“Do you solemnly swear all fealty to Equestria, the defense of Equestria, the defense of the Princesses and the New Luna Armed Forces?” I demanded over a voice amplification spell provided by Luna. The name was Luna’s idea and for lack of another option, I went with it.

“I do!” Rainbow Dash announced, standing tall in her new royal colours. Atop her head sat a blank CF green beret that looked eager to receive its first badge.

“Do you swear to uphold the interests of Equestria, the Princesses and the laws of the New Luna Armed Forces?” I barked again, my back turned from the crowd behind me as I stood directly before Rainbow Dash opposingly.

“I do!” Dash replied with a slowly forming grin.

“You understand that by accepting these terms and conditions, you agree to give your life to my command and the command of the Princesses?”

“I do!” Dash held her steeled gaze out past me and at the crowd behind her.

“Finally, are you prepared to die for your Commanding Officer, your Country and your Government?” I asked, my voice dropping an octave but the volume remained the same.

“I am!” Dash announced again, this time with flash bulbs exploding behind me.

“Then I am proud to hereby bestow your first rank of Private, effective immediately!” I announced, pinning the single chevron badges on Private Rainbow Dash’s lapel and Beret before stepping away to let the masses get a complete look at the new recruit.

“Salute to the Princesses!” I barked, snapping a salute to the Princesses sat at the back of the courtyard, looming over everypony else. Dash did the same and we held the salute while the crowd broke out into applause.

“About, face!” I ordered, turning to the left in time with Rainbow Dash; the morning was spent going over the forms and proper ways of doing things. “March!” I ordered and began the strides as Dash high-stepped off stage. It took a bit of work but I eventually had Dash agreeing to high-step.

“All that high-stepping was so embarrassing!” Dash complained once we were off stage and no longer under the effects of the voice enhancement spells. “So uncool!” she added as I grinned back at her.

“Yes well, as of a minute ago, you now belong to me. There’ll be much worse things in your future.” I grinned back malevolently. Dash merely rolled her eyes but as my face remained unwavering, she shuttered at the ideas that may have come to mind.

“Okay, so explain something to me.” Dash requested, pulling her jacket off to put it away in the suit bag that Equestrian Rarity had provided for us yesterday. “What’s with the suits and rank names and colours?”

“Tokens from my past. If i’m leading this Army, then i’m going to at least have something I’m familiar with. The CF green was the dress colour of the Royal Canadian Army, so was the beret if you weren’t part of the armoured divisions. Blue was for the Navy and black was for the Air force.” I explained, pulling my own suit jacket off to hang it in it’s awaiting suit bag.

“But what’s wrong with the Wonderbolt’s uniform?” Dash complained again, draping her suit bag across her shoulders to walk with me out of the make-shift auditorium.

“It’s blue and yellow. You’re not Navy nor are you a Wonderbolt any longer.” I put in as we were joined by the Princesses and Spike, Sunset Shimmer and Weiss and her brother. “If you’re going to represent the New Luna Armed Forces, you’re going to dress the part and you’ll like it.” I added before giving a kiss to Sunset.

“Is that an order, Captain?” Dash smirked, however it disappeared when I shot her a glare. “Alright, sheesh! I’ll let it go!”

“All that pomp and circumstance for a single soldier. I don’t see the point.” Eben complained, his arms crossed over his chest.

“The point was to establish the public eye of the new Military forces. Now we’ve got something to live up to and raise the bar on. From now on anypony who wishes to join will be subjected to the same public display.” Twilight explained as Spike merely watched from her back. “That is, of course, if the New Luna Armed Forces will continue to recruit?”

“But of course. Wouldn’t be much of an Army if there were only two of us going into war over a long duration of time. I intend to draft some of the better warriors from both the Crystal and Royal Guards and retrain them into proper killing machines.” I replied with a grin, making a number of bodies roll their eyes, Sunset, Weiss and Dash excluded.

“And what if by drafting such fighters to the NLAF, you leave the rest of us at a loss?” Cadence asked curiously.

“I’m not going to draft every one of them. I’ll have to leave a number of them behind so they can continue to train the replacements.” I retorted. “At the moment however, because my first Operation is hopefully going to end things before they begin, I’m having to draft the betters in order to provide a fighting chance for Equestria. I’ve already got Prince Shining Armour to dredge up a list of the Crystal empire Guards who’ll be joining me.”

“Oh, so that’s what he was doing all of yesterday.” Cadence’s head went up and back down in understanding, apparently having been left out on a secret. “And here I thought he was avoiding me.”

“Nah, i’m sure Shiny wouldn’t ever do something like that.” Twilight offered in support for the pregnant step-sister.

“So, when do you plan to enact your plan? When do you ship out?” Sunset inquired, turning the conversation back towards Dash’s and my first deployment.

“Two days from now. I still have to finish the rest of Dash’s physical evaluation, create the explosives and then pack for the trip.” I shrugged back, shifting my weight from foot to foot as standing around was getting tiresome.

“Seriously? I get to fight already?” Dash beamed eagerly before biting my pant leg and dragged me off. “Come on, let’s get going already!” she demanded through clenched teeth.

“And I suppose that’s my cue to leave!” I called back to the remaining party who were in some form of laughter, save for Eben who merely smirked. “alright, let me go and we’ll get going!” I requested of Dash who finally released me and ran ahead of me to get back to training.

~~~

“How-” Up. “Many-” Down. “More?” Up and I crouched down nose to nose with Dash who was in the middle of her 437th wing-up. Some couple hundred wing-ups ago even she had started losing her breath and now I could see the fatigue in her face.

“You’ll keep going until I get tired!” I shouted back into her face as she went back down again before rising up, her wings shaking violently.

“Damn, if I knew what human training regimens were like…” Dash muttered, dropping back down and earning her another hundred wing-ups.

“Well it’s too late to quit now! You belong to me, welp!” I grinned back, my voice still fluttering the fur on her face.

“Never said I would have quit, sir! I was going to say I’d have joined up earlier!” Dash grinned as the sweat cascaded down her face.

“I like it! One hundred, sixty-three more then we move on to push-ups!” I ordered as Dash lowered her entire body again and pushed back up again, looking like she was fueled by new vigor.

“That’ll make six hundred wing-ups for her! This is crazy!” Sunset announced as I went and sat down under some shade and with a cool drink next to her. This was more for the psychological effects it would have on Dash as she worked out under the hot sun with tepid water occasionally being sprayed on her body to keep her from heat-stroke.

“Yeah, and after a short break to cool her back down again we’ll both be doing just as many weighted pushups.” I grinned and took a mouthful of cold grape juice. Next to me sat a couple bags of 150lb sandbags that would be placed on our backs to really make it hurt.

“You’re really working her, aren’t you?” Sunset shook her head in mild disbelief at my training regimen as Dash finally collapsed on the ground, somewhere between 470 to 480.

“Hey! Did I say you could rest? You’ve still got another 120 more to go!” I barked, making Dash groan and push herself back up onto her wings to continue. “But yes, yes I am.” I added, this time aiming the comment at my girlfriend.

“Was this normal in your past?” Sunset asked again, no longer watching Dash but instead focusing her attention squarely on me.

“Pretty much, yeah. After dinner we’re going to be going for a march from here to Ponyville and back.” I replied as the sun gradually fell lower in the sky.

“What about weapon or combat training? How is that going to work between now and when you deploy?” Sunset looked genuinely confused with this concept of how much time was left.

“Sunset, you seem to think that we’ll be sleeping tonight.” I grinned back, dropping Sunset’s jaw momentarily. “Frankly, I already have so much to cover with Dash before we go that I know i’m not going to be able to get everything covered in the next two days. I’m not even going to touch weapons training for lack of time and resources.”

“So then just combat? How’s that going to work?”

“Turns out that there’s a Zebra near Ponyville who knows some kind of advanced hoof-to-hoof combat techniques who’s volunteered to be Dash’s teacher for the night.” I shrugged back as Dash mentally reached the 530 mark.

“Do you think they’ll be able to cover even the basic in a couple hours?” was the next question. I shrugged again silently and took another drink.

“Frankly, I’m not so much concerned with that as I am with the Stealth aspect of Dash.” I sighed, staring at Dash’s brightly coloured mane and tail. I already knew that i’d be covering her pastel fur in a black battle outfit but the mane and tail… that would be difficult.

“It’s the mane, isn’t it?” Sunset smirked as she looked over my own silver hair, equally as revealing if it wouldn’t be for the fact that I’d be wearing a hat of some kind to cover it up.

“Yep. I can wear a hat to cover mine up but Dash… I’m certain she could find something to tuck her mane into but the tail; I can’t even think of anything that would work save for wrapping it up in some kind of black fabric.” I replied as Dash reached 560.

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out.” Sunset offered in support as I set aside my glass and stood to rejoin Dash.

“How’s it going?” I asked mildly. Dash was at the point of panting heavily and sweating heavier than that but she grinned none the less.

“I think i’ve still got some left in me, sir!” Dash shouted back between breaths.

“Good, because you’ve still got 20 more wing-ups to go, then we’ll have a short break to let you cool down before the both of us go for 600 weighted pushups.” I smirked, making Dash falter and crash to the ground before recovering and finishing up.

“Seriously? Dude you’re killing me!” she complained as I merely stepped beside her and gently placed a boot on her back to add more weight.

“15 more with my foot on your back, soldier! Now!” I barked, slowly adding more and more weight till she completely collapsed and refused to move on the 599th down.

“I’m done, i’m out. I can’t move my wings anymore!” she gasped, breathing slightly erratically. I removed my foot and picked her up off the ground, sitting her back on her rump. “And we still have more to do after this? I cannot wait till bed!”

“Heh, yeah you’ll be waiting a lot longer for bed than you think.” I grinned, making Rainbow whine slightly as I handed her a bottle of ice water. Taking a spritzing bottle I began dusting Dash’s fur in cool water as she guzzled back the liquids in the bottle held between her hooves.

“Right, feeling better now?” I asked cordially, getting onto my knees a ways away as Sunset dragged the sand bags over to us one at a time.

“More or less. You’re going to be joining me this time?” Dash replied, still breathing heavily as the bottle was lowered from her lips.

“Yep, six hundred from both of us.” I replied as Dash stretched her back hooves out as I did the same with my own legs. “No winged assistance or it’s two hundred more for just you.” I ordered as her wings snapped to her side with a crack of the air.

“No worries there. I don’t think i’ll be doing anything with them for a while.” Dash replied with a smirk as we both took up positions with my arms tight against my side. Sunset heaved the bags onto our backs and nearly crushed Dash under the weight before she recovered and rose back up to meet me nose to nose.

“One.” I began counting, lowering my self down to the point that the grass was tickling my shirt. Dash followed me down and upon quick inspection I ensured she wasn’t touching the ground with her belly either. Both of us rose back up again and Dash counted the next.

“Two.” down we both went again, rising back up once the grass blades touched our undersides.

“Three.” I counted, down and up.

This went on for about an hour of back and forth counting, feeding off each other’s energy to reach the 590 mark.

“Five-ninety-one.” I counted, the both of us sweating heavily but we both refused to be outdone by the other.

“Five-ninety-two.” Dash retorted, her voice straining over her protesting forelegs.

“Five-ninety-three.” I grinned, though in my own mind I was feeling how out of shape i’d gotten.

“Five-ninety-four.” Dash grinned back, steeled resolve in her eyes to make it through to the end.

“Fine-ninety-five and power through the rest!” I ordered as we both finished the last five push-ups in less than a minute before we both collapsed to the ground.

“Hah, not so tough yourself afterall, are you?” Dash grinned as she rolled onto her back to look at me upside down, panting heavily.

“I’m just out of shape is all.” I replied, panting just as heavily. Sunset appeared in the evening light with two large bottles of water, one of each of us. “Can’t wait for the march to Ponyville and back carrying 20 pounds of gear!”

“Should be cake compared to those one-fifty pound bags we just had.” Dash chuckled as accepted the bottle with her mouth, the container being flipping upside down to free float in the air as it quickly drained down her throat. I sat up to drink instead and watch as Dash recovered.

“Maybe but this is for endurance training, not strength. We won’t be making stops on the road what so ever.” I explained as hauled myself to my feet. “But for now, i’m hungry.” I announced as Dash plucked the half empty bottle from her lips and rolled back over with a groan to stand on shaking legs and join me and Sunset in our quest to retrieve sustenance.

“What’s for dinner then?” Sunset asked as we entered into the hallway leading to the kitchen/dining room.

“Well if my internal clock is on point,” the three of us turned into the kitchen and it’s buffet. “Then anything that’s been prepared by the cooks.”

“Awesome!” Dash exclaimed, bolting into the room as Sunset and I casually acquired our plates and aimed for the table of meats where Weiss and her brother currently napped. “I could get used to this!” she exclaimed, her head poking over a table of fruits and vegetables.

“Well don’t. Consider this to be your introductory dinner. Everything you eat after tonight will be held to a strict military diet.” I replied with a grin, dragging a slab of steak meat onto my plate followed by a egg over medium on top of that, with hash-browns both over and under everything. Stepping over to the vegetable table as well, I scooped a bit of steamed broccoli onto my plate before taking a seat at the table next to my girlfriend and across from the Private Dash.

“So you’re an omnivore, huh?” Dash noted as she lifted a forkful of bell pepper into her mouth, watching Sunset and I consume our meats. Sunset had opted for a couple of chicken thighs that i’d gone out and hunted and butchered myself since none of the Castle staff were very likely to do so. Technically the same could be said for all the meats provided but ehh, semantics.

“Humans are omnivores, yes.” Sunset replied as I had a mouthful. “Is that going to a problem for you?”

“Nope, you’re like bears then.” Dash replied, biting into another grilled pepper.

“An avid comparison.” I muttered through a mouthful, trying to remain semi-polite and not talk with my mouth completely open. “Where’s Princess Luna? We’re going to need her magic to get the gear we’ll be carrying to Ponyville and back.” I asked once my mouth was completely empty.

“Do you never speak of me when you don’t need me?” Luna asked, rounding the corner into the kitchen.

“Sure we do.” I replied, stuffing my mouth to avoid trying to think of an example. I had none.

“So what items are you going to be requiring? I suspect tents and proper camping gear?” Luna asked, taking a seat at the table across from Sunset and beside Dash still stuffing her face.

“Not exactly.” I swallowed again and prepared for another bite but held short. “They’re more designed for military use so i’ll have to have Weiss assist us in creating things. As per your condition, nothing will be larger than your body.” I explained before taking the bite from the fork.

~~~

“I should have said nothing larger than Rainbow Dash’s body.” Luna whined as Dash and I stuffed our backpacks as large as my torso with everything I’d conjured with Luna’s magic and Weiss's assistance. “Even your camping materials are no larger than your head!” she lifted the compressed package of a two fully grown human tent up to examine the tiny package. True enough, it was about as thick around as my thigh.

“Yeah well, these backpacks would’ve been a hinderance if I could summon them.” I replied as Dash wiggled into her black body armoured suit, her tail already wrapped up in black self adhesive tape.

It was still the same night, we’d just absconded to my foyer in the dungeons to acquire all our gear and go over everything. At the moment we were simply packing everything into our backpacks and saddle bags for the march to and from Ponyville where we’d pick up the zebra instructor.

“And you absolutely need all of this?” Sunset looked at a bunch of items around her with a look of absolute confusion. “I don’t even know what half of it is.”

“Well, that shiny package in your left hand is an emergency blanket that’s good for use in the arctic weather and desert wastes. The item in your right hand is an omni-tool. Has everything from a fork/knife/spoon to a can opener and hand saw. Also included are a set of allen wrenches and various screwdrivers all sized for weapon maintenance.” I grinned as Sunset tossed both items to me and I caught them in the backpack, though the Omni-tool was fished out and dropped into an exterior pocket.

“I’m almost afraid to ask what this is…” Luna picked up a cylindrical object with a button on the handle and a large glass face on one end.

“That is a flashlight. Hit the switch.” I smirked as Luna aimed the glass at the ceiling and magically hit the switch. The ceiling was illuminated in over 300 lumens of light, shocking both Luna and Dash who’d never seen a flashlight before.

“What in the night sky!” Luna exclaimed, dropping the large flashlight to the ground and let it roll around and highlight Dash’s remaining visible colours. “That isn’t possible!”

“Sure it is. Evidence as such.” I replied, retrieving the device and clicking the switch again. “This is actually a much more simple technology compared to the rest of humanity.”

“To easily create light without a flame or star… Humanity continues to astound me.” Dash whistled as I set the light in the pack and proceeded to strap a bedroll to the bottom of everything. “Is this suit supposed to be so tight?” she asked, straining to get into the full body suit.

“Are you having issue getting into it or just zipping it up? If you can zip it, it fits.” I asked as Dash continued to wiggle into the suit, her rear end already mostly in the suit but she was having issues getting her forelegs into the holes.

“That depends on if I can get into the thing or not.” Dash grumbled as she sort of skipped over to me for assistance. “Help me into this thing would you?”

Leaning over, I held the suit still so the pegasus could push her tired wings through the holes and get her forelegs into the sleeves. Her head disappeared between her forelegs and grabbed ahold of the zipper with her teeth before pulling back up and zipped up snugly.

“There. Not so bad now is it?” I asked as Dash checked herself out in the light of the torches around us.

“Quite slimming, no? And you’re sure this is enough protection right?” Luna announced with concern, looking over the thin ballistic plates protecting Dash’s larger sections of body; chest, back, neck and flanks. Her head still had yet to be adorned with the helmet that would not only hide her mane but also provide full protection to her eyes and face.

“This armour will stop most small arms fire up to 5.56mm rounds and many explosive shrapnel. If Dash is taking fire from a large caliber weapon like a 7.62mm, then she’s in more trouble than she deserves.” I explained, knocking my fist against the plate covering her chest.

“So even if the Griffons have some sort of advanced ballistic technology, Dash’s going to be fine, right?” Sunset asked, leaning back against a stone post.

“It’ll stop the bullet but it’ll still hurt like hell. No avoiding that.” I shrugged back before pulling my shirt off to pull my own stealth suit top on. I’d already changed into the pants but because of how heavy the armour was, I’d opted to wait till the end for the shirt.

“So, is that everything we need?” Dash looked around at the items still strewn about the room. “What about the rest of this?”

“That’ll all get packed in when we actually leave. Most of that is ammunition for my shotgun, magnum and rifle so we don’t need to bring all that dangerous stuff with us on our march.” I replied, loading up my shotgun with more shells before stuffing the pouches with more and dropping the rest into the pouch on the sling.

“So why’re you bringing your shotgun?” Dash smirked as I dropped the weapon into the sling on my back barrel first before pulling the backpack over my shoulders.

“Security. As I said, we’re at war and you have no idea who’ll try to attack us on our walk.” I shrugged as I pulled a black toque over my head and stuffed the rest of my silver hair into it before dropping a combat helmet over top that.

“So why don’t I get a weapon?” Dash looked at me like i’d insulted her or something.

“Because we have neither the firearm compatible to be shot by a pony, nor do you have the proper training to even use one.” I explained as everything else scattered about began arranging themselves by size against a blank wall, all glowing blue. “Now let’s go.”

“Sir, yes sir!” Dash saluted and marched out of the door ahead of me as I waved good-bye to Sunset and Luna.

Author's Note

So I wrote all this while listening to Tom Thum on Youtube. You've never heard of 'im you say? Well you're missing out.

Regardless I am so distracted right now but I got this out. As such I'm expecting a bunch of editorial advice as I haven't the attention to do it myself right now.

Malawi