Seven Days Later

The rest of the week went by rather quickly, to say the least.

Over the course of the seven days that I had been allotted to train myself, I quickly realized a few things.

When attempting to perform any cardio-based workouts, specifically running and jumping, I didn’t even come close to breaking a sweat. The time that Celestia had showed me this came back to me quickly, and I realized that attempting to raise my level of stamina was practically useless. Perhaps if I pursued any kind of training in the guard, I would be more challenged, but for now, I stuck to other physical activities.

Despite my, apparently, advanced respiratory system, my level of actual physical strength had remained completely unchanged, and, unfortunately, this was not a good thing. I had never really worked out before, and the most physical activity I had ever done was in high school gym class. I kept in shape by walking a lot, particularly with Austin. Truthfully, I had no real desire to become terribly strong, like some bodybuilders that you might see. But if I was attempting to join the Royal Guard, then being stronger than average might not be a bad thing.

“Come to think of it... why am I even trying to join the guard?” I pondered out loud.

“Well, Bell signed you up,” Austin told me. I sat in thought for a few moments. Austin and I were currently sitting in the mess hall, partaking in a tradition that we held close to our hearts.

Breakfast.

“I don’t even know if I want to try out anymore honestly,” I said to my friend. I thought while I slowly chewed on a forkful of scrambled eggs. For food that was served mainly to the guards and staff of the castle, it was rather flavourful, and I had no trouble eating the food at all.

“Why not? What’s the matter?” Austin asked me in a concerned tone.

“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to try out, it’s just... I don’t really know why I am,”

“You did kinda just go along with what Bell did,” Austin said to me.

“I mean... I can at least try out, right?” I asked. Austin smiled and nodded as he took a sip of his water.

My... workouts, if you could call them that, had consisted of trying to increase my overall physical strength. Like I had speculated, the castle did indeed have a weight room, and a rather large one at that. Once I had started, there were a few guards there who were willing to give me a few pieces of advice on getting stronger. Of course, I wouldn’t get any major results when my time limit was a single week. Still, it would help to put at least a little work into my muscles before I attempted the qualifiers.

In my mind, all of this was happening incredibly fast. The past week had felt like nothing, and even since we first arrived in Canterlot, things seemed to be just... speeding up. Older people say that your life seems to go by faster as you get older. Maybe there was some truth to be found in this after all.

“What time does all of this start?” Austin asked me.

“It starts at ten. It’s around quarter after nine right now, so we have a decent amount of time. We’re supposed to meet at the training grounds, so that we can go to the place where they are actually holding the qualifiers,” I told Austin. He nodded, before standing up with his plate. Apparently in the time I spent daydreaming about what was going to happen today, Austin had managed to finish his breakfast before I did. I quickly started eating the food on my plate, while Austin took his back to the canteen. I finished my food before taking my dishes and putting them away.

“So what now?” Austin asked me as we left the mess hall.

“Well, I’m going to go to the training grounds, and you can... I don’t know, go away,” I said sarcastically. Austin practically winced at me.

“Why do you hate me?” he asked in a sad tone.

“Because! You’re just such a “hateable” person!” I told him with a large smile, before turning to walk away.

“See you later then!” Austin called out to me, and I turned around to wave goodbye.

I passed a few ponies I knew on the way to the training grounds. Not “knew” on a personal level, but “knew” as in it would be awkward to not wave at them, but even more awkward to try and start a conversation with them. That level of "knew."

I pushed open one of the large wooden doors to the training grounds as I arrived.

There were two lines in the room, one with ponies and one with humans. There were relatively few humans compared to the amount of ponies in the lines, but there were still a large amount of humans in the line. I went over to what I would assume would be my line, and stood behind the next person. He was tall like me. Actually, most of the humans were relatively tall here. That would make sense, but it just made me feel... inadequate? Maybe...

The line moved forward, and the person ahead of me turned to talk to me after he took a step.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” the man asked me. I glanced at him cautiously.

“Alright, what about you?” I responded politely.

“Okay, okay. You here to try out for the guard?” he asked with a small smile. I was slightly taken aback at this question.

“I... yes, I would assume that’s why we’re all here,” I said slowly. He chuckled at my answer.

“Of course, just seeing if you’re all there,” he laughed. I narrowed my eyes slightly.

“Right, of course,” I said cautiously. Something about the man in...

I say man, in reference to who I was talking to, but of course he was likely no older than the age of twenty-five. I would not be surprised if he was only a twenty year old. All of the people here were young, just like me and the man. The line moved forward again, and we all took a collective step.

“How do you feel?”

I glanced at the man again, slightly annoyed at the apparent need of conversation, but I kept this to myself. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

“Alright,” I quickly responded, hoping to quell the conversation.

“That’s good. I think I’ll do alright,” he said. I nodded, but otherwise did not say anything.

The man was as tall as me, with blonde hair, and a slightly rugged complexion. He had a small amount of facial hair that matched the tone of his hair. The line stepped forward.

The man stepped up to a table, where a pair of people sat, writing things down as they asked questions. I tried to listen to what they were saying but I only got a few words out of their conversation. Eventually the man was done, and I stepped up to the table.

“Name please,” a lady asked me.

“Daniel,”

“Age?”

“Eighteen,”

“Alright... do you currently have any disabilities that we should know about?”

“No, I do not,”

“Okay... are you currently taking any medication?”

"I... am not,”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,”

“Okay, just being careful. Do you have any current mental problems? Conditions or otherwise?”

“No, none,”

“Okay... can I get your height and weight please?”

“Six three, and about one hundred and sixty pounds,”

“Pretty slim, huh? You sure you won’t get knocked down by a rogue gust of wind?” the mare asked with a laugh.

I stared at her for a moment, before smiling slightly. She laughed again, before writing something down on her papers quickly.

“Alright, go over there and wait for an instructor please,” the lady told me, pointing over to a group of people standing by the door to the grounds. I smiled and nodded at her, walking over to the group. A few of them nodded at me, and I returned the gesture.

Before long, what looked to be an instructor came out from the hallway and came over to us.

“Alright, listen up! My name is Sergeant Breezy. You will refer to me as Sir, or Sergeant! Understood?” the guard yelled at us. We all snapped our attention to him.

“Yes sir!” we all yelled collectively, albeit a little clumsily. We all stood a little straighter, waiting for what the sergeant was to say. He walked around the group of us.

“You’re all here for one reason! The qualifiers! So, we need to march out to where they are actually happening. We’re all going to go out for a nice, calm jog,” the instructor told us sarcastically.

From the looks of it, our “instructor” was another one of the guards in the castle. A deep grey coat, with golden armor, and a stern look on his face. Overall, he didn’t look any different than the rest of the guards in the castle, but of course, there was something different about him. He was considerably more aggressive than the rest of any of the guards I had dealt with. Whether or not this had to do with what was happening today was a mystery to me.

“Alright, let’s go! Outside, now! Single file!” the guard told us. He started towards the door, and we all fell into a silent march behind him. We exited the indoor portion of the training grounds, and I squinted my eyes at the bright sun outside.

“Alright you lot, we need to take a long hike to get to the start of the qualifiers, so everyone is going to get there as fast as you can. You can run, or you can walk,” the sergeant told us, before stepping up to me and getting right up in my face, “but I highly suggest that you don’t take your time,” he said with an angry look. I averted my eyes from him, choosing instead to look at the horizon. He stepped back, moving on to the next person.

“Are there any questions?” he asked loudly. I puffed out my chest.

“I have a question sir!” I yelled. He looked to me, before walking up to me.

“And what is that, neophyte?” he said, and I almost winced at the word. It was a genuine surprise to me that he knew what that word meant.

“Where are the qualifiers taking place?” I asked.

“Who are you talking to, boy!?” he yelled at me, and I immediately realized my mistake.

“Where are the qualifiers taking place, sir!” I yelled back. He stared at me for a moment, before taking a step back.

“They’re being held at an arena, in the heart of the city. You’ll all be following me there. If you get lost, and can’t find your way there, then you might as well go home. We do not need people who can’t follow directions in the military, got it?” he told us all.

“Yes sir!” we said in unison again. Truth be told, I had no idea that I was doing, or what I was getting myself into. I would be willing to bet that the other people here were feeling the same way.

“Well then... if there are no other questions, then let’s go!” he yelled at us, turning and running away. The group collectively looked at each other in confusion, then we all started running after the colt.

There were about fifteen of us that were running after the guard, and I briefly wondered if all of us would make it. These thoughts, however, were quickly cast aside, as I was focused on another aspect of what was happening.

I remembered what I had been shown about my endurance, and I had been wondering if it would come into play at all during the qualifiers. This of course, was a silly thing to wonder, considering that practically all of the training we would be doing would be completely based on our physical capabilities. I would finally be pushed beyond what I normally did, perhaps even to the point of exertion.

I quickly distinguished myself from the rest of the group by catching up with the sergeant almost immediately. He glanced back at the sound of me running behind him, before looking back to focus on the road ahead of him. I glanced back at the group, to see that only two others had caught up by this point, and that the others were slowly but surely falling into line.

As the rhythm of our paces became recurrent to me, I was allowed to think freely for a moment. Personally, I could not help but cringe at the... unprofessional manner that this was happening in. I could not help but feel that this could have been done in a much more appealing way. Then again, nothing about what we were going to do was supposed to be appealing. Actually, it was designed to be the most unappealing thing that we were ever to do. Realistically, that’s what set a soldier apart from the common citizen. A soldier was willing to do things and go places that other, lesser willed people or ponies would deem unthinkable. All in an effort to protect said individuals way of life. To do what they do so that others don’t have to.

Soldiers got their hands dirty so no one else would have to.

The qualifiers were likely designed to be unprofessional and unappealing to weed out those who thought the way I did.

Self-correction... need to work on that...

By this time, all of us had fallen into a neat, single file line, and we soon found ourselves running though the city known as Canterlot. In the back of my mind, I could not help but laugh at the sight of it all.

Fifteen humans, all fairly tall, following a member of the royal guard at practically a breakneck pace. I would have been laughing, if I wasn’t focused on not running into someone.

“Slow down!” Sergeant Breezy yelled to us, and we all slowed our run to a light jogging speed. This made it much easier to avoid colliding with other individuals going about their own business. We ran through the small business section of the city, before rounding a wide corner. We found ourselves on a wide open street, where there were very few people about. Up ahead, I saw what I presumed to be our destination. A large, building, round in shape, stood tall above us. It was around nine or ten blocks away, from my view.

“Alright, double time, now!” the sergeant yelled. He started running as fast as he could, and I was quick to match his pace. Like the last time I chased down a pony, which was also the only time, I matched his speed. However, this time there wasn’t a massive crowd of ponies and people to dodge and weave through. On the orders of the sergeant, I heightened my speed. I pressed forward as hard as I could, pushing my legs to carry me as fast as they were capable of. The arena was approaching us fast, and the sergeant was running extremely quickly.

I, however, was moving faster.

I slowly passed Sergeant Breezy, and glanced over to see a surprised look on his face, before he lowered his head and ran even faster. I was surprised at his speed, though he was likely more taken aback by mine. We ran neck and neck, one of us pulling ahead, then the other.

To keep pace with a member of the Canterlot Royal Guard. As a human? It was completely unheard of.

My arms danced in an effort to help me keep my balance. At this kind of a speed, taking a fall would definitely give me more than a few scratches. I pressed my body as far as it could possibly go, and slowly crept ahead of the sergeant. He seemed to do the same, but his efforts were in vain. We had arrived at the arena.

I slowed my run to a jog, then to a walk, stopping and leaning against the side of the building. I hadn’t realized it, but sweat had been pouring down my face, and at this point it had started stinging my eyes. I doubled over, panting hard, trying to take in as much air as possible. Sergeant Breezy walked over to me, panting just as hard as I was.

“That was... that was a good run, cadet. Ya... beat me. Impressive... But tell me. How... the hell do you... out run a guard?” he asked me between large gasps of air. I glanced up at him and simply shook my head, not being able to bring my voice forward. The rest of the group, not having a magical aid on their side, were only just starting to catch up. The two who had caught up earlier arrived, doubled over in exhaustion.

It honestly felt nice to be brought to the edge of my physical capabilities. I had never been pushed this far before, and it brought a smile to my face to know what I was capable of. At least in terms of running. The rest of the group started showing up, and soon enough, we had a group of humans, all gasping for air. By this time, the sergeant and I had calmed down a bit, and were walking around trying to get our breath back. I learned in gym class that it was better to walk around then to sit down to try and get your breath back. Sitting puts pressure on your lungs, and that makes it harder to get air into them. Walk around to get your breath back, then sit to rest after.

Once we had all taken our small break, the sergeant rounded us up, and we all went inside the arena. Inside was a standard arena setting, but in the middle... was something that I had never seen before. It was an obstacle course, but it was massive! There were at least twenty different parts to it, and it took up practically the entire arena floor. I swallowed nervously at the sight before me.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, to the qualifiers,”

Author's Note

Goodness me it has been a while...

Sorry...