All is Fair in Love and War

Present Day

Star walked down the stairs to the living room with his saddlebags and set them by the door, everything was ready for him to go. Stardust has been drafted and must join the royal guard and fight in the same war Milkyway was in when he went missing. The war has been going on for five years with endless ups and downs of which side is going to win. He quickly ate breakfast and said his sad goodbyes, then made his way to the train station. When he arrived at the station he met Lyra and Bon Bon who were there to see him off.

“Hey Stardust the train leaves in ten minutes what took you so long.” Said Bon Bon in a worried tone.

“Yeah Star we almost thought you weren’t going to make it. If you didn’t you would have been in a hay bale of trouble with the royal guard.” Said Lyra.

Don’t worry about me, if I didn’t go your right I would probably be arrested and tried but even if I wasn’t drafted I would go anyway to find answers about what happened to my father. The only thing I'm concerned about right now is if I will be able to make it through basic training camp.” Said Stardust.

“I'm sure you’ll do fine, just do your best and all will be good.” Said Bon Bon with an enthusiastic tone.

“Thanks guys I’ll be sure to write while I'm at camp.” Said Stardust as he boarded the train.

Watching as his home got smaller in the distance Stardust thought about how much he was going to miss the silent peace of a small town. When the train arrived in Canterlot he was amazed at the size of the city hanging on the cliffs and then saw the enormous castle at the high end of the city. He got off the train with his saddlebag and started toward the castle. On the way to the castle he got a room in a hotel that was close to the castle and surprisingly inexpensive. As he walked into the hotel room he noticed why it was so cheap, it was about enough room to be a large storage unit at best and had nowhere for him to put his belongings. He left his saddlebag on the floor and made the room more comfortable for himself before he left. After that he left to go to the royal guard recruitment office on the castle grounds.

He left the hotel and started toward the castle in the huge capitol and after a while got lost. By what it looked like around him he was in a bad neighborhood and noticed that he could still see the castle and started in that direction when he was cut in-front of by an earth pony who looked at him and asked if he could spare some bits. Star learned from twilight that sometimes ponies will ask you for money and not spend it on what they tell you they need it for.

“I'm sorry but I don’t have many bits left and I need it for later.” Said Stardust.

Suddenly before he knew it he was on the ground with the strange pony on top of him trying to choke him. Stardust pushed him off and started to run through an alley when two more thugs blocked him at the other end and kept him from escaping. The two ponies that blocked him where unicorns and they used their magic to hold him against the side of the building next to them. Stardust was able to use his own magic to block theirs and broke free after the shock of their magic conflicting knocked them out. The earth pony came galloping at him and was about to tackle him to the ground when the next thing he knew he was in the air about three yards and was falling to the ground.

When he hit the ground he felt a small twinge on his lower shoulder for some odd reason but soon got up. The thug was right in-front of him and had a broken bottle in his hoof and came at Stardust with a thrust. Star dodged the thrust and ran to the other end of the alley with the thug right behind him. He was tackled by the thug and as he broke a piece of glass off of the bottle and held it to his cheek threatening him. Stardust was now in a sort of panic and started thinking of spells that could help him. His mind was racing and right as the thug slid the broken shard down his cheek and on to his throat he used a teleportation spell he had learned from twilight recently and teleported behind the thug and as he turned around bucked him in the side hearing some of the thug's ribs break.

When the thug got to his hooves again he came at Stardust and Stardust teleported again while the thug ran into the brick wall behind him. Still standing the thug then noticed that the shard of glass that he used to threaten Star was in the top of his thigh as he started to wince in pain. Stardust walked up to the incapacitated thug and said. “Are you done?”

“That depends, are you gonna hock up the bits” Said the thug angrily.

Stardust noticed blood running from his upper cheek close to his eye to his lower jaw, this happened when the glass shard was drug down his face. Dripping blood Star said. “If you could still fight I would be on the ground already.”

The thug tried to get to his hooves but screamed in agony as Stardust ran toward the end of the alley and shot a signal into the air with his horn to call police to the location. Two constables arrived within about two minutes and hoof-cuffed the thugs and brought them in along with Stardust to get medical treatment and for Star to be questioned.

When Stardust finally got out of the hospital later that evening he noticed that it was getting dark and made his way back to the hotel where he was staying. He wondered to himself how he would stand up to the carnage of war when he could barely handle himself with a few muggers. He only got out of the ordeal alive because he got lucky that the shard stabbed the thug.

He arrived at the hotel and made his way up to his room and when he got there he went into the bathroom and looked at the scabbed up gash on his face, he knew that there would be a scar there for the rest of his life but on the bright side mares might think his scar made him look tough. Laughing a little at this thought he felt the same twinge in his lower shoulder that he felt when he fell out of the air, come to think of it Star didn’t know how he got in the air in the first place because he didn’t use magic when he rose up into the air and fell. Stardust figured he must have used magic without knowing it and decided to go to bed and while in bed he slept on his left side because it was a little bit uncomfortable to lay on his right side because of his shoulder.

He woke up the next day and decided to go back to the hospital to see if he broke his shoulder but the results show that there was nothing wrong so the doctor suggested it was a contusion which is a bruise that goes down to the bone. He left the hospital with no pain medication and made his way to the castle grounds. Once on the grounds he went straight to the recruitment office, when he entered he saw a large white stallion with a dark and light blue colored mane and his cutie mark was three stars over a shield.

“Welcome my name is Cpt. Shining Armor I am the captain of the royal guard. You must be one of the draftees, come with me and I will show you to the registration area.” Said Shining Armor leading Stardust down a hallway to a room packed with other stallions that have been drafted or some mares that have enlisted.

He was handed a large packet of paper and told to fill it out and bring put it in a drop box when he is finished. He filled out the packet and put it in the drop box as he was told and waited for what seemed like days and finally his name was called in a group with three other ponies. When he got up he was told to follow one of the royal guards that were there to go do an entrance exam to make sure he was in adequate shape to serve.

As he walked into the exam room he saw a number of different machines and a large obstacle course. He started out with the obstacle course and got the best time out of the other three ponies and then he did a speed test on a treadmill to see how fast he could gallop and if it affected him too much galloping on steep hills. The last test was either a flight test, a strength test, or a magic power test depending on what kind of pony you are. Star of course had to do the magic power test because he was a unicorn.

All he had to do was put his horn into a small slot in what looked like some sort of helmet and the rest was done by the machine. During the test he couldn’t hear anything through the thick helmet but saw that everypony had a strange look of awe on their face looking at the power level display. After he got the helmet off he was told to sit aside from the other three and wait for Shining Armor. Shining Armor showed up shortly and brought him into the next room.

“Captain what did you bring me in here to talk about. Did I do something wrong during the test?” Said Stardust getting nervous.

“No I wanted to ask you about your position in the royal guard if you are seen as adequate to serve which there is no doubt that you are and you will most likely be accepted into the royal guard. If you are accepted you will be sent to basic training camp and once trained sent to one of the warzones to fight but after hearing what I did about your magic power being almost as powerful as Princess Luna I got a little worried. I am going to bring you to the castle and we’re going to meet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to see if we could possibly have you privately trained the same way you would be in basic training and also to be how to use powerful magic.” Replied Shining Armor.

Stardust was in awe and confused when he heard this information and replied. “What? I'm going to meet with the Princesses? Why go so far as to meet with them, I mean that’s a lot to handle and quite unexpected…”he was stopped by Shining Armor.

“Calm down and don’t be so worried about it instead be honored that you get an audience with the Princesses, so let’s be on our way to the castle.