Closing his left eye, Hopeful focused on the target across the long hall. He held his breath, steadying his aim. Hopeful pulled back his hoof against the side of his rifle. The weapon recoiled, hurtling a bullet through the head of a Unicorn that had been poorly painted onto a thin metal sheet.
Hopeful slumped his shoulder down and perched forward, letting his rifle slide off his hoof and lean against the faulty wooden barricade in front of him. He squinted his eyes to get visual on the tiny hole the bullet had left behind.
The mare to his left nudged his shoulder. “Nice shot!”
Hopeful glanced to his left at her. The mare had a light, limestone-grey coat and a deep, rocky blue mane. “Thanks, Basalt,” he replied before raising his gun, preparing to fire another round. Hopeful propped his leg onto the barricade to aim up at the Pegasus target, staggering slowly side to side via elaborate sequence of ropes.
He focused past the iron-sight, pivoting his body and gun left to keep up with the target. Hopeful shifted his hoof onto the thin lever mechanism on the side of the gun stock, he took a breath and pushed back against the trigger.
*Click*
Hopeful raised his head up in surprise. “Shit.” Hopeful never paid attention to how many shots he has fired, Fire Halo keeps telling him that one day he will have Princess Platinum in his sights and and he would try to take the shot with no bullets in his gun because he forgot to count them.
Hopeful turned his head to the right at the white stallion with a old cloth tied up and around his right shoulder. The cloth had a faint red stain in the center. The pony was firing with the pistol held in his jaw.
Hopeful looked past him at the ammo box at his hooves, and nudged the stallion on his good shoulder. “Quick Draw, pass me a clip.”
Quick Draw turned slightly toward Hopeful, making sure to not point a gun at him, “ya shur” He tried to say despite the gun in his mouth. He holstered it and leaned over to the box. “M1?” he asked Hopeful.
Hopeful let out a quick and quiet sigh to himself. “Yes, M1 Gallop,” he said, impatiently tapping his hoof on the concrete floor.
“Well hold your hooves there, buddy,” Quick Draw replied and stuck his head into the box, pulling out a magazine. He tossed it over to Hopeful.
“You've been lightening up recently, and props to you for that, but word of advice, buddy, lose the attitude. We’re here to kill Unicorns and Pegasi, to protect our land, not be at each other's throats,” Quick Draw said before pulling his pistol out of the holster once again.
Hopeful spit out the clip onto the barricade, flipped his gun to its underside and leaned it against the side of the barricade. “Yeah, yeah, I know...” He picked up the clip, popped out the empty one by pushing against it with the new one then slotting it in with a satisfying click.
Hopeful searched around for the target he was going to shoot at. Seeing that it had moved to his right, he aimed at it once more.
Hopeful noticed General Fire Halo walked up to the side of Quick Draw from his peripheral vision. Fire Halo was giving Quick some pointers on firing a pistol. Hopeful returned his focus to his target. It swung back and forth, making an accurate shot difficult. Hopeful shut his eyes, took a breath in and opened them before easing his hoof back, shooting the rifle. The bullet, flew at an incredible speed through the Pegasus’ head, right between its eyes, causing a *plink* noise as the bullet hit, stopping its mechanism for a moment. The rope tied behind the Pegasus started to stretch down revealing its torn up condition. The Pegasus target slid down and then after reaching the end of its rope, swung to the right slamming against the wall, scraping its way down as the rope untangled and piled on top of the metal sheet target.
The room fell silent.
Everypony stared at the fallen target, quietly.
Quick Draw broke the silence by firing his pistol, hitting a close range target in the chest-shoulder region. Another pony took a shot, and after a few moments everypony was shooting.
Unfazed and somewhat happy with himself, Hopeful moved on to the next target. Just before he was about to fire, the general came up to him. “You are one darn good markspony, definitely best in the group.”
Hopeful stood himself up straight. “Thank you, sir.”
Fire Halo smiled at Hopeful's obedience and formality, “At Ease.” Hopeful dropped his stance to stand more comfortably
Fire Halo turned his head around the room “You know, over these past two weeks, I've watched you all very carefully,” he looked back at Hopeful, “and I think I will be making you this regiment’s leader.”
Hopeful perked his head up surprised.
“At first I was considering Wicker or Fury, but for the past week, I've seen you talking a lot more with the others and frankly they seem to respect you. I've watched how you lead during group exercises and how you work under pressure in the timed exercises. I have no doubt you are able to lead these ponies to victory when we send you out tomorrow.”
Hopeful was not sure whether to be happy or confused. “Oh, eh... th- thank you sir! I won't let you down.” Hopeful lifted up his hoof for a salute.
“Don't worry, Captain Hopeful. I trust you to succeed.” Fire Halo lifted his hoof and gently saluted Hopeful. “You can tell the others while you eat in ten minutes.” Fire Halo spoke so calmly and casually that it amazed and confused Hopeful. Over the course of their training, he hadn't heard Fire Halo say anything without shouting. Could it be that Fire Halo has... respect for him? It was an interesting development to Hopeful.
Hopeful smiled. “Yes, sir, thank you, sir.”
Fire Halo nodded with his own smile and moved around him to walk up to Basalt, when he stood beside her he turned back to Hopeful “Oh, I nearly forgot, NEXT TIME YOU DON'T COUNT YOUR FUCKING SHOTS, PRIVATE HOPEFUL, I SWEAR TO THE HEAVENS I WILL RELOAD YOUR GUN FOR YOU AND SHOOT ALL EIGHT OFF THOSE FUCKERS INTO YOUR SKULL AS I COUNT THEM DOWN!” Fire Halo took a deep breath and looked at Basalt “Now, Basalt, I saw you missing those shots at the Pegasus. You have to aim where they’re going to be, not where they are.”
Hopeful nodded, turned away and shook his head lightly with a grin on his face. He picked up his rifle and placed it against his shoulder, aimed up at the roof, expecting to have something to shoot at. Remembering his shot earlier, he shifted to the pegasus target lying on the floor.
Hopeful took aim and a deep breath, then pulled the trigger.
The soldiers arrived at the mess hall, where they served the highest quality, stale, rationed hay.
Each one of them waited in line as all the hundreds of ponies took their trays and sat down in the gigantic concrete cellar of a cafeteria.
Hopeful waited in line behind a pony from a different regiment, standing beside Wicker, who was rambling to him.
“You know, this entire military base was built by nothing more than rock farmers and their bare hooves! From what Basalt told me, a lot of rock farmers are sooo strong that they can smash into stone with the strength of a jackhammer! So when the war started and most of the above ground bases were bombed to oblivion, all the rock farmers were hired to mine out these giant, empty chasms that they then filled with concrete to make floors and walls!”
Hopeful pulled himself away from staring at the hay and glanced in her direction “Wait, as strong as jackhammers? Like digging machine jackhammers?”
“I know, I didn't believe it either so I asked Basalt to demonstrate and she smashed the wall so hard it cracked!” Wicker was bursting up and down with energy.
“Wasn't that the earthquake?” Hopeful remembered a loud rumbling while he was walking around the base yesterday.
“Don't tell anyone, cause I don't want to get her in trouble, but... that wasn't an earthquake, that was just Basalt.”
Hopeful stood bewildered until the pony behind the counter shouted at him to get his attention. Hopeful saw he was at the front of the line and picked up a dish of hay and walked toward the tables.
A mostly vacant table waited in the center of the room. One pony that was in Hopeful’s regiment was sitting at the table, captivated by what he was drawing into his Hoofbook. The messy, green stallion was scribbling in between the text in the book, drawing doodles of a pony (presumably himself by how glorified the drawing was) fighting off unicorns. Heavens knows where he found a pencil.
They went over and sat at the table across from him. Hopeful poked at his food, ending up displeased by the stale, old, brittle hay on his plate.
Wicker tried to lean over the table and smiled at the pony. “Hey, Sharp, whatcha drawing?”
The pony's mesmerized state broke and he looked up “Oh, ah... Nothing, it’s just... something, its... it’s nothing, really.” Sharp Eye folded his book closed, slid it back to himself, picked it up and put it into a pocket in his uniform jacket. He stared at a tray of unappealing hay by his side.
Wicker twirled to Hopeful who was munching on some hay “So, where was I? Oh, right! Now imagine, turning boulders into dust within seconds with nothing but your hooves! Wouldn't that be awesome!?”
Basalt trotted down between the tables to them, and sat down beside Wicker.
Wicker swung around “Hey Basalt! We were just talking about you!”
Hopeful rolled his eyes and joked to himself “Yeah, ''we'' were talking...”
Across the table, Sharp grinned at Hopeful’s remark, but when he glanced his way, Sharp dropped the glee of his face went back looking down at the ground, trying to avoid their attention.
Basalt smiled. “Yeah, I bet you were. So... how was target practice?”
“It was great! Well, the pony beside me nearly shot himself in the hoof, but he's fine, I think.” Wicker leaned over Hopeful to tell her.
“I was, I umm... nearly shot... my hoof...” Sharp's voice faded to almost nothing.
“Well I think somepony here had an especially good day...” Basalt nudged Hopeful on the shoulder.
“Look, I think we should wait for Fury before I say anything. He might want to hear this.” Hopeful pulled Wicker back onto her seat.
Basalt cocked her head back, “Are you sure? Fury might not take it very well.”
“I know, but it will be better if I told him now, personally, instead of him finding out later.”
Walking down the cafeteria three ponies talked to each other, on the left Quick Draw listening intently. On the right, a white coated mare with a deep black mane, And in the center a very large, beefy, red pony who was just finishing his thought.
“We're getting sent out tomorrow, so he is going have to pick the squad Captain today.”
The mare replied to him, “Fury, Darling. There are nineteen other ponies that could be chosen. If you keep being this cocky, you could end up very disappointed.”
“Glitter, please. There isn't a chance in Tartarus anypony else could be chosen!” Fury Temper exclaimed.
Glitter Shine stared at him blankly, annoyed, but not surprised.
“What?” Fury asked confused by her expression as they got to the table.
Fury and Glisten sat together at Sharp's side of the table, while Quick Draw went over beside Wicker.
Hopeful leaned back to look over Basalt's shoulder, He look around at the cafeteria line. “Hey, have you guys seen Spring anywhere?”
Fury chuckled “That coward hasn't eaten in here for a week now. He's too nervous to show up. Probably ‘cause of how bad he is in training. I mean, have you seen him shoot? His aim is worse than a blind pony.”
Glitter rolled her eyes. “Anyways... If you don't mind me asking, for what could you possibly want Spring for?”
“I thought he should also get to hear this first hoof also...” Hopeful put his hooves together on the table around his tray. “I guess I'll tell him later.”
The ponies sat quietly at the table, most with intrigue on their faces, except Basalt, who had a cheeky grin, and Fury, who was paying more attention to his food.
“Fire Halo and I had a conversation at the end of training today,” as Hopeful spoke, he saw Fury raise an eyebrow while munching on his hay, “and he decided that he wants me to lead the regiment...” Hopeful pulled his head back to look at everypony, fixing his gaze toward Fury.
A cold silence poured over them.
Fury slowly lifted his head until he stared directly back at Hopeful. A small breath came out of his nose, he slammed down on the table with his right hoof and then with his eyes closed and head down he spoke out. “What?...”
“Fury, I know you really wanted to be the Captain. Fire Halo said he was considering you...” Hopeful saw he wasn't getting anywhere with Fury and stopped talking. Hopeful hasn't spent much time with Fury over the past two weeks, but he has learned to just let Fury get it out of his system for him to calm down.
Fury smashed down onto the table several times in a row, Breathing in and out heavily. Fury spoke in a low growl “Are you telling me that Fire Halo thinks you're better than me?” He stared Hopeful down, eyes ablaze with inner fire.
“No, just... Look, you'll have to speak with Halo and ask why, because I was just as surprised when he told me.” Hopeful looked concerned for the table which had an ever-growing dent where Fury had been hitting it.
“I guess I will...” Fury Temper pushed out from the seat. He stood up and stomped out of the cafeteria. An awkward silence hovered over them until he had completely left their sight.
“He was in a fine mood this morning too. Pity I'm going have to deal with him like that, now,” Glitter commented nonchalantly while picking at her food.
“I think he took it quite well, actually,” Quickdraw muttered threw a mouthful of hay. He spent a second concentrating on chewing until he swallowed with a gulp and wiped his muzzle, “But I do think congratulations are in order.” He turned to his side and looked down onto his jacket while he pulled something out from a pocket with his hooves. Quickdraw took out and raised up a flask, “A toast, to Squad Leader Hopeful and the destruction of our enemies!”
“To Hopeful!” The ponies raised glasses of water and their own canteens into the air to clink off of each other. Sharp Eye even raised his glass off his table, but he kept it to himself not wanting to spill his water.
Wicker jump up out of her seat. “This is going to be AWESOME! I mean, finally going to fight after so long is exciting enough, but to have YOU lead us? It's going to be fantastic! Ooo, oo! we can have a special salute or something, like a...”
Hopeful smiled as Wicker went on. He thought about how strange this whole thing was. Even though they will be sent off to fight tomorrow, he felt happier than he'd felt in a long time. He never expected to enjoy the company of anypony here, but after Wicker wore him down and he opened up he, felt glee. He could even say he felt... joyful.
Hopeful was walking back to the dormitory. They had just finished eating and the rest were off telling all the other ponies about Hopeful’s promotion. The whole cafeteria, in fact, was on the topic as all the other regiments also had their captains chosen. Hopeful, instead of celebrating, was looking for Spring Step.
Hopeful went around the labyrinth of a military base trying to find his way back to where they slept. After two weeks, the layout of the base was still a mystery to him. After finally finding the sleeping quarters, he opened the door to what normally was a very lively room, but there wasn't anypony inside right now. Hopeful poked his head threw the door. “Spring? You here, buddy?” Hopeful's voice echoed slightly around the room, he heard nothing in response.
He pushed the door as open as it would go and glanced around the room. He slowly walked forward, taking in his surroundings. “Huh, only one more night sleeping here before it all begins... ain't that a buck to the head.” Hopeful looked at the beds individually. Glitter's bed was made very neatly and with care, Sharp had a small pile of comics underneath his, and Basalt had decorated with many photos of her family and her rock farm around hers.
Hopeful let out a sigh and turned around to go look elsewhere. While leaving, he noticed that Wicker had left her bag open beside her bed. He decided to make the slight detour to close it, but as he put his mouth over the zipper he got a peek into the bag that made him stand in place. He curiously gazed at the stack of papers inside it. He nudged the sides of the bag to open up more so he could read the title at the top of the first paper. Hopeful read in an aloud whisper, “Wicker Oaks - My, Little, Part, of... War?”
It took a second for him to put it together, but when he did he shouted. “She's writing a book!?!” He lifted up the first paper to get a closer look at the paragraph underneath. “The story of how I... blah blah blah...” Hopeful started skimming through it until he came to the bottom of the page “An interview, with... HOPEFUL TWIST! That lying little...” He shook his head trying to keep a grin off his face. He placed the paper back onto the stack, he then noticed the small box of pencils in the side of the bag with one missing “Ah, so that's where Sharp got it from.” Hopeful thought while zipping up the bag.
He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him with a heavy metal thud.
Trotting back down the hallway, Hopeful wondered where Spring could be. A loud clanking of a metal hatch echoed through the base as sudden shouting arose from behind him. A soldier stumbled as he ran toward him, carrying another pony around his shoulder. The mare being carried was bleeding profusely, a gushing wound in her side left blood dripping down the edge of her flank and all the way down her foreleg streaming on the floor. The injured pony had her eyes closed and her face was pale as the snow.
The soldier running towards Hopeful shouted at him “WHERE IS *heh* THE FUCKING INFIRMARY, *heh* QUICKLY!”
Hopeful's eyes widened and he tried to answer “Oh, it's ahh, it's umm, follow me!” He frantically searched for the door to the infirmary, he ran up the hall until he skid to a halt at the side of a door. He barged through it with his shoulder and turned around to wave the pony in towards him. The soldier ran into the room and pushed past Hopeful. He looked around the room to see he this was the correct door.
The room had white painted walls and surgery tables running in two rows, several doctors and nurses were all busy patching up and treating patients. The soldier ran up to first open table and rolled his friend onto it. As the mare was placed down, blood poured over the previously spotless table.
The doctor, who was treating a patient, gently kicked the nurse behind her with her foreleg and the nurse moved to take over for her as the doctor ran over to the bleeding mare. She bit down onto the mare’s clothing and ripped out the side with the wound, revealing a zig-zagging puncture in her side with small, jagged, metal pieces embedded into it.
Hopeful thought it best to leave, as this made him somewhat queasy. When he turned around to leave, he heard the doctor shout, “SPRING, MORPHINE, STAT!” Hopeful stopped and twirled his head around to see Spring Step wearing a nurse's apron slide across a cabinet and grab a bag of vials and rush over to the doctor.
Hopeful nearly took a step toward them, but stopped his hoof midair and realized he probably shouldn't interrupt. In fact, when the doctor took out a scalpel and tweezers, Hopeful backed out of the room into the hallway to avoid watching what happened next.
He stood outside the door very uncomfortably, especially when the injured mare inside woke up. She starting screaming, even with the morphine racing through her veins. While it wasn't the first time Hopeful had heard screaming coming from inside the infirmary, it was the first time he had no distraction and was forced to listen to it, so he did. He sat there and listened to a mare have shrapnel ripped out of the side of her body.
Many minutes passed before the screaming stopped. To Hopeful, it almost felt like an hour. He edged the door open and peeked in to see the mare was resting and the doctor had gone. The soldier that carried her in was by her side, holding her hoof comforting her, Spring Step was cleaning blood from the mare and the table with a thick cloth.
Hopeful took a step in. SpringStep turned his head to notice him but went back to his duties. Hopeful began walking toward him. “Umm, H- agh!” Hopeful was hit by the smell of blood, but he kept walking until he’d crossed the room. Putting a hoof to his nose, he caught the young stallion’s attention. “Hey Spring, what are you doing here?”
Spring replied in monotone. “Helping.” Spring's concentration went back to cleaning.
“Helping? I didn't know you were a nurse.” Hopeful avoided looking at the mare's wound and stepped to the side.
“I'm not, I'm just doing what I can.” Spring almost sounded depressed when he talked.
“Why were you not at lunch then?”
“You wanted me at lunch?” Spring blankly stared into his eyes.
“Yes! Look, Spring, I know we got off on the wrong hoof 'n all and I'm sorry for that, but it doesn't mean you should avoid me.”
“I wasn't avoiding you, in fact you're probably the one of the nicer ponies from the regiment. I was avoiding Fury, Glitter, Quick, Basalt, all of them.”
Hopeful looked puzzled “But, why?”
Spring stopped wiping the table. “Because you were right. I'm not a soldier, and they know that. They all mock me for it, so why should I hang around them?”
Hopeful was a bit shocked. “What do you mean you're not a soldier? Look at you!” Hopeful gestured towards Spring's uniform
Spring sighed. “You know what I mean, I'm not a real soldier. You were right, I can’t kill another pony, can’t shoot, can’t fight and can’t run to save my life, so I started coming here during my free time, ‘cause if I can’t hurt ponies, then I'm gonna help them.”
“When did you start coming here? Because I remember you were at lunch, before.”
Spring finished cleaning and started walking past Hopeful to the sink to wash off the cloth. “About a week ago, Doctor Iris asked me to help her out cause she needed another pair of hooves in here.” Spring finished washing the cloth and placed it down onto a drying rack, he then slowly trotted up and looked Hopeful in the eyes “So, why did you want to see me?”
“I just wanted to let you know I was promoted to lead our regiment out in the field...”
Spring Step let out the tiniest of smiles and spoke in a low tone. “Well, isn't that exciting? Hope it all goes well, buddy.” He gently raised his hoof.
Hopeful grinned slightly and gave him a slow hoofbump, then became slightly concerned while looking at him. “Spring, what happened to you? You used to be so jolly.”
Spring chuckled to himself. “Well, Hopeful, I've seen a lot of ponies die in here recently. It's kinda hard to keep up the optimism. Guess I've just become a bitter old pony, a bit like you...” Spring had a wide smirk as he turned around and walked over to Doctor Iris, who was checking on a sleeping patient.
Hopeful shook his head, smiling. His attention was turned to the soldier sitting by the mare's side. The Private asked “You guys trainees?”
“Yup, last day, too.” Hopeful replied.
“Good, we need some reinforcements. Shits hitting the fan out there. We were just attacked by a screecher on our way to Flankfurt. Lucky we were close this base.”
“My condolences.” Hopeful gave a quick bow of his head.
“Yeah, thanks.” The pony went back to caring for the mare.
Hopeful looked around the room at Doctor Iris and the other patients for a while longer before he finally turned around and left the room.
When he came out, he was met by Wicker walking down the hall. “Hey! Hows it going? Did you find Spring?”
“Yes, yes I did.” Hopeful strolled over to her.
“Well, good. Anyway, Fire Halo told us that there’s going to be an assembly in the briefing room with all the regiments. It starts at 8 and it’s where you and all the other ponies are gonna get promoted officially and we all then get sent out! And guess who's gonna be there!”
Hopeful started walking with her down to the dormitory. “No idea.”
“Chancellor Puddinghead, herself! She's gonna be there to give an inspirational speech to everypony! Isn't that great? I can write it in my... oh, I mean It'll be an amazing experience!”
Hopeful chuckled. “Yeah, I bet it will.”
They walked down the corridors finally arriving at their bedroom, Hopeful watched as Wicker went over to the table at the end of the room and sat down “Come on Hopeful, I got a story to tell ya! Its about the time Chancellor Puddinghead visited Manechester and I got to interview her! Well, sorta. I got to interview her assistant, Smart Cookie, but since she was speaking on her behalf, it was almost real!”
Hopeful trotted over to sat down in the chair across from her. “Hey, Wicker.”
“Yeah?” Wicker smiled at him.
“Whatever you do, don't ever change.” Hopeful found himself smiling back.