Starfleet Fact #2: No one gets drummed or drafted into Starfleet · 10:11pm Aug 3rd, 2016
Another attack for the rude and ignorant ones.
In my version of Starfleet, no one is forced or obligated to join Starfleet. It is all optional... by choice. You must be at least 12-14 years of age to apply to the Starfleet academy, and have good grades too.
If you wish to quit the academy you may do so, the choice is yours. There is no obligation, and there is no force, no law, no order. If you want to quit, then quit, and if you wish to reapply, it's your choice (though you would have to start again at the bottom, unless special circumstances were involved)
Even after you are commissioned to the force, you are under no obligation, no force to remain so. If you wish to, you may resign.
In Starfleet Season One, episode 11, after the great battle against Titan and his minions, Grand Ruler Celesto gave Lightning and his friends the decision to remain on the force or renounce their commissions and lead a normal life. they chose to remain on the force, knowing there would be other enemies to fight and wanting to continue the pursuit to stop evil from causing such chaos and destruction.
Lightning's friends all WANTED to join Starfleet on their own accord; they wanted to help in the struggle agianst evil, and protect the innocent (Some of them had even lost their families to evil and did not wish for other innocent beings to know their pain and share their fates)
Lightning was not obligated to join Starfleet either. Grand Ruler did want him to join Starfleet, knowing it would help him take his training to another level and discover that he was capable of doing more than he thought, despite not being able to do magic, but again there was no force in the matter.
Lightning joined Starfleet heeding his master's word and wisdom. He also joined wanting to repay his master for all the years he spent raising him, training him, plus... he felt that by joining Starfleet he could gain a new purpose in life as well as track down the evil that destroyed his planet and killed his family (Which it did) Again, it was his CHOICE to join.
As for Twilight and her friends, they too were not forced to join Starfleet. They CHOSE to join the force because they wished to repay Starfleet for saving their lives (Just as Starfleet owed them their lives as well) They also felt there was so much more they could learn, so much they could master, even Twilight herself was curious to how powerful she could become.
But the main reason of all, is because after The Great War they began to realize about the dangers of outer-space and that there would be more evils, more enemies and more danger to face, not just in United Equestria but other planets that would cry out for help. The Equestrians wanted to be prepared for it, to help fight it off, knowing that in their regulars states they would not have much of a chance.
Again, they joined Starfleet by choice, not by order.
So I submit again; Starfleet does not draft. It is all a matter of CHOICE.
I salute to brave beings that risk there lives for the greater good