Nora had to admit one thing: she was lost in the huge castle of the rulers of Equestria. All she did was use the bathroom, which strangely enough was very similar to those of a human's, and simply wanted to go back. That didn't happen.
She had asked for directions countless times, be it either stoic (or bored) guard or the ever busy servants. None of them could really help her. Some of these ponies were even a little wary of her. Perhaps it was their natural instinct telling them that there was a predator in front of them.
The woman took yet another turn, when she found herself in front a pair of opened doors. Screams and shouts, as well as the sound of metal hitting metal could be heard. Curious, the woman stepped outside and found herself of what seemed to be the castle training grounds.
Various ponies were doing all kinds of drills: an obstacle course, hoof to hoof combat, even sword fighting, either with the handles in their mouths or the weapons were being levitated by magic. In a corner was a white unicorn stallion in purple armor and with a blue mane, shouting at a group of soldiers, who were lined up in front of him.
"-are counting on us! Canterlot, Equestria counts on you!!! Do you want to make Equestria proud!?!?"
"YES, CAPTAIN!"
"Then you newbies can start with 100 laps around the grounds. What are you waiting for?!"
Nora watched with mild amusement, as the recruits started galloping, some of them startled by the suddenness of the task.
Ah, boot camp. Reminds me of my time in the army. Stupid Sergeant Tucker.
The captain of the royal pony guard turned around and noticed the unexpected guest. He trotted up to the hyu-mane or whatever she was called.
"Ma'am." The captain greeted her. "Can I help you?"
"I'm sorry, Captain. I'm afraid I got a little lost while looking for my way back to Princess Luna and my husband."
"I see." the captain. "I can order one of my guards to escort you back, if you want." he offered.
"That would be nice, thank you."
"It's no problem, Ma'am. It always happens to house guests."
"Oh please, drop the ma'a already." Nora chuckled. "I only managed second lieutenant during my time in the army."
The captain raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting the woman to be the military type. She didn't look particular muscular or trained for that matter. "Well then, Lieutenant." the captain smiled. "Let's-huh? Oh these are your children, aren't they?" the captain pointed with his hoof behind Nora.
Indeed as she turned around, she found Sarah and Jake approaching, the latter having his arms crossed behind his back. The two carefully avoided the galloping recruits, as they made their way towards the woman and the stallion.
"Hey mom!" Nora's children gave her a casual wave with their arms, before they stopped in front of the stallion.
"Captain Armor." Sarah greeted with a short bow.
"Yes, can I help you?" he asked.
"We wanna ask, if ya got any spare swords." Jake said, still in his leaning back position. "Sis and I wanna beat the living shit out of each other."
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, while Nora and Sarah both let out a sigh.
"Yes, as my brother mentioned" she shot him a quick glare "we kindly ask you, if you will allow us to practice a little with your swords. I know a spell, which can make the blade dull, until I release it, that is."
"Boring! OW!! Ohh....mom, not cool." Jake fell to the ground, holding his most likely no longer existing balls.
"Do you want to cut each other's head off?!" Nora shouted.
"Ohhh, it hurts. Come on, mom. It was just a joke. OW!! That's child abuse!"
Sarah led Shining Armor away from the rather pitiful scene. "I'm sorry about that. Mom and Dad are fed up with my brother's antics and thus tend to get a little aggressive, when he says something really stupid."
"I...see." Shining Armor replied. "Excuse me a moment. What are you doing, soldier!? You can slack off, when you're dead! That's 20 push ups, after you're done! And don't think I'll forget it!"
Shining armor cleared his throat, as he turned back around. "Now, back on topic. I'm honestly rather averse to the idea of handing weapons over to civilians."
"Oh don't worry. We're very skilled in sword fight and even fought in national tournaments a few times." Sarah assured him.
"That's nice and all, but, I'm sorry. I don't want you to accidentally hurt yourself." the captain replied.
The girl in front of Shining Armor rolled her eyes and got closer to him. He instinctively crouched a little down, when she got close to his ear and whispered something to him.
About two minutes later, Sarah and Shining Armor came out of the armory, with the human holding a sword in each hand. Jake, who at least partially recovered, grabbed himself one of the swords and made a few test swings. It was only a short sword, with a silver handle. Leather was wrapped around it, so the guards without magic could bite in, without hurting their teeth. In case of humans, it made it more comfortable for them to handle the swords.
"You can fight over there. Just please, be careful."
"You're asking the wrong dude, cap." Jake replied, getting into position.
"Don't worry Captain, I'll make sure not to kill him too much." Sarah said and took position on the opposite side. Some of the guards looked over to them with mild interest. Out of nowhere both siblings began charging at each other, the swords colliding with an audible *CLANG*.
Pushing the opponent away, both swung their respective swords again, Jake trying an uppercut, while Sarah did the opposite. The result was, both took a few steps back, before recovering. Jake decided to go for a more aggressive advance and unleashed a series of slashes against his sister, who easily blocked all of them.
When will he ever learn. she thought before parrying a vicious strike from the left and giving her brother a good kick the stomach, sending him flying a few feet away.
Nora watched with amusement as her son tried to roll like you see in all those action movies, but ended up lying on his face. As much as she loved her children, it was always entertaining seeing the two going against each other. Sure at the beginning she was completely against it, but Sarah being who she was watched out and so far prevented accidents from happening with her magic.
Said girl ran, only to jump into the air, ready to pierce her brother with the sword (she would stop before the metal made contact with his flesh). However, since this kind of thing didn't happen for the first time, Jake knew what to do. He rolled to the side and quickly got up, his sister's sword piercing the sand.
Not wanting to lose her advantage, Sarah began to take the aggression, while Jake was forced to block her ongoing attacks. While Jake preferred brute force, his sister showed grace and precision with each swung she took at her brother. Not being used to handle such a short weapon, Jake received some cuts in his clothing and left arm. He hissed in pain, but kept it together, knowing those wounds were only on the surface.
Looking for a way to break free, he found a little opening and rolled to the side. When he was actually in control, he never failed. Quickly getting up, he swung his sword behind him, but miscalculated the distance and hit nothing. Sarah quickly spun around and decided to play a little dirty. She grabbed a handful of sand and threw it against her brother's eyes. Sadly right at this moment, a slight wind decided to come up, causing the attack to backfire.
"Karma, bitch!" Jake shouted and attacked. Instinctively Sarah jumped back, her jeans receiving a cut.
"That was my favorite jeans." Sarah whined.
"Hey, you agreed to this. Besides, it doesn't matter what you wear. You look like shit anyways. Black. Snooty."
"Oh, it's on!"
If there was one thing Jake was an expert on, it was getting people mad at him. Especially people who he knew very well. The downside in this situation was, Sarah had the magical alicorn advantage. He knew she was way better in sword fighting than him, so he tried to nullify her precision by aggravating her. Of course, it meant the swings were getting harder and he needed to use both hands in order to block the oncoming storm: up, left, neck, knee, up, down, right, down, diagonal, the other diagonal, parry!
Sarah's arm flew upwards. Jake used the momentum to try a diagonal cut from his sister's left shoulder down. Only problem was, Sarah saw the attack coming and found a way to stop it. She kicked her brothers leg, who stumbled a little and needed to find his balance again. Sarah for her part, fell to the ground, since her upper body was already leaning backwards. Using quick thinking, she rolled backwards and got into position again.
Jake was tempted to use his birthday gift, but it was best to let the Equestrians in the dark about that for now. Not having any real strategy, he charged forward and hoped to find an opening somewhere. Sarah didn't let him have the aggression for long, as she parried the upper cut and immediately counter attacked, scratching her brother's skin on his breast region. Nora complaint about how bloodstains are hard to get rid of in clothes.
"You aren't worried?" Shining Armor asked the woman.
"Oh, when they started I was completely against it, belief me. I even grounded the two after they both managed to hurt themselves for the first time. Me and Jack forbid them to ever do this again. But, you know children. When do they ever listen to their parents? They persisted on continuing on, so after a very long debate, we enrolled them to a professional teacher, hoping they would give up after a week or two. And now my daughter has one the world championship and my son managed at least the 16th place."
"I see."
Sarah and Jake found themselves caught in a power struggle, their faces only inches apart from their blades.
"You know, if I would wear my tournament outfit, you would have already lost." Sarah gritted through her teeth.
"The only reason you won that fast, was because I had to sneeze." Jake retorted.
"Really? You couldn't come up with a better excuse?" Sarath grinned and pushed her brother away. Falling on his but, Jake quickly raised his sword on instinct. However Sarah simply kicked the thing out of his hand and pointed with the tip of her own sword against his face.
"You lost."
"Fuck you too."
Sarah laughed and helped her brother back up to his feet. "Come on, return match. I chose the weapon this time."
"If you're so adamant of getting your ass kicked."
Jack shook his head, as he watched from Princess Luna's balcony the whole spectacle. "I don't know what to do with them Princess. Sarah is a genius in every way. She can practically chose any career she wants, yet she's thinking about opening up her own antique shop of all things. And Jake" he sighed. "The boy is smart, but lazy. He only does the bear minimum, except it is fun for him. He say: 'Screw education! I'm already cooking better than mom!'" Jack sighed.
"So, thy sun wishes to be a chef." The moon princess concluded. "Famous chefs in Canterlot are highly respected and admired for their skill."
"Well princess, the labor market on our world is a battlefield. I'll be honest, I don't feel comfortable with my son trying to get such an unsteady job, while having no backup plan what-so-ever. I don't want him to end up as a dishwasher or something similar."
"Hmm." the lunar princess put a hoof under her chin. "Mayhaps thou will trust him more if thy son proves himself."
"Proves himself, princess? I don't doubt he can become a great cook, it's just hard getting a footing by being a restaurant chef. There are so many out there and most end up either giving up or in some mediocre place."
Luna smiled slyly. "If thy son hast truly talent, this shan't be a problem for him. Trust us, Mr. Daniels. Thy son shall cook for us this evening. We will inform the royal chefs immediately."