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"My loyal subjects. For five years, we have ignored the threat to the east, and four days ago, we paid the price most dear. At two in the morning, Neighpan and Gryphany jointly launched the most vicious attack on foreign soil in over seventy years, landing nearly five thousand shock troopers in less than twenty minutes. Over forty thousand civilians and soldiers died valiently defending their homes and their comrades, and our largest northern base was completely destroyed.

For five years, we have let hubris and foolish optimism rule our hearts, and refused to send support overseas for a war that we all thought was not ours. Prance has petitioned us for aid, and today, I announce that by my decree, and the suggestion of my sister Luna, I have agreed to land troops overseas to begin operations against Gryphany.

The Crimson Alliance, as the two countries and their allies call themselves, is the greatest threat to Equestrian, nay, World peace that the entire world has ever known since the days of Discord. They represent a return to the days of Dictators and Tyrants like King Sombra. And like those tyrants, they shall fall.

If anyone would say anything about me, let it be this: A blow upon my subjects is a blow upon myself. And to strike myself or my sister is a crime punishable by death.

Therefor, it is with a heavy heart that I beg of you all to give your time and energy to support the army that my sister Luna is raising. We did not ask for war, but now that it has come looking for us, we shall answer. My top generals are devising plans of battle, and we are dispatching our current standing army overseas to assist Zebracia in their operaions against the Crimson Alliance. There, they shall receive much needed combat experience, and that experience shall go into training more soldiers.

I, Princess Celestia of the House of Sun and Moon, Ruler of Equestria, Royal Sovereign of the Fair Lands, and bringer of Light, do hereby declare war upon the Gryphon Empire, its pretender to the throne Bristlebeak, and Imperial Neighpan, their ally. For their blow against us, we shall visit upon them such destruction as has not been seen since before the Unification Wars.

Go, my little ponies, and prepare for the iron beat of war."

I sat, staring at the seat in front of me. Though I was still in my civilian cloths, the stern faced stallion next to me was not. Towering over everyone else in here, the earth pony wore Royal Army fatigues and had the rank of... Sergeant? First Sergeant? on his shoulder. I couldn't remember which, and I looked away before I could get yelled at. All around me on the train, others sat, some of them staring ahead like me, others looking around nervously. On this car alone, there was nearly a hundred of us packed in like sardines, and this train had nearly fifty cars bound for Camp Hoofington, Coltifornia.

In the seat next to me was a scrawny unicorn who kept rubbing his horn, staring out the window. On his forearm was a green wavy line like a radio wave, and his large cider-bottle glasses spoke of poor eyesight. He looked at me and gave a slight grin before leaning over and whispering "My name is Radio Wave... what's yours?"

I looked up at the grim faced sergeant, who was looking up the line at another person, and then whispered "Steel Wing. I'm from cloud-"

I nearly shat myself as, right in my ear, the sergeant yelled "DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK MAGGOT!?"

Everyone around me jumped, and I turned beet red as I looked at him. A sharp smack across the face met with my meeting his eyes, and he screamed "DONT LOOK ME IN THE EYE I DONT LIKE THAT! MAKES ME THINK YOU ARE GONNA HIT ME! ARE YOU GOING TO HIT ME MAGGOT?!?"

I shook my head, shrinking back. "N-no! Of course not!"

He grabbed my by the chin and yanked me to my feet. "I didn't hear a SIR in there! The first and last words out of your mouth should be SIR! Every goddamn time you talk to anyone with three or more chevrons! How many Chevrons are on my jacket?"

I gulped and could not help but shake a bit. "S-sir! Three sir!"

"What does that make me!"

"Sir! A Sergeant sir!"

He nodded. "Maybe you can learn maggot! Sit your ass back down!"

I sank back down, shaking badly. Someone up the row snickered, and instantly he was stomping forward, even as the train screeched to a stop past a sign that read "Camp Hooftington. Ponies enter here! Soldiers exit THERE!"

"IS SOMETHING FUNNY WHELP! DO YOU FIND ME AMUSING!"

As the mare struggled to respond, the other sergeant yelled "Everyone up! On your feet, orderly line, you WILL get off this train and into formation! Six abreast, ten deep, then start a new formation! The area outside is called the Grinder! Remember that!"

I jumped to my feet, but nearly instantly the sergeant that had yelled at me first said "EVERYONE SIT!"

We all sat, and the other one yelled "On your feet! ORDERLY!"

After four more tries, we all began to shuffle quietly and orderly off the train, where we were met with the chilly night time air. It had to be just above freezing, and I was wearing a tee-shirt. A mare outside in an army jacket with a cap stood there, staring at the train, and one of the sergeants came over to her. "Fresh veg for the blender Gunny. Mind if Blitz and I get some grub?"

She nodded, and they left. As we stood there, silent but for the occasional sneeze or muffled cough, she looked over a list.

"Is there a Mister Steel Hoof present?" she finally called out. At the word "Steel" my heart nearly stopped, but then a young earth pony stallion called out "Here Ma'am!"

She looked up, a look of annoyance on her face. "Fall out of formation, recruit! You got a ticket back home! Rest of you! Double time it inside! When you get into the hallway, you will go STRAIGHT down it, do not turn left, do not turn right, do not stop. When you get to the end, there will be double doors. At those doors is an officer, you will all halt, salute, and say 'Good Morning Ma'am!' When you have done that, she will reply with the same, and the doors will open. There is a large room beyond that with desks. You will each take a book off of the wall next to the doors, and one by one stand up by the desks, leaving no empty spots. When all of the desks are full, you will, all at once, sit down and open the books up. They are the Equestrian Armed Forces History guide, and you WILL learn it cover to cover! Inside are your general orders, that you need to memorize by the end of the third day. Do you all understand that?"

"Ma'am! Yes Ma'am!" was the chorus, although at least half of us said nothing.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU! I ASKED A QUESTION AND I EXPECT AN ANSWER!"

"MA'AM! YES MA'AM!" came the much louder reply, and my voice scraped raw with my shout. She nodded. "Mhm. Damn right. Fucking recruits."

Three tries later, we all managed to 'about face, left' to her begrudging satisfaction and were marching quickly down the hallway. By my luck, I was in the front row, on the far right side. As the end of the hall came into view, I saw an officer with a silver maple leaf on her collar, an earth pony. As we approached, she looked up, eyebrows raised. I stopped, as we had been told to, but the guy behind me didn't and I ended up falling forward a step as he ran into me.

As the officer looked on, we organized ourselves a bit better and we all stood up. The Sergeant to the side barked "Greet the officer! I am SURE she would LOVE to know you all love her!"

We all looked at her and said "Good morning, Ma'am!"

She chuckled and nodded. "Good work Sergeant. Now, all of you lot. I am nice. The Sergeants around here are not. Their job is to make you as miserable as can be, and you will learn to hate them in the weeks that you are here. But that is good! The more you hate them, the more you will learn. Past these door is going to be your issues. At the first train station, you were all sorted into this group. From here on, you are First Regiment, Fifth Battalion, Seventeenth Platoon. There are one hundred and forty four of you, and if all goes well, there will still be that many when you all get out of here. Now, I want to go get some sleep, so you all listen to Buck Sergeant Striker."

She walked off and he looked at us. "You will all go directly through this door, an go into the center of the room. Once there, you will form an orderly line and remove your clothing. That includes undergarments. If you have issues with modesty, I suggest you put them aside. Ladies, right now every guy in here is too tired to care about your tits, and Gentlecolts, I can guarantee that by the end of this training, you will only ever get a hard on for the army."

There was silence, before the doors opened and we marched into a large white room with uniforms in one corner, and the others filled with various supplies at stations. "Everyone! Follow the signs to the letter! You will fill your Army Duffle with the supplies the signs indicate. I sure hope you know the right uniform size, because no one leaves this room until everyone is in a uniform!"

I was too tired to care at this point, but I walked in and everyone looked at each other. Finally, I shrugged and started to pull off my pants and shirt, tossing them into a pile at the side of the room. My body was not too bad, all things considered, but I was a bit underweight from not eating much lately. Being low on bits will do that to you.

"Nice scar, what's that from?" came a voice next to me. I looked over, and blinked twice. Next to me was an orange mare with a fiery red mane and a short cropped tail. She was also totally in the buff and standing there without a care in the world. The scar she was talking about was on the back of my neck, running down my shoulder and ending a quarter of the way down my back.

"I, ah, that was.... t-that was from a fall I had when I was a foal..."

She laughed and said "Name's Orange Blaze. You still don't have your Destiny Mark?" she asked, looking at my arms. Her upper arm sported a long tongue of flame curling around an iron bar.

"Um... n-no..." I said, moving over to the clothing section along with everyone else. Looking around, I finally located the section with uniforms in my size. In the back of the room, the sergeant... erm, Buck Sergeant Striker as I reminded myself, prowled, occasionally shouting at someone to move faster.

Pulling off a jacket, I checked the size and pulled it on. As she opened her mouth to speak again, a loud voice from behind said "All right! Get your cloths and take a seat once you get your pants on!"

After a few more minutes, I sat down in the second row of people, looking forward. Up in front, a younger looking sergeant walked forward with two unlaced boots in hand.

"Ahll right, if'n y'all look up here, ah'll show ya how ta lace up yer boots. Y'all got pants on? Recruit! Yeah you with tha yellow mane! Catch that fly! Everyone else good?"

I looked over as one flustered mare zipped her fly up, and others checked their cloths. Many people still had red cheeks, and no one was meeting any eyes. Finally, the sergeant cleared his voice. "That there earlier sergeant was Buck Sergeant Striker, an' he's yer Senior Drill Sergeant. He gots three chevrons and one rocker, with Crossed Rifles. That means he's a infantry grunt, same as y'all are gonna be. Ah'm Sergeant Bad Apple. Yeah, Ahm related to tha element o' honesty, as yah mightta thought from mah accent and name. Ah used to be a applebucker, workin outta New Mexicolt. Now, Ah gots nine confirmed kills durin tha changling invasion, so if'n ah could learn to be a soldier, so can y'all. Y'all got that?"

"Sir, yes sir..." came the weary reply.

"AH CANT HEAR Y'ALL! Ah asked if'n y'all can be soldiers!"

"Sir! Yes Sir!" came the much less resigned reply. He nodded and sat down in front of us. "Ah'll right, ya take the string like so and make sure you fold it in half. Then..." he said, and the next half an hour was spent learning how to properly lace boots. Following that, when everyone had boots on, we learned how to blouse our trousers, between the third and fourth eyelet from the top, or "this here loopyhole, ah forget tha name" as Sergeant Apple put it.

It was instantly clear we were gonna like Sergeant Apple, as he seemed to actually enjoy being here. His accent threw a funny spin on everything, but he was able to clearly explain things, and as long as we didn't ask the same question more than once, things went fine. Once we had our uniforms on correctly, we all got up, holding our freshly packed duffel bags.

"Ahll right, if'yall maggots'll follow me, ah'll show ya to yer new home. Come on, stand to!"

With that, we formed two lines, and walked out the door with him. Outside, the road stretched onwards and onwards, past many buildings. The first one was a tall red hospital, but there was a base firestation as well, and what looked to me to be a miniature weather factory. Once in a while a truck loaded with crates drove past, and in the early morning light it became clear that we had been up all night.

As we marched, Sergeant Apple finally started calling time with "Left, Left, Left Right Layo!...", and gradually we fell into the rhythm. I yawned, and Orange Blaze stifled one of her own. "Its cold..." she whispered, shivering. I nodded, and kept going. All around us, other recruits kept eyes forward or on their feet, but no one really looked at each other, the memory of the mixed changing room fresh for everyone.

"Hey Blaze... you have some really nice t-"

She nodded and said "I know, right? I mean, I look in the mirror and I'm like 'Dayum, girl' every morning."

I rolled my eyes. "I was gonna say 'tattoos', not... erm..."

She sniggered, and a moment later a voice up ahead said "I HOPE THAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT HOW TO WIN THE WAR RECRUIT!"

After that, we marched in silence.

Four hours later, we had taken medical examinations, a basic educational test to figure out how smart we were, and gotten our attributes tested. My wing power had clocked in just above average, and Orange Blaze told me that she was just a tad bit stronger than baseline for an earth pony. The mess hall was a different affair from anything I had done before, even from high school. For one, we were not aloud to hold idle conversations. We could talk about our general orders, and we could teach proper military manners for eating (e.g. don't stick your face into the food), and we all had to sit in alternating genders. Sergeant Apple watched over all of us with a stern gaze, and a quick word was enough to shut most people up.

Despite being conscripted, most of us were not too upset at being here. I for one understood that I had signed up for the selective services, and while that just meant I was in the first wave of draft notices, I had pretty much volunteered anyways. This... it needed to be done. The nation provided for us, and in return, we needed to provide for the common defense. It was also the first time in my life I was a part of something larger than myself, and the first time that, despite not having my Destiny Mark, I fit in with everyone around me. True, everyone else I knew in the platoon already had theirs, but none of our talents meant squat here. I am pretty sure that being good at playing hopscotch was not really a military skill.

"All right! BOOTS! Get up! Time to get issued your Rifles!"

With that, Buck Sergeant Striker was back, and scowling as much as ever. I looked at blaze and grinned. "Rifles!" I said, smiling. "About time!"

She nodded as we got up. Taking our chow trays to the washing area, a bunch of people in the kitchens took them, and I nodded my thanks. Outside in the hallway, we formed up into two lines again, and moved out. The trek along the base took us nearly half an hour, and the air was very chilly. Along the way, we passed two Crow-like people, and one dark skinned Zebra. I leaned over to Blaze and whispered "Who are THOSE?"

She looked and whispered back "Those are Tengu, probably from Chineigh. And that one is a Zebra from Zebracica, or mayby Zebracity. They are not very imaginative with names..." she said, but at a stern glance from a Drill Sergeant in another company that was passing us, we both shut up. The rest of the journey was done in silence, but a cool breeze pushed through our new uniforms and made us all miserable with cold. All along, the road was perfectly straight and level, and many parts of it looked very new.

Finally, I heard "Company... HALT" from up ahead, and we came to a stop. In front of us was a tall gray building with two guards outside. The Drill Sergeant, Apple I think it was, nodded and we were allowed in. Inside, there were racks and racks with sleek looking rifles. My heart jumped at them... many ponies disliked rifles, other than farmers who used them to defend against predators, but when I looked upon these fine instruments, all else dulled down and I just stared. The sleek beauty of these tools of war captured my gaze, and for a moment I forgot I was conscripted.

That only lasted for a moment, however, and at a barked order, we all listened up. "All right! Every one of you will get a rifle. These are FFI M1 Rifles. The M stands for Mark. They are Semi-Automatic, Clip-Fed, Gas-operated rifles. Can ANYONE tell me what all of that means?"

We all looked at each other, before he sighed. "All right. Mark One means the first of its model. Until recently, we used much older, single shot bolt action rifles. These are a step up. Iron Sights, unless you are a sniper, and the Semi Automatic means that every time you pull the trigger, it will fire a shot. Clips are a group of ammunition, in this case on what we call a Stripper Clip. All of the shells are held into a long curved piece of metal by the ring on the end, like so" he said, showing us ten rounds held into a long bit of metal. "Makes reloading fast. You feed the clip into the top of the gun with the action open, and it reloads your gun. Slide the feed closed, and the gun is ready to go." He closed it, and the gun made a clicking sound. "Now, I need a volunteer. Any takers?"

Everyone looked around, but in an instant I stepped forward. "Sir! I volunteer sir!"

He looked on, before grinning. "Idiot recruit, what if the job I wanted was for the target?"

I looked around, and Blaze grinned at me. I felt a hot flush, and for a moment felt strangely courageous. "Happy to die for my country sir! Thats what I'm here for!"

He stared at me, and then barked out a laugh. "All right! Then come on up!"

At that, I froze. Was he SERIOUS?!? He must have seen the look on my face because ALL of the drill sergeants present burst out laughing. "Come on up. Take the rifle, you get to try your hand at demonstrating how to miss a target by a mile."

I sighed in relief and stepped up. He led us all out the back of the Armory, and to a long and wide field. Out in the field, there were a bunch of metal... bench looking things, like what I guess you would set a bottle on. Looking down the field, there were targets down range, pretty far away. Even my Pegasus eyes could hardly see them properly from here.

"All right. You are going to take this rifle, make sure not to point it at anyone, and try to hit the bottle out down field. If you need me to show you where it is, then you might as well hand me the rifle and take a desk job. Got it?"

I nodded, and stepped up, taking the gun. It felt... oddly heavy, but I got a bit of a thrill holding it. Looking down range, I took the rifle and held it in a way that felt natural, the butt of it against my right shoulder, and the sights in front of me.

"All right, the back sight doesn't move. You need to align the gun so that the sights are level with each other, and the front line is in the middle of the groove in the back. Money in the hole, and a bullet between the eyes. Got it?"

I nodded, and looked down the field. There! A small bulls-eye target... I stood there, both eyes open, but looking down the right eye and the barrel. Breathing out, I slowly squeezed the trigger.

BANG!

The gun kicked me in the shoulder. There was silence, and then Sergeant Apple looked through his binoculars. "Holy shit Bucky! He got 'er!"

The sergeant snatched the binoculars, and stared. "Lucky shot. Recruit, How about you get down on your belly like a worm, and try hitting that gryphon head down the field, fartherst to the left."

I nodded and said "Sir, yes sir!" as I lay down. Propping my arm up on the ground, I leaned the gun against it, using my left hand as a makeshift stand to steady the end of the gun. Looking through the sites, the targets suddenly jumped into clear focus... it was like I could see all the way past the sites, and right at what I wanted to hit. The target had to be twice the distance as the bottle... Thinking back to high school physics, I lifted the gun a bit, and squeezed the trigger again. Once again, I felt a thrill, even as the gun kicked, and a tingle in my arms. With a loud retort, the gun sent a few ounces of death down the field, and the sergeant swore. "Shit! Apple, you see that shit?"

I looked up, confused. "Sir, did I do something wrong? Sir?" I asked, worried.

He looked down, and his gaze lit upon my arms, and for the first time, he gave a chilling smile.

"No son. I wish I had ten more like you. That Gryphon target was two hundred yards. That bulls-eye was seventy five. And you hit it right between the damn eyes. I wish I had a hundred more like you. Sergeant Apple! Get this Stallion a Whinnychester! One of the new Mark Fives!" Turning back to me, he said "You are Platoon Sniper. And you might want to check your Mark."

Confused, I looked down. On my upper arms, there was a rifle crossed with a knife. Around them was a red circle with four lines on the edges.

I was a sharpshooter. Go figure!