Family Apprciation Day: A Charles Hoofwin Story

by Spades_of_Ace

Chapter 5

A warm breeze blew through the golden plains of rolling grass as a young khaki colored stallion trotted along a dirt path to a town on the horizon. Charles had his half empty saddle bag over him as he passed a wooden sign that said in bright, bold letters, Welcome to Ponyville. He smiled wearily as he inched closer toward the nearby town down the path. He muttered to himself, “Almost there.” After trotting over a slope, Charles could now see the populated town; he let out a sigh of relief and took off; galloping the rest of the way to the town.

When he finally reached Ponyville, one of the first things he needed was to purchase some provisions before he bought himself a train ticket to Canterlot, and one of the places he stopped by was a general store called, ‘Barnyard Bargains’. Before he even stepped inside through the shutter doors, he heard an argument going on inside between two stallions.

“I keep telling you pops, I don’t need to learn about this supply and demand stuff ya keep rambling about,” a young stallion shouted at an older earth pony.

“You know what I don’t need this right now, I’ve got papers tah sort and ya’ll ain’t helping me,” the older pony argued back.

“Whatever,” the younger pony spat out as he busted through the double doors to see a rather surprised earth pony standing at the front steps.

“Uh...you didn’t by any chance hear any of that did ya,” asked the young stallion with a nervous chuckle.

Charles gave a nervous smile, “It’s a little hard to ignore an argument that...interesting.”

The younger stallion groaned loudly as he paced around and said, “I’m just sick of my old man pestering me about running his business, but he says I’ve got ta learn about economics or something like that.”

“Hmm. What’s your name son?” Charles asked with a slight nod.

“Filthy. Filthy Rich-but I prefer Rich,” Filthy Rich said placing a hoof on his chest.

“Okay Rich. Look I’m not one to take sides or anything, but your old man has a point. Learning the concept of running a business is important,” Charles said with a slanted expression.

“Really, how so?” Filthy Rich asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Well it’s like this; your ‘old man’ ain’t gonna be around forever and when he’s gone, all of the work he put into his store right here is gonna fall on your shoulders. And trust me; without knowing what to do with it, the whole business will fall apart right before your very eyes,” Charles explained as he maintained eye contact with Filthy Rich. He glanced at the ground for a second as he thought about what Charles just said to him.

“I take it you don’t want to let your family down,” Charles asked which really made Filthy Rich think hard about it.

“No… I sure don’t,” Filthy Rich said with a stern look on his face, “What do you suggest?” “Have a seat Rich,” Charles said as a patted on one of the steps on the deck he sat on, “I’ll teach ya what my dad taught me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I explained to Filthy about the whole concept about the world of economics,” Charles said to the class, “Such as supply and demand, wholesale marketing, keeping in check with the stock, finding what the customer wants, keeping up with popular demand, and keeping fair pricing on stock while still maintaining a profit, that sort of stuff. I tried to make sound as easy as I could but…”

Just then Diamond Tiara let out a loud yawn which interrupted what Charles was going to say.

“I’m sorry; but am I boring you young lady,” Charles said with an irritated glare at the pink filly.

“I highly doubt that my dad learned anything about business from you. He never told me anything like that, especially if it was from a corn picking peasant like you,” Diamond Tiara mocked with ignorance.

Charles glared at Diamond Tiara and slowly walked in front of her desk with the same stern expression. The snooty filly nervously gulped as Charles continued to look down at her. They held a brief tension before Charles said, “You’re Filthy Rich’s daughter, Miss Diamond Tiara. I’ve heard a lot about you, especially about my son’s first day at school. Perhaps I should have taught him a thing or two about raising a good pony and not a spoiled brat as well.” Diamond Tiara gulped as Charles squinted his eyes down at her, he turned around to return to the front of the classroom.

“Now as I was saying before I was RUDELY interrupted, we talked about the business for a while until Filthy finally managed wrapped his head around the whole concept…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Huh…so that’s how it’s all done,” Filthy Rich said as he stretched his neck, “I mean; it seems pretty hard at first, but once ya explained it ta me it makes perfect sense. It’s not what I want in the shop, it’s what the customer wants!”

Charles nodded with a smile and said, “Now you’re getting it! You see, if you don’t have a pleasant atmosphere in the store, ponies aren’t gonna feel comfortable in the store andin turn, will be less inclined to spend their money there. So that’s why it’s important to keep the store clean, tidy, and properly organized.”

“Well that make sense, thank you uh...,” Filthy Rich was going to say but just realized something, “Well shoot, I plum forgot tah ask for your name!”

“Names Hoofwin- Charles Hoofwin,” Charles said in a pleasant, forgiving tone.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to have met ya Charles. And if I may be so inclined, what brings a stallion such as yourself tah Ponyville?” Filthy Rich asked after shaking hoofs with Charles.

“I just came here to get some supplies before I head out to Canterlot,” Charles explained after pulling his hoof away.

“Canterlot huh? If I was you; I’d watch my tail up there, not a lot friendly folks in that city. Why don’t ya come on inside ta buy a few things, I’ll give ya a discount for helping me out,” Filthy Rich offered.

“Sounds like a plan,” Charles said with a warm smile as he walked inside the store with Filthy Rich.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I bought myself some canned goods while I was inside and I was surprised of the generous discount for my purchases he gave me,” Charles said to the class who were paying close attention to him, “Before I left I wished the best of luck to his father, I went to the bank to take out some of my earnings, bought myself a train ticket to Canterlot, and before I knew it I was on my way to the city.” One of the young colt’s named Snips raised his hoof in the air to ask Charles a question, “Excuse me Mr. Hoofwin.”

“Uh, yes you in the back,” Charles said as he pointed a hoof to Snips.

“I was wondering how did ya get that uniform,” Snips asked feeling a little embarrassed to ask.

“YEAH,” the entire class shouted in curiosity.

“Heh...Well I was about to get to that,” Charles said with a chuckle, “You see; I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life on an old corn field, but I just didn’t know what to do with my life. Before I even left the farm I found one of those Canterlot Military recruitment pamphlets one day and the stuff inside really intrigued me, so I decided to make the Princess proud and sign up. That’s why I went to Canterlot, because back in the day, they didn’t have recruitment centers in separate towns and cities you only had to up in Canterlot. The city was just as amazing as everypony made it out to be, everything was just elegant from the streets to the very tops of every building. I signed myself up but I have to take a physical, they gave me a buzz cut, a fresh uniform and everything I needed. I managed to meet the regular requirements but I had a difficult time during the exercise portion of the test, and unfortunately for me I happen to step on my Drill Sergeants last nerve…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“PRIVATE CHARLES WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU,” the Drill Sergeant Pegasus spat out to the khaki colored stallion that had his one of hind legs wrapped around a mesh of rope while hanging upside down several feet above the ground.

“Uh well you see uh… I was just…” Charles tried to explain himself for his poor performance.

“You are making A DARN FOOL OUT OF YOURSELF AS WELL AS WASTING MY VALUABLE TIME,” the Drill Sergeant shouted at Charles with veins bulging around his neck, “Why are you even here solider?!” Charles couldn’t help but glance away for a split second as he felt his embarrassment growing inside of him as he tried to come up with an answer, “I… I want to do my hometown proud and well as support Princess Celestia, sir.” “-Sigh- I’ve seen your type before kid,” the Sergeant said as he shook his head, “You think you can just walk in and become some sort of war hero or some big-shot soldier. Well, it’s not that simple maggot.”

“With all due respect sir, I wasn’t thinking that at all. I knew it would be tough in the Canterlot Military, I just didn’t expect it to be this hard sir,” Charles said as he saluted to his commanding officer.

“Well, I have only have one question for you CADET, is there ANYTHING you can do!?” the Drill Sergeant asked Charles as he came closer to his face.

“I…I…I’m very talented in keeping thing well organized,” Charles stuttered trying to think of anything he could be good at. The Drill Sergeant raised a hoof with an enraged expression on his face but it suddenly turned into stunned look. He then rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment, then a smug grin came on his face as he said, “You know maggot, I think I know just the place for your expertise, report to my office in 1500 hours. DON’T be late Private.” Charles saluted to his Commanding Officer, he saluted back to him and turned around and began to march away.

“Corporal Windbreaker,” the Pegasus Drill Sergeant called out to one of the white Pegasus troops around the training field.

“Yes sir,” said Corporal Windbreaker as he stopped doing push-ups, stood up, and saluted to his Commanding Officer.

“Fly up and untangle Private Charles before he passes out, on the double,” the Drill Sergeant ordered to the soldier in front of him.

“Yes sir, right an away sir,” Corporal Windbreaker said as he took off into the air and flown over to Charles and helped untangle the mesh of ropes wrapped around his leg. With a pull here and a yank there, Charles fell to the ground with a thud and a groan of pain. “Thank you,” Charles thanked the white pegasus who nodded and returned to his work out. After rubbing the top of his head, Charles decided to head to the med station to see if there were any serious injuries just to be on the safe side.

“Nice landing hick boy,” insulted a greyish brown unicorn with two other pegasus beside him.

“Yah, maybe when you’re just as old as Celestia you might just be able to past the course,” one of the pegasus mocked with a snicker.

“Ugh, whatever… I’ve got more important things to do,” Charles said as he decided to ignore the soldiers pestering him.

“Oooh, important things; pfft, why don’t ya go back to your farm ya hick,” the other pegasus shouted at Charles as he continued to ignore them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Unfortunately for me, there always seemed to be somepony out in the world that wants to keep us little folk like me down a peg,” Charles said in a slightly depressed tone. Silver Spoon snickered for a bit and whispered to one of the other ponies around her, “I guess somepony has too.”

“Ahem,” Charles cleared his throat loudly as he turned his attention to Silver Spoon, “The one unicorn always seem to have it out for me is named Gold Stock, he was one of those high class, snooty type of ponies that always got what he wanted. Any who later that day I met up with my Commanding Officer to be assigned to my new position so that I wouldn’t become a problem to him or any of the fresh face recruits. That’s when he assigned me to the PX, or Postal Exchange.”

“Post Exchange,” everypony in the room said out loud after hearing Charles new position.

“Hmm, it was also a commissary, you know a place where you’d buy everything you needed,” Charles said with a nod.

“Wait, so you didn’t see any kind of action,” Scootaloo asked as she raised a hoof in the air.

“Oh trust me; I saw the worst kind of action. As soon I walked inside the PX, I was given the duty to sort out the outgoing from the oncoming mail six days a week, as well as lending or selling the equipment in the store,” Charles explained to the class like it was the most important thing his life. Some of the student had confused looks on their faces, while the rest of the class muttered something with snickers. Esbin had a concern face as he raised a hoof, “Surely you’ve seen some real action after that, right?” “Hmm, no not really,” Charles shrugged, “It was pretty quiet after that, I managed to keep the whole operation in line without a hitch for the past seven months. For me things were just hunky dory, that is until Gold Stock was promoted to a royal guard and he needed to get his royal guard armor. Of course the idiot thought he could just buy the suit of armor as soon as he got it, but what he didn’t know how much the whole collection cost.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay so that’s the main chassis, reinforced horseshoes, standardized helmet, and a repair kit which make it a complete set,” Charles said as he ran the numbers for each of the items that Gold Stock needed for his promotion, “Which make it a grand total of…”

“Listen Private, I’m now officially a Royal Guard of Princess Celestia’s army, I don’t need to know the numbers, I’m more important than anything you have to tell me,” Gold Stock said as he push aside the order form for the set of armor he was receiving, “So why don’t just handle all this paperwork like a good soldier and fill this out for me?” Gold Stocks got up from his chair he sat on with his new set of royal armor on as he made his way toward the exit, Charles rose up and said, “Hold on, I’m not specified to sign these papers, you’re the one who has to.” Gold Stocks stopped dead in his tracks; he turned his head around and asked in a sarcastic tone, “Excuse me? Did you just disregard my orders?” “No I was just…” Charles tried to explain but Gold Stocks merely raised a hoof to stop him from continuing, he then said, “I’m currently a Lieutenant as a royal guard, so basically I out rank you, Private. So listen and listen good, if you try to pull anything like that on me, I’ll report you for disorderly conduct faster than you can say whistling wind Dixie! Do I make myself clear?” Charles kept silent for a moment as he pondered the thought and said, “Yes.”

“Yes, what,” Gold Stocks asked with a smug grin on his face.

Charles stared at Gold Stocks with an irritated expression, he knew deep down inside he had to say the word that he didn’t want to say to this smug earth pony. He bared his teeth as he spoke through them, “Yes… sir.” “That’s better;” said Gold Stocks with the same smug grin, “Now get back to work, this place is a mess.” He suddenly bucks a tower of canned goods beside him which caused a cluttered mess on the floor; he laughed as he opened the door and slammed it behind him. Every fibre in Charles’ being wanted to punch a hole in the desk he sat in front of, but contained himself; he had a lot of work to do and he needed to keep his minds off things.

Comments

[chavis54]

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