slowly, as if unsure what to do with their new freedom, the cadets began to shift out of their formations, mingling with each other. Within moments, they were everywhere, chattering excitedly and swapping stories. Nimbus smiled. Field Training was over. Now his real challenge could begin. Nimbus spotted Storm Runner telling some more than likely embellished tale to a group of cadets from another school and hurried over to listen. There would be time on the carriage ride later to think over his future. For now, it was time to celebrate.
*a "flight" is an organized group of ponies, in this case. Two or more flights make up a squadron.