You know the meaning and moral behind wars, good vs. evil, the conflict of two sides over a certain cause, hit or miss, fight to win. War, like many things, will stay with you the rest of your life. It always stayed with me, it stayed with my platoon members, and it even stayed with veterans in my family who haven't even been in service for years. Now you may be wondering, why am I telling you this and what might you gain from learning this? Well son, sit down, I got quite the story to tell you. The Discord and Celestial war, the empire for Equestria was falling apart. Discord was at the lead of the war and our Equestrian nation was in it's last leg. Financial issues, loss of important resources, and loss of stallions fighting for victory. A tragedy everypony thought would be the apocalypse. I can't blame them honestly, there were many ponies captured from their homes and sent to camps where they would all be murdered, the death toll would be in the millions at such camps. I escaped Manhattan and joined the celestial army after finding out the news.
"Whoa whoa! Slow down! You said your name is?" I reply slowing down my pace after quickly running towards the recruiter. "T-Turbine Sir!" He then writes down my name. "Oh alright, wait by the bench over there. You're going to be waiting for a bus." He hands me a ticket which has a number on it."Do not forget your bus number." He tells me sternly. I walk over to the bench and sit down with my bag hoping I have escaped Discord's officers which patrol the cities night and day. Before I realize I see the number on the first bus and it turns out to be the same number on my ticket, the bus starts to drive away. I run after it and call out. "Wait! Stop this is my bus! Stop!". The bus stops and the doors slide open. The bus driver scolds me but I ignore him. I go down the aisle and the recruits reject me from sitting next to them. The nerve they had. I find a seat in the back of the bus that's empty and I remain silent until I arrive to my destination. The bus stops in front of what a military base. The doors to the bus slide open and I see a drill sergeant walk up in the bus and order us. "All of you are going to get out of the bus in a safe but quick speed and form a single row outside, is that clear!?" All the recruits say "Yes Ma'am!". I remain quiet, since I do not understand what i'm doing other than exiting the bus. The recruits move out of the bus, I hear the drill sergeant rushing them "Hurry up! We are not on your time schedule!" once I approach the door of the bus I move out of it quickly and get in the row of recruits that are standing in attention, I imitate the stance after noticing. "You know why you all are here right?" She looks over at one of the recruits who were shivering "Right?!" he stammers and urges a response from himself "Y-yes m-ma'am!". She walks over to me, my heart starts to pound from the nervousness "How about you?" I reply with all the confidence I have left in me "Yes ma'am! I'm here to kill discords troops for our wonderful nation!" "Oh is that so, is that what all the rest are you here for?" they respond "Yes ma'am!" she then looks over to me again "Ooh you look pretty stocky for a recruit." I blush and try hard to respond. "T-thank you ma'am." "Oh come on, stocky stallion like you can sound off!" I repeat myself louder. "Thank you ma'am!" She then goes back to walking across the row of recruits. "You all better watch out, this recruit might just out perform all of you in scores." I sense the anger in the other recruits after that remark and regret it being said. She checks her watch. "Looks like it's time for you to get your little tour of your new home." Boot camp the place that tells you whether you're ready to overcome the hard work to become a celestial soldier or be one of the stepping stools for Discord. We walk through the many buildings in our tour, for example the mess hall, the yard which is where obstacle courses are, the rifle range, and then at the end of our tour we are sent to our barracks. "These are your barracks, recruits! I do not want to see any of you out of your barracks when it is time for you to sleep. If I see any of you out of the barracks i'll be seeing you on your face giving me push ups! Is that clear?!" All recruits including me respond "Yes ma'am!" after her orders she walks toward me, looks around to see if anypony is listening and then says "I'll be seeing you tonight..." she walks away with a smile she tries to hide, is she having a crush on me? A recruit? Why? What does she see in me? I'm no different from the other recruits here. I find my bunk and put my bag under it. While i'm putting the bag under my bunk I see that a lot of the recruits have surrounded my area and start asking me questions with angry looks in their faces. "You think you're better than me you little shit? huh?" "What makes you think you can out perform our scores?" I ignore their questions and finish preparing my bunk. I see the drill sergeant walk in the room and command us all in attention by our bunks, the group of recruits run back to their spots. "What's all this commotion Turbine?!" I reply. "I do not know ma'am!" She then acts concerned. "Don't think i'm stupid Turbine, I saw that crowd of recruits by your bunk!" "I was simply unpacking and preparing my bunk following your issued order ma'am!" She then walks over to the side of the barracks where the group of recruits remain in attention. "How about all of you then?! What are all of you doing next to Turbine's bunk?" None of them respond. "I ordered all of you to prepare your bunks, not jerk around! Get your bunks ready and once they are head to the mess hall, it's lunchtime!". I walk out of the barracks and go to the mess hall. I find a stack of trays and a counter which food is being served at. I take a tray and walk down the counter with the tray. I order my food and try to find a table to sit at, which with no surprise to me nopony lets me sit next to them. I pick a table that is empty and start to eat my food. Tomato soup with a piece of bread and pudding for desert. I notice one of the recruits from the group walk up, finally a pony to talk to. I see him take my pudding and walk away with it back to his table. No, I can't just let him do that. "Hey, excuse me sir. That was my pudding that you took." He then smiles and says "You sure? You sure it isn't mine?" I reply annoyed "Yes, i'm sure." He then says "Get your own bitch." then laughs with his friends at the table. I grab the pudding out of his hoof and punch it in your mouth causing him to choke on it and have to spit it out on his tray. I then say "Very well, enjoy the pudding." and walk away back into the barracks.
I hear the sound of gunfire in the distance, now i'm going to have to climb down. How? The sound of a helicopter is heard from the distance. It flies near the tower at the top where I am, I hear the pilot yelling. "Jump in the heli!" I'm scared of heights, I don't think so. I see many soldiers of discord's army starting to round up recruits and kill them. Now, I have to jump. I jump and almost fall, I grab the skew of the helicopter with all my life. A pony whose voice sounds familiar says "Hold on! I have you Turbine, pull up!" I pull myself up into the heli and the pilot starts to fly us away. It's the same pony who said he was there for me. I sit in one of the seats of the helicopter and click it's seatbelt. "I don't think I ever told you my name! My name's Sharpshot Breeze! Sniper and head of infantry in the Bravo Division!" Sharpshot Breeze, name suits a sniper. "So Sharpshot, I hate to have a rude tone. What the hell is going on here?" "Ah the war of course, the front line has been moved here, all recruits are ordered to evacuate the area, half of them...well....died." A day in boot camp and already in the warzone. "Do we have any weapons? I feel like i'm going to need a gun." "Of course in the metal cabinet we have grenades, handguns, I think an assault rifle is in there. Note this, pick a weapon you'll want as your friend." "Pick a weapon as my friend, what do you mean?" He has a smirk on his face. "Well, we're going to the warzone." He must be out of his mind. "There's only 2 of us! How is this going to work!" He starts to laugh at me. "How's it going to work? You put your hoof on the trigger and shoot the fuckers, that's how it's going to work." He makes it sound so easy. I hear the sound of bullets hitting the helicopter. Sharpshot acts excited. "Oh my Celestia! We're almost there!" A question just popped in my mind. "Do you know how many recruits are going to help us?" "How many isn't what matters, only how many will fight. War is the answer." War is the answer. That is a very unique point of view, he's pretty enthusiastic over this. "Why is this exciting to you?" He looks at me as if I said something blaspheming a religion. "Why? Because it's fun, and you get money!" How would this be fun to do all the time? I give up on figuring out his logic. The pilot announces on his P.A. "In 3 klicks you recruits are going to have to jump into the depths of hell." I ask Sharpshot "What's a klick?" "One klick is one thousand meters." I look outside the heli and notice we're flying over a jungle. "We're fighting in a jungle?" "Yes we're on an island off the coast of manehattan, tropical weather here. Speaking of which you are going to have to get your gear once we're about to jump out of the helicopter. "Wait, jump?! We're jumping?" "Um, yeah why would we land? It takes too long to take off." Yet again I have to jump when i'm afraid of heights. The pilot announces his destination. "We've hit the destination, be ready to jump into hell." He keeps calling the place hell, how optimistic. I un-click my seatbelt and get to the back of the helicopter where the metal cabinet is. I find a lot of gear, I put on a BDU jacket and pants, then I get a helmet. Digs deeper in the cabinet and finds a gas mask, I strap it to the belt I put on with the pants. Sharpshot tries to hurry me up. "Come on this isn't a fashionista show! You aren't Rarity, so let's go!" I go through the weapons, I grab 2 grenades, M1911 handgun and the M4 Carbine assault rifle then close the cabinet. Sharpshot then attaches a rappel to the helicopter. Sharpshot looks over to me. "Whoa hold on! You need gloves for this." I go back to the cabinet and put gloves on. "Today Turbine, you'll learn how to rappel. He clicks a clip onto the line he attached the helicopter. You have your braking hoof and your guide hoof-"The pilot hurries both of us. "We need to get your asses down there. Just jump." "Ok I have no time to teach you. Just watch what i'm doing." He jumps and pivots doing a 180 in mid-air he starts to move down the line stopping when he goes too fast. While he's moving down he yells out, giving me a good idea. "Just use your wings Turbine!" My wings, of course. Why didn't I think of that. I get on the skid of the helicopter and push myself off. I let my wings get me to glide down, the helicopter flies away. I fly in circles to land near Sharpshot, I land on the grassy floor. Sharpshot pulls me up. "Get up, you have to be ready for the enemy." I get up but keep my head low, assault rifle in hands, we both start to move into the jungle moving away from the empty, treeless area in which we arrived.
I still wonder why so many ponies hate me when they don't even get to know me. What did I ever do to deserve such a ridiculous treatment? A simple answer, jealousy. They were jealous in the fact the drill sergeant had a crush on me and praised me in front of them. It's understandable, but it's not a happy experience dealing with it. I sat down on my bunk looking down, wondering what happened back there when I snapped and what might the outcome be. I hear hoofsteps behind me and I look over, I see the pony which I struck walking up to me, he sits down next to me and talks to me quietly "We need to talk..." I respond "Ok." "I appreciate what you did back there, i've never seen anypony stand up for them self like that, just know I have your back and I support you." I do not believe it, the pony who ridiculed me, put me down, thought I was some door mat, he now wants to be my buddy? "Thanks." I say, as much as i'm not really forgiving of the situation. "You can always sit next to us at the lunch tables." He pats my back and then gets up and starts to walk away. "I have to go to my bunk for the next order, see you next time we have a lunch break!" I guess this is friendship, hit a stallion in the face you make friends its like magic. The drill sergeant then commands us to attention by our bunks. She commands us to get dressed into P.T uniforms, which well for those who don't know P.T stands for psychical activity. We then line up outside in lines which are called "squads" each squad forms a platoon. I wish I knew all the recruits names, even the one who decided to be my friend. The drill sergeant walks up to the platoon "For most of the day we'll be doing our first obstacle in the course, don't worry it will be difficult!" She commands us to march towards an obstacle which looks a lot like a giant ladder. "This recruits, is the tower of terror. You will have to climb this ladder all the way to the top and all the way to the bottom, I do not permit cheating either! If you cheat you will be giving me push ups!" She really loves to get ponies to give push ups. All the recruits wait for the next instruction. "Well what are all of you doing? Climb the damn thing!" I start to climb the "tower" and realize the steps in the ladder get further and further apart from each other the higher you go. I saw somepony fall off the tower, it's insane to believe this is safe. Before I know it I'm already near the top of the tower, I get to the top after struggling and now I ask myself the question "How the hell am I going to get down from this?".
