Today was a tough day. For the first time in my life, I’ve shouted at my recruits. Of course, they are pretty much stupid, if you look at them from my side, but in general, they are pretty nice guys. Guess that I am just too tired of their attitude...
The sun is setting above the evening streets of Moscow. But, it’s still quite hot outside. Guess that the heat also has something to do with my mood. As my friend likes to say, “you can consume the power of the sun, but that also can turn you into a bloody psychopath”. And I personally think, that he was goddamn right. I wipe the sweat from my face with my camouflaged cap, and put on my silver shades. I see a few ponies coming my way. I still can’t get used to the fact, that those anthropomorphic creatures call themselves “ponies”. That’s not my business, of course, but still...
I see a small square up ahead. As I notice that It’s covered by many trees, and has a few free benches, I immidiately go there to have a little rest. As I reach the nearest bench, I immidiately throw my raid rucksack on it, and sit nearby. The hot wind blows, and I heavily breathe, enjoying the atmosphere. Nice tension in muscles fills my mind, and I close my eyes.
After a few minutes of sitting still, I hear a few voices nearby. As I open my eyes, I can see a few pegasi ponies in blue uniform. One colt and two mares. They are surely having fun — their laughs probably can be heard on the other side of the street. One of the mares has a bottle of lemonade in her hand. I slightly smirk — since the very first contact with the humanity, those ponies simply fell in love with our soft drinks. Though, the very look of the bottle makes me thirsty... I take the flask from my waistbelt. As I open it, I can feel only disappointment — it’s empty. Shouldn’t leave it without me watching next time — probably my colleague from the second platoon finished it...
“Hey, you! Felling dry?” I hear a voice. As I turn my head, I can see a rainbow-maned mare with blue fur, offering her bottle of lemonade. I carefully take it, make a few gulps and give it back with a nod.
“Don’t mind, if we sit nearby?” a colt with blue mane asks. I just shrug and move closer to my rucksack. The trio of ponies in uniform sits nearby, and continue their talk. Meanwhile, I close my eyes again and start to listen to the whistling of the wind. It feels nice, caressing my tanned skin. I finally start to feel myself calm.
“Hey, dude! Dude!” I feel someone’s touch on my shoulder. I open my eyes and see the mare with fiery-orange mane and yellow coat. She looks a bit worried.
“What’s the matter, miss?”
“Huh... Nobody’s called me “miss” for a long time,” the mare snickers. “You just look like you’re not feeling well.”
“Nah, everything’s fine, thanks for caring,” I say tiredly. “I just had a tough day.”
“Tough day? Like you were performing an airshow all day long,” the rainbow-maned mare laugs. I glare at her.
“Try to teach the fucking recruits the fucking discipline. I want to see you try that,” I harshly cut her off. “The little fucks don’t even know the concept. Nice guys in general, but for now they are just cannon fodder. Stupid fucking fuckity-fucks. And I need to make a soldier from every single one.”
“So, you are from military? A drill instructor or what?” the mare with orange mane asks. I nod, and she snickers. “Hah! I feel you there. I had to train a lot of pegasi myself. You will get over it eventually. Name’s Spitfire, by the way.”
“Lieutenant Speedovskiy, at your service,” I shake hands with Spitfire.
“Soarin,” the blue colt introduces himself, “and this is Rainbow Dash. We are from the Wonderbolts aerial perfomance team.”
“Oh yeah, I saw you all a couple of years back,” I say, shaking Soarin’s and Rainbow’s hands. “That MAKS exhibition. Though, I wasn’t in a military back then. You made quite a good show.”
“Thanks, dude! Yeah, we’re awesome. Nothing to add here,” Rainbow Dash grins.
“And where do you serve now?” Soarin asks curiously.
“Air force. I am the interceptor pilot. However, the command sent me to teach the recruits from the military institute at Voikovskaya station.”
“Well, that sucks, as much as I can tell from your look,” the colt hums. “But, I guess that’s necessary.”
“Sure it is. However, I can’t wait for the beginning of summer — I’ll be piloting my MiG again,” I reply with a smile. A nice picture emerges in my head — the darkness above the cockpit, and limitless cloudy sky below.
“You mean the MiG-31?” Rainbow Dash asks.
“Yeah. The one and the only.”
“That’s a neat machine,” the rainbow-maned mare says, “I actually wonder if I will ever be able to catch up on that plane. I hate to admit, but this thing is beyond my understanding. It’s just... Faster. And that hurts my soul.”
“Why so?” I ask, being confused. And after that, I recieve laughs from Spitfire and Soarin.
“Back in Equestria, our little Rainbow Crash was the fastest pegasus. Noone couldn’t beat her. And then, she comes to your world and learns that those wingless creatures build machines, that can beat her. It’s like a heart attack for her ego,” Spitfire chuckles.
“Yeah, she’s our little competitor, and she hates to know, that she isn’t the best!” Soarin agrees with Spitfire. “And the best thing about the whole situation is the fact, that back in Equestria she could break the sound barrier, but here she can’t, unlike your airplanes.”
“Ye-a-a-h... That is... True,” Rainbow Dash blushes heavily and turns away.
“Now-now, miss Dash. Of course, you are not so fast as our airplanes. However, you can fly on your own! Isn’t that awesome?” I try to cheer the mare up. “We can’t fly without additional thrusters. You should be proud of yourself just because of this fact. Besides, my plane can’t perform many of your stunts — you’re way more agile. So, I think we’re even.”
“Thanks, pal. That means a lot,” Rainbow Dash turns towards myself, smiling. “And you don’t have to call me “miss”. “Dash” is just fine.”
“Hey, lieutenant, by the way, a questin about your MiG — have you ever been flying at twenty thousand meters? How does it feel?” Soarin suddenly asks.
“It’s a very strange feeling. Above you is only stratosphere. And you almost don’t feel the speed — only gauge can tell, how fast do you go at these heights. But I can assure you — it feels magnificent,” I answer. After that, a question pops up in my mind. “By the way, I always wondered how you can break the sound barrier without any extra gear, aside from your suits and goggles. How do you do that?”
“That’s because there is less drag in Equestria that’s being created by air. And the gravity is lower. So the only trouble that you will have there is silly face while speeding up,” Spitfire explains.
“Neat-o. I wonder, how fast our planes would fly there...”
“The only speed limit for you in Equestria is your own bravery. Pegasi and alicorns have magic boosts, you have afterburners, so it’s not a hard task to find out how fast you can go. If a pegasus can train hard enough, it can break a speed of sound, covering it for multiple times. And what about airplanes... Well, I bet that you have to be a true daredevil, to exceed yourown mind’s speed limits,” Soarin says confidently. I chuckle on that.
“I wonder how the ground looks at Mach five. If I would ever recieve a commsnd to reach this speed, I’d do it without any hesitation,” I reply, “however, for now I only can train the recruits...”
“Don’t worry about that, lieutenant. I am sure that once your recruits will once become excellent soldiers,” Spitfire said and gets up from the bench. “Where do you work, again? Voikovskaya station? I think that some time we will meet again there.”
“Nice to hear that,” I reply, while getting up myself. “It was nice meeting you all. Wish you luck in your future endeavors.”
“See you later, chap! Good luck to you, too!” Rainbow Dash says with a smile. After that, the trio shakes hands with me and sets off. I look at them for a couple more seconds. I smile. After that, I pick up my rucksack and start my walk home. Today was a tough day, but with a nice ending.
