The festivities of the graduation ceremony went on until about midnight that night, before we were taken back to base on taxi carriages. I was exhausted needless to say, and being up until midnight was definitely going to screw around with my sleeping schedule. By the time we arrived at the naval station, I as well as a few others went back to our barrack while the other graduates stayed out and about, some going to bars in the area to hang out.
Sergeant Hardstaff had informed us before that following graduation, we were given about a week of leave time to spend on whatever we desired. I decided to use one of my days for tomorrow to give me time to sleep in after the long night, and the rest of the day to spend relaxing and maybe hitting the town again.
That night, I went straight to Barrack #19 and dropped onto my bed. I couldn't say for sure how long it was between me collapsing onto it and falling asleep. I didn't imagine it to be any longer than a minute.
Around a quarter before nine the next morning, I woke up feeling fresh and fully recharged after the previous night. I yawned and stretched my arms above my head prior to sitting up and pushing the blankets off of me. I looked around, seeing all but a couple of the others were still there. Both of the other ponies there in the barrack were still sound asleep, and I imagined they were just as tired as I was if not even more tired. For some reason, I was feeling sore in some spots.
I got up out of bed and went into the bathroom, bringing a towel with me and taking a nice, hot shower. The steamy water beating against me eased some of the soreness in my muscles and helped me relax just a bit. Long showers were nice and I deeply missed them from before I enlisted.
I dried off and dropped my towel off in the laundry basket before going to my bed and taking my hooflocker out. The night before, we had been paid graduation money—four hundred and fifty bits to be exact—some of which we were advised to use to buy our new uniforms with. I took a good portion of my money, put on my old training uniform, then went out to the on-base surplus store where I assumed was where we would be getting our uniforms.
I walked into the shop and looked around. Three of the others were already there, waiting at the cashier counter. One of them turned and looked at me, it was Silver.
"Hey Star, coming to get your uniform too?" He smiled.
I nodded and smiled back, walking up to him. "Sure are."
"The cashier is getting them out of storage in the back. He'll come and get us to get our sizes fitted," said one of the others.
I stood behind them, waiting patiently. But just after a few moments I decided to look around the small shop. Nothing new was in there, but I was still interested in looking around for anything I might need.
Just then, the cashier walked up in the front and called out to us. "Alright everypony, come in back," he motioned his hoof.
I walked back to the others and went with them into the back of the shop where a large fitting room was. The shop keeper determined our sizes with measuring tape, then each handed us our uniform jackets in the sizes we needed. I took my jacket out of the plastic bag it was wrapped in and held it in front of me. It was a brand new jacket with the exact same urban-style digital camouflage as the rest of the Marines on base. On the shoulder, the 'Private' patch was already sewed on, and the only thing that was missing was our name tags on the uniform.
Luckily, the shop keeper had our name tags laid out for us. They were velcro name patches, but we were told to put them on as straight as possible for they didn't come back off that easy. I carefully placed my name patch onto the velcro spot on the right side of my jacket and pressed a hoof over it to make sure it was down all the way. I then unbuttoned the jacket and carefully put it on. The jacket was stiff at first and kind of hard to fit into, then shortly after I buttoned it up, it felt like the perfect fit. With an adjustment to the jacket's collar, I walked up to the mirror and looked myself over.
I smiled at myself in the mirror, looking over the brand new uniform, heart racing in excitement.
"Hey, looking good there!" Silver said with a smile as he fixed his name patch onto his jacket.
"Heh, thanks," I smiled to him, then turned around but was met with the shop keeper holding a hat in the same camouflage style in his hoof. His sudden appearance startled me a little and made me jump in the slightest bit.
"You'll need this as well," he put the hat in my hoof. "This will be your patrol cap, also known as your cover. Rank is already on it, all you need is to try it on."
The patrol cap had squared edges and had about seven sides. It wasn't like a regular hat or a type of military hat most ponies knew of, but in a way, it fit the uniform better. I slid it on my head—a perfect fit. I looked at myself in the mirror and grew a grin. Now I really did look like a Marine.
"Really looking good now, Star," Silver said with a widened smile.