//------------------------------//
// 1.6 "Hard" Knocks 
// Story: My Little Pony: Northern Aggression 
// by A. Tuesday 
//------------------------------//

	The sun rose over the Potomac and gleamed on the stub of what will eventually be the Washington Monument, a little over a week since three ponies first spoke to Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama. One day, the government promised, the obelisk would be completed – still, it was an odd sight to watch a monument construction be put on hold for about seven years.
What was an even odder sight was the Union encampment, not too far off from the National Mall, which at this moment in time housed rows upon rows of tents, a pole bearing the American flag, a field in which the Northern soldiers were trained…
…and a cyan-colored pegasus moving in slalom to a row of makeshift pillars.
Rainbow Dash tried to imagine what it looked like to the other Union soldiers, a smile spreading across her face as she imagined the look of envy they would get when watching her completely awesome skills. Nopony –and nobody – could ace this course like she was doing.
With this in mind, she continued to move back and forth about the pillars, just missing the edges of the next ones, as she maintained a constant speed throughout. While slaloming was probably not an actual factor in the war, it did help her flying skills – which were already top-notch, she thought to herself.
It probably helped that she did slaloms as a part of her Best Junior Flyer Award routine. This made the menial training a breeze – no, a breeze she left behind when she flew.
Damn, she was cocky.
But, she also didn’t care.
She finished the row, and turned widely to the left, giving herself a wide berth to about-face and do the slalom again. For the nth time.
The nth time….just how long had she been slaloming? It seemed like she had been doing it for a while now.
She finished up this next row, and instead of making a wide turn, stopped and hovered in the air. She spotted her two friends, sitting idly in the grass forward and below her position. Twilight, her unicorn friend, was laying down, just thinking about something. Something serious, Dash noted. Her face was contorted in a sort of mental pain.
Applejack, on the other hand, had been admiring Dash’s flying skills, and now waved to her from the ground. “Heya, Rainbow!” she called. “Why’d ya stop?”
“I just want to know how laps I’ve done,” the pegasus replied. “Have you been counting?”
Applejack nodded happily. “Yesiree. You’ve been doin’ about…hmm…I’d say five.”
Rainbow felt a little pain in her head. She had to be joking.
“That’s not near a hundred!” Rainbow said, “I need to do a hundred! I thought I was way past that number!”
AJ shrugged. “Well, ya ain’t. And if you wanna get to a hundred, then go to it! I won’t keep ya waitin’.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. This was ridiculous.
Patience is a virtue, or so they say. Well, as Dash flapped her wings in preparation, she began to wonder if “virtues”, whatever they were, were a good thing.

An hour later, a sweaty and tired Rainbow Dash crashed into the ground, too tired for any sort of gentle landing. She let herself breathe for the first time in a while, since beginning the slalom training. Her wings ached, and so did her arms, legs, head, body – basically, everywhere.
She turned over, so that she was lying on her back, and just laid there for a while. A set of hooves began to approach her from a distance, and she looked over through half-closed eyes to see her farmpony friend approaching.
AJ opened her mouth to say something, but Rainbow Dash held her up. “Don’t even say anything. I know I did a hundred. I kept counting.”
“Naw, I wasn’t gonna say that,” Applejack noted, “Tired, much?”
Through subtle gasps of air, Rainbow muttered, “No, I just decided to crash into the ground and I figured I might as well hyperventilate, too.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Enough o’ your sarcasm, Dash. Why don’t we go back to our tent – just relax for a little bit, huh? I somehow managed to get some apple cider for us. Reminds ya of home, don’t it?”
The pegasus could see AJ was trying to put a light spin on their predicament, but it wasn’t doing too much good for Rainbow Dash. The idea of not being in Equestria had eaten away at her for the last week, and even worse – the idea of not seeing Rarity…or Fluttershy…or Pinkie Pie…
Before her thoughts consumed her, Dash asked, “Is…is it hard?”
AJ cocked her head to the side. “What?”
“The cider…is it hard apple cider?”
The orange pony looked over to the side. “I haven’t tried it myself, but I did manage to sneak it off some Union soldier…an’ based off my knowledge o’ these things, I wouldn’t be surprised if all their drinks were alcoholic. They probably have hard water, come to think of it.”
That made Dash laugh out loud. “Yeah, I need a drink. And to be honest, I don’t think hard apple cider would kill me today. Don’t judge.”
AJ lent a hoof to Dash, helping her up. “None taken. It’s been a hard week – I could use some myself.”
The two friends walked slowly to the tent they were living in on the encampment in silence, just taking in the Washington air that day in April.

Yet another hour later, a bugle sounded. When the brass instrument finally stopped playing its tune, 100 or so recruits walked onto the field, dressed in light clothing. They faced a man in an official’s uniform, who was riding back and forth on a horse. An Earth horse – a brute of an animal that’s twice the Equestrian ponies’ height.
The men on the field were talking amongst themselves, but upon the sight of the officer’s glare, they ceased talking. He continued to pace on the horse, and once he saw everybody’s eyes on him, he spoke.
“Gentlemen,” he began, “I’m sure you’re aware of the Southern attack on our own Fort Sumter. Which also means, as I’m sure you know, war. Yes, it’s true – the United States is at war with its newfound counterpart, the Confederacy. So we must train, my boys! Those men down there – some of them are trained to the caliber of you, most even better! That means we’ll have to work a bit harder in these next couple weeks if we want to even think about winning this fight against them.
“Now, I know this is just about the same amount of men I’ve had training with me for the last couple weeks – but, expect that number to change. I foresee a great number of true, American men ready to fight for their country – President Lincoln himself has called for thousands of volunteers. 
“But, we actually have gotten some in early. Men, I’m sure you’re aware of the three newcomers who arrived here the other day.” The officer pointed to the ponies’ encampment. The men turned around to see Twilight, just relaxing on the ground. She smiled and gave a wave of her hoof.
The officer looked around for a bit around the tent. Then, “You! Get up here, little missy – Lincoln wants you to fight, so I’m going to train you to fight. Understood?”
The unicorn sighed. “Yes, sir.” She stood up and trotted over to the group of soldiers, some of which just stared at her in disbelief.
“Men,” the officer continued, addressing the group, “This here is – is Twilight. She’ll be helping the war effort with us, mostly because she has access to certain abilities that none of you have or could comprehend – “
“What, does she actually stop talking? That’d be a feat for any woman around here.”
The comment came from some random soldier within the crowd, and caused a bit of laughter and unsettled the group a bit. The officer pointed a gloved hand at the soldier and barked, “Johnson! I don’t take interruptions! Just for that, five extra laps on the trail! Starting now.”
A sigh was heard, and a soldier with short hair and a goatee began jogging towards the woods, the beginnings of the trail.  
The officer saw him off, waiting until he was well enough away, and then went on even further. “Yes, miss Twilight is here for the war effort, and has agreed to train with the rest of us. There are two more – Twilight! Where’re your companions?”
The scholar blinked a bit, and then looked back to the tent. Seeing as how her friends were nowhere in sight, she looked back the officer and shrugged – which caused the entire company to gasp. Since when did ponies shrug?
“I have no idea, officer,” she stated honestly, “They went into that tent and they – haven’t – “
“We’re – we’re comin’ don’t you –don’t you worry – w-worry ‘bout us n-n-none.”
The Southern voice was accompanied by Applejack stumbling out of the tent and promptly falling flat on her face. Her unicorn friend rushed over and helped stand her up straight with her magic. 
“Applejack,” Twilight said worriedly, “Applejack what’s w – what were you doing in there?”
Applejack looked like a train wreck. Her eyes were bloodshot, she could barely stand up, she seemed tipsy altogether – and, when the farmpony replied, she could do nothing but slur.
“I- I been fffffine thank you, li’l missy. Don’t – don’t ya st-start grilling – grilling me for…for…information! I was…me and Rainbow….We were just havin’…having some uh….some o’ that appla cider in our t-tent there.”
“Apple cider?” Twilight asked. Then, suddenly, she saw the answer. Apple cider. There was more than one type.
Almost as if to answer her, a voice in the crowd shouted, “She’s drunk to high hell!”
The vote was unanimous. Applejack was inebriated. Out of her mind.
“Where did - ,” the scholarly unicorn began, trying to think of how to ask the question, “Where did you get the cider? And…where’s Rainbow Dash?”
“RD is….heh, that girl’s passed out on the cot,” AJ slurred out, “And we – we gots…we gots the cider from a certain somepony….someone, I mean…” She flicked her eyes back and forth flirtatiously, “Although….” She giggled before continuing, “I might’ve had to do a few favors…certain favors…”
Twilight took a step or two back, her eyes widening in shock and disgust. As did the group of soldiers. “APPLEJACK!” the lavender unicorn yelled.
“Ah’ma just kiddin y’all, sheesh…wow, this stuff sure is…good. It’s good, it’s good….”
“Enough!” the officer shouted over the din that was beginning to grow. “We’re all beginning the trail run this instant! It’s my job to prepare all of you for the war that’s going to destroy this nation, and goddamn it I’m not going to lose it just because some horse from another planet got into somebody’s booze! Twilight, stay here and care for your friend – she’s too drunk to stand.
“The rest of you, let’s go! And you,” the officer said sternly, point at a drunk Applejack, “I expect you to be running later. Alone. Welcome to the Army of the Potomac, little filly. Ain’t no place for goofing off.”
And with that, he exclaimed “Let’s go!” to his steed, and they took off, running along side the group of men, leaving Twilight and AJ to stand outside of the tent.
Once they were to the woods, the purple pony turned around angrily to AJ, who was beginning to come out of her drunkenness. “What is your problem?!” the scholar demanded.
“Huh…wash?” was the only reply.
“You’re drinking hard apple cider? Do you have any idea where you are, AJ? Any idea, at all?”
“Uh….” 
“We’re in a war! A war not like in Equestria! Where people die! Where ponies could die! Where you could die if you do stuff like this!”
AJ shook her head. “Twig’ dear…this is…this is training’ camp.”
“It doesn’t matter!” Twilight countered, using a voice that was a bit louder than her normal, “It doesn’t matter! This isn’t like you, Applejack. You’re usually one to go out there and get stuff done – the only one out of us with this fantastic gung-ho attitude! And a work ethic! I’m sitting here, trying to figure out what went wrong when I tried to teleport back – and you’re drinking it up with Rainbow Dash!”
“She-she…she wanted it, more than I did….”
“And you let her?”
This question hit AJ hard, even though she was still half-drunk. The farmpony felt the question kind of…deep. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but she got the feeling that this may be a serious thing. “What?” she managed to say clearly.
Twilight sighed. “Rainbow Dash was hard at work this morning, going through all of her training. I watched her. She’s embraced this whole ‘other world’ thing better than most of us, and no doubt she’ll be on the frontlines. I pray to Celestia she’ll be safe. But, I’m not sure whether I should be praying to the Sun Princess because of the battle, or because of the alcohol! You have no idea what this is doing to her, do you?”
“Well, I…I don’t – “
“She’s passed out in the tent, that’s how drunk she is!”
“Calm down, Twilight…p-please…”
“No, I won’t! You should know better than to give her that stuff! Why are you even having alcohol?”
“’Cause…’cause it’s been a hard week, that’s all…and…and…”
“A hard week? A HARD WEEK?” Applejack began to recoil at how angry Twilight was getting. She’d never seen her friend like this before. “YOU’VE HAD A HARD WEEK? TRY DEALING WITH THE GUILT KNOWING YOU GOT YOUR FRIENDS HERE, AWAY FROM THEIR FAMILY, AND YOUR OWN, AND YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT?”
Applejack looked down to the ground. She knew she missed her family, but she hadn’t considered the entirety of the ordeal from Twilight’s perspective. She couldn’t imagine the kind of guilt her unicorn friend was experiencing. The headache she was beginning to get from the alcohol was no compounded by her friend’s yelling, and Ax’s own guilt.
“And now,” Twilight continued, fuming, her hair fraying in different places, “All you’re trying to do is keep them alive as you try to find a way home. And you’ve failed, already, by losing three of them! I need you two alive! I’m not going to let you die in the Celestia-forsaken war. But how can I do that when you, the sensible, hardy one and the arrogant, constantly-moving one are drinking it up! I can’t do this all alone, AJ, it – it’s too much stress!”
“Twilight,” AJ began, the sense coming back to her, “I – I’m sorry…”
“She’s passed out! That means alcohol poisoning! What if she doesn’t wake up?”
“Twig’, you’re over-reacting’ just a smidge – “
But the scholar paid her no heed. “What if she doesn’t wake up? I should’ve known you two would get into trouble? But why, AJ? Why’d you give her the stuff? You’re becoming more of a doormat than Fluttershy!!”
The lavender pony’s words hit her in the face. She immediately clasped a hoof to her mouth, to stop herself from saying anything more. Applejack just looked at her in surprise.
Had that…had that really come out of her mouth? Her friend could be dead….her friend who she had to have protected…and they were using her name like that? A…a “doormat”?
Almost five minutes went by, and no words were spoken. 
Tears began to well up in Twilight’s eyes. “I…I should go…” she said, warily, and then galloped away to the woods, to join the Army of the Potomac in their training. As she crossed the field, she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get rid of any tears. What monster had she become?
AJ didn’t raise a hoof to stop her friend. While the drunkenness was still there, it had deteriorated since she staggered out of the tent. Enough for AJ to realize what the war was doing to the three of them.
She wasn’t sure what scared her more, though: The fact that this was the first panic attack Twilight’s ever had, or that the unicorn was right in all her statements.