Millennia: Beginning

by Thunderblast

23. Conflicts

"Alright, listen up everypony!" shouted Sergeant Hardstaff from the door of the barrack. "We've got a new squadron of recruits coming later tomorrow. I need all of you to spend the afternoon clearing out your hooflocker and packing it up. Each and every one of you are being moved to a new barrack and will be given separate rooms to sleep in, and each of you will have a roommate to share the room with. I also want you to choose who your roommate will be, and choose wisely, because you'll be with them until either you die, you reach the end of your time as a Marine, or you get yourself a nicer place than the shit we have," everyone then laughed a bit, the sergeant only grinned.

"When you're all done, meet me at the flag pole at 1400 hours. I'll take you to your buildings from there and you'll get settled in. So I suggest you all get packing."

"Yes sir!" We shouted in unison.

The sergeant trotted out, and from there we went to our hooflockers and began taking things out and stuffing them into our bags. All of us as a group didn't have much to pack and were waiting outside within a minute or two of the sergeant's orders in a neat line.

"Well this is interesting," Silver said, standing behind me with his bag over his shoulder.

"I'm excited, what about you guys?" Solar smiled and looked at the both of us.

I nodded to him. "It'll be nice to have a better bed... hopefully."

Silver chuckled. "We won't all be in the same room though. I mean, maybe one of us will. It'll be different."

"Well, its not like we'll be that far away from each other. Just different buildings," I said.

"Unless one of us goes and buys an apartment. But that won't be that much of an issue, same workplace, am I right?"

"True, but I already have an apartment, remember?" I said to Solar.

"Oh yeah, in Canterlot. Hey, do you think you'll move here now that you're out of boot camp?"

The idea wasn't fresh on my mind but it wasn't something I was ready to think about just yet. It wouldn't rest well on Rose's mind either. "I haven't decided yet."

"Well that's alright. But hey, there's something else I've been thinking of. What if one of us gets transferred? Like, I dunno, out west?"

"Out west?" Silver turned and stared at the yellow unicorn.

"Yeah, Los Pegasus or something like that. No, wait, San Dineigho. That's where the other base is. What if one of us gets sent there?"

"They would have sent us there by now, Solar. Besides, they decide where ponies go depending on what they are interested in. Since I'm part of the Eclipse crew, I'm stuck here unless I get discharged."

"Huh, I never thought of that," Solar tapped his chin.

About fifteen minutes later is when sergeant Hardstaff could be seen trotting towards us, and those out of formation quickly fell into the line we created and all stood at attention while the night-blue stallion stopped in front of us.

"Well then, it seems all of you finished up quicker than I thought... Good job," he nodded once. "I checked with some of the other living barracks, the two I inspected have enough rooms for you all. Again, two per room, and when we get there, I expect you all to split up with your roommates and pick your designated room. When you do, stand inside the door and I'll come by to mark where you all are staying. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" We replied in unison.

"Good. Let's move."

From there, the sergeant led the line towards some two-story buildings about the length as the normal barracks. Though both were considered barracks, the ones we were moving to would be our permanent living quarters. The march was short-lived and upon reaching the new barracks, the first half of the group went into one building while me, Solar, Silver, and the others went to the barrack beside it. The vacant rooms had their doors cracked open with bricks being put in the way of the door to hold it open.

I trotted up the stairs and to a door towards the center of the building, labeled Dorm 5 in Building #3. I stopped just outside the door and set my bag down beside it, then turned to Solar and Silver who had followed me upstairs.

"All right... now is the hard part. Who stays with me?"

The two unicorns exchanged looks, then turned back to me. "We're... sorry Star. We decided along the way that we're going to share a room together," Solar said with a concerned look.

"Oh..." My ears fell and my head lowered. "Alright..."

"I'm sorry... It's nothing personal. It's more like... I'd rather be with Solar rather than leave him with somepony, you know?" Silver added, motioning a hoof as he did so.

"So I get left with somepony..." I kept my head down.

"I... guess."

"That's fine..." I turned around. "I'm cool with that," I really wasn't, and they surely could tell.

Silver sighed, turning to Solar. "Let's go."

Then, they trotted back downstairs to one of the vacant rooms, while I stood facing the barely-opened door, feeling as if I'd been betrayed by my own friends. I understood Silver's reason, but coping with it would be harder. Just then, I heard hoofsteps walking down the hallway towards me.

"Private?"

I turned and saw the sergeant stopping a few feet away. "Sir," I then wiped my expression clean of any sadness and faced him.

"Where is your roommate?" he asked, writing down on a clipboard.

"I uh... don't have one sir."

"You do now," he looked up at me with a smile.

Right after that, I glanced behind him and saw Nightpath walking up the stairs.

"Oh hell no, anypony but him! Why him?!"

"Because, private," he emphasized my rank grimly. "Apparently somepony in his group can't count for shit and he was left without a roommate as well. So, he is with you."

"I beg of you sir, don't put me with him," I said as the taller stallion walked up beside the sergeant.

"Sergeant, why put me with this lonely disgrace?" Nightpath grimaced and looked towards Hardstaff as well.

"You know the reason, private. Let's also consider this a chance for you two to make up and work together for once. Any further discussion will result in consequences. Do you two hear me?"

We both groaned. "Yes sir."

"Good. Now get settled in," said the sergeant before he trotted to the staircase at the other end of the building.

I then turned to Nightpath and gave him a faint glare. "You heard him..." I grabbed my bag off of the ground and pushed through the door of the dormitory, then caught on to the dark brown pony mocking what I had said just seconds before. I decided to ignore it.

Upon walking inside, there was a small kitchen to the right, then the bathroom, which was cramped but had everything we needed, and finally the bedroom that had two wooden framed beds against opposite walls with nightstands beside them, and between that was a single window as well as a column heater, and a simple desk against the wall at the end of one of the beds, and beside it, a small closet. With a deep breath, I walked up to the bed on the right and set my bag on it.

"That's my bed..." growled Nightpath.

I turned and tossed a glare back at him. "The beds are literally no different..." but picked up my bag and went to the other one and began unpacking the little things I had while Nightpath did the same. The bed frames had a built-in drawer under the mattress, and we folded our uniforms in there. When he finished, Night hopped onto his bed and rolled around in the covers much like a dog would in a pile of dirt.

"I can't believe I have to live with you," he muttered.

"Get over it, you big baby. There are worse ponies you could be living with right now," I replied, putting my bag away in the closet.

"Not from my point of view."

I shut the closet door and turned around, staring the brown pony right in the eye. "Okay, what is it? Seriously. You never give me an answer as to why you hate me. Why do you? And don't think you're going anywhere until you tell me."

Night sat up, eyeing me for a few moments in silence. I stood there, unfazed. "Isn't it obvious? You're friends with the sergeant. I'm surprised nopony else hates you to be honest."

"That's it?" I gave him a funny look. "You're upset over that? Of all things, you're ticked about me having somewhat of a friendship with the sergeant?"

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Everything is wrong with that. There's nothing bad about befriending your sergeant. Wouldn't you rather know who you're going to be fighting alongside one of these days? Surely we're not joining just to wear the fancy camouflage and yell 'oorah' all day every day. Do you get my point?"

Night sighed, then nodded twice. "I do. But that doesn't mean I won't dislike you still."

"Then do what you want to do."

"... What?"

"Throw a punch at me. Do what you want to do to me. I won't fight back. If it is something that will make you get over your constant salty mood, then by all means, beat me up," I gave him a serious look.

Night simply stared at me. Neither of us moved, and I expected him to stand up and pin me to the wall at any minute. Much to my surprise, he didn't.

"I'm not wasting my energy on you..." is all he said before he laid back down and turned to face the wall.

I stood there, blinking a couple of times. "Am I hearing you right? You don't want to beat me to a pulp?" I grinned.

"Keep talking and I'll consider rethinking my decision."

"What ever," I said with sarcasm in my tone and wandered back to my bed. Before I could lay down, a knock on the door caught my attention.

"Who is it?" Night muttered tiredly.

"I don't know," I walked to the door and opened it, seeing Shadow standing there. "Sir!" I said in surprise and stood at attention.

"At ease, am I interrupting anything?"

I eased myself and shook my head. "No sir."

"Alright. I received a letter and I came to look for you. It turns out the princess and the general of the Lunar Republic Military are on their way to Manehattan."

I blinked and tilted my head. "What? Why?"

"Apparently we're being interrogated for what happened last deployment."

I shook my head slightly. "I don't follow?"

"The warning," Shadow said, much quieter than before.

My eyes widened slightly. "Oh..."

Shadow nodded. "Everypony on the bridge is being questioned. Its nothing bad, but I would appreciate if you came with me to the meeting."

"Yes, of course, sir."

"Then we'd better get moving."

***

The both of us seated ourselves in the situation room inside the main office building on base. There were few ponies already in the room, most of which were the rest of the bridge crew who stood up to salute Shadow as we walked in. Noticeably, the important guests still hadn't arrived yet.

A short amount of time later, a dark grey pegasus dressed in her highness' personal guard's armor stepped into the room and spoke up.

"All rise, and welcome miss Princess Luna," he said, stepping off to the side as the Lunar princess walked regally into the room.

When she did, we stood to our hooves and saluted her, then in walked a unicorn stallion a couple of inches shorter than her wearing a black-and-blue uniform with medal ribbons pinned on the left of his chest, and the stallion wore square-framed glasses as well. Then, finally, my former teacher, Lieutenant Kosec Ping walked in, much to my surprise. We kept our salute until they seated themselves and asked us to sit as well.

"Thank you all for gathering here today..." Princess Luna started, then muttered afterwards, "not that you had much of a choice." She then cleared her throat. "We understand that your vessel, the Eclipse, received a threat last deployment, yes?"

Shadow nodded first, as did we. "Yes, your highness."

"And though I do not know much about this threat, was it provoked on their part?"

"No, your highness."

"Would you care to explain what was happening?" asked the stallion, leaning forward onto the table and looking at Shadow with the blankest of expressions.

"It was a clockwork day, colonel. We had just turned back towards home, and out of the blue we received a threat in the Griffonian language. Private Star Shooter here—" he motioned to me. "—alerted me of an anomaly on the radar picking up a boat much faster than ours approaching at a high rate of speed. After a short while, it turned and went back where it came from after we responded. There is not that much else to it."

Both the colonel and Princess Luna nodded. "Was there any visual contact of the vessel?"

"No sir."

"Were there any air patrols at the time?" Princess Luna added.

"Yes, your highness. Though the day was extremely overcast and somewhat foggy, it is likely that the weather may have contributed to a lack of visibility of the vessel."

"It is also likely that it could have been a Griffonian battleship that wandered off-course and thought of your ship as a threat," the colonel said.

"With all due respect sir, I believe that theory is ruled out. The Griffonian sailors speak our language as well, they would not contact us with their own. After all, English is the international language of which all aircraft pilots and ship captains must speak to communicate with each other."

"The captain has a point, colonel," Princess Luna said, turning to him.

"Yes, but how do we know it wasn't them mistaking the Eclipse for an enemy vessel thinking it was in their own waters?"

"Griffons do not lack that much intelligence, colonel. This is a threat likely issued by Griffonian pirates. They are indigenous to that region of the ocean, and let's not forget the last time our ships were unable to defend themselves from being boarded. We cannot afford to lose hundreds of sailors and Marines for them to dispose of at their will."

Princess Luna then stood up, those in the room watched the blue alicorn and listened closely as she cleared her throat.

"Witnesses in the room, we highly suggest thou spend the night preparing."

"Preparing for what exactly, your highness?" Shadow asked.

"To be shipped out to investigate the waters. If thou encounters the mysterious vessel again, thou should issue threats and engage if necessary. Commander Shadow, gather and brief your ponies tonight. I can imagine it will be hard for them to leave home on such short notice and right after returning from another deployment."

"Yes your highness," Shadow bowed his head to her.

"Dismissed," Princess Luna scanned over us, then walked out of the room with her guard, followed by the colonel, while the lieutenant stayed to have a talk with Shadow.

"All of you, head back to your barracks. I will brief you all later."

"Yes sir," we said, also leaving the situation room and heading to our rooms at the barracks.

I opened the door and walked inside, finding Nightpath to still be half-asleep.

"Who was it?" he muttered tiredly, sounding as if he wasn't awake at all.

"It was my commanding officer. Uh... Night?"

"Hmm?"

"We're being deployed again."

His ear perked, and he shot up out of bed, giving me a somewhat deadly stare. "You're kidding... who told you this?"

"Princess Luna," I said, walking over to the closet and pulling my bag back out. "We have all night to prepare. Tomorrow is when we leave."

"But... why? We just got back."

I sighed and turned to him. "Something's up. So get your bag and start packing. Shadow will be briefing us later on."

Comments

[Thunderblast]

6715950 Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'll certainly try and improve future chapters when I get around to making them.

Although, in other stories, I've seen longer bits followed by shorter lines of dialogue. I guess that's how I've gone for a while.