PLR: The Beginning

by Caesar2013

Training Days

"PSST! Bucephalus!" Silver Tail whispered to his brother Bucephalus in a quiet tone. "How much longer are we going to be on this bus?"

After being arrested, Bucephalus and Silver Tail were drafted into the Equestrian Army. Though Equestria was far from war at the time, relations between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom were hot, with reports of ponies kidnapped and ransomed. Border skirmishes and the like. However, war was still avoided for the time being.

"Bucephalus?" Silver Tail asked again.

Looking down at his watch, the time said 11:47, they had been on the bus two hours.

"We'll get there, when we get there." Bucephalus said turning away and was just about ready to fall asleep when the bus stopped.

"Look! We're here!" A pony in the front calls out.

Bucephalus sat back up and looked out the window. Sure enough, they were at the fort to begin their basic training. To the his right side, Bucephalus noticed a uniformed pony marching in a straight line towards the bus. Entering it, the pony got in and stood straight and began to talk.

"All right mares!" The drill pony began. "I haven't gotten all day! Off the bus now! Double time!"

Taking that as their cue to get off the bus, all of the recruits hurried off lest they receive the wrath of the Drill Pony. The recruits were marched off to their barracks, where they were accounted for. They had their manes cut, and sent off to reception. The ponies stood in two vertical lines on the left and right side of the room. Bucephalus looked around and saw that he was the biggest pony in the room, and possibly on the base as well. Looking to his left, Bucephalus noticed the Drill Pony walking up and down the space in the middle of the two lines looking sick to his stomach.

"I am Drill Sergeant Tramplehorse. I will be your Senior Drill Instructor. From what I've been told it is my job to make you all the best of what Equestria has to offer. But instead I'm given is a pile of shit that just got weaned off their mother's breasts!"

Bucephalus shifted uneasily at the comment as his mother had been killed when he was very young.

"Your asses aren't mine just yet." Drill Instructor Tramplehorse says with disappointment in his voice. "But starting tomorrow, your asses are mine for the next ten weeks. Have fun ladies. DISMISSED!" Drill Instructor Tramplehorse yells as he finishes his "welcoming" speech to the new recruits.

That night, Bucephalus couldn't sleep, all he could dream about was fire and smoke. The burning of his village. The murder of his mother. The blood covering his father's face. He was there back in the village, a little foal, being assaulted by the guards. Beaten by them mercilessly with clubs, crossbow butts, and hooves. Bucephalus covered his face in an attempt to shield himself from each blow. He swore he could hear laughing grow louder, and louder as each blow was delivered.

"NO!" Bucephalus yells as he rises from the bunk in a state of fear.

"Oh shut up!" A pony on the top bunk says. "Go back to sleep."

The nightmare was too much for Bucephalus to fall back asleep easily. Instead, the giant pony simply laid there awake, from the late hours of the night onwards into early morning.

"WAKE UP MARES!" Drill Sargent says waking up the recruits. "It is 0500 hours and you're burning Celestia's daylight! Do I have to march to Canterlot myself and say that she's wasting her time?"

"UUNGH!" One recruit moaned refusing to get out of bed.

Drill Instructor Tramplehorse noticed this, and yanked the overweight pony out of the top bunk. Bucephalus looked over and saw that it was the pony that had slept on the bunk top of his.

"Get your ass in gear recruit!" Drill Sargent Tramplehorse yells kicking the recruit to get him moving.

"You mares had better be fully dressed by the time I get back here, or by Celestia I will throw you to the Griffons.!" Drill Sargent Tramplehorse yells as he leaves the room.

Bucephalus and the other recruits hurry to get their uniforms on. The overweight recruit on the otherhoof, was still struggling to get his on when Tramplehorse came back.

"Oh so you like screwing around eh Private? What is your name?!" Drill Sargen Tramplehorse yells to the recruit.

"I'm Osmo!" Osmo replies.

"Did you forget something recruit?!"

"SIR! Recruit Osmo Sir!"

"You moron! I AM NOT A SIR! I WORK for a living you MORON!" Drill Instructor Tramplehorse yells back. "And since you recruits here do not seem to understand the value of work, I will teach you all. Out the door!"

The recruits were funneled out the door onto the training field. There they continued to practice physical training until about 1200 hours where they were brought back inside to the chow hall. Where each recruit was allowed time to eat.

Each day it was like this, Bucephalus and the other recruits would wake up and properly do what they were told, Recruit Osmo on the otherhand, continued to screw everything up. Day in and Day out, he would do something stupid. On one occasion he crashed a battle carriage used to transport soldiers onto a battlefield:

"Recruit Osmo! Do you see what I see?" Drill Tramplehorse yells pointing towards the wrecked vehicle.

"Yes Drill Sargent!" Recruit Osmo yells

"Ah do you see that I see a dumb recruit who wrecked a valuable piece of army issue type-A transport vehicle. At your current pay grade, I'd have to work your ass off until you are FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS OLD! That is the time it will take for you to pay off that transport!"

That same day, all of the recruits were put into a world of hurt and pain all because of Private Osmo. later that night, Bucephalus, Silver Tail, and some of the other recruits had met up to discuss what to do with Osmo.

"He's an idiot!" One recruit says to the others. "He constantly screws up and we get the blame! I can't take it anymore!"

"The group shouldn't suffer because of the actions of individuals. He is a cancer!" Bucephalus says.

"Well we can't kill him, but we can make his life miserable here." Another recruit says.

"I have an idea. Jenkins, hand me your soap." Silver Tail says pulling off a sock.

"What exactly will this do?" Jenkins asks

"This!" Silver Tail puts in the soap bar into the sock and hits the bunk with it.

The other recruits are amazed but the idea.

"Colts, I think we know how to give Osmo proper …. influence." Bucephalus said.

Alll of the recruits, except Osmo, loaded their socks with a bar of soap, and crept steadily and silently (they did not want to risk getting caught and earning the wrath of Tramplehorse).

"On three... one... two ..." Bucephalus says.

The recruits soon swarmed Recruit Osmo. Hitting him continuously in the makeshift clubs.

"It's just a dream, fat pony" Silver Tail says as he is the last one to hit Osmo."

The next day, Osmo was more motivated than ever (unless he wanted to be soaped again) and improved in the eyes of the Drill Sargent. The recruits continued with the next phase of their training where they practiced war games. Bucephalus was chosen as a squad leader. In his group was himself, Silver Tail, Jenkins, Osmo, a pony nicknamed Brainiac, and Spike Tails. Up against them was several more squads ready to take them out. Bucephalus proved to be an able leader, able to get the incompetent Osmo to keep up with the rest of the group, and make Spike Tails work with them as he despised Osmo "I hate the fat bastard!" As he often spoke of him.

Soon the ten weeks was over. There had been only two drop outs (Surprisingly, Osmo was not among them.) Senior Drill Instructor Tramplehorse gathered the recruits on graduation day.

"Today, you are no longer little mares. You are now Equestrian Soldiers. I will not lie to you. All of you are entering the army at a time when relations with the Griffon Empire are its all time low. They've stockpiled surpluses of soldiers and weapons poised to conquer Equestria. But know this, no matter what happens, you have each other. The Equestrian army is your family, WE are a family now. You may not like each other. Hell, others like Private Osmo and Private Spike Tail may even openly hate each other. But We are a family. Family supports each other. We leave no pony behind to suffer torment and death at the hands of the griffons. All for one and one for all!"

"URRAH!" The ponies yell in Unison.