Ch25: A New Type of Warfare
POV: Mystic Gem
The first month of our training had passed and the Captain had ordered us to pack up everything we had and form up at the base at 6am the following Moonday. Apparently, the theoretical part of our training had ended and we were to step on to praxis.
There wasn’t much to pack for me, as we aren’t really allowed to bring any personal belongings to the military, except for what we can put into our pockets. Thus, apart from the equipment I have been given, I only packed a picture of me and my mother back when I was young. There aren’t all-too many fond memories I have from my old village, really. Only my mother, whom I had lost before I moved to Canterlot, was something – or rather somepony, whom I fondly remember.
Nevertheless, at 5:45 the following Moonday, all of us stood assembled at the base. The Captain arrived five minutes later, though his attire looked vastly different from the usual. He was wearing his uniform with that wild pattern of black, red, green, brown and yellow dots, like usual, but he was also wearing some kind of a helmet in the same colors, as well as some sort of shoes, but for his hands and some kind of armor made from cloth and with multiple bags and pouches, as well as something that looked like a ball, attached to its front. Also, he had something like a big bag on his back and, in addition to his sword he now had a big, black… thing hanging from his shoulder.
He stepped in front of us and everypony saluted to him. He looked us over, signaled us to be at ease and then, he began to speak.
“Congratulations, everyone! You being here today means that you have made it through the first phase of your training. From today onwards, you will no longer be just a bunch of idiots with weapons, no. From today on, you will be proper recruits in my eyes. But don’t let it get to your heads! You may have come this far, but I promise you, it will become much more challenging. At 6am today, we will relocate from the safety of Canterlot down to the newly set-up training ground near Ponyville.”
Lieutenant Bulkhead made a step forward, indicating a question, which the Captain granted him to ask.
“Sir, may I point out that the train to Ponyville will already have departed by the time we got to the station?”
“Indeed, you may. While I have to admit that I had expected the military to own trains itself, it doesn’t affect my plan at all. Like my old instructor always used to say: ‘Fußbus fährt immer.’ Which roughly translates into: foot-bus always works. And for those who still don’t get it: We are going to walk.”
A few unsettled murmurs sprang forth from the lines behind me and Lt. Bulkhead seemed like he wanted to argue against it, however the captain began to speak before he could even open his mouth.
“Listen up! I know it may sound dreadful at first, but it is doable. Remember: you are not alone! You have your comrades to rely on. Help each other! Every single one of you has his own strengths and weaknesses and today you will find creative ways to utilize them to your advantage! Earthponies: nature gave you strength, help your weaker comrades and offer them to carry some of their equipment. Unicorns: you can use your magic to make your luggage and that of your comrades weigh less. Pegasi: You don’t have to rely on your legs. If they are tired, use your wings instead. This will be your trial of fire. After you’ve passed it, we will no longer just be comrades! We will be brothers-in-arms! We will be a family and in a family, we help each other. Stand strong, be creative and work as a team! Now, form up, we are moving!”
He then turned around and led the way, while we formed up in line behind him. First came platoon Alpha, then my platoon, Bravo, and Charlie was last. The according officer would always walk in front of his platoon.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, we reached and crossed the southern gate, beyond which I noticed an old factory building. This wouldn’t have been odd at all, if it wasn’t for the giant magic shield that was set up around it. I decided not to think about it too much. After all, I would need all of my energy for the trip that lay ahead.
And need it, indeed I did. After we had made it halfway along our journey, my legs started to hurt and I probably wasn’t the only one with that problem. After all, while I only had about half of my own weight in equipment to carry, most of my subordinates had to carry an additional pony, if not more. This made a journey, which would normally be very doable into a trip to hell and back.
Regardless, I decided to ignore the pain and march on, not only to pass this ‘trial by fire’, how the captain had called it, but also to be a good example to my troops. We soon reached Ponyville, where the Captain allowed us half an hour of rest, before we marched on into the nearby Everfree Forest.
After another hour of marching, we finally reached a large clearing, which looked like it had been crudely set up as a training ground. The whole journey only took about six and a half hours, though it definitely felt like I had been walking for longer. Although… even though my legs would hurt for days, I felt rather good afterwards. It felt good to have achieved something this tremendous, something to take pride in, but it was also kind of relieving to think that the worst had passed.
The training grounds themselves were actually just a few areas, marked by sticks, as well as a few archery targets on one end of the clearing, but I doubt that anypony minded it all-too much after the trip we just had.
The captain directed us into a large area in the middle of the clearing, where we were to deposit our equipment for the moment, before forming up into our ranks.
“I congratulate you once again.” He started. “You have all made it through the trial, but that doesn’t mean that you may slack off now. As you can see, this little clearing here has been crudely set up as a training ground and it will be your job now, to complete it. Your construction material will be whatever you can find in the forest. While you do that, I have something to do back in Ponyville. Lt. Overdrive will be in command while I am gone. That’s it, dismissed.”
He then left us in the clearing, where we went to work. The whole process went off rather eventless, apart from Lt. Bulkhead muttering on about us not being some cheap construction ponies and the captain probably having a feast at sugarcube corner. It wasn’t hard to guess what we were to do: The areas we were to use had been marked with sticks and we were to make proper fences out of them. There were also a few outlines made from sticks in one, as well as some small holes placed in regular intervals in another area. While we could figure out that the outlines were meant to become a maze of some sorts, we didn’t know what to do with the holes and decided to leave them be and ask about them later on.
The captain came back about two hours later, pulling a cart which was covered with a large cloth. We had finished building about half an hour before he had arrived and had used the remaining time to rest a little. The captain didn’t seem to mind this at all, seeing as we had fulfilled his orders.
The fences now formed three large areas with pathways in-between, as well as a large, free area in the middle, which we would use as a rally point from then on. That is also, where we formed up after the captain had arrived and where we were awaiting new orders. Though, the new orders came a bit as a surprise, as they were to shed our armor.
With some reluctance, everypony did as they were ordered, causing the spells, which made their coats look white, to falter which resulted in a sea of colors where before, there was only a large, white blob. The reason for this order came only a few moments later, as the captain revealed to us, what was hidden on that cart.
The cart contained uniforms, 189 in total, which meant that everypony was to get three, the officers included. We all were the given two uniforms, which had the same color pattern as the captain’s does, and one with a similar pattern, only with the colors white, black and gray, as well as fitting masks and hats to each uniform. The only thing that distinguished us officers from the rest, were little markings on our shoulders, which displayed our rank.
Another thing we noticed with these uniforms, as we put them on, was that they had a similar spell implanted in them, as the normal guard’s armor. Only it made our coats brown instead of white.
After everypony was done putting their new uniforms on, we were ordered to set up camp and that’s where we learned, what these holes were for. Every squad was to place their tents in a star-shape around one of these holes, with the tent’s entrances facing inwards. We officers would do the same together with the captain.
Speaking about tents, I also noticed something about the captain’s. Well, a few things actually. First off: normally, we officers get a slightly larger tent than the normal guards, but his tent was actually about the same size. The second thing was that, while the standard tent issued to guards and officers alike is white, his was imprinted with the same color pattern as his uniform, yet again. Lastly, while all our tents were issued as a large roll with separate pegs and struts, his tent was issued in two bags, out of which everything, even the bags themselves, were used.
After the tents were ready, we used the small holes to ignite campfires inside them. Now with everything set up, we were allowed some time for ourselves, before we all went to sleep.
The next morning held another surprise for us. The Captain told us that we were going to play a match of ‘hide and seek’. Naturally, everypony, including me, gave him strange looks for this at first, though, we would later understand, why he did this. The rules were that we would have to find him within half an hour, while he would hide himself somewhere within six hundred hooves from our camp. He even went as far as to offer half of his monthly wage as a prize to the one who found him.
In the end, we didn’t find him, even though we unicorns were using search spells. Back at the camp, we then found that he was already waiting for us, his face covered in mud. At first, I thought that he might have tripped on the way back, but his following lesson proved me wrong. It turned out that this whole ‘hide and seek’ match was meant to be an introduction to our first lesson: Concealment.
He then spent the following two days showing and teaching us different ways to conceal ourselves in different environments. A special treat came during the night, though, as he demonstrated to us, how sound would behave during the night and in a forest. For this, we went to one side of the clearing, while the captain would go to the other and murmur a series of numbers, which we would later have to tell him. It was actually pretty astonishing to see, or rather hear, how far so much as murmuring during the night would be audible.
The next two days were then spent doing the exact opposite: trying to spot different objects in the field and noting their position. Then, during the weekend, we went out into the forest, where we were taught how to navigate in foreign terrain.
After that, the following three weeks were then spent repeating the lessons we were taught. For this, each platoon would take on a different lesson each week, with the ‘concealment’-group and the ‘spotting’-group working in a competition against each other, ‘spotting’ trying to find ‘concealment’. He made this possible, by actually not supervising the lessons all by himself. Instead, he would give a lesson-plan to us officers, which we were then to execute ourselves, thus making the lessons for our subordinates also a lesson for us as officers.
On Stabledays, the ‘recruits’ were then allowed to slack off a bit, while we officers would receive additional lessons from the captain. In exchange, we would then get our free time on Sundays, while everypony else was tasked with washing their and our uniforms, as well as themselves. Obviously, that last part also applied to us.
Thus, the first month in the field went on, without any bigger incident. Well, except for one. During the second week, we suddenly got an unexpected visit by none other than General Pillbox himself. The problem was the day that he had arrived on. While normally, he would see everypony hard at work, out of all days he had to arrive on a Stableday.
Naturally, the first thing he saw wasn’t the captain or us, having a lesson in silent communication and the setting of ambushes, no. He only saw that the rest of us was currently only idling about, sitting around campfires and talking and laughing with each other. Needless to say, when the General finally came to us, he was fuming.
“What is that supposed to mean, Captain?!” He screamed, “I thought you were training guards here, yet I only see a bunch of lazy failures! And what in Celestia are they even wearing?! Where is their armor?!”
The captain slowly turned to him, seemingly unfazed by his screaming.
“Well, firstly, they have been busy training this whole week and today just-so happens to be their day off. Secondly: ‘lazy failures’ is hardly a fitting description for them. In fact, I would even claim them to be able to outmatch even the Solar and Lunar guards by now. Lastly: the armor they previously had didn`t befit the new doctrine, so I decided to abandon it and use these uniforms instead.”
The General didn’t take kindly to this, continuing on his tirade.
“I did not authorize those changes! Order them to put on their Armor IMMEDIATELY!”
“No, I won’t.” Answered the captain.
“WHAT?! That is insubordination! Know your place!”
“No, it isn’t.”
“And how would you think that, huh?”
“While, indeed, you are my superior, you cannot take away a freedom that was given to me by someone superior to you.”
“AND WHO WOULD THAT BE?!” The General screamed, even more agitated than before.
“Princess Celestia.” The Captain calmly answered.
For a moment, there was silence. The General narrowed his eyes and gave the Captain a threatening glare.
“Fine then, have it your way. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised, if one day something bad would happen to you, Captain.” He threatened, lacing his last word with so much venom, that I was actually afraid that the Captain might drop dead, for a moment.
“Well, while I hate agreeing with him, that was rather disrespectful.” I commented.
“Yes, indeed. Though, I do have my reasons. Sadly, I have met him once already, on the second day of your training. He came to me after we had finished your first physical training. He wanted to know, how long I would need until you were fit for deployment. After I told him that I would need three months, we had an argument about the necessity of this, as well as the viability of a new doctrine. Let’s just say that I can’t really respect someone, who is unable to acknowledge the importance of improving existing doctrines and/or exchanging them for newer ones.” He stated.
At the end of the first month, a strange delivery, consisting of four boxes, arrived. These boxes were labeled with numbers, although they didn’t seem to indicate any specific order. The first one was labeled ‘37’, the second and the third were both labeled ‘5,56’ and the fourth was labeled ‘9’. Though, the arrival of these boxes seemed to mean something, as the Captain had us take rank as soon as they arrived. He then lifted two boxes out of a hole, which was covered with a makeshift roof.
Inside we found multiple objects, of which some looked very similar to the one, the Captain had brought with him. I nearly had my jaw drop, as we were told that those would be our new weapons and we would begin our training with them that same day. The only problem was that the shooting range we had set up wasn’t quite large enough for everypony to train at the same time, but he also had a solution to this. He had been keeping track of our score in the ‘concealment-competition’ and these were now used to determine the order, by which we would get to practice with our new weaponry, by subtracting the amount of times, ponies of one team have been spotted by the amount of targets spotted by the team. Sadly, in the end I only placed second, with Overdrive being first and Bulkhead being third.
And so, we started the final phase of our training to become true soldiers.
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Markus training his soldier to become
waffen ssan elite modern fighting force10166256
he’s from modern day Germany dude, not the Third Reich era,
which, when you think about it, should be the fourth, as there has been three big empires before WW2 Germany, the Roman, British, and the Ottoman Empire,
awesome chapter been waiting how bulkhead will take the firing lesson :D
10166611
Yeah i know, the joke(if you could call it that) was that he wanted to "revive" the SS
10166771
oh dear god, was that really the Waffen SS Uniforms that was described? christ,
10166856
No no no it was my joke, the uniform describe in the story is just modern uniform
10166907
oh, okey, XD phew, :P
Really loved this and I really look forward to both how bulkhead reacts to the firing lesson and pillbox being either replaced or removed because he's cause plenty of people to die if Equestria goes to war
10166951
10166907
Would be kinda hilarious though, Markus bringin the Waffen SS to Equestria... definitely something for the back of my mind. Maybe make it a special or something XD (Too bad that April 1st has already passed, though...)
I hope he dreamed up something to preserve their hearing
10168894
The thought of that doe, o.O
10168962
I didn't know there were any female deer in that story? XD
10169181
Oh hahaha, very funny, you know what i mean, :3