"Is this it?"
"I don't know Dad. This is my first time here too, ya know."
"Well, ya think the Guard would give better directions as to where to go."
"My orders do say Alpha Company and, even though this isn't Building 1002, this is Alpha," explained Wired Desert as his dad, his uncle, and him looked upon an old barracks. It was obviously past it's expiration date with moss growing on the walls and cracks in it's structure. Wired watched as a bird flew out of a hole in the wall. Wonderful. Two and a half months of basic and living in tents and now he's in some run down barracks. At the same time, a barracks was better than a tent. Any day.
While he couldn't see all of it, Wired noted that the building appeared to take the shape of a capital 'I' with grass and trees growing in the small 'courtyard' while an asphalt parade ground was set up in front of it. Numerous ponies milled about the front of the building, varying in every aspect. Age, color, accent, height, gender, you name it, there was one present. The one similar aspect of them all were the green uniforms with gold trim that they all wore. The uniform of Their Guard. Though, Wired noticed that they also wore blue reflective belts across their chests.
Adjusting the strap of his duffel, Wired turned to his dad and uncle. His dad, Sentry Desert, was a retired Air Guard member. While he wasn't a pegasus, he served his time doing logistics work. Now he was a Sheriff back in the half-cloud, half-solid city of Cloudcroft. The place was a ghetto located on the edge of the Badlands, which is one reason why Wired joined the Guard; to leave.
His uncle, Valiant Light, was his dad's twin and a member of Fillydelphia's more tactical police force. Before going to Fillydelphia, he had served his own time in the Royal Navy. While Wired didn't know the specifics, he was sure that it wasn't anything exciting since he never talked about. He also didn't have any kids, even though he was about forty.
"We just saw each other and now we have to leave again," Sentry joked, obviously trying to hold back the tears he wanted to shed.
Wired laughed at that as he pulled his dad into a hug, "I'll see ya in six months, dad."
"I'll miss you," his dad replied.
"I'll miss you too."
Giving a similar good-bye to his uncle, Wired waited for them to get about fifty meters away before turning back to the barracks. Breathing a heavy sigh, he reached up to feel the identification tags hanging from his neck. This is what he signed up for; this is what he wanted to do. With this new resolve, he adjusted the strap of his duffel and began his walk into the company area. Almost immediately came the calls:
"New guy!"
"Fresh meat!"
"Welcome to the Alpha shaft!"
Gulping, Wired maintained his discipline as he reached the front door. To the left of the door was stack of duffels similar to his own. Just like his, these also had a pony's last name stenciled on with marker.
"New guy?"
Wired looked at who asked to see a more... heavy set looking stallion looking at him. By his mannerisms, Wired deduced that he was being overwhelmed but seemed used to it. His coat was a brown that matched his eyes and mane. Other ponies continued to push past them, the 'new guy' comments dying down but never ceasing.
"Yeah," Wired replied. He looked at the stallion's nametape. 'Shield' was his last name. In the Guard though, your last name was your first name.
"Alright," Shield began, "set your bag next to the others, grab you folder with your orders, and then I'll take you to the cafe. Welcome to the Alpha Gators."
Wired nodded and used his magic to take his duffel off his back and set it next to the others, removing the requested folder as he did. He then followed Shield into the building, removing his cover as he did, and into a hallway. Shield identified it as the command hallway where the Sergeants', Commander's, and First Sergeant's offices were.
Reaching the cafe, the two went inside. Wired judged that this part of the building jutted out from the back of the 'I'. A wall separated them from the main room. Going down a flight of stairs, the two walked around the wall. On one side of the room were a couple tables set up classroom style with couches placed behind them. A handful of other ponies were sitting behind the tables, folders like Wired's on said tables. Wired assumed it was safe to say that these were other new guys.
"Have a seat next to Builder over there," Shield commanded, pointing to an empty spot next to a buff looking earth stallion near the back. Wired nodded and made his way to the seat. Sitting down, he was surprised when the couch tried to swallow him alive. He was so surprised that he almost squeaked. Composing himself, he set his folder onto the table before turning to Builder.
Builder was a white earth pony with a red mane and tail. His eyes were a strange orange as well.
"Sup," Builder said, looking over at Wired. Wired was a unicorn with a tan coat and brown mane. His eyes were much like a felines in that they were little slits. The iris was a light, light blue. His eyes was a genetic trait of many of the ponies born in and around the Badlands as many out there became nocturnal due to the blistering heat during the day.
"Sup," Wired replied, "What's your GOS?"
GOS meant 'Guard Occupational Specialty'. It was basically the job that you signed up to do.
"Fifteen Yankee, you?"
"Same!" Wired replied with excitement at having found somepony with the same GOS. There were none in his Basic Training company.
"Sweet man!" Builder responded with about the same excitement as he raised a hoof. Wired pounded the hoof before the voice of Shield broke through their, and every other new ponys', conversations.
"Alright, listen up. I want to to go to bed, as I'm sure you do," all of the new ponies nodded in response, "Sadly, we got a buck ton of paperwork to get through first. So, the quieter you are, the faster we get through this. The faster we get through this, the faster we get to sleep. Hoo-ah?"
"Hoo-ah!" shouted the assembled new guys. While Wired shouted with the rest, he mentally groaned. He hated the paperwork process of the Guard. It was so complicated and, at times, unneeded. That and sleep sounded really good right about now. Hopefully it'd be over fast.
"Right, well, I need all of you to pass your orders up here so that I can get copies made. You'll end up having about twenty copies."
Buck
Bzzzt, Bzzzt
Waking up, Wired grabbed the small clock with his magic. It was a specialized alarm clock that buzzed instead of rang so as not to disturb roommates. Perfect for any Guardspony. Turning off the alarm, he checked the time to see that it was 0620 hours.
Feels good to sleep in, he thought with a chuckle as he sat up in his bed and looked around his new room. To his dismay, he had been placed in one of the two bays in the entire building. In his room alone was eleven other ponies sleeping in six bunk beds. He was surprised to see two of those ponies up and about.
"Why are you guys up?" he asked as he hopped down from the top bunk he had claimed. One of them, the smaller of the two sitting on the bed to Wired's left, answered.
"Remedial PT."
"Don't fail your initial APFT," added the other one before sliding his reflective across his chest before moving to the door, "C'mon Ox."
"Moving Tip," Ox replied as he used magic to grab his own belt and followed after the bigger stallion.
That's gotta suck, Desert thought to himself as he started making his way to the other side of the room where the lockers were. He then stopped and sighed as he remembered something. There was another new guy in the room and he was still sleeping. Walking to the pony's bed, which was above Ox's, he prodded the stallion with his hoof.
"Wake up," he ordered when the stallion stirred. Said stallion yawned before asking for the time. "0624," was the curt reply as Desert made his way for the lockers.
Once at his locker, he spun the combo lock until it opened and examined the interior. Needless to say, it was not SOP. Nothing was unpacked, his bag having just been dumped in, and his uniform from before sitting atop the three-drawer chest that came with the locker. Desert looked at his old uniform and then to his bag. After a short debate, he grabbed the uniform from yesterday with his magic and quickly donned it. After floating his clock into the locker, he closed and locked it. Walking back to his bunk, he quickly put on his horseboots before sliding on his reflective belt and heading for the door.
Entering the hallway, he turned right to head to the stairs as he was on the second floor of the three floor building. Hopping down the stairs, he gave a good morning to the ponies pulling CQ. CQ was where you would assist the Sergeants in anything they needed while also performing cleaning duties. At least, that's how it was like at Desert's Basic. Here it was bound to be different.
After receiving a good morning in reply, the unicorn stepped outside and put on his cover. Directly in front of the middle of the building was a formation of ponies currently doing the warm-up exercises while being led by an older pony, a Sergeant, in a reflective vest.
In front of the doors, which were to the right of the middle of the building, was another formation of ponies wearing greens and looking lost. That's me, Desert thought with a smirk as he trotted over to join the small formation. Finding Builder at the end, Desert fell in beside him.
"Morning," Desert greeted.
"Too early," Builder grunted, yawning to punctuate the point.
"Roger that," Desert replied with a chuckle as he looked at the formation leader to see it was Shield. He looked surprisingly upbeat for someone who had to wake up early to babysit new guys.
"Who are we missing?" he asked suddenly. Desert looked around to see, to his slight dismay, that his roommate was not present.
"We're missing Drawl," Desert replied.
"Drawl?" Builder asked with a whisper.
"Dumbflank, I tell ya. Won't make it a month," Desert replied.
"Yankee?"
"Romeo."
"Good."
Desert laughed at that. Looking around, he saw Drawl just getting in formation.
"Why are you late?" Shield asked of Drawl.
"Desert didn't wake me up in time," was his reply.
Bullshit! "Bullshit! I woke you up right after I woke up," Desert replied with venom. Drawl laughed.
"I'm kidding guy, my lock wouldn't open."
"Next time, don't be late," Shield said simply.
With that settled, Shield began to explain the day, which basically broke down like this: Eat, go to SHARP class, eat, buck around. Everypony let out a groan at the word 'SHARP'. SHARP stood for Sexual Harassment, Assault, Rape Prevention and was an immediate response to the increase in rapes and sexual assaults in the Guard. Some ponies blamed the integration of mares into the Guard. Desert just thought it was all stupid. The reason for eveypony's groan was that they had a class during Basic and it was bound to be death by powerpoint.
After the brief brief, the new gyts were called to attention and right faced. Finally:
"Counter-column, MARCH! Your left!"
They turned their formation around and began to march across the avenue to the road that lead to a nice Dining Facility, or DFac, down the road.
"Here we go again!" Shield shouted, beginning the cadence. The new guys repeated the line before he continued:
"Same old stuff again!" Group repeat.
"Marching down the avenue! ... Long time until we're through! ... I'm excited, how about you? ... I won't have to look at you! ... You won't have to look at me!"
There was a pause before:
"LeftLeftLeftLeftLeftLeftRightLeft!" A more confused group repeated the line.
"I don't know my right from my left!" chuckles as it was repeated.
"LeftLeftLeftLeftLeftLeftRightLeft! ... I don't know my right from my left!"
A brief pause.
"Walking down the street one day! ... I met a weird colt! ... He asked me what I wanted to be! ... I said a Wonderbolt! WONDEEEEEEEEEER! ... BOOOOOOOOLTS LEAD THE WAY!"
Another pause.
"Around her neck, she wore a studded collar!"
What? Desert thought with a blink of his eyes, nonetheless he repeated it.
"SHARP!" jokingly shouted another new guy as the group chuckled.
"She wore it in the basement in the merry month of May! ... And if you asked her why the heck she wore it! ... She wore it for the Guardspony who was far, far away! ... Far away! ... Far away!"
They had reached the DFac by then and filed inside for a large breakfast. Afterward, they marched back toward the company area while singing cadences similar to the ones they sang going to the DFac. Marching past the barracks, they cut through a field between Alpha's and Foxtrot's barracks, crossed a small back road, crossed another field between Delta's and Bravo's barracks before reaching a small building at the end of another field.
"Alright, file in and behave. You represent Alpha company now. When you're done, head back to the Barracks. Hooah?"
"Hooah!"
With that, Desert and the rest of the new guys filed into the structure to see members of another company already there. To their dismay, screens were down for a powerpoint presentation.
Hours later, Desert stumbled out into the light and made his way to the Alpha barracks with a group of new guys. Once back at the barracks, he went up the stairs to his bed and collapsed. All he did was sit and yet he was so tired! How could that be?
Oh well, tomorrow should be better, he thought, Nothing's planned at least.
