Tales of a Germane

Chapter one

Hello there! My name is Franz Siegmann and I'm from Germaney. You probably never heard about it, in fact the most people haven't, so I'll tell you something about it before I start my personal story. But before we start all this, I probably tell you a little about myself. I live in Ponyville for a couple of years now, since I came here to work as....well, I think I'll tell you that later. Anyway, I'm a 29 year old unicorn, not really tall, not really small, grey fur, black short mane and blue eyes. And that's quite everything you need to know for now.

Germaney is located northeast of Equestria. It was founded a few after years after princess Luna was send to the moon. In this time, a bigger demodratic movement grew in Equestria (mostly out of the former Luna supporters) because in the opinion of those ponies Celestia had too much power in her hoofs, ruling all alone. As satisfied as a few ponies were with these modern ideas, the princess wasn't. The democrats were persecuted in all of Equestria and in the end the ones who weren't killed or send to jail went out of Equestria to form their own state. They went up in the northeast and founded a couple of cities, wich soon formed the state of Germaney. Apparently, Celestia didn't like her new neighbour, but her attempt to conquer this new state failed from the beginnig on. After she definitely lost the war (the Germane army stood in front of Canterlot), she signed a peace contract wich guaranteed the independence of Germaney. From this time on the leaders always said our freedom and independence can just be kept by a strog military (you will later see why this is important). Even though the diplomatic relations between our two nations have always been a little...well....complicated, the current relations are quite good, Equetria even made an arrengement with Germaney to improve their own military.
Wich leads us back to my own story.

I was born in Mareburg as son of a factory worker. My mother died in a car accident when I was about two years old. Even though my dad tried to be a good one (and he really was), I guess living in the poorer parts of a town does probably not make a good character out of you. I got in trouble all the time, no matter where I was. Once I just ran into a brawl were two bullies from my school were just about to beat one of my friends up. They ended up in the hospital with broken bones and I got grounded for two weeks. Another time, when I went to a shop nearby my home where apparently was a robbery. In fact I was the only one who called for help, wich was probably not the best idea according to the fact that the police did not care about this part of the town at all and I got nearly shot, but I feelt like that I did the right thing. But in fact, all this made me a rather good fighter. I got my cutie mark when I was about ten years old and teached one of my few friends how to kick somebody in the face to make him unconscious.(don't think bad of me, I don't have a cold heart, it's just that it is important to defend yourself in such parts of the town) It showed a stallion, teaching another one how to handle a gun. I was surprised, happy and frightened at the same time. I mean, well, I knew I was a quite good fighter, but I never expected it to be my special talent to teach other ponies how to use weapons and kill each other. On the other hoof I had my cutie mark at that's at least what all colts and fillys are looking forward to. But I feared how my father would react to it, and even more when he would ask me how I got it. Even though we had some trouble at this day, he learned to deal with it.

When I was in the legal age of eightteen I joined the army and quite soon became a drill instructor. Working as in drill instructor was my dream job at all. I mean
1. You can randomly yell at persons you don't like without reason
2. You can watch them doing everything you order them to do and
3. You see how they change (I know this sounds weird compared to the things I mentioned before, but for some reason I just feel happy when I see how these guys turn from normal people into real soldiers).

But in fact, I still had some trouble, it was just like somebody wanted me to ran into it.
It was a beautifull summer day when the Hauptmann (the chief of the base) called me into his office to talk about one particular recruit. The Hauptmann was a stuck up asshole with a light brown fur, yellow eyes and brown hair who rated recruits just on their stamina and accuracy and the shooting range, without actually seeing them. The recruit we were talking about was not in the right condition and not as a accurate as he would have to be. The problem was that I didn't send home yet, because he had the enthusiasm you need to bring yourself through whatever comes upon you. Too bad this was not important to the Hauptmann.

"Rekrut Gutknecht is maybe not the fittest of the bunch, but he has the right attitude and a very good morale and I'm certain he will make it if we give..."I coudn't even finish my sentence before the Hauptmann already interrupted me.
"Shut up, Feldwebel Siegmann, I've heard enough of this the past week, he is not fit enough and therefore he will go home!"
"But...."
"No more "But", Feldwebel, I appreciate how you care about your recruits, but in this case my decision is clear. You may go now."
"Sorry I've to talk with you that way sir, but you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. You never even saw one of them anytime and you want to rate them with statistics and graphs, but it is much more than this. Their attitude is at least as much important as their condition, maybe even more important. And to be honest, do you really want to doubt a instructor, who has an instructor-cutie mark?" Fuck, I really never learned how to behave in such situations. I really always had to say what I thought, luckily, I learned to improve my self control soon after that, but in fact, the way I think did not change at all.
The Hauptmann went red and seemed to explode."You may better leave now, Feldwebel", he said silently.

I went back to my office and thought about what just happend. I had talked to my, if you want so, boss in a way wich was probably not the best to talk to superiors and I could call myself a really lucky stallion if I would keep my job. This night I did not sleep very well. I thought of what my dad would say, because even though he did not like what I would become in the first place, but later he was rather proud to call his son the "youngest drill instructor in all of Germaney". I thought of how disappointed he would be, his son losing his job just because of an unnecessary discussion. At the end, I finally got some sleep. As I woke up in the morning I did not feel so well. Not because of I hadn't much sleep, I was used to this, but because I feared what would happen to me. It was friday wich usually is an off day for the instructors of my group. So I just sat in my office and waited for whatever would come.

At about one p.m., the adjutant of the Hautmann came to my office. "Good morning, Feldwebel"
"Good morning"
"I got good news and not so good news."
"What's the good news?"
"You can keep your job."
"And the not so good news?"
"You may heard about the new arrengement to improve the Equestrain military?"
"Yes, I did."(I already could imagine where this would get me......)
"You volunteerd for as military advisor for the REA (Royal Euquestrian Army), and according to your wish you will be send there. All other informations are in this folder. Goodbye"
"Bye"

He laid a a folder on my desk before he left the office. I had to sit down for a second and think about everything. Well, I still had my job and that was great, but working as military advisor in EQUESTRIA? According to what I heard their military was probably the worst on this planet. Not that I would wonder, at least we are talking about a state wich you also could call the "United States of love and toleration". I opened the older. First there was a letter:

"Hello dear volunteer, (very funny)

First of all, we thank you for your confidence in our southern ally and your wish to improve their power to keep us all save. You will, according to your wish (why do they have to repeat this always?), be based in a military base somewhere in Equestria. You can read where exactly you will be send in the documents wich are also in this folder.
Your main tasks will be to help to improve the REA in the areas training and equipment. Further instructions are in the folder.

The ministry of defence"

Great, now I wanted to see wich place fate had chosen for me. "Ponyville? Where is this supposed to be?" I looked it up on a map. "Great, right in the middle. Let's hope that at least I don't have too much work there" Suddenly I saw a train ticket in the folder.

From Mareburg to Ponyville
Mareburg central station 10.06.12 at 14:03

"What? Tomorow?" Dammit, the Haupmann wasn't losing any time to get rid of me.
I spent the last hours of the day with packing my stuff (not that it was so much) and wirting a letter to my dad about what happend to me (not mentioning the argument between me and the Hauptmann, but telling him that it was some kind of promotion). I also got myself a book about Equestria wich just improved my worst fears. What I saw didn't look like an actual state, but more like a photo of candyland. That night I had nightmare like I never had it before. I was stuck in an colorfull village full of colorfull ponies (not that that would be so bad), with an pink pony jumping after me no matter where I went and offering cupcakes to me. In the beginnig it was just awkward, but soon it became quite scary. In the end I was runnig like a hydra would stand right behind me, but I couldn't shake her.
As I woke up in my own sweat it was about 9:00 a.m. . "Alright, time to get up". After my usual morning (taking a shower, dress myself, eating breakfast) I took my belongings and went out of my office, the base and right to the central staion.

"Punctual as always", I moaned as my train came into the station."Ok Ponyville, here I go" I said as I entered the train into my new live.