Letters to Ponyville

by StapleCactus

Big Mac - 2nd letter

Dear Applejack,

Remember those ponies training in the courtyard from my last letter? Well, that was me today, along with about another twenty or so of us recruits.

We were roughly woken up about five minutes before anypony was ready, which is a might bit impressive, considering that most of my unit appears to be made up of farmers who ought to be used to getting up at the crack of dawn. The sun hadn’t considered coming up yet, I don’t believe. It didn’t, as a matter of fact, for another two hours.

Sergeant Gunsmoke; have I told you about him yet? He’s the pony in charge here. Only pony on the base he answers to is the Lieutenant, whose real name I don’t know yet. Well, Gunsmoke was the one we got marched out to meet in the courtyard. Believe me when I say he has the loudest voice of any pony I’ve ever heard. He could out-hollar Winona after that time she played peek-a-boo with a porcupine’s backside.

During the training session, we were each given a long length of wood shaped vaguely like a sword. It wasn’t all that heavy, but it’d probably leave a nasty bruise if one were to get walloped with it hard enough. We were paired up and were to try and overpower our partner with the sword to the best of our abilities, a way of figuring out how much we already knew.

My partner in particular was a unicorn stallion who looked like he wasn’t fed quite enough by his mother when he was a colt. Just holding the sword in his magic looked to be a real struggle for him. For a while there, I didn’t do anything but watch him. It ain’t right to pick on ponies who are smaller than you, and that’d be exactly what I’d be doing if I was to hit him right then. Eventually, the flickering glow encasing the sword turned nice and solid. He managed to lift the sword, plant his hooves, and let out a sigh of relief.

And then he hit me.

I woke up in the infirmary a few hours later. Turns out, a unicorn who doesn’t have very good control over his magic can sometimes push way too hard. That, and he hit me square in the temple. According to the nurse, I fell harder and faster than a lead turd in an outhouse with a twenty foot drop. Mental image aside, it was pretty bad. Looks like I’ve got a lot of training ahead of me before I’ll be ready to go out and fight for Equestria. I might be a pretty good farmer, but fighting just ain’t in my blood.

When I was released back to the barracks, I figured I’d be coming back to laughter. After all, a big stallion like me going down with a single hit? It must have been quite a sight. But no, I was wrong. Nopony was laughing. Instead, most of them were huddled around a bulletin board in the corner and whispering to each other in hushed tones. Curious, I made my way over to see what the fuss was about. Tacked to it was a sheet of parchment with the word FRONT across the top in big letters, and below that, in slightly smaller text, TWO MONTHS.

So I guess now I know how long I’ve got to get ready. I hope it’ll be enough.

Your brother,
Big Macintosh

Author's Note:

Malus Scriptor

And here's the second letter from Big Mac, brought to you by Malus Scriptor. He's planning a long ride, so don't forget to check him out and give him a nod.