//------------------------------// // Receiving Phase // Story: Semper Pie // by deathtap //------------------------------// By the time the train arrived in Canterlot, the carriage that was originally empty was now full of young recruits. Semper sat in the furthest corner and watched the individuals, eying each one carefully. Most were either unicorn or pegasi. There were very few earth ponies on board, and most of them looked like they were there for a ride towards Canterlot rather than actually going to the training facility located at the base of the mountain in the far side of the valley. The train came to a halt and at once the sounds of shouted came from outside. "Attention!" a Guard shouted, the red plume atop his head signifying his allegiance to the Border Guard. On his haunch was a scabbard; the hilt of a blade could clearly be seen. The new recruits all stood up straight along the middle row of the carriage just as two more Guards boarded. Both had red plumes depicting their service to the Border Guard. On their peytral bore the famous shield shape that was granted to ponies of a certain rank or higher. One of the two ponies stopped at the entrance and the other continued on. "Good afternoon, you sorry bunch of rejected pony manure! My name is Sorcery Sergent Major Pain. Welcome to Tartarus, kiddies. Hope that you've had a good life because now it's over! Your flanks belong to me and I'm going to turn you piles of garbage and sorry excuses for ponies into Guards that serve our beloved kingdom. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be 'sir'. Do you dirt-bags understand that?" "Sir, yes, sir!" everypony shouted in response. "I can't hear you!" "Sir, yes, sir!" everypony shouted even louder. "If you insects leave this facility, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon, you will be a minister of death protecting our lands from war. But until that day you are pukes, you are the lowest form of life on Equestria. You are not even bucking Equestrians. You are nothing but unorganized pieces of dragon feces. Because I am hard you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no bigotry here. I do not look down on grounders, flumpers, cretins, filly-foolers or colt-cuddlers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who cannot do what needs to be done to serve in my Border Guard. Do you scumbags understand that?" "Sir, yes, sir!" "Now. Everypony out, out, out! Get you lazy keisters out of here pronto! Move it, move it, move it! You there!" Semper instantly stopped what he was doing and stood at attention. He saluted the drill instructor flawlessly, "Sir, yes, sir!" "What's an earth pony doing here? Shouldn't you be over in that compartment? Shouldn't you be looking to join the Royal Guard?" "Sir, no, sir!" Semper shouted, "Sir, this stallion was asked to serve in the Border Guard, sir!" At that every pony stopped and turned around to look at the stallion. Even the drill instructor was momentarily caught unawares, but he grinned at the blue earth pony maliciously, "Asked? Asked by who? You think you have what it takes to be in my Guard, huh? There are only two types of ponies who become Border Guards, and I don't see any wings or a horn on you. You don't qualify, Blue Boy." "Sir, permission to submit a letter, sir!" Semper said without missing a beat. "Permission granted!" Semper quickly reached into his duffel bag and produced a letter with the Royal seal on it. The drill instructor took it, read it, and handed it back without a shift in his expression. "Then you best better move it now, shouldn't you?" "Sir, yes, sir!" Semper shouted and picked up his bag and quickly headed towards the exit. The drill instructor saw the other ponies just staring at him, "Well, what the buck are you ladies looking at! Get your behinds out there now!" Outside the train Semper found that the ponies had began to stand on painted hoof prints on the ground. There were three colors. Blue, white and red, each representing the three types of guards. Blue for the day guards, white for the night guards and the red for the Border Guards. Looking around he could see the other recruits standing on their respective prints on the ground. He quickly placed his duffel bag in the designated area and stood on the red prints. Those who noticed couldn't help but stare at him. Some even began to whisper to one another. What was an earth pony doing in the Border Guard line? "Shut your mouths, you turds! This isn't daycare!" another drill instructor shouted instantly silencing all the voices. "You. You're in the wrong line!" "Sir, no, sir. Sir, this pony is volunteering to serve in the Border Guard, sir!" "You? An earth pony? You bucking with me-" "Sergent Instructor Brilliant Diamond," a voice shouted from behind Semper. It was Pain. "That pony is exactly where he needs to be." "Sir?" "You heard me. Don't make me repeat myself." The Sergent walked right up to the stallion putting his face inches away from Semper's. He stayed like that for a full minute without saying anything, but Semper did not budge, did not move, did not flinch. He remained still as a statue, eyes forward, body straight, feet on the marks perfectly spaced out. The Sergent leaned in closer and whispered harshly in his ears, "You may be chosen by Her Majesty herself, but I don't like you, Blue. I'm going to make your life miserable here. I'm going to make you go home to your momma, you understand that, Blue?" "Sir, yes, sir!" "I'm going to buck you up, boy, and you're going to love me for it. Is that understood, private?" "Sir, yes, sir!" "Now take your sorry rear and grab your gear. The rest of you fall in. Move it, move it, move it!" Pain shouted and turned as Semper led the way. "Size?" the mare behind the table asked. "Ma'am, Large, ma'am," Semper replied. "Pegasi or unicorn?" "Ma'am, neither, ma'am." "What was that?" "Ma'am, I am neither unicorn or pegasi, ma'am." "You're an earth pony?" "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" "You're in the wrong line, private-" "Miss Dewdrop, what in Celestia's name is taking so long?" a shout came from the rear of the line as another drill instructor walked forwards. "Sir, this stallion is in the wrong line, sir!" "Are you in the wrong line, boy?" "Sir, no, sir!" Semper roared. "He's not in the wrong line, Miss Dewdrop." "But, sir..." "He's not in the wrong line, Miss Dewdrop," the drill instructor said, his tone becoming harder. "Sir, yes, sir!" With that, a set of unicorn body armor with pegasi helm was handed over to the earth pony, who took it and trotted towards the medical tent checkup tent. "Name?" the doctor asked. "Sir, Semper Pie, sir." "No need for 'sir', my good stallion. I'm not a ranked officer, just a doctor making sure you're fit to serve." "Sir, yes, sir- I mean, yes, sir." The doctor chuckled lightly to himself. "I think you've got the wrong helmet or the wrong body for you. Are you-" he cut himself off, "Are you an earth pony?" "Sir- yes, sir." "Fancy that. An earth pony serving in the Border Guard. Well, let's check you out. See if you are fit. Not sure how since we only really do two types of tests here." The doctor walked towards the back, "Can you kick this?" Semper did as he was told. He carefully aimed his hind legs and kicked backwards as hard as he could. The sound of the impact echoed in the room and the machine vibrated from the impact. "Sweet Celestia..." the doctor whispered. "Sir?" "Nothing, lad. Just... nothing. Can you blow into this for me so I can measure your lung capacity?" Once again Semper did as he was told. The doctor's eyes grew wide. There was enough air in this pony's lungs fit for four ponies his size. He found it hard to keep his face passive. "That's all. I can't measure your magic, so I won't bother. Here's your papers. You pass. Next!" "Thank you, sir." Semper took it and walked out of the room. "I call top bunk!" an eager pegasi shouted pushing past Semper and floating above the said bed and dropping his bag onto it. "You snooze you loose, grounder!" Semper shrugged. He didn't want the top bunk. He didn't find being called a grounder insulting either, although he was well aware that it was a derogatory term used for earth ponies. Thing was, there were no unicorns or pegasi where he came from so he never really had to put up with this kind of thing. He knew what the word meant, but he felt nothing. It simply did not bother him. Placing his bag on the lower bunk, the pegasi from above floated down landing just in front of him. "Whoah! You can't bunk there, grounder! This here's for pegasi. Go sleep with that cretin over there!" "Hey! Don't push a grounder onto me, flumper!" a green unicorn growled. "Who you callin' a flumper, cretin?" "Who you callin' a cretin, flumper?" Semper eyed the two of them for a moment before taking his things and walking to an unclaimed bunk. He put his bag there and sat down. The unicorn and the pegasi looked at the blue stallion as he just sat there doing nothing. He barely blinked. "Hey, grounder, are you sure you're in the right place? The Border Guard ain't a place for you. You don't have wings, you can't fly and patrol the borders. You don't have a horn, so you can't fight nothin'. What you goin' to do? Grow things out there?" the pegasi taunted, then burst out laughing at his own joke. The unicorn joined him, "You're going to fail out of here, grounder." "Can I ask you a question?" The two of them stopped laughing and looked at each other before looking back at Semper, "Sure." "Grounder I understand. I'm an earth pony, so I'm attached to the ground. But why is cretin slang for a unicorn and flumper for a pegasi?" That made the two roar in laughter. Other recruits joined in. "Well, that's because... er..." "Yeah... it's because..." "Hey, does anypony know why we're known as cretins?" the unicorn asked the other unicorns in the barracks. The pegasi hovered above the bunk bed, "Or why we're known as flumpers?" There was only silence that met them. Semper stood up and walked towards the barrack's entrance, "It's because cretin is a corruption for the word keratin, which is what makes up the unicorn horn. And flump is the sound an object makes when it falls heavily onto the ground. If you don't know what these insults mean or where they came from, you should learn the history of our kind and why we have a united military force." "What's that supposed to mean?" the unicorn asked. Semper did not respond and simply walked out of the barracks. A few minutes later a bell went off letting them all know that it was time for dinner. "So that's him, huh? The earth pony who thinks he has it in him to become a Border Guard?" a mare asked looking at the stallion sitting alone in the corner. "He's kinda cute, don't you think?" "Easy there, Flower. You know what the Border Guard are like. They think that because they are the best of the best they get the run of things here. Remember what Sergent Escalade told us. Besides, he's a grounder. You don't want to be seen getting with him." Private Bright Flower smiled, "I don't really care about those things. Besides, there's just something about him." "Hey, ladies," a voice said as two stallions sat next to them. "My name's Sonic Cloud, this here's Static Shock. So yeah, we're Border Guard and-" "Hold it right there, boys," a voice stated coldly, "why don't you get your flanks out of here before I get mad? This isn't some bar where you can pick up mares. This is a mess hall for the Guard and it will be treated with respect. Now, get." "Yeah? And who's going to make us?" Sonic asked raising an eyebrow. Static, joined in, "Yeah? Who?" The two mares that were conversing before shook their heads vehemently as the third mare stood up, "What did you runts say to me?" "You heard us!" "I think you two need to be taught some manners," the mare said as she stood up and pushed back her stool. The entire mess hall suddenly became eerily quiet. Sonic and Static looked at each other and began to laugh. That just annoyed the third mare who stood up and used her horn to flip the table in front of her over. That made the other two mares at the table scream out of reflex and back off. The other mare took the bench she was sitting on and swung it hard at the two stallions. Sonic easily floated over it, while Static caught the bench with his magic and ripped it from her grip. Just as Static pulled, he looked up to see the mare's hoof inches away from his snout. Before he could react, the impact sent him spiraling backwards across the mess hall landing on the ground and coming to a halt next to Semper, who barely looked up from his food. Sonic saw this and charged the mare, who in turn took and threw the bench right at him. He tried to stop, but his speed and momentum were too fast and he flew right into it. As he slumped onto the ground, the mare kicked him in the face sending him across the hall too, so that he came to a sliding halt next to the unicorn. The two of them got up, anger in their eyes. "You two are too fresh to take me on," the unicorn mare said glaring at them. "You will regret-" Sonic was saying before he felt a hoof press his face to the ground. He looked up to see Semper pinning his head to the floor. He then pinned Static's head down as well, before lowering his own at the same time. "Ma'am, sorry, ma'am. Ma'am, we're all knew recruits and we are unfamiliar with how things are run here, ma'am." The unicorn looked at the three of them. "Fine. I'll let it go this once, but I want you three to report to me at oh four hundred tomorrow on the field, you got that?" "Ma'am, yes, ma'am," Semper said releasing the two stallions and standing at attention. He then saluted her. The unicorn and pegasus both stood up confused but copied Semper. Two questions ran through their minds at the same time. Why was Semper bowing to this mare? Who was she? "You two," she growled, "you best thank that stallion. He might have saved your flanks from receiving an entry level suspension for insubordination." Fear gripped the two stallions at those words. "Good. I see that you two finally know your place here." The mare glowered at the two before walking towards a coat rack where she removed a dark brown cloak under which was armor. She slipped it on expertly, as if she had done so all her life and that was when they noticed that on her peytral was a red shield with three stars in triangular formation. Two stars at the top and one near the bottom all in yellow with a faint pink stripe in a diagonal slash across the middle. She paused to glare at the stallions before placing a red plumed helm on her head and storming out of the mess hall. "See you boys later," one of the other mares from the table whispered as she rushed past them. Sonic's and Static's faced blanched. Their first day and they were on the bad side of a First Sergent. The two of them looked at Semper who had returned to his table to finish his food. "Um... thanks for that," Static said still visibly shaken. "We... we weren't thinking and-" "We're sorry for being such flank-heads to you earlier. You saved our haunches, and for that we owe you." Semper looked up, his steel gray eyes void of any emotion. "Save it. That was First Sergent Ruby Flame. You can thank me if you survive tomorrow," Semper stated over the silence, picked up his tray and neatly placed it in the rightful allocated area. At that the two stallions felt sick in their guts. Ruby Flame was famous for producing some of the greatest Guards in the history of Equestria. She was the unicorn to train under, assuming you could survive. Now she had her eye on them. And on their first day too. They had got themselves into a whole load of trouble, and Semper had willfully taken responsibility for their stupidity. He did not have to stick out for them, especially not after the way they had treated him back in the barracks. As Semper stepped out into the night, the other two stallions found a new respect for the gray eyed, dark blue earth pony from Celestia knows where. "Something tells me that things are going to get interesting," Sonic muttered. "Ya think?" Static replied.