“So we’ve spent a month teaching me what I need to know, now what?” Twilight asked Celestia as they relaxed in a field they had been practicing advanced magic in. Celestia grinned as a man walked onto the field. He seemed unphased by the fact that the two of them were there, so Twilight assumed Celestia had planned this. He was wearing the uniform of a royal guard officer and had a two toned blue hairstyle. It was up in a neat tail.

“Commander, this is Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Commander Sh-” Celestia began introducing the two to each other but, while The man’s face finally registered surprise, Twilight put her hand up to Celestia.

“Princess, we know each other.” Twilight said. The commander nodded.

“Commander Shining Armor, last I heard you were just a lieutenant.” Twilight said with a grin, standing up. They bumped fists and hugged. Celestia’s expression was of utter surprise, Shining chuckled when he saw.

“We were foster siblings for a little while, then she blew up the orphanage.” Shining explained.

“I didn’t know you were an orphan, how old were you?” Celestia asked, sitting up.

“I was seventeen, eighteen was the age they kicked you out at. And Twi, last I checked you were in self-induced isolation at the lunar prison.” Shining said, giving Twilight a serious look. The girl shrugged and plopped back down next to Celestia.

“That would be my doing. I already told you the situation, remember?” Celestia asked.

“She’s the girl you found? Well I’ll be. Anyways, Twi, I’m here to teach you how to fight. If you’re anything like you were last I saw you, I won’t need to teach you much personally. I had planned on teaching this student of Celestia’s what I know in private and then putting her through royal guard training, but now I’ll skip the tutoring I think.” Shining explained.

“Well, that simplifies things. Isn’t your squad coming here soon?” Celestia asked.

“Nah, just a bunch of newbies. Hey Twi, you think you can summon up one of those uniforms I gave you a while back with your fancy dimensional magic?” Shining asked. Twilight thought for a moment and grinned. Her hands flashed and her clothes turned into a bellyless training tank with the royal guard insignia on it and training shorts.

“Had to make them a lot bigger, but seems like it.” Twilight replied with a grin. She looked down and saw her combat boots were still there, but it didn’t matter much. Celestia was about to ask why she had that, but Shining answered before she could.

“When I first got in the guards, we were kinda short on clothes so I swiped a female uniform for her.” He explained.

“Really? Maybe I should look more into the orphanages to make sure they’re up to snuff...” Celestia said. Shining was looking Twilight over and laughed. They both gave him a questioning look.

“Damn girl, you’ve got some abs.” He said. Twilight rolled her eyes and punched him on the arm. He chuckled and turned towards Celestia. “Most of them are, it’s just that with her... reckless use of magic, cloth and fabric are so fragile when you think about it.” Shining said.

“So is my face, apparently.” Twilight deadpanned, though they both chuckled at that. “So, a bunch of new recruits are coming here and I’m supposed to fall in with them?” She continued.

“Originally, that was the plan. Now, though, I have a feeling you’ll be more of a teacher to them than I am. I’ll just be teaching you advanced tactics and protocol that the guards use.” Shining replied.

“Is that the Princess?!” came a slew of voices. The three turned to find a small group of people entering the field. Some of them had wings, though not as majestic as Celestia’s, and some seemed a bit too big to be just recruits.

When a person has wings, they’re referred to as a Valkyrie. Then there were mages, who had a knack for magic and could almost unlimitedly expand their magical knowledge, while valkyries or others that aren’t mages had to work much harder and had much more restrictive limits. And lastly there were normal people, sometimes referred to as earthmen, who had a natural attunement to the land. This meant they were great with agriculture and they were almost always physically stronger than the other two kinds of people, though valkyries definitely had them on agility.

Celestia was a different story entirely. She had wings like a valkyrie, but over centuries, she worked to gain the natural attunement to the land. She was also practically unrivaled in magical prowess. Her kind were simply referred to as Princesses, since the only ones that are or ever have been in existence were princesses of one kingdom or another.

There was once a valkyrie who was able to reach a mage’s level of magical prowess, but lacked the attunement to land. He was referred to as an Archmage.

“I thought you specialized in training battle mages, Commander.” Celestia said, noticing the variety of people.

“You should know better than anyone that any of the three races can be an adequate battle mage. All they need to know how to do is imbue their weapons with magic and protect themselves from it to be considered such.” Shining explained.

“Is that one really wearing that ridiculous hat?” Twilight asked, unamused, as one of the mages had a tall and large wizard hat on.

“Yes, she is... That would be T-” Shining started, but was cut off as the group arrived by said mage.

“The great and powerful Trixie will not stand to have her choice of wardrobe insulted by a lowly recruit!” The girl exclaimed. Twilight raised an eyebrow and stopped herself from bursting out into laughter.

“... Trixie, she is your comrade in arms. And besides, look at her, does she look like you want to get on her bad side?” Shining said to the girl. They both looked at her at the same time to find Twilight’s scar gone. He looked down and saw that the scars on her hands had disappeared. He detected a very well hidden illusion spell.

A voice in his head made him realize that he hadn’t noticed it. She showed him.

‘I’d rather not go total badass on these guys unless I have to. And besides, if training goes the same way as I remember then I’d rather not have her chickening out’ Twilight’s voice echoed through his mind. He rolled his eyes.

“I see nothing special!” The girl exclaimed, but still fell into the line that had lined up in front of him.

“Funny, neither did I.” Twilight said, taking a spot at the end. Trixie didn’t take too kindly to that, but lucky for her she didn’t act on it as Shining had started walking down the ranks. The girl next to her giggled and Twilight looked at her sideways.

She had magnificent teal eyes and her hair, which was in a very rough tail, was a deep midnight blue. She had pristine blue wings, not as big as Celestia’s and slightly darker instead of the majestic marble. Twilight smiled and winked, earning another giggle, just before Shining passed.

“Right, we’re ding things very simply for the first day of your training. Some of you may know everything I’m going to teach you, while others know nothing. Either way, you’re here because you tend to be worthless sacks of shit when it comes to any of it. Be it magic, fighting, tactics or even taking a piss; you’re no good.

You are in my domain now, and I will beat your asses into the ground. When you get up, I’ll do it again and kick you while you’re down. I will push you and push you, and none of you will ever pass until you can not only push back, put push me down.” Shining explained. A normal commander would be screaming his head off, but Shining was talking normally. That just made it even more intimidating.

At least to most of the others.

“Trixie will not stand to have her amazing magical prowess diminished!” Trixie exclaimed, her angry red face a glowering contrast to her white hair.

“Amazing magical prowess, eh? Fine then, give me your best shot. I will warn you though, my name is armor for a reason.” Shining said simply and turned to face the flustered girl. With a huff her finger lit up and a trail of magic followed it as she traced a complex diagram in the air.

Best shot it must have been, since the solid stream of offensive magic pouring into a beam to bombard Shining actually made the day seem darker with how powerful it was. After a solid ten seconds, it ended and Trixie fell to her knees. So much energy was used up, Twilight was actually impressed she had kept it going for so long and was still breathing.

Meanwhile, Shining hadn’t even flinched. He still held his pose of having his hands behind his back with his feet together, standing up straight. The symbol on his armor was glowing, though. It looked like a shield with a large star surrounded by smaller ones. Twilight remembered it, she helped him invent the glyph. It wasn’t a general glyph as hers was, though, it was an incredibly powerful shielding one. He inscribed it onto his chest plate, which had appeared at the last second over his uniform.

“Hm... Well I guess you’re not an absolute sack of shit when it comes to magic. At least by normal standards. There are one, two, three and four people in this field that could wipe the floor with your magic. Two of them are in the line with you.” Shining said to himself and turned to continue his walk.

“Anyways, as I was saying earlier, Today is going to be rather simple. You will pair off two at a time and spar. We will all learn from the two of you, and not just who is stronger. Then you will finish and the next two will go. Any volunteers?” He continued.

Two people stepped forward.

Twilight grinned to the blue haired girl next to her and she grinned back.

“Right then, Give your names, shake hands and begin.” Shining said.
“Private Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight said.

“Private... Nightshade.” The girl said, omitting a first name if she had one. The pause made Twilight suspect she was hiding something.

“So how will we be going about this, Twilight? A brawl or a duel?” Nightshade asked. Twilight put a finger to her chin in thought.

“Well all I’ve ever done is brawls or desperate fights, so let’s try dueling. I’ve never fought another good mage before.” Twilight said, using the same thing trixie did earlier to draw glyphs in the air. Hers were even more complicated, however, and there were much more of them in less time. They were warding spells, to protect her from all sorts of magical attack. She could handle physical ones herself.

Twilight’s memory of what a duel is was perfect, an honorary match between two combatants- usually mages- in which they continue fighting until the other is incapacitated or yields. Further rules or restrictions were set in place by the combatants.

“Shall we say no teleporting or running out of the field?” Nightshade suggested as she put up her own wards.

“Sure. Also, let’s add a physical aspect to it.” Twilight replied, drawing an even more complicated string of glyphs in the air and her hands started glowing before metal blades sprouted from them. They pulsed with magic, but were still as physical as any metal. Luna did the same.

“When you’re ready.” Shining said, moving everyone else back. The two charged at each other with inhuman speed and clashed, locking the magical blades together.

“Oh, and another thing. We should be a bit more truthful with each other. I can just barely sense illusions around you.” Nightshade said so only Twilight could here.

“Sure, but if I were to guess then what you’re hiding is the fact that your first name is Luna.” Twilight said said with a grin, the scars on her face and hands returning. Nightshade grinned back and Twilight noticed symbols along the girl’s blades. A few of them started glowing and Twilight was forced to jump back as a series of raging fires sprouted where she had just been standing. Soon the fire expanded and encased a good section of the field, and Luna stayed in the center of it.

“Sneaky one you are.” Twilight said with a grin. She kicked off her boots, which had been singed ever so slightly, and charged back in Now barefooted, the fire seemed to not even make her flinch as her feet fell upon the scorched ground.

When she reached the center of the inferno, she found Luna staring at the sky. Twilight followed her gaze and found that it was midnight. That was strange, it had been two hours before nightfall when the fight started.

“You somehow figured out who I am, I’m impressed. If you’re wondering why we’re looking at the night sky it’s because this is my magic you’re surrounded by. Time is also slowed in this particular field of fire, though I’m surprised your feet aren’t burned. Not even fire wards can keep this inferno at bay for long.” Luna explained.

“I’ve used this exact spell before. I already have an incredibly high pain tolerance, that coupled with me knowing how to counter the spell means all I feel is a little warmth. Kind of tickles, actually, when I’m just standing here.” Twilight said. Luna giggled at that.

“My sister chose well. We will have to talk alone when we have the chance, but Celestia will notice this spell before long. Let’s see who fights better, I am quite rusty.” Luna said, readying herself as night turned to day, the moon back to the sun. They were on each other before either of them could blink.

Author's Note

so this went from 1 page to 6 in about two hours
and I didn't even get to the part I wanted to yet lol
and before you guys starts yelling at me in the comments, stuff be explained later. you should know me by now that's what I like to do :3