Casual Friday

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This story is a sequel to War is Boring

Lightning Dust is sent to the purgatory of a desk job. Everything in the office is beige and all she wants to do is return to flying a fighter jet.

When her tyrannical boss decides to take away the office's casual Friday, the last thing Lightning expects is to find herself leading the revolution.

Oh, and saving the world.

Chapters (6)

Monday · 22nd Nov 2016 · 3,762 words
3,762
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Tuesday · 22nd Nov 2016 · 1,817 words
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Wednesday · 22nd Nov 2016 · 3,250 words
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Thursday · 22nd Nov 2016 · 1,146 words
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Friday · 22nd Nov 2016 · 2,929 words
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Saturday · 22nd Nov 2016 · 309 words
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Comments ( 12 )

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totallynotabrony

totallynotabrony #1 · Nov 22nd, 2016 · · · Saturday ·

Yeah, I know there should have been more bashing IT equipment.

arcanelexicon

arcanelexicon #2 · Nov 22nd, 2016 · · · Thursday ·

.. Somehow I can't take the character of Colonel Tweak seriously. Name alone reminds me of that guy from South Park.

Uncle Mike

Uncle Mike #3 · Nov 23rd, 2016 · · · Saturday ·

Now, the bad news. Lt Lightning Dust, in recognition of her meritorious service, is going to be frocked to LtCdr, and appointed to command of EACK...

Seether00

Seether00 #4 · Nov 25th, 2016 · 1 · · Saturday ·

She'll be trapped in office hell forever now

Dafaddah

Dafaddah #5 · Nov 29th, 2016 · · · Saturday ·

7742430
And then she'll find out that ol' Tweak was banning casual Fridays because he'd gotten a request from the base commander that it was causing problems with the other units on base due to jealousy. Now she has to deal with it.

AJ Aficionado

AJ Aficionado #6 · Dec 21st, 2019 · 1 · · Monday ·

War is Boring has a sequel and I never bothered to read it? What is my problem!?

Before I was born, a couple of ponies decided to start their own respective governments and have a war about it. This made a lot of ponies, myself included fifty years later, very unhappy.
What was previously one nation of Koltrea split into north and south halves before an uneasy truce was called. A lot of countries from around the world had backed either side.

So many wars resulted from the end of WW2. Americans even ended up in Vietnam in what can only be called an act of extreme foolishness. Only good thing that came out of that war was a more nuanced understanding of close-air support. Also the legendary ace pilot and human weapon of mass destruction Hans Ulrich Rudel helped design one of the best: The A-10.

They’re now into the third generation of leadership and current North Koltrean President, Butterball the Third,

Harsh but fair.

doesn't show any signs of either giving up or having the balls to declare full-scale war again

You are missing a period, my dude.

I feel like I should be embarrassed, but that feeling passed a long time ago. Equestrian Administrative Command of Koltrea does nothing and has nothing to say, and neither do I as EACK’s representative at this teleconference.. Nopony will remember my slip tomorrow, and they never even knew my name.

I have found the missing period! This paragraph ate it.

Getting up from the chair, the security badge on a lanyard hanging from my neck swings around. It’s a piece of plastic with my picture on it that shows I belong in this building. Nopony outside the building cares. Everypony inside the building knows who I am. It’s just one of those rules.

The military, also known as the Redundant Department of Redundancy.

The floor creaks as I walk. It’s a false subfloor made of tiles elevated above the real floor. Apparently network cables or whatever get routed underneath. Mostly, it’s just noisy to walk on.

It's lines like this that really clue me in to the fact the author knows what he's writing about and gives me a level of security going in. It's a great detail.

I get over to the coffee pot. It’s empty. A Marine Private is walking away, holding the last cup.

That son of a b-

“Oh, um,” he fumbles the cup in his hooves and shoots me with puppy dog eyes. “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

Now how did he get the name Wretched Heart? He seems like a good boy.

I don’t know how Colonel Tweak got to his position. I’m guessing because nopony would dare put him in charge of anything important. What I can’t figure out is why he’s in charge of anything at all.

This is rarely acknowledged in the history books but at least part of the reason for Stalin's purges was to get rid of old cavalry officers and put in new commanders that could handle armored warfare and such. America had a very similar "purge" though far less scattershot and bloody to get rid of incompetent commanders prior to WW2. I say all this because as much as the military bills itself on being a meritocracy, it's really not. Not at all. It's a bit like working in a company that uses a labor union to negotiate. Yeah, it helps in ways but it also means people can become untouchable by working the system to their favor.

The group is rounded out by my fellow sailor Chief Iceberg. He’s a SEAL, and also a seal.

My. God! You added seals as a race to MLP. You absolute madman!

But that’s no longer my problem, if it ever was. I have emerged from the lion’s den victorious. Okay, maybe not a lion. More like a senile timberwolf, but whatever.

It's not taking on a platoon of the enemy with a butter knife but a good day in the life of a beaurocratic puke.

I get up and walk over to Line Scribe and Kimchi. Both of the unicorns are still speaking Koltrean to each other..

Two periods.

Kimchi is pale purple with dark eyes and mane. She could be a model, and maybe she was before joining the South Koltrean Army for the mandatory service her country requires.

Lightning Dust is probably just wearing White Man goggles.

“So where are you going on this trip tomorrow?” She doesn’t call me ma’am. Coast Guard thing. Not that I mind

Missing period.

I don’t know why the Navy has three “business” uniforms when no other service has more than one or two.

Yeah, I dunno but the navy has always had a stick up its ass.

Am I the only comment here? Liked and faved!

AJ Aficionado

AJ Aficionado #7 · Dec 21st, 2019 · · · Tuesday ·

I make sure to take off my security badge once we leave the office. Again, one of those rules. I guess if somepony outside the building saw it, they could duplicate it and fake entry to our building...where they would then be faced with a lot of ponies who would know they don’t belong.

In fairness, it could be argued that some enterprising spy with some operator skills could bust in and steal critical secrets.

Suddenly, a moment of clarity comes to me. I take a few rapid steps across the room, wrap my hooves around her, and plant my best impression of a romantic kiss on her lips.

Pony truly does fix everything, even nuclear war! Bless them.

“Try not to hurt me to much.” I take a stance.

Too much, not 'to'.

Iceberg sees it too and give me help up.

Gives not give.

AJ Aficionado

AJ Aficionado #8 · Dec 22nd, 2019 · · · Wednesday ·

“Well, they threaten a lot of things. I’m a little concerned because they haven’t threatened much this time but are moving quite a lot.”
“What if they’re just training?”
Clear Code shrugs. “Then they’ll go home in a few days and won’t invade.”

This helps me appreciate how horrible it must be to have to deal with living in South Korea under constant threat of this crap.

I’ve seen this plan. It’s classified super-secret. Somehow, the news got ahold of it. So now the Norks know our super-secret plan.
“Who leaked it?” I ask.
“Most likely my government,” says Kimchi. “They do that.”
“What?” I ask, flabbergasted. “Why? You guys helped write that plan, same as us.”
“What good is the plan as a deterrent if the North Koltreans don’t know it exists?” says Kimchi. “Now that they know we have a plan to stop them from crossing the border, they won’t try to cross the border.”

This logic sounds so cynically corporate only America would think it up.

“So who are we supposed to talk to about suspicious activity?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Sorry. I’ve been ordered elsewhere. I could get in a lot of trouble for doing things off-duty. Hopefully my replacement gets here soon. Maybe next week.”
That isn’t going to be soon enough.

Damn... Damn! This is serious...

AJ Aficionado

AJ Aficionado #9 · Dec 22nd, 2019 · · · Thursday ·

“My girlfriend,” he hisses.
I stand there with my mouth open for several seconds. “Oh! On the radio? Sir, she’s a North Koltrean trying to get secrets out of you.”
“How dare you!” Tweak roars. “You think you can just steal my girl? You dirty rotten maremunching filly-fooler!”

This went sideways on me! Then again, given the fact the story is almost over there's little room for Tom Clancy to happen. Also shame on him for hating on lesbian horses. Lesbian horses are wonderful.

Every face is still looking at me. They’ve all confirmed their support.

I’m in charge.
I take a deep breath. “Okay,” I say. “We’d need to get somepony with the authority to pull this off. Somepony a lot higher in rank who has our back. Scribe, do you remember that General’s name at the border?”
He replies, “General Park Avenue.”
“Right. See if you can get in contact with him. Get Kimchi to help. I’m sure he’d be more than willing to help, um, us.”

Christ, this is all so believable it could have actually happened, just not with talking animals.

AJ Aficionado

AJ Aficionado #10 · Dec 22nd, 2019 · · · Friday ·

Friday morning, I get up and put on my flight suit. I stand in front of the mirror for a moment. Maybe I’m narcissistic, or maybe I’m just a pilot. I smile.

camo.derpicdn.net/260191c4e07b9de2771eec93c718cbbeac259735?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gifer.com%2FW80Z.gif

Well, it couldn’t be helped. Much as I was tempted to yank my security badge off because we didn’t need any stinking badges, it might be the only thing that marked me as belonging here.

I understand this reference.

Major Lawn Order

Nice!

“Ma’am, Equestrian Administrative Command of Koltrea is not authorized to give orders troops working in this office,” says Lawn Order.

Missing word.

I’m in charge! I raise my hoof. “Me, sir.”

He glances again at the Norks being pulled off the train and the array of friendly forces that have come together to do it. “So I guess you’ll be doing all the paperwork for this?”
I’m in charge...

Well done! Well done indeed! Underrated piece of fiction.

AJ Aficionado

AJ Aficionado #11 · Dec 22nd, 2019 · · · Saturday ·

My gratitude is due to the following people for helping me develop characters:
Tweak - Jake The Army Guy
Winchester - Keairan
Iceberg - Spectral
Wretched Heart - Tyrannosaurus_Tux
Drill Bit - Dafaddah
Clear Code - Mitch H
Rhyme - Azreal DuCain1
Skyray - Lt Rainbow Slash and arcanelexicon

Thanks for reading.