Personal Entry. My name is Wide Eyes, I'm a chocolate brown pegasus of a slim build, some muscle, average height, aged 25, having Hazel eyes and a darker brown, longer mane that reaches slightly down past my shoulders normally. I say normally due to the fact that in current conditions my hair has been cut shorter to train in the basics in hoof-to-hoof, weapons, and armor. I've finally managed to take the time to write down my experience thus far and start a personal journal of my desires and why I might be within the guards bootcamp. Some Equestrian Laws state that depending on your profession, one needs to protect yourself and keep a steady hoof in or out of armor.
My chosen profession is that of a Private Investigator, and I only need practice the art of self-defense in our (sometimes troublingly so) active and chaotic world to pursue the art of tailing most criminals or work alongside guards in proper towns or local enforcement. After all, A seal of the Princess herself cannot simply be forged if made with their magic. Or, less importantly, stamped through with a seal stamp retaining her magic. I digress from my main point, it has been but one week in this encampment and already between my normal form of speech and my unique facial appearance i've gained a following as a target for taunts and torture.
Not to say i'm not used to this. Should any of you who find my journal later, perhaps some concerned citizen or perhaps some sneaky guardsman in training wishing to see if i write my feelings in a diary and find themselves sorely mistaken decide to read further in yes i am quite aware of my appearance. My name, while more than capable of filling your mind with imagery of somepony who keeps their eyes open for danger and clues as some PI, i must admit some truth to the naming conventions my family has had for some time. For some time, for as long as i can remember actually and from the stories my mother told me, her side of the family have had unique eye features.
Some from a higher trait-pool of thestral genetics that was at some point wheedled out to prevent wings and coloration to just having unusually colored or extremely large, even for a pony, eyes. I myself find that I am on the opposite end of the spectrum, where my eyes are actually rather small. My pupils are tiny compared to the average Equine, giving me either the look of one normally in terror, or as some have told me, one who judges them as a cat does. While humorous it is certainly one of the few complimentary insults i've heard... Plate Eyes being far too common.
My second most notable feature, which goes hoof in hoof unfortunately for everypony who meets me, is that my face is not very expressive. The same can be said for my voice. This, in some twist of fate, comes from my father, who does have some less expressive family members but apparently i was hit with the proverbial cart. It's made my instructors on multiple occasions call me 'Sarcastic, A back sassing lay-about,' and most confusingly, 'The most bug-eyed freak with the voice that drones on for a year after we ask you to shut up'. I know this is all part of the training of course, training for military forces is brutal, painful, traumatizing sometimes and they will kick you out on your flank if you can't take it but i feel like they think i'm genuinely here to be a sarcastic wretch. Using what little ability i have to animate my face at any given time, if not truly motivated by emotions feels taxing and I'd rather not waste the breath explaining myself. But i think it sometimes surprises them i'm capable of so many wing-ups. I'm quite a bit more sturdy than i appear. I shall update this log a bit further in if i can, as hopefully the others won't give me so many glares for the extra physical discipline i sometimes 'earn' for simply saying 'yes sir' in my apparently condescending tones. Though now that brings to mind another odd statement i heard after a long day yesterday. What in the world is 'resting Canterlot Mares' face'?
New Personal entry: It has been a full two months since i've joined the encampment and despite what most ponies i've heard of say of food such as this, served to the lowest of grunts being trained up or out on post not in the castle... I have no honest complaints. Each meal is filling, sometimes a bit bland yes but quite nutritious in its own right. The instructors, namely Sargent Valiant Shield have picked up on the fact that, even when exhausted, my face does not change much. I've also learned that while i'm sturdier than I look, i'm currently no match for some of the other brutes i've met. Despite this, i think this revelation has actually calmed down the personal torments i've sometimes been forced to experience due to my awkwardness in voice and expression. Although I don't believe the sargents expected me to actually stay up for three days without sleep and keep up with the group while on a small hike. The seeing triple did, however, scare enough of the medics to put me on a nutrient drip for a day, force me to stay out of activities, and i even earned a surprising nickname for my fourth week that's lasted until now. "Dead Eyes."
Apparently i looked as much a corpse on the way back that even our instructors had trouble looking me in the eyes, due to the fact my pupils shrank further trying to keep out any light then expanded suddenly whenever i focused on something right before me, giving a glassy, dead appearance on top of my usual soft-spoken and very-much-tired and hollow responses. It's started to escalate to a point that i can activate it on will and it will curse you and that it's somehow what my Cutie Mark represents. Some ponies. Tomorrow however, I am quite excited, we'll be beginning the basics of hoof-to-hoof combat and be beginning armored training. Mobility training, how to fight armored opponents while unarmored, without magical abilities, with magical abilities like flight or magic, while armed with unconventional weapons, this will be the true beginnings of my self-defense lessons. I've already spent a good many bits on schooling for regular investigative work. With this i'm a step closer to a long awaited dream. Maybe with the things i'll see, i'll find myself kneeling before the royal court, thanked for something i've stopped... but these are mere flights of fancy. Everyone wishes for that, do they not?
I wish that i had more to add but unfortunately not much has happened. Not so far. Maybe tomorrow will bring so better thoughts to settle to paper? Maybe if i'm not tired from working myself to the dirt from excitement at the prospect of our main training. I know its an escalation of training but still, the mere thought of getting to experience something where, as nimble as I am and from a short life of catching small-town bullies and cheats or solving minor incidents before becoming official the idea that we are on our way to the proper training and that i'm a step closer is both daunting and exciting. I'm so glad the training starts exclusively in spring, even if i have to watch my fellow pegasi bring forth the clouds and shower us with rain so we might crawl through the muck later. I feel myself grinning broadly now, and i need to stop writing before i become overly excited. The others are looking at me with worry. More to come, hopefully soon.
Two months, two days: Goodness dear Celestia my body aches. I've got bruises i've never thought i'd gain and this is our first real break where we can sit in our barracks for a moment in between punches, kicks and the occasional swooping dive between pegasi partner. Truly the soreness i had cracked out of my body was wince worthy, if the reactions from my ground-based companions was a fair reaction. I don't think i've seen somepony turn such a violent shade of green for being such a garish shade of blue just because your wing popped, but then again I do not believe most earth ponies know that your wing can bend that way. I simply must apologize to some of my companions here about my form of muscle relaxing. And perhaps apologize once more to Sargent Valiant for knocking out his tooth so unexpected during our small fight for the demonstration, but in my defense he did ask me to punch him as hard as I could manage. I think he expected me to go head on, not duck under and use my speed for an uppercut with my wings adding to the lift, but he only seemed mad for as long as it took them to explain his tooth could just be magically reinserted in between our scuffle. My forelegs still ache from blocking it all.
Thus far Hoof-to-Hoof has been exhilarating, beyond just the expected of laps, wing and normal push-ups, and the obstacle course, our chances to fight one another and work off the building steam between one another has proven cathartic for some of the ponies in training whom i know will continue on after this to try for the real Guard. Unfortunately, catharsis also means grudge-matches, and not everyone has forgiven me so easily despite the incidents involving my non-expressive nature being revealed. Already in the past two days i've had a line of challengers come up trying to pit and push me into the sand of the fighting arena eager to show me how many times i can consume the material. Thankfully i'm fairly quick but most only need one good hit to grab you and you can be pinned and most of my fights i was more of a mosquito fighting a bull. I believe i only won a third of my matches but through sheer tenacity alone. The other two thirds being a combination of bending that slight rule of 'anything in the ring goes' and my own Dexterity. I still only won a measly 12 matches against the horde of 50 in these past two days but it's been enough to earn some respect i would suppose. We've yet to try armors yet but tomorrow is a day where those who wish can return home and most are packing up as I write. I'm simply going to write a letter home, since i live more than a few days away even by the train. A full days rest in the barracks might be good. I shall end this entry here, i feel my grin returning at the thought of what will be coming soon.
Two months, two weeks: So much has happened and i've been so busy but my experiences have grown vastly. Already we've graduated from Hoof-to-Hoof to full on armor training and its mobility training. Namely, the first tiers. Light armor. Naturally as a civilian investigator with a royal agreement this is what i'll be used to wearing and what i intend on wearing at all times so i was actually surprised to know that there were so few variations. Padded clothing, proper leathered armor made from the skins of things like gators, similarly hard-hide creatures and, on occasion, willingly donated by other creatures that had passed on to continue the defense of Equestria, and Studded Leather, metal-bolstered leather armor intended to be the best non-magical light armor. While... confusing and a little sickening at first for some, i can only see this as another excellent step in our peoples lifestyle. Of course the use of an animals skin like this is a bit abhorrent to some, but it is life... isn't it? In any case, i'll see more about getting the last option on my way out. It seems the best defense, and apparently we get some of this armor from our neighbors like Griffonstone. Although the cost is quite high, and thus it can be sometimes a bit more expensive because of it.
Digressions aside, The armors are so breezy and light that flight training and course-running felt almost natural in them. Even now i'm still wearing it in a sense of astonishment, this studded leather feels so natural that even with some of the stares of my fellow recruits i find it hard to be bothered. It can fit under clothes i've been told, and some mages have found way to make it appear AS clothing. No doubt for Canterlot royalty or for more dextrous guards who go off duty and don't wish to be caught out if something were to happen. Oh if only i could speed through my training sooner, the desire to speed off and simply prance on a cloud in this new armor so that i might dispense justice in my way by solving crime by finding the inscrutable details. But i mustn't be foalish, even if temptations are high, ah, my grin returns. Perhaps i should refrain from writing a while so that i might write in greater detail my training instead of gushing about this new freeing experience that i know brings me a step closer to my dreams. For now i must away, for now i end this personal entry.