The sound of a trumpet, or fifteen, stirred Comet from his sleep. He opened his eyes and sat up, every fiber of his being protesting. Already the other recruits were up and getting outside, all except for one who was protesting loudly. A pillow flew after the last recruit and smacked against the wall.

"Keep it down!" came Angel’s familiar voice.

Comet yawned widely and pulled his still stiff muscles out of bed. After the fiasco of yesterday, Comet did not want to continue his string of bad luck by waiting for Angel. He trotted away and cast a glance behind him at the bat pony still wrapped up in the blankets behind him. The bat pony mumbled incoherently and Comet gave a snort of amusement before proceeding out the door.

Outside, the air was crisp and slightly wet, but Comet was proud to be there. The recruits formed a neat single file line and Comet took his place at the rear of the stoic ponies. He carefully matched their stances and gazes as a large pegasus in pristine gold armor marched along the ranks, hardly casting a glance over to the recruits. That is, until he reached Comet.

"Who in Equestria are you?" he demanded.

Comet gave a crisp salute and said "Recruit Comet Burst, sir!"

The guard gave him a puzzled look before continuing.

"How long have you been here, Recruit?" he asked in his gruff voice.

"Today is my first day of Basic, sir!" Comet stated proudly.

The guard, believe it or not, chuckled at that. He turned to the crowd and shouted, "Recruits, what day is today?"

"Graduation day, sir!" All the ponies shouted in unison.

Comet's salute faltered and he cast an odd glance at the others.

"Son, looks like you're with the wrong class." The guard said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Comet felt himself begin to pale with embarrassment when a familiar voice rang out.

"Comet! Yoo hoo! Comet, where are you?" came Angel's high pitched voice from behind him.

Comet immediately dropped his hoof and ran towards her voice, but she was yet again right behind him and he wound up tackling her. She yelped in surprise, but immediately turned around and fought back. A swift hoof was delivered to his left eye and before Comet could react. He felt his right front leg twist around into a leg lock and he was thrown to the ground. He landed on his chin and several small but annoying rocks with a bat pony pinning him to the ground. He kicked his rear legs in an attempt to get free, but it failed since a new weight pressed his rump to the ground, right on top of some more uncomfortably small rocks. Comet tried to flap his wings while at the same time yelling for mercy, but his wings were pinned down together by what felt like one leg.

The other recruits watched the bizarre scene with their jaws hanging open as the bat pony beat the pegasus into submission in less than ten seconds. Angel, for her part, thought it was a combat exercise and kept the pony, who she didn't know was Comet, subdued by sitting on his plot, pinning his wings down with her left front leg and pulling his right with hers, holding him in a leg lock.

"Ouch! Dang it, Angel! Ow! Stop that!" Comet yelled, trying to pull his leg back.

Angel was in combat mode and said "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

"Angel, it's me, Comet!" he shouted in response. "Now will you please let me go?!"

She gave a soft growl from her throat and hissed, "You're lying. Comet never says please."

"Oh for Celestia's sake, you dense pony, let me go now!" Comet shouted.

It then clicked for Angel that this really was Comet and not a changeling. She hopped up off of him and gently fluttered down as Comet pulled himself up. His face was its now normal shade of red and he rubbed his hoof, casting his usual angry glare at Angel.

She simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "You could've been a changeling."

Comet growled angrily at the her. She was getting even more negative points in Comet's book. Then, as fate would have it, she noticed his left eye was turning a violent shade of purple. Unable to control the herself, Angel fell over again, laughing hysterically. Comet repressed his building anger as the guardpony trotted over, clearly impressed and slightly bemused.

"Wow. Just wow, you two." he stated "I've seen some fights between pegasi and bat ponies, but that was certainly the quickest pin I've ever witnessed."

He stifled a laugh as he saw Comet's face turn as red as a cherry and Angel wore a smile as wide as her face.

"However, you really should get that eye looked at." The guardpony said before snorting with humor.

He covered the visible grin on his face with his hoof and his cheeks turned red.

Frustrated, angry and bright red, Comet ground his teeth together and said "Thank you, sir," before turning tail and marching away.

Angel watched him start to walk away and decided it was best to follow him as the guard tried to force himself to get his straight face on. Angel spread her wings and flapped them noisily as she pursued Comet.

When the guard finally succeeded in returning to his stoic face, he turned to the graduating recruits and said, "That is why, soldiers, you never surprise a bat pony."

As Comet stomped over to the medical station, marked by a large conspicuous red cross, Angel followed him rambling off useless pieces of information he really couldn't care less for. His hoof and eye hurt, he embarrassed himself by not only joining the wrong class but also getting his flank kicked by a girl bat pony. Now she was apologizing in her own annoying way.

"Hey, I said I was sorry already! C'mon Comet, it was an honest accident!"

He was clearly fuming to himself since he refused to look at her, so she followed silently behind him, trying to think of some way to make him happy. Little did she know, when she finally got silent Comet started to calm down. Finally, she had an idea.

She landed behind him and said "Hey, Comet?"

Finally angry to the point of reacting, Comet turned to yell at Angel only to receive a wet sloppy lick to the face. The tongue passed over his left cheek and eye, causing his black eye to shock him with pain. He yelped loudly as Angel backed away, tongue still out of her mouth. She smiled innocently and with wide eyes as Comet rubbed his eye vigorously.

"What in the revered flank of Luna made you do that?!" Comet shouted, losing control of his anger.

His eye was starting to tear up from the residual pain of her rough textured tongue and he was worried some of her saliva had gotten into his eye. She just smiled at him with her tongue still hanging out, looking more like a dog than a pony at the moment.

"Bat pony saliva has healing properties," she stated happily, slurping her tongue back into her mouth, "Where I come from, doctors lick wounds to sterilize them so they don't get infected."

Angel beamed at him, hoping that would at least make him happy. Comet, on the other hand, had the sudden realization he was rubbing her saliva into his face. He pulled his hoof away and saw a thin trail of clear sticky fluid stretch from his hoof to his face.

Several shouts of anger and two references to Celestia's royal plot later, Comet sat in the medical station with a content bat pony. Comet pressed a bag of ice to his face while Angel happily sucked on a straw of a cup full of orange juice.

First day's lesson of basic training: Don't startle bat ponies.

It wasn't long before Angel tried again to get Comet riled up. She had started to hold her cup of juice up to Comet's ice pack, trying to keep the juice cold. Comet's face was locked into an immovable scowl when a guard walked past them. He strode several steps away from them and stopped, turning around to see the duo.

"You two are Angel and Comet, I presume?" he asked cautiously.

Angel nodded happily while Comet kept his scowl. The guard turned and approached them.

"My name is Corporal Feathermane and I will be your training officer," the guard stated happily with a smile.

Angel's eyes widened with excitement and she ran up to him.