From the Flames of a Phoenix

        I yawned and pulled myself out of my bed. Sometime during the night, Dawn had returned and slept in the bed across the room from me. With the lack of a window, there is no telling what time it is.

        I considered taking a shower, but remembered that I had taken one last night before I came back, so another would be unnecessary. Same with changing into a new pair of clothes.

        Regardless, I had to use the bathroom and there were some closed stalls in the showers, so I might as well head there.

        I left, entered the showers, did my business in a stall and walked out. However, as I was about to leave the room, Shining Armor turned the corner.

        “Hey Richard, do you always get up this early?”

        “Hey Captain. Yeah, force of habit really.”

        “I respect that. The lieutenants and I normally let the guards sleep in a bit after dawn, mainly so we can get organized before we have to deal with them.”

        “Don’t want your subordinates know just how bad you can stink, right?” I joked.

        He chuckled, “Yeah, now I’ve got a shower waiting for me. Go get your squad up before I decide to have you to clean the toilets.”

        I did an impromptu salute and stated with a grin, “Yes Captain.”

        Shining Armor is pretty awesome. Even though he acts pretty hard on the platoon during the day, he’s pretty cool when you’re not on official business.

        I walked down the hall and knocked on door twenty three and yelled, “Charlie, fourth squad! Get up!”

        I heard groans from behind the door signaling the ponies inside were getting out of their beds. Ah- just like home. Except much more lax, I’m sure at home, one knock and the men inside would already be at attention.

        I walked across the hall and entered my own room. Dawn must have gotten up from when I yelled at the ponies inside room twenty three. He was pulling himself out of his bed, however, Inkwell was still passed out. Some time during the night she rolled onto her back and her limbs were sprawled out in the air while her hair was spread out beneath her.

        Dawn hopped out of his bed and walked up to me. He puffed out his chest in what I think meant was supposed to look threatening and said, “You better not be trying to take over my squad newbie, I get my squad up, not you.”

        In response, I mentally laughed at this attempt form a pony to intimidate me and replied, “Don’t worry about that Dawn, Captain Shining Armor ordered me to. I’m not trying to take your position.”

        “You better not! I’ll show you who’s boss today during our squad’s spar.”

        Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

        “Alright then. Hey Inkwell, time to get up.”

        The only response I received was Dawn glaring at me because I was still waking up his squad even after he told me only he does. Oh well, following orders higher than his.

        I walked up to the side of her bed and shook her a bit.

        “Inkwell, get up, we gotta get going.”

        I shook her once more and finally received a response.

        “Uuuggh, why so early?”

        Inkwell rolled onto her stomach and lifted herself up.

        “‘Cause it’s time to go, we gotta get up and report to- where are we reporting to, Dawn?”

        Inkwell hopped down from her bed and turned around to- well, magick it? Nevertheless, her bed was made and she continued with her magic by fixing up her hair. Dawn had lost his glare, sometime between me waking her up and now, and he seemed happy that I needed his help on something.

        “We will be going to do PT in the yard.”

        “The yard? Is that the clearing outside the back of the castle that I saw the platoon and Captain Shining Armor at yesterday?”

        He did one of those pony shrugs.

        “Not completely sure, but it might be. We normally only train there, but there has been some exceptions.”

        “You don’t know? Where do you normally train?”

        Inkwell had finished straightening her hair and sat on her haunches beside me while I conversed with Dawn.

        “Like I said, the yard, but yesterday I was on guard duty. The three platoons switch out guard duty. We have to do it every third day.”

        Oh- alright, that explains it. I wonder why I’d not seen him around the castle though. Each platoon has thirty-two each, besides our platoon, which only has thirty-one as we have a single extra space left now that Inkwell and I have joined. So how come I’ve not seen him around the castle? Then again, this is like my third day here, plus I never really paid too much attention to the guards.

        Speaking of the castle, I gotta learn the map of the castle, I get lost easily. Maybe Inkwell can help with that.

        “-ard! Richard, comeon!” Dawn was yelling at me.

        Oh shit, forgot about him!

        “Sorry, ready!”

        “Follow me you two.”

        Inkwell and I jogged behind him as he led us out the door to the hallway and through another door at the end which led to the same field I found the other day, except from the left side of it rather than the right side.

        Outside, our platoon was in four rows. The three of us took our places in the fourth row, which for Dawn was the leftmost position while Inkwell and I just had to fall in from the right to the first open space.

        In front of the formation stood Alabaster. He must be our Platoon’s lieutenant.

        Loud and clear, he sounded off, “Extend to the left. March!”

        Knowing what we were doing and being to the left of Inkwell, I walked sideways to the left with my arms held outwards. The ponies were just scooting sideways and I assume they had some sort of system to measure the distance.

        Inkwell followed my lead and was moving to her left too. Shit, she doesn’t know this all. I whispered to her while facing forward, “Inkwell, stay where you where. You are rightmost, so you don’t have to move.”

        I couldn’t see her, but I know she is probably really nervous and confused right now, it happens to all recruits at least once. Even if they prepared for it. However, I did see in the corner of my vision her moving away from me, so she must have gone back.

        “Left face!”

        I spun myself on my left heel and my right toes and turned left. Can’t help her too well with this one. I’m not exactly sure how, but the ponies had jumped off the ground with their front hooves and spun their bodies to the left.

        I heard a small whimper behind me, some scuffling, then finally a pair of hooves approaching.

        Alabaster spoke low, enough to where I could hear him, but not understand what he’s saying. I assume he’s talking to Inkwell about what to do. He spoke to her for a while, I’m not a good time keeper, but he must’ve explained what to do during today’s PT. Randomly I would hear hooves moving across the ground and would hear it once more, but shoddier.

        If he did, then damn. Back home, our command would be yelling at the recruit for not knowing and mess with the recruit about it every time they made a mistake. Hooves trotting away signaled his departure and he continued from his original position.

        “Extend to the left. March!”

        Once more we extended to the left.

        “Right face!”

        We all turned right and I noticed a distinct lack of Inkwell facing the wrong way in the corner of my vision. Good to see she’s getting the hang of it.

        Now our formation had two, well for me, two arms width space between the ponies next to me and ahead of me.

        “From front to rear, count off!”

        The first squad roared, “One!”

        Second, “Two!”

        Third, “Three!”

        Then ours, “Four!”

        In the mass of voices from our squad, I was able to tell apart the voices. Dawn’s was full of confidence and he practically screamed it. Seeker’s and Switch’s were both loud, but not nearly as Dawn’s. Breeze had joy not even subtly hiding behind his. I barely heard Inkwell’s.

        However, I don’t think I heard Chasm.

        Alabaster sounded off once again, “Even numbers to the left, uncover!”

        Both squad two and my squad moved to the left so we were facing the space between the ponies in the squads ahead of us.

        “At ease!”

        I spread my legs out and put my arms behind my back. The ponies just lowered their rumps, but did not sit on their haunches.

        “Platoon! Attention! The first rotatio-”

        We spent the next few minutes doing different rotations. Each would start with Alabaster calling us into attention, announcing the rotation, doing the rotation, and repeated with each different one.

        First the neck, arms and shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, and then after the rotation we did a few stretches. Because of the difference in my body and the ponies, the way we did the stretches and rotations were hardly comparable. I had gotten a good laugh at watching them do the hip rotation.

        For me, that consisted of putting my hands on my hips and moving my pelvis in circles, for ponies it looked like they were air humping the ground.

        Eventually, we were ordered to assemble to the right, which got us out of the extended rectangular formation we were in a few moments before. Now we returned to the original formation.

        With the first half completed, our platoon did a right face and we started running around the field. By the size of the field, I would say that around four laps would be the equivalent of a mile. Alabaster ran besides our platoon the entire time.

        Every half-lap, our platoon would stop and do twenty five push-ups. A pony push-up is much like what humans do, except they push up with all four legs, rather than just their front legs, like what we do with our arms.

        In total, we did eight laps. Around the end of lap two is when Inkwell couldn’t run or do any more push-ups without falling over in exhaustion. Which was pretty respectable for her first PT. The run was easy, but damn did I feel a burn after the eighth lap because of those push ups. Sure twenty five is nothing, but stacking them up every half lap starts to wear someone down.

        After the run, we were allowed a ten-minute break to hydrate, then we went back out. This time, we had to switch on and off carrying a partner across the field. You carry your partner there and they carry you back. Now, I’m not sure how much they weigh here, but back home, horses in similarly sized are way too heavy for a man to carry.

        I got paired up with Switch. Alabaster paired himself up with Inkwell, I doubt she’ll be able to do it the first time, but I’m sure he can help her regardless.

        Our platoon lined up with our pairs at one side of the field. Partners started getting on top of the other, which was pretty much a pony laying parallel on top of the other. I decided to copy them and I laid down on my stomach on top of Switch’s back.

        “I hate the way you’re laying on me.”

        I adjusted my position a bit and responded, “Well, there’s not much else I can do without falling off, maybe I can try and find a different way for next time.”

        “I hate carrying you.”

        I just shook my head and looked over to see Alabaster carrying Inkwell.

        He yelled out for us to start shortly after I held on for dear life while Switch ran to the other side. I had to grip his fur to stop from falling off, but I held on regardless.

        Once we got to the other side, I got off Switch and while the other ponies switched positions. Uhh- I wonder if I can even pick him up, well, time to find out.

        I bent down and motioned for him to step forward.

        “Alright, place yourself on my shoulders.”

        He walked up to my side and climbed onto my shoulders. He was surprisingly light, not just for a pony, but at all. I grabbed his right hind leg with my right hand and held it still while I wrapped my left arm around his front right leg and put them both over my shoulder.

        I pushed up with my knees and tested my balance while holding him. I do have to say, ponies in Equestria are really light compared to their earth counterparts. If I had to guess right, I would say around a hundred and sixty pounds.

        Anyways, I looked over to see Inkwell standing with Alabaster on her back. Hm, I guess I under estimated her in that regard.

        “I hate being carried by you,” Switch complained again.

        I shook my head in disbelief and responded, “And I hate carrying you, now let’s get this over with.”

        Alabaster called out once again and I took off down the field. Even with the added weight, my long strides out matched that of most of the ponies. I was faster than most of them, but a few beat me to the otherside. I didn’t recognize most of the ones who did, but one was Chasm and the other was, surprisingly, Inkwell.

        Based on her performance just running for long distances, then running for a shorter distance, but while carrying someone… damn. I gotta say, she can’t run for too long a distance, but damn can she carry something over short distances fast.

        I lowered myself again and Switch got off my back and fell in beside me. We waited until the entire platoon was back in line and Alabaster spoke up.

        “Great work out there today, you all are dismissed until noon. I will see you all this afternoon. Fall out.”

        The platoon split up and most of them made their way back to the castle. However, I made my way to Alabaster and waited until another guard in front of me had finished talking to him.

        “Yes Lieutenant!”

        The guard turned around and once he passed me, I stepped up to Alabaster.

        “Lieutenant, where do we meet up later?”

        He gave me a quick smile, “Training room, you’ll be sparring with your squad mates.”

        “Alright, thank you Lieutenant.”

        I turned around to walk away, but turned back when he spoke up again, “So, Jesse, how’s with being with your marefriend going?”

        Marefriend? What?

        “Uh- what’s a marefriend?”

        Then it clicked.

        Oh come the fuck on, not this again!

        He had a smirk on his face which screamed laughter.

        “Damnit, with all due respect Lieutenant, she’s not my gir-marefriend.”

        He had the widest grin on his face and I continued, “Actually, while we are on that, why was she ordered to join anyways?”

        His smile was still smeared on his face as he replied, “I’m not sure to be honest. Celestia ordered it and she must have her reasons.”

        I facepalmed, “Alright, I’ll make sure to ask her about it then, see ya Lieutenant.”

        “Good-bye Private.”

        I walked away from him and found myself with some company. Breeze and Inkwell took a place beside me. Breeze, the overjoyed pegasus, was talking to Inkwell.

        “And then we danced! Did you know that Chasm is a really good dancer! He hardly talks, but he can dance like a princess!”

        Like a princess...Heh, I wonder what that looks like.

        “What are you two talking about? Oh and also great job Inkwell, I was surprised that you were able to carry Alabaster across the field that fast.”

        Inkwell smiled and opened her mouth to respond, but Breeze jumped up and started his story, “Oh! Oh! We were talking about last night when me, Dawn, Chasm, Switch, and Seeker went out to a club and had a great time dancing! Wh-”

        Inkwell leaned against my leg like she had done the night before while Breeze hopped around us and told us about what we had missed yesterday.