The orientation wasn’t too bad. The first hour involved quarters assignments. Hestaria was given a room with some blue and ornage pegasus, she didn’t bother to get the name. After another ten minutes of settling in, she was herded with the rest of her group into the mess hall for lunch hour. The grub was deserving of a dog rather than a pony. Brownish mush and water.

‘And I thought the food in the factory was bad.’ Hestaria thought to herself.

After lunch, they were shoved into a class room and taught the basic rules of the Academy witch were as follows, do as your told, keep your points up and never piss off Firebrand. That last one wasn’t written but it was very useful to keep in mind. Immediately after that, a class on battle formations and strategy came. Less than an hour after that she received her uniform and the first PT drills started. Those were easy considering her line of work before this not being of those meager physique. Once the PT drills were over, another six hours of classes set in. The formations were easy to remember and replicate on the field. Hestaria was absolutely board.

After the classes, the twenty of them were handed a bag with four hundred bits. Almost everypony, including White Knight, were elated as they were lead to the exchange with a list in hand. Upon entering, they were told to find everything on that list and pay for it upfront. Armor & boots, compass, lantern, back up lantern, two canteens a saddle bag, a larger bag, six uniforms, two maps, jacket, book of the rules of the Academy and a pen; total cost, four hundred and ten bits. Great, now they owed the academy more than two months of servitude.

The campus was nice at least. The bright green grass was odd for the time of year but it wasn’t all that off putting, probably enchanted by some unicorn to always look like this. The tall stone buildings with towering columns were breathtaking, but to Hestaria they were just something too complicated for military training. The only simple building on campus was the gym. The sign on it said the Luna building but it was the gym. It made sense to her strangely. They had been told that before going to combat, regardless if you liked it or not, you were to say ‘May Celestia guide me and Luna give me strength.’

The next six weeks went as follows: up at 0400 everyday, breakfast at 0405, classes from 0410 to 1100, lunch at 1101, formation training form 1105 to 1600, hoof to hoof combat 1601 to 1900, dinner at 1901, lights out at 2100, repeat. They gave them two hours to themselves but Hestaria, despite preferring to stay up at night, spent that two hours sleeping. Her physical prowess were keeping her a float, but she wasn’t sure if she would make it two months.

Suddenly, something strange happened, Sergeant Fire wasn’t in that morning for his usual wake up call. Instead, a new stallion was heading the operation. His armor wasn’t like anything she had seen before. The navy blue chest piece spread back to his shoulders like bat wings and his helm looked like it had the dorsal fin of a fish standing where the top of the main usually was. That wasn’t even the strangest part, he had a horn, and silver wings. A dark blue unicorn stallion with silver wings and odd armor was suddenly in charge.

He introduced himself as simply The Captain. He was now head of the Academy and would be over seeing every little thing going on. After introducing himself in the lecture hall, he took off out the window and towards the front gate. A few minutes later the sound of his voice echoed across the campus asking somepony named Ephialtes if he could hear him. It was like Princess Luna’s legendary Royal Canterlot Voice but coming from his mouth.

The Captain’s arrival wasn’t even the stranger part of it. Hestaria always had a nagging feeling that somepony was watching her; and every time she’d looked over her shoulder, he would be there either in his armor of his black uniform. He was following her. He didn’t even look like he was watching her, but he was always there when she turned her back.

The next day the final test took place, a siege on castle walls. In the middle of a open field, a team of infantry were to assault and take the flag hidden behind a massive wall. Her team, the Bomb Brigade, were told to drop as many paint bombs behind the wall and clear the way for the ground troops. The unicorns were to provide long range support and the earth ponies held wooden lances and carried grappling hooks to scale the walls. The walls were lined with unicorns using stun spells to knock pegasi out of the air and earth ponies getting close to the wall. Earth ponies inside the wall used crossbows with paintball tipped arrows to mark a target that had been hit.

The dispenser on Hestaria’s right front ankle was uncomfortable and itchy. It held four paint bombs that released with the press of button. A spring inside would shoot the bomblets out at once and cover what ever was near by with paint. Her golden armor weighed her down as she took flight over the advancing battalions. It she hated her their flying patterns, they were too close together and an easy target for those crossbows.

“Hestaria!” Her flight lead called out from the head of the flight of four, it was her room mate.

‘She bothered to learn my name?’

“Hang back!”

“Why? I’m the most accurate out of this team!” Hestaria shouted back.

“I don’t care, everypony down there is gunning for you as it is. I need you separate from the rest of the formation. That’s an order!”

“No! I’m as much a part of this flight as anypony!”

“Hestaria, either you do this or I’ll have you court marshaled!”

Hestaria looked down at the open filed below her and the forty foot wall coming closer. The stun spells were already raining upon them and the crossbow bolts sailed below them.

“You want me gone?” Hestaria reached back and undid the clasp around the heavy plate protecting her middle section and flank. The flank plate fell away and she had to wiggle her way out of the one covering her midsection. The mail armor under that slid off easily and she looked back to her flight lead. “You got it!”