Day to Day
A story of a Royal Guard armorer
Routine
The first two months of being a.. Tea-pony, were quite a sharp learning curve for me, it soon became apparent why Steelmane was so annoyed at pony resources for ignoring his specific requests, time and time again.
None of the work the sergeant mentored me on was anywhere close to the work I had done in my civilian life, and it really took its toll on me physically.
Every evening I dragged myself to the dorm room before collapsing on my bed and passing out almost immediately.
“Hey.... Heli?... Wakey wakey!” A loud voice shouted in my ear as I slowly woke up.
“Get up!” A hoof impacted the side of my face and I startled, bolting upright.
“What the hay Burg!” I shouted at my roommate, Burgundy Spice.
He laughed and tilted his head as I climbed out of bed and shook furiously. Burg was a Guard First Class with Alpha squad and worked the night shift in the wood shop.
In the Lieutenants wisdom, she tried to pair new ponies with more experienced ones to share dorms with. That way unit morale and comradeship would remain high, and the lessons of the experienced guards could be passed along to us tea-ponies, as she called us, through casual conversation as well as official apprentice and buddy systems. She was a fine officer when it came to understanding pony skills and teaching by example.
“Aww don’t be so angry bud... I would hate it for you to be late when your on point for stock check duty” He smirked that confident smirk that he knew wound me up.
“Oh. Stock check. I am so excited” I sighed in an over-dramatic fashion. In reality stock checking was the easiest duty in the RCGE. It consisted mostly of cross checking items removed, returned or taken for repairs from the main QM store, and was always a good opportunity to learn from First Sergeant Molten.
“Ok, so that’s forty City Guard suits, twenty five Palace Guard, fourteen CHG and eight LHG suits” I nodded to First Sergeant Molten before continuing, looking back to the clipboard I had cradled in a wing.
“Eighty service swords, seventy six service spears and one hundred crossbows currently in inventory, First Sergeant” I concluded.
He nodded “Very good, and the custom orders?”
“We have four suits in for modification, all for LHG boss” I confirmed.
“They must have some real small ponies up there” Molten stated with a smirk.
“Very well, Helical, Let’s continue on with scheduling monthly spot checks on each guard unit, particularly the City Guard since they generally ding their armor more often than the others”
“Yes boss” I nodded
“Your shaping up well, by the way. How are you finding it so far?” Molten asked casually.
“I am enjoying things here, boss, some days are a bit.. Slow. Mostly I enjoy the staff over the more mundane aspects of the work” I cracked a little smile.
Molten grinned “Mhm, careful the Lieutenant doesn’t hear you say that, otherwise you may find yourself standing door guard for two weeks” He chuckled.
A voice broke Moltens chuckle “Who am I punishing now?” The Lieutenant stood at the end of the row of weapons cages, peering at us with a mischievous look in her eye.
The first sergeant and I stiffened to attention “Nopony ma’am” we both chimed in unison.
“Is that so?” She approached us slowly, moving to my side and peering over my shoulder at the clipboard I was still holding.
“Good work Helical. But there seems to be one error” She pointed out lightly.
“Ma’am?” I said in confusion.
“Mhm, four sets of CHG and nine sets of PG ceremonial” She stated, eyeing the First Sergeant who gave a tiny shrug.
“Well.... Maybe if I had given you this three hours ago” Her magic opened her saddle bag and a piece of paper floated to my clipboard.
“The Gala is this week and the guards on duty there need their ceremonial suits checked, cleaned and issued. I have their names listed there so it shouldn’t be too much hassle” She paused to give Molten a look, he seemed to stifle a chuckle before she leaned in close to my ear and said in a low tone.
“Unless it is too mundane for you to consider a priority?”
“No ma’am!” I nearly shouted
“Good, have fun!” She said before moving off “Carry on by the way!” she called over her shoulder.
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“Twenty nine hours” I said in annoyance, my left eye twitching slightly “Twenty nine hours it took to sort, clean and issue those suits”
Before me lay every suit of guard armor issued for the gala, my eye twitched as I surveyed the carnage before me.
Every suit was dented, scraped or covered in what was probably at one point a very nicely decorated cake.
“You should see the main hall” First Sergeant Molten and Sergeant Steelmane both toned solemnly.
The three of us stared at the suits in silence for a while before the Lieutenant appeared at Steelmane’s shoulder.
“It was a wild night for sure. Nopony was hurt but I think we really need to have a look at the materials they used to build those columns” She spoke in quiet disbelief.
We motioned to stand to attention but she waved a hoof at us. “Ok, well... We have a lot of work to do. I brought in Charlie Squad and tasked them with the main hall. Alpha had the night off and are on standby in case we need to do some major work. So it’s up to you stallions and mares of Bravo to get these.... Former cake decorations cleaned, repaired and stored as quick as you can”
All three of us nodded as she trotted to her office “First Sergeant, a word please” She called back.
“Yes ma’am!” Molten moved off to catch up with the Lieutenant, leaving me alone with Steelmane.
“I heard someone say once that parts of this job were mundane” Steelmane said to nopony in particular.
“Whoever said that, Sergeant, never had to bare witness to the aftermath of a gala”
It took all of Bravo squad two days to wrap up the cleaning and repairs of the ceremonial issue armor, we had found all sorts in there, bits of statute wedged in between plates, cake, what appeared to be acid burns but upon closer inspection turned out to be cola stains, I will never drink that stuff again! And even claw marks from what some ponies were sure belonged to squirrels and badgers. If this is what the gala was like every year then I had no intention of attending, duty or not!
I was finishing storing the repaired suits, which would bring me to the end of my shift, when Sergeant Steelmane appeared.
“Helical, the Lieutenant wants to see you”
“Yes Sergeant” I said. He nodded and moved to take over my task as I made my way to Shimmer Stone’s office.
I knocked the office door and waited.
“Enter” She said firmly.
Opening the door, I moved into her office before closing it behind me and moving to stand to attention in front of the Lieutenants desk.
She sat behind it with some paperwork spread across its surface. Looking up at me she said “At ease” in the same, firm tone of voice. It sounded like I was in trouble.
“Helical, you have been with us nearly three months now, so I think it’s high time we had a chat. Consider it a review if you like”
“Yes ma’am, understood”
“I have gathered reports from your squad NCO and form First Sergeant Molten. As well as Burgundy Spice” Her tone seemed to change a touch, less formal, which in my experience meant I was either going to be fired or this was going to be a good chat.
“Understood ma’am” I repeated.
“When you came here your discipline was a little lagging in comparison to the standards of the regular guard units. I believe that has improved a bit. Even in the more casual atmosphere we are granted here”
I nodded as she continued.
“Time-keeping is good. Enthusiasm good... Somewhat dulled by the gala” She smirked playfully.
She read through a list to herself for a moment before making eye contact.
“Social skills... Bad. Need improvement” she stated. I raised a brow.
“Ma’am?”
“Burgundy said in his report you don’t go out much, says you complain of being too tired to go out” She face was like a stone.
“Ma’am... I .. Um” I stammered, this was a bit personal for a review, surely?
As if reading my thoughts she continued “Your social life may not affect your work ethic, which is a real plus I have to point out, you work as hard as the most experienced in the Engineers. But if I had to be the one to give you any life lesson, it would be to make time and go out now and then. You will end up missing something you might enjoy if you stay in and sleep between shifts” She smiles softly, which was a dangerous look, so the First Sergeant told me.
“With that all said, I have two tickets to the theater for tomorrow evening. Your off duty and I intend to make sure you do something social for a change”
My mind spun in confusion. “Are you....”
“It’s not a date” She stated seriously, I flushed.
“I want to make sure that the ponies I keep in my unit are the best. That includes being good in social situations too, because Celestia knows we don’t get much of that within our unit”
She had a point, as guard engineers we rarely got called off-site as, typically, the work was brought to us.
“I don't supposed I can just... Go out myself?”
“Nope!” She almost sang
“Understood ma’am”
“Good! See you at eight, formal civilian dress, dismissed!”
Leaving her office I wondered if she did this with every pony who didn’t like social activities. Spying Steelmane looking at me with a look of utter pity confirmed my thoughts.
“This is going to be weird” I mumbled.