Chapter 3 - New Friends
I allowed the ambient sound of chatter and cutlery of the mess hall to fade into the background as I tucked into my salad. Silver Bullet sat next to me; one of my closest friends. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a group of officers muttering amongst themselves and pointing in our direction. One split from the group, and to my rising disgust, I saw it was Obsidian Broadsword.
“Evening, Lads.” He spoke loud enough for the other officers to hear.
“Evening, Sir.” I said in unison with Bullet but with building disdain.
“Enjoying your new duties, Private?” He asked me, a wry smile on his face. I just smiled at him.
“Feeding the force is a very important job, Sir. I can’t help but enjoy it!” I said with absolute conviction, ensuring I kept my face as level as possible. It clearly wasn’t the response the sergeant was after.
“You being funny with me, Grunt?!” A number of others around us had looked up toward the raised voices.
“Never, Sarge. Soldiering is a very serious business, Sir; for true professionals; like yourself, Sir.” Despite struggling to keep my voice level, I couldn’t help but let a small grin appear.
“You trying to be clever?”
“Not ‘trying’. No Sir. Unlike you, I don’t have to try.”
“LISTEN TO ME, SUNSHINE! You had better-” There was a loud slam of cutlery as my fists hit the table. I stood bolt upright, towering over him.
“I’d better WHAT?” I realised my mistake and brought my voice down so only the sergeant could hear me. “Better piss off back home with the other apes? Go back to where I belong? No, you listen to me. Little bit of news, Sir, I can’t go back home! This is my home now and my job here, for as long as I draw breath is to prove to you how unbreakable my resolve is. No matter what you say to me, no matter what power you think you wield against me, I will never change nor move! My purpose now is to plant myself like a tree. Those tired old bones of yours will give out before I do. So bring it on, Grandpa! I have nothing to lose.” The sergeant was just left stammering.
“You-you‘re nothing! Y-you’re-”
“Just a primitive Ape? Just a lowly Private? My species has done things on our world you couldn’t even begin to imagine. And one thing I understand from all that, is your ‘big wheel’ will not turn without our ‘little wheels’ driving you.” I gestured around me. “Without us ‘grunts’ you officers are just left barking orders at thin air while you destroy yourselves. Without us, you are nothing!” His ears were pinned back and he was practically cowering now as I loomed over him.
“Is there a problem here?” A familiar voice pulled me back and I turned to see Firebloom. My spine bolted upright once more, my point made.
“No, Sir.” I quickly said. “The sergeant was just helping me understand my place in this world. Right, Sarge?” The darker pony stammered, reaching to find an answer in his moment of unadulterated shock.
“Oh… uh- yes… carry on, Private.” I watched as Obsidian made his way back to the group of snickering officers, his plan to embarrass me in tatters. I sat down for the first time with my back to him and couldn’t help the supernova smile planted firmly on my face.
“Holy moon! That was awesome, Bro! I’ve never seen the Sarge so freaked out.” Bullet exclaimed as we climbed the stairs. I just smiled, actually quite pleased with myself.
“Yeah, felt good finally putting the old codger in his place, but kind of worried about the fallout, though. Don’t think I’ll get away with ‘spud duty’ this time.”
“He’s got nothing on you, man! Everypony saw it. Besides, whatever he throws at you, it’s worth it. Who knows, maybe he might even start respecting you.” Our conversation was interrupted by Dayspeer, my roommate, who was running down the hallway to meet us.
“Thank Celestia! Dude, there’s a bat-pony mare in our room!” My eyes narrowed.
“What? Who? What does she want?”
“I dunno, man, but she sounds pissed as hell. Keeps saying she wants you. I dunno what you did to her, man, but she looks about ready to tear your throat out!”
“I got your back, Bro.” Bullet said straightening his armour. Dayspear nodded in agreement. I looked upon the heavy wooden door but waved my friends off.
“I got this.”
As I entered the room, my eyes fell upon Azure, pacing up and down the room.
“There you are!” She spat.
“What?!” I protested. Her face raced through a plethora of emotions from hesitation, to pain, softness, thoughtfulness, finally settling on anger.
“Look, I don’t need you, ok! You aren’t one of us! You’ll never be one of us! And creatures like you and me, we’re just too different.” Calmly, I walked over to the cabinet, poured myself a glass of whisky, sat on the bed and let her rant. “We lived alone for a thousand years, banished by all the other races! But we survived. We didn’t need your help then and we don’t need it- HEY! Are you even listing to me?!” She snapped as I casually sipped the fiery liquid.
“I’m listening. I’m just waiting for the bit you actually want to say to me.” Her predatory eyes softened, before she growled in frustration.
“AGHH!! Why do you have to be so… so… UGGGHH!!!!” Her eyes glanced over my glass. “Buck, give me some of that, would you?” Chuckling, I got up and poured her a glass. She took an impressively large gulp and hissed in relief. To my astonishment, she swiftly proceeded to down the rest with barely a shudder. Her posture slowly relaxed as the words came to her. “Look, I’m no good at this stuff. What you did the other night… thank you. Nopony’s ever stood up for me like that.” I smiled warmly.
“You’re welcome, Azure.” I could almost spot her blushing.
“You know, Human, you’re actually pretty cool. I guess I shouldn’t be so quick to judge, just because you’re a day guard.” I refilled her glass.
“Well I think you’d be proud of me, Azure. You know that old guard from the other night? Today he started on me again and I gave it back to him, both barrels!” I laughed and Azure joined me. “He cowered like a trembling foal! Embarrassed him in front of the whole battalion! You should have seen his face when his little plan backfired!”
“Oh, Luna! I wish I could have seen that!” Azure giggled. Another issue popped into my head, and it seemed the right time to mention it.
“By the way, can I ask you something? Princess Luna has offered me a position with the night guard, so theoretically, if I took it, would you be opposed to us spending some more time together?” A sly smirk appeared on her muzzle.
“Thinking of joining the other side, ah? We’ll have to see how you hunt first! You up for it, Human?” I smirked back at her.
“A hunting trip, ah? Sure, I’m up for that.” Our glasses clinked and for the first time in months, I felt like I was home.
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Okay, I liked this. It was short, but I read why. It does leave one wanting more, though, so a sequel would be nice. I would like to see where this could possibly lead.
9136359
I would probably enjoy a short sequel.
9136359
I am pleased to say I am indeed working on a sequel. :)
9141461
I will look forward to it! Thanks!
This is a great story. Unique and very well done. My only issue was that it felt incomplete, but since I see you have a sequel for it out, Im OK with that.
Also great artwork, but why is the human cowering on the ground?
The Monk
“To say that Twilight Sparkle went bugfuck would be like saying the Incredible Hulk had some mild anger management issues.” -DustTraveller
9435401
Yeah. Like I said, I had an extremely limited number of words to work with. Even with all my trimming, I had just 9 words to spare (3991/4000). But that's what sequels are for right? A story to finish what another started.
So... she's supposed to be a friend? I'm not seeing it. It just looks like she sat in his room to call him a bitch for trying to be nice, even after they had an an agreement to get him what he was missing in his diet. To be honest the story feels depressingly incomplete, lacking in resolution and leaving with the protagonist alone and miserable.
9442073
As the Author’s Note says, I had a limit of just 4000 words to do this and only just barely scraped by as it is. Plus I had to trim this down from like 8K or more. (I forget what the original draft was). The point is, even with resorting to literally trimming a single word here and there by the end of the editing, I only just came under the limit, leaving exactly NO ROOM for further story. However, some themes DO need expanding on, you’re right, hence why a sequel is being written.
Something small and quick for a prompt? Not bad at all. It was an enjoyable read.
Just 3 chapters
But it started so good...
9648060
Sequel story here.
9660660
Thanks
9689727
Yeah I had to keep a fast pace because of the word count. I had no room for any more detail
9690713
you where trying to keep it under 4k word? (i dont understand why you would want a low word count)
9760888
As stated in the author’s notes, this was written for a contest run by Scribbler, open to the people who attended her writing workshop at bronycon2018. One of the rules was the 4K limit.
9763429
completely missed that, still enjoyed it tho
Oh, I definitely ship it.
10025835
You're absolutely correct they would not be 100% healthy if they did not eat meat or meat products.....
Except I specifically stated you need to eat meat products like dairy and eggs to be healthy. So again your wrong You don't need to eat meat directly to get those essential proteins just cheese, milk, eggs and other such things. Heck you could even eat fish which again is not the Red meat the author exclaimed as so important and that I stated has been eaten by Equestrians.
You are acting ignorant with a confirmation bias good sir. my complaint is both legitimate and with good reasoning.
The beginning of a beautiful relationship.
10025923
Where did the author make these claims? We think you're unfairly projecting...
10274289
Let’s hope so! You’ll have to read the sequel to find out.
And thank you for all the previous comments. Makes my day when I get a stack like that at once.
10274382
😘
Wow! this is an awesome story! I really enjoy it! Nice work!
10647285
I usually suck at spelling and such. I can never tell if I messed something up. I’m a bit self conscious on that, so I’ll often preemptively “admit” to it.
Lindo.
Sequel? Did you say sequel! Yeas!
In terms of feedback, this was short but sweet. Well done!
11613086
I never once said eating pure plants dude stop conflating what I stated. Its called Animal By-products aka Eggs, Milk and milk products like cheese and yogurt. Those provide pretty much all the nutrition that we would get from meat my dude. and Ponies EAT EGGS AND MILK IN CANNON.
I can understand stories that make it so that its uncomfortable which it can be but its not NEEDED. Full Vegan diets are impossible yes but Vegetarien diets are very much doable. Especially if you add on a fish here and there which some stories have Pegasus eating.