Our Equestria

by Nonagon

Training Days (with Dawn Flower)

Shining Armor stood in one of the Canterlot castle hallways, at the intersection just before the final, small turn that led out into the courtyard of the Canterlot training grounds. He was alone in the corridor at the moment, and the atmosphere was eerily silent. Even being this close to the guards’ training grounds, which was usually bustling with energy from veterans and recruits alike, where he would be able to hear everything, the entire area was still completely silent. Hopefully not a sign of things to come, he thought.

He steadily took in a deep breath to try and calm himself, and then exhaled again, using the same technique that his wife and sister used. This small, insignificant action showed just how nervous the normally calm and collected Guard Captain was about what was going to happen. As a Royal Guard, Shining Armor was trained to always keep a straight face and to remain strong and resilient, even in the hardest of times, and as the Captain of the Royal Guard, he was especially good, and had to be the best at it, though even he still got unsure at times. After all, at the end of the day, even with all of his strength and maturity, he was still just a little pony, like everyone else. He knew what he had to do, and that it was for the good of all of Equestria, but even still, it didn’t automatically make this any easier for him. Despite what those fillies and colts had been through already, they were all still just kids. It just didn’t feel right, what they were about to do, but at the same time, it was what had to be done; and the worst part was, he knew it.

Taking another breath in, deeper this time, and taking a moment to put on the Royal Guard’s trademarked stoic expression, of strength and determination, he started walking forward again, made that final turn, and stepped out into the courtyard.

The Canterlot guard training grounds was a large courtyard of stone, located in a corner of the guard barracks, adjacent to Canterlot castle, for quick access for the guards coming and going between the castle and barracks.

The courtyard was open to the outside air, with the clouds above parted out overhead, allowing Celestia’s Sun to shine down on everypony present. The courtyard was easily large enough to hold several dozen full-grown ponies comfortably. There were several wooden training dummies lined up along the farther wall, in both equine and bipedal shapes, with bulls-eye targets around the head and torso. There were also several small, metal, bucket-like containers full of swords and spears, lined up in a row, spaced out in regular intervals, directly across from the training dummies, a few feet away from bulls-eye targets lined up at the intersecting wall.

However, instead of the usual sight that greeted him whenever he entered the training grounds: of new guard recruits learning the basics of fighting, proper sword work, armor maintenance, and royal duty; or experienced guards, training and brushing up on their skills to keep themselves in tip-top shape, Shining Armor instead saw the assembled group of nine young and nervous-looking foals and one baby dragon; fillies and colts alike, each one being shadowed by a Royal Guard escort.

At the moment that Shining Armor had entered the courtyard, one of the other foals called to be here, a pegasus colt with a grey coat and black mane, was being forcibly dragged to his place by his tail. It was clear from the colt’s actions and the grumpy expression on his face that he didn’t want to be here. He tried to dig into the ground with his forehooves as he was being dragged in the opposite direction by his guard escort, but there was simply no surface for the colt to grab on to, and he was no match for the guard’s brute strength. All it accomplished him was kicking up a small pile of dust alongside him as he was dragged along.

The guard dragging him was obviously annoyed at the colt’s reluctance to be here, even with the given circumstances, which were understandable at least, but orders were orders, and he certainly wasn’t going to disobey them, especially after being informed of the situation. The guard was a very large unicorn stallion, standing a foot taller than Shining Armor, and a foot shorter than Princess Celestia. He had a grey coat that was just the slightest bit darker than the pegasus colt that he was dragging along. He also had a professionally kept brown mane, and his golden guard armor cut off just above his cutie mark, showing a single, well-cut diamond.

Once he had dragged the colt up to the side of the assembled group of foals, he simply spat his tail out and stood on his other side, trapping the colt between one guard, and nine other guards of similar builds and their assigned foals, to keep him from just running off again, which, judging from the colt’s attitude, he figured he just might.

Picking his head up off the ground and looking around at all of the ponies gathered around him, foals and guards alike, on both sides, still with an annoyed look on his face, the grey pegasus colt silently gave in and huffed in annoyance. With his fate decided, he then simply picked himself up and stood alongside the rest of the gathered foals in an awkward silence.

Taking note of Rumble’s attitude and adding it to his growing list of concerns, Shining Armor then shifted his gaze across the rest of the assembled group of foals gathered, eyeing each of them carefully, noting their moods and attitude from their expressions, all of which seemed to be the same: worry, fear, and the intense pressure that had been placed on their shoulders. Sure, some of them hid it well, under stoic expressions that would make even the most experienced royal guards proud, but Shining Armor was an expert at noticing the true emotions that lay hidden just under the surface of those looks. And the worst part was, Shining Armor wasn’t even surprised. This was the natural reaction to the situation that these foals had been thrust into, yet they were handling it better than most full-grown ponies could have. He couldn’t help but feel just a little proud of them for that. If they could handle this kind of pressure, then maybe they could make it through all of this.

As he scanned across the group, his gaze eventually fell on his sister, Twilight, on the far side of the group, who was clinging to her dragon assistant tightly, reluctant to hand him over, with tears forming in her eyes. The sight in front of him almost brought the stallion to tears; however, being Captain of the Royal Guard, he was trained to keep a level head in these types of situations. So, simply shutting his eyes for a moment and breathing in deeply once again, to try to avoid losing his composure, Shining Armor took one last breath to calm himself before continuing.

That was the purpose of bringing the foals here today, after all. To put them through combat training, to ensure that they would be prepared for their fights in the future, and also to keep a level head and to remain calm and focused, with all of the pressure put on them.

In total, there were nine of the remaining fifteen contracted ponies in the courtyard right now, including Spike. Piña Colada was also here, insisting that she remain in the loop, despite not being contracted like the others.

There was still no sign of Dinky or Archer.

Deciding to start now anyway, and not wanting to delay this any longer, Shining Armor walked towards the centre of the courtyard in full view of the gathered ponies. Despite the tense air in the courtyard today, all of the assembled ponies noticed the Guard Captain approach, and they all stopped what they were doing and turned towards him. There wasn’t any sudden silence because the courtyard had already been completely silent since before anypony got here.

Raising his hoof up to clear his throat, Shining Armor started to speak. “Alright, now I’m sure you’re all probably wondering why you were called here today.” There wasn’t any response from anypony, or dragon, in the crowd, so Shining Armor just continued with his speech, uninterrupted. “First off, you’ll have all noticed that you all had a guard meet you here when you first showed up here today, and who have taken steps in staying near each of you personally.” He then threw a quick glance at Rumble. “Some more than others,” he added, in the exact same tone.

None of the foals said anything in response to this, though a few did take a moment to look at the guard next to them more closely.

“Due to the clear difficulty of getting all of you together in case of an emergency,” Shining Armor continued, “each of you will be getting a bodyguard to serve as an escort, who will watch over you at all times.”

This seemed to cause somewhat of an uproar amongst some of the gathered pilots, not liking the idea of being watched 24/7. However, before this could lead to a big commotion, Shining Armor simply waved his hoof at them in order to quiet them down and get their attention again. “Do not worry. I assure you, that this arrangement is simply to ensure your own safety and to make sure that we can rally everyone together quickly in case of an emergency.” He spoke very calmly and professionally, with an air of regalness, befitting of a Prince, though with a few meaningful glances, it was clear that there are other reasons as well. “I can also assure you that the guards will keep at a respectable distance, will not eavesdrop, and will not watch you while you are in the bathroom or while you are sleeping, or during any personal matters, and will generally be invisible unless there is trouble.”

This seemed to calm down most of the objecting foals, though some of them still wore expressions of disdain, like they were still unhappy with the arrangement, and none of them spoke up about it; some feeling a little awkward about it, and some just plain not in the mood.

Once that little caveat had been cleared up, Shining Armor started introducing each of the guards that would essentially be serving as their shadow for what would be the rest of their suddenly shortened lives.

Twist was relieved that Watchtower, the female guard from before had volunteered to be her guardian.

Tornado Bolt was also happy with who her assigned bodyguard would be. She stood close by the imposing bulk of her assigned guard, showing none of the discomfort that the others felt. Though stoic, he seemed closer to cracking a grin than any of the other guards, while the filly looked outright smug. It was only when his name was announced - Straw Bolt - that the others began to put together why Tornado was wearing the first real smile she’d shown in a long time.

Rumble shifted uncomfortably next to his enormous pony of a guardian, trailing only his eyes upward towards the large unicorn stallion towering over him, without turning his head towards him, to try and get a good look at his guardian, without making it look like he was looking at him. You could say that he was just glancing ‘casually’ at him. His guard, however, didn’t even glance at the pegasus beside him, and kept his gaze forward on his commanding officer at all times.

Piña Colada, not being contracted like the rest of them, wasn’t assigned a guardian, though she stayed near Berry Pinch like she was hers. She didn’t seem as fazed by this situation like the others were; maybe it was because she was more mature and handling things better, or maybe it was because she wasn’t directly a part of this. Whatever the reason, a part of her simply wasn’t worried, or at least, not visually.

The older, but shyer unicorn filly, however, wasn’t as brave. It was clear from her expression and her shivering that she was not taking the situation well. Turning her head to look up at her guardian, she wilted a bit under the large frame of the armored pegasus stallion beside her. Her aunt noticed this, however, and simply stepped in closer to her niece, to try and calm her nerves.

Spike had been assigned the new-ish enough, Knight Poppy Seed as his bodyguard. Shining Armor wished that he could have been the one assigned to protect Spike instead. While he was growing up alongside his sister, the baby dragon was almost like a little brother to him, and yet, he had never spent as much time with the baby dragon as he would have liked. He had always secretly wished that he got to spend more time with the young drake, though now, due to recent developments, it looked like that would never happen. At that thought, he briefly allowed himself to be selfish at wishing that things could be different, at least, alongside the many other reasons that he wished that things could be different.

After all of the foals had taken a moment to introduce themselves, or in some cases, just look at their assigned bodyguards, everypony faced forward again.

Shrugging off his thoughts, only shaking his head the tiniest bit, that only someone with incredible perception would notice, Shining Armor again continued with what he had to say.

“Anyway,” he said with a half sigh. “Now that introductions and basic run-through are over with, we can get to the real heart of the matter, and why this training is so important.” The collected foals, who were previously only barely listening, while thinking about everything else that was going on, now all piped up and gave the guard captain their full attention.

“The fact of the matter is, that because you’re all so young, you’re inexperienced when it comes to proper combat and military grade tactics, and with the consequences of what losing even a single battle entails, we cannot afford to have you continue fighting blindly. You will all need to be much better prepared in the future.”

The group of foals suddenly almost unanimously stirred at this, taking what was just said as an insult. Many of them were just about to respond verbally to this statement; however, without changing his expression, the Guard Captain simply raised his hoof up again, between him and the foals, to silence them again.

“Please try not to take what I am saying as an insult to your abilities,” Shining Armor continued. “You have all proven yourselves capable with how you have adapted to this situation, and how you have battled your enemies so far. We have been incredibly fortunate that you have survived this long against your opponents with the limited combat abilities that you possess. However,” he added, his expression changing ever so slightly. “The reason that Sweetie Belle struggled so much in her own fight is that she wasn’t psychologically ready for this level of combat. The fact is, that even with Equus granting her enormous power, her instincts kept telling her to flinch and run away instead of fighting, because her nerves kept getting the better of her.”

Apple Bloom was able to handle the first maybe-insult; however, she would not stand for any such words against her friend. Not able to keep herself back this time, she lifted up her right foreleg and brought it down in a hard stomp, intentionally drawing the attention of everypony in the area, to show just how mad she was.

“How dare you?!” she spoke angrily to Shining Armor. It wasn’t a particularly loud shout, but still held ground, nonetheless.

All of the other foals, guards, dragon, and Princess, in addition to the Guard Captain stared at Apple Bloom as she spoke up, with a fuming expression on her face. There were some parts of her face that were now as red as her mane.

“Ah won’t hear another bad word against my friend, ya hear?” She spoke again, in a lighter tone of voice this time, showing that her earlier anger had died down a little.

Everyone in the middle of the courtyard then turned back to look at Shining Armor, who still had a calm expression on his face, to hear his response to this. He then simply held his hoof out towards the group again, though mostly towards Apple Bloom this time. “I assure you, I didn’t mean any offense,” he spoke calmly. Apple Bloom calmed down a bit more again, though she still felt angry, and held her glare on him.

Lowering his hoof again, Shining Armor moved to continue. Letting out a small sigh, and giving a reassuring smile, Shining Armor continued. “Don’t get me wrong, though. She performed very well, beyond what anyone could have expected of her.” He then added a tiny laugh to try and relieve some tension in the group. “She would have had to, to succeed in destroying the enemy,” Shining Armor clarified.

Apple Bloom could again only hear him insulting her friend, and was about to retort again, but, seeing what she was about to do, Shining simply raised his hoof to stop her again. Knowing what that meant, and getting used to it, her words died on her lips and she stepped back into the group again. Her angry expression was now only a slight step up from the worried look that she had on when she first got here.

Shining Armor then stood up straighter, as he continued speaking. His little quirk didn’t really have the effect he was hoping for. Coughing once to himself, he continued. “My point is that no one knows how they’ll react in a fight until it happens.” He then quickly swept his gaze over every child in the group. “Especially children,” he added in a deeper tone.

The foals again thought about speaking up against his seemingly condescending attitude, but they all quickly suppressed the urge and just continued listening.

“Which is why,” Shining continued, “my hope for you today is to train, in order to get used to combat, so that the experience will seem more familiar, and help you to fight more effectively in the future.”

He then let out a worried sigh. This was the part he had been dreading. “We are all just as concerned about the current state of things, but until we find some way to free you from your contracts, you’re the only hope that our world has. So we need to make sure that you are all performing at the top of your potential.”

The foals all collectively flinched, as the full weight of the pressure that was on them was once again brought to the forefront of their minds.

This was the worst part that Shining Armor had to do now: Forcing small children into military grade training. It just felt wrong, essentially taking their childhoods away from them, and that wasn’t even considering the fact that they would die even if they won their battle. And the worst part was that this was the right thing to do. As inconsiderate as it sounded, there was much more on the line right now than the well-being of several foals.

Taking another moment to breathe again and steady his thoughts, Shining Armor spoke up. “Now then,” he started. “How many of you have ever been in a fight before?”

At this, after a bit of reluctance, several hooves were raised in the air. Most of them they didn’t find too surprising, like Snips, Snails, Rumble, Apple Bloom, and Piña Colada. Others they were actually pretty surprised by, like Silver Spoon and Berry Pinch. Piña Colada gave her niece a sharp look when she saw her put her hoof in the air.

From her spot beside Spike, Twilight was actually surprised that so many of the foals had put their hooves up. Looking back down towards Spike, who she still had one hoof around herself, she suddenly pulled him in close and nuzzled his cheek, warmly. She was glad that he hadn’t raised his hand.

Looking over all of the raised hooves in front of him, Shining Armor then gestured to them again to put them down. “Yes, well, these kinds of fights will be a bit different, and much more intense.” Putting his hoof to his chest and breathing through his nose in order to keep himself calm and maintain his cool disposition, which seemed to be getting progressively harder, he continued speaking. “Alright, we’re going to have you do some simple training exercises to start you off, so everyone partner up. This is just going to be a friendly sparring session at first, no winners, no losers. We’re all friends here. For now, just get used to the idea of facing off against somepony.”

At his words, the guards standing beside the foals all stepped away from them and walked off to the edge of the courtyard, to give them some space, but still observe them. One of the guards grabbed Twilight as she was moving and pulled her off of Spike while her guard was down and dragged her away as well.

With their next task given to them, and knowing what they had to do, the ten kids all looked between each other for a moment, trying to decide who to partner with. Snips and Snails were the first to pair up together, and then walked back towards their guards to start their training. Piña Colada wrapped her hoof around her niece’s shoulder quickly, not willing to let anyone else fight with her.

As more and more of them paired off, Silver Spoon just stood there, looking around, trying to find a partner. Seeing everyone else around her partnered up already, her lips contorted into a slight frown. If Diamond Tiara was still here, they would have been the first to partner up.

As she hung her head down, her eyes suddenly widened quickly as she felt herself being grabbed from behind as a pony bit down on her tail, hard. Said pony then reared their head back and opened their mouth again, sending the spectacled earth pony stumbling backwards.

Silver Spoon wobbled on all four legs as she was thrown backwards. She struggled to keep her balance, but ultimately failed to remain upright, falling on her rump.

Quickly shaking off her confusion, and shaking her head to regain her sight, which had blurred a little after her dizzy experience, she faced forward again to see who had grabbed her and thrown her backwards so harshly. While she was annoyed at this pony for the uncouth way they had treated her, and she was going to take great pride in telling them so in great detail afterwards, a small bit of her also felt relieved that she hadn’t been forgotten about.

Finally looking forward again, with a snarky expression on her face, this quickly bled away when she saw Tornado Bolt standing in front of her. She was smiling, yes, but it wasn't with the camaraderie that Shining Armour had spoken of. There was just a fiery eagerness, broken up by scratches and misaligned teeth. "You're dead," Tornado mouthed.

Before Silver Spoon could properly process exactly what was going on, the grey pegasus filly reared back on her hind legs and pounced on her.

The two fillies rolled on the ground, forward for about ten feet, and then Silver Spoon was sent flying a further five feet away from the force of Tornado Bolt’s attack. Still in a daze, and with a pounding headache, Silver Spoon slowly got back to her hooves, while wincing from getting back up too quickly. Despite her inherent earth pony strength, she was clearly not built for fighting.

Rubbing her head with her hoof to try and calm her still aching head, Silver Spoon turned back around to face Tornado Bolt, with her eyes closed and not looking at the pegasus filly directly, like she was talking down to her with her actions. “What’s the big deal, Tornado?” she said in a condescending tone, the likes of which only a smug child could pull off. “I wasn’t rea…”

However, the rest of what she was going to say was cut off, as Tornado Bolt quickly shot her hoof right into the smug filly’s face, shattering one of the lenses on her glasses.

Silver Spoon was knocked back by the force of the blow again and she fell back on her rump. “OW!” She screamed out, her eyes still closed from before. “That hurt!” Bringing her hoof up to her face to gently rub the pained area, the grey filly finally opened her eyes again, which now had tears starting to form in them, and looked over at Tornado Bolt standing in front of her, glaring at her.

As Silver Spoon took her hoof away from her face again, she looked down at it for a second, and her eyes widened when she saw blood. Now looking even more shocked, she brought her hoof back to her nose and checked again to discover that she did in fact have a bloody nose.

Shifting to an angry expression this time, she looked back at Tornado Bolt, trying to match the pegasus’ glare. “What the heck was that for?! Didn’t you hear the Captain?! This is supposed to be a friendly sparring session. Why are you being so rough?”

Tornado Bolt didn’t answer her, however. She just bore down again and pounced towards her.

Seeing Tornado Bolt coming towards her, Silver Spoon suddenly got a burst of adrenaline flowing through her body and backed up quickly. She placed her front hooves down on the ground right in front of her and pushed down hard, pushing her away just as the grey pegasus filly came down on where she would have been.

Seeing Tornado Bolt come down just inches from her face, Silver Spoon let out a gasp. She was scared. She knew that this was just a practice session, but Tornado Bolt was taking it way too far. But it was still just practice, and she was scared. “I can’t believe I’m scared for my life now, and I’m only facing a filly barely any bigger or tougher than me.” Silver Spoon thought to herself, letting out a sigh. “I’m going to be one who blows it, aren’t I?”

Quickly pulling herself out of her slump, not allowing herself to dwell on that thought for long, she quickly got back to her hooves, though not as quickly as she shook her head to get rid of those thoughts, then turned around and started running away as fast as she could in the opposite direction to this crazy pony. Her whipping her head around so quickly caused her already-damaged glasses to fall off her muzzle completely. She didn’t have the time to pick them up and put them back on before Tornado Bolt would be upon her again, so she just left them where they fell and kept running.

She was now almost completely blind, but she didn’t care. She just had to get away from that crazy filly.

As Tornado Bolt chased her around the courtyard like a madman, their antics started to attract the attention of the other groups. The other foals stopped with their own training and turned to see what they were doing. The Royal Guards had also been drawn out of their own conversations, and turned to see what was going on. A stern glance traveled its way around the outer wall, landing at the end; of the two guards who were supposed to be supervising the pair, one was holding the other back.

Some of them thought that Tornado Bolt was taking things too far. Straw Bolt, however, was not one of them. As the others watched the pegasus chase the earth pony around the courtyard, Straw Bolt just looked on with a proud smile on his face, seeing that his niece was just as strong and battle hardy as him. “She’s a natural,” he commented, not interrupting them, perfectly happy to just cheer his niece on.

Gift Wrap, Silver Spoon’s guardian, however, did not see things that way. “She’s taking this way too far,” she snapped at the Sub-Captain, struggling to get past his casually outstretched leg. “They’re just kids,” she added.

To this, Straw Bolt dropped his proud smile, and his gaze drifted to Gift Wrap, while keeping his face forward. “True, but they also hold the fate of Equestria in their hooves. They need to be viciously decisive in the days to come. We can’t have them being too scared to fight when the fate of the world is at stake,” he countered.

Gift Wrap glared back at her superior officer at this remark, regulations be damned. She knew her Sub-Captain well; she knew what methods he preferred - attack your enemy relentlessly until they’re too broken to move - but also that he was very intelligent, deserving of his rank, and fully capable of fully capable of being more than dumb muscle if he chose to be. He’d even made a good point. Even still, she wasn’t about to let anypony, even him, to encourage young ponies to be so brutal to each other during a practice match.

Before she could respond, however; Shining Armor walked in between the two of them and made his way over to the rampaging pegasus and earth pony. “Alright, time-out!” he called out to them, making a ‘T’ symbol with his front hooves.

Tornado Bolt, who by now had been able to pin Silver Spoon down and was lying on top of her, glaring down into her worried face, simply ignored the Guard Captain’s words. She then raised her hoof up above her head; however, before she could bring it back down on to the whimpering filly beneath her, she suddenly found herself engulfed in a purple, magical aura, and lifted up into the air.

Shining Armor, whose horn was lit up in the same colour aura, had a disappointed frown on his face. He then gently levitated the angry-looking filly over to the other foals, who had come back together, into another large group. Shining Armor dropped her into the middle of the group, where the other kids then kept her from immediately rushing back over to Silver Spoon.

Once that had been taken care of, the Captain of the Royal Guard then turned back and gestured for Straw Bolt to follow him off to the side for a talk.

Straw Bolt understood right away and simply nodded back to his superior officer in affirmation. The two of them then walked off to the side.

While the two guards were walking off to talk, and the foals were holding back Tornado Bolt, who by now, was starting to calm down a little, Piña Colada walked over towards Silver Spoon, who was picking herself up and snivelling quietly to herself. As the pink earth pony walked, she picked up the other filly’s glasses.

Silver Spoon sat on her rump, her legs still tired from all the running away she did, and the beating that she took from Tornado Bolt. “I really am pathetic,” she whispered to herself as she rubbed her shoulder.

“Yeah, you really are,” Piña Colada said snidely as she approached her.

Silver Spoon shifted only her eyes to look at her when she heard her approach, only sure of the direction because of what she could hear, but keeping her head facing forward. She sat there with a pout on her face, and was about to retort with a snide comment of her own, but she just couldn’t think of one at the moment, and turned away. “Who asked you?” she said with a sigh, looking away immediately again.

Piña Colada stopped just in front of the grey filly, staring down at her, letting out a sigh of her own. “Look,” she started, with exasperation in her voice. “You got beaten pretty badly. Well, really badly,” she corrected, in a snarky tone.

At this, Silver Spoon just looked away again and let out another sigh.

“But,” Piña Colada continued, “at least now that you know what you’re bad at, and you are really bad at it,” she added again. This caused Silver Spoon to look at her again, wondering if she was actually trying to help her, or just insult her. The irony of her actions was completely lost on her, however.

“But at least now that you know what it is that you’re bad at, you can work on improving it, to be ready when the time comes,” Piña Colada continued, ending with a smile and putting Spoon’s glasses back on her face, pushing them up her muzzle until they were properly in place.

Now that Silver Spoon could see properly again, she looked back at Piña Colada more closely, thinking about what she had just told her. Her snarky comments aside, it was actually pretty useful advice. She just hoped that she could properly apply it to become stronger. “Thanks,” she said in reply.

Piña Colada just gave her a little smirk and held her hoof out to the grey filly, to help her up. “No problem,” she responded. Smiling back at her, Silver Spoon took her outstretched hoof and got back to her hooves. When they then started walking back over to the others again, Piña Colada then stuck up her nose at her and said, “But seriously, you were really pathetic. Even with training, you better hope that you’re the last one to go.”

Silver Spoon simply narrowed her eyes, crinkled her nose, and grumbled at this.

---

When the two guards had reached a quiet corner, Shining Armor turned to face Straw Bolt, completely silent, with a stoic but piercing expression on his face. Straw Bolt had known Shining Armor for a long time, and had grown to know what all of his expressions and actions meant.

Raising his head up high, in a confident tone, but then immediately having to tilt his head back down again in order to look the Captain in the eye, Straw Bolt said, “May I ask what is the call for this little interruption, Captain?” he said, making sure to hide his condescending attitude from his superior officer.

Shining Armor kept a dignified look on his face as he responded. “I would simply like for you to remain professional during this training, and not act like one of the foals that we are training.”

At this, Straw Bolt raised his head up to his full height again, now looking down at his Captain. “Well, with all due respect, Sir. I believe that training these foals in military tactics is a complete waste of time.”

“I completely agree.” Shining Armor responded immediately.

“Well regardless of what you think, I….” Straw Bolt continued with his rant on autopilot. However, as soon as his mind had caught up with him and he realised what the Captain had just said, his eyes suddenly snapped open and he looked back at Shining Armor, confusedly. “Wait, what?”

“I agree that training these foals to fight is a waste. After all, we’ve already seen what a completely untrained and inexperienced pilot can do in a fight,” Shining Armor responded.

Straw Bolt’s mouth hung open for a split second, in confusion, before he started speaking again. “Well then, if you feel that way, then why are we wasting our time? We should be focusing our efforts on repairs and fortifications. Just leave these foals at their new home with one or two guards and let the rest of us get some actual work done,” the Sub-Captain reasoned.

After hearing Straw Bolt’s suggestion, Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “Their new home?” he questioned.

Straw Bolt raised an eyebrow as well, but gave up when he could not lift it as far. “Yes, of course,” he said. “It’s not as if they can stay in Ponyville. That is why you brought them here, isn’t it?”

“No.” Shining Armour shook his head. “We’re only making use of these facilities until we’ve cleared an appropriate space in Ponyville. As soon as the day ends, these foals will be going right back to their families and caretakers.”

For a moment, Straw Bolt could only splutter incoherently. “You can not be serious,” he stated. “The first time a monster landed there, it cost a third of the town! These foals need to be sequestered, for their own safety and the safety of Equestria.”

Shining Armour didn’t back down. “Yes, that happened,” he admitted, “and we know better now, and that’s not the point. Bolt...” He put a hoof on the larger guard’s shoulder and gently turned him around. “Look at her.”

Silver Spoon sat curled up against the wall, staring at the ground. Gift Wrap shooed the other foals away and fussed over her, daubing her with bits of cotton. The grey filly seemed sunken into herself, looking even less certain of her abilities than she’d been when she walked in. “That is who we’re depending on to save this world,” Shining Armour said. “If we had five years to train her, or better yet, ten, then maybe we would have time for tough love. But we don’t have time. Any one of these foals could be called on to save this world as early as tomorrow, and no one can turn somepony into a soldier that quickly. The only thing we can do is give them hope.”

Saying it aloud didn’t make Shining Armour feel any better. The actual combat training may not have been the real purpose of this meeting, but he wasn’t going to tell the foals that, so it still felt wrong. “Like I said, the purpose of this training isn’t to give these foals combat experience. The fate of Equestria right now depends on these foals believing that they can win. Their state of mind is more important than their skills.”

Straw Bolt didn’t have a response to his Captain’s explanation. Seeing the white pegasus’ confusion, Shining Armor decided to elaborate. “From what we’ve seen, Equus responds at least partly to a pilot’s emotional state,” he explained. “It was friendship and confidence that turned the tide of the last battle more than tactics. Those are the things we need to cultivate. So when that little girl’s turn comes up to believe in herself and save Equestria...” He nodded gravely at Silver Spoon again. “Do you really want her to get into her chair after never seeing her family after today?”

After taking a moment to take that in, Straw Bolt moved to interject. However, before he could, the Captain and Sub-Captain were then interrupted when they heard the sounds of hoofsteps over by the entrance to the courtyard, where Shining Armor had entered from earlier.

Turning to see who it was, Shining Armor recognised the approaching pony as the guard that he had chosen to watch Archer. Looking down at her side, he then also spotted a particularly sullen Archer.

The Captain and Sub-Captain weren’t the only ones that had stopped what they were doing to look at them, however, as all of the foals in the area also looked at the blue earth pony, and their eyes all widened when they did. It was immediately clear to all of them just why the blue filly had hidden that day.

It was stamped right there on her flank: A set of straight, diagonal black lines.

Author's Note:

Jeez. School's only been out for so long and I'm only now starting to have those waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-"Oh-shit-that-really-important-thing!" moments. I've been sitting on this chapter for several months now, because apparently I suck at my hobby. Uh. Sorry.

95% of this chapter was written by Dawn Flower, with only minor tweaks from me. A huge thank you for not rendering me totally dead.

Comments

[The Psychopath]

Wait...I know this. I've seen the original anime before. It was so boring...

[Braininthejar]

6156169 A matter of taste.

[The Psychopath]

6215192 Well, when nothing happens for the first few episodes aside from someone's life, its boring.