Striving for Perfection

I woke up and immediately felt a strong pain in my back. My back from sleeping on concrete doesn't feel nearly as good as it could. The fire had long since gone out and after looking around I realized that the soldiers assigned to guard decided to go to bed. I urgently need to find someone for the role of overseeing discipline.

I discarded this thought and realized that I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, so I decided to take a walk. My attention was attracted by a tower to the top of which a dilapidated staircase led. I carefully walked around the soldiers so as not to wake anyone and started moving towards the stairs.

When I got to the stairs, I took the first step on the step and it fell under my weight, but it didn't break. I decided to continue climbing the stairs despite the danger, but at an accelerated pace. Jumping from step to step and almost falling a couple of times, I was able to get to the top.

A small office-like structure was waiting for me at the top. Opening the door with a creak, I saw in front of me a table, an old armchair, a carpet and an incredibly old calendar. Approaching the chair, I realized that it was not enough for me, so I decided to check the cabinets of the table. Opening the locker, I saw a dusty pair of binoculars with one broken lens. Better than nothing. I thought before I took it. In the following boxes, I was met only by wood beginning to rot and dust. I slammed the drawer shut and went over to the ancient calendar. The year was indicated on it. Nine hundred and twenty-third year. If I knew what year it is now on this planet, I could find out how many years this base has been abandoned. Unfortunately, not today.

I had already turned around to leave, but I was covered by some kind of feeling as if something was going to attack me. Right now. I turned around quickly. So fast that the alpha core fell out of mine pocket and landed quietly on the carpet. When after a couple of seconds I was not met with a threat, I sat down and took the core. Holding it in my hand, I looked at it. The core has the shape of a stone ball with some holes similar to breakaway areas. A small green light makes its way through these holes, which seems to be alive, but at the same time slowly dies.

No, it must be my imagination. First paranoia, then calling the light alive. Maybe I've been overexerting myself a little lately. At first, to survive in the forest every day, then to study for three months without sleep and rest, and this. Maybe ask Luna for a day off for Christmas? Perhaps by that time I will have trusted people. I'll think about it.

I returned the sphere to my pocket and left the office, closing the door behind me. I would stop to look at the night view, but the fragility of the steps will not allow me to do this. I started walking down the stairs quickly, ignoring their protest in the form of a creak. A couple of times I almost fell, but I managed to avoid the failure and returned safely to earth. Looking at the moon, I realized that I spent about fifteen minutes in that office. Or five or twenty-five. I can't tell the time perfectly by the sun or, in this case, the moon.

Looking at the soldiers, I saw that they were still sleeping. I decided that they would not be worth it yet, so I headed into the forest in search of food. Although the soldiers were able to pick some berries yesterday, it's still not enough. Yes, doing it alone is not so effective, but now there are no other options.

I stubbornly moved into the depths of the forest and looked for fresh animal tracks. Soon I found the trail of some animal. Squatting down, I began to examine it. Judging by the shape, this footprint belonged to an animal with hooves. The problem is that I have already forgotten which hooves belong to which animals. After all, my last full-fledged hunt was a very long time ago. Almost six years to be exact. At the end of December it will be exactly six.

I shook my head and focused all my attention on the trail. The hoof trail is still visible, so not much time has passed. Pressing on the trail with his fingers, he slightly pushed through. Looking at the surface of the trail for a long time, I noticed a small gap in it, which gives me one option out of two. Either I found an unknown animal or my victim has wounds on the hoof. Useless information, but at least something.

I got up and carefully followed the trail so as not to accidentally scare off the animal. As I went deeper into the forest, the light of the moon had almost ceased to illuminate the area. When I was about to turn around because of the risk of getting lost, the firelight began to make its way through the trees. I instantly moved behind the tree so that I could not be seen. After a couple of seconds I dared to look out and what I saw confused me. I saw deer sitting around a big fire. I wouldn't hesitate to pounce on them if I didn't see one bandaging the hoof of another and saying something in an incomprehensible language consisting of many sounds as if marking natural.

Just one jerk and they're finished and my camp will get a good supply of food. Wait, when did I start thinking about the well-being of individual groups? I need to think bigger. Perfection is the path to freedom and an ideal society that is accessible to everyone who is willing to make an effort. This is my highest priority and since I am the only one who wants to, I am my highest priority. Now the important question. Will I get benefits at least at the level of basic needs of their sacrifice? No. Have these deer done something that I can define as restricting a total person's freedom? No. I have nothing to show them. But that didn't stop you from killing that dragon and those guards. It smells like double standards. The dragon threatened others and the guards attacked me themselves. Of course we will write it down. An inhuman murder committed only for the sake of self-defense and nothing more. A decent alibi.

Despite a part of me wanting to deal with them quickly, I quietly walked away and started walking towards the camp. On the way, I covered their tracks. As I approached the camp, I noticed that some Thestrals were actively roaming the area in search of something. As soon as I came out of the forest, they immediately spotted me and ran up. Of course, the yellow-eyed thestral got to me first

"Sir, we've been looking for you! I was so worried about you."

"Of course." I said sarcastically as I walked past him.

Unfortunately, he followed me anyway and continued the conversation in his friendly voice, "So what are your plans for today?"

I pointed my finger at the moon and replied, "Do you see the moon? When it is at its zenith, I will raise everyone and make them work. I don't know exactly how to work yet, but I will make."

"And now?"

"Now you can do whatever you want, but when the moon is at its zenith, you must come here. Otherwise, do whatever you want. "

"What if I want to be with you? "

I pointed my hand in a random direction and started saying, "There's a dick out there somewhere. As soon as you find him, you have to sit on him and tear your ass off."

He took my hint and walked away from me. I reached my destination in the form of a concrete slab and sat down next to it. I just have to look at the sky and wait for the moon to enter the zenith. After a while I noticed out of the corner of my eye that someone sat down next to me.

By the hoarse voice, I realized that this was a blue-eyed thestral with good hearing, "I overheard here that we can do anything until midnight."

I nodded, confirming his words and he continued the dialogue, "So now I can call you whatever I want?"

I answered with an exasperated sigh, "Yes you can, but if you're going to call me by my first name, you'd better introduce yourself."

He giggled that in conjunction with hoarseness made a very interesting combination of, "Very good. My name is Flying Night."

I'm already used to the names of the ponies, so I didn't get indignant, "Come on, ask what you need."

"Me? I don't need anything, I just want to talk."

Although it was difficult to distinguish individual intonations because of the hoarseness, I still did not believe him, "It's not good to lie, you know."

"Who are you calling stupid?" He said abruptly changing his mood to aggressive, thereby surprising me.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I just pointed out a mistake. And why did you get so angry right away anyway? "

He snorted and replied, "I just don't like being insulted. "

I sighed and decided to switch to the previous topic, "You lied anyway. You have a reason to approach me."

"Okay, okay. You see, I've already told all my jokes to all the soldiers. So there's only you left, Daniel."

"Let me clarify. You come up and start a dialogue just to tell jokes. Is that all? No other reason?"

"Yes, only jokes."

I sighed and shook my head in frustration, "Come on, tell me."

"Two Pegasus are falling. And then one Pegasus says to another, "Do you know when we will land?" And the second Pegasus replies to him, "I do not know. I'm racing with you!"" At the end of the joke, I was left with a stone face and looked at Flying.

"Where to laugh? I didn't understand the joke at all."

He rubbed the back of his head with a hoof and replied, "I don't know myself. It's just that whenever I talk to someone this joke, they laugh."

After that moment, I briefly laughed, "That's really funny!"

My laugh turned out to be contagious and Flying also laughed in his hoarse voice. After a few seconds, it was over and silence hung between us.

But she was destroyed by Flying's hoarse voice, "I remembered another one. The stallions are sitting and drinking beer, then one of them takes a small stallion out of the bag, puts it on the table, pours beer into his thimble and says, "Well, tell us how you insulted the sorcerer.""

The joke itself was not too funny, but I was more amused by the voice of Flying. As a result, I couldn't hide a small grin from his anecdote.

He had already taken a breath to continue talking, but I interrupted him, "You'll tell me later. It's already midnight."

Flying looked at the moon and when he saw the confirmation of my words nodded and stood up. I got up from the ground and saw that most of the soldiers had already stood up. I raised my voice.

"Everyone line up in a row quickly!"

After my words, the soldiers began to move chaotically and lined up in an uneven row. Since it will not be possible to continue repairs without materials, I decided to conduct normal exercises today.

First of all, I began to align the formation. Approaching the soldiers point-blank, I began to align them so that they were on the same line. After a couple of seconds, one soldier asked a question.

"Why is this necessary?"

"Drill is the basis of which every soldier is trained. In the battle of armies, the most disciplined wins." I replied quoting the lessons of Luna.

Fortunately, there were no further questions and I continued to align the formation by moving each soldier forward or backward. After a while, I was finally able to level the formation and took a few steps away to assess its integrity. When I saw that everything was perfect, I raised my voice again.

"Great. Now you just need to keep the formation moving. Full speed ahead!" I said, giving way so that the soldiers would start walking forward.

They began to walk slowly in formation so as not to destroy it, but its fragility was visible. After a couple of minutes of slow movement in the ranks, the most difficult moment came. U-turn.

"Stop!" I shouted, forcing the soldiers to stop.

I looked for a long time to figure out how to make a turn of the system correctly and at the same time maintain integrity. After a few minutes, a solution to the problem came to my mind.

"Everyone turns around while maintaining positions!"

The soldiers tried to do this, but because of too sweeping movements, they collided with each other, from which most of the formation collapsed. I put my hand to my face trying to hide this shame from myself. But I gathered his strength and began to command.

"Quickly return the formation!"

Thanks to my adjustments, the soldiers returned to the starting position again. As soon as the formation was restored, I took another attempt. I repeated my command and this time the soldiers began to turn around much more carefully and with restraint. As a result, barely avoiding the destruction of the formation, they were able to turn around. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my hand and continued to command

"Great. Now go ahead!"

They obeyed and continued to march, but in the opposite direction. This time they were a little more organized and roughly began to understand how to move. Moving slowly, they met another obstacle. Arsenal. I decided to use this as an opportunity to work out a maneuver.

"Flanks, start encircling!"

The soldiers started doing something very strange. Most of the soldiers were distributed around the arsenal and only a couple of soldiers stood in front of him.

"The flanks are the extremities of the formation. Return to the starting position."

The soldiers had already begun to express indignation, but they listened and returned to their starting position in front of the arsenal. I repeated the order and this time the flanks began to move away from the main formation, creating a kind of semicircle. I smiled with satisfaction when I saw that everything worked and gave the following order.

"Very good. Now return to a level formation and return to the starting place."

I already began to feel like the soldiers were ready to run away from the line and very reluctantly obeyed. They restored an even formation and miraculously turned around to return to the place where they were lined up. This time they calmly returned to the position.

"So far the drill has been stopped. Now it's time to run. Running around the camp for three laps!"

There was indignation among the soldiers, to which I immediately reacted, "Five laps!"

They took the hint and ran first outside the camp and then started running around it. At that time, I took binoculars with a broken lens, wiped the whole lens from dust and began to watch the fleeing soldiers. I took the binoculars in such a way that I could look into it with only one eye. Watching through binoculars, I saw that the black and purple thestral, which I identified as Flying and pesky, were running ahead of everyone. The others moved in behind them. I was distracted from watching by the sound of a fall from behind.

I turned around and saw how an exhausted thestral landed next to me, which I sent to Canterlot yesterday. I went over to him and squatted down next to him.

"Report. I need a report."

After a couple of seconds during which he tried to catch his breath, he gathered his strength and replied, "Everything you need will be delivered in two days."

"Great, you can rest for now." I said, turning away and continuing to watch the soldiers run.

"I'm not done yet." he said between breaths.

"What else?" I asked, turning away from the binoculars.

"The Princess asked me to give you this." He said, handing me the card in which the letter was hidden.

"Everything?"

"That's it." He said, walking away and looking for a place to rest.

I opened the letter and began to read

To the Captain of the Night Guard Daniel Ctumer

Judging by the words of your subordinate, you have already seen where the first months of your service will take place. Consider this a just punishment for your disobedience. And you should also know that we are going to come to your camp on the twenty-fourth of December.

From Her Highness Princess Luna

Fuck

I rubbed my forehead and put the letter in my pocket for the future. Having dealt with this, I returned to observing the soldiers. During the time I was reading, the situation has changed. Flying started to lag behind pesky. But suddenly, through the tired soldiers, the gray thestral began to slowly move forward. Flying has already faded into the background and the competition is beginning to take place between the pesky and stuttering thestrals. As soon as the pesky one saw his opponent, he began to pick up the pace, but due to fatigue he could not break away normally. They started running at the same speed, but it was clear that no one was going to take the championship. Suddenly, Flying reappeared from the crowd and joined the race at equal speed. I watched with interest as one overtakes the other for a couple of seconds to lose him again in a couple of seconds. And in the final of the last fifth round, the soldiers reached the end and collapsed from fatigue.

Almost immediately, the annoying thestral got close to me and asked the question, "Who came running first, sir?"

He was followed by Flying, which seemed to be just having fun. Gray thestral just sat in the place where he finished and tried to catch his breath. I returned my attention to the pesky thestral, and replied.

"Purely counting in my opinion, I can say that you were in the lead in three at the same time."

"But there must be a winner!"

I put my finger to his nose and said, "Consider it motivation. Even if you had pulled out a couple of inches, I wouldn't have recognized you as the winner. If you need my recognition so much, then work so well that I will be impressed."

It seemed that he was activated by my words and trotted somewhere in the other direction. I let the soldiers rest a little after the race and after a few minutes shouted.

"Everyone line up in a row!" After my words, the soldiers reluctantly lined up in a row, after which I gave the following order.

"Pay off the first, second!"

Since they quickly finished the calculation, I was able to calmly give the last order, "Everyone first go to the arsenal and unload everything there. All the second ones go to the forest and find food. Flying Night will be the commander of the second group."

The soldiers listened to me and moved in different directions, each with their own task. I saw that everything was in its place on a concrete slab and began to think about how to train soldiers further.