Favor
Early in the morning, before the sun even rose and just as the birds began singing their early songs, a horn was blown. The deep howl echoed throughout the camp, waking those asleep in the tents. The clattering of metal filled the silence that followed, panicked soldiers emerged from their tents, sleepy and sloppily dressed in their golden armor. They began to gallop through the darkness towards various posts around the camp, trying to spot the zebra invaders. The ground around the camp was flat, thus one could see for several kilometers from any given point. No pony spotted anything, confused and dazed, the soldiers began to turn on eachother, calling their friends and brothers out as disguised zebra spies. Spears pointed at every pony dressed in gold.everypony, that is, exsept for six.
A white stallion, flanked on his left by two and his right by three, led his small group of soldiers to the watchtower built dead center of the camp. Within the tower resided the horn that woke them all. The group climed the stairs that spiraled to the top, and saluted the pony they saw awaiting them. “Captain Stardust, what’s the emergency?” asked the white stallion. The lavender mare turned to face the group, a surprised look on her face. She had not expected any pony to follow the proper procedures. She stared in poorly masked awe at the squad of soldiers in front of her, each was properly dressed in his or her uniform, not clumsily like all of the hurried ponies below. “Poorly trained cadets.” the mare replied, recovering from her astonishment. The sounds of metal hitting metal could be heard below, the fighting had begun.
The buck shook his head, “they just haven’t had the time to learn”. His face remained stiff as he spoke, his head facing the distance ahead rather than the Captain. “What’s your name, soldier?” she asked, “clearly you know what’s going on here”. “Private Shield Wall, assistant leader of fourth squad in the third platoon of this, the Seventh Brigade.” the soldier replied, he and his squad maintaining their salute.
“As you were, Lieutenant,” the captain directed, no pony moved, “that’s you, Wall”.
He stood, confused but maintaining his bearing, “Ma’am, I am a first year Private, not a Lieutenant”.
“Did I ask your rank, Lieutenant?” the captain asked firmly, “take your squad and stop the quarrel below, then return to me”.
He didn’t move, “that’s an order, soldier”.
Shield about faced, turning towads his squad, “you heard the Captain, fall out”. They all turned and proceeded down from the tower, leaving the Captain alone.
“You were right about him,” she said, turning back to watch over the rails as the squad split up, Shield barking orders. A large figure emerged from its hidden position behind the horn, “He showed potential even as a child, I fully expect he will aid you well in running operations here.” the figure’s voice was graceful and friendly. The captain turned around to face the white mare with a flowing, multi-colored mane, “but Princess, why do you care to notice the strength of one soldier among the whole army?” Celestia spread her wings and shrugged, “because i fear we are on the verge of something much worse than we could have possibly expected from this war”. Before the Captain could question further, the Princess took off, swooping gracefully into the rising sun and disappearing in a flash of light.
Loud bangs echoed through the canyon, most of the yelling stopped. Stardust whipped around to see what happened, somepony had broken into the armory and grabbed the experimental weapons, rifles. “I CRIPPLED THE SPY!” he called out proudly, in front of him lay the bleeding, not yet dead, body of one of Shield’s squad members. A ghostly teal colored mare faught for breath as a light grey stallion ran over, holding her bleeding wound and glaring at the buck with the gun. “There is no spy,” Shield stated, stepping out of the crowd, “it was a drill, and you all failed,” murmurs through the ranks, “Not a one of you followed proper procedures to find out what the emergency was, you all merely assumed the worst and turned on each other. And you, especially, have failed,” he said pointing to the armed soldier, “breaking into a restricted building and endangering the life of not only others, but yourself”.
“Pack your things, Private, you are being demoted to civilian!” Stardust called from her tower. Everypony looked sound at eachother, they were all privates. Stardust rolled her eyes and grabbed a laser pointer, aiming it at the stallion with a rifle. “And you,” she called, turning the laser to Shield, “come to my office, NOW!” “Typhoon, take Ghost to the medic,” Shield directed the grey pony as he walked away, towards the tower.
“Congratulations, Lieutenant, you passed the test.” Stardust cheered as Shield entered the room atop the tower. “I’m not a-” he began to say, but Stardust interrupted. “Catch!” she called, tossing him a small bag. Catching it with on wing, he opened it, within was a Lieutenant’s rank and six Sergeant ranks. “The extras are for your squad,” she said, levitating one of the Sergeants away, “this one was for your squad leader, but he’ll no longer be needing this, being a civie and all”. The white buck just stood in shock, “who gave you the authority to promote me this high? And why?” The Captain rolled her eyes, “wrong questions, Lieutenant, but lets just say you have a fan”. That wasn’t vague at all, Shield thought. “I look forward to having your help running this place, too”. Shield froze, a first year Private being promoted to a First Lieutenant and expected to assist in running a base, this was unheard of.
Shield left the office, stunned. Locating his squad members, he promoted each one and explained the situation. He assigned the role of squad leader to his brother, Typhoon. Not out of reverence, but because he was most qualified. Both of them were top of their class when they graduated the Royal Guard Academy. In fact, they were the only graduates.