Shield and Light Wing charged towards the Saddle Arabian line, firing their crossbows like mad. They were joined by dozens of other marines, laying waste to the enemy. The order had come in hours ago, Princess Celestia had made a deal with two Saddle Arabian royals, their father’s throne for the gold and gem deposits within their borders. Shield and the other’s had contemplated refusing the orders and defecting, but that would create more problems than it would solve. Their loyalty to their ‘Beloved’ ruler had long since crumbled away, and many of them would kill her if they received the chance.
Shield, despite his distaste for the mission, shot to kill. He knew what would happen to him if he died, Shining Asshole and his merry band of bucktards would leave him to rot. Shield let out an angry roar as the two side’s met, he dropped his crossbow and drew his knife. A Saddle Arabian tried to tackle him but fell short and landed on the ground in front of Shield, seconds later Shield drove his blade into the enemy’s gut and continued to charge forwards. He slashed the throat of another enemy soldier, then delivered a punch to his throat.
Shield could feel his anger begin to rise, he turned into a predator on the battlefield, killing every living enemy he could find. He snapped his wings open and took to the sky, then dodged an anti air spell cast by a unicorn mercenary standing on top of a house. Shield descended on the merc like a hawk, grabbing his head before slamming it as hard as he could into the roof of the building. Another unicorn merc teleported onto the roof and fired at Shield, the marine used the corpse of the dead unicorn as a shield before bolting towards the living one and driving his blade into the unicorns chest.
The unicorn stared at him for a moment, shocked by the stallion that stood before him. He had wild green eyes and was drenched in blood, the last thing the unicorn thought was ‘I should have never messed with a marine.’. Shield pulled the blade from the unicorns chest and let his body slump to the ground. The terror that had been present in his eyes was enough to snap Shield out of his trance, he looked around him. Light Wing had disappeared, probably on his way to the capitol building, Shield stared at the two corpses. For the first time in a long time, he felt sick. The Saddle Arabians had hired mercenaries from his homeland to fight with them, what was more, these mercenaries couldn’t have been older than Dash would be.
Shield sat there for what felt like an eternity, then felt something touch his shoulder. The marine turned his head and found himself staring at an indigo hoof, then everything faded out.
Shield woke up on Rainbow Dash’s couch, the early morning sun shined on his face. He rubbed his eye as the dream began to fade from his memory, then got up and walked to the kitchen. Today was a big day, his first day at a new job. Miss Cheerilee was gracious enough to offer him a position, he would teach the older foals while she taught the younger ones. Shield made himself a cup of coffee, then grabbed his lunch from the ice box.
When he had done that he ascended the steps to Rainbow Dash’s room and peeked in, she was still asleep. Shield silently made his way over to her bed and pulled the covers up, she snuggled into them and let out a soft sigh.
“Love you, Dashie.” Shield said with a smile before leaving the room, he closed the door as quietly as possible and went downstairs. He thought about the past week, since they had told Rainbow Dash’s friends Shield had been assaulted with a barrage of questions. Most of which he declined to answer. Twilight had stopped by several times to talk with him. Shield was, at first, livid when he found out that she was related to Shining Armor, but quickly suppressed it. She couldn’t have chosen to be related to such an asshole, and she seemed nice enough by herself.
He had met one of the students he would be teaching, Scootaloo, through Rainbow Dash. When she had learned that he was Dash’s brother she had been skeptical at first, but relatively accepting. That was not the case when she also found out that he would be her new teacher. Shield chuckled at the thought, foals never seemed to change. It brought a smile to his lips, a sense of happiness welled up in him. He had fought and bled for them to maintain their innocence, and that made it worth it in a sense.
Shield put his cover on and hung his tags around his neck, then walked to outside. He opened his wings and took to the sky, his destination was on the other end of town which gave him a few minutes at a leisurely pace. He flew higher than most other pegasi, almost as high marines would normally fly on a bombing run. When he had flown far enough he started to descend until the building was in sight.
Shield landed outside the school and walked towards the door, he could hear Cheerilee getting ready within the building. He pushed the door open and entered smiling. Cheerilee was carrying a very heavy box towards what would be Shields classroom, Shield quickly moved over and grabbed it from her before she could hurt herself.
“Oh! Mister Dasher! I wasn’t expecting you to be here for another hour!” She chirped, happy to not have to carry the box any longer.
“I woke up early and decided to get an early start.” Shield replied, not really seeing how the box was heavy. He walked into his classroom and was surprised at how well furnished it looked. The classrooms he had seen were far more bland and empty. “Anything else that needs to come in here?” Shield asked, setting down the box and poking his head out into the hallway. Cheerilee shook her head and smiled.
“No, but thank you.” She replied, Shield smiled in return and turned back to the box. He reached for his combat knife but sighed as he remembered that it was still in his bag at home. He grabbed a pair of scissors that sat on his desk, he stared at them for a moment. The image of the unicorn from his dream flashed in his mind, Shield clamped his eye shut and forced the horror filled face away. He cut the box open and peaked in, there were a dozen or so note books and a large globe. He pulled the globe out and placed it on his desk, he turned it a few times before going back to the box.
Shield set the notebooks out on the student’s desks before moving to his own and eyed the globe again. His eye landed on a small country, Greneighda, how many of his brothers had been killed there? He couldn’t count. He sighed and walked to his seat, then relaxed and waited for the school to start. He started to nod off, his mind drifting off to a darker place.
Shield stood at the end of a row of graves, he was covered in mud and dirt. Around his neck was his own dog tag necklace, along with another that contained nearly thirty others. Each of the others had a small stain of blood on them, their owners lay buried in the dirt a few feet away. Shield looked down at the last tag on the necklace and shook his head, the poor bastard hadn’t even been out of basic a month. Shield turned away from the row of graves and put his helmet on, silently leaving his brothers.
“Mister Dasher?” Shield snapped awake, Cheerilee was standing in front of him. “I’m sorry to wake you, but school will be starting in ten minutes.” Shield shook his head and put on a fake smile, the dream still fresh in his mind.
“Thank you, ma’am. Would be pretty embarrassing if all those foals came in here and found me asleep.” He replied, sitting up straight. “What should I be expecting out of them.”
“Well, most of them are relatively level headed, but…” Cheerilee trailed off. “Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle have a bit of trouble with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.”
“What kind of trouble?” Shield asked.
“Well, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara tend to pick on them because they don’t have cutie marks yet.” Cheerilee explained, Shield let out an annoyed grunt.
“What kind of disciplinary actions am I allowed to take with these two…” Shield asked, thoughts of corporal punishment entering his head.
“Nothing too extreme, please. But I wouldn’t mind you putting them in their place.” Cheerilee, leaning in as if not wanting anyone else to hear. Shield nodded, understanding her and clearing his throat.
“You got it.” Shield adjusted his cover until it met the Marine standard. “I’ll take care of it.” Cheerilee smiled in response.
“Great! If you need me, I’ll be right across the hall.” With that Cheerilee left and Shield stood up, the minutes passed and he could hear the students begin to line up outside the closed classroom door. When the bell rang the students opened the door and flooded in, they quickly rushed to their seats, chatting away. Slowly they began to notice that Miss Cheerilee had not greeted them and one by one began to quiet down.
“Good morning.” He said in a calm voice. “My name is Shield Dasher, and I will be your new teacher.” Nervous faces went through the entire classroom. “Miss Cheerilee has passed you on to me so she can begin teaching the younger foals. I’m sure that if you want to talk to her, she will be more than happy to oblige you. After class of course. If you have any questions now’s the time to ask them.”
“Are you a pirate?” Asked a colt with a trottingham accent.
“No, I’m not a pirate.” Shield replied, the colt raised his hoof. “Yes I’m sure.” He said smiling.
“Why didn’t Miss Cheerilee tell us?” Asked a raspberry colored earth filly.
“This was rather last minute, but rest assured you are in good hooves.” Shield said reassuringly. “Now lets set some ground rules here. I expect you all to show respect to each other, failure to do so will result in a punishment I deem fit. I hear anything about you kids pulling stuff after school, rest assured I’ll look into that as well. Aside from that it’s pretty basic, do your work, get good grades, we won’t have any problems.”
A young, painted colt raised his hoof.
“Are you a pirate?” He asked in a thick trottingham accent. Shield chuckled and shook his head.
“No, I’m not a pirate.” He replied. “Now, let’s begin the lesson for today. Who knows about Hope Valley?” The foals were silent for a moment before a white unicorn raised her hoof into the air.
“Uhm… Wasn’t it the first unified city?” Shield nodded.
“Very good, miss…”
“Sweetie Belle.”
[♠]
“So what have we learned?” Shield asked as he finished the lesson, the sun was lowering in the sky and soon the class would be dismissed. Sweetie Bell raised her hoof, she had been participating the most today. Shield had remembered that she was Rarity’s sister, which only surprised him more. She was extremely knowledgeable for a filly. “Let’s let someone else answer this one…” Shield said, looking over the classroom. A pink filly with a tiara was very poorly hiding the fact that she had not been paying attention. “Diamond Tiara, why did the Hope Valley settlement fail?” She perked up and looked around nervously.
“Uh… Uh… because the ponies there were…” She started. “They were blank flanks?” Shield shook his head and pointed his hoof to where he had clearly written on the board why the settlement had failed.
“Incorrect, they failed because the land they settled in was…”
“Too dry to grow crops.” The class replied, Shield nodded. The bell rang and the students began to rise from their seats.
“Now I want everypony to leave their notebooks on my desk, I’ll get them back to you by tomorrow.” He said, the ponies complied. As they filed out the door, Scootaloo stayed behind.
“Mister Dasher?” She asked, Shield looked at her and smiled.
“Hey, you only have to call me that during class.” He said, Shield put the notebooks in a saddlebag he had found in his desk. “What’s up, kid?”
“Why was Rainbow Dash so upset when she saw you?” She asked, Shield shook his head for a moment.
“She wasn’t upset, Scootaloo. She was happy.” He explained walking to the door with her behind him. “I was far away for a long time, she was happy to see me again.” Scootaloo sighed and hung her head a bit. “But just because I’m back, don’t think she has any less time for you.” He looked at the clock. “Speaking of which, it’s about time you head home. If you see RD along the way, just tell her I’ll be home before dark.”
“Okay.” Scootaloo replied before rushing off to do whatever it was foals did after school. Shield looked into the classroom he had just left, his eyes fell on the globe again. Greneighda, the hell of it all ran through his mind for a moment. He pulled his eyes off the globe and closed the door to the classroom, when he turned to leave he found Miss Cheerilee closing her own room. She turned and smiled at him.
“So? How was your first day?” She asked, Shield shrugged.
“Different from what I expected. Most of the classrooms I visited were bombed out or just a tent.” He replied, Cheerilee didn’t know how to respond to that statement. “The kids were good, no trouble from those foals you told me about. I’d say it was a win.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it!” Cheerilee chirped, still processing what he had said. “Normally after the day ends, I go to this nice little tavern in town. Care to join me?” Shield raised an eyebrow. “Simply as co workers, nothing else. I swear.” Shield mulled it over for a bit, then nodded.
“Sure, I could use a good drink. Didn’t even know there was a bar in town.” He responded, putting the saddle bag with the notebooks on.
“Excellent, let’s go.” With that, Shield and Cheerilee began to walk into town. Shield thought he noticed something flying over head, but when he looked up he found the sky was clear. He shrugged it off, it was probably nothing.