Millennia: Beginning

by Thunderblast

9. A Change in the Season

With the days of weapons training seemingly flying by without much hassle, the weather in Manehattan was gradually growing cooler and breezier...and cloudier. I've always loved cloudy weather for some strange reason, my parents thought I was a vampire when I was a colt, and my mother took it seriously. It felt relaxing. The weather changing meant Fall was coming, my favorite season of all.

But with it came weekly rain showers that were freezing to the touch and quite frankly very uncomfortable to stand around in. I was thankful that the shooting range was in a large facility on the base rather than a cold, wet, and muddy field like I thought there would be.

One cool, breezy and overcast morning, we were allowed to get up on our own time—with our sleeping schedules now, it was still fairly early in the morning, just before or after sunrise. Each time, however, I felt like I was losing sleep. I wasn't sure if it was because we were no longer doing physical training that wore us out, or if it was the bed I slept on—likely both.

I took a quick, warm shower to start the morning, then put on my blue jacket and buttoned it up completely. Unlike past years, I had believed military-style jackets weren't good for colder weather. Boy, was I wrong. It was now my favorite jacket and I didn't go anywhere without it, off and on base.

Stepping outside into the cool, breezy air, I took a long glance around to see all that was going on. Nothing seemed to be that different with the usual activity of newer recruits jogging by with their drill sergeant who was shouting at them the entire way. It made me smile in the slightest way for some reason.

That morning was extremely cloudy and misty and I could just barely make out Manehattan's distinct skyline across the river from the fog. In the distance, a low roar of a fog horn blaring gave me a cold chill up my spine, followed by the horn of a ship trying to navigate the harbor somewhere. I wasn't a fan of nautical horns one bit. In fact, the fog horn itself was enough to spook me.

Before I could do anything else, I was struck down by a hoof to the back of the head and fell flat onto the ground, stunned from the hit and disoriented. I quickly turned over onto my back and looked up with wide-eyes which met those of a taller pony who had a smirk crossed his muzzle. My look of surprise quickly turned into a glare and I growled up at him.

"Awww, what's wrong, Star? Lost your balance?"

"Piss off, Nightpath," I replied in an angered tone.

"And why should I do that, huh?" The dark coated earth pony stepped closer and pulled me up by my jacket's collar.

I squirmed in his grasp and tried to get a grip onto the ground so I could stand properly, but instead Nightpath held me in a tighter grip, just above the ground where I couldn't reach. His smirk grew as he leaned his head closer to mine. Soon, I could feel his breath on my neck and it caused my feathers to ruffle.

"What are you going to do?"

I struggled a bit more in his grip and clenched my teeth. "Buy you some mouthwash, because you sure as hell need it."

Nightpath's smirk faded into a scowl. "Keep joking, you worthless excuse of a soldier. You won't be laughing when I push you into a whirlpool when we get out to sea."

"You wouldn't," I grinned.

"I would," Nightpath leaned even closer, his muzzle was now pressed against mine.

I felt uneasy, but I kept my cool just long enough for me to drive one of my forehooves into his neck in attempt to escape. The dark earth pony immediately dropped me and wheezed, followed by many hard coughs. His light blue eyes focused onto me and he spoke in a raspy voice, "You're dead!"

"We'll see about that," I tossed him a glare and stood in a defensive stance.

Nightpath coughed more and eventually charged towards me like a bull. Knowing just his momentum would be enough to injure me, I jumped to the side, allowing him to run right past me. He slid to a stop and I whipped around to face him while some other soldiers on base walked towards us to watch, not to stop the fight which surprised me.

He clenched his teeth and huffed loudly, charging towards me once again. I put my weight onto my hinds and stood on them, not moving out of his way. Instead, I pulled my right hoof back, and just before he could hit me, I slammed it into his jaw, just barely managing to clothesline him but also throw me onto my back from his own force. My hoof hurt, and Nightpath's jaw hurt more. At least, I hoped it did.

I got back on all fours and looked at the downed earth pony, who laid on the wet dirt with a bloodied chin and was groaning loudly in pain. He was stunned, just like I was when he hit me from the start. Since he was a bigger pony than I was, he wasn't down for long and got up to hit me again.

Before he could, a loud whistle rang through the air, and the few ponies watching stepped out of the way and at attention as sergeant Hardstaff angrily stomped up to us. Both me and Nightpath stood up straight as well.

"Now what in Celestia's bright sun are you all doing?!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Sergeant Hardstaff, sir," I started. "Conscript Nightpath here knocked me down and—"

"Conscript Star Shooter thought it was necessary to knock me down out of nowhere and beat on me, sir!"

My blood boiled. Of course I figured he'd lie about it to get me in trouble.

Sergeant Hardstaff immediately turned to me and gave me the deadliest glare I've ever seen out of him. "Conscript Star Shooter! Is this true?!"

"Sir, no sir!"

"Why for the love of Luna is Nightpath's jaw bloody?!"

"Sir, conscript Nightpath knocked me down and I fought back, sir!"

At this point, I was certain the sergeant wasn't sure who to believe. I hoped it would be me, but with my luck, that wouldn't happen.

"Both of you, fifty laps on the track. GO!"

Well, at least with physical activity, I'd hopefully sleep good tonight.

***

With fifty laps of track complete, another shower and a change of clothes later, I went to the Chow Hall for lunch to hopefully meet up with Solar Wave—and hopefully not have my face smashed into my food like two days ago.

Today's lunch was pretty simple: a salad sandwich with crispy bread and mayonnaise with a side of baked beans. Depending on how much I would be doing after that, it would certainly hold me off until dinner. As I ate, I looked around for my yellow unicorn friend but didn't see him. Unless there was some kind of training session today that I wasn't aware of, he wasn't in the Chow Hall, which surprised me because he loved to eat and talk with me on most days.

I finished with my food and took the tray back to the Chow Hall's kitchen and handed it back to the cleaning mare, then made my way back out onto the base grounds with nothing to do. As I did, I froze when a large, cold drop of rain patted onto my muzzle. I shook my head to get it off, then looked upwards at the sky. It was still overcast and the Manehattan skyline was still mostly fogged out, but what it really was now was an approaching downpour. More drops patted down, one managing to painfully hit me right in the eye.

Soon, it picked up and was very quickly turning into what it was downtown; a heavy rain with a strong gust blowing in from the west, with another blowing in from sea like always. Prior to the downpour arriving, I ran into my barrack with a couple of others and quickly shut the door as the roar of the rain coming down overtook the barrack's heater which normally let off a building-wide low hum.

None of us were soaked, but we did have wet spots on our jackets from the rain drops that did hit us. Those of us in the barrack at the time went to the windows at the front by the door to watch the rain, which was coming down hard enough where we could barely see out the door. We certainly weren't going out for a while.

"So, since the weather's too nasty to go out and do anything in town, how's about we just camp out here?" Spoke up one of the other conscripts.

Silver Edge, the other pony I knew at boot camp, raised his eyebrow and gave the conscript a funny look. "This is where we stay, how is it camping out?"

I gave him a gentle elbow nudge. "Just go with it."

The beige unicorn replied with a nod, and the two of us went over to the other conscript. I truly didn't know what there was to do in and around the barrack.

"So, how's about we exchange stories?" The conscript asked.

"Sure, why not?" Silver shrugged and smiled.

"Stories of what?" I asked.

"Anything. Funny moments, where we originated from, anything you can think of that you remember."

"You start," I said, walking around the conscript's bed and sat on the vacant one beside it, Silver following suit.

"If you say so," the conscript cleared his throat. "I'm from Whitetail Woods, born and raised. Always been intrigued by the Royal Guard and the military. My mom is a stay-at-home taking care of my little brother. Dad was a first sergeant in the Equestrian Army and had one and a half tours in the Griffon Empire."

"One and a half tours?" I asked with a grin.

"Yeah! One tour, he was about halfway through a second but came home early when he was struck by shrapnel when a mine went off. He's okay now, but most of the metal wasn't removed. I guess when the wounds closed up, they conformed around the metal and it hasn't bugged him since. Now he works at the post office in town," he shrugged.

"He wanted me to run the courier route for him, but I thought it was too much work. When I first got here though, I regretted every minute I wanted to enlist. But, that's changed again. It's just peachy now. Oh, right. My name's Storm Lancer. Now, what about you two?"

Silver perked up a bit. "I come from Las Haygas. My dad's a blackjack dealer at one of the casinos."

"What about your mom?" Storm asked innocently.

Silver paused, his ear flicked. "I've never met my mother."

"Oh..." Storm and I both said.

"I'm...so sorry, I didn't—"

"Don't worry about it, according to my dad, she isn't dead. She just...left."

We both paused. "Still, I'm so terribly sorry," Storm said.

Silver just nodded. After a pause, he looked towards me, and I soon realized he wasn't going to continue.

"Me?" I asked, pointing to myself. The two nodded in reply. I cleared my throat.

"I'm from Coltlumbus. Dad was a sergeant in the army, mom's a receptionist working for the law enforcement agency in the city. At least, I think she is. It's been so long since I've seen them. Too long. And they don't ever write to me."

"That's harsh man..." Storm frowned. "Why don't they?"

I shrugged. "They must not know my address, even though I told them and haven't moved since. It's not like I ran away, I just left the nest a little early, you know?"

"What age did you leave?"

"Fifteen. I've never had a legitimate job, I've just been living off of unemployment money. I got tired of everything being so boring, and here I am."

"True that. Having no job and still making just enough money to live doesn't feel right either, especially when you know you can get a job somewhere," Silver shrugged.

"Still, that's harsh about your parents. Were you picked on, or were they good?" Storm asked, Silver punched his arm. "Ow!"

"They were good parents. Very strict though. My dad bugged me about forcing me into the Army if I didn't go to college. I did end up going to a small university in Baltimare, but my dad cut my funding because I didn't have straight A's. That was part of the reason I left and went to Canterlot to live. He was really expectant of me. So, I still haven't been able to finish college because he didn't like that I had a C in Math."

"Sounds like it," Storm rubbed his now-bruised arm. "I hated every minute of college. My grades were shit too."

"I never went to college," Silver crossed his arms and sat against the wall at the back of the bed. "I think it's stupid. I mean, you already waste ten years of your life in school, then you have to go and spend another two damn years in the same snotty classrooms each and every day and expected to have straight A's just to get a degree? No thanks, that is not for me. If I'm going to specialize in anything, I want it to be something related to the military."

"What are you shooting for?" I asked, turning to Silver.

Silver let out a soft, content sigh. "I don't know yet, I'm thinking about it. What about you? What do you want to be?"

I paused to think for a few moments. "In the Lunar Marines?" Silver nodded. "I don't know. Right now, I just want to graduate boot camp. Bigger dreams can come later."

The two nodded. "That's a good idea. Hopefully we all make it," Storm fiddled with his hooves.

"As do I. We've come so far, it would suck if we didn't make it now," Silver said.

"Yeah, well...I hate to break it to you guys, but the hardest part is still coming according to sergeant Hardstaff." Both Storm and Silver let out a groan of distress.

"Whatever it is, and after we finish with weapons training, we'll be ready to face it. They won't want us to expect something, but we should expect everything. Everything in the book that they can throw at us. For all we know, this might be the one time where they are trying to kill us, to see if we're worthy enough to make rank," I paused. "And I'd say we're getting close to that day. Weapons training doesn't take as long as physical training."

"That's the problem, they don't want us to know when any of this will be coming so we aren't prepared for it," Storm laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling.

"But we are prepared. They've spent the last two months beating us into shape, spraying us with water, forcing us to run like we were being chased by a crazy pony with a knife, and now showing us how to properly fire a gun, reload it, and be quicker with it. I'll be damned if they're training us to be soldiers, and then throw something at us that we can't handle," I explained.

"They're training us to be fighters. To be warriors for our country. They're preparing us for everything that could be thrown at us in the future. And ready or not, they're going to try and break us. You hear me? We're all going to make it through boot camp, or die trying."

"That's relieving to hear," Silver rolled his eyes.

I let out a sigh. "But it's true. It's either make it or die at this point."

"If you say so," Storm looked towards the window. "Hey you guys? I think the rain calmed down."

I got up off of the bed and walked to the door, opening it and standing under the small canopy that shielded a small square in front of the door from any rain. The concrete was soaked, as was all of the ground around the base. Multiple puddles of all size were scattered around with tiny rings of disturbances from raindrops still coming down. The rain wasn't a downpour anymore, but was a steady shower—still very cold.

"It did," I said from the door, shutting it. "Still raining though. And the temperature's cooled a lot."

Silver sighed in some frustration, laying back on the bed. "Bundle up boys..."

I looked at him, as did Storm. "Why?"

"We're in for a long winter, and it's coming early. I can feel it."

Comments

[Thunderblast]

I'm starting to become hesitant about this story. Each new chapter seems to gain a new dislike and I don't even know why.

[ponyponypony34]

6176116 Why? It's a great story! One of the best stories I've read.