//------------------------------// // Basic Part 1 // Story: The Guardian // by NYChris824 //------------------------------// "Wellcome to basic training, stallions. My name is Drill Intrustctor Stalwart Sentry, however you will call me Drill Instructor Sentry." The Drill Instructor said. "We will be here for the next two months. Dinner will be at 1800 until 1930. We'll start tomorrow at 0530." He explained as he walked the room, occasionally checking his clipboard and checking the names of everyone's card on their footlocker. Sometimes he would stop and ask someone a question, three were from the same area has Vanhoover that he lived in. He stopped at David and looked at him. "How do you say your name?" "Magomedov, Drill Instructor." "Ma-game-dov." "Magomedov, Drill Instructor." He nodded as he continued down the line before stopping between Michael and I. "You were of the ones that served before. "Yes Drill Instructor." We replied. He gestured to me. "You were the army?" "No, Drill Instructor. This recruit was in the Marine Corps." "Why did you switch to third person? And what is the Marine Corp?" "It was something we were taught to do in basic, Drill Instructor and the Marine Corps is a separate branch of the military that specializes in amphibious assaults. However I have never performed a landing under fire." He looked down at his duty roster, which probably had information about all of us. "You were a chef? Wait, no wrong pony uhh, individual. You've seen combat?" "Yes. I served two combat tours in Afghanistan, a remote landlocked country." He nodded and kept moving, I assumed he'll talk to me again at my service again. He looked at James as asked him if he served. "No, Drill Instructor. That would be Michael." James nodded his head towards Michael. "You served in Aghantan?" "I did one combat tour in Afghanistan. I was a pilot in my nation's air force and performed bombing missions." The Drill Instructor continued down the line talking to everyone else before turning around for another announcement. "Dinner is in two hours. Get comfy and get to know each other. Most of the ponies you will interact with are in this room. That being said, around 15% of you will drop out. I'll back in hour and a half." He said as we walked out the room before anyone could even respond. "As long as they don't pull that 'No Bones' shit here I'll be fine." I announced to the room. "No bones?" Someone asked from further down the room. "It was the worst thing in basic to me. It happened to me a few times but fuck it was annoying. Basically if you went anywhere you needed someone with you. You could've walked to the bathroom thirty five feet away but if didn't have someone with you and you were spotted by a DI alone he would shout 'No Bones' and you would play dead until someone came and got you." I explained, as I smilied about the things we went through. "I remember on like the second day everyone was dismissed for lunch and for whatever reason one DI comes over and no bones almost everyone who ran. I'm talking easily three hundred. Then we had to find people from our company so we would turn someone over look at them and keep going." Everyone immediately looked at their bunkmate in a way of 'never leave my side'. "It's also the most hilarious moments too." Michael added "You know those fuzz balls from birds? Some guy in my basic had one on his shirt and of our drill instructor was a woman, nice and all, but can be mean as hell. She sees the fuzz ball and tells the guy to keep it. She would yell 'Herr Fluff' and the guy had to walk over so she can see him." "Did they ever make you do fire watch?" I asked him. "Yea, did it a few times. Why?" "I did that during the second or third week and I didn't see the DI come over. He slapped the wall and told me I was dead and had to become a ghost. I played with everyone by making ghost noises the whole night." "So we should expect to be bucked over by the instructors?" Someone shouted out from the back. "Probably not. I know absolutely nothing about the training program here." "We still don't get privacy in here!" Someone else yelled from the bathroom. Everyone immediately started to complain about that fact. "Everyone shut up!" Michael yelled, "Yes we still get no privacy, that is what the military does. You become something more on return. I would've have told my kids the thing I have done while serving Germany. That and it's cheaper to build if you don't have to put walls up." Everyone eventually began to break into small groups and talk. I felt someone tap my shoulder, I turned to see the man next to me. He was a pegasus, around five eleven, yellow-orange fur and blue hair. "Flash Sentry." He said as he offered me his hand. "Dan Kroger." Something something something plot moving forward *** 0530, the next morning A loud banging filled the room. I jerked awake and rolled out of bed and on my feet. "Wake up! Wake Up! The sun will be out in a moment!" Drill Instructor Sentry yelled running up and down the aisle. "And get in front of your bunks!" We all stood in front of our bunks and waited for his next order. "You have twenty minutes to shower!" He added as he walked, before he left and turned. "And if you think just because you showered last night means you don't have to; you are wrong." He turned and walked out the room. Everyone stood around awkwardly, given that we had no privacy and had a public shower. From the faces I could see, they were blushing. Which I also had the exact same look in basic, but got over it in two weeks. "I don't understand why you're all blushing," James said "and I don't remember much about anatomy of ponies, but aren't your dicks hidden?" Someone else cleared his throat, "Well, yes, but it's more what's implied." He said at the same time Michael walked by in the buff, towel over his shoulder. "We can discuss the social meaning of men showering together all day but we have about twenty minutes to do so." He explained as he walked by. "Besides, you'll be used to by next week." *** Three days later We were eating lunch, after breakfast we had a two hour class on basic military history, followed by drilling, lunch and back to class. Equestria had a fairly calm history in warfare, only fighting the griffons and minotaurs a few times each, generally to keep some part of the eastern coast. A few battles against dragons clans raiding for riches and dealing with pirates. "What in the name of Christ on a unicycle is this?" James asked holding a clear of rainbow up. "That's pure rainbow dude." Someone said "It's pretty spicy so good luck." Jame poured a little of the side of bowl and dipped a tomato in it. In a few moments his cheeks were red and his forehead was a little damp from sweat. "That's got a little kick to it, wow. Reminds me of a Indian place back home." I grabbed it and poured it on the side of my plate and stuck my fork it in. "Good luck knowing your stomach dude." The same guy said as I tried itIt wasn't all that bad, a litter spicier than a jalapeño but still manageable. "This time really isn't that spicy to me." I said "You're weird. So what's next?" Someone asked, everyone looked at each other to find out. "Probably something else in that classroom again." Michael replied "The first week or so is all about learning customs, who to salute, when to salute, when to not to. Some drilling exercises." "We might learn some basic first aid." I added "Something I was taught, I can slap a big bandage on someone if I need to. But anything bigger would need an actual corpsman. We also were taught some hand to hand combat skills. But even then the Marines is different from the army and I'm also ignoring the fact that it's two different countries." "So when do we get to actually shooting?" Flash asked "For me it took about five weeks. A couple weeks in a classroom, then swim week since that's the Marines heritage followed by some PT. Then we hit grass but we spent several days learning about the guns and getting in position to shoot. Then we got real bullets." "So we have another week before we even touch a gun?" He said in disbelief. "More like two or three, but about that, yea." I explained as I took a bite of my sandwich. "Took me a month to start training with guns as well." Michael said. "What'd you guys train with? MP5s?" "Too big. Couldn't fit in the cockpit. We used mostly the P12 and MP7." "What about you Dan." James asked "M16?" "I used the M4 on both deployments but we used the M16A4 is basic and some had it in combat. I used the SAW sometimes in basic it never deployed and we all were taught to use the M2." "Ever use the fifty in Afghanistan?" "On occasion. I was supposed to get on it once if I did I would be dead." "You never menti-" Michael began to say. "LUNCH IS OVER EVERYPONY." One of the DIs shouted. "Clean up and line up!" We all fell in and marched back out. I watched as some recruits were pulled out of line for whatever they did and began to kiss asphalt. We marched back to the class room for the next military history lesson. "Welcome back." Drill Instructor Mobile Strike said. "We'll pick up where we left off: Modern Warfare and Equestria. We'll be talking about the last fifty years of warfare." I immediately thought of all the wars America was involved from Vietnam all the way to my time in Afghanistan. "This time, is one of peace and military innovation. As you all learned in first grade, there hasn't been a year in a century and Celestia willing there won't be one for a long time." She continued, I couldn't help but think how ponies use Celestia's name like God's. The only difference is one is the head of state and the other is a omnipresent form. "The biggest innovation during these time was the creation of gunpowder, the musket and cannons by Black Powder. Obviously like everything else made, they were improved upon over time. Leading us up to out most recent Musket: The Stellum Mark Four." She said grabbing on it from the wall. It was five feet long and looked like an ordinary musket from the Revolutionary War. "This is the first musket to have rifling. Anypony know what that is?" "It is when the barrel of the gun has grooves in it to help improve accuracy and range of the bullet, Drill Instructor." I said. She smiled at me. "Very good Kroger. However a few months back a new gun came out. Some genius figured how to put the powder in the bullet and a new gun was born. I don't know much about it since it's way above my pay grade. Rumor has it that the gun can hold more than one bullet. That's about all I know." "Sounds like a bolt action." James whispered to me. "Will we ever use the new gun?" Someone asked "Unless it turns out to be a failure; otherwise you'll use it. They may decide to give it to units in the field or bring it here first." She replied "Moving on with history. The last time the military was used in combat was in Canterlot three years ago. You all know that story since you were all alive for it. But I was there." She said, several others in the class started to talk quiet. "Did you know Changeling blood is blue but turns green? It does that for some reason. None of the brainiacs figures out why. That's enough for today, get out of here."