//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: All's Fair in Love and War // by SeaBreeze173 //------------------------------// Chapter 7 “I’m not like other mares, Gypsy,” I groaned, pushing the chest that held my military books underneath my bed. My sister stood in the doorway. She had been home for two hours and already she was patronizing me with her close-mindedness.   “That’s not an excuse. You are a mare and therefore you don’t belong in the military,” Gypsy’s mane was held up with curlers and her face was covered in a weird green goop that looked like guacamole. It made me really want some tortilla chips. “Mares were in the military for centuries. It’s only been in the last two-hundred years that it became custom for mares to stay at home or take non-military jobs—” Gypsy pointed a hoof at me and opened her mouth. “Custom! See, mares don’t do military work anymore,” Ignoring her, I continued. “BUT, mares are slowly starting to join the military again. There aren’t many, however the numbers have increased forty-eight percent over the last five years. That’s one hundred percent more than ten years ago. The military mare is coming back into existence,” I smiled, proud of my knowledge. Gypsy frowned. “Percentage doesn’t matter. The military mare will never be like it was centuries ago. Those ponies were apparently smart and figured out that mares don’t belong in the military,” “That’s just your opinion,” I rolled my eyes as I flipped the page of the magazine. “You are so stubborn!” Gypsy stomped a hoof. “Where do you think I got it from, Big Sister?” Gypsy huffed and backed out. Her steps were heavy as she went down the stairs and I heard muffled voices from below, no doubt talking about me. I wondered how in the world we had ever gotten along. We were polar opposites. The train ride to Canterlot was a lonely one. My mind kept travelling back to the last time I’d seen Sterling Silver alive. I shook my head to bring my thoughts back to the here and now. The train jolted as it pulled to a stop in Canterlot Central Station. I grabbed the only two bags I’d brought and made my way to disembark. Once I knew where my quarters were and how everything was set up, I would send for some more of my things. I had never been in Canterlot before and I had no idea where to go. I looked around for a city guard in hopes of getting directions to the Equestrian Armed Forces Recruitment Center. Not seeing anypony, I slowly weeded through the ponies crowded together in the station. Outside the station was more of a nightmare than the inside. I thought that Manehattan’s streets were crowded. There were ponies everywhere. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, on the ground and in the air, were going every which way. I hoped that further away from the station the crowd was smaller. My search for a city guard was even less productive outside. It was times like these that I wished I had wings. Figuring that I would have better progress not standing in one place, I went the only way that made sense; straight towards the castle. Canterlot was gorgeous. My eyes were drawn to everything at once. It was different from Manehattan and Whinnyanapolis; the architecture was especially unique. It was sort of a cross between old and new styles and it worked very well. Canterlot Castle stood tall at the rear of the city, looking out over its subjects. It was intimidating and inviting at the same time. As I walked through the city center, my mind wandered once again to my father. For the past week and a half, I tried to figure out why and how Sterling had died with no prior warning. He hadn’t looked sick when I visited. But as I thought about it more, he didn’t look exactly well, either. He seemed…off. In the moment, I assumed it was because he was surprised at my sudden appearance. Something more was going on, though. I just couldn’t figure out what it was. Eventually my looking paid off and I found a city guard to ask for directions. After thanking him, I continued and finally found the recruitment center. Inside was a front desk, and sitting behind it was a navy blue unicorn mare. Her lighter blue mane was pulled back into a bun and small black glasses were perched across her muzzle. “Hello. I’m Midnight Harmony. How can I help you?” she said, looking up at me with a smile. “Hi, I sent my recruitment papers in about a week ago. Fire Agate,” I said. Midnight Harmony nodded and shuffled through some papers in a file on the desk. “Ah, here it is. Fire Agate, earth pony mare, twenty-one years old. Royal Guard division,” she grabbed an empty folder, placed my papers inside and levitated it to me. “Take this folder to the first office down that hallway,” Midnight pointed to the second hallway on the right. “Lieutenant Pen will be your examiner,” “Thank you,” I smiled. I knocked on the closed office door and waited for a response. “You may enter,” came the muffled voice on the other side. “You must be Fire Agate,” the voice said as I stepped in. I had not yet registered that the voice was feminine. “Yes, Sir—” My brain finally figured out that the sir was actually a ma’am. “I mean, Ma’am,” I was making a wonderful first impression. Lieutenant Pen chuckled and waved her hoof. She was light pink pegasus and had blue and lavender streaked hair. Her eyes matched her lavender stripes.  She didn’t appear to be much older than I. “It’s fine. I’ll let it pass this one time. I’m Lieutenant Scribble Pen. Place your saddlebags by the door and sit down, please. I’ll take the folder,” I did so and went to sit in the chair in front the desk, giving the folder to the lieutenant. She opened it and glancing over it quickly, added three more pages from a stack on the desk. “So, Miss Agate, what made you want to join the Royal Guard?” she asked, picking up a pen. “My family has been involved with the military in some form for many years. My father is—was—in the Army. I wanted to continue the tradition. I’m the first mare do so, however,” I explained. “The first mare, that’s impressive. As I’m sure you know, mares in the military is quite rare these days. The Royal Guard has the highest percentage of mares, but we are still few,” she looked down at the folder, writing down some notes. “May I ask for your father’s name and rank?” “Colonel Sterling Silver, Ma’am,” “I believe I’ve heard his name before.” she continued to write notes, glancing up at me every few minutes. “You said he was in the Army. I assume he’s retired now, correct?” “Um, no, not exactly. He died while still in service,” I said, trying to mask the slight shake in my voice. Scribble’s face went soft. “I’m sorry. My father passed a few years ago, so I know how you feel,” she smiled gently. Turning her focus back to the folder, she continued, “I have a few more questions to ask before we get started on the exams. Most were answered on the papers you sent, but I like hearing them directly from the pony themself.” The following three days were filled with exams, exams, exams. Health, physical, mental and everything in between. Lieutenant Pen was extremely thorough in everything and she seemed quite pleased. It was my fourth day in Canterlot and in the short amount of time I’d been in the capital city, it was already starting to grow on me. I trotted to the recruitment center and once inside, I took a right turn and went to the familiar office of Lieutenant Pen. She was an interesting pony, though I didn’t know much about her yet, only that she was the Night Guard Lieutenant and that if I made it through, I would be part of the third group of recruits she’d trained. That alone told of her extreme skill, especially with her being only in her mid-twenties. I knocked on the door of her office and entered at her word. “Good morning, Fire Agate,” she smiled brightly. “Ma’am,” I said, standing straight. “You are certainly from a soldier’s bloodline,” she said, shaking her head. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, so I stayed silent. Scribble Pen stood and came around her desk to stand in front of me. She peered at me from behind her purple glasses. “Fire Agate, why do you want to join the Royal Guard?” I tipped my head sideways. I thought I had answered that question the day I arrived. The lieutenant seemed to have read my mind and raised her hoof. “Yes, you answered this question four days ago. But your answer made it appear that you were joining in order to continue a legacy. That is a good reason, don’t get me wrong, but I want to know why you want to devote your life to the service of our Princess and to our country.” I mulled over her question for several minutes. It honestly caught me off-guard. Why did I want to join the Guard? I wanted to continue my family’s tradition. I wanted to do it for my baby brother. I wanted to protect my homeland and my princess. I wanted to prove that a mare can do anything a stallion can. I wanted to rub it into my sister’s snout. But as I thought about it, I realised that I wanted to join the military to make my father proud of me. Steeling my nerves, I opened my mouth. “Lieutenant Pen, there are many reasons why I want to be a Royal Guard. But I think the number one reason why I want to be in the military is to be closer to my father. All throughout my foalhood, we had a rocky relationship. I never knew if he really loved me. When I told him I wanted to join the service, what little relationship we did have completely shattered. “A week before he died, I visited him at the Army base. I learned a lot of things I’d never known about. But one of the most important things was that he actually did love me, in his own way. I still don’t understand why he did the things he did and I wish I could have one more conversation with him. Before he died, I wanted to join for myself. Now, I want to join for him,” The lieutenant was silent for a long time. I could see the gears turning in her mind as she thought over what I’d told her. “Fire Agate, that is why you want to be a Royal Guard,” Scribble finally said. She reached her hoof towards mine and I lifted it to shake hooves with her. “Congratulations. I am happy to tell you that you have been approved in joining the Guard,” Lieutenant Pen smiled. “ I will be your commanding officer during the next twelve weeks,” she said. “You may unpack your belongings in your given quarters. Boot camp begins tomorrow at 0600 hours. I expect to see you there, bright eyed and bushy tailed. You may have this afternoon as a free day. Dismissed,” she gave me a piece of paper and saluted. I saluted back and turned to leave. It was hard to contain my excitement until I got outside of the recruitment center. “YES!” I shouted out into Canterlot. I couldn’t wait to write a letter to Mother. Smiling and giggling with glee, I galloped to the building beside the recruitment center. I had been given a room there during the exam process. After getting my things, I looked at the piece of paper the lieutenant had given me. On it were directions to my quarters, along with the names of the ponies I’d be bunking with. Exiting the building, I slowly made my way across the yards to my new home for the next twelve weeks. Directly in front of me was the mess hall/recreational area and infirmary. To my left was the training grounds. It was surrounded by a large track, on which I had completed the endurance exam the day before. To my right were the barracks, four buildings that were two stories tall. I looked down at the paper in my hoof. Barrack 2, number 223. I found the right building and went inside. Immediately inside was a small foyer, a wall separating it from the rest of the building. To the left was stairs leading to the second floor. A door in the middle of the separating wall led to the ground floor rooms. Beside it hung a framed map, showing the room numbers. My number was on the second floor, so I made my way to the stairs and went up. The long hall had a total of thirty-four rooms. The quarters were large enough for six ponies at a time, though typically they were only shared by four and so had just four single beds. My room was close to the end of the building on the left side. I wasn’t sure if I had any bunkmates yet. I figured that the lieutenant would have told me if I did, so I forgoed knocking and opened the door. I immediately regretted doing so the moment I did so. The moment I stepped in my quarters I was swiftly knocked off my hooves and thrown into a choke hold. My eyes focussed on the golden-brown fur of my assaulter before sweeping over to two other ponies, one white and one green. Was this some sort of initiation procedure?  Survive and become part of this room of psychopaths?  My memories went back to the times of sparring with the neighborhood colts and them putting me is this same position. I managed to get out of each one and I may have broke one colt’s leg on one occasion. I hated choke holds. I always felt closed in and claustrophobic each time, which made me work even harder to escape.  This time was no different. I lifted my forelegs with lightning speed and rammed my holder in their side. I felt the hold loosen so I did it again. The hold around my neck loosened once more and I was able to raise up a little on my rear legs. Lifting myself up put me in a better position and I smiled inwardly knowing that I had the attacker in my control now. I pushed all my strength into my rear legs and flipped backwards, which made the pony completely lose their grip on me. Upon completing the flip, I turned and punched my attacker, who fell flat on the floor. My breath was heavy from the unexpected workout as I sat down on my rump. The golden-bown pony sat up and stared at me with disbelief. It was at this point that I realized that my attacker was a mare, along with the white and green ponies. I mentally smacked myself; I knew I would be bunking with mares. I stood up and walked over to the golden mare. She had silver and black in her mane, her eyes were silver and her cutie mark was of a peel and a loaf of bread. “Sorry. I’m Fire Agate,” I said, extending my hoof. I noticed her nose was bleeding from my punch. She ignored my hoof and picked herself up off the floor. “You got a nice right hook there, girlfriend,” she said, wiping a hoof across her face.  “Name’s JD,” she said, extending the same hoof. I grimaced as I lightly touched her bloodied hoof with the tip of mine. “Is that short for anything?” I asked. “Let’s just keep it at JD for now, kid,” she said before walking out of the room, I assumed to go to the wash room. At least I hoped she was going to the wash room. I looked over at the other two mares I would be sharing the room with for the next twelve weeks. They were still staring at me “Hi, I’m Fire Agate,” I smiled uneasily as I picked up my bags. “Which corner isn’t taken?” They finally snapped out of their stupor and the green mare pointed to the right rear corner. “You can have that one,” she said. I glanced over at the single bed, side table and hooflocker and smiled my thanks. “I’m Purple Raine, but you can just call me Raine” the white one spoke up. Her mane was violet and her eyes a striking blue. She had a cutie mark of three purple dots. “She’s Lilywater,” Purple Raine said, motioning to the green mare. Her mane was magenta and gold and her eyes pink. Her cutie mark consisted of a waterlily on a lilypad. “Sorry about all that. JD’s pretty cool once you get to know her,” Lilywater said. “Just so you know, we all were in on the ‘tackle and hold’ prank. But it was Lily’s idea,” Raine chuckled. Lilywater gave the white mare a sideways glance and rolled her eyes. “Don’t let this one fool you, she can be pretty sneaky too,” Lilywater poked Raine in the ribs as they trotted out of the room. I laid back on my bed and shook my head.  I could tell that the next twelve weeks were going to be a big adventure.