//------------------------------//
// 31. Cadet Star Shooter - Part I 
// Story: Millennia: Beginning 
// by Thunderblast 
//------------------------------//

The first week of advanced fitness tests, inspections, and physical exams was brutal, with the weather added. Not a single day out of the seven that week was used for a break. There was no day off on the weekend. Two days after I arrived in Baltimare, a massive winter storm blew through that lasted another three and a half days and dropped an extra fifteen inches of snow and a quarter inch of ice to top it all off. That didn't hold the sergeant major back from dragging us out into the heavy snowfall and below-zero windchill. The others thought he was an insane pony looking to get us all killed, yet to me, I felt different about it. He was, after all, testing us physically. 

Soon enough, the first week was behind us and the second week of physical examinations and training was already long underway. The five of us, after a quick cup of coffee and without a bite to eat in our hungry stomachs, gathered outside early that morning. The sunshine beat down onto the crystallized, icy-glazed flat terrain of the snow, it only adding to the already excruciating, blinding brightness of the morning after a short night of sleep. If there was anything we needed more than something to eat, a pair of sunglasses was definitely on top of the list. It was a shame the only ones Marines used were pricey and, for the moment, unavailable for purchase.

"All right Marines," Snivel began. "The temperature is real low today. Nothing different in terms of exercises, but I would like one-hundred and fifty push ups, and sixty sit-ups from each and every one of you. I would also very much appreciate no whining or bitching about it either, before or during, because should I remind you, you're a Marine now. This should not be anything new to you all. Now, down on the ground!"

The five of us immediately dropped into the usual push-up position, awaiting the sergeant major's word to continue. By now, a hundred and fifty push-ups were nothing, it was simply the extreme cold that hampered things. 

"One-hundred and fifty, go!" The sergeant major leaned back on a leafless tree, clicking the small tab on top of a pocket watch that began timing us as we all began performing push-ups with ease.

The first fifty went by quicker than I could count aloud and soon, I noticed the others slowing down just a tad with myself included. Over the last few days, I found doing these exercises in the snow to be rather uncomfortable, not in a cold or wet way, but in terms of stability. With the snow, it made the ground we stood on unbalanced, meaning my hinds were holding up more of me than my forehooves were during the exercise and keeping me level. It's a hard concept to explain, but anypony in my current position would probably understand.

One-hundred and ten were down, then one-hundred and twenty, then one-hundred and thirty. I still felt myself slowing down, all the while the cold breeze rushing up my back in a small gap between it and my jacket and made me almost literally freeze for a split second, a split second more than what I needed on the exam.

"That's it, one-hundred and fifty. Up!" The sergeant major ordered.

And so we did. Within a moment of completing the amount he asked for, we were back on our hooves yet less stable than before the exercise. Mine trembled gently with weakness, shaking even more along with the rest of my body from the nippy weather.

"Huh," the sergeant major lifted a hoof to push his black military sunglasses up into his mane. "A few seconds quicker than last week's record. Two minutes and fourteen seconds," then slid them back down over his eyes and closed the pocket watch, slipping it into his uniform pocket. "When I'm done with you, that better go down to just two minutes, or less! Remember, you have a week left to make that happen! Is that clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" We answered in unison, already bracing ourselves for what was next.

"Perfect, now. Sixty sit-ups, go!" He once again leaned back against the tree trunk and watched us over as we dropped backwards, hooves behind our heads and sitting up before relaxing momentarily and doing it again. 

I grunted each time I sat upright, spine aching simultaneously and feeling as if it was ready to just break on the spot. Beyond push-ups, sit ups weren't my thing. I was at least a couple of seconds slower than the others and wouldn't make it to sixty before Sergeant Major Snivel would stop the watch.

Twenty passed, followed by thirty a quarter of a minute later, then forty with an extra second added on. I must not have been that far behind if the others were still going. By the time I reached fifty, my body found it to be necessary to simply shut down altogether, as I went to go back down and sit up once more, I gave out altogether into the snow, hooves falling flat in the snow beside me and chest heaving, my breath turning into thick steam as I exhaled heavily. 

Next thing I knew, the sergeant major called out sixty, and within a couple of seconds of the others stopping and standing up, Snivel was standing right above me, staring right down at me with disappointment and most likely disgust.

"Did I or did I not order sixty sit-ups, private?" He asked, tucking the watch in his pocket again, the others silently chuckling behind him.

It took a couple of moments for me to catch my breath enough to speak, which I then replied, "I'm sorry sir," and not a word else.

"I hope so," the sergeant major huffed and began walking away. "Even if you pass the two-minute push-up challenge by the end of this week, I still expect you to at least reach sixty sit-ups. They are another part of your grade," he then stopped and glanced back as I weakly got up. "I'll admit, you did well enough to reach fifty. Try again later. You have all week."


***


Two long hours of push-ups and sit-ups later, we were served breakfast in the mess hall. Compared to the mess hall back in Manehattan, this place put it to shame by a mile at least. Each morning we had the choice of selecting what we wanted, whether it be eggs and toast or a couple of buttered pancakes, with this morning being scrambled eggs again. I assumed since this place had exceptionally less ponies occupying the school that they were able to cook simple but tasty dishes for us to have.

The mess hall was much smaller than the one at home base as well and had much less ponies eating in it. In fact, half of the Marines in there were campus staff, many of which being security guards on their lunch breaks despite it being nearly ten in the morning. 

After receiving my tray, I sat down at a table with the others in my class squadron—as the sergeant major referred it to—and began eating while the others chatted up a storm about training, their favorite weapons, and everything in between. I still felt a sense of hesitation to add to the conversation, believing they'd come back with an embarrassing statement about how badly I failed at one of the physical tests earlier. Maybe it just wasn't a good idea to sit with them at all. I then began contemplating ways of sneaking to another table without any of them noticing.

Or... I could just get up and walk to the other side of the room with my tray and sit down without a word. I really should think things through without doing something and possibly make things worse, which to my luck, wasn't the case this time. The others didn't notice my exit, thankfully, but now I found myself sitting around where some higher ranking officers were enjoying their meal, somewhere most ponies of my rank tended to avoid. Not that it was an offense or anything, it was just frowned upon by some higher ups.

"Hey, private," said a voice directly in front of me from across the table. "Is this table taken?"

I glanced up from my tray, catching onto the taller figure and seeing it to be the warrant officer. "Morning, sir," I replied with a salute. "Not at all. It's just me."

"Ah, good," he said, setting his tray across from me and taking a seat. "Something wrong, private?"

I glanced back down to my tray and gently poked at my food with the white plastic fork in my hoof. "Just tired is all. I'm lucky if I get six hours of sleep anymore."

"You're not the only one to tell me that," Dustoff said, shoveling a bite of his breakfast in and chewing for a couple of seconds and then swallowing it down. "Is that really why though?"

"Come again?" I moved my eyes back up to him, head gently tilting.

"It seems to be a lot more than just a lack of sleep," he paused for a moment to take a swig of water. "Then again, insomnia affects everypony differently. Hell, I had it for a while even before I enlisted. You know what I did to fix it?"

"No sir," I answered, taking a bite of scrambled eggs.

"Emptied my mind twenty minutes before bed, then told myself to focus on the stresses of the future tomorrow. That, or I read a pop culture magazine to bore me to sleep," Dustoff shrugged. "That works too."

"I guess I could try it," I smiled weakly. "It'll have to wait until I'm back where I belong though."

The warrant officer chuckled. "Of course. But really, private. What's the issue beyond that?"

I furrowed a brow, smile immediately falling into a frown. "What keeps telling you something else is wrong?"

"The look in your eyes. The look of distress. The last time I saw somepony appear that way was right before they were deployed into an active war zone," soon, the warrant officer's somewhat stoic look faded as well. "And yet they didn't come back either. None of them did."

My ears noticeably drooped a bit. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Dustoff sighed. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but, you're stationed on the Eclipse, yes?"

"Yes sir," I replied with a gentle nod.

"I heard about the pirate attack, not so much about the condition of the crew. Not much information was given from main command nor the newspaper. Is that it?" He asked innocently.

Slowly I nodded after a short pause. "Two sailors killed in an explosion right in front of me, another shot in the head a few yards away, then my friend got shot as well. But, he's okay now. Still making a bit of a recovery but he's back to his old salty self."

Dustoff chuckled at that. "I take it he's a sailor?"

"Bingo," I said. "The first day left him woozy, then the week after that he was cussing out the doctor trying to get him to heal faster. Every time, the doctor won the battle."

The warrant officer chuckled again. "Sounds like he was pretty lucky then."

"Yeah..." I smiled weakly again, returning my focus to eating without saying another word.

"You're... happy he's okay, aren't you?" Dustoff's gentle smile once again disappeared.

"Of course I am," I said with a half-full mouth, then swallowed. "Apologies. But yes, I am. I couldn't be happier that he made it out in one piece. It's just..." I stopped.

"It's just... what?" Dustoff motioned for me to continue.

I let out a very gentle sigh after a couple of moments of complete silence. "I can't get any of it out of my mind. It's probably the reason why I can't sleep much anymore, because I'm afraid of it all coming back to me in a nightmare."

"I understand," the warrant officer nodded once. "But don't you think it's time to see somepony?"

"The sergeant major?" I sighed again. "Yeah, he probably wants to lecture me on the sit-ups that I can't do."

"No, no. I mean, somepony. A psychiatrist. One that specializes in helping current and former soldiers with post-traumatic stress. It sounds like you really need that talk."

"I don't need to put my problems onto somepony else, sir. That's just—"

"That's not a suggestion, it's an order. From the bottom of my heart, I'm ordering you to see somepony when you get back to Manehattan. I won't hesitate to tell your commanding officer and section sergeant either, because they'll push you to seeing one more than I will," the warrant officer glared at me slightly.

My ears and head fell slightly, and I slowly nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good," Dustoff nodded. "Now finish your breakfast, you've still got a long day ahead of you."

As Dustoff went to continue eating, I did as well, remaining silent and not making eye contact throughout the rest of breakfast.


***


Once the five of us were finished eating, the sergeant major collected and brought us back outside as a slight breeze blew across the area. With the current temperature, even a gentle breeze was enough to make it feel five degrees colder than it actually was. Sergeant Major Snivel once again had us in the snow, loading more and more push-ups onto us until eventually we did reach the one-hundred and fifty mark, all of which we did with much ease, but again the sit-ups were a problem for me. 

"Come on, private. The clock's ticking," Snivel sighed with annoyance, focus shifting between the stopwatch in his hoof and me while I strained to reach the goal.

This time I slowed myself down, not going at it like before to avoid completely giving out. I wouldn't make the time limit like he wanted but the least I could do was make sixty, and I was already just over halfway there, although I was still taking much more time and the others were long finished. Quickly I reached forty, then forty-five, and then fifty, every time another small clear bead of sweat formed on my forehead. Man, was I really this pathetic?

"Getting close, private. Don't stop now," the sergeant major pressed. With soft grunts, I kept going, passing fifty-five quicker than I did the last five. Then I felt a strange surge of energy, and within an instant, I kept going. And going. I wasn't stopping. I didn't notice the sergeant major's eyes opening as well as the other Marines standing there watching with awe.

"Private... private..." The sergeant major tried to grab my attention, his attempts not working. "Private!" he then shouted at the top of his lungs, and I stopped.

I panted quickly and stood up. "I-I'm sorry, sir..." I wiped my forehead, slowly catching my breath.

"Incredible... how did you do it?" Snivel asked, looking at the now-paused stopwatch and me back and forth. "Earlier you were barely able to crack fifty, now you broke seventy. What the hell?"

Immediately I tilted my head with confusion. "Say that again, sir?"

"Seventy sit-ups. Even then you were slowing down. What happened?" The sergeant major repeated himself, tucking the stopwatch away in his uniform pocket. 

"I... don't know. I just felt energetic and kept going. It's not like me," I shrugged lightly. "But thank you for giving me some more time."

"Don't mention it. At least you did make it to sixty this time," Snivel winked. "That's it for that, Marines. Head back to your barracks. Today is a short session because I learned while you all were eating that the base lieutenant is out sick, and his class is in need of a teacher, so I am the only one available for the job. Just take the rest of the day to relax, alright?"

"Yes sir," we answered in unison, then falling into line as the sergeant major led us back to our barrack. 

Sergeant Major Snivel dropped us off at the barrack, leaving us to go to our rooms while he galloped off to get to the other class waiting for him. I walked into the building and down the hallway to my mostly-vacant room and put my hoof on the knob to step inside when I was stopped by a hoof resting on my shoulder.

"Hey uh... Star, is it?" Said the unicorn Marine who stopped me, the dark red unicorn having squared glasses on.

I turned around to face him, then nodded. "Star Shooter, yes. What's up?" I eyed him, a bit dumbfounded that he even bothered to speak to me.

"So... about that burst of energy you said you had..." The unicorn smiled nervously. "That was my doing."

My irises shrunk to pinpricks when the words hit me, and instantly after I glared daggers at the stallion. "You did it?"

Fearfully, the maroon unicorn nodded and gulped deeply. "You were struggling and I couldn't sit back to watch you. You wouldn't have made it to your goal."

"Yeah, but now the sergeant major and whoever else is going to read my file will think I can do seventy sit-ups when in reality I can't even make sixty! How is that even cool?!" I scolded the unicorn, who recoiled back a step.

"Hey, hey, there's no need to yell. Please, let me explain—"

"No, no explanation. There is no explanation! You do realize that we have to do this all over again tomorrow and for the rest of the week, don't you?" I cut him off, glare becoming only colder and my face leaning closer towards his own as he took another step back.

"I-I'll just give you more bursts of energy... I-it's no big deal, Star!"

"It's a big deal to me because you just made me lie to everypony!" I quickly turned tail and swung the door to my room open, stomping inside.

"Star, wait—"

I slammed the door shut, the sound echoing throughout the entire hallway and locked it. With a frustrated groan, I slid my back down against the door and I sat in front of it, hooves over my face and now almost completely still with my body trembling with anger. I then took the cap right off of my head and threw it across the room, shouting in that direction and my blood boiling to dangerous levels within. Now I had worse things to worry about.