“That was the first time I’d understood the voices.” I told my students, “And in the coming months, I’d have to learn how to control what I did with their suggestions.”

Silence blew across the field, rustling the hair of the young stallions and mares who stared up at me. Some of their faces showed disbelief, others showed amazement. Lemon Stand’s, I noticed, was still somewhat downtrodden. Fireflight’s loss and the lesson that it had taught my favorite protege’ was harsh and I knew the feeling well. It was fortunate that we were not on a battlefield, or I would have had her removed from her post which would have hurt her even more. I would not have done it out of spite, but because on the field you have to be able to maintain your composure and spirit. It was indeed better that Lemon Stand had learned this lesson sooner than later, and hopefully it would allow her to grow a ‘thicker coat’ so that she could deal with loss a little better in the future.

Against my better judgement, though, I considered taking Lemon Stand to the hospital in Ponyville to visit Fireflight anyways. Maybe it would do both of us some good to see her and check on how she was doing. Of course, that meant facing Redheart which made me shudder. Nurse Redheart and Aurora had been friends and shared similarities in the way that they acted. Both were passionate and protective of those whom were in their care. It made me wish Aurora was with me right then, because I had a feeling that she’d be able to calm Redheart down if things got out of hand. I forced myself to shake the sinking feeling off that accompanied such thoughts. There wasn’t any point after all, Aurora wasn’t coming back anytime soon, that much I knew, and dwelling would only serve to distract me.

“Any questions so far? It’s almost meal time again, and dinner will be served in about fifteen minutes.”

A pony in the back raised their hand.

“Ask.” I commanded, pointing to the hoof.

“Yeah… so… what about that voice in your head, Sir?” it asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Sir, do you hear it all the time? What does it sound like?”

I didn’t like that line of questioning, and it made me uneasy. When ponies talked about it out loud it made me sound like I was legitimately crazy. In truth I wasn’t, despite how it sounded. The voice had a physical form… sort of… and wasn’t just a random voice at this point in my life. Still, it wasn’t easy to explain, and I wasn’t ready to reveal the little thing just yet.

“Well… the voice as it is today… sounds like any pony might, and yes… I hear it all the time whenever it speaks.”

Another hoof raised, and eager to change the subject, I nodded towards it.

“Does it do anything specific? Is the voice helpful?”

Great.

“Yes.” I answered, sighing, “As I revealed earlier, the voice is capable of helping me react faster than I could on my own, normally.”

The questions continued in that manner. All about the little voice in my head that told me to do things that I may or may not have wanted to do depending on the circumstance. It was made more uncomfortable by the fact that I wasn’t capable of controlling myself fully when I had first begun to hear it, with the first notable exception being that I hadn’t killed Cold Thorn. Even though it would have been a good idea to get it over with back then instead of letting him start the fires of war that were beginning to inch into our peaceful world.

More on that tonight at eleven after the 5-day forecast.

In other news, I dismissed the group to go eat their dinner, not wanting to answer more questions just then. Before Lemon Stand could disappear into the crowd, I managed to pull her off to the side.

“What if we went to see Fireflight?” I asked her outright, not in the mood to step around the subject, “I kind of want to check on her to make sure she’s okay… and I’d like somepony to defend me from Nurse Redheart.”

The voice in my head snorted, it’s airy and analytical voice echoing in my head, “I do not think, considering your martial skill, that Doctor Redheart would be a threat.”

“Shut up.” I whispered, flicking my ears back.

The voice seemed to sigh, “I also do not understand why you allowed her to speak to you in the manner that she did yesterday.”

Lemon Stand seemed confused and on the verge of tears, “S-sir… I didn’t say anything!”

I shook my head, “I’m sorry, that wasn’t directed at you. I’ll explain later, but go on and grab what you need while I set somepony up to keep things in order while we’re gone.”

Clearly Lemon Stand was on her wit’s end. It made me wonder if Fireflight meant more to her than just a squadmate, as it was quite unusual for the young leader to dwell as she had been.

It didn’t take long. There were a few ponies in the group who were actually responsible enough to maintain a semblance of order while I was gone, or at least keep everypony from beating on each other, getting hurt, lost or in trouble somehow. With that pony in place, I went on a short search to find Lemon Stand, and we headed toward Ponyville General, a place that I’d become more familiar with than I was willing to admit. Our flight was short and silent, and even the little voice that inhabited my head was relatively quiet, save the occasional random thought about a cluster of trees or the reflection of light from the Sun off the water from a lake below.

The evening Sun was warm, and the breeze in the clouds was cool. Days like this made me happy, even in spite of the reason for our trip and I found myself smiling just a little for the first time in weeks. Aurora’s absence had been taking a toll on me and some time away, even just for a few hours, might have been exactly what I needed. I took note of the fact that it was spring and the flowers in Ponyville’s main fountain square were in full bloom, setting my vision ablaze with that little, comparatively, patch of color and, while Lemon Stand and I had been heading straight for the hospital, I found myself following her as she headed for the flowers, landed, and began examining them as if searching for a specific one.

I watched in silence, observing her actions with slight inquisition.

“What is she doing? Are we not going to the hospital?” my ever-present brain-companion asked, “Is she hungry?”

I did not bother with a direct response, instead sending images and emotions to the observing spirit which quieted it once more, satisfying its curiosity. The images were simple, and the concepts were likely foreign, but I had become accustomed to explaining things to an ever-present, almost foal-like, spirit-thing in a way that would resonate with it.

Lemon Stand took the time to create a bouquet which was filled with Blue Weavers and Yellow Daffodils. It was a simple arrangement but the colors complimented each other well and would be certain to lift the spirits of an injured Pegasus. Lemon Stand was about to take to the sky when I stopped her, calling her back down to the ground.

“We should walk.” I suggested, “Otherwise, the wind might mess up those flowers you’ve got there.”

Lemon Stand looked to the ground, “Y-yeah… you’re right.”

I had hoped that the walk would get her to speak about what was on her mind, but despite my minor pestering on the way to Ponyville General she did not reveal what was bothering her and I wasn’t really too keen on prying. It could have been the obvious, what with losing a squadmate and seeing her injured, but as I’d said before, I had my suspicions that it was something more. Or it could have been the fact that she’d taken to carrying the flowers in her mouth instead of placing them in her saddlebag or pockets. That may have contributed a bit to her lack of vocality.

Regardless of her lack of speech, we reached the hospital in about thirty minutes of landing and entered through the front door only to be greeted by a very angry Doctor Redheart.

“Get out!” she bellowed, throwing a clipboard right at my head, “Get out! Go!” she repeated as she readied a cup full of pens for the hurling.

A few of her nurses bolted. It was not the first time this had happened.

“Duck.” my brain-companion told me.

“Cover me!” I barked at Lemon Stand as I dropped to the floor in response.

The cup flew past my ears, showering me with cheap blue pens as it went.

“With what!?” she asked hurling herself behind a chair, the flowers conveniently ending up in her backpack as she transitioned from standing to having her back up it, “I don’t have anything to cover you WITH!”

“I don’t know, throw insults at her or something!”

Normally, stressful situations were not something that addled my ability to cope and formulate a plan of action, but what’s a stallion to do about an angry doctor who’s gone tribal on your flank? You can’t very well attack her, at least not conventionally.

“Um… Um… Hey!” Lemon Stand called as she spun up her insults like a hand-cranked bolt gun, “Redheart! You smell!”

I facehoofed. Hard. Cancel the part about a bolt-gun. She was more like a slingshot flinging foam packing-peanuts.

“Try harder!” I barked.

Lemon Stand made a rude gesture, “You try it! Isn’t she pissed at you?!” she asked with a frantic voice, “What did you DO, anyways?”

“You mean besides the training that injures at least one student per class?” I yelled as I crawled towards a chair on the opposite side from Lemon Stand’s position in the lobby, all the while being called all manner of things by Redheart as she continued her assault, “Look, just do what I’m telling you to do!”

“Fine!” Lemon Stand spat, clearly not liking the idea, “Hey, Doctor Redheart!” she chided, “Your mane is ratty and your scalpels are all rusted!”

At first I didn’t think that it would work, and stared at Lemon Stand from across the lobby from my position behind the chair, which I realized at the moment was a cheery red. My student just shrugged. All of a sudden, the hail of doctor’s office implements stopped. Both myself and Lemon peeked over our cover in unison, ears first, to see a horrifying sight. Nurse Redheart was staring at the ground, breathing heavily, when all of a sudden she looked up and the most frightening face in the world crossed her face.

“My mane… IS NOT… RATTY!” she cried, picking up a table and hurling it Lemon Stand.

Speaking of which, she picked it up with her bare hooves. To those of you who have a marefriend, don’t piss her off if she’s anything like Redheart, for all of our sakes. Please?

“Dear Celestia!” Lemon Stand screamed as she dodge the table just barely, “Cool your wingjets, lady!”

“Take cover! I’m moving up!” I called out.

“What, NOW?” Lemon Stand asked, “Wait!”

Another cup flew past us both as Lemon moved back behind the table, which had conveniently landed sideways, making perfect cover against the onslaught. I moved up a chair, taking cover behind it.

“Keep it up, Lemon! I just need to…”

That’s when I realized that I had no idea how to stop the enraged mare. Fortunate for me, the hail of fire stopped, Doctor Redheart gritting her teeth and set low in a standard pony attack stance.

“Nurse Redheart?” I asked, peeking from behind my chair.

“WHAT?!” she screamed at me, making my ears pin back, “WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

Lemon Stand poked her head up from behind the table, “I just came to see my squadmate… I have flowers.” she explained, shaking from the experience.

I stood and walked into the open, “Exactly we-”

My face was impacted by a clipboard with a suddenness that surprised me. I should have seen it coming, in all honesty. Classic military maneuver. Act like you’re done fighting, but then surprise your opponent with another attack. Doctor Redheart would have made a great Guard. She also had a really good throwing hoof.

“Duck?” the voice in my brain suggested.

Really good.

I rubbed my face in pain as Lemon Stand came to a screeching halt at my side examining the wound, “Are you okay, Sir?” she asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine. This isn’t the first time she’s managed to smack me with a clipboard.” I admitted as I looked up at the now much less perturbed doctor, “Can we see Fireflight?” I asked.

She was always less perturbed after hitting me with something. That bothered me a bit, and sent the little voice in my head asking a flurry of questions, none of which I answered as I told it that ‘now is not the time.’

“No.” the white Unicorn told me as she simmered indignantly, “You may not. But your subordinate may.”

It is now that I realize that I’ve never described Lemon Stand. Pardon my lack of foresight. Lemon Stand looked as her name might suggest, a yellow Pegasus with hot-pink hair and scarlet eyes. Her cutie-mark was a Lemonade Stand, but it had little flags above it and a strange symbol in the middle of the stand itself. It was an odd cutie-mark, but I felt that it suited her well, somehow.

“I understand.”

“And don’t think you can argue with m-” Doctor Redheart blinked, “Wait… what?” she asked as if the words coming out of my snout made no sense at all..

“I. Understand.” I enunciated it a little slower.

Doctor Redheart squinted at me a little and tilted her head just a bit to the right as if not understanding. A few second passed between us, as if she expected me to say something more. When I did not she turned and barked at an orderly, telling him to clean up the mess that she’d used to assault us with, then lead us down the West Wing of Ponyville General. As we began to walk down the hall, I had time to actually look at the hospital since I was no longer under attack. Only a few things had changed since the incident that had started everything that had happened and everything that was to come. The walls were still lined with mirrors, which I refused to look into. I was probably a mess, and did not desire to examine that mess at the time in addition to the fact that they also brought back bad memories of the visit that started it all. Tiles that made up the floor were just as polished as I remembered, exhibiting an almost mirror-like sheen. More than once while I was walking down the hall with Lemon Stand and Doctor Redheart, I could have sworn I saw the tiles moving above us through the mirror-quality of the floor and a pink blur looking out from above. Every time I looked up, however, the tiles were closed.

I had a feeling of who it might be, though. Aurora and I had encountered her more than once on our travels and she often had good, if not cryptic, advice on what we should do. Or she just showed up to cause a little chaos, which usually ended up helping Aurora and I out in the end. I questioned my mind as to why the crazy little sage might be in the hospital, but could come to no conclusions that made any sense, which also made sense considering that Pinkie never made sense anyways.

In an event, Doctor Redheart brought us to the door behind which Fireflight, another pony that I’ve neglected to actually describe, was held for healing. The purple and red-maned, fire-orange Pegasus glanced up at our entrance with bright yellow eyes, smiling a bit before Doctor Redheart pushed me back out into the hall, keeping me at a distance from her patient. I knew what it was about. She didn’t want me trying to get her back on her hooves earlier than was prescribed, and may have been hoping that Fireflight would give up on joining the ERNG entirely. Doctor Redheart was very anti-war at the time, despite the fact that we were being pressed on all sides by an enemy that many ponies knew very little about and even fewer had encountered.

Or maybe she just hated watching ponies get hurt. I often posed the fact that if ponies didn’t get hurt or sick, she would be out of the job. The voice in my head agreed with me, noting that it was a logical conclusion and a valid point. Of course, the little voice didn’t understand the reason for why I’d made the point at all, which was simply to be a smartflank and tick the poor Doctor off just a little. Sometimes I felt guilty about it. Most of the time I felt it was a fair trade though, since it was almost every single time I saw her that she threw something at me. Usually when she did, she was just so mad that she didn’t even bother using her magic to do so.

I watched from the doorway, peeking behind Doctor Redheart as she blocked my path. The voice in my head suggested I push through anyways, and I told it simply to wait and watch because something interesting was probably going to happen. See, despite her manner of greeting, the good Doctor and I went back quite some time and she and Aurora were friends. Doc Redheart was almost like a mother to us both, and she cared just as deeply for any of her patients. In recent years though, my injuries had been frequent as well as the injuries of the ponies that followed me.

Speaking of ponies who had been injured while following me, not that I’m too big on the idea of reminding myself of my failures at leadership, Fireflight reminded me of Scootaloo. Not only because she was a feisty little underdog type character, but because the scene before me was almost identical to that night not too long ago when…

… Well, that comes later.

I smiled just a little anyways. Doctor Redheart caught this, and raised an angry eyebrow at me, though her eyes too were softened.

“It reminds you of the past, doesn’t it?” she asked, still blocking my path, “Before all this crazier craziness broke loose.”

I nodded simply.

“You’re not the same, you know.” she told me, “You were much kinder back then, much more free in thought.”

“We’ve all changed.” I told her, “Even you, Doc.”

The older doctor sighed, smiling a little as well. She stepped out of the way, allowing me access to the room.

As I walked past, she whispered, “We need to talk some time. All of us.”

I just nodded and approached the bed. Lemon Stand glanced up at me, and I alllowed my smile to continue, but only at the edge of my lips. It wavered, the sadness in my heart for seeing a flyer grounded attempting to tear it down.

“How’re you doing?” I asked Fireflight, “Everything healing alright?”

Fireflight affirmed my question with defiant grin, “I’m healing pretty fast, Sir. My left wing will be fully healed in about a week, but it’ll be weak.”

I sighed a little, “I’m glad you’re recovering quickly.”

“And then I’ll go back and finish my training!” she blazed, sitting up quickly.

The sudden motion made her groan in pain, and Lemon Stand berated her, pushing her back gently.

“You need to rest. Stop getting worked up.” she told the fire-colored pegasus with a stern frown.

Fireflight ignored her friend’s chastisement, “I… can come back to the Night Academy, right…?” she asked.

I looked over to Doctor Redheart, who raised an eyebrow. I turned back to face the younger mare.

“Tell you what… I know a certain Pegasus who might be able to help you get back into the sky after you’re well enough to start therapy.”

Fireflight and Lemon Stand looked at me expectantly.

“Who?” Lemon Stand and Fireflight asked in unison.

I went on to say that Scootaloo might be willing to help Fireflight out. Scootaloo had become a rather prominent figure in the ERNG, almost a legend. She was always out in the field and checking on the Guardsponies that fought on the edges of Equestria and helping the injured return to the field, especially those who ensured that our enemies pressed no further into our homeland. I yearned to be there with them, and fighting alongside my first follower, but knew that training the Pegasi and Bat Ponies that would help drive the creatures back was just as important as being on the front lines.

The truth was that this part of the training was just first phase of a 3-phase plan to make superior soldiers who could help break the sieges that surrounded us and our most prominent strongholds. It was such a secret that I hadn’t even been briefed on the second step, much less the third.

Fireflight had been keeping track of all the best soldiers in the ERNG since she had been just a filly, and so she knew all about Scootaloo’s exploits. She knew the battles that my former companion had been in, she knew her history. The only thing that Fireflight didn’t know was the parts that were hidden from public view: That portion of her life during which she had been adventuring with me. The Princesses felt that it might make her even more of a target, considering our history together and thus hid it from everypony. I’d have to tell Fireflight the rest of the story some other time, though.

I told Lemon Stand and Fireflight that I would contact Scootaloo as soon as I got a chance, and see if she could take some time off to help her out. Of course, they were both excited. We stuck around for a little while longer in the polished, sterile room that Fireflight inhabited but eventually had to begin the journey back to the Night Academy. When the time came, we said our goodbyes and headed out. Lemon Stand seemed slightly happier than when we’d arrived, but was still sad to go. I couldn’t very well blame her. They seemed to be very good friends.

“Please…” Doctor Redheart asked as we left, “Be careful… and try not to send any more soldiers back here.”

“I will… but no promises on that last part.” I told her, “My orders are clear.”

Doctor Redheart frowned and sighed, “Then just be careful…”

The voice in my head was notably quiet, but I could almost hear it trying to figure out what had just occured, especially since Redheart’s demeanor had changed completely.

Sometimes even I found it hard to believe that we had a working relationship, considering our encounters. But, as I’ve said before, she was somewhat a mother figure to both Aurora and I. Probably more to myself than Aurora, considering that I was the one with dead parents. It wasn’t something I thought about often. I had good memories from when I was a kid, but… I don’t know, once I got past the shock and found Aurora I guess things had seemed to stabilize and I wasn’t so unhappy. A few years had passed since their moving on anyways, and my life had continued without them. Still, Doctor Redheart had filled the void left behind by the loss of my mother, just as Paper Plane had somewhat filled the role of what I figured a father should be to me at my age. I guess I was never really missing those parts of my life, in essence.

With those thoughts in mind, Lemon and I set our sights to the sky and the waning Sunlight which would soon be replaced by the light of the moon. Once again, our trip was silent, and we landed at the Night Academy in the Spineyback Mountains without incident.

“Go gather the other recruits.” I told Lemon Stand, “It’s time to continue the story.”

For the first time since Fireflight’s accident, I saw Lemon Stand smile. It was small, but hopeful, and I could swear I’d seen her mouth a thank you as she walked away.