Raining Metal

by thecakeisalie

Notice

As the sun rose over Ponyville, Midnight got up for the day, ready for work. Trotting out to the orchards, he saw Big Mac and Applejack already working. Walking up to Applejack, he looked around at all the trees. Literally acres of red apples hanging heavy on the trees shined in the early morning sun. He figured if he was the only one working, it'd take at least a few days to clear all the trees. But he wasn't alone, it wasn't any harder than his usual work, and he'd only be here for a few days at the most, anyway. Poor Apple family. They had no idea.

He noticed empty baskets sitting around some slowly filling carts. Picking a couple up with magic, he wandered over to Applejack. "What do I do, and where do I start?"

"Oh good, you're awake. You can take those trees over there." She pointed off to her left, at an untouched area. "Jus' put the baskets down and buck the tree!"

"Easy enough," Midnight stated, heading to his stand of trees. Setting the baskets down, he got to bucking. Not quite as fast as Big Mac or Applejack, he still made better time than would be expected for a pony with seemingly no experience. He worked hard, and didn't take breaks. After all, he never tired, and he didn't feel pain. With the three of them working at an amazing clip, the first few carts were full in only a few hours. Big Mac left to go empty them into the barn.

"I'm gonna head inta town, see whats takin' the mail so long. Go ahead an' take a break, ok?" Applejack shouted across the orchard.

"I'll come with. I could use a good walk anyways." At this, Midnight streched out his hind legs, and set out on the path for town.

Applejack came up behind him, keeping pace. "You know, I been wantin' to know, what's up with the cutie mark?" She knew a cutie mark was an incredibly personal thing, but this unicorns was just so... weird. She couldn't help but be curios.

"Huh? This?" He indicated his odd cutie mark. "Well, I always was good at three things. The first was fighting. I was bullied a lot as a kid, so I really got good fast. The second was protecting my friends and family. We lived in a poor neighborhood, it was pretty violent, so someone had to be the protector. And the last... well, let's just say mares were really big fans." He said this last one with a wink to Applejack, causing her to blush. That strange feeling had once again flitted through her stomach, and it was just as uncomfortable as last time.

"And where'd you live?" She barely managed to mumble out.

"Ha. Well, I was born in Babylon. Lived there till I started wandering."

"But.. didn't that city get destroyed... thousands a years ago?"

"Well, it got rebuilt. Duh." Midnight covered for his slip. He wouldn't have expected a farmer pony to know that. The librarian, certaintly, any local teachers, probably, but not a farmer. Clearly Applejack was smarter than she looked.

"If you say so. How'd you get to be so good at bucking, anyways? You were almost as good as me 'n' Big Macintosh. Ain't natural for a beginner, if ah say so myself." She was trying her best to keep her tone from sounding aggresive, managing to eventually bring it off as mildly curious.

"Wandering made me strong, I guess. Lots of stuff out there to be wary of. Toughens one up." At around this time, the pair walked into Ponyville proper. Oddly quiet, the town seemed abandoned, not a single pony out shopping. As Applejack headed off for the post ofice, Midnight headed towards Sugarcube Corner, figuring ponies might have grouped up there. A flash of white showed in his peripheral vision. As he turned his head to take a better glance, he realized why everypony seemed to have disappeared. The white was a poster, and it wasn't a good poster at all.

The poster itself was nondescript, but what it said was a whole other issue. It carried a very important notice that went like this: "Everypony of age 16 or older is to report to their local post office. This is a mandatory draft. You will be informed within the week where you are to report to for basic training." Equestria Department of Defense

Ah, Midnight thought to himself. This screws up my plans to move on. Still, drafts mean wars, and wars forced him to do his job almost daily. It occured to him that he would be at the farm longer than intended. He would have to be careful doing the job. With that, he headed for the post office.

As Applejack walked into the post office, she got assaulted by her most competitive friend.

"Applejack! You got the message 'bout the draft too, huh? This sucks! I won't have time to practice at all. So lame!" Rainbow spoke quickly, doing small arial manuvers at the same time.

"Leave her alone, Rainbow. She probably doesn't want to get beat to death by your wings while waiting to get her draft number." Twilight scolded Rainbow, dragging her down to earth with magic.

"Twilight, sugarcube, what the hay is goin' on? I ain't heard 'bout no draft!" Applejack panicked. She couldn't afford to leave the farm during bucking season. Especially not with Granny Smith and Applebloom to worry about.

"Oh, you didn't see on the way in? The department of defense has put a draft in action. Nopony knows why, though. I mean, we're not at war, and we haven't been for over a thousand years. So whatever it is must be pretty serious. Anyways, we all have to get a draft card, and then they'll send us a letter in a week to tell us where we'll be reporting for training." Twilight had adopted a somewhat stiff tone, as if she was giving her friends a lecture.

"Do you think the Wonderbolts are more likely to take a war hero?" Rainbow bounced back into the air at the thought. She hadn't even realized Twilight had let her go, and celebrated her freedom by doing a lap around the post office, resulting in being grabbed by Twilight's magic again.

"Rainbow! Have some tact for once!"

"Psshaw, whatever. Egghead."

Walking into the post office right at the end of the exchange, Midnight could tell he'd missed some good entertainment. It didn't really matter though, he was there to sign up for service, and that was it. It would be done, then he'd go back to the farm, complete what he was really here for, and wait for the draft letter.

Comments

[thecakeisalie]

10087 Thanks a lot, especially with the dialog critique. Some of those things are addressed later in the story, but dialog is something I don't do well with. I'll try to improve my descriptions too. I'll go back and edit chapter one later!