After nine harrowing weeks, the day had come, at long last. For three months prior, the non-stop ridicule left an unnecessary stress in my head, and without anywhere to run off to, I'd been left trapped in my own home, beaten mentally under father's influence while my year-younger brother stood behind him.

In the year and three-quarters since completing school, and without an interest (or the funds) for college, low-paying, easy-labor jobs stood as my only options while I searched. My dream as a colt was to be a firefighter, or an astronaut, or work on the railroad. Somewhere in my early teen ages I discovered the reality of things, and painfully forced myself to drop those thoughts, plus some.

At seventeen and a half, my brother set off to join the Marine Corps and work to becoming an officer directly after school. We missed him in the three months he had been away. Without money to travel to Los Pegasus to attend the graduation ceremony, his return home turned out to be a surprise, minus the actual obliviousness between myself and my parents.

He's younger than me, yet graduated a whole year before I could. Then again, he had not been held back in school, or told off and degraded due to it, either. He is nearing twenty now, but, whatever.

I struggled to fit in at two part-time jobs after I finally received my diploma and ended up fired from both, all thanks to stress of not knowing what to do or how to perform certain actions.

We had a nice, long talk by the lake that brought part of me back from the dead I could have ended up being, even if he decided to turn it a whole new direction to drone on about how I should enlist and him lead the way for me. He knew my stance on the military, especially for what it turned my uncle and father into. When I came to the realization of what he was discussing, I could no longer take him seriously for my sake.

As it turns out, the world works in mysterious ways. After a screw-up at my third job (that miraculously did not end with my rope being cut), my father went on a month-long tangent, repeating and shouting things I already knew about myself. A part of me wanted to hit him after so long, but, I could not come to it.

I eventually gave in and tracked down the nearest recruiter for the Equestrian Army and spent four hours in the office, asking questions I'd been told to bring in on pieces of paper so as to not forget them, before finally signing the papers and turning my will over to the military for the next four years. He never says it, but my father was proud when I told him. My brother, too. Mother? Not so much.

Nine weeks. Nine. Fucking. Weeks. For as quick as they went by at home, I could not have been more caught off guard at basic. Each day was never-ending, painful, and flat-out terrifying. Yet, by some miracle, I pulled through, and here I am now, in my dress blues, or blacks, what ever they were called. The jacket was black, the pants were blue, I knew that much.

We'd just finished marching as a unit on to the grassy center of a dirt track at the base north of Rainbow Falls and Canterlot, near a sleepy village not marked on any national map. So small, in fact, the base out-populated it twenty to one. Breaking posture just briefly, I took a quick peek over my fellow soldiers' heads to the white-painted stands, shaded by a tin roof suspended fifty or so feet above where the crowds sat.

The place packed out, and in center of the largest stand sat Princess Celestia between two of her golden-armored guardians, observing with the warmest of smiles. But, in the colorful masses, a few rows below the princess stood my parents grasping one another, and my brother cheering, donning a grey t-shirt with the sole word 'ARMY' in bold stencil.

I could not stop the beaming smile from growing on my muzzle, nor the joyous tears held welling for far too long in the ducts of my crystal-blue eyes. The rapid breathing through my nostrils went unnoticed by those surrounding as I struggled through the final minutes of standing statue-still. For the sake of my emotions, I lipped the national anthem, followed by the Army hymn beneath the Equestrian flag as it waved proudly in the gentle afternoon breeze.

Cheers erupted, even in the enlisted crowd as a group of roaring jets raced above the track, breaking formation and streaking trails of white smoke in multiple varying patterns, before flying off to the east and regaining their formation.

Making her way down from her open booth, Princess Celestia stood on a wooden platform with a microphone placed atop a small podium for her to speak into. Her speech that followed, I would never forget.

Good afternoon, mares and gentlecolts, colts and fillies. It gives me great honor to stand in the presence of the newest and finest additions to our nation's armed forces, to stand among brave colts-turned-stallions, and fillies-turned-mares. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everypony for attending this momentous occasion in our lives.

For some, it is the end of a long journey. For others, it is the starting point of a new chapter. I understand that it may be hard to imagine that, these stallions and mares are now part of the same brotherhood that once stormed the jagged coasts of the Eastern Kingdoms, the ones that have freed countless in their sacrifice. We are the countless, and we shall forever be indebted to these valiant young ponies for all that they may do for the greater good of Equestria.

These ponies are special for many reasons, but the fact that they have stood up and said 'send me at a time of war to fight for the ponies and the country I hold closest in my heart' speaks great volumes of their true character. Becoming a member of the military is and always has been a weighting decision, but to do so regardless, as opposed to opting for a safer existence within the security of our borders.

Each reason for coming here vary from pony to pony, stallion to mare, and are often deeply personal. However, it is what makes them truly some of the best and the brightest that we have in this country.

It is to my understanding that these genuine, kind words may come as a shock to a few of you. Those who have spent their time training you, preparing you, those who have been hard on you down this lengthy road. Hard, because what lies ahead shall be tremendously challenging, and for many, the defining chapter of your lives.

I wish the best and the greatest for each and every one of you from here on out, and for the generations that shall follow in your hoofsteps, for you are Equestria's Army, and it brings great pride to send you off from training as changed ponies. Thank you very much.

Author's Note

So, this was an idea I came up with out of the blue, and I decided, "Why not? It's new for me."

I hope you enjoy! Also, part of the speech bit is slightly reworded from a US Army graduation speech from 2006.

P.S., I have no clue how long this story will be. I will be writing it as I go along, as compared to my other stories, which I tend to plan ahead of time. It will end whenever I deem necessary.