"It was almost a year until people stopped and realized that I am mortal. I remember the day that the Cutie Mark Crusaders figured out that I wasn't 'enchanted'. No, I showed them something much worse. Something that explains why I have the pain tolerance that I do." The princess of the Night had seemingly fallen asleep in my lap, but I don't care. I continue my story, as if she could visualize everything I'm telling her.

It was two or three weeks after I shocked everypony in Ponyville. Summer was approaching; I could feel it in the air. It was an unusually hot day, but nothing that a swim couldn't fix. I heard Rainbow Dash talking about a swimming hole earlier in the week, and I went out to "PT" out there. I was initially surprised when I reached the lake; for one it was bigger than I had imagined, and two no pony was there. It was almost ninety degrees (fahrenheit), yet not one soul was there. I just shrugged it off, and thanked the gods that it was empty.

For a swim, one must remove their clothing- shirt included. Now I'm not necessarily proud of my body, but I'm not ashamed either. Of the many marks on my body, most lay on my back; four scars caused from enemy fire. Three are from bullets, the other is...well the other is from a mortar. The bullet holes are self explanatory, they just appeared during different fire fights, and stung very little. The mortar, on the other hoof, is a separate story. I'll give you the basic run down, so I don't bore you any more than you already are.

That attack nearly wiped out my whole squad, the exceptions being me and one other. It just came out of nowhere, one minute everything was fine, and the next there were bodies and mortars landing everywhere. I did what came natural; I ran. I tried to run out of our camp, but it was hopeless. After a few steps, I heard a high pitched wizzing sound, and felt something force me forward, and onto my face. I passed out, either from sudden blood loss, or just hit my head too hard. Either way, when I woke up, I had a throbbing feeling in my back; I put my hand back to feel out what was wrong, and froze after my hand hit a sharp piece of metal.

Sticking in my back was a large chunk of metal, just sitting there. My hands rushed in front of my face, but all I saw was blood. Remember how I said it was me, and one other guy? Well I was damn lucky he was a medic. He told me, "We have to remove this metal, the longer it stays in, the more chance you have of it getting infected." he went to take it out, but I stopped him when he was about to touch it.

"No," I said in a cold voice, "I'll do it.", First I screamed internally as I touched the shrapnel, and then at the top of my lungs as I started to slowly unlodge it from my back. After about three minutes of excruciating pain, I managed to completely pull it out. Heh, poor kid, still green as grass... I remember he puked before, and after, he patched me up. After that, we were transferred to different units.

Thanks to that mortar, I don't have much feeling in my back whatsoever. As for my head, you can thank years of lacrosse for that. I ended my high school season with three concussions, severe shin splints, two stress fractures, and a broken arm. Even before I enlisted, I was destined for pain. Most ponies would just quit, not wanting to get hurt; not me, I learned to embrace it. I learned to relish in my blood, to laugh in the face of danger, and to never quit.

At the time, I was focused on just getting in the water. But right as I got my shirt off, I heard the bushes off to the side rustle; inside lay three notorious fillis: Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. Now, I played along, and pretended I didn't notice them, and when they were trying to sneak away, I turned around and caught them mid step. They looked horrified, like they just seen a ghost. Well, most of them; the little orange pegasus, Scootaloo, had a thousand yard stare that met mine. Her friends sought shelter behind her.

For what seemed like a millennia, we just stared at each other. At last, she spoke up, "Mr. Drifter, we... we did what you asked us to do. Y'know, come to terms with our family and dying and all that junk. We want to know what it takes to become marines."

"Didn't think you guys would actually follow through on that... Hell, it damn near slipped my mind. I'm a stallion of my word, so I won't back out. I'll be cutting out the worst, y'all aren't old enough to hear full war stories yet...", I sat on the ground below, allowing the sand to absorb and contort to me. I motioned for the three to sit across from me, and told them how I got the scars on my back. I didn't intend to scare them completely, but I also didn't want to encourage them to rush into the military when they got to that age.

I finished relatively early, and was about to walk them back into town, when Apple Bloom asked me, "Mr. Drifter why did ya go off ta fight?"

"I enlisted to protect little ones like you, make sure you have all the luxuries and freedoms I had growing up. I fought for everything and pony in Equestria; even if that meant losing my life. I'll leave you with a saying my grandpa used to tell me. 죽음에 싸우는 병사는 정말 절대 안 죽 잖아. 그러나 존재 싸우고 군인이 정말 존재하지 않습니다. That's in my families native tongue, translated it's, The soldier that fights to the death, never really dies. But the soldier that fights for existence, never really existed. Think about that, let it sink in."

Author's Note

Guys, if it doesn't show up for you, know it's in Korean. The link is to translate, where in the bottom right hand side of the box on the right, it will pronounce the saying for you. If not, just type it in, along with switching the language switch to korean.