//------------------------------//
// Chapter I: Proposition 
// Story: Nightmare Team: New Blade 
// by Ser_Galahad 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle cracked her eye open as a beam of the morning sun shot through her window. After a several groggy groans and a few attempts to return to the bliss of sleep, Twilight gave up and decided that it was time to get out of bed. Walking into the bathroom connected to her sleeping quarters she went through her standard morning routine. Using a light force of magic she smoothed out her disheveled purple and pink highlighted mane into its traditional strait nature. Then she picked up her toothbrush and washed the taste of morning breath away. She was due to have breakfast with her teacher and mentor, Princess Celestia, here soon. It wouldn't do to have poor breath in front of her. After relieving a few other calls of nature, Twilight returned to her bedroom to dress. She pulled out a set of the Royal Day Guard cadet uniform and donned it. The uniform was a semi-formal uniform that was meant to be worn by all cadets at either the Royal Military Academy, the Wonderbolt Academy, or by the students of Celestia's School for the Gifted. Being the primary student of Princess Celestia firmly put Twilight in the latter category. The uniform consisted of an alabaster dress shirt, light gold dress jacket and pants, light blue tie, and a red garrison cap. A copy of the Day Guard's crest, a blazing sun surrounding a pair of crossed swords, adorned the right shoulder. The left shoulder was a patch of the personal crest, the unique image that identified each individual pony. A name plate was pinned above the right breast pocket and ribbons of achievement mirrored on the left. The shoes were low quarters polished to a mirror shine.

After dressing, Twilight inspected herself in the mirror ensuring that every part of her uniform was perfect. Satisfied that she found no infractions Twilight exited her room and moved down the white marble hallways of Canterlot Castle towards Princess Celestia's dining quarters located near the Princess's personal suite. Upon arriving at the door to the dining quarters Twilight rapt her knuckles on the door twice and waited for a response.

From inside Twilight a voice call "Enter." Twilight complied and opened the door, revealing Princess Celestia as well as a table laid out with food. After seeing that it was Twilight entering Princess Celestia gave her a knowing look and stated, "You are my main student Twilight. You do not need to request permission to enter for breakfast. A breakfast we planned to have no less."

"I know Princess, but I am set to commission tomorrow and as an officer I will have to stand on all the formalities due to your rank. I thought that it would be a good idea to start getting back into that habit." answered Twilight taking her seat across from the Princess at the small table. She surveyed the food in front of her. As always Celestia had ordered that a selection of Twilight's favorites to be cooked. Waffles with lots of syrup, golden hash browns, and a glass of apple juice sat waiting for her.

Celestia pulled a plate of her own towards herself and responded, "I suppose you are correct, my little student all grown up and ready to graduate. How do you feel about graduation and commissioning? Are you nervous?"

After taking a bite of her waffles, Twilight nodded. "I suppose a little, but that's normal. This is a big step, but I'm sure that I'm ready for it."

"Well that's good otherwise I would need to have some words with your teacher if she was ready to graduate you before you were ready." the Princess quipped from behind her cup of coffee. Twilight giggled lightly at her mentor's joke. "So, is there a particular job you were looking to get for your first set of orders?"

After thinking on it for a bit, Twilight shook her head. "I don't really know. I want something where I can make a difference and protect the ponies of Equestria, but I am not sure what the best fit is for me. I would assume something that would make use of my intelligence or natural gift at magic would probably suit me well."

"What about a combat role? Have you considered one of those? I know a mage is not as important of a role in combat anymore since firearms developed but a powerful strike can still change a lot on a battlefield. Not only that but you are also one of the best tactical thinkers I have ever seen for your experience level." Celestia glanced at Twilight in between bites of hash-browns waiting for a response.

Again Twilight contemplated this for a minute or so before replying. "I'm not so sure that I am cut out for combat. Sure, you and Shining have both taught me how to fight and shoot but I don't know if I have the right mentality to do those things in anger. On the other hand I don't want a role that's buried in the back not really doing anything. I joined so that I could help better lives for people, not get a soft cushy job."

From there the conversation got directed back to more casual topics. Both mares continued to eat and talk. They covered a varied amount of topics from the new archaeological finds that were unearthed at the Pone-henge dig site, the latest political unrest in the Griffon Kingdom, and a new development in the research of theoretical magic. This continued for close to an hour before Celestia reminded her student that she would need to get going if she was going to be on time for her daily training session with her brother, Captain Armor. Bidding farewell to the Princess, Twilight collected herself and returned to her room. The door was still shut and locked as it had been before but something tickled across Twilight's passive magic detection sense. She paused with her hand on the door. Twilight lit her horn and did a full magical sweep of the room prior to opening the door. Finding no active magic still at play she opened the door with her left had she started slowly preparing a small magic missile on her right index finger. Sure a magic missile needs distance to gather enough magic from the environment to do any real damage but even at short range, with her raw power level, it could do some serious damage to a target. A look around the room revealed that nothing was different from when she left except that an envelope was placed on her desk. Approaching the desk Twilight noticed that the letter had a strange symbol on it. It looked very much like the normal crest of the Night Guard, a small contingent of the Guard established by Princess Luna after her return some decades ago that focused mainly on intelligence analysis. The normal crest consisted of a winged sword under a crescent moon. The difference here was that the crest that the envelope bore had replaced the crescent moon with that of a full moon bearing the Mare in the Moon on it. Twilight picked up the envelope and determined it was strange but nothing else. It had no other markings on it that could indicate anything of value. She replaced the envelope on the desk.

Whatever is inside of the envelope, it can surely wait a few hours for me to return from my training time with Shiny.

Twilight stripped off her cadet dress uniform and returned it to its place in her closet exchanging the dress uniform for a duty version. Instead of a suit the duty uniform consisted of a pair of durable pants with various pockets, a green undershirt, a work over-blouse made of the same material as the pants, and a pair of green rugged boots. The color scheme had ditched the flashy solid gold look for muted combination of green and brown splotches. Where the dress uniforms had been designed to look sharp and present an image of professionalism, the duty uniform was purely utilitarian and designed to be worked in and worn into combat. This was the usual ware for her daily encounter with Shining Armor. Giving one last glance at the mysterious envelope that had appeared in her room Twilight left shutting the door, and this time she applied a strong ward to keep further snoopers out.

The training room that Twilight and her brother used was not a part of the castle itself but instead was part of the Royal Day Guard's command building located separately on the Castle Grounds. She passed a few cadets that she knew from classes and training exercises. They all saluted her as she passed and gave a quick "Good morning ma'am" Sure she wasn't an officer yet but the cadets had a sub-division of cadet level ranks. Being the current oldest cadet and the closest to her graduation Twilight was naturally the highest ranking cadet. Twilight returned all of the salutes and matched the greetings in reply. Being the highest ranked cadet how ever did nothing when it came to real officers. After she located Shining she approached him and snapped to attention presenting a salute and greeting, "Good morning Sir." Her brother was Captain of the Guard Shining Armor after all.

Snapping his return salute, Captain Armor developed a mischievous grin. "Good morning Cadet Twily." Knowing that she hated that version of her name only made the glare that he received in response that much more amusing. "Is my little Spellblade ready to start her training for the day?" Shining wore a similar outfit as Twilight. The only difference was that where the tops of Twilight's shoulders bore the mark of a cadet, Shining Armor's bore that of a Captain of the Guard. A single five pointed star was stitched on either side

Lightening up a bit more at the use of her much preferred pet name Twilight responded, "Only if our esteemed commander is ready to get beaten again at whatever type of training he has plan for his little Spellblade."

"Oh? That's some bold talk there cadet." Shining said with a raised eyebrow and a cocky smirk. With a sweeping gesture he ushered his sister through the door and into the training room. The room was rather large at about 45 meters square. The room was constantly being rearranged based on the needs of the training. Some days it had rows of weight lifting equipment for strength training, some days it was set up with obstacles to be run through. Once Twilight had even seen it set up with fake buildings to practice some urban combat maneuvers. Today however the room was clear of everything, it was just a big open sparring pitch with a rack of various weapons ringing the outside.

Crap this isn't what I wanted to see.

Twilight dropped the feeling of supreme confidence that she had previously possessed. It wasn't that she was a bad hand to hand fighter, far from it in fact. She had mastered a few fighting styles and practiced with a verity of weapons. She had found that simple ethereal blades suited her best. Mastering that ethereal blade spell at the age of twelve is what had earned her the pet name "Spellblade" from Shining. That is why she enjoyed that pet name over other it was a badge of pride to master that so young. No she was not afraid or incompetent at sparing; it was just that her brother actually surpassed her skill in this area of expertise. Looking back at Twilight, Shining made his way to the center of the pitch and teased "You ready my little Spellblade? Perhaps you'll win this round and bring our records closer to even, though I do think by my record I'm up five rounds on you."

Recomposing herself, Twilight walked out onto the pitch and assumed a ready stance a few meters away from her brother. "Yes Sir! And by my records you are only up four rounds. And if your records are organized in the same manner that you kept you room when we were younger I'd bet that my records are more clean accurate." That earned her a chuckle from her brother across the way.

The siblings circled each other with their guard up for close to a minute before Shining Armor made the first move. He lunged to Twilight's left and attempted a basic right cross that was easily blocked. The follow up leg sweep however did connect with the back of Twilight's heels sending her falling to the mat but she was able to roll away quickly enough to prevent Shining from capitalizing. Springing to her feet Twilight retaliated with a pair of quick jabs meant to drive Shining back then unleashed a low kick at his right leg to try and unbalance him. He however was able to block both punches and danced out of the way of the kick moving to his right and preparing a return strike.

"You're going to have to try harder than that Twi. I taught you that move." Through his gloating he didn't notice that Twilight had modified the move to include a right to left leg sweep sending him flying to the mat.

"And you need to learn to vary your counter moves to attacks you recognize." replied Twilight standing over him. She moved in for a pin but he managed to brute strength his way through the attempt and slipped further away.

The fight continued like this for about 5 minutes with neither side gaining the advantage for more than a second or two. Finally it was Shining Armor that made the first mistake of the bout. He had used a series of hard hits to try and break Twilight's defenses. He ended up driving Twilight towards the edge of the mat and backing her close to the wall. It was at this point he tried to push the fight even further and through a right cross that had more power behind it then it should have. It missed wide and took his whole upper torso with it. This left the perfect opening for Twilight to grab him by the arm and flip Shining over her shoulder and down onto the mat. He finally came to a stop near the wall. Getting ready to revel in her victory Twilight approach her brother only to notice that one of the slots on the weapon rack next to were Shining lay was empty. Reacting quickly Twilight light her horn and ethereal cloud the length of a short sword bloomed from her right forearm. The magic solidified into a purple translucent blade the length of a short sword. The spellblade materialized in front of her mere moments before Shining rolled and attempted a strike with the practice sword that he had grabbed from the wall.

"Outstanding situational awareness cadet. Now let’s see if you've been practicing like I keep nagging you."

The sword that Shining wielded got a quick boost from his magic making it’s so that he could move faster than any non magic wielder could react at that distance. This enhancement of swords through magical means gave a distinct edge to the wielder of the weapon at close range and was the key reason why even with the advent of firearms swords were still a common sight on the battle field. Shining continued his assault repeatedly driving his sister back . After a few barrages Twilight could tell that her brother was getting slower. While a real sword had the advantage of being longer and being able to hit with much more weight behind a swing the reason that Twilight had taken so much to an ethereal blade was because it had no weight to it and only needed one arm to use. Most had to use both hands to get full control of a sword moving at magically augmented speeds. She could move just as fast as Shining, even without using the augmentations that Shining had used. It also meant that she did not tire nearly as quickly. Finally Twilight was able to lock blades with Shining and get him to hold it.

Now I've got you.

"So brother, do you remember why you should never lock blades with an ethereal wielder?" Twilight smiled. Shining look at her with a hint of confusion before his eyes went wide. Twilight capitalized on this, "That's right! While both blades may be locked," Twilight flared her horn,"I've always got a free arm!" With that a second smaller magenta blade about the size of a decent fighting knife grew from her left forearm. Twilight punched with her left arm stopping just short enough to not stab her brother but still far enough that he could still feel the pressure of the blade on the other side of his duty uniform.

Stepping back from their combat embrace Shining Armor lowered his sword and released the enhancement spells. "I yield." He fixed Twilight with a brotherly smile. "I'm glad to see that my little Spellblade is starting to think outside the box and no longer trying to fight like she was reciting textbook maneuvers in her head." Twilight returned the smile until they both heard a din of amused laughter. A quick look around revealed that no one had joined them in the training room and nothing was messing with Twilight's passive magic.

What the hell is that?

Suddenly Shining whipped around on his own shadow pointing his sword at it before commanding, "Now Midnight, how about you get the hell out here before I beat you black and even more blue then you already are?"

With that the laughter grew even stronger before a pony rose up our of Shining Armor's shadow. The new arrival was a bat pony with leathery wings tucked behind his back. He had a coat of Midnight blue and a jet black mane cropped in a standard military fashion. He was dressed in a duty uniform, however instead of the Royal Day Guard duty uniform this one was in a digital tiger stripe pattern made of dark blues, blacks, and muted gray. This was the uniform of the Royal Lunar Guard. His name was stitched in silver above his right breast, "Hunter". Over his left breast was a stitching in the same silver of his rank indicator, the five-pointed star of a Guard Captain. On his left shoulder was a patch of his personal crest. A set of stars shaped into the constellation of Orion. On his right shoulder was the Lunar Guard crest. Strangely enough, the crest that he wore was the same altered version that the envelope in her room had.

Interesting I'll need to look into that sometime soon. Was the thought that ran through Twilight's mind.

Shining armor had a strange expressive mix of joy and irritation and the appearance of the new captain. Shining however stuck out his hand to shake with the bat pony in front of him. "It's good to see you Midnight, but how many times to I need to tell you not to jump out of my shadow? It's just plain creepy."

The Lunar Guard captain shook Shining's outstretched hand and shook it firmly. "Oh I don't know. Probably until it stops being entertaining. Now are you going to introduce me to the young cadet that just trounced the revered captain of Her Majesties Royal Day Guard?"

Rolling his eyes, Shining turned back to his sister. "Midnight, this is my sister, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is the second in command of the Lunar Guard, Midnight Hunter."

Hunter cleared his throat. "Actually It's Captain of the Lunar Guard now. I got the promotion after Captain Nightshade passed last month."

Shining nodded. "Should have known. Even back when we served together under him during the Griffon War he always seemed to try to groom you to rise up. It was only a matter of time. Still not sure how Princess Luna convinced the two greatest combat officers the Guard had into joining an Intel analysis branch. So what brings you around Twilight's and mine training session?"

"To answer the first, the Princess gave a very convincing pitch." Captain Hunter replied with a chuckle. "Second, I'm here to check on the next officer to join my unit."

He must be talking about me. Maybe that's what’s in that letter.

Turning to face her, Captain Hunter answered "Yes, as you have probably deduced I am talking about you Ms. Sparkle." almost as if he could read her mind.

"So that's my first assignment? What exactly does that entail?" Twilight asked inquisitively.

"Well that depends on what you want to make of it. For some it's important but not always the most impactful of jobs. Most study previous battles to try and develop new strategies that may get implemented in a few years after the Intel is no good anymore. Some debrief units after they get back from a mission to see what they can learn about future hostile action. A lot of it is looking back at things in hindsight and seeing what would have been important that got looked over. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's not. But there are a select few ponies that do seem to have the notion that they are having a pretty important part of protecting Equestria and its ponies even if no one ever hears of it. It all comes down to choices." Captain Hunter gave a hard knowing look at Twilight putting a little extra emphasis on the word choices.

And just what choices is he implying I'll need to make.

Shining Armor grinned and crossed his arms looking between his friend and his sister. "Well I for one am a little glad you're giving her an egghead assignment." He turned to Twilight. "It's somewhere you can put that brain of yours to work. Also mom, dad, and I will all sleep better knowing you're not going to be out in the middle of a firefight any time soon."

A small snort of amusement passed from Captain Hunter. It was imperceptible enough that it seemed to pass under Shining's radar but Twilight picked it up. She cataloged that in the back of her mind along with the other information such as the altered Lunar Guard crest.

Hunter then took the time to motion for Shining to follow him as he walked a few paces away from Twilight standing out mostly out of earshot. Shining Armor looked to Twilight and shrugged before following after Captain Hunter. They had a short discussion that Twilight couldn't make out. She only caught a few words such as "Canterlot", "inconsistent Intel", and "soon". During the entire conversation Captain Hunter maintained a hard look like whatever they were talking about was particularly unpleasant. Shining Armors face blanched a little and he worried frown crossed his face.

"Are you sure?" Shining finally asked. Receiving a nod from his counterpart Shining sighed. "I'll notify the rest of the guard then." The two then made their way back to Twilight who now looked good and confused.

"So what was all that now?" she questioned.

Shining gave her a half-hearted smile. "Oh it's nothing you need to be worried about. I'll take care of it. Though Twilight, I would like it if you stayed out of downtown for a few days. Can you do that for me?"

Fixing him with another inquisitive look Twilight nodded, "Umm, I guess that I can do that." The gears started to spin in her mind trying to piece all the strange information that had come her way this morning.

"Thank you, Twily." That earned Shining an irritated look from his younger sister. "I think that's all for today, I need to get going to take care of a few things with the Guard. Midnight do you mind coming with me? I have a few more questions that I would like to ask you."

"Umm Yeah I guess I'll see you later then Shining. It was nice to meet you Captain Hunter I guess I'll be seeing you in a few days. Good Morning Gentlemen." With that Twilight made her way out of the training room and turned to head back towards the castle while the two captains turned in the direction of Shining's office.

Well that was different, and I'm not sure that I really like being kept in the dark about what is going on.

Twilight made her way back into the castle and up to her room. This time she found no magical residue around her room and no breaches of her wards so she went right in. She started to make her way to the bathroom to shower and clean off all the sweat from the earlier sparing match but the letter on her desk caught her eye again. She looked over the strange variation of the crest once again before she flipped the envelope over. With a spark of her horn she tore open the top of the envelope and levitated out the letter inside.

Good morning Miss Twilight,

Today you are going to receive information regarding what your assignment will be once you graduate. You will be told that it is boring and sometimes ineffective. You will also be told that it is a combat free job in a back office somewhere. These statements are partly true and partly false. It is entirely dependent on what choices you make. All I can say now is that there is a set of Ponies that work below the radar to protect Equestria and its inhabitants. What they do is very dangerous, but the lives they save are numerous. It is not a life that many choose and it is hard. On your body, your mind, and you're relationships. I say this so you do not make your choices lightly. If you choose to ignore this message you may. You will continue onto your previous assignment and become an analyst. However if you are interested in this proposition then you are to come to the ruins of the old Castle of the Sisters. There you will receive more information. The proposition has been given. Now the choice is yours.

-P.L.

Twilight was stunned. She read over the letter three more times ensuring that she wasn't missing anything.

What organization is this? How is there a combat unit no one knows about? Who is P.L.?

These thoughts and more raced through her head. Finally something clicked. That talk about choices and the patch. Captain Hunter must know something about this. He may have even been the one to place the letter this morning. On the other hand his initials were M.H. not P.L so who could it be. Then a second thought hit her. This was her real assignment. She was being offered a secret position. One that offered to protect all of Equestria. Should she take it? The letter had made it clear that this was her choice to accept or not. She wanted to protect Equestria. That was why she joined in the first place. The warning about danger to herself and her relationships however troubled her. What did that mean? Maybe she should stick the Intel job instead. It was safer and even if it took a while the job still had an impact on saving lives, just not as much as this different job was supposed to. Was the secret assignment worth the unknown cost?

Twilight was so caught up in contemplation of the letter and what its words meant that she didn't even notice the raging fireball blooming out from downtown Canterlot until the concussion wave of the explosion reached Canterlot Castle, rattling every window. It was followed shortly thereafter by a deafening wave of sound.