"Midnight, please slow down!" my friend Kwill, who was hauling one of the troop's supply carts, said behind me. "I'm about to collapse!"
I stopped a little way ahead of him on the muddy, slush-strewn trail. We were already almost a quarter-kilometer behind the rest of our troop whose marching could be heard echoing through the snow-covered Everfree Forest.
It was midsummer when Queen Chrysalis tried to invade Shining Armor's and Princess Cadence's wedding. Ever since then we've been getting reports of multiple Changeling attack on the village that lies in the middle of the Everfree Forest, Everfree Village. Now it's late autumn, very nearly winter, and my squad has been ordered to go into the village to protect the survivors and stop the Changeling raids.
I sat on a rock close to the tree line that bordered the trail and took off the sopping rags that wrapped around my nearly frostbitten hooves and sighed, "These cloths barely do anything, they're so wet!" I decided to put them in my saddlebag. "I'll put them over a fire, if we can set one up."
I looked back to Kwill who was still a few meters away. "Come on Kwill, hurry up or they'll leave us behind!"
He tried to look up at me, but was more comfortable leaving his head down. He muttered something which I couldn't hear.
"What?" I called.
"Nothing," he called back, straining to pull the cart which caught on an exposed root. He kept pulling on the cart, trying to get it to move, until his hind legs slid out from underneath him and his rump hit the mud track with a wet squelch. I heard him breathing in hard gasps. "I..." he began, "I...can't go on...like this. My hooves are frozen, my coat is so wet it doesn't even keep me warm. Oh, Celestia, what are we out here for?!" After this he bowed his head and I saw his shoulders shake while shimmering droplets slid down his muzzle and dropped to the slush.
I walked over to him and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Hey, we have to keep moving otherwise we'll most likely freeze to death out here. Just wait, pretty soon we'll be sitting around a warm fire, drinking some coffee and eating radishes. You love radishes, don't you?"
Kwill sniffled and wiped his muzzle with his fore-hoof. "Yeah, that does sound good." He finally raised his head to look at me, his eyes red and puffy, almost making him look like an albino with his white coat.
"Here," I said as I stood up and unharnessed him from the cart, "I'll drag this box for awhile."
He nodded and stood up. I then said, "Help me get this cart free." We forced our numb hooves to move. Kwill pushed on the cart as I pulled. The cartwheel rolled over the root with a thud, and we were able to make our way to catch up with the rest of the troop.
"Midnight! Kwill! You're late!"
As we trudged along for what seemed like hours, the seemingly never-ending wall of trees finally broke, and we came upon a small clearing encircled by the surrounding forest where our troop was setting up rows of tents. We also heard the gruff voice of our squad's three-legged sergeant, Round Shield.
"Since you were late with the food cart nopony here got to eat! If I see any provisions missing from that cart I swear I will make you run laps around this clearing all night!" He said this as he walked over to the cart. He lifted the tarp that covered the top and, seeing nothing missing, put the tarp back down. "Nothing seems to be missing, so your punishment for being late is to collect dry firewood!"
"Yes, Sir!" Kwill and I said in unison. We rose our right fore-hoof to our crowns in salute. When Round Shield returned the gesture I unbuckled myself from the cart and turned with Kwill to look for wood.
"And put those helmets on!" Round Shield shouted behind us. "The only way you're going to keep that metal warm is to wear it at all times!"
"Yes, Sir!" we responded.
That evening, I was ordered to go on first watch. I went to my tent and donned my chest plate, hoof and leg guards, neck plates, body plates, and helmet, all of which I stuffed with rags for insulation. It helped a little bit, but the cloth would sometimes slip out of place and the cold metal would rub against my skin through my coat, sending a chill down my spine. I then strapped my shield to my left fore-hoof and my sword to my right fore-hoof. After this long--and rather difficult--process I pushed my tent flap aside with my muzzle and stepped into the frigid winter-night air.
The cold air bit into my lungs as I breathed in. I trod over to the perimeter of the camp and started my patrol.
I've always hated going on the night watch. For one, I was terrified of the dark, never knowing what lurked in those unforgiving shadows. The trees only made it worse, manipulating the moonlight to make the branches look like crooked, mutilated claws just waiting to snare somepony in their scraggly grasp.
The moon was the only reprieve from the darkness that surrounded me. I stood rigid, listening for anything that might be the sign of some sort of night ambush. I was pretty jumpy so when something tapped me on the shoulder I swung my sword around and nearly decapitated a fellow Guard. I sighed and said, "You never sneak up on an ally! I could have killed ou!"
The corporal who startled me, named Red Dawn for his red coat, and orange and yellow mane, and who also had a Russian accent said, "Apologies, comrade. I only wanted to tell you that I have moon-down shift. Go to bed, comrade," and he gave me a gentle push toward the camp.
I never realized how tired I really was: when I went inside my tent I just let my armor fall to the floor as I unbuckled all of the pieces. I then crawled under the blankets and fell into a restless sleep.