The massive training room in the basement was a sealed chamber mostly made of white, impact-resistant panels and steel framing. A shatterproof window was also put in place for Shining Armor and Twilight to watch through in a separate, attached room, like a spectator's box in a theater. Each member of the team took turns in the training room, and guards supplied weapons if needed to each pony as they ran through the session. The tiles that made up the chamber would open up, releasing either training droids or other obstacles for the trainee. Shadow Dancer was the first to volunteer, and a guard laid out a selection of weapons on the table just on the other side of the viewing window.

"Take what you need, Dancer, but you are not allowed any extra ammo," Shining Armor said through the microphone attached to the panel of various buttons in front of him. "Hover drones will be released from the ceiling to test your effectiveness with firearms, and combative droids will be armed with paintball guns and programmed with martial arts training to test your firefight effectiveness."

"Trust me, pal... these hunks of metal won't get the chance to hit me. And aren't you afraid I'll damage these drones...? I mean, these are real bullets," Shadow Dancer remarked as she held up a .45 round between her fingertips and loaded it into a pistol magazine.

"Not in the slightest, Shadow Dancer, these droids have self-repair functions that I can activate whenever I so choose. You can fire away to your heart's content," Shining Armor said as the guard left the training room. "Based on your file you're one of the deadliest assassins in Equestria, so I'm sure you won't disappoint, correct?"

"There are better assassins out there..." Shadow Dancer added as she loaded two magazines into .45 caliber machine pistols and tucked them into her tactical belt with holsters on either side. She then grabbed an assortment of throwing knives. "I'm just one of the lucky ones who aren't dead yet." Her eyes became fixated the impressive DMR at the end of the gun table— all black and decked-out with an infrared scope and tactical laser mount. "Well, well... who's this sexy beast right here?"

"That's a prototype designated marksman rifle; the Fillydelphia manufacturers call it 'Legion'. I figured it would get your attention. It is not only accurate at extreme ranges, but it can switch fire modes and ammunition types with the flick of a button on the stock," Shining Armor grinned as he watched Shadow Dancer giggle and beam like a filly on Hearth's Warming Eve holding the rifle in her hands, taking in the majesty of the compact and deadly rifle.

"I think I'll name you... Roxy," Shadow Dancer smirked as she carved the name into the stock with one of her throwing knives.

"Shining Armor... are you sure you can trust her with that weapon?" Twilight whispered to her brother with a tinge of worry in her voice.

"She can handle it, I can assure you," Shining Armor insisted as he turned off the microphone. "I didn't show you any of the CCTV footage, did I?"

"What is a CCTV? Is it one of those weird moving pictures on those lightboxes?" Fae wondered, uneducated in the ways of regular ponies.

"It's used to record ponies within a building— mostly for surveillance and security," Gizmo answered her with his usual sharp and swift tone of voice. "Honestly, have you even been in an urban environment before?"

"Have you been out of your basement before?" Shadow Dancer snapped back a Gizmo through the mic. "Sorry, I've got better hearing than most ponies..."

"You..." Gizmo's face scrunched up in disgust and became red, causing Fae to burst out into hysteric laughter; not from the joke, mostly due to his odd grimace.

"Um... what is she doing?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at Shadow Dancer as she reached into her right pocket, grabbing her phone and letting the audio-jack poke out an inch from her jeans.

Shadow Dancer uncoiled the earbuds she kept in her left pocket and placed both in her ears, turning her head to Shining Armor. "I hope you don't mind. I, um-... I always listen to music before I-... you know. I can never focus without some music."

"Go ahead, Shadow Dancer, as long as you can complete this session as quickly and precise as possible," Shining Armor allowed her as he watched her movements intently, waiting to see what she'd do first. "Alright. The training sequence will begin in three seconds, Shadow Dancer. One..." Barricades arose from openings in the tiles. "Two..." Five pony-sized droids armed with paintball guns and six hovering, head-sized drones emerged from passageways created in the walls and ceilings, taking their positions either behind barriers or suspended in the air. "Three."

*'Arabella' by The Arctic Monkeys begins to play through Shadow Dancers earbuds*

Shadow Dancer leaped over her gun table, drawing her machine pistols as she fell into a dive-roll, landing with her back against the closest barrier to her. Within seconds, her body faded, going from translucent to completely invisible. The droids began to search the training room for Shadow Dancer; their programming was not meant for an opponent who could turn invisible, but they stood at the ready anyways, waiting for Shadow Dancer to reveal herself.

"Wah?" Twilight's eyes widened as she saw the closest droid to her have its head explode as Shadow Dancer appeared behind it and shoved her pistol into an opening between its head and neck. She vanished before the drones and the other droid even had a chance to perceive her.

Completely undetected, Shadow Dancer holstered her pistols and bounced off the side of a tall barrier with her leg and threw three throwing knives, each lodging itself into a target; one into the head of a droid, then the other two into the central processors of a pair of hover drones. She then fell into another dive-roll, drawing her pistols. Shadow Dancer Blasted apart the cheap, aluminum bodies of the droids with single, three-round bursts from her machine pistols, landing shots to their head, neck, and chest with one pull of the trigger.

"This accuracy is more than just military precision... who is this mare?" Shining Armor thought to himself as he saw Shadow Dancer appear back at the gun table with her DMR in hand.

Shadow Dancer's rifle round from her DMR penetrated through the heads of the three remaining droids as they ran towards her, downing them before they even had the chance to lift their guns. Shadow Dancer took a breath, jumped up, then fired at the wall to her right, causing the bullet to ricochet. The armor-piercing round whizzed through the air, then bore through two drones before the round lost momentum. Finally, the remaining drones had a chance to fire paintball rounds at their target. However, Shadow Dancer vanished once again as she strapped the rifle to her back, and the hail of rounds blistered the ground close to her hooves as she sprinted towards them. She drew her pistols again, then reappeared behind them, firing bursts into their sides as she jumped past them and back to the gun table with the acrobatic skill of a gymnast.

"Incredible," Twilight gawked at Shadow Dancer's work as the drones and droids began to repair themselves.

"Ah, damn... I've gotten out of shape. I can usually take those guys down way quicker than that. Sorry, Shining Armor," Shadow Dancer shook her head as a guard opened the door of the training room.

Shining Armor was quite the opposite of disappointed with Shadow Dancer's display of her skill, and his mouth was still slightly ajar after witnessing the ricochet kills. "It's, um-... you did-... wow."

"Thanks!" Shadow Dancer gave him a wink as she entered the viewing room, leaning up against the back wall beside Blue Thistle, who was munching on a carrot. "How'd I do, 'Tall, Dark, and Silent'?"

"Mmph," Blue Thistle gave her grunt and nod of approval as she crossed her arms uncomfortably; she wasn't too used to other ponies being this close to her.

"I suppose it is my turn then!" Gizmo announced as he paraded to the door on the left, proceeding into the training room.

"Remember to tie your shoelaces, sweetheart!" Shadow Dancer interrupted Shining Armor on the mic before he had the chance to speak.

"You vex me, female pegasus..." Gizmo grumbled as he entered the chamber.

"As I was saying," Shining Armor cleared his throat as he explained Gizmo's training. "You will have the same situation as Shadow Dancer, only this time, I'll have you face off against twice as many adversaries to test your speed and efficiency with your constructs, is that acceptable, Gizmo?"

"Yes, I do believe it is..." Gizmo said as he removed his glasses and tucked them into his coat pocket. "You may begin. I need no guns to complete this task. This will only take a few moments."

"Very well, Gizmo," Shining Armor nodded as he pressed a few buttons, resetting the training room and releasing more robots to fight the short stallion in his plaid suit. "Your training shall begin on the count of three. One... two... three."

Gizmo rolled up his sleeves and removed a detachable piece of tech embedded in each of his cybernetic forearms; strange cubes about the size of an average hand. He tossed them up into the air, and in a matter of seconds the magnets within the cubes were attracted to the steel frame of the training room, and they became latched onto the walls. The cubes then began to unfold and morph— grow into turrets around the size of a normal pony's torso.

"Very inventive," Twilight remarked as the turrets self-loaded their ammunition from a box in the back of their compact bodies.

The turret on his left locked onto the drones in the air, and the turret on the right locked onto the droids below. A hail of bullets escaped the barrels of the turrets, blasting the robots to pieces. Gizmo then grabbed a small metallic sphere in his pocket and tossed it at the ceiling, and it stuck as well. The sphere unfolded outwards like a blossom, then gave off a faint blue glow, and a powerful magnetic force bombarded the metal robots, pulling them into the magnetic singularity like a vacuum, crushing all of them into a tightly packed ball of aluminum pieces and wires.

"Voilà..." Gizmo said as the turrets were pulled back into his forearms and the sphere hovered back into his hand. He put is glasses back on as the heap of robotic scrap on the floor began to reconstruct itself for the next test. "Test completed."

"Very well done, Gizmo," Shining Armor said to the confident stallion as Gizmo re-entered the viewing room.

"Not bad for a basement-dweller," Shadow Dancer joked, breaking Gizmo's confidence and causing his face to redden once again.

"Yay! My turn!" Fae said as she jumped up, hovering in the air for a brief moment as she kept her arms up high.

"Alright, Fae, please be careful. I don't want to replace any part of the training room, okay?" Shining Armor tried to calm her, knowing full well the extent of her psionic power from the data collected by numerous scientists who visited Fae during her incarceration.

"Alrighty, sir!" Fae beamed as she saluted him, hovering over the others and making her way to the door on the left with the guard accompanying her. "What do I get to do?"

"You will be facing off against six turrets loaded with paintballs, and to get an understanding of each power you possess, I'll activate the turrets in pairs, letting you destroy them each in a different way. Do you want me to explain again?" Shining Armor asked; Fae was only paying half-attention.

"No, no, I understand, sir!" Fae insisted as the guard locked the door to the training room. "I'll do my best!"

"Hmm, a magic user. This should be interesting..." Twilight put her hand under her chin as she watched intently.

"Indeed..." Gizmo mimicked Twilight's posture as he shuffled to her side, causing her to retreat in revulsion to the other part of the viewing room.

"Smooth," Shadow Dancer whispered into Gizmo's ear before leaning back up against the wall; his eye then began twitching erratically.

"Alright, Fae. Your training will begin in three seconds," Shining Armor informed the bubbly mare that stood at the ready as his hand hovered over the red launch button. "Three... two... one... begin."

Two large turrets arose from openings in the floor, aiming right at Fae. She reacted immediately, an orb of purple energy sparkling between her horns. It took a moment to charge, but luckily it wasn't long enough for the turrets to begin firing. Two blasts of surging purple energy were launched from her horns, blowing both turrets to pieces with destructive power equivalent to a railgun. Two more turrets then emerged from the ground, but this time, Fae let them lock on. Her body faded until it became translucent, and paintball bullets whizzed through her as if she were made of air.

"Uh, what the hell?" Shadow Dancer stared on at the mystic mare with her eyes wide open. "What's she doing?"

"Her body has become ethereal! No regular unicorn can learn that kind of magic!" Twilight's wings unfurled in excitement as she watched Fae stand between the two turrets, causing them to fire at one another, destroying them.

"Wouldn't wanna get in a tussle with her..." Shadow Dancer whistled, impressed by Fae's range of abilities.

"Incredible!" Twilight's eyes widened as the last two turrets were ripped apart by Fae's telekinetic powers before they could even deploy— deconstructed down to the last bolt and hunk of metal. Twilight took notes on the pad she kept in her pocket. "Hmm... that telekinesis is too powerful to originate from her horn. Her brain perhaps?" She finished off her note and tucked it into her pocket swiftly, giving Shining Armor a nudge. "She's incredible..."

"I know," Shining Armor laughed lightly as he pressed down on the reconstruction button, repairing the obliterated turrets. "I'm glad she's on our side."

"I did my best, Shining Armor!" Fae giggled excitedly as she skipped into the viewing room. "How'd I do?"

"You did great, Fae," Shining Armor spoke to her the same way he would for his daughter.

"Ain't she a walking rainbow?" Shadow Dancer gave Blue Thistle a nudge for a reaction, but she shuffled silently to the side, trying her best to avoid conversation with the talkative mare. "Great... looks like I'll be talking to myself for the next couple weeks..."

"You're up, Blue Thistle-." Shining Armor was cut off as the two-meter mare passed him and entered the training room without a word. "Eh?"

"This will be quick, yes?" Blue Thistle said bluntly as she stood in front of the gun table with her arms crossed, waiting for the door to lock.

Shining Armor shook his head in a daze as Blue Thistle removed her baggy sweater and sweatpants, revealing her sports bra and yoga pants underneath. "Um, yeah, you'll be facing off against some heavy caliber anti-aircraft guns; the training exercise is on the highest danger setting, so be-."

"I will be careful, yes," Blue Thistle interrupted him again as she raised her fists in preparation.

"Holy fuck, she's got some big honkers!" Shadow Dancer remarked at Blue Thistle's prominent chest— large even for her body, which made them gigantic in any normal pony's eyes. "She makes my G's look like damn A's."

"Really? You fixate on meaningless sacks of flesh on either side of the female sternum?" Gizmo scoffed in disappointment at Shadow Dancer's asinine comments. "Your thoughts are so trivial."

"Your mother never had the talk with you, did she?" Shadow Dancer jested, causing Gizmo's face to scrunch up in frustration.

"Oh, hush you promiscuous harlot!" Gizmo snarled back at her as he left her alone on the one side of the room in a huff.

"I can already tell we're gonna be best friends, little guy!" Shadow Dancer chuckled at Gizmo as he grumbled to himself in a corner.

"Wait, Shining Armor, aren't the aircraft guns loaded with real shells?!" Twilight's eyes widened as she looked down at the screen on the panel in front of Shining Armor— a monitor displaying the selected ammunition of each turret."

"She has endured far worse, Twilight. Alright, Blue Thistle, your training will begin on the count of three," Shining Armor lifted waved his index finger over the start button. "One... two... three... begin."

Three massive, single-barrelled turrets made of durable steel unfolded out of large openings in the floor, and they locked onto their target with deadly accuracy in a matter of one second. Blue Thistle reacted swiftly and outstretched her hand, catching the first shell from the turret in the center and spinning around, tossing it back at the cannon with greater velocity. Everypony except Shining Armor had their mouths wide open in awe. Another cannon managed to land a direct hit on Blue Thistle's face, but amazingly she stood firm in her position like an unmovable mountain, wearing a determined mug.

"Zetix undergarments?" Twilight made an educated guess as to why Blue Thistle's clothing didn't vaporize from the blast.

"Correct," Shining Armor nodded.

Blue Thistle charged forward and rammed her fist into the barrel of a turret, causing it to explode violently as it fired again. The other turret on the right fired through the smoke and managed to land a direct hit on her stomach, but Blue Thistle shrugged it off as if it were just a pin-prick. She grabbed the barrel and tore the turret out of its rotating mechanism, crumpling it into a ball in her hands like a piece of paper.

"Oooo... she's really, really strong!" Fae marveled at the giantess' raw power as she tossed the scrunched up ball of steel aside.

Blue Thistle put her sweatpants on, then her sweater; though, she found it a little tricky to get the elastic the bottom cuff over her chest. She went back into the viewing room with a sigh as she looked back at the destruction she caused.

"Excellent job, Blue Thistle," Shining Armor gave her a grin and a nod of approval.

"Wowee! You were so cool!" Fae clapped her hands together playfully once again.

"Wow, Blue Thistle, that was incredible!" Twilight complimented the stoic giantess, who only seemed to half-acknowledge her words.

"Yes, yes," Blue Thistle nodded at Twilight and the others as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, nice going, gorgeous," Shadow Dancer grinned charismatically at Blue Thistle with a genuine smile and laugh.

"Uh..." Blue Thistle's cheeks flushed red for a moment, then she pulled her hood up quickly; nopony had ever referred to her with such a word before, and she wasn't sure how to respond. "I am hungry. May we eat?"

"Sure, Blue Thistle, let's get going then," Shining Armor replied as he turned to the set of concrete stairs to ground level on his left. "I'm sure Blaster and Ditzy Doo would be famished by now."

As they made their way up the stairs, Blue Thistle's mind became flooded with odd thoughts, questions she had never asked herself. Were they not a team of soldiers? She was a soldier. Why did Shadow Dancer treat her as if she were some kind of companion? Before she had the chance to think more on the topic, a low-hanging pipe struck her on the head unexpectedly. She didn't feel it, it was simply just a shock.

"Hey, you okay?" Shadow Dancer stopped as she saw Blue Thistle almost tumble back.

"I am fine, yes," Blue Thistle shooed her hand away and fastened her hood, leaving Shadow dancer behind on the stairs; she was becoming frustrated. "I don't feel it anyways."

Author's Note

Here's a little action for ya! Hope you enjoyed! See you in the next episode of Equestrian Knights!