His Choice
Hey Silverstream,
Just thought I’d write to say that I got back to the Royal Guard Academy fine, it’s taken me a while to get back to waking up at dawn, going to classes and running drills. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your holiday.
On the plus side, now that I’m in the intermediate-term, I can get time to go in and around Canterlot. So, if you are ever free, we could meet up, hang out and talk about stuff. I’m sure we’d have a lot to talk about since I got on that train.
Let me know? Till next time,
Gallus
After many crumpled pieces of paper that could fill a wastebasket, the letter in Gallus’ hand was the best he could write. It was hard enough avoiding the other cadets in the platoon finding out he was writing to her, but he also had trouble finding the right words. If only Silverstream told him sooner, he’d have more time to process the news that she loves him.
He never had a crush or was crushed on, before. Of all the friends he had, he couldn’t understand why her. Sure, she is pretty, and he’s not one to put down his looks and charm, but she was also optimistic, cheerful, and hyperactive. It was no wonder she took a liking to being Pinkie Pie’s teaching assistant, out of their six, she would keep their hopes high.
On the other hand, Gallus was cynical, sarcastic, not in the mood for fun twenty-four seven. He wasn’t exactly the hippogriff type, not to mention their upbringings were practically the opposite. At one point he considered himself Smolder’s type, they had an attitude on the same wavelength, but that was long before he learned she had feelings for Ocellus.
He needed to make sense of this news properly, talking bird-to-bird about it was better than trying through letters, perhaps she could take it as a date. He frantically finished writing the letter and the address, there was an appointment he needed to make and fortunately, a letterbox was on the way.
After dropping off the letter, he entered the office of his platoon commander, Captain Westland. Fortunately, Gallus had a few moments to compose himself to make a proper entrance, he marched up to her desk and gave a salute to the captain.
Sitting at her desk with her files, Captain Westland nodded with the appreciation of Gallus’ proper decorum. “Thank you, Gallus” she acknowledged, allowing Gallus to rest his arms, and put himself at ease. “It’s good to see you fresh from winter break. Looking forward to the new term?”
“Yes, ma’am” answered Gallus, he masked his sarcasm with a fake grin.
Westland returned a smirk of her own before she straightened out her files and got to business. “Right, well the reason I wanted you here is to talk about your future. As you might be aware, the end goal for cadets here is to be commissioned as officers in one of the several regiments within Equestria, assuming they can graduate of course,” she explained, her conclusion given under her breath less clearly and more hurriedly.
She then searched through the files, to a page on Gallus’ profile, detailing his education and personal background. Almost all sections of the profile were filled in with some detail, but only one section remained blank, one regarding his ambitions regarding his time at the academy. Her eyes focused on the lines void of text that would explain what Gallus wanted to get out of the Academy.
“Now, the Academy can arrange a commission with a regiment based on your skills, but most cadets usually have one or two in mind when they apply,” she continued, setting up her request for information. “That may not be the case for you” she assumed, but upon saying it hesitated, “which is fine, but us platoon commanders and company commanders like to know a cadet’s first and second choice so we can plan a cadet’s path through the Academy.”
Fortunately, when she looked towards Gallus, he didn’t flinch or show offence. Unbeknownst to her, Gallus already had his area of choice in his mind, the one that inspired him to join this Academy in the first place. Before he could answer though, Westland continued.
“What you choose can be for different reasons, perhaps a certain field or speciality you want to focus on. You’re in the Rockwall and Mountaineering club, there are regiments with mountaineering specialities that the club leaders would know more about.” Gallus’ forehead creased when she brought up mountains, as much as he liked being included in the club, his dislike for climbing meant he had no intention of joining a mountaineering regiment like the chevaux alpins.
“I’m sure there’s a mountain battalion within a regiment based in Rainbow Falls. That would be a good one to consider for you since on the train it’s a short train ride from your home in Griffonst- “
“Canterlot…”
Captain Westland was stopped talking when Gallus blurted out, stopping her both mid-speech and mid-thought. Both the interruption and the assertive tone took the captain by surprise, which Gallus was quick to notice when she looked up from her desk, suspicious of the forced response.
The startled griffon hurriedly continued, “…ma’am. I want to be near Ponyville, so I was thinking Canterlot.” He nervously rubbed the back of his head as he finished, pleading internally that Westland not to enact any discipline or erupt a storm due to his impulse.
“Interesting…” Westland quietly muttered, resting her head on one of her hooves as she stared back at Gallus with curiosity. She then proceeded to write a single short sentence on her profile, “Well, I’ll keep a note of that now, but I suggest you investigate other regiments” she warned him.
“Canterlot’s is the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards, and because they protect the capital city, Canterlot Palace, and the monarchy, it has a very high entry requirement. Furthermore, they usually offer three commissions a year, but this year the regiment has two confirmed cadets at the Academy, so you’ll be competing against several ponies for one spot.”
What hopes Gallus had beforehand began to dampen when he heard that, no matter how lightly she’d put it. Of course, the Royal Guards who protect Princess Twilight and her palace would be popular and have high expectations, so it’d mean he’d have to work harder. Having only one place to compete for thanks to Scythe and some other pony being confirmed cadets meant he’d have a harder time than any other year.
“Good news is that this week has the Arms & Services Exhibition,” Westland added as reassurance, “representatives from all sections will be there for you to find out all the different areas the E.U.P. Guard has to offer.” She then returned her file onto the pile, “I expect you to take the exhibition seriously, dismissed.”
Following her order, Gallus made his exit, his next task was clear: Find another regiment, hopefully as a backup to fall back on in case he can’t get what he wants.
It was days later that the exhibition began. The gymnasium was transformed into a convention center, with rows of tables in and around for cadets to ask current officers about what their regiments and their specialities are all about.
Some tables had more to show to impress the cadets, many had posters as visual aids, some had equipment on display from parachutes to boats. Others had ponies kitted up giving demonstrations, including some armoured guards who stood by a large trebuchet in the middle of the venue. It was not just attack and defence either, but also intelligence and engineers.
For Gallus, it was a lot to take in. “I don’t remember the School of Friendship offering half as much as this,” he remarked as he scanned the room. His comrades had different reactions.
Pound Sterling was giddy like a kid in a toy shop. “Well, ah already getten’ mah sights set on wot ah want!” she exclaimed in her thick accent before she dashed to check out one specific “toy” section. Having her ambitions set high, the others could easily guess she wanted to meet the Dragoons.
“Steppin’ Time wait up!” Lightning Dust reached out her hoof to stop her but sighed as she realised she was too late. “Guess I’m just gonna see which one has the most flying in it.” She decided in a blasé tone. Without another word, she started moving in the same direction as Sterling, looking across the tables.
It was at this moment that Gallus tilted his head, a strange feeling had emerged. “…Anyone else getting déjà vu?” he asked the two remaining cadets that stood beside him, Nicknames and Scythe.
“Getting what, Bluebird?” asked a confused Nicknames.
”Prench, means that this has been seen already.”
“Well, the gymnasium, set up like the freshers’ bazaar?” Gallus extended his arm out to gesture to the entire gymnasium with all the tables, posters, and other features. However, Nicknames remained confused.
“I dunno what you’re talking about, this is only just a fair to help you choose what you’ll be doing for the next few years of your life.” Nicknames remarked in an oddly casual tone, leaving Gallus unnerved. “Make your choice. No pressure!” he followed with a smirk, before walking off to have a look around on his own.
This left Gallus standing by the entrance alone with Scythe, watching as the other ponies walked around and talked with older ponies dressed in uniforms with medals and badges attached. Unlike the bazaar, there was no leaflet or map to help guide them around. It was clear that all cadets were supposed to explore and find their future careers, although as daunting as that was, it wasn’t the most uncomfortable part of Gallus’ situation.
He glanced towards Scythe, who was motionless and staring at the ground. The Pegasus was downcast and motionless, having barely said a word for the entire morning. “So… Scythe, anything here you’re looking for?” asked Gallus with an uncomfortable upbeat voice.
“I already made a choice…” a glum Scythe responded, continuing to look at the polished wooden floor as he gave a disappointed sigh, despite the answer being something more positive.
It didn’t take long to recall why Scythe wasn’t so happy with his answer, his dad brought it up during that argument on Hearth’s Warming Eve. “Oh yeah, you’re one of the confirmed cadets,” Gallus remarked, cautiously quiet to recognise the promise he made to his friend to not be quiet about his family heritage and all.
Unlike Scythe, Gallus had to at least find one section or regiment in the exhibition to put down as his choice, and one of them had to move. He took a few steps forward, before turning his head back to Scythe. “Well… you wanna come with me anyway?” He offered, with a grin of encouragement, a jerk of his head to signal a move, and a return to his normal volume. “You know the whole pony military better than I do.” Slowly but surely, Scythe started to step forward, before getting near to Gallus’ side to follow him.
Once the pair got moving, the tour of the exhibition went into full swing, Gallus was able to get an idea of the full range of regiments. There were the infantry arms that were mainline combat, some were strictly for specific kinds of ponies, such as the Hoof Guards for Earth Ponies, the Royal Lasers for Unicorns, and the Wing Corps for the Pegasus ponies.
Speaking of, the trebuchet was owned by the Royal Armoured Brigade, an earth pony regiment responsible for carrying and operating heavy armoured weapons at great speed for field combat.
Some were mixed ponies too, as evident when they walked by the Dragoons’ table where an earth pony was patiently and uneasily listening to an enthusiastic Pound Sterling talking about her love of the woods.
Then there were combat support regiments, which were for mixed ponies. These were the Royal Engineers, the Royal Signals and Royal Intelligence. No body-strength, horns or wings are required for providing engineering, communications, or intelligence. Higher academic skills would be required though, and from overhearing the officers talking to cadets, a lot of maths and science skills are required.
Finally, there was combat service, also mixed ponies but provided services both in and out of conflicts. This included the Medic Corps, which Scythe remarked was where his mother worked up to the rank of captain.
“Your aunt was an army doctor too, right? Didn’t she join the medic corps?”
Scythe shook his head, “she joined them as a medical officer,” he answered, his hoof pointed towards one of the out-of-place tables, the Wonderbolts.
Their table was bright blue with lightning bolts and white streak patterns, along with several striking posters of the Wonderbolts in uniforms. Even with no equipment to try out, not even a trebuchet, it was the most eye-catching stand.
It was so eye-catching in fact that there was a large crowd of ponies of all kinds huddled at the table and forming a line that stretched over to other tables. “Wow how am I so surprised that the Wonderbolts would be so popular?” sarcastically remarked Gallus, smirking as his eyes looked from the end to the front of the queue.
An earth pony at the end of the line caught his remark. “Oh yeah, the Wonderbolts are the best flyers in Equestria, right?” he replied as he turned to Gallus with a wide grin on his face.
“Sure, but you can’t fly, no offence…” Gallus pointed out, noting the lack of wings on the eager pony, “Is everypony here trying to sign up?”
“Oh, none taken, I’m not here to try and join,” the earth pony admitted, causing Gallus to turn his head. “Yeah, some of us are just fans.” He then leaned towards Gallus to whisper. “Two of the Wonderbolts are signing autographs!”
Both Gallus and Scythe looked at each other, Gallus’ curiosity peaked, he wanted to find out. The griffon snuck around the queue to the side of the table with Scythe following behind, only to see the crowd block the table. The two had to sneak further to where they were peeking from behind the giant banner to get a view of the back of the lone Wonderbolt.
Although it would have been hard to make out a Wonderbolt from behind thanks to their blue coverall uniforms and goggles, this Wonderbolt had her hood down, revealing two pale blue ears and a full length of mane with rainbow colours.
Recognition dawned on Gallus as there could be only one Wonderbolt that could fit that description. Not just a Wonderbolt, but one of his old teachers.
“Professor Dash?”
The Wonderbolt’s ears flicked and perked up as if she picked up her name and a familiar voice at the same time. The pony turned around and her cerise eyes locked towards Gallus, confirming both of their suspicions. She did indeed hear the voice of one of her graduates, and he could see it was Rainbow Dash signing autographs at the Academy.
“Gallus!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with joy, before quickly turning to the crowd of ponies around the table. “Sorry guys gotta take a break!” she told them, leading to a wave of frustrated groans, disappointed that they had to wait longer for an autograph or word with a Wonderbolt because of a certain griffon and pony.
Not that it mattered to Rainbow Dash, who was more interested in catching up with Gallus. “Hey! It’s good to see you! How’ve you been holding up, Silverstream goes on about all the rough ‘n tough stuff you get on within the teachers’ lounge.”
“Uh, yeah. She’s not wrong.” Gallus quickly turned and rubbed the back of his head, hoping his arm would hide the pink roses emerging from his cheeks.
“And you’ve made new friends too? Wouldn’t expect less from one of my students” she said proudly, before turning towards Scythe, when her eyebrow began to rise. “Hey, have we met before?”
“I’ve seen a few of your shows…” Scythe turned his head in the opposite direction to Gallus, his mumbles were barely decipherable amongst the background noise.
“Fair enough, a lot of ponies want to see me” Rainbow Dash boastfully proclaimed, with her nose held high and a smug grin. She quickly turned her attention back to Gallus, “Oh yeah, have you talked to Gilda recently? I know the Blue Moon Festival went by during the winter.”
The question reminded him of Gilda and the sour conversation the two had in Griffonstone, “I have… she’s been well” he vaguely stated. Desperately wishing to evade the subject, he switched focus back on the exhibition. “So, uh, since you’re here. I’m kinda surprised to see a Wonderbolts table, I thought you lot aren’t part of the E.U.P. Guard.”
Rainbow Dash sighed, not too keen on the whole recruiter topic that she had been doing with several other pegasus ponies in one day. She stretched her hooves and decided to persevere, considering to her, Gallus was no boring cadet or super-obsessed fan she had to tolerate.
“Well, the Wonderbolts are more E.U.P. Guard adjacent. It was set up by twenty pegasus officers and soldiers in the Guard for the anniversary of the first celestial year of peace, and after several years it has run as its own thing with its own Academy and operations. That’s all-old history though, I had to memorize it all for the entrance exam,” she hoof-waved the history talk and went into the recruitment spiel.
“That said, we often recruit cadets from this academy for plenty of stuff around the shows, event coordination, maintenance, admin, medical, some even do flight routines in the show when squad members aren’t available.”
“And you?” Gallus followed, questioning the reason she is here specifically.
“Usually, Captain Spitfire goes here to help promote the Wonderbolts for recruits. That and catch up with a friend of hers,” she tilted her head and nodded towards the wall behind the banner. All three looked towards the direction to find leaning against the wall Captain Spitfire, also with her hood down to show her fire amber mane. She was casually chatting to no other than Gallus’ platoon commander Captain Westland, the sight leaving Gallus slightly on edge knowing that she was probably spying on him the whole time.
“I also volunteered this year because I know one cadet in this place” Rainbow Dash also slyly admitted. “But since you two are here, if you ever want to work with the best of the best flyers in Equestria, maybe you could consider us as one of your choices?” She made her hints further obvious by elbow nudging Gallus in his side.
The suggestion triggered another memory to remerge, another from meeting Scythe’s family, the moment when Scythe’s uncle approached him. “Come to think of it, Blue Angel said something about how the Wonderbolts could do with a griffon.” He turned to Scythe, who was still trying to evade recognition.
It didn’t help when Rainbow Dash’s widened with amazement. “You spoke to Blue Angel?! That’s awesome!” she exclaimed, grabbing Gallus by the shoulders. “He was one of the Wonderbolts that flew with Wind Rider, back when he was a cool flyer at least, but he was also Spitfire’s captain when she started. If he thinks you’re good to work for us, you should give us a shot.”
It was that moment that Gallus had a serious thought, could he sign up for the Wonderbolts? Even though it’s only pegasus ponies, it didn’t feel unusual for him to consider it. Silverstream once had a dream about joining, and he was even in it, not that he liked the trauma of being trapped to get the Tree of Harmony’s attention. The thought started to creep his way in further, nagging him to agree, perhaps signing up would be a good idea.
Their discussion was suddenly derailed by a familiar pony who spotted Gallus and Scythe from behind the crowd. “Hey Bluebird, Mumbles, there you are! Either of you two found anything cool… yet…” Lightning Dust’s voice trailed off, as her pace slowed to a crawl, her face blank and her eyes wide as she was quick to discover who the two cadets had been talking to.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash…” she said, her eyes locked in on the rainbow pegasus standing before her with a seething chill in her voice.
Rainbow Dash recognised the mare, returned her cold hard glare and judgement in her voice. “Lightning Dust…” for the crowd that had been standing around frustrated and impatient, this new development piqued their interest, it was Wonderbolt versus Washout. “How’s ‘rivals for life’ doing for ya?” asked Rainbow Dash serving a mocking grin.
Lightning Dust’s face scrunched up, hot air blew out of her nostrils in anger, it just hardened her glare more. She then eerily began to smirk, “Not sure what you mean, I’m just here checking up on my friends.” She moved around to stand in between Gallus and Scythe, before flexing her wings out and pulling them both into an awkward group hug. “We look out for each other in our platoon, right? Don’t mind me though, you lot were talking?”
As Rainbow Dash’s eyes glanced between the griffon and pegasus on either side of her, she silently fumed knowing she had just received a counterattack. “Right… Well, aside from being on good terms with captains current and old, the Wonderbolts expect officers to be strong enough flyers to keep up with the squad, as well as good and responsible leaders,” she detailed, her deadpan tone adding more emphasis on the words that were intended to jab her so-called “rival”.
“We want the best, but not at the expense of other flyers. Doubt that is a problem for any of you, right?” she asked rhetorically, darting her eyes between Lightning Dust and Gallus.
“Uh, I’ll keep that in mind!” replied Gallus with a nervous grin on his face.
On the other hand, Lightning Dust continued to glare deeper. “Yeah, well, we know there’s more to flying than wearing brightly coloured outfits and goggles, doing acrobatics and breaking records. That’s why we’re here, to find something cooler to do.” She almost felt proud in her ability to hold herself considering how thick the tension was between the pair of flying pegasi. It would take another familiar voice far back to cut them apart.
“Oi! Dusteh! Foun’ ya! Didja still wanna check out tha’ Wing Corps table?”
Lightning Dust’s heart stopped, and her face began to cringe as she overheard Pound Sterling shouting towards her. “Uh, yeah, in a minute!” she called back, hanging her head in embarrassment.
Embarrassment largely because Rainbow Dash snorted and tried to hide her laughter. “Dusty? That’s what they call you?” she asked, although she found out she wasn’t one to make fun of.
“HEY! RAINBOW CRASH!” bellowed a fiery Spitfire from behind the Wonderbolt banner. “CAN’T YOU SEE THERE’S A CROWD OF PONIES WAITING FOR YOU AT THE TABLE?”
Rainbow Dash started to go red, “Uh, sorry Cap’n I’ll get back!” she hastily responded, nervously waving to her captain before catching Lightning Dusk with a smirk back on her face.
“Guess it could be worse,” she remarked, before leaving Scythe and Gallus with the Rainbow Crash, a nickname she knew she found hilarious. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and shook off the awkward silence in the room, knowing she still had a job to get on with.
“Well, I’ve gotta get back to my post. It was great seeing you Gallus, and you…” she stretched out the end of her sentence, hoping to figure out why the amber coated pegasus and short reddish mane looked familiar to her. To her, the cadet looked eerily like Flash-
“Rosewood.” Scythe uttered out forcefully, offering his hoof to shake.
A confused Rainbow Dash shrugged it off and shook the hoof, “Sure, Rosewood.” She then turned to Gallus to give a wink and a salute. “See you around, Bluebird!” As she flew back to the table to return to signing autographs, Gallus waved with a fake smile. Out of all the things for her to find out, somehow his nickname was the one he dreaded the most.
It was as if a part of him knew, she would tell everypony in Ponyville he’s known as Bluebird.
After seeing everything, Gallus and Scythe left the gymnasium and walked down the path towards their dorms. For Gallus, there were a lot of different career options available to him. Some would mean working with all kinds of ponies, others working only with pegasi. Some required education beyond the usual classes and others did not.
For Scythe there was a sense of relief, no longer feeling the need to walk around, worried about who he might encounter next.
However, that didn’t stop Gallus from having things on his mind. “So… Rainbow Dash recognised you…” he pointed out as an example.
“Tomcat and I got to meet her after some of the Wonderbolt shows,” Scythe confessed. “We get VIP passes.”
“Uncle Blue Angel?” Gallus guessed, to which Scythe nodded. “That’s nice of him…” he then remarked, jaded with a hint of envy.
“I guess… so, do you think you know what you want to do in the guard?” Scythe questioned Gallus, hoping to steer the conversation away.
Gallus thought it over, flying and physical combat seemed to be what interested him after going through the arms & services exhibition, so he could see himself going into the infantry. The problem was the lack of guarantee of where he’d be based, he could end up halfway across the world if he had to.
But try as hard as he might, his mind always went back to the Wonderbolts. They were all about flying, and whilst they mostly did stunt shows they did get involved in combat, to varying degrees of success at least. Rainbow Dash would be there, and she’s cool, he’d be around other pegasi that are sure to get along with him. Plus, Cloudsdale isn’t far from Ponyville, if Rainbow Dash can fly between the two easily, he could too.
“Perhaps the Wonderbolts?” he answered in a snarky rhetorical manner. “I think I consider myself a strong flyer, I know Captain Westland thought a mountain regiment would suit me, but I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.” His mind did also refer to one other option, one that had been on his mind well before, and yet was strangely absent from the exhibition. “Was hoping to have a look at the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards, but I couldn’t find a booth or table for them. You’d figure the nearest regiment to the Academy would show up, wouldn’t you?”
“Oh, hello Mumbles! Funny seeing you here, nice scarf by the way…” a snobbish sarcastic voice called out to Scythe, bringing a chill down his spine from dread and compelled him to lower his head. Coalstone arrived, much to Scythe’s and Gallus’ displeasure, and he had his two unicorn friends, Crossroads and Pruminant, beside him. “It’s a bit strange seeing you around here, you’re not trying to defect from your family’s plan already, are you?” he queried, his concern overly dramatic “What would Daddy think about that?”
“I’m not…” he called back to defend himself, before going back to cower. “Just helping my friend…”
“Oh, are you showing your pet around the gymnasium?” he followed as he turned to Gallus, the remark amused his friends. “Always good to get them out of their cages once in a while.”
Of all the things to come back to, Gallus hated coming back to this bigoted bully. With his eyes narrowed and brows drawn together, he stared daggers at the white unicorn’s haughty face with its sneering grin. He leant towards Scythe, “Come on, let’s just go” he whispered, pulling his arm to get both to leave and ignore them.
Although Scythe walked around the outside of them, Gallus decided to walk through the trio, bumping past Coalstone and pushing Crossroads out of the way with his shoulder. Crossroads didn’t appreciate being pushed aside, neither did Coalstone like being touched by the griffon. Yet as Gallus was walking away, Coalstone just turned around and smiled unfazed.
“You should make the most of the time you have with it here, there’s no way the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards will allow birds in their regiment.”
Gallus stopped, quickly followed by Scythe. Coalstone’s smile grew wider as he realised he had struck a nerve. “Oh yeah, don’t think I missed the last part of that conversation. Let me explain it so a birdbrain can understand it,” he mocked without worry as Gallus kept his back turned.
“The Royal Guards, as in the REAL Royal Guards, only take in three officers a year. So many ponies try out for palace guard regiments that they don’t need to advertise themselves here. However, the Royal Guards only accept the finest ponies of the Academy and being a confirmed cadet, you’re looking at one of them.” He had his hoof pressed firmly on his chest as he stuck his nose up in the air, showing how proud and smug he was. “Perhaps Princess Twilight Sparkle liked you enough to get here, but only the Royal Guards chooses who joins them, and they have a strict no pets policy.”
As he turned back around to walk away, he decided to leave one more nerve plucking joke. “But don’t fret, I’m sure some other regiment could do with a carrier pigeon.” The other two laughed at the crass joke as they went off down the other end of the field.
Even as the unicorns were no longer in hearing range, Gallus remained motionless, his body remained fixed in its stance, with only his tail slowly swishing from side to side. He glowered long and hard towards the main building, his focus was strong enough that when Scythe stood in front of him with concern, Gallus looked straight through him.
“Well, that would explain it, heh” Scythe attempted to get his attention, but he could see Gallus curling his front claws into fists, digging through the gravel and scooping up bits of dirt and rock. He quickly knew his gag backfired. “Sorry. You wanted to be in Canterlot, didn’t you?”
In his mind, Gallus had been going through this place for months, to work as an officer while living with his friends, and somepony had the nerve to tell him he couldn’t get in even if he tried? He saw it as a challenge. “I do… and I’m going to” he answered, hiding his anger, leaving Scythe more confused.
“Wonderbolts might be one of my choices, but I’m gonna put Canterlot as my top choice.”
Upon hearing that, Scythe stared wide-eyed and dumbfounded as Gallus began to walk past him. “You are?!” the pegasus exclaimed, before quickly shaking himself back into reality and catching up to his friend. “I-I mean that’s great but, Coalstone’s gonna be there, and you said- “
Suddenly, Gallus grabbed onto Scythe’s scarf and pulled him in, so his beak was pressed against Scythe’s nose. “Screw that pompous twat!” he asserted angrily. “He’s not in the Royal Guard yet, and when he does, he’ll have no choice but to put up with you and me.” He declared with a fully determined grin, leaving Scythe frozen with nerves as Gallus prodded his chest with the index talon of his claw. “Before I leave this place, I’m going to Canterlot Palace, and nopony is gonna tell me I’m not allowed in, got it?”
All Scythe could do was try his best to smile and be supportive. “Uh, y-yeah, nopony!” he shakily responded. Relief finally set in when Gallus let go of the pony’s scarf and took a few steps back to breathe, realizing he put his friend a little uneasy.
It was the early evening at the end of the first week, the exhibition had since packed up and cleared and all classes and training had been concluded, except for cadets spending their evenings doing runs around the fields. Those not out doing exercise would either be eating or working in their dorms, while the staff do the last bits of paperwork for the day.
Commandant Authordox was in his office, although not at his desk where he would be running most of his Academy. Instead, he was standing by the window, thinking. Within his hooves was a scroll that was partially unfurled, its paper was thick and light brown, of very high quality.
As the sun had set and dusk was fading into night, the only source of light that shone on the scroll were candle lights hanging from the office walls. Although Authordox could not read the scroll without unravelling it in full, he could read the first line of it, “I, Princess Twilight Sparkle”.
He remembered the scroll reaching his desk many months ago, its contents prompted him to visit the princess in question. His memory of the visit wasn’t pleasant, to say the least, a lot of back and forth and disagreements, and although he anticipated changes when a new Princess was made ruler of Equestria, there were changes he did not think would go down three years after her coronation.
“One lesson that I found to be the most important before I took over from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna was not to plan and run everything myself but to delegate those who are trustworthy and qualified to best handle parts of Equestria. As such, I expect you to carry on running the Royal Guard Academy and ensure it provides the best training for all officer cadets. Any issues and I’ll have to reconsider my level of involvement in the E.U.P. Guard. Have I made myself clear?”
“Commandant Authordox, sir?”
Another voice caught his attention, standing at the door was a violet earth pony, he made note of the coloured bands on her green uniform. His expression transitioned from sullen to pleasant in a second. “Major Badge, forgive me” he answered as he furled up the scroll before putting it away in a desk drawer. “I presume you’re here to report on Larson company’s return to the new term?”
“Yes,” confirmed Major Badge, relieved as she approached the desk and gathered through her report of the week events. As Authordox sat down, Major Badge summarized the company’s progress. “We have all our cadets accounted for. With the Regiment Fair over, we’re going through the cadets’ choices of regiments.”
“Your company has the griffon, does it not?” he questioned out of curiosity.
“Um, you mean Gallus, sir?”
“Yes, that’s right. What did he put down as his choices for regiments?”
Major Badge raised an eyebrow, as it was an oddly specific request. She gathered through her papers and eventually found the list of cadets and their regiment choices, to which she located Gallus’ entry. “He appeared to put down the Wonderbolts and the Canterlot Palace Royal Guards… may I ask why him specifically?”
Authordox had the bottom half of his face covered by his hooves pressed together on the desk, however, Major Badge could notice his eyes narrowing and his eyebrows lowering. He realises that not only is Gallus persevering through the Academy, but he’d also set his aims high for when he graduated. If he graduated that is.
“Nothing more than curiosity, Major,” he assured her. “Just need to make some preparations, long-term preparations.”
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Lightning Dash????
Why do I have a feeling that he's going to sabotage this
Ok so it looks like they are putting out for other Cadets to join in what position they want to be in of course gallus is still having some difficulty to choose but he looks like he made his choice what he wants to do either the Wonderbolts his main target goal is the Canterlot royal guard and it is pretty cool to see him chatting with Rainbow Dash but of course she saw lightning dust as well which it was pretty awkward and of course Cold Stone had to be one of those guards thinking you have no chances all because of this whole species but he is determined to do this no matter what they say and I have a suspicious about that Commander guy and I wonder what's going to happen next guess we'll find out next time
11005150
Trying to do that to someone who has a personal connection to the ruling Princess might not be such a good idea...
11005265
Yeah he's basically signing his death sentence
I see a few thing that will be playing out in this story arc.
i see changes to the Academy and how it is run.
i see privileged ass holes being crushed and hopes growing.
and i stop here before i guess right and give out a spoiler.
all in this chapter is grate and really builds the heat for this arc.
Yay!
Oh no!
Wait I mean...also yay?
And I've got a feeling that "don't be a griffon" is going to be seen as one of them...
I dunno...I think somebody's a little more overwhelmed than he's letting on, and it's not Gallus or Scythe.
Now there's a regiment name we can only wish actually existed.
One of 'em is Rainbow, isn't it?
Knew it!
Not to rub it in...but that does match Gallus pretty decently, considering he was the one who protested the most to Lightning's actions back during the long fly thing.
I'm filled with the sudden need to punch someone's face in...this must be Coalstone who's butting into the conversation.
"Daddy" can put a cork in it. Similar for you too, Coalstone, but for you I'm thinking we'll use something a bit more...aggressive...than a cork.
Oh, how much did you have to pay to get that for yourself? Because it certainly wasn't because of your own merits or anything like that.
That is a potential issue. As I keep saying, prolonged exposure to Coalstone is only likely to get his snout punched in, which he'd deserve very much, but I'm pretty sure their superiors wouldn't take too kindly to it, so it'd probably be better to avoid such a scenario if possible.
That said...we're going to have to punch that pony's snout in at some point in the story (c'mon, we all know it's going to happen sometime), so...
Oh yeah. You.
I don't like you.
...yeah, that's all I wanted to say here. You know...for the record and all.
Dude. Twilight's already made an implied threat at your job because of this. So if you keep pursuing the matter...you must really not want to keep your job then.
Can't wait for more!!!
Growls at the bullies and mean commander. Leave gallus alone! Hes a good birbcat!
And silverstream and gallus is a yush for ship!
Looks like Authordox is raising interest in Gallus, despite knowing he is going to make it in still going to be interesting to see how Gallus overcomes the obstacles on his part to the Royal Guard. He certainly has enough motivations, showing biggots like Coalstone up, providing his own value to himself, change the perception of Griffions like Grandpa Gruff believes he can, the pride of the School of Friendship, and showing Twilight just how successful her school was.
So the young bluebird is going to be tossed out of the nest, will he soar or will he fall; either way Authordox's plans will succeed.
11005150
because he is? Nice chapter btw.
I think we all know how this story has to end
With gallus becoming not only a royal guard but captain. And coalstone having to salute him. And twilight getting VERY involved with the academy
Should be unfazed.