Well, here we go. The first bit of bad* role-playing for Duskfields. I have no idea how much of this there will end up being, I probably won't do as much as I did with Dawnpick and Glitterglen, but, I imagine this won't be the last of it, all the same.*Bad according to a number of our critics, not necessarily my opinion.
Flamberge, in his armor such as it was, surveys the area from the sky, it was little more than a flat piece of ground, with a couple armor and weapon stands, a short distance away from camp, but that made it more than sufficient. Today was to be his proper day as Commander, he had found one pony among the others with some idea of how to use a weapon and had recruited them, her name was Crosshair and she seemed very enthusiastic about the opportunity. He was looking forward to this.
Crosshair showed up right on time with her trusty crossbow and a quiver of wooden bolts, It might not look much, but she have prided herself with it. Beaming happily to the fact that she have an actual training grounds and /something/ to do besides hauling boulders and logs now! She’s in such a good mood that she’s even humming a little catchy tune that only ponies seems to be able to produce.
"Morning recruit," says Flamberge as he lands near Crosshair, "First thing, first, we need to get you suited up in your armor. There is a helmet and a peytral on the stand, get dressed then we can begin."
“Yes commander!” Crosshair happily chirped as she trots over to the armor stand and dressed up as ordered, she was quick to put on her gear, probably have had experienced with it somewhere. Her tail flicked from sides to sides in excitement of a proper training day! She’s just bursting with energy and happiness.
Flamberge remains professional and resists watching the mare's tail as she flicked it about while putting on the bronze armor, but only just.
When she is finished he clears his throat and says, "Yes, um, well because it is only the two of us, I plan to do this a bit differently than a normal boot camp. First, I need to know, what kind of experience you have? You said you are familiar with the crossbow, yes?"
Crosshair nodded proudly. “Yup! I like to think I’m a pretty good shot, and I have some experience with wearing armor, nothing too big though. I needed to fly afterall!” She answered happily as she beams an invasive happiness at her commander.
Flamberge smiles, but raises an eyebrow, “Experience with wearing armor? Were you in army, or...”
“The guards.” She chirped. “There weren’t really much to do though, just boring patrols and more boring patrols and even more boring patrols.” She said, waving a hoof at how boring it was.
"I see. A bit of background on myself is in order I expect. I am a member of the Coupledye Military, and was just promoted to Commander recently. Before that I served as a swordspony in the airborne infantry. I don't have much experience with a crossbow, but I will help in what ways I can. I'll see about getting us an archery range set up in the future, but for now, I'd still like to see what you got. We'll use this tree," he gestures to one at the edge of the cleared area, away from the campsite, "we'll consider that knot on the left hoof side there, to be the bulls-eye."
Flamberge marks a line in the earth, "See if you can hit it, reliably, from here, if you can we'll move the line back some more, and so on until you can't."
Crosshair spends her time doing just as told, shooting at her target with careful patience that didn’t look like she had it in her at all, being so energetic and such. But she managed it, and happily did as her commander told her to. It was one of the bestest days for her since she arrived here.
Flamberge watched Crosshair for a time, but having little in the way of constructive criticism to add, she was already a better shot than him, he eventually went a short distance away, took out his long and curving sword and began to work on some individual drills.
As they both trained, Crosshair found herself looking at his way every once in awhile. She did not know why, but it felt good to do so, felt safe. And made her train with increasing vigor. It was good, so she didn’t question it.
As the sun began to set Flamberge decided to call it a day. The two ponies were completely drenched in sweat from all the exercise on the warm spring day. As Crosshair took off her helmet she flipped her mane backwards, Flamberge caught himself staring, she was an incredibly beautiful mare, and had great potential as a soldier. When he thought she had noticed him staring he cleared his throat, and said, though blushing, "Um, Crosshair, you have experience as a guard, and are well above average for a recruit... I have a lot of work ahead of me, building our militia, and I would like to be able to count on your help, thus I am making you our first militia captain."
That made the young mare gasp deeply as her eyes widen up to the size of plates, she let out an adorable squee but quickly catch herself and returned to beaming brightly with wide smiling grin. “Thank you, Commander!” She chirped. Beaming with nearly uncontainable glee.
Flamberge continues, "I realize that the title is rather meaningless at the moment, as we are the only two soldiers here, but we will have more settlers arriving in a few months, and I'll have my hooves full and will need your assistance, dealing with...a lot of things, if you are willing."
Crosshair nodded at that, still bristling with happiness and excitement, even a whole day of work couldn’t keep her energy down “Anything you need me to do, Commander!”
Flamberge smiles, “Good to hear it Captain, we will meet here tomorrow after breakfast to go and patrol the area, until then, dismissed.” The Commander salutes his new captain and then goes back to placing his gear on the rack.
The pegasus mare saluted her Commander and return the armors to it’s rightful place before fluttering away to get a well-earned washing and rest afterwards. Even being a ball of energy she is, rest still a popular pass-time to her. She gave her commander a last look before finally flying away out of his view.
Author
Topic: Duskfields (My Little Fortress) (Read 47807 times)