My Little Pony: The Guardians of Harmony

by The Eternal Dragon

Training Day

“97, 98, 99, and 100.” Timmy finished up his workout that he begun to stay in shape for his future football season. “Gotta keep my strength up.” He walked up to the mirror to admire himself.

“Yea, I do have to say you look like you’ll be ready when football begins.” Andrew closed up the book as he got up to stretch. “I can’t but feel that there’s more to this than sports though.”

“Of course, that should be obvious, or did you forget our titles?”

“Na, just don’t feel the need to train 24/7 is all. I more of the sit-back and relax type of guy.”

“I’ve noticed, all I ever see you doing since we got here is read and stay in the house all day. Some exercise would do you some good.”

“Maybe your right, but I don’t see the need of preparing to handle threats to Rainbow Dash. First off, she can fly and that’s already has me beat. Also she’s a lot like you when it comes athletic ability, I’m sure she can take care of herself.”

“That may be true, but that’s still no excuse to get lazy. Starting today, you should help me with my training that work should at least keep you in shape.”

“Fine. Beside that should be too hard, it’ll just be like when I threw footballs at you to get you better at catching them.” Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. “I wonder who that could be?” Timmy walked up and answered the door to find Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, Rainbow and I were about to go to the Hay Burger, and we wanted to know if you’d like to come along.” Twilight said walking into the house. “Oh Andrew’s here too. That’s great you can come to.”

“Look Twilight, As nice as it would be to join you two. We already got plans for today.”

“Aw, are you sure? I’m paying for the food.” The statement rang loud in his ears. And before anyone could react was already out the door with Andrew in hand.

“Hey! How’d I get here so fast?”

“Wow, that worked better than I expected” As Twilight and Rainbow Dash caught up to the brothers, “I didn’t think you guys would be so hungry.”

“Trust me, after living with this guy all my life, free food is the best way to get him to do anything.” He averted his attention to Timmy, who was still dragging him along. “I can walk you know!” But Timmy paid him no attention as the four of them went to the Hay Burger.

“I can’t believe how much this guy can eat!” Rainbow Dash was disturbed by the amount of food Timmy was wolfing down. “And Twilight, are you ok?” Her friend was ravenously eating her burgers.

“Oh excuse me, I didn’t realize how hungry I must’ve been.” She levitated her second burger to use as a napkin before finishing it off. “So what exactly were you boys planning on doing anyway?”

“Before you guys came along,” Timmy’s mouth still stuffed with food, “He was going to help me with my training.”

“Yea, just like back at home.” He paused pondering something that had been bothering him. “So, Twilight?”

“Yes?”

“You’re an Alicorn princess, right?”

“Why yes, I became one about a month before we met you.”

“Alright that cool. But one thing that’s been bugging me is why does it seem that nobody around here cares.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight was annoyed that he would question such authority.”

“Whoa, calm down there. It’s just that, if I’m correct here there’s only two other princesses…”

“Actually there’s three others. Princess Cadance is another one.”

“Sure, but even then in a world with hundreds of thousand ponies, I imagine that a rare group would be held to a higher prestige. I guess I didn’t know how that title work in this world compared to ours.”

“And don’t forget that ponies around here don’t seem to care about our existence. Ironically, there’s still more of us than princesses.”

“Well those three are held in very high regard. It’s just that I’m new to all this. Cadance didn’t rule an empire until after she married my brother Shining Armor.”

“Well that’s settled then.” Andrew looked at the clock seeing that it was one in the afternoon. "Well look at the time, hey Timmy maybe we should go and find somewhere to practice.”

“Agreed.” The two got out of their seats and threw out the trash. “Well it’s been nice hanging out with you two, but now’s the time for us to leave.”

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash yelled out to grab their attention. “Maybe Twilight and I can watch you two.”

“I don’t why you would take an interest in us now.” Looking at Timmy, he could that his brother didn’t mind an audience. “But it’s not like either of us will say no. Though I do have to ask. Why?”

“Well I haven’t seen you in action yet and the way Twilight described your brother, then you must be twice as awesome.”

“Yea, sure.” Andrew was quite surprised by this assumption. He was never considered to be the strong type, despite people wanting him to be more like that. He always preferred a more relaxed and lazier lifestyle. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you if you get disappointed with what you see.” Timmy led the group to a place where he had set up a sort of training ground for himself.

“Wow, Timmy how did you manage to build all this up?”

“Well I took quite a bit of time, but thanks to Zack’s help with creating all this equipment from scratch set-up was a breeze.”

“Looks like this is what we came here for.” Andrew picked up a football giving a twirl on his finger.

“Wow, you guys like playing hoofball?”

“What? No it’s football.”

“But you’re holding a hoofball right there in your hands.”

“Well from where we come from, this is a football, ironic given that you don’t use your feet at all.”

“Doesn’t really matter to me. Just throw me the ball.” Timmy decided to interrupt their little conversation as he started to run out. Andrew set up for the throw and delivered a nice arch and spiral on the ball. It zipped through the air until Timmy snatched it out of the air with just one hand.

“You could’ve easily gotten that with two hands.” He sarcastically remarked as Timmy threw back the ball.

“Yea, well you know me. I like to put on a show.” The two continued to set up throws for Timmy to catch and different route for him to run as his football team would demand. The girls were impressed by their chemistry and the flashy tricks they threw in as well.

“Wow, you guys sure know football, reminds me of my dad for the Cloudsdale Flyers. Your team must be amazing!”

“Thanks, but I haven’t played for the varsity team yet. But coach expects me to be the workhorse next season.” Timmy replied.

“I appreciate the complement but I don’t play football.” The statement caught the two ponies off-guard.

“What! Then where’d you learn to do that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Considering that I’ve lived with him my whole life, his love for the sport and the fact that I’m available to him every day make sense for me to develop some skill.”

“Besides you were always more of a baseball kind of guy anyway.” Timmy put down the ball and headed into an arena shaped set-up. “You coming?”

“What’s this for?” The building itself wasn’t much of a spectacle nor was it very large but it was open and seemed to be like one of those areas the put wrestling matches in.

“This is just a little set-up I had for sparing, oddly enough no one else wanted to fight with me.” Timmy took off his clothes to change into a more fitting combat gi. “Aren’t you gonna get changed.”

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t think this would be a part of training. I thought all you wanted to do was stay ready for football when we get back.”-Timmy threw him his own suit for fighting-“And where you get these?”

“Oh well Rarity was kind enough to supple me with these, look,”-He took out four other suits-“These are for the others.”

“All right then, well I’m grateful you got me the red one, looks like you got the blue one there.”

“Yea, just suit up, you’re not getting off easily like the others.” Timmy took up a fighting stance preparing to strike.

“Wasn’t planning to. Don’t go easy on me just because I’m your brother.” Andrew did the same, taking up his own style.

“Oh my gosh this is going to be so awesome.” Rainbow Dash could barely conceal her excitement.

“What? Why are you condoning such violence?” Twilight said, “This doesn’t seem right to cheer when siblings fight.”

“Relax Twilight!” Andrew yell out to the ponies. “This will all be just a friendly fight, if ever just a phrase existed.”

“How about we quit talking and get this party started.” Timmy was beginning to get impatient with all the wait.”

“Alright, Let’s” Timmy charged his opponent which, Andrew was able to easily dodge with a quick sidestep. The attempt was just a ruse as he just as quickly stopped on his left foot and delivered a strong elbow into Andrew’s body. The force was enough to send him back a few yards. “That’s good, but how about a little more feeling!” He charged forward giving out a flurry of punches that Timmy blocked each strike.

“C’mon, that can’t be the best you got.” He taunted him and gave a strong jump kicked at his opponent, But Andrew moved out of the way, allowed him with an opening to strike with an kicked followed up with an elbow straight to the back. The attack didn’t faze him as his quickly turn and connected own another kick. The hit sent Andrew back several yards this time as he struggled to get up.

Think Andrew, I know he’s much more powerful than me and he’s even got the speed advantage.

“Give up yet?” Timmy felt that he won and already began to take off his gloves.

“What?! No it can’t end now. Andrew didn’t even put up much of a fight.” Rainbow Dash was on edge seeing her guardian fail to impress.

“No, I’m just getting started.” He collected himself and took up a stance. “Now come at me.” The resilience pleased Timmy as he got ready and went for it. He swung a hard right hook, but Andrew grabbed his fist and redirected it, allowing him to dodge the strike. He used the momentum to throw him down to the ground and tried to submit him with a choke. But without enough energy Timmy was able to overpower him, picked him over his head and threw him as hard as he could. Twilight was surprised power that she never saw in anypony.

“I don’t get it, why doesn’t he just quit there no way he could overpower his younger brother?” Hearing the words come out of her mouth blew her mind. She didn’t think that a younger sibling would be so much stronger than there elders.

Maybe he has a plan for all this? No. All he seems to be succeeding with are some with attack that have little to no effect.

Again he struggled to get up, giving a chance to catch his breath. Suddenly he charged again throwing punch after punch doing each getting blocked until his final blow with an uppercut. Dodging a kicking. Then another wasn’t easy. The third, he wasn’t so lucky with. Andrew hit the ground hard, looking up he could see his opponent was starting to get tired. But the pain he tried to block out was beginning to seep in. With one final push, he swept the leg and hit the falling foe with a quick elbow drop. That was able to actually do something, but it wasn’t enough. As Timmy easily got up, dusting himself off.

“I’ll have to give you credit, that hurt a lot.” Timmy charged with great speed and connecting with a flying knee to the face. That final strike put Andrew down for good. “But you never had a chance.” He reach his arm down, which was accepted and helped his brother up.

“Maybe next time.” A roughed up Andrew smiled after their brawl as they walked up to the two ponies who just sat there stunned.

“What! You lost, how are you smiling right now?” Rainbow Dash was disappointed at the failure to attain victory.

“Yes, I lost in a battle that didn’t matter, trust me in a life-or-death situation I’ll step up to the plate. He grimaced in pain as he sat down while Timmy went to get some first-aid for the two of them.

“I get it, he was so much better than you there.” Twilight asked. “Did you even have a chance?”

“To be honest, if you knew this guy’s physical abilities then you would see that this fight should’ve ended sooner.” The mares gave him a questioning look prompting him to explain more in detail. “You see, there’s a reason why he our school’s football running back, that would be his speed and strength.” Timmy came back with the supplies and patched up Andrew’s body for the bruises. He grabbed an ice pack for himself and placed it on his shoulders. “Timmy you better listen up to this. Where was I, oh anyway in a straight on match I would have lost in the first thirty seconds.”

“But if he both stronger and faster than you, how could you even handle that?”

“When you’re not strong or fast, you need to study you opponent, find their weaknesses if any. Timmy here, goes easy on people and can get a little overconfident in a competitive setting.”

“You’re right, I do need to keep my focus or I could have lost that match. Girls just so you know there were times when he could have beat me, even if it didn’t seem like it.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight inquired. “It seemed to me that the fight was pretty one-sided.”

“Well, first there was all the dodges, I could have given more counter moves to them.”

“Yea, or even the choke he attempted on me. If that had been earlier in the fight he might have had a chance to force me to tap out.”

“I get what you’re saying about strategy but how you fight someone that much better than you?” Rainbow Dash was still baffled by the situation.

“Well I don’t get myself into fights often, but when I do I make sure it’s one that I can win. And Timmy, let this be a lesson, if you want to be a true guardian you’ll need more than brute force to defeat your enemies. If we ever meet someone that’s stronger than even you, it’ll take more than power to win.”

“I hear you, it just so hard to find someone that can match me though.”

“Good, now let’s go home.”

Well this certainly was an interesting day. I never expected that Andrew could teach me a thing or two about fights, considering he defiantly avoids them like the plague. He is right though. That dark pony almost got me back at the castle because I wasn’t strong enough. But that won’t be a problem, because when we meet again I’ll be more than ready.