The years after the fall

A scream woke me up. Where was I? I wondered, as I groggily got to my feet. A battlefield scene was in front of me, dead and dying ponies everywhere, some being dragged away by changelings. I was on a hill, overlooking a bombed out valley.

"Help me....." I heard a dying pony close by on the hill whisper to me. "Water.... Need... Water"

As I crouched beside him, I saw many bullet holes in his hind legs, and he was crippled. All he wanted was a little water so I gave him some. The battle raged all around me, but none of it mattered anymore. The stallion's once proud blue coat was now covered in blood, and more seeped from his wounds. More ponies cried out as they were hit by machine gun fire from the other hill, and fell around me. What a nightmare. At least I hoped it was. The smell of blood and death filled the air. I noticed that the stallion's eyes were bleeding, and he couldn't see. "You are going to be all right"

Never had I doubted my words more in my life. This pony needed serious medical attention if he was going to live. Suddenly my gaze was torn from the stallion as I heard a changeling charge out of no where. I raised my rifle and shot him, by this time he was right in front of me, and the bullet torn his head clean off. His body fell awkwardly to the ground. I was silent for a good 5 minutes, as the battle raged around me, and the stallion struggling to find where I was. "Snow? Snow! Where are you man? Don't leave me here! Please don't let me bleed out! Snow!" His pitiful cries were ignored as I continued to stare at the  headless changeling lying on the ground, not a foot from me. Then a mortar fell near me and woke me up. I covered the pony from the debris, and told him, "I'm still here brother. Don't be afraid" I looked over my shoulder and called, "Medic! We need a medic over here!" The jungle around me was thick, and so fortunately I could awkwardly drag the pony to safety under a fallen tree.  The medics arrived shortly, and told me that they would try their best, but no guarantees. Also, I was informed that they would be leaving the battlefield, so they could properly treat his eyes and hind legs. As they spoke, a  pony trotting towards us suddenly changed into a changeling. I spun, and shot him between the eyes before he could kill anypony. "Yes" I shouted, "Get him out of here" then I turned to the stallion. "It's going to be ok" I told him. "I have to go now, but I will be back soon Dex"

"Ok" the Dex replied and I left him to the medics. I ran to the next tree, and then slid down into a trench. All the while I heard explosions all around me as more mortars fell, and ponies fell as well, screaming in pain. I peeped over the trench top, and I saw a suicide bomber charging the trench! He jumped into the trench, screamed in the weird changeling language, and even though I shot off is fore hooves, he still somehow detonated the bomb. I was flung backwards, and I felt shrapnel pierce my flesh. Damn it was HOT. My skin literally melted around it. I couldn't move anymore. I must have laid there for a while, because soon soldiers with the Army symbol where swarming the trench. My vision was blurry, and I even though I knew the battle was won, I couldn't hear anything. The blast must have concussed me. I was finally getting some life back, but as I staggered to my feet, I looked up in the sky, and suddenly the swarm was everywhere, filling the sky with their darkness."Where the FUCK did they come from?" A soldier near me asked. They had just appeared over the hill. I knew we had not won the battle. Not by far. The changelings we fought had just been the tip of the iceberg. There would be no salvation for any of us. My last thought before the sun was completely blotted out was of my wife, a pretty mare back home in Canterlot.

I woke up in my bed, in a cold sweat. What had I just witnessed? A memory? Or was it just a bad dream? I looked over at Jet, who was still sound asleep.

I turned to look at the clock. It was almost 6 o'clock in the morning. We needed to be at boot camp at 8. I looked down from my top bunk at Jet again. "Psst" I said in a loud voice," Hey! Jet! Wake up!"

"Wha-" Jet muttered as he groggily woke up.

"Bro, it's the first day of bootcamp. You wouldn't want to be late for the recruiter right?" I said, and immediately Jet flew around the room, and in a matter of seconds he was fully dressed, had eaten and had taken a shower. "I'm up" he said with a grin.

"Now lets go to bootcamp"

After I got finished eating and getting dressed, Jet flew us out the door. Couldn't wait to impress the recruiter girl I guess. Jet flew so fast we almost collided with the checkpoint officer. There was a chain link gate in front of us, but the rest of the building looked the same as anywhere else in the underground. Steel color, smell and feel. The officer approached us and said "So, you are the new recruits eh? The Strawberry was talking about you two yesterday...."

"Oh, really?" I replied. "Then you must know not to let Jet here waiting." Jet nodded enthusiastically and the guard turned the pony behind the gate controls. "Open the gate" he spoke into a com link on his throat, pushing the button with his left hoof. The control pony nodded in response and pulled a lever.

The gate swung open and behind it was the biggest room I had ever seen. I know I could behind the fence, but room didn't even close to how big it actually was. It had many large aircraft aboard, and there was a huge open spot where many cadets were stretching. There were some senior officers off to one side, silently judging us. I didn't see the recruiter (I assume her name was Strawberry) in the crowd. We approached the group of other cadets, and Jet whispered anxiously "Where is Strawberry? I don't see her anywhere."

I looked at him " Really?You signed up for the most dangerous task force in all of Equestria and you think of a potential girlfriend? She is our senior officer now stupid, she can't have relations with you" Jet looked saddened, but perked up when he realized something "But that's only if they are in command of your unit. If they are not a part of your squad, then those rules do not apply"

Damn. This guy knew his stuff.

Before I could respond with a witty reply the DI interrupted me.

"Commander on deck!" One of the cadets shouted and we all quickly formed a line, stood at attention, and saluted. The DI was a bigger pony, much bigger than me or Jet, but not by much. He had a grey coat, like dritzy doo, and a mane that was like spitfire's, only white. He had an officer hat on, as well as the uniform, and he also had on aviator sun glasses. The uniform was grey, like the surrounding walls. The DI walked up and down the line, picking out the weakest from the strongest in his mind. "You there!" He shouted at me, "Do you think you have what it takes to join the Equestrian Army?"

"AYE AYE SIR!" I bellowed, not knowing what else to do

"Well I am here to tell you that you are not going to join unless you make some serious changes!" The DI was starting to embarrass me. "I bet you can't even lift fifty pounds" he snarled in my face, almost spitting on it.

I said nothing.

The DI moved on to his next victim, and did a similar thing. I felt bad for the guy, he didn't sign up to get downtrodden on by a DI. He signed up to fight changelings. I stepped forward.

"Sir permission to speak" I said looking straight ahead.

The DI turned slowly, as if he hadn't expected this to happen. "Permission granted cadet."

"Sir, with all due respect, we didn't sign up to have somepony yell at us. We signed up to fight changelings, and that's what I plan on doing." I said as calmly as I could. The DI had been slowly walking towards me as I had been speaking, and now he was nose to nose with me, staring me down with a fury that even the changeling Queen couldn't match. "You do what you are ordered to do cadet." He said in a very angry yet calm tone, "And I order you to GET THE FUCK BACK IN LINE" the last part he spat out at me, and I was quick to back up in line. "Now" he said in a more civilized tone, "We will be done for today. Tomorrow we will be doing physical labor so be ready to be tired." Everypony said "Aye aye sir" in unison and some gave me sympathetic looks. The DI turned his attention to me. "I have my eyes on you cadet" his tone of voice chilled my blood. His eyes were narrowed, and he looked ready to fight. "Hey guys" a familiar voice called across the huge room, and we looked up. I didn't even notice that there was a balcony above us. And yet there it was, with the Jets soon to be girlfriend (Trust me, I know Jet). Her mane was blond, and her hair fell lazily on her head, but not sloppily.Her coat was a yellow color, and it was soothing to look at. It made me forget about where I was, and about the DI. She just was so beautiful, and for a second I saw what Jet saw in her. But the moment passed when Jet yelled back " Hey, why don't you come down here so we can talk?" In response she turned around and headed for the stairs. "Are you serious bro?" I asked Jet. The DI and the other cadets had already walked away. "Yeah Tup. I'm serious" He replied. By this time Strawberry had already gone down the stairs, and was now walking towards us. "So what are you boys up to?" She asked in a slightly suggestive tone. I raised an eyebrow. Really? Her now too? Jeez where was the values of this army going? "I heard your incident with the DI... Is it Tup?"

"Yeah" I responded, as a flood of embarrassment washed over me again. I wondered how many ponies saw that. I hoped not a whole lot. "Hey Tup, don't worry about it, Dirk is ALWAYS mean to the new cadets, it's nothing personal"

We walked underneath a ship. "Well" I said, "I am excited to meet our new squad mates. I guess I will see you two later then?" All this stuff between Jet and Strawberry was still kind of weird in my opinion. I walked over to where the cadets were. Some of them turned to greet me, but most just continued what they were doing. "Hello" a cheerful black mare with a blue mane said, "What's your name?"

"I am Tup" I replied, "Who are you?"

"I am the squad leader, Corporal Sugar" she replied with a grin, and instantly I realized she was not like the other officers. She seemed to actually care about the troops under her command, and didn't just treat us as expendables. "This is Dasher, our eye in the sky."

Dasher just grunted in reply.

He was a green pegasi, and I could tell him and Jet would become great friends. "And this is Kicker, our medic" Kicker was a smaller red pony, wearing the medic symbol on his helmet. "Hello" he squeaked, and then got back to work. "So I hear that we have new newbies joining us" she said to me, in a light tone. "Yeah" I replied, "its me and Jet." I glanced over to look for Jet, but they had either left the training facility, or had gone somewhere more.... private..... I shuddered at the thought. "Jet is a pegasi as well." Dasher perked up, and looked at me. "Where is he now?"

"Ummmm..... To be honest I don't really know at the moment" I looked around some more, but to no avail. "I saw what Dirk did to you" Sugar said "And what you did was brave, but foolish."

"Now you tell me" I didn't really feel like talking about it.

"Its ok though, because it's the first day" Sugar suddenly looked concerned "But just don't make the same mistake again"

"I don't plan to ma'am"

"Good" She turned to the rest of the squad. "All right boys get some rest, we've had a hard day today and tomorrow we hit the trials"

Dasher rolled his eyes and walked away and Kicker looked shaken and startled. "The trials?" I asked. "The trials are simulated war games" was the reply. "You better make sure your friend is going off to bed, because tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day if he's not"

"Will do ma'am"

"And another thing cadet, you are going to be treated equally with the others, and as I have given permission for them to call me by my name, I will do the same for you, but don't think it's anything special or that right will be revoked"

"Aye aye Sugar" I said with a stone face.

"Now get off to bed, we can't afford to be a man short this time"

As I walked off, I saw Jet coming back from somewhere but no Strawberry. "Where's your friend?" I asked, "Did she have to go or something?"

"No" Jet replied, "But I will be spending the night in the officer's den"

Well that escalated quickly.

"It's fine" I replied, "I don't mind sleeping in a bunk with the other cadets. There was a pegasi though and I think he wants to meet you"

"Yeah bro, I hope I can find somepony for you too, I bet I can by the end of the night" Jet seemed too preoccupied to care much.

"Nah man its fine, I didn't join up for a relationship. I joined to help find Daisy, if she is still alive. Also you should be getting off to bed, the squad leader told me tomorrow was going to be brutal"

"We will see about that" was the reply.

"Suit yourself" I said in a careless attitude "It's your plot being shot with paintballs, not mine. Tomorrow we have war games" and before he could say anything I walked away, headed to the gate where we had entered from. I slipped my ID through the machine, and it opened. I walked to the barracks that were immediately to my left. As I got in I saw that everypony was asleep. I noticed that ponies were actually taking this very seriously. I crawled into my bunk and fell asleep.