The light of the full moon guided me to the barracks, the pale moonlight casting dreary shadows as it filtered through the trees. I plotted along at a snail’s pace; my wings hurt and my body ached. I had worked harder and logged more flight time than I thought I ever would in my life. To top it all off, I got to do all of this while having an instructor shouting in my face.
I had incurred the wrath of the drill sergeants a couple times for back talk; which was the reason I was getting back to my rack in the middle of the night. I had probably aggravated every officer on base, and I really had no idea why I did it. I guess it was because I felt so alone here. This time, I had made the mistake of mouthing off to some blond major and earned myself a twenty-five mile flight with fifty touch-and-gos. By the time I was finished, I couldn’t feel my feathers, and the only thing that I wanted was to catch a little shut eye. I had hoped the showers might have eased my pain a little, but all it seemed to do was aggravate the scrapes I received from a bad landing about half-way through my punishment.
One of these days, I’m going to learn to keep my mouth shut. I thought wearily, as I opened the door to the barracks.
The bunks lining the walls were occupied by sleeping ponies; several were snoring loudly. I navigated the chorus of grunts and sniffles to my own bed, which seemed to be guiding my tired body to it. I was about to crash for the second time that day, when I noticed an envelope resting comfortably on my sheets. In what little light illuminated the room I could make out the handwriting on the address. My spirits lifted and I grabbed the letter, galloping out of the room; my aches forgotten.
I got to a place where I could see the letters clearly and tore the envelope open with my teeth. I could barely contain my excitement as I unfolded the piece of paper; she hadn’t written me in a couple weeks. When I finally got it so I could read it, I was confused with the words on the page, the envelope itself had been addressed in my sweetheart’s handwriting but I didn’t recognize who had written the letter itself. I began to read and felt my breath catch in my lungs. Pain began to well up in my chest; I placed a hoof to my heart, and felt the dragon scale around my neck.
“No, no, it can’t be true,” I said to the scale, as tears filled my eyes. “Oh Celestia, please don’t let it be true.”
But deep down, I knew it wasn’t a lie; she had been in the hospital before I had left for basic flight training. The letter slipped from my grasp and I collapsed against the side of the barracks. I couldn’t stop crying, I just stared at the initials carved into the dragon scale and sobbed. I don’t know how long I sat there, and I didn’t give a buck.
“Hey, are you alright?” A voice asked out of the darkness.
The voice barely registered in my mind. I looked around for the speaker, but I didn’t see anything. A pegasus with a jet black coat stepped out of the shadows. His obsidian hair made him almost invisible against the darkness of the night.
“You okay?” he repeated.
I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out, instead I slowly shook my head.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, sincerely concerned.
I couldn’t bring myself to say it, saying it would somehow make it more real.
“She’s gone…” I choked out, and then began to cry again.
I expected him to shy away, or worse go get one of the officers, but instead, he walked up to me quietly.
“Can I sit here?” He asked, nodding to the vacant piece of wall next to me.
I don’t know why I did it, but I nodded. The black pegaus sat down next to me, he didn’t say a word but just let me cry. He didn’t have to say anything, I was simply thankful that I wasn’t alone. Eventually, I simply couldn’t shed anymore tears and I looked over at the strange pegusus who was sitting with his back against the wall.
“Who are you?” I asked incredulously.
His reply was confident, but he kept his voice soft and caring.
“Show Off,” he said extending his hoof.
The name registered somewhere in my memory, but I was too distraught to recognize it. I simply took his hoof and shook.
“Snap Shot,” I stated, feeling a little lost.
“You want talk about it?” he asked me.
I shook my head; it was too soon to discuss it. I just wanted this to be nothing but a bad dream that I would wake up from. I banged the back of my head against the barracks wall; the pain told me it all too real. The reality of the message brought back more tears.
Show Off just sat there with me; we must have not have moved for about two hours. After a while, my comrade helped me to my feet.
“Come on, let’s get you to your bunk. The sergeants are going to get us up at o’dark hundred.”
It wasn’t pity in his voice, just simple compassion. He was right though, the sergeants wouldn’t delay reveille. Too exhausted to disagree, I picked up the fallen letter and followed him back to the barracks. He got me to my bed and I collapsed, the only thing that echoed in my mind besides my sorrow was Show curling up on the floor by my bed.
Over the next two weeks, Show was my crutch in my grief. He swapped bunks with a pony so we were next to each other; he kept up with me in calisthenics, and most importantly kept me from doing anything stupid. He was like my shadow, he kept me company when I needed it, but kept his distance when I didn’t. Yet, he was always there. It was good that he was; I would miss her at the worst times and just as sadness threatened to over whelm me, Show would keep my spirits up. He acted like a comrade in arms should; he kept an eye on the distraught soldier who needed help. I didn’t know that I truly had a friend until about fourteen days after I received her letter.
We were at the mess hall getting some chow after a hard morning of flight drills. Show had a huge plate of food, I personally couldn’t stand the taste of it but I was hungry enough to eat most of it.
“You eat that much you won’t be able to get off the ground,” I said, nodding to the heaping amount of food on Show’s tray.
He just laughed at me.
After about a week of grieving, I had started talking again. Show encouraged me to make jokes when I could, and it did make me feel a little better when I did. That was when I made a huge mistake. I took my dog tags off so I could look at the dragon scale again; as I set the tags and chain down on the table, a fellow draftee walked by and grabbed them.
“Hey,” the stallion said, “don’t you know you aren’t supposed to take these off.”
I panicked as I saw the scale disappear from in front of me.
“Give those back!” I shouted, “Please! It was the last thing she gave me!”
The big stallion looked at the initials scratched in the pearly scale, from the way that he was swaying it seemed like he had been drinking.
“Oh, she did now?” he said, “I think I’ll keep it, it’s pretty.”
I knew he was goading me into a fight, but I didn’t care; the only thought in my head was I had to get her back. I saw red; I was about to lunged at him when Show Off stepped in front of me.
Show’s hoof shot out and grabbed my dog tags from the stallion’s grasp and he threw them back to me.
“That’s enough, Sanguin,” Show said, in a calming voice, “We’ve had plenty of drama for one day.”
And then the big stallion hit him in the face; chaos erupted.
Ponies in the mess struggle to hold Sanguin back, as others helped Show Off to his hooves. The only thing I could to do was stare in shock at the scene unfolding before me.
“What the buck is going on here?” and authoritative voice shouted.
The group of ponies parted as the base commander walked though the mess. The authoritative unicorn assessed the situation with a keen gaze honed from experience. Before anypony could explain what was going on, he began barking orders like a hound dog.
“Sanguin, you’re confined to quarters! Shoford, report to KP immediately! Everyone else go about your business!”
Everpony shifted uneasily as the Colonel glared at us.
“NOW!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.
There was a mass scramble as twenty-odd ponies attempted to follow his commands. I just stood there, clutching the dragon scale to my chest.
Show Off made his way the kitchen; a smile on his face as he nodded to the server. The cook gave him the same look he’d give a crazy pony on the street.
I trotted around the mess tent trying to make sense of what just happened. Eventually, I realized that the person I needed to ask was on KP because of me. I hurried over to the kitchen and walked right past the cook without saying a word.
Show Off was sitting by a big bag of potatoes, slowly running a peeler in long strips on the spuds. His eye was beginning to swell and I could see a bruise forming under his obsidian pelt. I grabbed a peeler and started working next to him.
“Hey.” I stated solemnly, as I picked up a vegetable.
He looked at me perplexed.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” He asked.
I ignored his question and responded with my own.
“Why?”
“Well, you were about to jump him. Firstly, you have enough on your plate without having to scoop slop onto other ponies’.”
He flashed me a coy smile, I stopped peeling.
“Secondly, I knew he was going to hit me…I just kind of hoped he wouldn’t.”
“But why are you doing this?” I asked confused.
“Because you seemed like you could use a friend.” He replied.
I never thought I would ever be so thankful for a kind soul.
“I do need a friend right now…Thank you.”
“It’s not a big deal,” He said off hooved.
“It is; I owe you big Show.”
He just smiled and picked up another potato.
I was half way through the spud when a thought dawned on me, I matched his smile.
“Shoford? Your name is Shoford?” I asked suppressing a laugh.
He gave me as dirty a look as his swollen eye would allow.
“Shoford Offington III,” he replied, “Don’t spread it around.”
“Now I know why your stage name is Show Off.” I said.
I couldn’t hold my straight face any longer, and for the first time in two weeks I laughed.
Show gave me a small headshake, and was about to go back to peeling when the company commander walked into the kitchen. We both hastily stood at attention, folding our wings to our sides.
“Shoford, you are off KP. One of the privates told me what happened, you are dismissed.”
The Colonel inquisitively looked over at me.
“What are you doing here, Snap Shot?”
“Just helping out a friend, sir!” I shouted as vigorously as I could.
And for the first time since I had been sent to basic, I saw the colonel smile.
“Good lad,” Was all he said, and he turned on his hooves and left, “you’re going to need that before you’re done.”
Show and I exchanged glances in hopes that the other knew the commander meant by that statement.
The other pegasus nodded to the kitchen door.
“Come on, let’s get out of here before Idahoove makes us their state birds.” He joked.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod, “let’s go.”
For the first time since I had gotten sent to basic, I didn’t feel alone. Things certainly were better when you had a friend, not matter how bad things were. I couldn’t have imagined how bad things were going to become, for all of us.
Author's Note
This was written for a friend of mine. While it was originally supposed to be just between my small group of friends, I decided that I needed to share it with everyone.
