Thunder was sat atop of his bed, the room was dark making hard to make out the shapes of the the other bunks in columns of two and ten rows deep, they covered the barracks. Thunder looked around for something to do, and as expected Thunder saw nothing inside the sleeping area; and he had a feeling in the X amount of other sleeping areas the situation would be the same so he decided to go for a walk. As he stepped out into the dark, cold night, he gazed upon the wall where a few bright becons of hope where glowing; only to be hidden when one of the many sentaries walked past. A wind blew down from the wall cutting Thunder to his bone so he pulled his black fur cloak closer to his chin, he looked to the mess hall, seeing ponies were still inside eating and drinking themselves into oblivion.
Thunder walked into the mess hall only to get out of the cold winds. Well he thought this is better than freezing my balls off. As he looked around he saw many ponies, a brown Earth, a red Earth and a jet black Earth. Shit! Don’t tell me I am in the earth hall he thought, fearing a drunk Earth wanting a fight with him. But as he looked he saw a group of Pegasus of many colours, none really stuck out to him. He walked to a dark corner in the room, the darkness covered him like a thick black cloak made of crow feathers. A few hours passed, and with the passing of time Thunder got more drunk. He looked as a mare walked in, she had a medic's uniform on, this was nothing new everypony had to answer the call it had been this way since the beginning. He watched as her marron tail gently bounced as she walked; his eyes followed the tail until he came to her buttocks, thanks to the tight uniform he could see there firm shape. He looked back at his drink and got totally pissed.
Brave was in the indoor training area, wearing the armour designated to all unicorns.A chain link shirt under a padded, boiled leather tunic with the emblem army emblem, The Phoenix, over his heart. His arms were protected by chain link mail and steel plate over his shoulders and elbows. His lower body was protected by a layer of boiled padded leather, and steel plate over his knees.He had a wooden kite shield that had iron around the sides and the surface that would block the blows had a sheet of an iron and steel compound. His weapons were a 6ft long spear, the shaft made of ash wood and the spear head was cold forged steel in a leaf shape, and for closer combat he had a 80 cm long steel arming sword.
The room was cold and dark, the dark stone walls were illuminated by a few torches dotted sparsely around the room.All of the stallions that spent the day there had gone save Brave and a Pegasus who was practising his airborne spear throwing and maneuvering. Brave was working on his sword technique. Slicing a mannequin across the throat than spinning on his heels and thrusting the sword into another mannequin’s chest, then he reached for a spear a threw it into the last mannequin's intestine. Whilst he was catching his breath he removed the sword from the mannequin's chest and sheathed it in the leather scabbard. The Pegasus walked toward Brave. He could see the Pegasus had a grey coat with a midnight blue mane, his armour was similar to that of Brave’s but he didn’t have the plate on his shoulders and knees.
Brave placed one hand on the sword's hilt and asked “If you don’t wish to train with me what do you want?”
“Is your name” the stallion looked at a list. “Bravesoul?”
“Yes, but I go by Brave.”
“Come with me.” The stallion said.
“Now why would I do that?” Brave asked with a tone of superiority in his voice “i don’t even know who sent you, for all i know you could turn around and kill me!”
“No, if i wanted to do that you would be dead already, were you paying attention to my training?”
“No...” Brave admitted
“No” the pegasus echod “I hit every target in the heart, i cut every neck. in a fight between us it’ll be over in the blink of an eye” The Pegasus took a breath “My name is Nightglider, our mutual friend sent me.”
“i have no friends”
“He was on the train with you, his name is Grey. he asked you ‘think, who is making you come here’ remember?”
“What does he want?”
“Meet us by the east end of the wall at noon tomorrow.”
Before Brave could answer with another question Nightglider opened his wings, showing the crimson red feathers flowing like blood as he took flight out of the room.
Thunder was now in a drunken haze, he still watched the medic. Her shapely figure and her firm buttocks. Thunder was just about to stand when the three stallions from earlier came to him, the one with the brown coat and the one with the red coat held him down.
“Hi guys … to what do I owe the honor?” Thunder said, the alcohol on his breath making the jet black coated stallion think his dinner was going to make a nasty appearance
“Just listen to us and listen well”The jet black one said, Thunder could see the colour of his mane, a deep dark maroon “My name is Hard Knox, his name is Volcanic Wrath” he points to the stallion with the red coat and a grey tail. “Don’t piss him off, his brother is Volcanic Axe” He points to the one with a brown coat and a dark green mane, he is chuckling at the joke made at his brother’s expense. “Now we want to tell you that the mare you have been drooling over is not one of them who let you sleep with them for the ‘glory’ of giving birth to a warrior's child, she is a medic, she will save your life one day. Show some respect.”
Thunder nodded
“Good. Oh and your name?”
“Thunderbird, you can call me Thunder. Why?”
“Good” Volcanic Wrath said.
“Very good” Volcanic Axe repeated.
“meet us at the east side of the wall tomorrow at noon.” Hard Knocks instructed and walked away, the Volcanic brothers followed like well trained lap dogs. Thunder shrugged and went back to drinking.