Raining Metal

by thecakeisalie

Coltifornia (Pt. 2)

Midnight was suprised to find that the draft had sent him, Applejack, and Twilight to the same camp. Himself and Twilight would, of course, be going into a special course for battle magic after basic training. He didn't know what Applejack would be doing, as she had been given an extra weeks leave to make plans for what to do with Applebloom, since herself and Big Mac would both be going into service. Of course, a week wasn't neccesary, but Midnight suspected someone high up had caught wind of Granny Smith's passing, and had decided to give the family more time to grieve.

It was under these conditions that Twilight and Midnight arrived at Camp Ponyton in Stallion Diego for basic training, and the magic courses. They were split almost immediatly, of course, Midnight going into the stallion section of camp, Twilight heading off for the mares' bunkers.

A yelling Earth Pony sergeant quickly had them split into Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies. As Midnight headed off with the other Unicorns, he was approached by another new recruit. "Hey, you look lonely," the new stallion said, "I'm pretty lonely myself. Mind if I stick by you? My name's Icescape. What's yours?"

Midnight, taking a quick glance at this new pony, picked up on a few major things. Firstly, Icescape was accurately named- he was whiter than artic snow, from his mane to his tail. Secondly, his cutie mark was a stylized bird, who knows what that was supposed to mean. Lastly, he appeared to be just a little shorter than Midnight himself was in colt form. He hoped that himself and Icescape wouldn't become friends. Having friends was a little too hard when you eventually sent the to the afterlife. Realizing he'd been looking at the new colt for almost a minute, he grunted out "Midnight," and turned away.

"Oh, what a cool name! Way better than mine. It's been a while since I've had a real friend, you know. It's nice to know we'll be tight!" Icescape beamed at Midnight, bouncing up and down, doing an amazing pinkie impression, randomness and all. "OH! You wanna know where I'm from?"

"Do I have to?" Midnight was starting to become alarmed by this foalish pony. he really didn't need a "friend" right now, especially not one like this.

"Well, I was born WAY up north, in Wetherinton. In Olympony, to be exact. Anyways, it rained more than it snowed, but when it did snow, it was so beautiful..." Icescape launched on what semmed to be his lifes story. "... Anyways, I discovered how good I was at doing nature stills, and then I got my Cutie Mark! Pretty cool, huh? Not as cool as yours, of course, but still. Anyways, I started spending a lotta time doing art after that, which made me kinda an outcast, I guess. Definently didn't get me tons of friends, but I still had a few, so that was ok. And I liked art yah know?..."
Midnight had nearly managed to block Icescape out completely when he threw a hoof around Midnight's shoulders. "... And then when I went to college, I was younger than everyone else, so I was an outcast. And then I thought I'd made friends with this one other kid, he was named Flamesear, but then he took all my art and made a bonfire out of it..." At this point, Icescape slowed down, both in speech and movement. "And so I got kicked out of school. That was a couple of years ago, and I've been barely living off comissions in a crappy apartment since then. I had a girlfriend once, but I caught her making out with another colt, and she chose him..." Icescape had finally shut up entirely, his head drooping down to the ground. Midnight was feeling bad despite himself, and was about to reach out and cheer Icescape up, but never got the chance.

"Alright, fillies! Welcome to Barrack number seven!" Shouted out the seargent. "Get your beds set up, go to the mess hall, and get some grub. Enjoy yourselves, Mares, because Basic training starts tommorow!"

At this, the Unicorns marched into the Barracks, giving Midnight a chance to speak to Icescape. "Come on man, I won't treat you that way. Now make your bed, then lets go get some food, huh?"

This perked Icescape up considerably, causing him to move about in a blur, making his bed. God, Midnight thought, if him and Pinkie got together, I think the world would explode. "Done!" Midnight heard from behind, and was shocked to find that Icescape had, indeed, made his entire bed in the space of one thought. Midnight hadn't even started. This is gonna be difficult, Midnight thought with a facehoof.

After making his own bed, Midnight headed out with Icescape towards the mess hall. Icescape was suprisingly funny, telling joke after joke. And even the occasional story. It turned out the kid had near perfect recall, as Midnight found out when they got into a battle over who knew more useless trivia. The challenge culminated in Midnight asking what the exact population of Equestria was two years ago. "147,320,913." Icescape replied. "I read that in the Neigh York Times a couple of years back."

After that, Midnight conceeded defeat. No point in trying to outsmart the world almanac, he figured.

Dinner turned out to be some kind of bean mush, oatmeal blander than dirt, and a hard biscuit at least two months old. A strict no second helpings policy was already being enforced. All in all, not a great first meal for the new recruits. It left them hungry, which in turn made them anxious, grumpy, and irrational. Though somehow Icescape kept his mood up, explaining he'd survived on "Barley bits for days at a time," in the past, and it didn't matter much to Midnight, who didn't actually need to eat, most of the others fared poorly. Midnight figured it might be intentional, an attempt to get the unity of the ponys broken before they'd even begun. Or maybe an attempt to make sure they understtod they were just cogs in the machine. Either way, it was very succesful, Midnight thought to himself, as he fell asleep on his metal bunk.