Chapter 2: Welcome to Hell
Dear Journal,
Today when I was out in a cave saving my ass from a blizzard, I discovered that it was a gemstone cave. Excited, I started to eat them but the last one I put into my mouth, it refused to break.
Confused, I took it out of my mouth to see the orange gem in my hoof and for somereason, it drew me to it like it was my nonexistent mother. Shrugging, I put into my saddle pack for no good reason before heading off.
Captain Seal looked at the two cadets with a stern, strait face. This caused the Jet Fling to coward slightly under his gaze and Alex coward slightly from it before the stallion smiled and chuckled to himself slightly.
“Boy, you guys are gullible as fuck.” He chuckled.
‘BOY! I AM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!” Jet Fling yelled as she got up and got ready to punch but was punched in the gut by M.S. Burner.
“Okay, calm down you, you will have all of time to prove yourself,” Then she smirked. “Spitfire.”
“WHAT?!” She screamed before bolting out of the door and fuming right outside of it.
“What is wrong with her?” Seal asked.
“I don’t know.” Burner replied.
Captain Seal whispered something in M.S. Burner’s ear as Spitfire fumed outside of the cart cursing the stars into submission. After about 5 minutes of blowing steam, Spitfire finally went back into the cart, passed by the tree ponies, and slumped back down in a back seat.
“What a spoiled bitch.” Alex heard M.S. Burner muttered to herself before turning to face Alex.
“So Cadet,” She started, “what are your goals here since you arrived at Fort Gator?”
“I don’t have any goals; they all went out the window.” Alex comically said as he opened the door and threw his ‘goals’ out of it before shutting it. “Now I need new ones.” He finished before crossing his legs and putting his forearms behind his head in a relaxed position.
“Why is that Cadet?” She went on.
“Let me tell you what!” Spitfire yelled across the cart. “My goal is to kick ass and kill those son-of-bitches to the point of death!”
“*Sigh* That is, something spits.” Captain Seal replied. “So, Alex, can you explain yourself on what you said.”
“Well, to start off with, I have no clue who we’re fighting against so there is that. Which means I don’t have a mental battle plan on what the hell I should so. They could be merciless killers who need to be punished on the battlefield by death or beings fighting for their beliefs and should be spared. I just don’t know.” Alex shrugged.
M.S. Burner clapped at his explanation. “Well said, but if you don’t know what your enemy is, then what?”
“KILL THEM ALL!”
“NO! Spitfire, you can’t do that, that will lead you being charged of genocide.” Captain Seal said aggravated at Spitfire’s behavior. “Anyways, continue.”
“As I was saying,” Alex gave a dirty look to Spitfire. “I also have no clue what. I don’t have any data on what they are like so if they aggressive, be aggressive and if they are not, don’t be aggressive.”
“Eh, acceptable but do you have any experience working with others?” Captain Seal asked.
“Well, this is where I go down, I… don’t really trust anyone from my past, like I was stabbed in the back the last time I trusted something.” He said looking downwards.
“Hmmm…” Captain Seal and M.S. Burner hummed before whispering to each other.
“To be honest, I don’t really have anything to lose at this point, I don’t even think I’ll get far to be honest. I’ve always though this, life of min was a huge tragedy but in reality, I am nothing more than a joke.”
“Well get that out of your system peabrain! And don’t get in my way of glory!”
“SPITFIRE! COME HERE NOW!” Captain Seal bellowed right at Alex’s face, who crunched up from it.
Spitfire quickly trotted to Captain Seal who turned around to face the pegasus mare with furry.
“Your behavior young mare has been up to the point of being disgraceful young mare.” His face relaxed. “Now tell me, what did you do to prepare you for this moment?”
“Well, let see, I went to the best flight school I can find, my wings are the right size for speed, I even beaten my bullies into submission and-!”
“Okay, I’ve heard enough, I know what Alex has been up to, let’s go.” Captain Seal ordered before they left the cart.
As Alex made his way down the stone platform, he noticed that the last of the cadets that where on his train were walking though a large gate about 50 meters to his 1:30.
But as soon as the last pony made its way into the gate, the gates started to swing.
“NOOO!” Spitifire yelled out as she flew towards the shutting gates, but she was too late, she rammed into the now locked gates and fell to the ground.
“Urrrrgh!” She grumbled as she got up and look up at the gate, who were mocking at her. “What are you starring at?!” She yelled before kicking the door. “OWWWWWEEEEEEE!”
“Ha, that is what I call comedy gold!” Captain Seal chuckled at her failure.
“Yeah!” Responded M.S. Burner.
“When’s dinner?” Alex asked.
“Why do you want to now ground boy?!” Spitfire yelled, still on the ground.
“Want to direct the topic somewhere else. So when is it?”
“Follow me.” Captain Seal said with a grin as the four started to walk to their left aaawwwaaayyy from the main gates and passed the main wall and into the forest surrounding it. The sun was just setting.
“Where, where are we going?” Spitfire said worriedly, this is the first time she cared about something, and that something is herself.
“Welcome home! Thank you for camping at Camp Gator! Please complain to the trash can and room service is at Ustekday.” Captain Seal explain, chuckling to himself.
“Grrrrrr!!!” Alex grumbled to himself.
“Hey Alex! What is with the sudden change of attitude?” Captain Seal asked innocently.
“Well I’ve been living on and off in the open for about 12 years and doing it again ruins why I stayed in Foalbanks in the first place.” He grumbled.
“What, what?” Spitfire chimed in.
“No, I don’t want to explain.”
“Oh come on!”
“Anyways,” M.S. Burner continued from where Captain Seal left off. “You will be living in tents with 3 others not including you. You will be responsible for your tent like if a leak develops, we’re not responsible for repairs or a new tent. Everything else will be on a rule board in the middle of the camp.”
“It there anypony there already?” Spitifire asked.
“Possible, they are coming tonight as around the same time and HERE WE ARE!”
The camp was modest size wise with about 5 actual buildings, 5 more that will be pushing it, and around 30 tents that look too small to fit 4 fully grown ponies. In the middle of the camp, there was a part of a tree that has a board with ‘Rules’ nailed to it. The place was littered with trees and the tents themselves had trees on top of them.
If Spitfire and Alex wished to be the first ones there, they were mistaken, they were surrounded by ponies as they approached the middle of the camp where the ‘Tree of Truth’ was.
“Okay you two, read the rules hear and I’ll get someone to explain somethings in detail.” Captain Seal departed the three and Spitfire and Alex read the rules:
1. Breakfast: 600 Lunch: 1300 Dinner: 2000
2. Wake up call @ 500
3. You’re responsible for your own tent
4. You’re responsible for somepony else’s tent if you do anything to it
5. Prepare to get your ass kicked
“Oh boy, tough rules.” Spitfire commeted.
“I don’t see a problem with this, the forest will screw you up, not this.”
“Stallions.” She muttered to herself before a voice caught them off guard.
“Well, hello you two nitwits, what’d’u think?” A stallion’s voice cut through the air. The two cadets turned to face a tan unicorn stallion with a grey mane staring down at the two cadets, which Spitfire cowered.
“Just another day in my misery.” Alex replied calmly.
“What misery?” He challenged.
“This.” And this is when Alex struck him hard on the head without warning. Everypony in the vicinity gasped as the stallion whimpered up to his hooves after the blow.
“Well jimmy, can you stand?” At that moment, the officer lunged at Alex and pinned him against the Tree of Truth.
By now, almost everypony formed a circle around the two, some whimpering behind others.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” The stallion sneered.
“Higher authority are big jerks and don’t now what they are doing. Proof me otherwise if I am wrong. They have the tendency to stab others in there back for no good reason.” Then he was released.
The stallion looked at him dead in the eyes before releasing him to the ground and storming off in a random direction. The circle dissipated around Alex with worried looks, this is not a good sign. And Alex just become self aware that that wasn't normal for that to happen.
Shrugging, Alex looked at the time to see it was 1950. Time to go to the cafeteria!
Okay, well as Alex got to the cafeteria and expected the food to be bad up to the point to be useless. Instead, there wasn’t anyfood and the same stallion from earlier that he head-wacked was standing on a table surrounded by ponies.
“Okay, due to your training circulum, there won’t be any dinner for you guys today but rather, you need to fetch it out in the surrounding forest around here.”
Everypony groaned.
“Come on! You signed up for this, but I didn’t sign up for my head getting wacked *chuckles*. Okay, there will be pegasi flying above to make sure you don’t die from a bear or a poisonous plant or animal. Good luck! By the way, I am Master Hass Kicker. You can go now; you can eat in the cafeteria area if you want to.”
Alex looked around the cafeteria to see that the seats were tree stumps and the tables were bigger tree stumps. He decided against eating here for now before heading into the forest.
The forest was denser than the forest he was used to and several times already, his legs have been caught in thorny bushes several times already, but he didn’t complain besides when he went through them.
His train of thought was cut though by him spotting a dear eating at some ground vegetation. Alex knew what to do.
5 minutes later…
After gathering dried sticks in abundance on the ground, Alex started a fire near a creek where he brought his now unconscious dear, slit its throat, and cut open its body to let the blood drain into the creek which was flowing downstream from the camp.
Not really thinking outside of the task at hand, Alex failed to notice a set of eyes looking at him and his prey on the riverbank.
[Background Noise/Campfire Noise]
After about 3 minutes of working, Alex finally got a inferno burning that heated the surrounding area. Satisfied, he went to the deer and cut out a chunk of meat from the poor dear, put it on a stick, and then put it over the fire that he started.
Only about 2 minutes have past when Alex heard a nearby bush rustle to which he stood up since he started to cook his dinner.
“Whose there?!” Alex shouted towards the culprit bush.
The bush stirred again and stood up a dark blue coat, blue striped red mane pegasus stallion with unusually large wings for his size came from the bushes.
‘Well, this is awkward.’ Alex though as the two stared at each other for a moment before Alex sat back down again.
“Well, do you want to join me or not?” Alex casually asked the stallion.
“S-sure.” He stuttered as he approached the fire. His nose taking shallow sniffs before he clamped it shut with his hoof.
“GAH! It stinks!” He exclaimed.
“Well animal carcasses will do that do you.”
“Well, it, does sound better, somewhat” He smiled a bit, taking his hoof off his muzzle, eyes watering.
“Than what?”
“Eating nothing, can you, give me a piece?”
“Are you for sure?” Alex questioned, he knows what is it like to eat meat for the first time, it isn’t pleasant.
He gulped before replying “Yes.”
“Okay…” Alex complied before taking his hunting knife that he took with him in his saddle bag and cutting a chunk of meat off of the dead, putting it on a stick, and giving it to the pegasus.
“By the way, what is your name?” Alex asked.
“Boaz.” Boaz responded as he took the stick from Alex.
“Alexander, or just Alex.”
“How do you cook deer meat?” Boaz asked his more experienced acquaintance.
“Well, turn it around the same speed I am.” He mimicked it. “And we’ll be doing this for around the next 10 minutes.”
“Darn.”
“Well, your deer doesn’t look, to bad.” Alex commented, looking at Boaz’s somewhat burnt dinner.
“Well, first try.”
“Yeah, eat it up, not for sure how much time we have left.”
“Okay.” Boaz said as he took his first bite of deer. He chewed it for about a minute before swallowing it.
“Not bad.” He commeted before taking another bigger bit from it.
“Good, what are we going to do with the deer?” Alex ask as he also ate his dinner.
“We could take it to our tent, heh.”
“What, you want to be with me?” Alex asked surprised.
“Why do you say that?” Boaz asked, stretching.
“Well some of the gossiping I heard after I whacked Hass Kicker was over that I am mean and will beat anypony merciless, so why?”
Boaz sighed before explaining. “Well, I know this may seem crazy but I feel, safer around stronger ponies if I trust them and I want to gain your trust, if you want to.” He smiled before his face turned to horror.
“Goodness! What happened to you?!” He exclaimed as he saw all the scars on Alex’s body.
“*Sigh* Do you want the sugar-coated version or the ugly truth?” Alex said defeated.
“Well I want to truth, if you want to say it.” Boaz responded with a slight smile.
“Okay, well I all started when I was-.”
“HEY YOU TWO! IT IS TIME TO- WHAT THE HELL DID YOU GUYS DO?!” A voice came from the forest to which it belonged to Master Hass Kicker who has a shocked face plastered on his face.
“Dinner, do you want to try some?” Alex asked.
“No, you dam cannibals! Put that fire out and meet at the Rule Tree.” He started to go back to the camp before stopping. “And also, bring that deer with you.” Then he left.
The two looked at each other before shrugging and then Alex picked up the deer corpse and Boaz splashed water on the fire which it sizzled out.
In the meantime Alex was thinking to himself.
‘Should I tell him that I lived in the jungle for who knows how long? Last time I mentioned it, I was beaten half to death.’
“Yes, the time has come to do so.” The two voices from earlier said at once.
“This is you in the making.” A third new feminine voice said after the last one.
This is starting to confuse Alexander even more than last time. His train of though was broken when his shoulder was tapped on.
“Fire’s out.” Boaz spoke to the startled stallion.
“Okay, do you want to follow or lead?”
“I can’t even see in the dark unless you can magically do so.”
“Well I can see in the dark.” Alex commented before walking with the deer on his back.
“How?” Boaz asked while walking behind Alex.
“Well for some reason, I can see in infrared so I can detect heat from the surrounding objects.”
“Huh, interesting.”
“Seen some weird things I guess?”
“Yes, I know a unicorn who has 3 horns.” Boaz chuckled.
“Interesting, and I don’t know why I can see in infrared, but I can also see in black and white apparently according to some ponies I knew.”
“What do you mean, knew?”
“Well they drowned when they attacked me.” And then Alex glared at Boaz who coward slightly at the sight until Alex looked away.
“Oh boy… worse than my situation.”
“What?”
“Well I-.”
“Welcome back you two, care if I take this from you.” Master Hass Kicker asked, pointing at the deer.
“Sure, no need to have it elsewhere.” Alex agreed.
“Thank you.” Hass Kicker levitated the deer off Alex’s back before turning around to some other officers. “Hey you guys! This is what these two cadets were able to do!” He yelled towards them.
“What?!” They all said, astonished at what they were seeing.
“Can we leave sir?” Alex asked, agrivated.
“Sure, good luck finding a tent for you two to find. Showers are marked by the way.”
“Thank you.” Alex said before leaving with Boaz following closely.
“Don’t like authority Alex?” Boaz asked on their way.
“No, let me guess, you overheard my interaction with Hass Kicker?”
“No.”
Alex stopped under a tree and looked at Boaz.
“Then how can you tell?”
Boaz sighed again.
“Well, I didn’t have the best foalhood and this led me to, be aware of how other feel.” He said ashamed, scratching his leg.
“Sums up my life foalhood as well.” Alex muttered as he put a hoof on his shoulder, but Boaz recoiled away.
“Don’t! Reminds me of those times.” He said, putting his head down in shame.
“Hey, let me tell you something.” Alex began. “Just keep your head up and don’t be dragged down your past, okay?”
“Okay *sniff*.”
“Good!” And the two left the cover of the tree, unaware of some officers watching them as the event unfold and folded up, snickering over what happened.
“Have you been here before?” Alex asked as they entered the restroom/shower area.
“Nope, first time as well.” Boaz replied as he looked around in the unisex bathroom. The walls are either wood or hay stuffed fabric and the showers were nothing more than a string you pull to release water into a bucket which the bucket has holes that rain down on whoever is below it.
“Well the shower area has shampoo.” Alex commeted as he left the area.
“Come on!” Boaz complained from one of the bathroom stalls. “The toilets are just large holes in the ground!”
“Well don’t complain to me! Complain to the grass!” Alex replied back as he used the restroom himself.
“What?”
Alex finished his business and walked out of the stall, as he turned a left towards the door with Boaz in toe, Spitfire walked into the restroom. The two stared at each other for a moment before spitfire spoke up:
“What are you looking at?!” She yelled before slamming the stall door.
“What is her problem?”
“Well she received the nickname Spitfire.”
“Ooooohhhhh…”
“Anyways, do you want to find our cabins?” Alex asked, thinking that he’ll go to another cabin.
“Can I stay with you?” Never mind.
“Huh, I have to ask you a question Boaz, do you have any since of danger making quick decisions without prior information?” He asked as the two made there way to the tents.
“To be honest, I don’t have anything to lose right now so I don’t think about anything twice.”
“Same here with me, no family, no friends, nothing except for a knife and a crystal.”
“Yeah, I literally brought nothing with me, you seemed to be better off.”
“I hope so.” Alex nodded slowly before the two went silent for the rest of the walk.
“Get away from you filthy aninmals!”
“Oh hello! A weekling being protected by a strong guy, get out of here!”
“This is only for girls’ perverts!”
“Do you want a knife to your face? Then no, get lost.”
“Well this is a disaster.” Alex mumbled to himself as the two sat under a random tree.
“No kidding, the kindest think we received was ‘Losers!’”
“Yeah, I wonder if we can sleep under this tree, better than elsewhere.” Alex asked Boaz.
“Seems fine with me.”
“I would search otherwise.” The feminine voice inside Alex’s head went off again.
‘Okay, where should I search?’
“Follow your instincts.” It replied before going mute.
Alex thought for a moment before looking at a relatively creepy alley way with a sign that said ‘More Tents This Way’ on it.
“Should we try that way?” Alex asked pointing at the sign.
“Sure.” Boaz replied without hesitation.
“Letting your guard down again?”
“Sure, sure.”
“Uh…” Alex said as he looked at Boaz who was starting to sweat.
‘This is not good.’
“Let me guess again, your parents abused you?”
“Family.” Boaz corrected.
“Well I am a clean template, so you don’t have to follow the ‘mister tough guy’ attitude.”
“But-.”
“No buts, so you are scared.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to follow my lead?”
“*Gulp* Yes.”
“Then follow me.” Alex ordered before the two went down the trail.
The trail itself wasn’t that bad but being at night, who knows what can be lurking in the shadows of the dimly lit trail. It wasn’t a problem for Alex who could see easily in the night but for Boaz, he was shivering in fear at the middle spots of the bamboo torches that lit the way, some of them weren’t even on.
“How much longer?” Boaz whispered in Alex ear.
“I don’t know, hold tight.” He responded as they continued their trek.
They eventually made their way to an open area with four other tents surrounded by trees on all sides with a sign that said: ‘River Tent This Way, Beware of Flooding, the Choice is Yours.’
“Oh boy.” Boaz said as he saw the campfire illuminated area and saw ponies in them already.
“Well, let’s make an attempt at the tents.” Alex said as they made there way to the left most tent but was stopped by a hoof tap by no other than Master Hass Kicker.
“Where do you think you two are going?” He asked.
“Ask the ponies in these tents if we can stay in them.” Boaz replied, showing courage for the second time that night.
“Well sorry, I won’t let you go into any of these.”
“You don’t have a good reason to kick my ass with that asshole.” Alex growled.
“Do you want to be in this program Cadet Alexander? You are out of warnings.”
“Yes but everything needs a reason for something.” Alex’s relaxed a tad.
“Well this has one that is, classified from you, now go down to the river tent and that is where you can kiss you dreams.” And then Master Hass Kicker left the two who were now looking at each other before both gulped and made their way to the cabin. They were thankful that there was another restroom/shower building there.
“Hey Stallions!” A mare called from behind the two who just stepped on the trail. They turned around to find Spitfire waving at them.
“Good luck drowning!” Before she went back to her tent.
The looked at each other again before continuing with Alex cursing to himself at her shenanigans.
The trail down to the cabin was steep and they could here the sound of a waterfall. The tent was only like 30 meters away from the circle but was muddy for the last 5 meters. Boaz and Alex clearly saw there was no pony in the tent as of that moment.
“Well, we can’t do anything about it now.” Alex cometed.
“True.” Boax replied but Alex was focused on the fact that his crystal seemed to by, vibrating constantly. Shacking his head, Alex sighed before moving forwards.
The tent was relatively small and cozy but was able to fit 2 bunk beds with lockers with either side NOT being covered, which meant in the case of a down pour, they will get wet.
“Well, we may be alone Boaz, but these bunks sure look used, at least half of them.”
“Yeah, good thing that is that they have one side so do you want the bottom or top bunk?”
“Your choice.”
“Oh, I’ll take… uh… the… top.” Boaz answered.
“Okay.” Alex agreed as he put his stuff on the lower bunk for pausing.
“Well, since with that, I’m going to take the right locker for no reason.” Alex called out.
“Uh okay.” Boaz gave in before sliding into his bunk due to him not carrying anything with him.
Alex took his stuff to his locker he claimed, well more like a cabinet, and then took his saddle bags off that housed his jacket, hunting knife that is now clean, and his crystal that has been acting up on and off through out the day.
Alex took this time to open it up and look at the crystal, thinking about why in the world is has been doing this and what is the leading towards.
Shrugging, he closed his saddle bag, closed the lockless door, and then slid under to his bed. The mattress has the comfort of a college dorm’s mattress and the sheet was thin, but Alex couldn’t complain, sort of.
“Well well, looks like we have new tent mates in hell!” A stallion’s voices ran outside from the bunk.
‘Oh no, I don’t like the sound of that.’ Alex though as he and boaz looked at the entrance to see a teal blue, white mane, and a khaki, emerald green mane earth pony standing there.
The unicorn was grinning somewhat evilly and the earth pony also smiled but yet, he looked, sad.
“Do you want to see if they can play swim the river?” The unicorn asked, looking up at the earth pony.
“Sure! Then maybe we can then play hang mare!” The earth pony chuckled.
“Sure, sure, well let’s introduce ourselves since we have their eyes on us already.” The unicorn said as he marched into the tent.
“Hello you two nitwits, got stuck into this hell tent by the asshole that told us we had to find out dinner in the forest?” He asked aggravated as he slide in the upper bunk.
“Yes, we have, I can’t complain tough.” Alex commented.
“Why?” The earth pony asked.
“Well once, no, actually several times, I slept on a kayak on ice cold rivers and streams and the kayak decided to capsize on me.”
“Ouch, well I’ve been beaten during my sleep.” The unicorn said. As the point in time, Alex noticed all the scars on the unicorn’s body, reminding him of his own ones.
“Don’t mind if I ask why?” Boaz asked.
“No, I don’t want to, it is already 20:00 so we need to sleep before we get yelled at.” He sternly told them.
“GET TO BED! WE HAVE A BUSY DAY TOMARROW!”
“Well, there is that.” The unicorn committed before getting under his sheets. “And by the way, my name is Pyralis.”
“Alex.”
“Boaz.”
“Allson.” The earth pony said from below.
And the rest of the night was silent. But Alex’s dream was nothing but.