Millennia: Beginning

by Thunderblast

6. The Welcomed Day Off

I slept soundly in my bed, one hoof hanging off the edge of it. I wasn't much of a snorer, but apparently I got loud at night. Of course, the barrack I stayed in had about eight others inside of it. I could have been mistaken for somepony else's snoring. The training we had the day before left me exhausted and sore yet again, nothing a hot shower wouldn't help.

Out of nowhere, I shot awake. My heart raced a hundred miles per hour as I sat up. I glanced around as quickly as I could and quickly realized everypony else was gone.

"Shoot, I missed the morning call!" I threw the sheets off of myself and stood up. I apparently didn't throw them off in the right direction and I fell face first onto the floor after getting my hind leg caught. I flailed and kicked the blanket off of my hoof and jumped to all fours. I darted to the door and ran outside. It was worse than I thought.

The sun was up. Even more so, it was high up. I looked to my side, and suddenly the drill sergeant was standing there with the worst glare I've ever seen. I jumped in surprise then snapped to attention.

"What the hell are ya doin' boy?! Ya slept in, bloody disgrace!" He hissed.

"I-I'm sorry, sir! It was a mistake!" I shook in fear.

"We don't accept mistakes like you!" He shouted into my face. Then, all of a sudden, his voice turned demonic. "And you won't see the sun again."

The next thing I knew, his teeth had grown into massive, sharp fangs, his eyes black and bloodied, and his tongue like that of a snake. My eyes opened wide and I pinned my ears to my head.

"S-sir...I..." I stuttered, now terrified.

Then, everything went black. I thought I was dead. I knew I was dead. And I was going to hell.

***

I woke up screaming, loud enough to wake up the entire barrack, perhaps the one beside ours too. I stopped and panted, then slowly looked around me. To my surprise, nothing was that different, except more of a golden glow flowing into the barrack through the front windows, and most of my barrack mates were there, scattered around the room doing their own thing. I think once I started screaming, I unintentionally brought all of their attention to me.

"Star Shooter, what's wrong?!"

I glanced up, Solar Wave stood there, looking down at me in concern. I then stared forward, quickly calming myself down. "N-nothing. Just er," I moved the blanket off of my lower body. "Bad dream is all."

"Are you sure?" The unicorn tilted his head and was still staring at me.

I nodded and rose from my bed. "A hundred and ten percent."

He sighed in relief. "Your screaming almost gave me a heart attack. What scared you?"

I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about it. "I dreamed that I slept in."

Solar Wave tilted his head with an eyebrow cocked upwards. "Wha?"

"...I slept in here?"

"I still don't get it."

I sighed. "Forget it. I'm awake now. Did I miss anything?"

Solar shook his head. "We just got up ten minutes ago. Our CO came in and said today's a day off due to the drill sergeant coming down with the flu."

"Don't they have somepony else to train us?" I asked, a bit surprised.

"Guess not," Solar shrugged. "I guess today is a day to hit the town. If...you want of course," he smiled sheepishly.

I smiled back. "Sure, why not? Anything to get me out of this base."

Solar Wave smiled big and flicked his tail happily. "Great!"

He seemed pretty shy asking me to go. Maybe he wasn't that much of a social pony either. I could finally relate to somepony else. It had already been a whole week since I left my home in Canterlot for the naval base in Manehattan. Life has never been so different. The entire week was spent inside the base perimeter, doing all kinds of exercises on the track and the workout field, some conscripts called it the Brickyard. I'm not sure why, considering it was all grass.

Me and Solar Wave grabbed a quick shower and breakfast at the mess hall, before we were given lanyards to keep on us for when we returned. For some reason, gate guards did not accept dog tags. Solar thought it was because it was easier to make fake dog tags and slip inside to wreak havoc, which made sense but we still didn't know.

Tucking my lanyard into my uniform pocket, me and Solar left the main gate where we caught a taxi carriage. I paid the stallion pulling the carriage fifteen bits to take us where we wanted to go—Batterneigh Park on the eastern tip of the island. I wasn't sure why we chose a park to go, but I just went with it.

The taxi trip lasted approximately ten or eleven minutes. The stallion was quick in his gallop, which was fairly nice. And with all of the track I had been doing in the last few days, I could have easily gotten a job as a carriage puller for the Manehattan taxi service.

Me and Solar Wave arrived at Batterneigh Park—or the Batterneigh as he also called it—around nine in the morning. A perfect breeze flowed between the trees and up the streets of the city from the ocean that brought a fresh smell of saltwater. Believe it or not, it was a good smell—and it was also something I would have to get used to, not that I really minded it.

"Here we are, the Batterneigh!" Solar Wave said happily as we stared towards the park from across the street.

It wasn't anything special. Just a park that was squeezed between the street, a bunch of tall skyscrapers, and the ocean itself.

"Come on!" Solar grabbed my hoof and dragged me across the street. Luckily, no taxi carriages were coming.

We trotted quickly directly through the park and soon walked up to some standing binoculars that lined against the edge of the water facing eastwards. Solar ran up to one and looked into it, his face lightening with joy.

"Star, you've got to look in here!"

"What is it?" I didn't know.

Solar Wave stepped back and motioned for me to look through with a warm smile. I walked up and leaned my head closer, looking through the binoculars. Staring through it, I turned it a bit and realized I was staring directly at the Statue of Harmony, a tall, green statue of a mare wearing a crown and holding a tall torch in her hoof while standing on her hinds. It was a popular landmark to Manehattan.

I gasped a little and smiled. "Whoa, that's cool!" I pulled back from the binoculars. "Now I see why you wanted to come here."

Solar Wave nodded and smiled big still. If I didn't know any better, he was a foal in a stallion's body. Not that I had anything against it, he was just energetic about his day off. Today was the first time he smiled that week too.

***

The day couldn't have been better. After the two bad weather days, we've had so far, the sky had almost no clouds floating about. If it were warmer, and if the city had a beach, it would have been a good day to lounge. But, at the same time, it was an even better day to explore this magnificent metropolis I would call home for the long while.

At the same time, however, there wasn't much to the city. Mostly office towers and high rises with the occasional famous tourism spots here and there. When I had originally arrived in town, I had pretty much seen everything the city had to offer. Assuming Solar Wave hadn't seen much, I pretended to be seeing the landmarks for the first time. I hated pretending just to make ponies happy, but I didn't want to break the poor colt's heart. Unlike myself, he was far more energetic. Give or take a few weeks and I knew he would be a different pony, as would I.

Later on around lunch time, we found a decent hayburger joint to eat that we both somehow knew of beforehand. For the price, it was quality—but also greasy—food, and a good amount of it too. After we finished, me and him basically agreed to stay away from restaurants like those for a while. For all we knew, we likely gained back the weight we lost in the week of physical testing in just a few minutes, and that wouldn't make the drill sergeant happy at all.

Pretty much after that, we jogged a bit up and down the streets until we grew tired and were eventually ready to head back across the river.

Comments

[XNR041]

I think I know why they call it the brickyard.

It's where the conscrips drop like a brick

[Kalashnikitty]

Man, they got a day off? Lucky motherfuckers. I NEVER got days off in basic. And I certainly couldn't leave base, hell no.

[Thunderblast]

10702523
Yeaaaah I cringe looking back at this story now lol. This chapter was going to be replaced by something else in the rewrite but since I'm not doing it anymore, it's here to stay unfortunately.

[Kalashnikitty]

10703306
hey man, either way it's a pretty good story