“The very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady.”
The words vibrated through her skull as she charged forward, her horn glowing as she held her sword close to her jaw preparing to thrust. Her opponent charging in return aiming his sword lower, aiming for Twilights forelegs. Focusing on the blade that was being aimed for her legs, Twilight forgot to be aware of everything around her. The young stallion grinned and took a chance as he cast a quick and simple energy blast. Hitting Twilight in the side and sending her into the dirt, her sword sliding across the ground to land a couple feet away from her.
“Halt!” roared out a deep voice, a large stallion moving towards the two, his eyes shifting between them. “That was sloppy Twilight, you shouldn’t have focused only on his sword. You left yourself completely open to his attack. On the battlefield you can’t stare at your opponent's weapon, you need to focus on everything about him.” the captain explained as he walked around the stallion.
“But you said this was sword practice!” Twilight protested as she pushed herself up from the dirt, dusting herself off as she turned to face her captain.
“I did say that, but I never said either of you couldn’t use magic. You can’t use that as an excuse on the battlefield. He noticed that you were focused on his sword and he took the chance to hit you with another tool,” he replied as he cocked an eyebrow, the scowl on his face growing
“You’re dismissed, I suggest that both of you practice your blade skills. A royal guard needs to be strong, fast and able to defend the royal family from anyone or thing that attacks them.” he grunted before turning and leaving heading towards his barracks
Twilight just stared at her sword laying on the ground, her snout scrunching as her steely gaze landed on the blade. Her eyes traveling along the dulled edge as she rolled her violet eyes. “You didn’t say I could use magic, I was trying to focus on my swordsmanship!” she barked as her tail flicked back and fourth.
The captain blinked and scowled as he turned around sharply “Are you questioning me Twilight? Do I need to remind you, You are the recruit here. My word is law. It’s allowed.” he barked as he stomped his hoof.
“And for you insolence you will do twenty laps around the track! Tell the smith to get his apprentice to attach the weights to you, one hundred pounds this time. You are not to use any magic for the rest of the day either, since you’ve decided to complain about it so much.” The stallion ordered as he gestured his head towards the blacksmiths forge, knowing without magic Twilight would be busy for the rest of the day dragging the solid block of weight.
Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly as she opened her mouth to defend herself, quickly stopping herself as she looked away. “Yes Sir, Right away Sir” she replied, clenching her jaw tightly as she turned to make her way to the forge.
She had been fighting the young colt for an hour or so. In that time her attacks had become more calculated and precise, she was sure she was going to win the battle, the colt had no defense for her more acrobatic attacks. But one simple magical blast had caused her to lose. If she had known she could have used magic she would have won the fight easily.
Twilight was one of the youngest recruits on the training grounds; she had been born into a military family. Her mother the commanding general of the east coast and her father once the personal guard of the ruling king - although he was killed in an assassination attempt by the gryphons many years ago-her older brother rising through the ranks. Many claimed he would be the pony to replace his mother when she fell on the field or, heavens forbid lived to retire.
Retiring was not the way of a warrior, the only honorable way to go was to die on the battlefield, at the hands of the enemy, defending the kingdom. Twilight was proud of her strong family line, she knew she had to make them proud and she had to be the best.
When she’d arrived at the training grounds she had been the age of five, young, wide-eyed, and ready. Her parents had said one simple thing that day. “Be the best or die trying” From that day on, Twilight had thrown herself into her studies and training. Reading every book she could get her hooves on -and earning the title ‘Egghead’ at a young age- mastering every weapon that she could, and practicing her magic non stop.
As she made her way across the training grounds her gaze drifted around. The grounds were rather expansive, able to train hundreds of recruits at a time. at the bottom of Canterlot Mountain, where the royal family lived in the castle that was built into the side of the tall peak.
The grounds stretched and easily wrapped around a fourth of the mountains base. The first king, generations ago, claimed that no one would harm his subjects and a worthy army of ponies would be trained from a young age to protect their home. Stone walls enclosed the encampment, towering over the training grounds - a truly formidable sight - each stone carefully shaped and reinforced with a myriad of spells, made to last thousands of years, or through a fearsome attack. The grounds themselves were split into three sections, the first section was where young fillies and colts were trained and drilled, being shown the proper stances and fighting forms as well as the proper commands and orders by their Commanding Officers. It was a rather simple area filled with a few training dummies, a large area for archery and magical apparatuses in which to train the Unicorns in their special arts of Magic.
The second section was were those fillies and colts who made it through basic training would move onto when they were ready. Here they would learn the different weapons and skills they would be using in battle, this where their level of skill would be tested and placed, many ponies were shipped from this area into the battlefield a select few being moved into the third area held the most promising recruits, one that were destined to be generals and even promoted to royal guards.
The third area had advance magical training with advanced tactics: It was in this area soldiers were pitted against some of the wild dangerous beasts that inhabited the Everfree forest, from Chimeras to Timber wolves. Ponies had to find out how to best their foes, mostly without any advice from the training officers. This rule was only transcended in the event that the situation became too dangerous.
On top of that ponies were taught about poisons and herbal remedies, in case a pony’s magic was weak or the pony was running on empty. The advanced trainers only wanted to work with soldiers who had earned and proven themselves worthy of learning such information.
It was Twilight favorite time of day, where she would be able to do nothing but lay in the grass and read book after book of information, it was the one time she truly impressed all of her trainers. When it came to information about anything Twilight was a never ending river of information. Her knowledge ranged from simple things like the different kinds of swords to the chemical makeup of poisonous weapons and their remedies..
Another thing that was provided during advance training was have a solider craft their own sword under the watchful eye of the forge master. Many trainers claimed that a sword that was hoof made by it’s owner gave the pony more respect for the weapon they wielded. It would also help each soldier understand that with hard work and proper focus even the simplest of ponies could create something amazing.
A soldiers day started as soon as the sun rose into the sky, they would run laps to wake up their muscles before they were allowed to eat their breakfast. The young recruits would spend three hours in schools learning the basic skills they would need like reading, writing, math and the main focus being history.
The old recruits would start with magic practice, then move on to weapons practice and finally into tactics and formations. After supper most recruits were allowed to enjoy the rest of their day, but advance soldiers would started their secondary studying and wouldn’t finish till the sun had started to set in the evening sky.
Unless one was like Twilight, who would constantly speak out of turn and have to work through a punishment before she could get to her studies.
The grounds held everything needed to train ponies from a young age, a small school where they were taught to read and write, barracks to make their homes. Ponies they could always ask questions to, learn from and grow up with. Many foals learned at a young age that the group they trained with was the group they would be with for the rest of their lives and for many they found love in their groups.
Like many who were in the military because of the heritage, Twilight stayed in the same barracks as her brother, her mother and father and their parents before them. Many recruits knew about her family line, and many more hated her for it. Because of her blood line no pony wished to be her friend, many knew that Twilight was destined to be a great leader and didn’t want to be compared with her.
As she arrived at the smith’s forge she sighed as her ears drooped, if she hadn’t opened her mouth she wouldn’t have to do the extra round of training. she could have returned to her barracks and started the next chapter of her book. At this rate she was never going to get a chance to finish the book before she would be shipped away to some outpost to be trained as a protector of the land, hopefully she would be able to live up to her family name and become a master strategist like her mother.
Lifting her head she cleared her throat, the forge’s heat warmed her face and chest. Looking around for the master of the forge only to have her eyes land on his young apprentice. The young grey stallion turned, grinning slightly as he trotted over. “In trouble again Twilight? What would your mother think if she found out you were kept having to drag the block around?” The young apprentice asked as he moved towards Twilight’s form, his coat covered with black ash. Pushing his tinted goggles to the top of his head, a black outline surrounding his eyes as soot fell from his body, lingering around him like a personal cloud of dirt and grime.
Snorting softly as she rolled her eyes. “She would be quiet about it, just staring me down with her steel eyes. As if I should be able to read her mind when it comes to her level of disappointment.” Twilight replied as she sat down, letting the apprentice begin his work of putting the harness around her body.
“True, she was never one for words was she? So how many laps and what block?” he asked when he finished tightening the strap around Twilight’s stomach, chest and neck.
“He ordered one hundred pounds for twenty laps.” she muttered as her ears went flat to her head, she hated dragging weights around. She didn’t gain anything from it but sore muscles and balds spots from the leather straps chafing against her skin.
Moving to towards the track she stood in front of the large block of stone that was a little smaller than herself, the edges rounds to making the stone move a little easier through the ground.
The apprentice just chuckled and shook his head as he went to work attaching the straps to Twilight athletic form. “Sorry about the chafing. I keep trying to get around to tanning some new leather to make softer straps, but my master keeps getting me to work on more blades.” He muttered as he tugged lightly on the worn brown leather strap.
Twilight just smiled “No worries, you need the practice with your metal work anyway. After all you don’t want to be an apprentice forever.” She grinned as she shifted on her hooves, trying to get comfortable with the annoying straps.
“Right! An hopefully one day you will be able to give your captain orders and tell him to do this silly little task.” He teased as he finished attaching the straps, making sure they fit properly.
Nodding her head she trudged forward, her hooves digging into the loose dirt as she started to move forward. At first, the stone refused to budge from it’s resting place, but with enough effort, it soon gave way to the mare’s pulling.
One more week, one more week of listening to the captain bark, to his annoying orders orders. Then she would be sent off to her new assignment, she would finally be placed on the battlefield defending the lands of the Unicorn King. The only reason she was still at the training camp was because Princess Rarity was now reaching the age where she would expected to pick a personal guard, a single guard that would stand beside her for the rest of her or their days, which was supposed to be a great honor.
To Twilight it was like getting a royal desk job, never getting a true chance to be on the battlefield. Never getting a chance to be a true warrior, If a pony was picked to be a personal guard they would become nothing but fat and lazy. She didn’t want to be like her father and die because he had grown weak as the king’s guard.
When Princess Rarity arrived Twilight knew she had to do anything possible to avoid being chosen, she wanted to make a name for herself. She wanted to make her family proud. Being a glorified royal baby sitter was not something she wanted to do with her life.
Looking up the side of the mountain her eyes landed on the royal kingdom, the kingdom that had been ruled by the same unicorn family from the start. The kings and queens who were born from that line had never failed to take care of their people and had easily gained treaties with the earth ponies and pegasuses.
The kingdoms were united together and willing to come to each others defense, even though most ponies preferred to stay with their kind and in their kingdoms some had started to travel to the different kingdoms and taken up employe. Pegasi now lived in every major city and town handling the weather for each area, helping farmers and villagers alike with their daily work.
Earth ponies had traveled across the land cultivating new areas for orchards and plantations, providing enough food to feed pony kind. Unicorns, with their strength and magic guarded the lands from enemies, true there were still earth soldiers and the Pegasi had their wonder bolts to fall back on in dire need, but neither had the pure brute force the unicorns wielded, it had made them the dominant breed of pony kind.
Now, Twilight was ready to prove that she was one of the best her kind had to offer, she was ready to take her place in the unicorn army and ready to follow in her mother’s hoof steps to become a great and powerful general.
All she had to do was fail at being picked…