• Published 11th Dec 2019
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Equestria: The Afterlife - Timzocker201



What would you do, if you found yourself in an unknown location and couldn't move? That's the situation Markus finds himself in, after suffering a horrible fate.

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Ch18: Basic Training

POV: Mystic Gem

After I went through officer’s academy, I thought that I would instantly receive command over a unit or at least be assigned as somepony’s second –in-command for training, but neither happened. What actually happened was that I ended up in a queue and a rather long one at that. Apparently, choosing Canterlot as my preference didn’t serve me all too well, as seemingly everypony wanted to be stationed in Canterlot and serve the princesses directly. At this point, I won’t go ahead and make assumptions, as to why they wanted to serve them so desperately, but with most of the officers being stallions, I have a pretty good idea.

Anyways, apart from me, there were three other Lieutenants on standby in Canterlot. Two were Stallions and the other one was a mare. There were also two Captains, who apparently shared the same fate as we did, but we rarely had any run-ins with them, as their quarters were on the other side of the building. That isn’t to say that we Lieutenants shared any more of our time. In fact, the only one I regularly came into contact with was the other mare. Her name was Nightshade and, true to her name, she always managed to stay up late, only to sleep in the other day. Actually, I can’t remember seeing her on any day before 9am, which is rather peculiar considering that we couldn’t leave the campgrounds during weekdays, except for holidays and vacation and there wasn’t really much nightlife on camp grounds.

We managed to – somehow – become friends, if you want to call it that. At least, I was a lot closer to her than to the two Stallions. We spent the following six months together, and yes, I was on standby for a whole six months. During that time, not much happened, really. Unlike the normal Guards, Officers don’t undergo regular training. Actually, they don’t undergo basic training normally either, something that actually pissed me off a bit. But, luckily, this ‘normally’ is there for a reason, as I ended up somewhere that isn’t normal at all.

After those six months, it finally happened. It was early in the morning, so I was barely awake, when suddenly, us Lieutenants were called out over the Intercom. This in itself was already something pretty unusual, as normally, we would just hang around somewhere in the base and have the senior officers shove some miniscule work at us. But the fact that, apparently, a foreign officer was put into service just a few days ago, of course sparked some speculations within me.

In the end I was right, as just when we stepped out of our rooms, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight Sparkle, as well as somepony, who I could only assume was said officer were moving down the hall. He stood at least one head taller than Princess Luna and stood only on his hind legs, while his forelegs ended in the same weird appendages that I’ve only seen on Minotaurs before and I think are called ‘Hands’.

We instantly snapped to attention as we saw them, but Princess Luna quickly told us to be at ease. Meanwhile, the officer gave us a thorough look-over, before commencing with a quick introductory speech, in which he just assumed that we know his name, which I didn’t at that time. Though he didn’t do it himself, he let us introduce ourselves, which, once it was my turn, I simply did with a quick “2nd Lieutenant Mystic Gem, sir! Awaiting orders, sir!”

When our Introductions were through, he ordered us to follow, which we quickly did. We went outside and towards the barracks and on our way there, he quickly briefed us on the situation. Apparently, he was taking over a company of guards, which we were about to become a part of. On our way there Princess Luna left our group, as her shift apparently was over. She did say, though, that her sister will meet us shortly to watch the takeover. It was at that moment, that I felt that I wouldn’t particularly like this new officer. Not only was he so presumptuous as to think that just because he was a little better known than somepony else, everyone had to know his name, but he seemed to also already have pretty decent connections into royalty. I mean, Princess Luna seemed pretty formal with him, within the few sentences that she spoke in our presence. However it seemed a bit forced, as if she was trying to mask their true relationship. Princess Sparkle meanwhile didn’t speak at all and she didn’t need to. Just by seeing the way she looked at him and walked beside him, I could tell that, in her eyes, they were basically already married.

Anyways, as we reached the yard where the aforementioned company was assembled, he started talking about choosing a second in command. To be exact, he said that he would postpone this decision for a while, instead opting to having us each occupy the position for one week at a time. I was the first one to be chosen and he quickly had me fulfill my first duty, by calling the Guards to attention, after which he held a short speech. It was during this speech that I heard his name and rank for the first time. Apparently, he was a Captain by the name of Markus Becker.

Just as the Captain ended his speech, I heard the sound of flapping wings and, as I turned to see, instantly went down into a bow, as Princess Celestia set down before me. Lieutenant Overdrive and Bulkhead, the two other Lieutenants that came with me, as well as Princess Sparkle did the same. Only the Captain stood upright, instead giving a simple salute before our Princess. I gave a silent growl at this, as I found it to be highly disrespectful, however the Princess didn’t seem to mind. On the contrary, she actually asked him if he found us to be sufficient! If my opinion of him hadn’t reached ground zero already, it would have by then at least.

The Princess and the Captain proceeded to take on a short inspection, during which the captain openly scolded and humiliated three of our fellow guards and let them run five laps each around the formation. If this was the way he wanted to lead us, I could only hope that I could somehow file a request for transfer as soon as possible.

They ended their inspections and he brought us into marching formation, leading us towards the royal palace. I felt as if my worst fears were just confirmed, as we were led directly inside and through the halls. If he really was influential enough to arrange something within the palace, he had to be VERY close to the princesses.

We reached a large room, which looked like the lecture halls we had at the academy and he quickly gave us instructions on how to seat ourselves. Then, just like that, he used the arrangement of the benches to organize us into smaller ‘platoons’ like he called them and I became leader of platoon ‘bravo’. Admittedly, even though I could not have thought worse of him at this point, the swiftness of his decision-making had me slightly impressed. What truly changed my opinion about him, though, was the lesson he gave us afterwards. During those maybe 2-3 hours, he actually managed to teach us more than we had learned during officers academy!

My ears were on high alert and I eagerly sucked in everything he said about tactics, strategies and formations. He went on and on about things that I had never even heard about! Although, admittedly, that wasn’t really difficult, considering that the lessons in the academy basically only taught us how to behave during public events, only barely taking some time to tell us that we won’t really be needed anyways as our doctrine would have our guards just jackhammer straight into the enemy anyways.

I quickly noticed that Lt. Overdrive shared my compassion, almost tipping over the front of his desk as he leaned closer, subconsciously trying to get more. However, Lt. Bulkhead didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic, as I heard him repeatedly mumble something about ‘not part of the doctrine’ or something, but I tried to ignore him.

The hours went past quickly and he ended his lesson all too soon. I don’t think I need to emphasize how much I was overjoyed to hear that this was only a short introduction into the full extent of our later lessons.


The day after, we got started just as early as the day before, with another lesson in theory. However, it was in the afternoon that the truly interesting thing happened.

Lt. Overdrive, Lt. Bulkhead and I were standing on the sidelines of the parkour of the Canterlot base and were watching our respective soldiers do their training. I felt slightly let down, as my complaints about our original training didn’t seem to be solved after all. That was, when the Captain saw and addressed us.

“What do we have here? It seems someone thinks they are too good to get their share of the training! Well, I bet if you are this confident in yourselves, you can beat this track in a minute flat! Get a move on!” He said in a scolding, sarcastic tone.

However, instead of being humiliated or something, I smiled wide. Finally, after six months of officially already being an officer, I would be properly trained! Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely am no fitness junkie and to be fair, my overall performance in sports isn’t even that good. However, it always felt wrong to me that we were part of the military but didn’t get the training of proper guards.

Though, Lt. Bulkhead seemed to see it differently, as he actually and openly opposed the captain.

“Sir, with all due respect, this is completely against the doctrine! Everypony knows that officers don’t lower themselves to be equal with th-“

He wanted to rant on, but the Captain quickly interrupted him.

“Well sucks for you, because the old doctrine doesn’t apply to my company. I suggest you get your head cleared of that old crap and start moving or else I will kick your ass to Tartarus and beyond!”

Lt. Bulkhead scowled, but obliged, seeing as, even though he didn’t accept his decision, the captain was still his superior, which he still acknowledged. He trotted off and Lt. Overdrive and I quickly followed suit, doing the parkour as quickly as we could.

Another time when the Lieutenant openly opposed the Captain was actually just the day after. Apparently, we were to get a lesson in ‘first aid’ that day, which, according to the captain, would drastically lower our losses in case of an actual battle. I actually had heard of this ‘first aid’ before, however in the context of nurses and paramedics needing it. Though, if it would really be that significant later on, I was more than eager to learn about it. The problem was that he seemingly needed some sort of a dummy, which he couldn’t get in sufficient numbers, so instead he went for a more… creative solution. When he arrived that day, he was carrying a box and as he opened it, we saw that it was full with… ‘puppets for a stallion’s special needs’…

He quickly ordered us to pump them up so he could commence the training, but that was when Bulkhead kicked in.

“With all due respect, Captain, but what is this?!”

“With no due respect, Lieutenant, that is my way of bypassing resource shortages. Now get those things pumped up so we can start already!”

“But Captain! We can’t allow our royal guard to train with… these!”

The Captain looked at him with a very scolding look.

“Listen, Lieutenant: As long as I am the Captain and You are the Lieutenant, things are done the way I order them to. Now get a move on, before I consider using You as a dummy the next time around.”


The first week passed by and, Friday evening, we went into a bar. We sat ourselves at a large, round table and ordered some cider to get the evening going. And yes, we. I honestly thought that Overdrive had a crush on me or something, because he was always right behind me, no matter the time. Well, not always, he was decent enough to leave me my space during the night and during restroom breaks, but still, it wasn’t like he would raise his chances by constantly following me!

Anyways, it wasn’t long until Lt. Bulkhead also joined us and we started chatting a little. Well, actually mostly those two talked and I just sat there, waiting for my drink. That was when three ponies from my platoon entered the bar as well. I recognized them as those three that were scolded by the captain when he took over.

They started to talk with each other, mostly about how their training went and such. From what I could remember, the one that is called ‘Nambs’ by the Captain had become their squad leader, though, according to their talking, he didn’t feel quite comfortable with it just yet. I considered walking over and talking to him to give him some advice and such, but decided against it for now, as Bulkhead suddenly spoke up.

“You know, I don’t like our new captain. He just thinks he can overthrow the doctrine in any way he likes and the princesses don’t even do anything about it!”

Overdrive and I shared a short look, before I gave Bulkhead a half-lidded stare.

“Well, yeah, it was pretty obvious that you don’t like him, but don’t you think the princesses would have taken somepony else, if they didn’t want something to change?”

Bulkhead shot me a look.

“Even if the princesses want the doctrine to change, why don’t they do the change themselves instead of having somepony like… him? By all means, some of the things he teaches us are outright useless! I mean, what would we need special tactics and formations for, if we would likely battle on open field anyways?!”

I kept my half-lidded stare, but allowed a wide grin to spread over my face.

“Oh, you will see, Bulkhead. I bet you, you will have to use these ‘useless tactics’ to save your own flank at least once.”

And see, indeed he would…

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