Bzzzt, Bzzzt

Waking up, Wired grabbed the small clock with his magic. It was a specialized alarm clock that buzzed instead of rang so as not to disturb roommates. Perfect for any Guardspony. Turning off the alarm, he checked the time to see that it was 0620 hours.

Feels good to sleep in, he thought with a chuckle as he sat up in his bed and looked around his new room. To his dismay, he had been placed in one of the two bays in the entire building. In his room alone was eleven other ponies sleeping in six bunk beds. He was surprised to see two of those ponies up and about.

"Why are you guys up?" he asked as he hopped down from the top bunk he had claimed. One of them, the smaller of the two sitting on the bed to Wired's left, answered.

"Remedial PT."

"Don't fail your initial APFT," added the other one before sliding his reflective across his chest before moving to the door, "C'mon Ox."

"Moving Tip," Ox replied as he used magic to grab his own belt and followed after the bigger stallion.

That's gotta suck, Desert thought to himself as he started making his way to the other side of the room where the lockers were. He then stopped and sighed as he remembered something. There was another new guy in the room and he was still sleeping. Walking to the pony's bed, which was above Ox's, he prodded the stallion with his hoof.

"Wake up," he ordered when the stallion stirred. Said stallion yawned before asking for the time. "0624," was the curt reply as Desert made his way for the lockers.

Once at his locker, he spun the combo lock until it opened and examined the interior. Needless to say, it was not SOP. Nothing was unpacked, his bag having just been dumped in, and his uniform from before sitting atop the three-drawer chest that came with the locker. Desert looked at his old uniform and then to his bag. After a short debate, he grabbed the uniform from yesterday with his magic and quickly donned it. After floating his clock into the locker, he closed and locked it. Walking back to his bunk, he quickly put on his horseboots before sliding on his reflective belt and heading for the door.

Entering the hallway, he turned right to head to the stairs as he was on the second floor of the three floor building. Hopping down the stairs, he gave a good morning to the ponies pulling CQ. CQ was where you would assist the Sergeants in anything they needed while also performing cleaning duties. At least, that's how it was like at Desert's Basic. Here it was bound to be different.

After receiving a good morning in reply, the unicorn stepped outside and put on his cover. Directly in front of the middle of the building was a formation of ponies currently doing the warm-up exercises while being led by an older pony, a Sergeant, in a reflective vest.

In front of the doors, which were to the right of the middle of the building, was another formation of ponies wearing greens and looking lost. That's me, Desert thought with a smirk as he trotted over to join the small formation. Finding Builder at the end, Desert fell in beside him.

"Morning," Desert greeted.

"Too early," Builder grunted, yawning to punctuate the point.

"Roger that," Desert replied with a chuckle as he looked at the formation leader to see it was Shield. He looked surprisingly upbeat for someone who had to wake up early to babysit new guys.

"Who are we missing?" he asked suddenly. Desert looked around to see, to his slight dismay, that his roommate was not present.

"We're missing Drawl," Desert replied.

"Drawl?" Builder asked with a whisper.

"Dumbflank, I tell ya. Won't make it a month," Desert replied.

"Yankee?"

"Romeo."

"Good."

Desert laughed at that. Looking around, he saw Drawl just getting in formation.

"Why are you late?" Shield asked of Drawl.

"Desert didn't wake me up in time," was his reply.

Bullshit! "Bullshit! I woke you up right after I woke up," Desert replied with venom. Drawl laughed.

"I'm kidding guy, my lock wouldn't open."

"Next time, don't be late," Shield said simply.

With that settled, Shield began to explain the day, which basically broke down like this: Eat, go to SHARP class, eat, buck around. Everypony let out a groan at the word 'SHARP'. SHARP stood for Sexual Harassment, Assault, Rape Prevention and was an immediate response to the increase in rapes and sexual assaults in the Guard. Some ponies blamed the integration of mares into the Guard. Desert just thought it was all stupid. The reason for eveypony's groan was that they had a class during Basic and it was bound to be death by powerpoint.

After the brief brief, the new gyts were called to attention and right faced. Finally:

"Counter-column, MARCH! Your left!"

They turned their formation around and began to march across the avenue to the road that lead to a nice Dining Facility, or DFac, down the road.

"Here we go again!" Shield shouted, beginning the cadence. The new guys repeated the line before he continued:

"Same old stuff again!" Group repeat.

"Marching down the avenue! ... Long time until we're through! ... I'm excited, how about you? ... I won't have to look at you! ... You won't have to look at me!"

There was a pause before:

"LeftLeftLeftLeftLeftLeftRightLeft!" A more confused group repeated the line.

"I don't know my right from my left!" chuckles as it was repeated.

"LeftLeftLeftLeftLeftLeftRightLeft! ... I don't know my right from my left!"

A brief pause.

"Walking down the street one day! ... I met a weird colt! ... He asked me what I wanted to be! ... I said a Wonderbolt! WONDEEEEEEEEEER! ... BOOOOOOOOLTS LEAD THE WAY!"

Another pause.

"Around her neck, she wore a studded collar!"

What? Desert thought with a blink of his eyes, nonetheless he repeated it.

"SHARP!" jokingly shouted another new guy as the group chuckled.

"She wore it in the basement in the merry month of May! ... And if you asked her why the heck she wore it! ... She wore it for the Guardspony who was far, far away! ... Far away! ... Far away!"

They had reached the DFac by then and filed inside for a large breakfast. Afterward, they marched back toward the company area while singing cadences similar to the ones they sang going to the DFac. Marching past the barracks, they cut through a field between Alpha's and Foxtrot's barracks, crossed a small back road, crossed another field between Delta's and Bravo's barracks before reaching a small building at the end of another field.

"Alright, file in and behave. You represent Alpha company now. When you're done, head back to the Barracks. Hooah?"

"Hooah!"

With that, Desert and the rest of the new guys filed into the structure to see members of another company already there. To their dismay, screens were down for a powerpoint presentation.

Hours later, Desert stumbled out into the light and made his way to the Alpha barracks with a group of new guys. Once back at the barracks, he went up the stairs to his bed and collapsed. All he did was sit and yet he was so tired! How could that be?

Oh well, tomorrow should be better, he thought, Nothing's planned at least.