“Mail’s here!” Dusk Glimmer calls out as she returns to Recruit Squad Alpha’s barracks, a thick stack of letters under her wing. “Nimbus, Blitz… Aurie…” The two stallions and the mare she’d called all converge on her, having the beds closest to hers near the door. She parses out the letters, keeping a thick folder of paperwork for herself as well as a letter from her family back in Seaddle. The last letter makes her sigh, and bracing herself, she ventures towards the back of the room.
Spying the last bed unoccupied, Glimmer makes a small grumble. “Nimbus?! Is Zealous Leaf in the bathroom?” she asks, glaring towards the stallions’ shower and bathroom. The youngest member of Alpha Squad shakes his head, tossing his silver-white mane.
“Negative,” Nimbus replies, shrugging, “I haven’t seen him since breakfast…”
Glimmer sighs and presses a hoof to her face before irritably tossing the letter on Zealous Leaf’s bed. “Fine… Guys? Find that-” She stops herself mid-sentence, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “Find Zee and go practice the parts of our routine you don’t need me for… I have some paperwork, but I’ll be there as quick as I can…” Shrugging, Nimbus and Blitz both head out, fine with following the order.
Aurora Streak lingers behind a little longer though, using the excuse of rebinding the blue locks of her mane into a short tail at the top of her head, leaving the close cut gold parts clearly visible. “Glimmer?” she prompts, concern contorting her pale pink face.
The captain flashes a brief smile at her unofficial second. “It’s fine Aurie… Go work with Nimbus and Blitz… If there’s any kindness in the world, they’ll find him and manage to drag him to the auxiliary gym before I have to hunt him down myself… And no one will enjoy that…”
Aurora smiles and leaves the barracks, and Glimmer camps herself at her desk to comb over the latest itinerary. The schedule for the month had been set for a while, but with recent events causing all sorts of havoc with the Lead Squad, schedule changes had become a frequent occurrence. Most of the alterations didn’t have any effect on her squad, since Alpha was rarely scheduled with a Command squad, but now…
“Oh… No…” she mutters, dark eyes wide at the sight of Squad Alpha being scheduled with Squad Three for a Los Pegasus show in the coming week. “Of all bucking cities…” she curses, banging her head against her desk. Not only would she have an explosion, it would be in full view of all the media that would surely be following the upscale and star-studded event.
With one final groan, Glimmer pulls herself back up, grabs the new schedule, and tears out of the barracks, not bothering to stop and apologize to any pony as she half-runs, half flies to the second floor offices, and straight for Spitfire’s office.
Taking a breath to calm herself down some, Glimmer knocks on the door and tries very hard to keep her expression neutral. She quickly finds herself wishing she’d waited a moment longer to knock, because Spitfire calls, “Come in,” far too soon for Glimmer’s liking.
Inhaling quickly, she pushes the office door open, enters, and closes the door before offering a quick salute to the Lead Captain. “Ma’am! There’s an issue with the most recent show schedule update,” Glimmer explains quickly, remaining at attention.
Spitfire looks up from a stack of papers, a skeptical eyebrow raised at Glimmer. “Oh? And what would that be, Dusk Glimmer?” she asks, somewhat annoyed since she’d only finally sorted out the scheduling mess that had been caused by Soarin’s abduction and Rapidfire’s defection.
“Ma’am, Squad Alpha’s next show in Los Pegasus… It’s been rescheduled with Squad Three… This… It’s a terrible idea… It’s practically guaranteed to drain both Squads’ budgets to cover the damages…” Glimmer elaborates, a desperate edge to her voice. “What happened to it being with Squad Nine?”
Spitfire sighs, clearly exasperated. “One, your squad and Squad Nine have similar routines and we have enough problems with the shows right now without adding repetition to it. Two, I needed Squad Nine to go with Squad Seventeen to the Fillydelphia show, and your show needs at least one high tier Squad or it’s a wasted trip. Three, with the Lead Squad down a member until Try-Outs, we’re lucky we aren’t having to cancel shows… Four, if you can’t control your squad, then you have more serious issues than your budget. It’s that clear, Recruit?”
Glimmer gulps nervously, nodding quickly and giving Spitfire a shaky salute, sure that if she tried to say anything else, Spitfire would tear her a new one. “Dismissed,” Spitfire says and returns to her paperwork. Glimmer practically runs from the office, closing the door quickly behind her.
Stopping in the corner of the stairwell to the first floor, Glimmer presses her back against the wall and slides down to sit there, staring blankly outward.
“Horse apples…” she curses before standing and heading downstairs. If she couldn’t change the schedule, she’d try getting part of the equation away from her Happy Fun Ball squadmate.