June 11, 2154
0600 Equis Officer Academy
Time. Time was always an issue for Trixie as it was something she always seemed to lack. She was once again reminded of this when a loud beeping started going off. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Argh I hate mornings! she thought. Smacking down on the annoying alarm clock. She laid back staring at the ceiling for sometime before reomving the sheets and heading to the bathroom.
Her dorm room was very spartan she had a simple bed with grey sheets and covers. She had a single nightstand along with a architects desk which was littered with books and PDAs. The walls were gray and covered with posters of the Wonderbolts/Shadowbolts, starship designs, and a poster of the NX-20.
After her 'night raid', as she liked to call it, she made her way to the dorms to use the photos she collected to make it part of her presentation that was due in the morning. The presentation was a family history report which needed photos to receive top marks. While Trixie could have taken them from her family archive her laziness got the better of her.
She had plenty of time to finish, yet when the time came to start collecting photos she went out the previous night to party with Spitfire. Needless to say that night went by fast and both could hardly remember what happened. The following day both got sent to the Academy Deans office. Spitfire got off easy as it was her first offense while Trixie got an earful and the promise that one more slipup would lead to expulsion from the academy.
After her meeting at the Dean's Office she spent the next two days with Spitfire and completely forgot her project.
This lead to her overnight skirmish into the museum to gain photos of the one exhibit to which she had no family documentation ironically. She often wondered why her family never documented the event. Every time she asked she was met with resistance to outright denial of the event. In fact many members of the family deny relations to Misty. I wonder why this is?
As the thought ran through her mind, Trixie reached the bathroom and began her morning routine. Hair brushed: Check, teeth brushed: Check, shower: Check, uniform: unchecked. She looked in the mirror checking her eyes making sure she was presentable. There was a dark underlining under her eyes from a lack of sleep from the previous night but there wasn't anything she could do about that. Satisfied she prepared her uniform for the day.
Heading to the main room she approached her uniform which hung on the door next to the NX-20 poster. The uniform was a one-piece top black with white shoulders. She had two bars on her collar and a universal translator/comm. unit on the chest. On the floor beside the door lay four black boots to be worn with the uniform.
After a minute she donned her uniform and walked over to her desk. She reached underneath to get her UNK storage pack, a small black egg shaped backpack for universal storage, and placed it on her back. A short click let her know it was in place and she reach for her PDA.
She glanced around the room once her bed was unmade, papers all over the floor with PDAs, and socks so many socks. I should really return those to Spitfire sometime. With the thought of her marefriend in socks she felt a warm sensation in her checks placing her PDA in her UNK and heading off to class.
As Trixie made her way down the halls ponies and non-ponies were up and about going to classes or just wandering about the halls. Passing by the museum she saw a group of children heading into it and decided to see the tour. Classes don't start until later, I have time.
As she walked towards the entrance the admission pony recognized her uniform allowing her to pass, students get to enter the museum for free. Spotting the children she tried to see the teacher leading the group but found none. After two minutes a maroon mare with a pink mane approached the group calling for their attention.
"Students can I have your attention please?!" she yelled not loud, but enough for everyone to hear her.
As though trained from birth all the students at ant attention in front of their teacher. Her cutie mark was three sunflowers with smiley faces on them arranged in a triangular formation. Trixie then looked over the class, most of them were earth ponies, a few pegasi, two unicorns, and six changelings. She thought it was adorable how they sat at attention listening to their teacher obediently.
The mare walked up to them. "Okay class, today we'll be learning about the Lunar One landing! Now who can tell me the names of the individuals that partook in the landing?" she asked glancing among the students. Immediately three hooves went in the air.
"Yes Silver Spoon?" the mare asked pointing to a small grey filly. Trixie took note of the filly's cutie mark a silver spoon? Seems familiar. Wonder why? She thought observing the young filly.
"The ponies involved in the Lunar One Landing were Lt. Commander Gusty, Clicker, and Misty Lulamoon Miss Cheerliee." Silver Spoon responded smiling.
Cheerliee smiled at her student sitting down in front of her. "While you are correct Silver Spoon, you should say, 'the ones involved' as 2 of 3 or Clicker as she was known was a changeling.." She was cut off by a small black hoof with a hole in it rose from the crowd.
"Yes 1 of 6?" she asked pointing to the little hoof as a changeling approached her.
The changeling was small for his age, he wore a red ball cap with the Wonderbolt insignia on it and had matching saddlebags. Sitting in front of the group he asked, "Miss Cheerliee, why do ponies emphasize the need for individuality and species?"
"Well 1 of 6, it's simply how most beings live. You see, and I speak only for ponies in this case, we emphasize individuality and hold it to a high standard." she started. Glancing around she tried to come up with a more definitive answer to the younglings query.
Tapping her hoof on the ground a thought hit her as she watched a blue mare observing her class in an academy uniform.
"It's about standing out my students. You see ponies wish to be different from others as much as possible. While not true for all, generally we seek to be different from others while still fitting into groups like you and the other younglings. Take that blue mare for example." she said pointing at Trixie who raised an eyebrow.
"She's wearing a uniform of the Officers Academy yet the color of her uniform shows she's a top student and the two golden bars on her neck signify her rank among the students in the Academy, thus separating her from her peers, much like having a name." Cheerliee beamed with excitement with her statement.
The youngling seemed more confused by this tilting his head to the side and scrunching his face. Before he could ask for clarification the tour guide appeared leading the gorup inside the museum while the silver filly remained. Looking at Trixie she smiled and ran to her hugging her.
Trixie smiled back and stroked the fillies mane hugging her back. "You've grown so much since I last saw you Silver Spoon." she spoke softly.
"I know! It's been like a year since I've seen you Trixie!"
Releasing Trixie she began to hop around Trixie.
Silver Spoon bombarded her with questions. "So are you going to be an officer Trixie? Will you get your own ship? OH! OH! Can I be your first mate?" her line of questions halted as Trixie grabbed the bouncing filly with her magic halfway through a hop. She then brought Silver Spoon towards her setting her on the floor.
Bless the fillies little heart, but she can really shoot that mouth off non-stop. She hated thinking of Silver Spoon like this, but it was the truth.
"Sorry Silverdrop, but you know there's no such thing as 'first mate' anymore its first officer. And you'd have to come to the Academy to be an officer." she glared at her. Silver Spoon hung her head low with a frown, it bothered her that Trixie seem to lack tact among other things. She could appreciate the honesty behind her words though. That and she loved her nickname.
Seeing that her teasing worked Trixie smiled lifting up her head so to see Silver's eyes. "But you can apply to the Academy in about, what four years?" she asked, "gosh almost eighteen already aren't you? Growing up so fast." she said grinning.
Silver Spoon grinned back swatting her hoof away. "Yeah, soon I'll be as old as you. OLD lady." she emphasized old greatly on borderline sarcasm.
Trixie gave her an unamused stare as Silver Spoon heard her name be called. "SILVER SPOON! WHERE ARE YOU?!" screamed Cheerliee as she came back to the from the main doors. Seeing Silver Spoon with a strange mare her teacher instincts kicked in. Stepping between Silver Spoon and Trixie she glared at Trixie while holding Silver Spoon like a mother protecting her child.
"Who are YOU and what are you doing with MY student?!" she yelled at the blue mare. Everything came to a screeching halt, no one moved and not a sound was made except for the monitors which displayed the news. Apparently terrorists attacked the subway again. No surprise there racism is still strong. Trixie wondered what they wanted in a subway though most terrorists targeted high ranking officals not civilians.
Observing Cheerliee holding Silver Spoon she thought of how her life would have changed if Silver Spoon wasn't there. She wondered if Silver Spoon felt as safe with her as she did in Cheerliee's. The thought angered her bringing her blood to a boil she glared back at Cheerliee Silver Spoon shivering.
As the two stared each other down a pair of mare security ponies and a griffoness approached the scene. Each was wearing standard armor which consisted of a red uniform shirt with golden colored armor plates and a badge.
The griffoness approached Trixie. "Miss Lulamoon the Dean requires your presence in his office at once." she said. Trixie nodded as Cheerliee walked to the rest of her class scolding Silver Spoon along the way.
Trixie was escorted to the Dean's office at the top of one of the Academies many spires. The Dean loved height said it reminded her of home. She, along with the security guards, were in a elevator heading to the Dean's office. Once there the doors slid open to the side and the griffoness entered followed by Trixie and the guards mares.
The room was a massive collection of book cases easily over 16 meters high. Trixie saw all the books were arranged based on genre and timeline. all the walls were covered with books or shelves for books, the floor was white marble and the ceiling had a few light nodes otherwise the room was relatively unimpressive. At the end of the room was a massive window overseeing the academy. in front was a large wooden desk with several books around it and piles of data pads. At the head was a pink Pegasus mare with a milk white pink mane tapping away vigorously at one of the pads. Her eyes were blue and she wore slime pink glasses along with a pink band on her shoulder. she wore a white collar with a pink bow tie.
Trixie hated looking at the Dean. It wasn't that she hated her or found her unattractive, in fact she founder her to be extremely attractive, but she really hated pink which was the Deans favorite color. It was a fact that made Spitfire jealous at times.
As they approached the Dean looked you hearing the sound of hooves on the marble. Seeing Trixie she sighed removing her spectacles and rubbed the ridge of her nose. She then made eye contact with the griffoness. "Thank you Goldenwing you and the others may go." she waved a hoof to them.
Nodding the griffoness and the security mares left without a word. once the elevator closed Trixie sat in the chair opposite of the Dean. Boy she looks mad about something. Trixie thought this might have to do with the previous night but waited patiently.
"Welcome Miss Lulamoon. AGAIN I might add." she said putting both hooves together placing them on the desk. She looked stoic very unusual for her Trixie thought. Something must have happened.
"Look Admiral, whatever it was I'm being accused of it wasn't me this time. I was in my dorm preparing my report to early morning and my friends-" she was cut off by the Deans hoof rising.
"First of all Miss Lulamoon it's Dean Silverlining. Second this has nothing to do with you breaking into the museum last night."
Placing her hoof down Trixie immediately blurted out, "Well if it wasn't THAT then what am I here for?" she asked shrugging her shoulders. Silverlining's eyes narrowed causing Trixie to stutter.
"N-not that a MODEL student such as moi would EVER do such a thing after her previous mishap! Ha ha…" she tried to hide her embarrassment but Dean Silverlining was not happy. She pulled drawer out not taking her eyes off Trixie she activated a monitor behind her displaying the news, the terrorist attack specifically. Silverlining got up from her desk and calmly approached Trixie observing her.
"As you know last night the group known as the Equestrians for Species Segregation attacked a subway station in Manehatten killing over 2000 with several hundred still unaccounted for. The damage was extensive and recovery efforts are being hindered due to the threat of structural collapse. Now we go to Note Word for further details live at the scene."
The monitor blinked as a brown earth pony with a mic and headset appeared in a darkened tunnel presumably the subway.
"Thank you Dina, and what a catastrophe it was indeed. Behind me are bodies of ponies, changelings, griffions, minotars, and even a few Thrane. She then gestured to a crew of ponies cutting away at debris. As you can see the crews are hard at work tying to dig out any survivors. From what we've seen the odds aren't favorable. 33 bodies in the last hour have been recovered but none were alive. We now- beep."
Dear Trixie Lulamoon,
We regret to inform you of the untimely passing of your parents who were killed in a terrorist bombing on June 10th, 2154. Your parents bodies are being held at Baltimare Medical Facility off Third and Mane St. Your other family members have been contacted as well and should be arriving tomorrow evening.
Scincerly,
Baltimre Medical Chief Admin
Still Heart
The monitor disappeared as Silverlining flew over her desk and shutting down the monitor. Once done she sat back in her seat watching Trixie, who for her part looked very confused. What does this have to do with me? She thought. As if on cue Silverlining reached into her desk a took out a letter placing it on the desk it read: To Trixie B. Lulamoon. Grabbing the letter with her magic she read it twice each time looking to the Dean who nodded to her to proceed. Tearing it open she pulled out the letter and read.
For what felt like hours Trixie sat staring at the letter focusing on the word parents. It rang in her head over and over like a bell. Trixie never really got along with her parents before, but she never wanted them dead. The last time she saw them she had told them she was transferring to the Officers Academy. To say they weren't happy was an understatement, they were both furious with her. They wanted her to become an engineer but she'd decided to become an officer. To think it all started with- "Miss Lulamoon!" Trixie jumped at the sound of her name.
Silverlining was staring at her like she was waiting for a response. Not wanting things to escalate Trixie buried her tears and stood up.
"What?!"
"I asked if everything was alright. You were silent for almost ten minutes." Silverlining gestured to the clock.
Trixie looked up to see that she had in fact been staring at the letter for some time now. She looked back to Silverlining noticing the scowl on her face Trixie immediately sat back down crossing her arms. "Was the letter all Ma'am?" she asked hastily.
Letting out a heavy sigh Silverlining leaned back in her chair waving her hoof, "Yes Trixie that's all." With that Trixie arose about-faced and proceeded to the elevator.
"Miss Lulamoon!" she stopped looking over her shoulder waiting for the elevator. "You don't have to deal with it alone. Talk to your friends family, someone. I promise it'll make things easier for you." Silverlining said with a small but noticeable smile.
Trixie knew that look. She knew Silverlining well from all her visits here, she knew what the contents of the letter were. Ding! Without a word Trixie entered the elevator and waited for the doors to close before hitting 12 on the monitor. As the elevator descended she contemplated on what to do about her family. Did she want to see them? Could she? In either case she'd deal with it tomorrow, for now, she had a report to do. A report on family ancestry.