The first step in an Equestrian’s training to become a guard was first to be a squire. A squire was a low rank and many did not go past that, instead using their skills and training as a segway into another job, such as security guards, police officers, even body guards for nobles or bouncers for exclusive clubs. For those that did stay they continued their training, becoming part of the military.
Many sought the coveted role of being a royal guard, part of the elite guard tasked with protecting the Princesses. However, being so elite, most never got that far, drafted into army and remaining either as a palace guard or sent to the Equestrian borders, or where ever there might have been a threat. After the changeling invasion the Princesses had decided to bolster Equestria’s defences around the borders, sending more and more guards out there. The north had also gained an active military presence as of late what with the reappearance of the Crystal Empire and the royals now living there. These two things made it clear that Equestria’s military was lacking and in need of more soldiers.
For Sun Chaser, this was his goal, to complete his training as a squire and become an Equestrian guard, palace or otherwise. For now though, he was a squire, which meant not only did have to train his hooves off, but he also had to shadow an actual, fully-fledged guard to learn about the job. He wasn’t shadowing a guard yet though, no that wasn’t something that would happen until later. He just hoped he would survive until then.
The unicorn flopped onto his bed, legs splayed out to his sides with a huff, his blonde mane falling into his face. He felt less like he’d spent the day working out, and more like he’d been run over by a carriage pulled by the largest earth ponies the guard had to offer. Every inch of his body was aching and cramping, even his horn ached! For now though he could relax in the peace and quite that filled the room, his roommates not having returned from their training just yet.
His ears perked up at the sound of approaching voices, his roommates were back. Chase sighed, he held no ill will against them, but for some reason they didn’t like him, or two of them didn’t. Thundermane at least seemed to show him kindness when his friend’s backs were turned and apologized for their behaviour before trotting off. They were cold to him and it was a mystery to Chase as to why this was. He tried to ask but they simply acted as if he didn’t exist. They weren’t hostile though and were never outright malicious like some ponies he’d met growing up, so he counted his blessings there.
The door swung open as three very tired looking pegasi made their way in, wings drooping at their sides. They barely paid him any attention, simply flopping onto the floor with a sigh, too tired to bother trying to fly up to the top bunks.
It had rained the previous day courtesy of a stray cloud, so training ended up cut short which meant everyone had been worked extra hard the following day to make up for last time.
“So many laps,” groaned one, Sky Fire if Chase remembered rightly. He had a white coat and dual toned red-gold mane and tail; his cutie mark was a ball of fire. “My wings are going to be so cramped in the morning.”
Chase wanted to speak up; he’d spent the day alternating between spell casting and practicing hoof-to-hoof combat so he was just as sore and magically drained to boot. He shook his head; the last time he’d tried to speak up he’d been ignored. Closing his eyes he rested his chin on the pillow in the hopes he could catch a couple Z’s before dinner, their voices droning on as he fell asleep.
If there was one thing Chase despised about training it was that he had to get up at the crack of dawn every morning. That was the time of day when he was pretty sure that Celestia was the only pony truly awake, and that was because she had to be to raise the sun. It was needed though, the earlier they got up the more training could be crammed into one day, which if one asked the commanders, was a good thing.
The unicorn yawned as he crawled out of bed, the booming voice of the captain echoing down the hall as he made his rounds to wake everypony up. His ears swivelled about, picking up the sounds of his roommates moving, hooves clattering to the floor and the sleepy flapping of wings.
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he followed his bunkmates to the dining hall for breakfast. If there was one good thing to be said about early mornings, it was that the three pegasi were too sleepy to bother trying to alienate him. They didn’t seem to be very awake until they’d had a cup of coffee.
Breakfast itself was fairly plain and pretty much the same every day, warm oatmeal dressed up with their choice of toppings, such as brown sugar, and an assortment of fruit including apples and bananas. Chase added slices of apple and brown sugar to his oatmeal, sometimes adding some fruit to the side.
Unlike his peers who fixed themselves up some good strong coffee, Chase only took a glass of juice. It wasn’t that he disliked coffee, he did enjoy it from time to time, he just couldn’t drink it if he was gong to be practicing magic shortly after. Caffeine had a strange effect on unicorn magic, causing it to become a bit unstable. Not dangerously so, it was no more dangerous than a pony energized from a cup, but when one needs to concentrate on forming shield to block balls of energy being thrust their way, jittery magic was the last thing that was needed. Chase had learned this the hard way after an all-nighter of studying and large cup of coffee in the morning. He found it quite hard to grasp things with his magic without it shaking for quite some time. Why did it happen? To Tartarus if he knew, it just did, and it was more annoying Discord.
With a sigh he sat down at the table so he could eat, the tray settling with a light clink.
Breakfast was only 30 minutes long, so they had to eat quickly unless they wanted to start the morning on an empty stomach and not eat till lunch time, and that wouldn’t be for another five or six hours. Missing breakfast was even worse than caffeine fuelled magic in Chase’s opinion. Once breakfast was done they all had to be out in the fields by 6 o’clock to start training, tardiness was not an option. That resulted in extra laps, one for every minute you were late.
That was a typical morning for Chase, and every other member of the Solar Guard, up at 5:30 in the morning, out on the fields by 6 and training for the rest of the day. The only real breaks were the hour-long break for lunch and a couple short breaks to rest and rehydrate interspersed throughout the day.
The first few hours of the day were spent doing what Chase referred to as generic training, they trained as a group in the fields, sometimes with partners and sometimes alone as they did their warm ups and laps and practised basic forms and routines.
And boy did they do laps.
Chase sucked in another breath as he rounded the curve of his third lap, hooves pounding the soil flat and kicking up small stones and clods of dirt behind them.
The laps weren’t, like many assumed, for speed training, but rather endurance training. The trick was finding the right speed so one didn’t tire out to quickly and so they could complete the laps without fainting. That didn’t mean anyone liked them in fact they loathed them.
The unicorn clenched his jaw as he ran, heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t even half way done with his laps and the last thing he needed was to start slowing down. Too slow and the captain forced them to run more laps, they’d all learned that the hard way after several tried to simply walk their laps, and got more added on to how many they had to do. The pegasi weren’t allowed to fly either, several had tried that and on top of being given more laps to complete were threatened with having their wings tied down. Flying laps could wait till later.
Once everypony was sufficiently warmed up and no longer asleep then they split off into three groups to focus on their specialties. The pegasi took to the skies for aerial combat and flight maneuvers, the earth ponies went off to continue their hoof-to-hoof combat as well as basic weapons training, while the unicorns practised spell casting, both offensive and defensive.
Chase looked around the area as the groups split off; sometime during morning warm ups someone had set out a bunch of balls in the grass, small plastic balls that seemed to be hollow. He tapped one with a hoof to confirm his suspicions before picking it up in his magic.
“As you can see, we have some extra items with us today!” boomed the voice of their captain, Captain Bronze Shield. He was a large unicorn with a striking gold coat and pale mane and tail. “To help you better practice your barrier spells, we thought it was best you had something to shield against.” He picked up one of the balls as he spoke. “As you can see they are hollow and thus won’t hurt you if they hit you.” To prove a point he tossed the ball, bouncing it harmlessly off the head of a colt who’d been whispering to his neighbour. He squeaked in surprise, the rest of the group giggling in response, nothing got by the captain. “However,” he continued, as if nothing had happened, “You can infuse them with a bit of magic for added effect, which is what we’re going to be doing today to help propel them. When I say so, you’ll all break off into partners to practice your blocking techniques. Got it?”
There were nods and murmurs of understanding from the group.
“Good!” barked Bronze Shield. “Now, when you partner off you’ll be taking turns attacking and defending. And you don’t need to put too much magic in these, just enough to propel them forwards.” He stamped a hoof loudly, “Now, partner off recruits.”
So, that’s what they were for, training practice. He felt that like should have been obvious, why else would they be on the field if not for that?
“Hey Chase!” a brown and white unicorn called out to him, waving a hoof at him before trotting over to his side. “Wanna partner up, I noticed you don’t have a partner yet.” The unicorn was Lance, who was slightly taller but somehow bulkier than Chase despite being the same age. His coat was white and brown spotted, the markings continuing into his bi-coloured mane and brown tail. He levitated a ball in the air in front of the white unicorn’s face, “What do ya say? Play ball?”
Chase snickered, “You’ll never hit me and you know it.” He knew Lance from school, and though they’d only shared one class together Lance recognized him on their first training day and they’d become fast friends. Chase wished that he could switch rooms and bunk with Lance instead. At least he’d have someone to talk to.
They took their places opposite each other, Lance holding several of the hollow plastic balls in his telekinetic grip as Chase readied himself and the blocking spell he was going to use.
“Ready when you are,” said Chase with a nod.
Lance just grinned and flicked the first one towards him it, blue sparks trailing off it as the magic carried it forwards. Chase lowered his head, focusing on the shape of a round barrier between him and the ball. His horn flared to life and a rapidly expanding circle of red magic burst forth, stopping the magic-infused ball dead in its tracks.
“You’re going to need to do better than that,” he quipped, holding the barrier up like a small shield.
“Watch me!” retorted Lance as he directed another one at Chase, this time aiming at his exposed feet.
Chase crouched, lowering his barrier and flicking away the ball, which landed in the grass and rolled harmlessly away.
Practice was the rare time during training when they were allowed to be a bit more, relaxed about behaviour. Bonding with ones comrades was essential after all if they wanted to be able to function as a cohesive group and work together. Light banter during early training almost seemed to be encouraged as a way to get to know one another.
“Why don’t we switch now,” said Chase, wiping his forehead with his hoof as they gathered up their projectiles. “I throw and you block. See if I can score any hits.”
Lance had managed one hit, bouncing a ball off Chase’s shoulder. Chase didn’t think it counted because he’d flung it so quickly after the previous one. Lance replied that there weren’t any rules to this sort of thing, aside from not hurting one another, and in a fight anything goes.
“You probably won’t,” said Lance confidently, horn sparking slightly as he waited for Chase to make his move.
He grinned, “I guess we’ll see.” Chase picked up one of the balls as he paced slightly, trying to decide how to throw it. “Think fast!”
Lance’s eyes widened in surprise as the ball came flying towards him, having been too caught up in his own mind to pay attention. “Sweet Celestia!” He jumped back as he flung a barrier into existence, deflecting the ball at the last moment.
“Watch that mouth recruit!” snapped Bronze Shield as he walked past, causing Lance to shrink back in embarrassment.
Chase snickered, “What was that about not landing a hit? If I hadn’t said anything I’d have blasted you square in the muzzle.”
“Che, I could have blocked it,” said Lance.
“Yeah right.” He picked up the second ball. “Now bring your head back to Equestria and focus, it’s no fun if I just get to mercilessly hit you in the head.” He trotted back, readying himself to attack again, watching Lance charge up his horn to defend.
They continued this back and forth sparring, switching up who was attacking and who was defending every three throws. As they progressed they began throwing them faster and faster, giving the defender less time to stop and think and to merely react.
The pair faced each other, panting as a ball rolled across the ground harmlessly.
“I think we should just call it a draw,” said Chase as he went to gather the balls up for his turn at throwing them. “We seem pretty evenly matched.”
“That’s just your perspective. To me it looks like you’re barely managing,” smirked Lance.
Chase snorted and shook his head as he picked up the third ball, “Yeah right, looked more like you were struggling.” As he turned to walk back to his spot a flicker of movement caught his eye. As he looked up he heard Lance call his name and a shout of ‘watch out’ from someone else. Before he could react to it, a flash of white filled his vision as something hot and round struck him in the head with a crack. Chase stumbled backwards, dropping the balls he’d been holding as he clutched his head, a splitting pain shooting down his horn and into his head.
“Chase, Chase!” Lance bounded to his side, placing a hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”
As Chase moved his hooves to look up at Lance, he brushed against his horn and let out a blood-curdling scream as a bolt of white-hot pain raced through his horn and down into his head. It felt as if someone had rammed a burning hot rod into his skull.
He dropped to his knees, clutching his head as spots of pain flared in his vision, barely aware of the commotion around him. All he was aware of was the burning hot pain in his head and his own screams and howls as he tried to find some way, any way to stop the pain.