Two years later, an hour after the end of the annual maneuvers,
“I must admit, Kid,” Spitfire said casually as she was walking around the compound with Cloud in tow, while the rest of the corps were called to the courtyard by Sergeant Pagétonas. “You’ve done pretty good during those two years of training with me and Crystal…”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Cloud replied as she cast a small glance at the riders leaving the compound behind Shining Armor and his white horse.
Cloud only half-listened to what Spitfire had to say as her eyes searched for red and yellow curls among the masses of cloaked and armored riders. Much like the year before, her squad hadn’t been teamed up with Sunset, and thus Cloud had barely got the time to catch up with her. Even during the breaks, Cloud didn’t get the time to chat with her: the fact that the Titanian seemed to be anywhere but close to her might have something to do with it.
She spotted the Arcanium student steadying her mount at the end of the column of knights and mages as the leading riders trotted out of the compound in a rather successful attempt at forming ranks with their horses. Once her horse was ready, Sunset looked around and noticed the blonde glancing in her direction. Cloud gave her a soft wave before she frowned in confusion as Sunset snapped her head away from her, her long and thick cloak twirling around her body in the same direction as her head.
Barely a second later, Cloud took notice of the brief blue-green halo around Sunset’s fingers as they grabbed onto the reins of her horse before their owner gave it a small tap on the flanks with her heels. The blonde Jupitarian suddenly felt a brief smarting in her eyes and thus blinked in discomfort. When she opened her eyes again to see the back of Sunset’s cloak as she rode away from her, Cloud’s lips slowly left the form of a pout to one of a sly grin.
A sly grin that lasted barely two seconds before the back of her head was whacked strongly. Cloud let out a short yelp of pain as Spitfire continued talking, casually bringing her hand away from the back of Cloud’s head.
“If you could focus on your performances as a soldier as much as you can focus on others’ anatomy, you’d already be among the top tier of the Wonderbolts!” Spitfire remarked in an even tone.
“I can’t fly fast enough to be a Wonderbolt, Lieutenant,” Cloud retorted slowly, not really denying the rest of her mentor’s sentence.
“That’s probably because you lack the proper incentive, Kid,” Spitfire commented with assurance. “I’m sure that if I put a picture of Crystal with her top off in front of you, you could break the sound barrier…”
“......... That’s… worth a try……” Cloud whispered after thinking about the mountains usually trapped under a tight, grey leather corset for a few seconds.
Those whispered words prompted Spitfire into whacking the blonde’s head once again, only more violently than before. As Cloud rubbed her skull in silence, Spitfire remained impassible while laughing playfully in her head.
“Consider that a very light preview of what you can expect from her if she ever hear what you just said,” Spitfire stated in an even tone before turning around to head back to the courtyard. “Anyway, we should go back to the others now. Crystal should have briefed them for your final exercise!”
“...What exercise?” Cloud asked in confusion, stopping right in her tracks.
Spitfire didn’t stop walking but none of the less turned her head while sighing in annoyance.
“You really were staring at your next potential boy/girl-toy instead of listening to me, weren’t you?” Spitfire asked, her voice laced with annoyance and, oddly enough, amusement. “Anyway, you’re going to be released into active duty in a few weeks, got any idea of where?”
“If I can chose, it’d probably be back home in Ponyville,” Cloud replied softly, her cheeks bit pink because of the embarrassment of not having listened to her mentor.
“Really?! Don’t you want to be stationed in grander places?” Spitfire asked in a condescending tone. “With your skills and my recommendation, you could get a place in Canterlot Castle, or in Cloudsdale’s senate …”
“I didn’t go through all that training to be a glorified doorwoman like the Solar Guards or the Praetorians!” Cloud snapped angrily. “I came here to be able to protect people who can’t protect themselves!”
“Is that so?” Spitfire asked in a doubtful tone. “Are you sure that it’s not for the prestige of the uniform? It helps finding suitors after all.”
Cloud frowned sourly at her mentor for a few seconds. “I don’t need an armor to find suitors!”
“After that hot springs incident of last year, I can’t deny that,” Spitfire commented casually in a sisterly tone. “.... I still have trouble meeting that girl at the Maragio without thinking of that day… Poor girl is embarrassed beyond measure every time she sees me,” she added with sympathy
“It’s not my fault if her father had decided to give you and the other Wonderbolts the grand tour of the Maragio,” Cloud countered uneasily in embarrassment. “Anyway, I was on a break…”
“Still, the hot springs? One of the Maragio’s well-known features? A public space? With said casino’s manager’s daughter?” Spitfire cocked a disapproving eyebrow at her protégée. “You’re lucky that I was the only one that spotted you in that secluded meander of the springs!”
“In my defense, she wouldn’t tell me her name!” Cloud argued strongly. “I didn’t know she was the manager’s daughter.”
“Because you took the time to ask her full name?”
“.......No,” Cloud confessed sheepishly. “It was a spur-of-the-moment kinda thing…”
Spitfire sighed with a brief chuckle. “Well, it might be good if you go to Ponyville then… You wouldn’t risk the sanctions for hitting on one of the higher-ups’ child,” she added warmly before turning serious. “You’re still sure you want go to Ponyville, Kid?”
“If I’m given the choice, yes,” Cloud assured firmly.
“Even if it’s a place for second-rate soldier… I thought I had formed an Elite,” Spitfire stated with sadness.
“I’m as much an Elite as those goons you hang out with after your many derbies!” Cloud snapped angrily. “After all, flying in circle very fast isn’t really soldier-y, Lieutenant.”
Spitfire blinked at the remark before stopping behind the perfectly formed ranks of fifty-nine other trainees. The lieutenant spun on her feet to face her protégée with a sardonic smile that made Cloud gulped nervously. She had crossed the line with that last remark, and she’ll have to pay for it. It wouldn’t be cheap, that much Cloud was convinced.
“You really think you’re worthy to be called an Elite on par with the Wonderbolts, Kid?” Cloud held Spitfire’s gaze and nodded almost imperceptibly in defiance. “Well, allow me to verify your claim.”
Spitfire sharply whistled, causing Cloud’s fellow trainees to spun on their heels to face her. Startled by the sudden move, Cloud blinked in surprise when nearly all her comrades pulled their weapons out or started conjuring their shapes. Behind the ranks of the Jupitarian Corps, Crystal sat on one of the two picnic chairs that stood behind her, a tiny grin plastered on her face as she saw Cloud’s dumbfounded expression.
“This, Kid, is your final test,” Spitfire explained softly, waving at the fifty-nine cadets ready for combat. “Knock-out all your little comrades before they knock you out… Then, I might consider you an Elite, even if you wish to be mobilized in that small, but rather sympathetic town of yours.” Cloud’s confused frown wasn’t lost to Spitfire who decided to add a few clarifications in a ushered whisper. “I sent Soarin undercover to pass an order of that fine cider you’ve been smuggling around here…. He came back with a dozen of apple pies.”
“....You want me to fight fifty-nine to one?!!!!”
“Try to see it as a succession of fifty-nine one-on-one fights, Kid,” Spitfire suggested with a shrug before facing Cloud’s adversary. “As Sergeant Pagétonas told you, FIVE THOUSANDS BITS to the one who knocks Kicker out!” she shouted loudly.
Cloud tensed when all her comrades shouted cheerfully at the promise of payment. A good half of them took off to form a wall of attackers, noticing that Blossomforth was amongst the most forward soldiers in the air, followed closely by Ford, Gale, Manerick and Ace.
“Just so you know, I don’t have those five thousands bits on me,” Spitfire commented in a whisper as she conjured her golden wings. “So I’d be grateful if you win.”
The lieutenant gave a small patronizing tap on the cheek of her shocked protégée before flying over the mass of trainees to sit on the chair across Crystal, who threw her a glass bottle full of what looked like apple cider. They clinked their bottles together before both ordering the exercise to begin in a simultaneous shout.
“.......Bitch!” Cloud muttered as a large deal of her fellow cadets rushed toward her, or down to her for those that were in the air.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour later, at the terrace of a penthouse in Las Pegasus.
“So, my dear Trend, you’ve finally decided to take that big step?” Fancy Pants asked softly the blond writer that sat across him while taking a sip of his tea. “Any idea of a possible date already?”
“It was tough to find a moment between our two rather busy schedules,” Trend replied softly, adjusting his glasses on his nose. “But I found that two weeks long gap at the end of August.”
“Wasn’t she supposed to join us this afternoon?” Fancy’s wife, Fleur, asked with curiosity as she walked by the pair of discussing men, a white robe lightly tied closed. “I’d not mind some female company. Not that you’re not pleasant company, Trend!” she added with a benevolent smile.
“Don’t worry, Fleur,” Trend assured with a brief chuckle. “She was supposed to have something to do at the compound. Something about a special exercise,” he said uncertainly while pensively scratching his growing goatee. “She shouldn’t be long now,”
“I see,” Fleur replied slowly before walking away from the two men and their teas. “I’m going to enjoy the pool while waiting for her, if you don’t mind..,” she stated while untying the belt of her robe.
The former model had taken three steps toward the long pool of the penthouse, her robe halfly taken off and thus revealing her white one-piece swimsuit that hugged her still smooth figure before close, rumbles of thunder were heard. All the three upper class people on the terrace looked up at the clear blue sky in confusion. While they scanned the skies for the cause of those noises, Fleur blinked in shock when she noticed a mass of leather and purple feathers rolling toward their terrace.
“Oh dear,” Fleur let out in shock when she realized it was a young woman in armor that was catapulted in her direction.
The woman seemed to recover from whatever had hit her before she reached the edge of the terrace. With one strong flap of her wings, the blonde pulled herself up and used the momentum to skate backwards on the surface of the pool water. Despite the shock of having a young girl crashing on her husband’s terrace, Fleur’s lips formed a mute wow at the rather graceful movement the blonde Jupitarian in leather-armor displayed. Though her awe lasted about four seconds before being replaced by worry as the blonde heels hit the edge of the pool and made her head hit the stone floor quite hard.
“Are you okay?” Fleur asked with worry as she quickly kneeled next to the blonde groaning in pain while Trend and her husband stood up to join her.
Cloud slowly sat up while rubbing soothingly the back of her head before opening her eyes to see who was talking to her. Her gaze quickly scanned the beauty at her side, stopping a few seconds on the most becoming cleavage offered by her swimsuit and her half-open robe before it landed on her right hand, noticing a golden band on her ring finger.
“...It depends… Do you have a twin sister who happens to be single?” Cloud asked slowly in a hopeful tone, earning a confused raise of eyebrow from the former model.
“...No.”
“Then, I’d say I could have been better,” Cloud commented before standing up with difficulty. “Anyway, I’d ask you to take a few steps back, Ma’am!” she added, softly pushing Fleur away from her.
“What’s going on..” Trend started before sharp whistling sounds came closer to them.
There was a strong gush wind that swept the entire terrace and its occupants before three loud clangs resonated from a sudden fog that had hidden the young blonde. The fog vanished a few seconds later, revealing three other armored Jupitarians with their weapons blocked by the wings of the blonde that had wrapped her body prior the impacts of the spear, axe and sword of her attackers.
“Wow! You can form them a lot quicker than before,” Ford remarked in an admirative tone as the tip of his sword pushing against Cloud’s Wing-blades, which had coated her wings in a flash before the impacts.
“Also, you’ve reinforced them quite a bit,” Gale added, while withdrawing the blade of her axe from the cloud-covered wings.
“How about we stop to not cause any trouble for those nice people there?” Cloud asked with a sigh, nodding at Fleur, her husband and his guest.
“Sorry, Cloud, Lieutenant’s orders,” Blossomforth stated with a shrug. “The exercise stops ONLY when you or all of your opponents are knocked out. Not before, and with no coffee breaks!” she added before jumping backwards to re-take a solid fighting stance with her spear.
Before any of the owners of the penthouse could say anything to them, Ford and Gale both jumped away from Cloud, forming an equilateral triangle around the blonde who spread her wings open while two, silvery-white hazy clubs formed in her hands. Sparks of electricity surged from the head of Gale’s weapons, an intense but small whirlwind coated the tip of Blossomforth’s spear and a long and large tendril of water snaked its way from the pool to reach Ford’s free hand.
“Sorry about that,” a newcomer’s voice rang from behind Fleur, Fancy and Trend. “And for being late as well, but the Kid is one tougher nut to crack than I expected,” it added playfully before all three of them looked back at source of the voice.
“With all due respect, Lieutenant Maverick,” Cloud commented, her eyes glancing between her three opponents as Spitfire landed softly on the terrace with Crystal in tow. “Go to Tartarus!”
“Ha! I’m really gonna miss that girl when her time here’s up,” Crystal commented for herself, emptying the bottle of cider she had been carrying along the way here.
“The prize for the winner has just been upped to ten thousand bits,” Spitfire stated loudly with a smirk. “Five from me, five from Kicker!” she added, earning a dark stare from the blonde.
“Spitfire?!” Trend let out in shock as the Captain of the Wonderbolt walked to him.
“Hi, sweetie,” Spitfire called in soft purr before nuzzling the blond’s nose, earning a disgusted gag from Crystal. “How have you been?”
“Hello, my dear,” Fancy called slowly, eyeing the four young guards’ standoff. “Why are there four armed young soldiers on my terrace?”
“Outdoor exercise,” Spitfire explained casually. “They should take off right now or end it in a few minutes…”
On cue, Blossomforth lunged forward while thrusting her spear forward, quickly imitated by her two comrades. Ford’s water-whip cracked in the empty air as Cloud dodged it by leaning forward and crouching very low while extending her right leg to sweep the ankle of Gale who had reached her first. With her out of balance, Gale was hit on the side by one of Cloud’s clubs, pushing her in the way of Blossomforth who simply jumped above her thanks to her wings.
As the whirlwind coated spear dove to her, Cloud spun on herself so that her left Wingblades bashed the side of Blossomforth’s weapon. Diverted of her course, Blossomforth felt a hand grab the back of her collar before she felt Cloud roll over her back, ready to take off away from the tangled pair.
“Impressive,” Fancy commented with a small nod, rubbing the right side of his mustache. “The next generation of Royal Guards looks promising. You’ve done a good job with them, Sergeant,” he added for the grey-haired woman beside his wife.
“Thank you, sir,” Crystal replied with a nod. “Though, the blonde mostly learned from Spitfire,” she added as Cloud was hit by three large, water-bullets in the chest that sent her crash against the wall right to a large picture window. “Any protégée of mine would have anticipated Mustang’s ability with water.” She slyly grinned at Spitfire.
“Cut the Kid some slacks, Crystal!” Spitfire snarled sorely while Cloud whipped her wet hair out of her face to stare down at her male opponent close to the pool. “May I remind you that she already kicked the asses of YOUR fifty-six other trainees?”
Trend, while surprised by the sudden revelation, glanced at the fight with scepticism. “Maybe she did, but she seems to have a hard time against this Mustang fellow,” he stated as more water-bullets kept her from charging toward the blue-haired man.
While Cloud was blocked by the barrage of water conjured by a swift succession of jabs thrown at her by Ford, who had sheathed his sword after noticing the pool, Gale and Blossomforth stood up and readied their weapons again. Ford paused his onslaught for a second after Cloud fell on the ground in a loud splash of water. Shaking her head, the soaked blonde pushed herself off the ground, her hands covered by whitish haze. Her opponent’s eyes snapped wide open while Spitfire’s lips turned into a smirk before Cloud slammed her hands on the ground.
All four fighters then disappeared from their instructors and the high-class citizens’ sight in a thick, instantaneous white fog that covered most of the terrace surface. Fancy and his wife both let out long “ooh”s of admiration while Trend frowned at the fact they couldn’t see what was happening. In the meantime, Spitfire and Crystal pricked up their ears, hearing faint clashes of metals and female grunts coming from within the fog.
Only when the fog lifted itself up after two loud splashes of water, the audience saw that Cloud had won against her two female adversaries. Indeed, Blossomforth and Gale were both floating face up in the pool, weaponless and with a set of puffy white bindings strapped around their ankles, waists, wrists, torsos and mouths. Gale mutedly sighing into her gag while peacefully drifting along the pool while Blossomforth tried to break her bonds by writhing frantically around, causing only her body to roll so that her face slowly went underwater.
Before anyone could react on the watermelon-haired woman’s most than probable drowning, Ford saved her by shaping tendrils of water that lifted both tied-up women out of the water before he faced Cloud who was softly pulling her wet hair to make it fall on the back of her head. They stood at five meters away from one another, both with their hands surrounded by a haze of their own: white for Cloud, pale blue for Ford. Purples eyes locked their gaze on the cerulean ones of their owner’s opponent with intensity for a few seconds.
Both took one step toward each other at the same time, Ford cracking a new water-whip at the blonde who countered it with a cloud-shaped whip. The two shapes broke apart as soon as they intercepted each other. Ford took another step while jabbing two water-bullets at Cloud. The blonde continued her advance and conjured a Nimbo-gladius in her left hand before cutting the two bullets in half. The two adversaries were six steps away from one another before Cloud grabbed her sword-shaped cloud with both hands and Ford kneeled down to grab the surface of the water.
The moisture in the air gathered around Cloud’s blade, darkening it as the blonde’s face frowned in deep concentration. In the mean time, Ford stood back up, pulling the whole content of the pool in his grip, forming a massive wave that was ready to crush his opponent in his trail. Trend and Fleur’s mouths dropped wide open at the large quantity of water being lifted by the Jupitarian’s fist as Fancy’s monocle simply fell off his eye. Spitfire and Crystal simply whistled casually while the still tied up girls at their feet simply gasped in silence, Gale in an awed one and Blossomforth in a forced one.
Taking one step forward, Ford threw the wave he had shaped at Cloud. The mass of water reached two good feets above the blonde’s height, ready to devastate her and the expensive furnitures that were lying around the terrace. Cloud swept her Nimbo-gladius at the wave that stood before her with a loud battle cry. The dark grey mass in her hands turned black a blink before it touched the water in a white flash.
An incredibly loud thunderclap assaulted all the spectators’ ears and the glass windows who shook a bit in response before a constant hiss made itself heard as the two fighters disappeared in a massive puff of steam. When the steam was cleared by the wind, all could see the aftermath of the fight under a low but constant rumbling similar to the one heard in a thunderstorm before lightning strokes.
Ford was stepping backwards, holding his right forearm in pain as static electricity coursed along the ripped gauntlet and the slightly burned flesh. His eyes were wide open in shock much like the others. Even Spitfire and Crystal, who had been relatively calm along the whole exercise, didn’t hide their surprised expression when their eyes went from Ford to Cloud’s panting form.
Between the two fighters, there was nothing but steam getting blown away by the wind. Of the seventy cubic-meters of water Ford had pulled out of the pool, it didn’t remain a single a drop. All of it had been vaporized by Cloud’s swing. The veterans eyes landed on Cloud’s hands, or more specifically on what they were holding. Quickly enough, all eyes fell on the black thundercloud coursed with white electric sparks that had taken the form of a simple and bulky sword in the blonde’s hands.
Cloud’s face was covered in sweat and her purple eyes had lost their playful glint in favor of an exhausted haze. Her chest heaved strongly as each breath she took became more labored than the previous one. Her arms were shaking as her wings slowly vanished from her back. The rumbling coming from her hands slowly became quieter as she lost her grip on what she was holding. She blinked a couple of times, barely seeing anything except the wounds she had inflicted on Ford’s forearm.
“...Sorry,” she whispered in a guilty tone before her legs gave up on her.
The ground felt a lot more soft than what she had thought it would as she crashed on it while her eyes had closed mid-fall. She hadn’t thought the ground would groan and chuckle in protest of her collapsing on top of it. Nor it was supposed to be this warm, even if it was the terrace of a penthouse in the middle of Las Pegasus.
When Cloud felt someone poke her forehead, she slowly opened her eyes, seeing a blue and yellow fabric pressed against her instead of the red bricks of the floor. A flash of orange passed to her peripheral vision, making her realize on who she had collapsed.
“I yield!” Ford had stated loud and clear, resentment absent in his tone despite what he was saying.
It was only after she heard Ford’s voice that her body allowed her to fall unconscious in her mentor’s arms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Much later, just outside the training grounds infirmary,
“Feeling better, Kid?” Spitfire asked as she took a deep breath of the night, cool air.
“I’m still feeling a little tired, but other than that, I’m good,” Cloud stated before glancing with fervor at her mentor. “How’s Fo…”
“Your boy toy's perfectly fine, Kid,” Spitfire assured playfully, earning a shocked blink from her protégée.
“Ford’s my friend, not my boy toy!” Cloud protested.
“That’s not what Crystal told me,” Spitfire commented with mirth. “You should have worked on your stealth if you wanted her to never notice your bi-monthly escapades with him.”
“Huh….” Cloud let out with her mouth agape.
“If you’re asking why she never confronted you about it, it’s because it never had an influence on your respective performances during training,” Spitfire said casually. “With maybe the exception of him yielding this afternoon… But that could have been just his gentlemanly manners… Again, that’s what she told me.”
“... He is a gentleman,” Cloud stated with assurance.
“Though, once you’re officially a royal guard, do yourself a favor and do not lay a hand, or any naked part of your body on one of your fellow guards,” Spitfire demanded seriously. “Relationships between soldiers, even just sexual, can often end up badly.”
“Is this why you’re with that Trend-guy?” Cloud asked softly, pointing at her engagement ring. “Because he’s not military?”
“No! I’m with Trend because we love each other,” Spitfire replied with a cocked eyebrow. “What’s that for a question?”
“I don’t know… I just never imagined you for the type to go for someone… less physically inclined than you,” Cloud replied uneasily.
“Well, it’s not about his physique. It’s the way he talks, tells things about how he sees the world,” Spitfire started with an amorous sigh. “How he takes the mundane, the simple, the unappreciated and makes it relat…. WHY AM I EVEN TELLING YOU THAT?!!!!” Spitfire yelled before shoving her finger in Cloud’s upper torso. “The point is no more bedding with soldiers once you’re stationed! I will not have my protégée be the one who had sex with all her company after her first month!”
“First of all, Aouch!” Cloud stated, rubbing where Spitfire had poked her. “Second, I don’t sleep with just anybody… I have standards!” Spitfire rolled her eyes at the blonde’s waving finger. “And lastly, to actually have sex with a whole company would require a minimum of three months, unless….”
“Don’t do the maths, Kid,” Spitfire warned sternly. “I’d rather keep the illusion you DIDN’T think that through.”
“Fine, I’ll do as you say……. That means I can still…”
“YES! You can still go play with your Mustang Boy-toy for now,” Spitfire stated in annoyance with a roll of her eyes.
“Oh, cool!.....What about civilians once I’m stationed?” Cloud asked fearfully.
“As long as it’s legal, you can do whatever you want with people outside the Guard,” Spitfire answered before chuckling softly when Cloud sighed in relief. “If only you could stop thinking about banging everything that meets your standards, Kid.”
“Sorry, Lieutenant, just like you’re not ready to lose your title of Fastest Jupitarian alive, I’m willing to keep my title of Bachelorette Extraordinaire a little while longer!” Cloud snickered playfully.
“The future of the Royal Guard, Ladies and Gentlemen,” Spitfire sighed warmly, ruffling Cloud’s long blonde hair. “You know? All your sexual deviances asides, I’m really proud of you, Cloud. You were fantastic today!” she assured with a smile.
Cloud immediately froze in her step. Never before had Spitfire complimented her without a remark on how to improve her stances, her wing placement or anything. It was also the first time Spitfire had called her by her first name since Cloud had started training under her tutelage. Cloud had come to think that the renowned officer had actually forgotten her name since she always referred to her as ‘Kid’.
“You…. You really mean that?” Cloud asked in a whisper worthy of a little girl to her mother.
“Let’s just say that I’d take you into the Bolts….If you hadn’t previously stated you’re too slow to fly in circles at derbies!” Spitfire assured with a wink.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks later,
“Kicker, report to my office in five minutes!” Crystal shouted in her most authoritarian tone as she slammed the Team Twelve’s door open.
Almost instantly after the grey-haired officer took one step inside the room, Blossomforth stood at attention, only to be imitated by Gale and Silent a second later. They had been cleaning their dorm when Crystal had walked in, in order to get ready for finally leaving the Las Pegasus compound to go to active duty after two years and a half of training.
“Team Leader Shields, where’s Cloud Kicker?” Crystal asked with a cocked eyebrow at the green and purple haired woman standing by her bunk bed and a half-packed tin trunk.
“She’s away for her last days of unused leave time, Ma’am!” Blossomforth replied in a neutral tone.
“Right now?” Crystal asked slowly. “Four days away from being sent to active duty, and she has gone on her leave?”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Blossomforth replied with assurance.
“Ma’am, if I may add something on the matter?” Gale asked as neutrally as possible as Crystal frowned in response to Blossomforth’s assurance.
“Granted, Swiftwing.”
“Cloud’s taking her leaves now because she received a letter from the central administration strongly ‘’advising’’ her to take a few days of leave before going to active duty to meet her minimum quota for this year,” The redhead explained, stressing the word advising just enough to imply the air quotes.
“Really? I haven’t been informed about that,” Crystal whispered to herself before turning back to Blossomforth. “Do you know when she’ll be back?”
“She told us she should be back in the afternoon of the day after tomorrow, Ma’am,” Blossomforth answered calmly. “In the evening if there’s a problem with her train.”
“All right. As soon as she’s back, tell her to come to my office at once!” Crystal demanded firmly before leaving the dorm.
“I wonder why Cloud has to go to her office,” Silent let out as they all relaxed their stances to get back to their packing. “You think she found out about her secret stash of hard cider?”
“It would be a shame for us that it’s found a few days before we leave for good,” Gale commented slowly. “Cloud was rather proud of discovering that spot.”
“I’m not sure, but I think Pagétonas found out that Cloud sneaks out of the dorm every two months to do …. Stuff with Ford,” Blossomforth commented sourly.
“You’re jealous of Ford, aren’t you?” Silent commented, cocking an eyebrow at their squad leader.
“I’m not jealous!” Blossomforth snapped with rosy cheeks. “I just don’t get why she risks disciplinary actions for humping him by leaving the dorms past the curfew!”
“Because Cloud humping you after everyone else had left the showers wasn’t risking disciplinary actions?” Gale asked with a playful roll of her eyes.
“THAT happened only during one of my rare moments of weakness four months ago,” Blossomforth explained angrily, her cheeks passing from pink to bright red.
“Rare moments of weakness?” Gale and Silent asked simultaneously, their eyebrow cocking higher than before.
“I don’t count my sleep-mumblings as moments of weakness!!!”
“Haaaaaa!” The other two let out in comprehension as their bicolor-haired friend sighed longly to calm her burning cheeks.
“Though, you should consider seeing a specialist about that,” Gale added with a shrug.
“What?”
“Well, it’s not a problem if you live on your own, but if you ever start dating someone they might not like hear sleep-talking about bending Cloud over your desk so that you could spank her to teach her to respect your authority,” Silent replied with a slightly mocking grin.
“You promised you’d stop using that against me!!!! I said that ONCE and that was more than two years ago!”
“And it still cracks us up just like when we heard it the first time!” Gale chuckled in a good-natured voice while fistbumping with Silent.
“Anyway, do you know what Cloud had planned on doing during her leave?” Silent asked the flustered green-and-purple-haired woman.
“Catching up with her friends and mostly looking for an apartment, or space for a skyhouse in Ponyville,” Blossomforth explained slowly, glad to change the conversation topic.
“She really plans on going back there after all?” Silent asked with a short sigh.
“Why are you surprised? When Pagétonas told us we could chose where we want to be stationed, Cloud immediately asked for going back there,” Gale reminded slowly. “And I think I’m going to ask to be stationed there as well.”
“Really?!” Silent and Blossomforth asked in surprise.
“Really!” Gale assured with a soft nod of her head. “We’re one of the best teams the compound ever had, and I know it’s thanks to Cloud that we reached that status.”
“Don’t forget that Blossomforth leads the team,” Silent reminded frantically as Blossomforth sighed slowly with a defeated expression on her face.
“It’s okay, Silent,” Blossomforth waved off weakly. “I’m not too proud to not remember it’s thanks to Cloud’s advice that we’ve done so great in our missions and maneuvers.”
She glanced at the wall on which they had pinned mementos of their returns from mission or their personal exploits, quickly imitated by her two teammates. Blossomforth walked up to the wall and graze one with her finger. The picture, and the newspaper article attached to it, showed the four of them standing proudly in front of a back wall of one of Las Pegasus many casinos while a group four criminals were trapped in the background: One was pinned on the wall, just above a garbage truck, by a metallic crossbow bolt that pierced through the back his of his pants; another was shown spinning in the air thanks to a small tornado; the third was leaning against the garbage truck, his hair standing in a capillary explosion while smoke came out of his face’s pores; and the last one had his body trapped in a white puffy mass that inhibited all his moves.
“The Hurricane Palace Break-in,” Gale let out in a nostalgic tone. “I remember the chief of Las Pegasus Guard Post having a shouting fit with Pagétonas about four newbies interrupting the old farts in action,” she added with a warm chuckle.
“You mean the professionals that arrived thirty minutes after Cloud spotted them in the alley and captured the thieves boss?” Silent asked with a knowing smirk.
“Yeah, those old farts.” Gale nodded before Blossomforth laughed along with Silent, remembering the two close-to-retirement guards that had caught up with them back then, completely out of breath.
“Remember when we got our first scouting in the Everfree?” Silent asked after a while as she brushed her finger against a dark green scale similar to a rock.
“The Cragadiles sure had big maws,” Blossomforth commented casually, looking at the white scar that ran along the length of her forearm. “And long tails with sharp scales…Thank Faust, Cloud had picked up a few things on Pagétonas’ frost touch. I would have bled to death otherwise!”
“Don’t say that,” Gale let out with a shivering wince before she glanced at a picture she had taken and the blank spot next to it. “Hey, where did the other picture go?”
Silent and Blossomforth leaned to see what picture the redhead was talking about. On the wall, they saw a laughing Cloud with a practice sword in her left hand, the blade resting on her shoulder, next to a pouting and disheveled Ford. It had been just after the friendly competition to see who was the best swordsman of the compound. Ford had finished second after a gruesome defeat against the laughing blonde. The missing picture showed what happened after the first one.
“Oh! Cloud gave it to Ford I think,” Silent supposed softly. “That or Blossomforth threw it away out of jealousy!”
“Considering how she had glared at the poor Ford when Cloud made out with him to lift his spirit up from losing against her, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the case,” Gale mused slowly.
“I AM NOT JEALOUS!!!”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Gale let out in a good-hearted mocking tone as she scanned their memory wall with Silent. “We should start putting those off the wall.”
Earning nods of approval, even though Blossomforth still frowned at the false accusations of jealousy aimed at her, Gale extended her hand to the largest piece of their collections of trinkets and pictures: the primitive, one-blade battle axe she had stolen from the Diamond Dogs pack during their first maneuvers about two years ago. Gale passed her thumb over the edge of the bone-made blade of the weapon. It was still as sharp as when she had picked it up if the blood that pearled out of her finger was of any indications.
Silent, for her part, went for the photograph of herself being lifted in the air by her teammates and some of their friends from other teams. She then picked up the dark, light blue and white badge pinned right next to it. It was Silent’s pride: the badge she had received with her letter of acceptance for being assigned into the Lunar Guard. She had gotten their response barely two weeks ago, just ten minutes before this photograph was taken by Ace. Silent was thankful of Sergeant Pagétonas’ recommendation, which had had a lot more weight than the grey-haired trainee had originally thought, but the recommendation from Lieutenant Maverick had been a shocking surprise for her. Silent knew that her blonde, pervert friend had something to do with it, even if she claimed the exact opposite.
Blossomforth’s hand delicately reached the central piece of their wall of fame, brushing delicately the frame of the picture with an obvious envy. She had always dreamed of being acknowledged by the top of Royal Guard hierarchy: to become a greater officer than her father who had been leading the Royal Guard company in Detrot for more than ten years. She would have given everything she ever had to be in the picture with Spitfire’s hand on her shoulder while both were standing before Thaddeus’ sleeping body. At the sight of the mentor and her blonde student, Blossomforth sighed with a pinch of sadness.
“You okay, Blossom?” Gale asked softly as Silent slowly turned her face to look at their team leader.
“When I first wrote my Dad about my stay here, I mentioned all three of you,” Blossomforth started slowly. “I think I wrote about a full page about how infuriating Cloud was to me…Her carefree attitude, how she would taunt me with her weird date plans, her winks and her bending-over to pick her fork or her knife at the mess.” All the three women chuckled softly as many memories of such events passed through their minds. “My dad told me to be firm and stern with her… To break her to remold her to my preferences… It didn’t work. No matter how hard I pushed her at the beginning of our training, she always simply said ‘harder!’ with that purr of hers and that glint in her eyes. It was more than frustrating!”
“Yeah.” Gale and Silent nodded gently.
“I thought it would be satisfactory to watch her fail at something,” Blossomforth continued slowly. “That I had done what my father had told me when we started the lightning and battle flight exercises : That I would finally break her… I told her that there were people that were never meant to be soldiers because no matter how hard she tried at those, she couldn’t keep up with the rest of us,” Blossomforth stated with regret. “I should have found a way to help her going through that, but I didn’t. I simply threw her failure in her face and walked away from her. I had broken her like my father told me to… and I hated myself for it the moment I thought she had given up and left.”
“I told my Dad about it in the next letter, he said he would have done the same and that any good officer would have done so too,” Blossomforth stated with a frown as Gale and Silent both placed a comforting hand on her shoulders. “When she came back for our first maneuvers, I realized how wrong he had been… A good leader pulls his subordinates up instead of pushing them down… Just like Lieutenant Maverick did with her… Just like Cloud did with us as soon as she came back,” Blossomforth started at the picture of her blonde team member. “...I’ll go to Ponyville too!”
“Huh!?” Silent let out in shock.
“What about your Dad? Didn’t he set up a place in Detrot for you?” Gale asked uneasily, remembering one of her past conversation with Blossomforth.
“I don’t care!” Blossomforth stated sternly. “I’ll go to Ponyville with Cloud and I’ll do my best to pull her to the top of her performances, like a good leader’s supposed to do! I will not give up on her like I did two years and a half ago!” she assured firmly. “Besides, I’ve never liked Detrot. Winters are too cold and Summers too hot there,” she added more lightly.
“And if the top of Cloud’s performances brings her higher than you?” Gale asked uneasily. “You made it clear that you want to go for the place of Captain of the Royal Guard one day… What if she becomes your superior?”
Blossomforth remained silent for a brief instant. “Then I’ll make sure she remains a superior I could follow to Tartarus and beyond!”