//------------------------------//
// Ch27: RE;alization 
// Story: Equestria: The Afterlife 
// by Timzocker201 
//------------------------------//

POV: Markus

Ok, so I’m finally done with training my company and have finally entered service. That should mean that the fun can finally begin, right? Wrong! General Pillbox has made a move again, this time under the cover of a simple assignment. At first, I was actually happy to be stationed around here, mainly because Twilight and Rainbow won’t have to feel lonely that way, but I didn’t know about the actual situation down here. 

Right after the Ceremony, we went to Ponyville, where Pillbox led us to where we would be housed. The thing is – something that I should have known from the get-go – Ponyville is too small to warrant an actual base, so all it has is a guard station. These stations, however, were designed to hold a small complement of guards to garrison minor towns and such, not a full company. In Ponyville’s case, even that small complement of usually around twelve guards was cut down to just six guards and a commanding officer, meaning that what we found was a small sleeping room with six beds which looked halfway decent, as well as a further six which were completely and utterly shagged. Also there was only room for one officer in there, meaning that I would have to not only find sleeping space for 28 soldiers, assuming that we get these beds fixed up, but also for two of my officers.

Luckily, I remembered something: back when I was not yet occupied with my company, Rainbow Dash and I spent a day together, in which we raided a gang hideout in the outskirts of Ponyville. While certainly not an actual barrack, the warehouse they used would certainly be big enough to house our equipment and enough beds for everyone. Also, the warehouse is located, like I said, in the outskirts, which means that we – hopefully – won’t bother anyone when going out for drills and such.

As for the current situation: luckily, a good portion of my soldiers seems to live, or at least have relatives in Ponyville and they have agreed to take one or two of their comrades into their houses. As for the officers: Twilight has offered to take up me, as well as two further officers for the time being. Thus, Lt. Bulkhead has taken the sole officer’s room in the station, while I am now sitting here, listening to Lt. Overdrive get dumped by Lt. Mystic Gem, while Twilight is trying to sneak a peek over my shoulder at what I am writing, going full rose-blush as I write this line.

And just as I turn around to confront her she masterfully pretends to be searching for a book. Oh well… Anyways: By now I have the feeling that General Pillbox is not just bad with adaptations, but is trying to sabotage me. I don’t know why he is doing that, but the evidence THAT he is doing so has already been brought up. Still, tomorrow, we will go and take a look at the warehouse to see, what needs to be done and maybe even draw out some floor-plans already. I just hope that nothing more will– …probably shouldn’t jinx it, right?





Yep, I knew I shouldn’t have jinxed it… Damn that General Pillbox, but what can I do? He is my superior and I have to follow his orders, even if I don’t like it. But what has happened, I hear you ask, Mr. Blank Page? Well, just as I wrote yesterday, we went to take a look at the building in question to take some measurements and assess the situation. Fortunately, we found that the whole thing was already partially set-up for housing, so that we at least already had some bunks to work with. Still, there is a lot to be done and so we immediately went to work on it. Twilight was also there, but for what reason, I don’t know. Mostly she just watched us work, but she also used her magic to help a bit here and there.

Then, lunch break came around and we sat together to eat some. At first, it was just us, silently downing our meals, but then she asked a question.

“So, why don’t you just let them construct something completely new? I mean, you did set up your training grounds yourself, so why not do the same with the barracks?”

I looked at her with, admittedly, probably more of a ridiculing look than I had intended, but seeing the seriousness in her face, I gave her an answer.

“Because, obviously, those Ponies are soldiers, not construction workers. I mean, certainly, some of them do have a cutie mark that might relate to construction, but that doesn’t mean that their role has changed. Also, the training grounds were set-up as a temporary solution and were as such only made from what we could find in the forest. The barracks, however, need to live a bit longer than just three months and, as you might have guessed, I might be able to tinker with and replicate devices I know and build smaller structures, but neither am I an Architect, nor am I an Engineer.”

Now that I am writing this down, I might just take these construction-marked ponies and train them to be Pioneers. Though there would be little use of them, considering that I have trained everyone to build encampments, trenches etc. and there are no mines to be laid/cleared. Destroying bridges or other infrastructure would also not be a viable use for them, as most of the potential enemies I can think of can either fly or have magic at their disposal… I will do it anyways, even if just for the sake of having them…

Anyways, after our lunch break, we went back to work, where I obviously was also not idling, actively working everywhere, where hooves wouldn’t quite cut it. That is, until a certain General paid us a visit. At first, I was utterly baffled to have him scream at me yet again, but as his tirade slowly died down, more and more words formed actual coherent phrases until I could make out a single sentence.

“Officers in peacetime are not allowed to lower themselves to the work of their subordinates.”

At first, I found myself a bit confused at this, but I chose not to spark another argument and instead adhere to this (stupid) rule. Thus, I and my officers instead took up management roles, supervising the whole process, but apparently that still wasn’t enough. Apparently, my officers also count into this ‘subordinates’ – section, which means that I am not allowed to do the same as they are doing. To the question, what else I would be supposed to do then, he only answered that I ‘would have to think about that’ myself. I won’t lie, at first I planned to just continue work as soon as he left, but apparently he can read minds, as he turned around and directly ordered me to stand down. With that, he basically pulled the same stunt on me, which I did on him yesterday, as he is put into that position by none other than Celestia herself. This means that defying his orders would mean to defy Celestia herself and that would conflict with my oath of loyalty. Great…

Thus, I went back to the Library together with Twilight. However, not just to adhere to his orders, but to dig myself through military law to see, if he was actually right. Unfortunately, he was indeed right, however the search for that answer brought up something else, that would actually solve a problem: apparently, guards may use their own estates as housing, as long as these aren’t any further than 10 miles away from their assigned post. This makes the housing situation much easier to handle, as now the amount of beds needed is about halved, freeing up some much needed space for storing our equipment. Still, there is a lot of work still ahead and that will need some time to be done. Especially since I am not allowed to help…





So, I spent the last week or so here at the library together with Twilight. Originally I thought that I would be bored to death, but I was actually proven wrong. Being unable to do anything actually brought me into the same situation, where I had found myself in only three months ago: In the Library with Twilight, discussing different topics to learn from each other. Although, now with our relation changed a bit, it likely doesn’t come as a surprise that the topics have changed as well.

It actually came to be that we would sit in the library, sometimes together with Mystic and Rainbow and sometimes without them, and talk about our views on the world and whatever we have found ourselves interested in. Now, I don’t know if this is what actual couples normally talk about, but it is what we could find common interests in. Even Rainbow seemed interested in that, something that came pretty unexpected actually. She even has brought up some interesting thoughts in terms of the internal workings of Equestria, about the noble council and such. I had always thought that politics would be too slow-paced for someone as fast as Rainbow Dash, but apparently I have been wrong.

Of course, we didn’t always just talk about serious topics either. In fact, most of our conversations were just lighthearted chatter. Just like on Wednesday, when we came together in the evening to have some tea. Rainbow was reading the newest Daring-Do book, Twilight and Mystic were looking into some magic and Overdrive and I had a little man-talk. Then, suddenly, Rainbow grabbed our attention with a single line.

“Do you guys sometimes wonder how language came to be?”

Every one of us immediately stopped what (s)he was doing and stared at Rainbow Dash.

“What? Did I say something weird?”

“The question isn’t what’s weird, but whom it is coming from…” Twilight remarked.

“Hey!  Even I wonder about these things sometimes!” Rainbow retorted.

“She does have a point though: How did language start?” Mystic chimed in.

“Well, I could imagine that somepony just started pointing at things, giving them names, like: Apple, Table… Cute Mare.” Overdrive said, as he pointed first at an apple, then at the coffee table and then at Mystic, who promptly rolled her eyes with an annoyed look.

“Real smooth, Romeo.” I then said. “If you continue up this road, you’ll probably lose your potency by hearth’s warming.” 

Overdrive raised an eyebrow at me and gave a questioning look. “Don’t you mean ‘virginity’?”

I looked over to Mystic and then back at Overdrive, who was still giving me that look. “No, judging by the look on her face, it will be your potency.” This earned me a slight giggle from Rainbow and Twilight. “Though, going back to the languages, I would say that it came to be like Overdrive had just said, only that everyone always seems to try and seem more intelligent than the others, so that we went from ‘ball’ to ‘ball round’ to ‘THE ball IS round’ to ‘This even spheroid has a spherical shape’.”

“And in order to do that, they came up with all kinds of terms, gave it all some basic rules, now known as grammar and so, language was born.” Mystic finished.

“Exactly.” I agreed. “Although, in that process there have been some questionable decisions. Like, whoever had the idea to divide ‘laughter’ and ‘slaughter’ by only a single letter must have been an utter maniac.”





Those chats were what I mostly spent my time with during that one week, although that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do anything useful. In fact, I used my kinda forced vacation there on solving a little problem with the new doctrine. Well, two problems, actually. Firstly: The recoil, especially on the 37mm MKs is not to be underestimated and even though I have trained them to compensate for said recoil doesn’t mean that their hooves have suddenly become tracks, meaning that with each shot they are slowly pushed backwards. Also, most of the armies in this world are made up mostly out of melee fighters and while my company is designed to be highly mobile, melee combat isn’t always avoidable.

These two problems combined brought me to design a new piece of equipment. Although… ‘design’ might be a little too fancy a word. What I really did was: I took my knife, made it so that the blade could be folded back and gave it straps, so that it could be strapped to a pony’s legs and unfolded whenever needed. The earthponies could then slam them into the ground to get more grip while simultaneously it would also be at least something to defend themselves in melee.

I went through the design process, I ordered the needed material, worked my magic again and gave them to the ponies and, from what I’ve seen so far, they seem to quite enjoy my gift. Some of them have even found another use for them while working on the barracks: apparently, these blades make for excellent screwdrivers, which normally can only be used by unicorns. Although I have been wondering: why are there screwdrivers in the first place? I mean, couldn’t they just drive the screws with their magic? Oh well… It’s likely better to not question them too much. After all, it is me who doesn’t understand all-too much about magic.

Anyways, by the progress made until now, I am expecting the barracks to be done within the next two days, which hopefully will finally enable us to properly do our jobs. It might sound strange, but I am looking forward to patrolling around Ponyville, even though it might be not much of a difference to what I am doing anyways.

It could be that General Pillbox will chew me out because of that stupid law again, but I have thought about a fitting answer to that: ‘I am not patrolling, I am overviewing my subordinates’ work.’