//------------------------------// // Bullet in the Chamber // Story: War Pony // by CreeperZone //------------------------------// The night felt dead and eerie. The atmosphere was depressed from both weather and emotion. It was an immensely dark night as the sun had just set and the sky as black as the ceiling of the deepest cave. The forum of the town had ice formed between the cracks in the stone pavement. A storm came from the horizon, blasting a hurricane of winds throughout the plains, fiercely making its way toward the town as it became enveloped by gusts of crystallized rain. The soldiers stood out in the forum, noses red and quivering from cold, their hoods worn over their helmets and coats tightly strapped. Hopeful stood, charismatic, on the stone fountain’s steps, looking at the ponies forming his regiment. His mane blew violently as the wind as it picked up speed. Spring stood beside him and made sure Hopeful didn't fall over on his leg and hurt himself any more than he already had. He watched as the last of his soldiers arrived from the second gun nest. Trailing behind them was Fury, shamefully trying to keep himself away from the rest. His soldiers were bunched up in front of the fountain, huddling together for heat in a clean formation, save for the ponies at the back. Hopeful shouted out, defying the wind with his voice. “Alright, everypony, now that we have finally settled down and I am back in charge, we can start running this like an actual regiment. I'll be assigning roles in a moment, but first I would like to set the ground rules. Every day that we are here, I want everypony gathered here, like this, every sunrise and sunset for a headcount and report. Second thing, while I am not a harsh leader, I will not tolerate a single bit of laziness, or lackluster performance.” He lifted his voice even higher, belting out over the ever-growing gale. “We are here to protect every single pony in this town and I swear to the heavens if you even once hesitate to follow command, YOU WILL BE COURT MARTIALED. I need all of you to be prepared to lay down your life, not just for me but for your brothers and sisters in war.” The ponies looked at one and other, concern running through their minds. “DOES EVERYPONY UNDERSTAND?” Hopeful strained his voice to be heard. They nodded, ruffling their fluffy coat collars in the process. “Good, now so we can all get back inside let me quickly give jobs out.” He spotted Fury in the back eyeing him with suppressed anger and disappointment, and turned away from him. “Sharp Eye and Gearbox, take the west gun nest. Basalt and Quick take the north.” He rubbed his shoulders trying to keep warm, forcing himself to deal with the pain from his injury. He shook his head and looked up again “In the morning, I want Glisten and Spring to be the first scouting party. Spectacle, Brass Buck, Tripod and Fury take over for day shift of watch while Night shift sleeps. Crike, Apple Drill and Carry, After sunrise I want the three of you each on one of our mortars and prepared to fire at all times. Is everyone clear?” Many of them took part in a salute as their reply. “Excellent. Everypony, DISMISSED!” The frosty midnight air seeped sneakily into the cracks of every house. The cold was forced out by the lit fires in every building, heat flowing out of every room, but dissipating slowly as lumber became black and burnt in every fireplace. Windows were covered over with thick sheets of hay, stuffed to stop light escaping from the homes and revealing them to Pegasi. Inside the town hall lay Hopeful, restless. Sitting up on his bed, as tired as a bear just before hibernation, he had given up on trying to fall asleep once the dark of night set in. His nightmares hadn't been getting any better, so instead of sleeping, he stirred on the hay mattress, thoughts flashing between disbelief, anger, and paranoia. He lifted his back to sit up. Drowsily, he stared at the patched over window on the other side of the room, eyeballing it curiously and cautiously, as if he was expecting something to break through the window at any moment. He watched... And waited... And with a groan, he gave up, falling back onto the mattress. While lying down with his head turned to the door, a thought came to him. “What if one of the ponies on night watch fell asleep, or both of them? I should probably go and check to be sure...” He turned to his coat and gear lying on a slightly lop-sided oak table. “It would be the responsible thing to do...” He propped himself up on his foreleg. Slowly slipping off of his bed, suspending the leg of his injured shoulder in the air to not put pressure on it, he walked to the table and picked up his coat and helmet, wrapped his rifle around him and put his head around the pistol holster for it to slide down and rest on his shoulders. He hobbled to the door and turned the doorknob with his teeth. He shuffled down the hallway, trying to not wake the mayor and anypony else that could be asleep in the building. Despite his efforts, his hoofsteps echoed gently throughout the reception, only masked by unending crackling of fire. He pulled the bulky door open and stepped out into the blizzarding cold. The frost gave him a kick like an apple farmer, waking him up and making him tense up as the winds blasted across the town, getting frosty air blown down his neck, causing him to shiver. The houses around him were blurred and distorted by the icy gusts. Not sure whether or not to regret his decision, Hopeful marched forward. He tried to trot up through the thick snow on the outskirts of town, going to the edge to one of the machinegun nests. While this ending up being a limping shamble due to his shoulder and the weather conditions, but alas he endured through. He arrived at the nest, a shabby structure built with sheets and stone to form enough of a shelter to hold back the wind and camouflage them. He walked up to the loose cloth sheets acting as a tent-like entrance. lifting a layer up with his hoof he revealed the two ponies inside, lying on the dirt in the cramped hole about half the height of a pony and the wide width of the floor above it, staring down the iron-sights of two Bucker Machine Guns. Basalt and Quick, with Quick watching like a hawk (even though he could not see past the blizzard) and Basalt forcing herself to stay awake by whispering to herself. “Falling asleep... is a death... sentence... don't... fall asleep...” her eyes fell and jumped back to place like a bungee cord. Hopeful crouched down and nuzzled through to get into the burrowed hole, with the only surfacing being the entrance and the two hole where the gun barrels stuck out off. Basalt jumped up and scrambled around before realizing it was Hopeful. “Oh, Sir! I was not sleeping, Sir, I was... definitely not... no...” she yawned very blatantly. Hopeful sighed and shook his head at her. Quick pivoted his head to face Hopeful, “Sir, what are you doing here, shouldn't you be resting?” “I should.” He crawled further and peeped out of a firing hole. “But can't.” Quick returned to his aim while speaking. “Still having nightmares, Sir?” Hopeful lowered his eyes and sighed. “Eyup.” He looked at Basalt and how difficult it was becoming for her to stay awake “Basalt, if you want I can take over for you here and you can go get some rest.” She rubbed her baggy eyes “Really?.. *yawn* Sir?” “Yes, you're dismissed, Private.” Hopeful crawled in behind the gun as Basalt moved around. She looked at the exit and she got chills just from thinking about leaving. “Do you mind if I...” She rested her head down and snuggled into a corner “Sleep...” she closed her eyes “here...” She said as she began gently snoring. “Well Sir, I've ne-” “Please Quick, you know I prefer if you call me by my actual name.” Quick grinned “Well, Hopeful, I was about to say that I've never heard of a Captain doing night watch.” “I've never been a Captain before.” Hopeful tried to focus down the sights but couldn't see a single cloud past the storm. “And, what else am I going to do if I can't sleep?” “I understand perfectly, Sir-I mean, Hopeful. Filling a Pegasus's brainless skull with lead is a good thing to do anytime.” “Doesn't look like that'll be happening today.” Hopeful rested his chin on the stock of the machine gun with a sigh. “Don't worry, Sir. We'll get some eventually. Those bastards can't hide forever.” With another disappointing sigh, he looked down and spoke dishearteningly. “No, no they can't.” Quick looked concerned at Hopeful, “You don't sound very well.” Hopeful burrowed his head into his foreleg, “I haven't had a proper sleep in the last day and a half because of a recurring nightmare caused by the fact my first friend since my wife's death bled out in front of me after a train explosion killing several of my other soldiers...” he reluctantly moved back to his gun “I'm not gonna ''sound very well'' for a while.” Quick, now with his mouth shut, watched the blizzard blow bits of snow through the air, dancing in a cold, dead atmosphere, warmed only by the occasional small talk between the two of them, and eventually the night itself grew warmer. A few hours passed, the sun was rising and with that the blizzard easing. What once was a violent storm tugging and ripping away at everything in its path had dissipated to an unrecognizable calm. One pony on the other hoof was very uncalm, In a rush Spring galloped up the town to the north gun nest. As he got closer he shouted to the ponies inside, “Basalt! Quick! Guys, Hopeful disappeared, he wasn't in his room this morning but some of his stuff was left there and I asked Glisten and she hasn't seen him either!” He got to the cover of the door and crouched down to pull them up, then stuck his head threw. “You don't think a Pegasus could have g-” “Mornin', Spring,” Hopeful interrupted him. He kept watching the clouds, now that the storm had ended he had something to concentrate on and didn't budge from it. It helped him to get her of off his mind and put him in a better mood that he didn't realize he was in. He let go an enormous sigh of relief and knelt down to rest, “Hopeful, how many times are you gonna make me think you've died before this is over?” he grinned, then looked over at the sleeping Basalt in the corner. “Sleeping on the job, I see.” “Hopeful let her, took her shift,” Quick answered back while continuously scanning the sky. Spring turned his head to look out then twisted back. “Well, since you haven't been fillynapped or killed, I guess now I can tell you that everypony is waiting for you at the town center as ordered.” Hopeful looked around the room, confused, almost as if he'd forgotten where he was. “Right, right... Sunrise.” He rolled his shoulders, the sting of the injury not nearly as painful as it used to be. He flexed his hind legs and crawled out of the gun nest with Spring. Quick Draw went to go with them to but stopped to move over to Basalt to gently nudge her shoulder. “Up 'n at 'em, Basalt.” Her muzzle flinched and she went to rub her eyes, then she fully woke up in a sudden fright. “Aah!!! Shit! Did I fall asleep?! Fuck!.. Did anypony see?!?” Quick chuckled loudly and ignored her pleas as he crawled out. She cried out to him as he left, “Quick! Where are you going?! This is serious!” She crawled swiftly after him. Once she got out she stood up while speaking. “If Hopeful finds out, I could get in deep shit. I could get shot for this!” She lifted her head up to see Hopeful with one eyebrow raised a hint of a smile. “AHH!” Basalt instinctively tried to run backwards and found her back pinned against the wall. Her hooves kept trying to move as she ended up just shuffling snow and dirt from the ground until she slouched down and sat. “Shit,” she said, annoyed at herself. “Come on, Basalt. You don't want to be late to the headcount.” Hopeful spun around and began trotting to town slightly limping, leaving Basalt dazed and confused. Spring walked after Hopeful. “Sir, I keep telling you that you shouldn't walk on your own like this.” “And I keep telling everypony not to call me Sir. Doesn't mean it's gonna happen.” Hopeful's smile grew and he spoke cockily. Basalt and Quick caught up with them, Basalt still worried about how Hopeful would punish her for sleeping on Night watch. She hopped up to his side nervously “Sir, umm... did you happen to, umm... me uhh, it won't happen again Sir, I, I...” Hopeful rolled his eyes turned to Spring and with a grin. “See?” Spring just laughed under his breath, this worried Basalt even more. “Sir, I'm so sorry! Please don't court martial me... I-I-I'll do anything, Sir!” Springs laughter became more intense and even Hopeful cracked a chuckle. Basalt raised an eyebrow and cocked her head back. “Umm, am I in trouble or not?” Hopeful held back his laughter. “No, Basalt. You’re fine.” She sighed with relief. “Thank you, Sir. I won't let you down again.” Spring kept snickering. The town square was chattering with casual conversations between the soldiers gathered. Glisten noticed Hopeful and the rest coming toward them and alerted everypony else. They turned around to face him and saluted. Hopeful stopped in front of the cobblestone square, looked over to Quick and spoke. “Quick can you go get the ponies at the other gun nest and tell them they can go sleep? Then you can too.” “Sure thing.” Quick gave a fast salute and galloped away. “Alright, now. Since everypony else is here we can get started with the day shift, do you all remember your assignments?” Hopeful was pleased by the unanimous nod. “Great. If you’re on day watch for the guns, you're dismissed and can go to them now.” The four ponies including Fury went off as commanded. “Mortars, before you go, I want to just make sure each of you know how to fire them properly and to remind you that they are only to be used on Thunder Cannons. We do not have enough explosives to just waste them on singular Pegasi and that's even if you could hit them. So, are you each confident with a mortar, or do I have to reassign you?” A pony by the name of Crike spoke up. “We are confident, Sir.” The other two nodded along with him. “Good, now go. There's one at each nest and on up on that building.” Hopeful pointed up at a stone house with a ladder leading up to the tarp-covered roof, underneath the nailed down tarp was something bulging out, presumably the mortar. The trio left with a salute. Now the only ponies around him where Glisten, Spring and Basalt. He looked over at Basalt with a grin who shifted her eyes back and forth, confused why he'd want to talk to her. “Hey, Basalt?” “Yea...” She grew frightful of what he could ask. “Since you had such a good night's sleep wouldn't you like to leave with Glisten and Spring and go scouting for Pegasus activity?” Relieved, she replied, “Sure, sounds fun.” “What did you expect? You looked worried for a second there.” “That I might get latrine cleaning duty or something like that.” She gave an innocent smile. Hopeful shook his head gently and turned back to Glisten and Spring. “You guys ready to head out?” “Of course, Darling.” Glisten replied back, showing off her two saddlebags already packed to leave. Spring looked at her and remembered he didn't have his bags. “Oh, right, about that. I got caught up with finding you and didn't get the time to pack.” “That's fine, you and Basalt can go get ready. Me and Glisten will meet you at the north gun nest.” They nodded, then walked off to the house they were storing their supplies in at the opposite edge of town. Hopeful twirled around to face north then looked back at Glisten inciting her to follow him. She skipped up to his side and they walked together. As they went along Glisten became inquisitive, “So Basalt fell asleep on gun duty, did she?” “I let her, yeah. I couldn't sleep, so I took her shift and she went out like fire in a thunderstorm.” “I see. Do you think she can handle night watch? Not to be harsh to her, especially when she's not here, but she doesn't seem like the most reliable of ponies, and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trust somepony like that with my safety, either while I sleep or on a scouting mission.” Hopeful jumped up at the question. He was unclear about why she would think this, “What are you saying? Basalt's reliable!” “Darling, she once stabbed poor old Quick Draw in a training exercise, how can you trust her with a machine gun in a real fight?” She raised a hoof up and leaned it out looking at Hopeful questioningly. “She fucked that up, yeah, but everypony messes up now and a then. Besides that was the first day. She's gotten a lot better.” Hopeful spoke confidently. “How about one week into training when we did those group exercises and she was in the same group as me and put in charge of the ammunition and ended up forgetting it at the first obstacle?” “I never heard about that...” Hopeful said in disbelief. “We were talking about it all day! Well, me Fury and Quick were, but me and you hadn't talked at that point, so I guess you wouldn't know about it.” As they reached the nest, they stood a fair bit to the right of it, looking down from the gentle hill they stood on. “Either way, I trust her completely and she is coming with you.” “I don't wish to argue with you, Hopeful, Darling, but just know I disagree.” Hopeful quietly laughed to himself. “That’s arguing.” She was taken back by the statement, “What?” “You basically said ''I don't want to argue but you're wrong'' that's arguing.” He looked at her with a cocky grin. She rolled her eyes and smiled back, “I haven't seen you smile in quite some time, its good too see you getting over the incident.” Hopeful became still, stunned by the memory stabbing him in the heart. He put a hoof on his chest, sure that he felt an actual knife, then dropped his head and placed the hoof above his nose rubbing it, straining his eyes and shaking his head. “Oh, I'm so sorry, Darling. I-I shouldn't have mentioned it...” “No, no... it-it’s-s fine.” He wiped his eyes to wipe the few tears that escaped and he raised his head trying to keep himself together. “I just... hadn't thought about it in a while...” He looked up at the clouds with furrowed, crossed eyebrows, nose pulled back and eyes squinted with rage while a tear still ran down his face. “Hey, you don't want Basalt coming with you right?” “Yes, but it’s fine, she can follow along if you wish her to.” Glisten took a step back from Hopeful. “How about I leave her here and put her in charge of talking to command? That's what I was gonna do. And then I can come with you, instead.” Hopeful kept staring out at the skyline, watching for one of those bird-fucking, murderous sky-rats. “If you say so, Sir, that would be splendid...” she said, unsure of herself or Hopeful. Her unease was settled by hearing Spring’s voice from behind her. “We're ready, guys!” Spring Step and Basalt galloped up behind them with saddlebags filled with ammo, food rations for a day, a map, camouflage sheets and other supplies. Hopeful turned around, his face showing beaming determination mixed in with outrage. “Basalt, do you know where the radio is set up in the town hall?” Basalt was taken aback by Hopeful’s expression, “Agh... yes! Yes, Sir, I do.” “Good. You're going to go talk to command and get any information you can and give them everything we have. I'll be taking your supplies.” Spring jumped up, excited. “Does that mean you're coming with us?” “Yes, Spring, I am,” he said while he got Basalt’s bags thrown onto his back. He then fell to a knee. Spring's joy from this surprise was relapsed by a sense realism and worry by this, “Are you sure? You're not in a good condition to travel...” “Spring, I told you I am,” he said on the ground in strain, then forced himself back up with the strength of his anger. “Now let's get going. The more ground we cover, the better chance we have of spotting one of them.” Basalt nodded and then waved to them as they solemnly marched away. Hopeful looked down the sights of his rifle, bored out of his mind and angered out beyond reasoning. “Where the fuck are they?!?” Spring, who was eating a brick of rationed hay, glanced around at the sky casually, then back at Hopeful. “I think that's a good sign, them not being anywhere near. It means the town's safe.” “No, no no... they’re somewhere around here. THEY'RE JUST HIDING LIKE COWARDS!” Hopeful shouted at the heavens, his voice echoed threw out. He sat back down beside Spring, tired and defeated. A few moments of silence passed before Hopeful felt the cool breeze brush by the back of his neck. “Wind’s picking up. Better get a move on.” Glisten, who was walking about looking at her map tracking their progress around the town, trotted back with the map in her mouth. She got to them and put it in her bag then spoke. “We've covered the entire perimeter of the town, and thanks to Hopeful’s refusal to take breaks, we've done it before sunset.” “We've covered all around the town?” Hopeful questioned in disbelief. “In a kilometer radius from it, yes.” “Does that mean we get to go back early?” Spring said so and then took another bite from his hay. “NO! There has to be some around here, I can feel it!” Hopeful walked away from the two of them, scanning the skies away from them once more. Glisten took some steps forward, “Darling, I am very sorry I brought the incident up again, but shooting a Pegasus won't help. Protecting the ponies still behind, that’s what matters now. And we’re doing that. We're protecting them and they are safe now because there aren't any of those ruffians nearby.” Hopeful squinted at the clouds, watching as the shadows moved around their fluffy bumps. “Let's go back Hopeful. We'll try again tomorrow.” Glisten walked closer, she was about to place a hoof on his shoulder but he lifted it up, lifting his rifle up. “Darling what are you doing? There's nothing there!” Glisten looked around the clouds that Hopeful was facing and saw nothing. Hopeful steadied his aim, crossed his eyebrows and shut his left eye. Spring hopped up to him, “Hopeful put the gun down, come on, no need to waste ammo.” Both of them were startled to find that Hopeful began grinning, and in a sudden eruption of noise the bullet flew out of the barrel after he pulled the trigger, piercing the sky. Hopeful lowered his gun. The other two were shocked and didn't know how to react. But as they watched the clouds, they watched as a Pegasus fell down to earth, in the distance. Frantically flapping one wing and eventually their other as they desperately tried to stay away from the surface and fly back up to the barrier of clouds surrounding the sky. Hopeful smiled, gaining clear enjoyment from his actions. “I thought that shadow looked funny.” He lifted his gun up again and watched as the Pegasus made a shoddy attempt at flying, trying to book it. Hopeful lined up a shot with a near-perfect line up, but instead of shooting, Hopeful watched and wondered. Eventually he turned around to the two of them. “You two, I need you to run back and assemble half of the troops we have and get a mortar to assemble and two machine guns. Then return back here as fast as possible.” He took out the cartridge of his gun and one bullet out of his bag and replaced the one he had just shot. “That fucker is bleeding like a pig and we're gonna follow the trail, because if they're gonna go anywhere, it's home base to report back and get healed up.” He pulled back the bolt of the rifle and had it primed to fire before turning to them. “What are you waiting for? We've got Pegasi to slaughter!” Glisten and Spring looked at each other and then began their gallop back home. Hopeful turned back to where the Pegasus had flown off to and took out a pair of binoculars, he could see blood splatter form a line going out across the snow. He set the binoculars down and whispered to himself menacingly. “You're going down motherfuckers. One by one, bullet by fucking bullet.”