Arc: Childhood
Chapter 5: Military Track
The sound of wind getting forcefully pushed echoed through the air as a small but fast blur of mass traveled around a massive room. With a very good speed, my sister flew through various rings that were suspended in the middle of the air, took several sharp turns as she sped through some very tight corridors, before appearing in front of my view before continuing the loop.
It was a few days after I visited Twilight and Spike. My father, being one of the top officials in the military, was able to reserve some time and space for him and Lightning to fly in. Of course, some officials decided to spectate the small but agile pegasus, wanting to see what the daughter of one of their most talented guards could do, all of which naturally boosted her ego.
The wind whistled as my sister performed another tight turn, the white blue-tinted pegasus getting bolder and bolder each time she made another lap. At first, Lightning somewhat struggled with the course, taking a somewhat slow pace to not crash into the objects that hung in the air, but by the time the spectators had arrived she had rapidly increased both her speed and agility, the entire track becoming ingrained in her mind as she continuously improved.
Though bummed out by the news, Twilight and Spike were nevertheless happy that I was going to support my sister and told me to wish her good luck. I was also saddened by the fact that I couldn’t be with the unicorn-drake pair, as Spike wanted me to read the newest edition of the Power Ponies with him, but we figured that we could read it together the next day.
Speaking of the Sparkles, I kept forgetting to answer my dad’s question about who Twilight’s brother was. I either had a hyperactive Lightning Spark to watch out for or my dad was at work doing guard things. That and I tended to forget things if I don’t get reminded. Deciding that now was the best time to tell him I scooted over to where my father sat before tapping him on the shoulder, getting his attention.
“Oh uhm, Twilight’s brother is called Shining Armor.” I awkwardly said, knowing that I had forgotten to tell him days ago. The dark blue pegasus simply chuckled before ruffling my mane.
“Ah Midnight, I almost forgot that I asked you that question in the first place. Thanks for remembering.” Thunder Storm said with a soft smile before going into his thoughts. “Shining Armor… I heard about his rapid ascent in the military. It’s nice seeing a youngster like him become the Captain of the Royal Guard. I hope to see good things come from him.” My father said before going back to spectate my sister.
I simply smiled as I decided to join him, but I couldn’t help but twitch my eyes whenever I felt somebody was looking at me. Finally having had enough, I turned to see a yellow pegasus with a red mane staring at my wings with a calculative look. I raised an eyebrow at him, and thus he decided to approach me and my dad.
“Your son has a nice pair of wings, Thunder Storm.” The guard stated. The fit stallion seemed to be around 20 years old, and while I didn’t know much about ranks, he seemed high enough to talk to my dad informally. My father simply smiled at the young guard.
“Yes he does. Nice to see you again, Fiery Kickstart. What brings you here?” The dark blue pegasus asked, though he already knew what made Fiery come here. The yellow pegasus looked up to where Lightning was flying, her pace had increased once more, though she started to look fatigued after so many laps.
“Well, when I heard that your daughter was going to fly the track I couldn’t help but come here to spectate. Is your son going to try?” Fiery Kickstart asked as he stared at my wings again. Thunder Storm simply shook his head.
“His wings are too heavy for him to fly, so in the meantime, he’s unable to take the course.”
Fiery Kickstart gives me a sympathetic look before letting out a sigh.
“Well kid, hope you’ll learn how to fly soon. It defines us pegasi and it would be a shame to see you unable to experience it.”
The young soldier shook his head once more before looking back at Thunder Storm.
“Anyways I think I will take my leave. It was nice seeing you and your children. I hope you teach your son how to fly soon, cause with those wings he’ll be breaking records for his age group rather quickly.” With that the stallion turned around and left, leaving me and my father alone to spectate Lightning as she finally began to slow down.
After completing her final lap the now extremely fatigued pegasus slowly landed onto the floor, her wings barely keeping her body airborne before she finally touched the ground. Slowly trotting to us, my sister grabbed a nearby water bottle before finishing it in one go as she threw her head back and drank the substance. Wiping the liquid off her mouth she continued to pant as she looked at me.
“Thanks for coming here Midnight.” Lightning Spark said before looking at Thunder Storm with a grin. “Dad! How did I go?” My sister asked energetically, causing the stallion to chuckle.
“You did great Lightning. With that type of skill, I know you’ll be able to achieve your dream of becoming a Wonderbolt.” The stallion stated, smiling as my sister’s face nearly glowed with energy.
“Thank you dad!” Lightning Spark exclaimed before she proceeded to hug our father. He brushed her mane with his hoof as we began to walk away.
“You're welcome. Now let’s go home shall we?” My father said as we proceeded to leave the room.
Overall the military buildings looked… ok. While the track that my sister flew in was relatively new, most of the buildings seemed to lack attention. Sure, the gold and marble that decorated the walls looked very nice, but I could tell that the military was not given as much care as other places. And I’m factoring out the fact that the nobles, given that they’re probably rich enough to remodel their homes to make them more luxurious than before. I’m just talking about middle-class families and their homes. Even without a high salary compared to the noble class, those houses look much more maintained and polished than the military buildings Equestria had.
I don’t know, maybe I came just before they remodeled the buildings? If they have a budget to make a new track, then surely they have enough to do maintenance. Then again, the ‘new’ track was actually a few years old and there haven’t been any major additions to the military so who knows.
“Hey dad, why does everything look so uhm… underwhelming?” I asked my father as we walked through the building’s halls, wanting to get some answers. The dark blue pegasus stopped as he looked at his surroundings before closing his eyes and letting out a sigh.
“The military doesn’t get a huge budget, so our ability to maintain our buildings and equipment is limited at best. I’ve been trying to change that, but it hasn’t been easy.” Thunder Storm stated, letting an annoyed sigh this time before we began to walk again.
Clearly, my dad’s attempts at getting a bigger military budget haven’t worked out to say the least. Maybe he needed just a few more ranks to have enough influence? Or maybe it was Celestia herself? After all, Equestria hadn’t been at war in a thousand years, so it’s not like they need to maintain their military, though it would be useful in case anything happened.
As we exited the building I took a look back at the place before softly shaking my head. The military didn’t impress me that much, though if I had checked the other areas, maybe I could’ve been convinced otherwise? The only highlight of this trip was seeing my sister on the course, with my focus being on her rather than the course itself. The track was ok I guess, but not as extremely sophisticated as it could’ve been. Again, to be fair, I hadn’t seen everything. Perhaps there were just more things here that I hadn’t explored.
Not like I plan to visit this place any time soon.
The three of us began to head home, with my dad and sister stopping once in a while for me to catch up. My large but heavy wings made it hard to fly, thus I was limited to just gliding, which slowed my pace considerably. I always have the option to ride on my father’s back, but I wanted to do things by myself, which he understood.
Eventually, we got to our home safe and sound. After the door was unlocked the two of us walked into the living room. I soon spotted my mom, who was slicing some apples in the kitchen room. I smiled as I walked over to greet her.
“Hi mom!”
Snowy Blizzard stopped what she was doing as she realized I was here before proceeding to hug me with her wings.
“Oh Midnight! You’re back! How did things go?” My mother asked with her sweet gentle tone. I simply giggled as I felt her wings softly tickling me.
“Well it was fun! My sister did very well on the track!” I exclaimed while managing to wiggle my way out of her grasp. Snowy simply smiled as she heard the excitement in my voice.
“Oh did she? That’s wonderful!” The white-blue pegasus stated while my sister appeared at the door.
“Oh hey mom! You’re preparing some apples? Nice!” Lightning Spark exclaimed as she walked over to see what types of apples my mom had sliced. “Ah cool! Some red and greens! If everyone’s ok, I’m taking one red one.” My sister exclaimed as she nabbed a red apple slice before walking away while eating it. I couldn’t help but softly chuckle before grabbing a green slice.
As I munched on the treat I wondered what I could talk about with my mom. I always wanted to know more about her, what she did, and what stories about her past. Sometimes she would tell me whenever I’d go to sleep, but lately, I wanted to talk about it more often during the day as well. After searching for an idea I finally found one, and thus I tapped my mom’s shoulder to ask her a question.
“Hey mom. Can you tell me about some of the adventures you had with dad?” I asked Snowy. Sometimes she would tell me and my sister about how they once took a grand tour to travel around the world before they decided to settle down. She told some of her stories, but not all of them, and I wanted to learn more about them.
My mother smiled at me while her eyes became distant for a moment as she pulled a memory from long ago into her mind.
“Well, I remember when me and your dad went to Zebrica once. It was wonderful to enter into the jungle and encounter a Zebrican Tribe. The leader of that tribe was quite nice to us and allowed us to meet his children. It was nice teaching them some tricks that we had, and well the journey inspired us to make a family of our own, as you two were born when we returned to Equestria. If I were to estimate how old they are now, the youngest would probably be around Twilight’s age and the eldest would be a bit older.”
“Wow! Cool!” I exclaimed, happy to once again hear my mother talk about her adventures with my father. “What types of tricks did you teach them?” I questioned, causing my mother to giggle.
“Oh well, you know what type of trick I taught them.” Snowy Blizzard said in an all-knowing voice, causing me to nervously laugh as I realized that out there in Zebrica, a poor group of zebras would be experiencing what every pony who crossed my mother would feel.
“And what did dad teach?” I asked once more, causing my mother to tilt her head as she thought about it.
“I think he spent most of his time talking with the tribe leader. Don’t really know what they talked about since I was with the leader’s two daughters, but if I were to guess they were talking about politics, economics, and military management. Your dad loves to discuss about those things.” The white pegasus replied, causing me to nod.
“Yeah. He told me how he wanted to see the military get a bigger budget to maintain the buildings and their equipment.” I said, looking at the dining room to see my father looking at the newspaper that I secretly grabbed a few days ago. After reading a newspaper my father would usually throw it into the recycling bin, calling it old news, which I guess would make sense as eventually, those papers would get outdated. Yet I was surprised that he still had the newspaper with him, making it one of only a few dozen that he kept for safekeeping.
Why he had kept it was a mystery to me, but I had already planned to not think about it anymore. It was his business and I shouldn’t be trying to pry for more information than what I already did when I viewed it before.
My mother tilted her head as she saw me stare at Thunder Storm. Clearing her throat, she brought my attention back to her, her face becoming slightly worried.
“While I will always support everything you do Midnight, you have to know that the military is a hard place to be in. Hey, I was a guardsmare once, which is how I met your father, and I know how difficult it can be. I know that if you’re determined enough you can be just as good as your father, but please remember that if you plan to be like your father, it’ll be a long and difficult journey.”
I turned around and blinked at my mother, confused as to where she got the idea that I wanted to be in the military. Realizing that she didn’t know why I had glanced at Thunder Storm and thus presumed that I wanted to be a guard, I simply shook my head at her while forming a small smile.
“Don’t worry mom, I don’t plan to be a guard. In fact, I don’t even know what I want to be in the future. Sure, having you two train me would make the military easier, but again, I feel that I’m not interested in it at the moment.” I said to her, causing Snowy Blizzard to give me a soft hug.
“Well whatever you decide to be, we’ll fully support you. Like how your father brought Lightning to train in the military’s flying track. He’s open to the idea of having your sister join the Wonderbolts by having her conscripted into the military. Not that it’s his top choice, he’s more keen on training her himself, but if she wants to get even more experience then having the military hone in on her skills would be the best for her. And there’s a lot of careers that you can gain experience in while in the military.”
Upon seeing my somewhat bored face my mother simply let out a nervous laugh before returning to slicing up the apples.
“But hey, you did say that you’re not interested in the military. I’m just figuring out what’s the best for you Midnight, you understand?”
I stared at her for a few moments before giving her a small smile while she passed me my full plate of apples.
“Alright mom, I understand. Thanks for talking with me, and thank you for the apples!” I said with my usual energetic voice. My mother simply smiled while nodding at me.
“You’re welcome dear.”
As I walked into the dining room, I simply thought about what had occurred today. Overall it had been fun to see my sister fly around the track, though it was interesting that in one form or another everyone considered the possibility of me joining the guard. My sister had said that training in the military would help me with my wings. My father doesn’t mind having Lightning, and by proxy, me, train in the military. My mother believed that I wanted to be part of the military even though I wasn’t interested in it. Hey, the look that Fiery gave me could imply that he wished that I was able to use more of my potential, and given that he’s a guard I wouldn’t have been surprised that he would think that me being part of the military would be beneficial to my flight.
Even my name, Midnight Blitzer, might imply that it has to do something with the military. I’ve seen the shorter term ‘Blitz’ being described as being something quick and fast, like how I was able to rapidly adapt to whatever task I had to handle and thus I’d get a smooth 90s across the board, but ‘Blitz’ also was a military tactic. Perhaps when they named me my parents wanted to reference their role as guards but also give me the liberty of choosing whatever I wanted to be by naming me ‘Blitzer’ to make that connection less apparent.
But even as I thought of these things while eating another apple slice, I found myself to be indifferent to the idea of becoming a guard, no matter what angle I viewed it. I just couldn’t make myself become interested in being one. Perhaps under different circumstances where it was a necessity that I would lean towards the military, but Equestria, hey, the whole world was at peace!
Thus I decided at that moment to clean my thoughts about the military for the most part and focus on some other, more important things. Like Twilight! I wanted to see if I could strengthen her connection with her friends and make them all happy!
Now that was an important thing to do.