Chapter 23: Training
Training was unbelievably hard. Most of it was protocol, like standing a certain way or making our bed in the morning. What made the whole thing hard was all the physical training. Day in, day out, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, running miles, sprinting, running the obstacle course. I never really understood why the guards in training were so tired, until now. To make matters worse, leave was canceled due to bad weather conditions.
Celestia was right, Captain Iron Side was coming down harder on me. I was given more workouts than any other pony and he was way stricter when it came to all that protocol stuff. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. In fairness, he did coach me when I was learning to box. Unfortunately, the other ponies didn’t get that luxury. When we started, we had about 20 ponies trying to become guards. We’re down to 8.
The first pony to drop was Lightning Arc. He was trying to get into training since he got out of high school, but he couldn’t get in until now. He didn’t expect how much Captain Iron side would yell at him and how he had to keep everything in order. He broke shortly after the first week.
His little brother, Little Bolt, also had to drop. Little Bolt went to Star Swirl Academy and was one of their best athletes. Captain Iron Side invited him to this training session. It was amazing how this little foal could keep up with the rest of us. The kid was fast, strong, and could even beat his older brother in a fight. Many of us like to believe that one of the reasons why Lightning left was because he was being shown up by his brother. Little Bolt left because he wanted to do training with his brother.
Then there’s Tex. Tex was from Dodge Junction and was the only earth pony here. He said that he wanted to become a guard ever since he saw them protect Celestia from a raddle snake. He saved for years just to get a train ticket to come to Canterlot and enrolled in training. He had to leave when he got a letter from his sister saying their dad was sick. Captain Iron Side paid for his ticket back to Dodge Junction and would pay when he wanted to come back.
Speaking of letters, Octavia and I wrote to each other whenever we could. Unfortunately, we could only send and receive mail once a week, but it gave me something to look forward to. I would tell her how hard everything was and how much I would miss her. I told her that I thought about quitting because I missed her so much. She reminded me that I was doing this because it was my destiny and she will always be there for me. Even when we were friends, she always knew how to keep me going.
She told me about everything her and Vinyl did while I was at training. Vinyl wasn’t doing anything new, except for getting a steady DJ-ing at a local night club. Octavia said it paid well, but Vinyl would always come home late at night and wouldn’t wake up until noon. Octavia was offered a few gigs to play at parties or some big venue, but she said that she wouldn’t play without me. I told her that she could play without me, to which she responded with a simple “No I can’t.” She didn’t need me to be great, but she believed that she could be so much better if I was there. Finally, she told me that they found a roommate. Octavia described her as a timid mare who wanted to become a fashion designer.
I felt a little bad for Shining. Cadence never wrote to him and he would only get a drawing from Twilight. During the first week, Cadence tried to watch us from the side lines of the training ground, but Captain Iron Side would always tell her to go away. He said that she would be a distraction for some of the colts. She secretly watched from one of the castle windows. Shining said he didn’t mind that she never wrote because he could feel her love.
It’s the last week of training. All we were really doing was running drills and scenarios.
“’Atta boy!” Captain Iron Side said as I finished the hardest scenario Captain Iron Side has come up with. “Not record time, but it was damn near close.”
“Thank you, sir.” I said while trying to catch my breath. Suddenly, we heard something going on in the castle.
“Mother,” Celestia said, “you cannot interfere with this.”
“Try and stop me Celestia!” My grandmother stormed onto the training grounds. “Golden, grab your things. You are a prince. You are guarded by these ponies, you do not guard others.”
“Mother, you do not decide what’s best for my son.”
“Celestia, you have already broken tradition by not marrying him and now you want me to just sit by as you throw his future away because you want him to be like you.”
“What’s going on?” Captain Iron Side said.
“I’m sorry Captain, but my mother doesn’t believe that Golden should be training to become a guard.”
“Captain, he is a prince and he should start acting like one.”
“It is his destiny to serve as a guard, mother.”
“No offense, Celestia, but you don’t have the best judgment.”
“So you don’t trust me as a princess?”
“You’re a good princess, but take your sister, for example. Do you really think there was a better way to handle that?” Celestia didn’t respond. She looked like she was angry and sad at the same time. I couldn’t figure out why. Celestia never really told me about Luna and the books in the library didn’t help.
“Ma’am,” Captain Iron Side said, “if I may?”
“Yes Captain,” My grandmother said.
“Ma’am, I’ve known this colt since he was brought here. I’ve seen your daughter raise him to the stallion he is today. I can tell you that you daughter has done a hell of a job and I am proud that he decided to be a guard. It means that he feels like he owes something to the ponies of Canterlot and he is willing to do anything to pay them back. Isn’t that what a prince does? He tries to serve the ponies he looks over and this is how Golden Shield is going to do it.”
There was a moment of silence between everypony. Celestia was smiling and my grandmother was thinking it all over.
“Fine,” My grandmother said, “Because a prince must give back to his subjects, Golden may finish his training and become a guard. However, Golden, I want you to promise me that you won’t stop at being a guard. You have the potential to become so much more.”
“I will.” I said as we hugged.
“And Celestia, I’m sorry for being so hard on you your entire life. I just wanted to make sure that you were going to be a good princess. You’re not just a good princess, you’re a great mother.”
The two of them hugged and started crying tears of joy. There was a round of applause from the guards and they walked off.
“Alright boys,” Captain Iron Side said, “tomorrow is the last day of training. I’m going to give you everything I’ve got. Go rest up.”
I started to walk off with the other colts, but then I realized something. I’m not sure why I didn’t see it before, but it was clear as day.
“Captain Iron Side, sir,” I said as I ran back to him.
“Son, you have permission to speak freely.”
“I wanted to thank you.”
“It was nothing, son. I’m sure you would do the same thing if our roles were switched.”
“Not just that. I wanted to say thank you for everything. You know I never knew my real dad, so I thought I had to learn to be a stallion by myself, but I didn’t. You were there all the way through to make sure I wouldn’t mess up. If you weren’t there, I wouldn’t be the stallion I am today.”
Captain Iron Side looked around to make sure no pony was watching. When he was sure there was no pony was around, he hugged me.
“Son,” he said when he let go, “I’ve never been more proud of you then right now.”
“Thanks, Captain.”
“Now, you don’t go telling them what just happened.”
“Of course not, sir.”
“And get ready for tomorrow because I’m going to break you. You’ll be crawling back to your mama by noon.”
“With all due respect sir, you don’t have a chance in hell.”
We saluted each other and went our separate ways. He tried his hardest the next day to try and break all of us. It started with a 5:30 wake-up call. He ran us through warm up and ran us for miles on end. By noon, most of us were way too tired to do anything, but Captain Iron Side didn’t care. This is his last day to torture us and he was making the best of it. He started running us through scenario, starting off with some of his hardest. None of us could even finish the last one, with the exception of me and Shining. About six, he had us running endurance exercises. All the others have dropped out, leaving me, Shining, and a pegasi named Mighty Clash.
“Goddamn it, boys!” Captain Iron Side shouted in my face. “Do you really not have anything better to do besides holding weights? You know these ponies can’t leave until you drop your weights!”
He started walking around us. We knew at this point that he didn’t expect a response. He just wanted to yell at us.
“Why are you here?” he yelled at Mighty.
“To prove myself, sir!” He responded.
“What about you?” He asked Shining.
“To prove my worth to Canterlot, sir!”
“And what about you mama’s boy? Why are you still here?”
“To serve Canterlot, sir!” I said.
Something like this went on for a while. The three of us were prepared to hold the weights as long as we had to. He eventually told us to drop the weights and go get a good night sleep. For the first time during the entire training session, Captain Iron Side let us sleep in, but we became used to getting up early and the latest any of us slept was about 7:30. We lined up near the obstacle course.
“Alright men,” Captain Iron Side said as he walked in front of us, “it’s been a long two months. We started out with 20 of the most fit colts in Equestria and now we’re down to 8 stallions. I’ve pushed you to your limits and what did you do? You shattered those limits. You have proven yourself to not only to me, but to all of Equestria. Now, I know that this isn’t as fancy as your high school graduation, but it’s just as important.
“Being a guard is more than just a career or title. See the men around you? These men are your family. You have to trust these men as much as you trust yourself and in return they will protect you. Today, you stop being just a rag-tag group of ponies who want to work in the same place. Today, you are a family. With the power given to me by Princess Celestia, I now give all of you the title of royal guard. Now men, your first week of duty starts next week. For now, go home, see your families and have some fun, but remember you guys are guards now. You are dismissed.”
We went back to pack our things and then our separate ways. Shining didn’t have to go far. While he did want to see his parents and little sister, all he wanted was Cadence. As for me, there was only one mare on my mind.
I walked back to the apartment, excited to see Octavia. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
“Just a minute,” Octavia said from the other side of the door. I almost forgot how much I missed her until I heard her voice.
“Vinyl, can you get it?” She said after a little while.
“Coco!” Vinyl shouted. “COCO!”
“She’s out getting fabrics.”
“Can you wait like five minutes?” Vinyl shouted at me.
“I can’t believe you, Vinyl,” Octavia said. Her voice was getting louder as she started to approach the door. “I’m sorry for my…Golden!” Octavia threw arms around me and I hugged her back.
“I missed you too,” I said.
“Look whatever you’re selling, we’re not…Golden! What’s up man?”
Octavia didn’t want to leave my side for the rest of the day. We spent most of the time catching me up. Our new roommate, Coco Pommel. The letters were right, she was extremely timid, but she opened up to me. She had dreams of Manehattan where she wanted to see her dress in a shop window.
Vinyl wanted us to see her set at her club, but I was way too tired from training. I just wanted to stay at home and just enjoy my time with Octavia. Coco and Vinyl decided to leave us alone for the night. Vinyl didn’t have a choice, as she had to work, weather we went to the club or not, and Coco said that she was going to hang out with some friends for a while.
Octavia decided to play me one of her famous private concerts. She played all of our favorite songs and a few new ones that she composed. After, we went to bed and just cuddled. Everything was going perfectly. I had my dream job, my dream girl, and living on my own with a few of my friends. I could really get used to this life.
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Don't worry, it was really good and I'm glad that he patch things up with his grandmother, but I can't help but to had this little concern, in a way she is right, as a prince, he is one that need to be protected in case of war because he has the royal blood…hmmm well he keep his promises so he probably will ascend in rankings, just like Armor does, oh! and maybe to spend some time with his family Celestia could invite him to sessions of politic and how to dissolve conflicts, with her and her grandmother and he Iron shield and his grampa could go camping or to explore friends of his on other countries so he can learn how the international meetings works…and just had a guys trip and had fun with his old men.
Bottom line a warrior prince, I really like that idea and I can't wait what could it be his first assignment
Keep up the great job man
Awesome chapter. I liked how you directly showed Iron being a father for Golden. I can't wait for the next chapter. Good luck.
4446146 I agree with you there mate
I feel like I need to explain the series of deleted comments. I felt that he was being disrespectful and this wasn't the place for it. I also deleted my comments just to make sense of the whole thing. If anyone has a problem with the story, feel free to post complaints here. If you want to tell me how much I suck or anything like that, please send me a message.
I liked it, but it felt... I guess super rushed. I'll have to go back and re-read through some of the chapters in case Celestia's parents were ever introduced or described, but I also don't really recall Golden meeting said grandparents.
And technically if the parents were the 'King and Queen' so to speak, then there might be a bit more drama between the Instructor and herself. Then again, as I said, I'll have to reread the earlier previous chapters to refresh my memory on that event. On that note it'd be better I suppose, if the discussion between Celestia, and her mother were explained and fleshed out more in detail. "You cannot interfere with this." Why not? It may be his destiny/special talent but why could it not be as a ruler on a throne, or politics? There is a lot of interaction there that could be brought up.
Reading a comment someone made, it seems that he has met his 'grandparents,' but the thing is, they aren't mentioned enough. Why was she there? (to argue that he should be acting like a prince, not a 'mere soldier.') But wouldn't there be more fanfare? Or at the least a mention of it? I suppose a surprise visit would debunk the previous suggestions but it's still the fact that I feel like this chapter is rushed over all. You went from some introductions of various ponies at the beginning, which was a nice touch, then out of nowhere the grandmother appearance which was resolved immediately (Reminds me of the LittleShy review on EQG) and then flying into how he was released then slammed into Octavia's house.
And that's just training? The way you described it made the training feel like it lasted only a week as opposed to.. I'm unsure, between six months or years. (Fancannon depending)
4450508
The grandparents were introduced in chapter 17 (just so you don't have to re-read everything). That chapter also describes the conflict between Celestial and her mom, but in a nutshell, her mom is stuck in her ways tries to keep to tradition.
Thank you for the critique.
4450601
I can understand wanting to keep to tradition, but it just seemed to end to abruptly. Heck, I my self am kind of a traditionalist, and I'd need good reasons for me to just 'drop the subject' so to speak.
4445792
A prince will lead his people.
And honorable prince will lead the charge
4462583
They're anthro
You described a real prince, good work dude good work