//------------------------------//
// The Training 
// Story: Twilight's Curiosity: War II 
// by Mr Anomalous 
//------------------------------//


The Training

Yes, this is going to be weird, but read the first two entire passages
You've all heard of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Returning from the Military, many soldiers get it. Sometimes it's something small, nightmares and flashbacks, but sometimes....sometimes....it can get worse. A lot worse. Sometimes it's a kind of good bad, when they just get voices, and they laugh and giggle.
But sometimes....rarely...it gets bad. There are rumors of men snapping under pressure, and just picking up their weapons, and firing on their comrades. 
But imagine. This happens to humans. Humans know what war is. Ever since the rise of the great empires, there has literally never been a year without war on the planet. And, if not war, "police actions," or "revolutions," of some sort. There are movies and video games. Everyone knows what it is.
Imagine what a pony feels. War is almost entirely nonexistent, so is much conflict in general. Here, where it all over, humans, even experienced ones, get bad PTSD. Somewhere in the night, through nightmares, Twilight snapped. Her eyes whipped open, bloodshot.
They're going to kill me, I have to defends myself.
She slowly crawled out of her tent, and into the closest one. Darren's. She crept inside, as quite as can be, and peered over the cot, at Darren's face. And then caved his face in with her hoof.


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Twilight shot out of bed, violent enough to fall off. She tumbled to the ground with a thud. She got up and shook her head clearing any and all dreariness. She might have been mad at Darren, but she knew that she would never do that, to anyone.
She sighed and slumped to the ground. She was about to crawl back into the uncomfortable cot when a horn sounded. Wake-up call. 
"Uhhh!"
She wanted to sleep. Someone approached her tent outside, and, since it was, well a tent, substituted the lack of a door by simply saying, "Knock, knock."
Darren pulled aside the flap and stepped inside. There was a giant smile on his face. A little too big. 
"Rise and shine, Private, time to begin day one of your training."
"But I don't wanna..."
"Twilight, be glad that I'm the guy who came in her to make sure that you were awake, a little statement like that would've earned you latrine duty for a while if anyone else heard that, especially your drill sgt."
"What? Why, why can't you train me, you'd probably do a good job, you know, since you already know me and all."
Darren sighed and squatted down to reach her eye level.
"Twilight, I don't know if there is any Military force in Equestria-"
"There is, the Royal Guard and the Honor Guard."
"Okay, thanks, anyway, do you know anyone who is in this....Royal guard?"
Of course she did, her brother, Shining Armor.
"Well, yeah, my brother is captain of the Royal Guard."	
Darren's eyes widened, and his lip stuck out in a 'Not Bad' expression.
"You have a brother, and He's a captain, good...did he ever tell you about his experiences as a Captain?"
"Well, there haven't been any wars in Equestria for....well, for a very long time, but he has had to deal with some revolutionaries, or some bandits, or assassins once or twice."
"Of course, no wars in pony-land, why not, but, anyway, In was talking about his training?"
Twilight frowned in concentration, trying to remember.
"Yes, he did tell me about it once he finally got out of Boot Camp. He said that it was tough, that the trainers yell at you, and that there are a lot of tough excersises, and you have to work out a lot, and you have to learn lots of extra math and science, and-"
"Yeah, yeah, good, that's very similar to here. I don't want to train you because, well, you're trainer has to be pretty mean."
"Why would they want to do that?"
"Think about it. This man, Sgt. Anderson, will yell at you, call you names, and pretty much make you feel like shit on a very large level. He will crush any pride and soul that you have left. His job is to turn you into a tool, put bluntly."
Twilight's eyes were wide.
"But I don't want my pride taken away!" She had quite a lot of it.
"Don't worry, he is actually a very nice man, but my purpose here, other than to wake you up, is to remind you that, whenever he makes you sad, or angry, or makes you want to kill him in his sleep-" That brought bad memories about last night to Twilight "-remember that that's his job. In the end, he'll actually come around and make your bed for you, he won't curse, he'll hang out with you. It might not seem like it, but he hates being mean. He despises it. He just wants to toughen you up that's all. Now, I've gotta go-"
"Wait! I have a question. I thought that this was a military camp, where the men are stationed, not Boot Camp?"
"Well, Twilight, since this war is all over the place, and we need men as fast as we can get them, so we started to ship them out and train them right where they're going to be stationed. Chow."
He waved and left in one big motion.
"What am I supposed to do until Sgt.-"
The tent flap opened up.
"Good to see that the Magical Sparkling Unicorn is up, come on, we need to get started!" Twilight sighed and slowly stood up from her slumped position on the ground.
"I see that you are not entirely awake, let me help you with that."
Suddenly, Twilight was shocked by a freezing cold wave of water. Once she was over her initial shock, she looked where else that water had reached, and saw that a large amount of it had gotten all over her bed as well, and one of her bags.
She whirled around and glared at the sergeant, with every intention of lecturing him to death, but the cold stare that she received back crushed any thoughts of it.
"Good, we don't want to have to clean out the showers for a while, would we?"
Twilight shook hear head. 
"No sir."
"What was that, speak up soldier!"
He was in her face, and spittle landed spatted all over her. Twilight was angry again, but she channeled her anger into:
"No Sir, I would not, Sir!"
Another 'Not Bad' expression, then:
"Come on, Private Pansy, let's go"
Private Pansy? That's not my name... 
She realized that it was more than likely her new nickname, and slumped out of the door, cold and wet, and very tired. Her slumping earned her a nice cold dip into a nearby creek, a quite unwarranted and surprising dip.


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Princess Celestia was furiously searching through the library, in search of books that Starswirl had written about humans, and transporting, doing much what Twilight does sometimes, with the stream of books that ended in a pile.
"No...no....no..."
Eventually, Celestia realized that Twilight, the frustratingly smart mare that she was, probably anticipated this, and took the books and scrolls with her. 
"Argh!"
She would simply have to wait until night, to ask Luna to take them to Earth, where Twilight would be "rescued."


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Twilight and Sgt. Anderson stood alone in a field, sweaty recruits doing an all manner of excersises around them.
"Now, seeing as you are not really a human, the science people thought that it would be best if we went though the excersises, just the two of us, which is bad new for you, because that means that you get to have my full attention. Now, just because you are a magical unicorn, who wallows in doing hair and tea parties, and who probably shits glitter and rainbows, does not mean that I am going to take it easy on you."
ugh.
"Now, let's see if you are fit enough to even be an American Solider."
Pride time.
"Well, sir, yes, I do believe that you can call me physically fit. I drink specific shakes in the morning, and-"
"Shut Up. I don't care, you still have to do a few laps around....that building."
He was pointing to one of the few permanent buildings, the one where she was first taken too when she arrived yesterday.
"Yes Sir!" with a salute, she was off. I mean, really off. If you've seen the show, which is a cartoon, it also means that these ponies can do things that aren't really physically possible. She was off in, literally, a flash. This merited yet another 'Not Bad' expression.
Now, we all know Twilight, and we know that she can run, but not really for very long. Soon, she was pretty tired, after six laps, and decided that that was enough.
She was soon back a Sgt. Anderson's feet, and breathing heavily. The Sgt. Had  giant grin on his face. A bit too big.
"How was that, sir?" Twilight asked breathlessly.  
"Goooood. Good considering that you took off before I could specify the exact amount of laps I had in mind."
ugh.
"I was going to say twenty-five laps, but since you left before I could finish talking, we'll say about fifty. And the six you just did don't count, go."
UGH.

This continued the half the day, until lunch. Laps, push-ups, shouting, yelling, and don't forget the drills. She learned how to do a proper salute, and what to do while then camp in under attack. Lunch-break was a relief, but, of course, it didn't taste very good.
"Hahaha, don't worry, you'll get used to it." said Darren, the only person who sat next to her.
Afterwards, she went again to the large building, and this is when the fun began. No, really, it was a LAB! It was a LAB, and a SCHOOL, AND a LIBRARY!
She loved this. Of course, she was examined, given a physical, but she didn't mind, she knew what they were thinking. For Science!
She was put in a classroom, where she answered everything with ease. Except for history. That was kind of disappointing, but math, science, and even military tactics. They never stood a chance. Then she got to the library. Nice!
A lot of it was, guess what? Military History! She checked out many, many books, and when she was finally let go, she spent the rest of the day until dinner reading.
When she got to dinner, she sat at her usual table, but, instead of just Darren this time, two of the scientists who were usually sat as loners came. They and Twilight talked and talked. Darren never said a word, just sat there, smiling.
Finally, it was time for bed, and Twilight collapsed in bed.
Some Drill Sergeants were walking down the rows of tents, making sure lights were out and the soldiers in bed.
"Nighty-night!" One shouted.
Twilight wasn't sure what to make of the day. Of course, she didn't necessarily like the physical part, it was just as Darren said. She wanted to kill Sgt. Anderson in his sleep, on multiple occasions, but every time, what Darren had said reassured her. Plus, she was glad for the experience. But she loved the school. The style in which the teacher taught was a bit different than then teachers in Equestria, a little bit more boring, Twilight admitted, but she made it work.
She quickly closer her eyes, ready for the next day to begin already. She noticed something right as she was about to drift away; the flashbacks. Not a single one had come. And only the one nightmare. Twilight fell asleep with the biggest smile on her face.