The next morning I rubbed my eyes and stretched. I hopped out of bed and walked into the kitchen to find that breakfast had already been made.

Twilight was smiling while eating. “Good morning Spike.”

“Good morning, did you cook?”

“No Gear did, he cooked for us and I saved you a plate. He said it was his way of thanking us for letting him stay here while he worked. Now I want to start on something.” She said as she finished her breakfast.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well since you volunteered yourself to be my student, I had my schedule cleared and have decided to start teaching you.” She smiled.

“You aren’t going to try to teach me magic again are you?”

Twilight shuddered. “No I won’t, but I do think it would be beneficial for you to know how magic works.”

“Twilight…” I trailed off.

“We’ll cover just the basics, and no not the advanced basics the basic basics.” Twilight gave me a reassuring smile.

“Can I eat while you teach?” I asked.

“Sure! Just make sure that we get it down.” Twilight hovered a plate over to me, which I grasped in my hands. Twilight trotted into the library as I followed her and on the table were some books, which were covered in dust. “I asked Celestia to send some of my books from my old room at the castle to here.” She picked one up and blew the dust off.

I finished with my breakfast pretty easily, though it was very good. I sat down next to Twilight. “So how are we going to do this?”

“Let’s read together.” Twilight shook the dust out of the pages. “Would you mind reading out loud at your own pace?”

“Sure.” Twilight gave me the book and I opened it. “Magic 101, understanding the basics of magic and how it’s used.” Twilight smiled as I continued to read. “In order to understand magic you must first understand where it comes from. Magic surrounds all of us and is summoned from the planet. Magic can be used by any living being, yet it manifests in different ways.”

“The most well known type of magic is the one used by unicorns.” Twilight said. “But you already knew that.”

“Magic used by ponies usually is innate or applied.” I continued to read until it was around lunch time.

“That’s chapter three done. I’m proud of you Spike.” Twilight said and I grinned.

“I’ll go make lunch for us.” I said and Twilight picked up a book while I walked off into the kitchen. When I went in I saw Steel Gear, he had helped himself to the contents in our fridge and was eating a sandwich. “Hey Steel.”

“Oh hey Spike.” He said with half a mouthful of food, he swallowed and asked. “Is Twilight available? I want to show her the prototypes I made from the alien tech.”

“She should be available in a few minutes or so.” I said as I got the sandwich stuff back out and made a few sandwiches for Twilight and myself. I took them back into the library and put them down on the table in front of Twilight. Who, as usual was too engrossed in her book to even pay attention. “Twilight.”

“Hmm?” Twilight looked up from her book. “Oh thank you Spike.”

“Before I forget, Steel wanted to talk to you and show you the prototypes that he made when you have the chance.” I mentioned and sat back down next to her.

“Sure, so we started on chapter 4.” Twilight said.

“Before we go on, what was the book you were reading?” I asked.

“It was about high level offensive and defensive spells.” Twilight said. “With the threat of those things attacking again, the girls and I agreed to train and learn how to defend ourselves, sans Fluttershy. She’d rather brush up on her medical history in case any of us get hurt.”

“Thanks Twilight.” I said.

“Well what did you expect?” Twilight said. “I care for my baby.” She then hugged me and I hugged back. Twilight gave me a kiss on the forehead and we continued to read.

Meanwhile at a gym on the far side of Ponyville stood the other five on the outside. Fluttershy was reading up on her old nursing books. While the other four girls were talking. “I’m sorry girls but this still seems a little, uncouth to me.” Rarity voiced her opinion.

“Look Rarity, I like you being my friend an’ all but even you understand that even the most famous model in the world had to get down and dirty some time.” AJ said and Pinkie giggled. “Not like that Pinkie, I mean having to put up their hooves and throw some punches.”

Rarity sighed. “Well, to be fair. I do know some self defense techniques. So I understand your point.”

“Well the pony with the most knowledge of fighting is Rainbow. You are a black belt right Dashie?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah, I’m a fourth degree black belt in karate.” Dash said. “I never really had to use it until the wedding and a few days ago. I’m not really qualified to teach anypony though.”

“Well who taught you then?” Rarity asked.

“My Dad, he’s a qualified martial arts instructor in Judo, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Kung-Fu, and Jiu-jitsu.” Rainbow said.

“Wow.” Applejack was shocked.

“But if I was to hazard to guess what you girls would be good at, AJ you would do good in boxing or wrestling, Rarity you would be good with Jiu-jitsu or Kung-Fu, and Pinkie, I don’t really know.” Dash mentioned.

“I grew up on a rock farm. Remember what Maud did during that rockslide?” Pinkie said and the girls nodded. “I can do the same, there’s no need to worry about me.”

“Alright then, but first thing’s first. We need to start exercising.” Applejack said.

“Good thing I brought my gym bag.” Rarity said and the other girls looked at her. “What?”

“It’s kind of hard to believe that you of all ponies go to the gym.” Rainbow said.

“As much as I hate getting dirty and sweaty, I hate being out of shape even more. It’s a necessary evil for me.” Rarity said while grabbing her gym bag with her hoof.

“Why do you have a gym bag anyways?” Pinkie asked.

“I do yoga as well and some of the positions are more than a little suggestive. I put the clothes on so I won’t have to worry about exposing myself.” Rarity said.

The girls said. “Ahh.” Well except Fluttershy, who was too engrossed in her books.

Rainbow got an evil grin on her face and snuck next to Fluttershy. “HEY SHYLIGHT!”

Fluttershy jumped a good few feet before using her wings and landing on the grass. “Dashie you startled me.”

“You were kinda too into your book. We’re going to be working out in the gym. You in?” Rainbow asked.

“Sure.” Fluttershy entered the gym with her friends, meanwhile back at Twilight’s castle.

“Twilight, I’m unsure about this. I don’t want to hurt you.” I said to my mother.

“Spike it’s fine.” Twilight said, as it turns out the palace actually had a training room. Both Twilight and I were standing in the training room. Twilight had just asked me to transform into an alien so she could test the strength of her shields and her attack power and how she could improve.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “Alright, but if you feel like you’re going to be hurt just say so, and loudly too.” I popped out the display and selected Diamond Head. Then I transformed into the giant alien made of crystals. “You ready?”

Twilight nodded and readied her periwinkle shield. “Ready.” I stood about 20 feet away from her and charged her, transforming my forearm into a long blade extending beyond my fist and sliced at her shield. Twilight jumped back while her shield was sliced almost perfectly in half. She used her wings to brake mid-jump and fall back to the ground without injury. She then made another shield but this time it was brighter and I sliced at it again. The blade went through some of the way but got stuck.

I pulled the blade out. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

Twilight started to tap into a bit of her alicorn magic and made another shield. “Alright, now try it.” I swung the blade a final time and the shield was effective in stopping the blade. The impact of it caused some small cracks but most of all, it worked. Twilight forced the shield back causing me to stumble back but I quickly regained my balance.

“Now you gotta hit back.” I smirked and Twilight struck with a magic beam. Thinking on my feet I put my forearms in front of my face and the crystals formed together to make a shield for me. Twilight pushed the intensity of her beam up and started to cause me to slide back. Twilight was now walking forward while I was being pushed back, the crystals then started to form cracks and those cracks spider-webbed then my shield shattered and Twilight stopped.

“Spike!” She ran up to me. “Spike are you alright?”

“I’m fine Twilight.” I said.

“But your arms!” She said and I looked at them, then my arms started to grow back. I looked over the new arms, they were an exact duplicate of the ones I just recently lost. Twilight was amazed, “You must have regenerative abilities as Diamond Head.”

“Nice.” I looked over at the crystals. “Hmm.”

“What is it?” Twilight asked. I slowly raised my arms and concentrated then the crystals on the ground which slowly started to raise off the ground and float in the air. Twilight gasped, as she looked at the crystals floated. Then they started to spin and form back together into a staff. I then took it out of the air and gave it to her.

“For you.” I said.

“Spike, how did you know how to do that?” Twilight asked.

“I really don’t know.” I admitted. “Whenever I transform into an alien, it’s almost like instinct takes over and I know what to do.”

“Well I still have that shard from the day at the farm and I did some experiments on it, these crystals can absorb, reflect, and refract energy very well.”

“Um…”

“It means that this would be perfect for a staff, it can help me store extra magic if I need to. Thank you Spike.”

“It’s no problem.” I pressed the omnitrix symbol on my chest. “Want to go see what Steel is up to?”

“Sure.” Twilight smiled and levitated the staff with her magic while we went to go check on Steel.

When we started to walk down the stairs we could hear his voice from the top of the staircase. “Ah buggar.”

“Steel?” Twilight asked to get his attention and he looked up at us. “Spike said you wanted to show me a few things?”

“Ah yeah, I do.” Steel motioned for us to join him in the lab that was the basement. “With the scraps you gals got I had more than enough time to reverse engineer some of the weapons. I made a few prototypes that could really help in getting an edge over these alien pests.” Steel showed off a few things. “This is a hoof mounted blaster I made from the broken rifles. They’re compact and shaped to fit around your hoof and fire with a simple motion of using the back of your hoof to pull it forward and shoot it.”

“That’s good, but I have a question.” Twilight said. “Why are there seven of them?”

“Six of them for you girls and one to produce for the guard.” Steel said. Then he showed off a disk of some sort with a harness attached to it, “This is for the pegasai, and you if you want one. This extends along the bones of the wing and produces wing blades for them. Would you like to try it out?”

“Sure.” Twilight said and Steel put the disk on her back.

“Make sure it’s settled just above the center of the wings. If you don’t then it will be much harder for you to fly.” Steel strapped the harness on. “The harness is how you activate the wing blades.”

Twilight pressed the button in the center and two thin long tubes aligned themselves with Twilight’s wings and then what looked to be a see through green energy enveloped the back of her wings. “I’m sure Rainbow would love this.” She gave a couple of test flaps and took off the ground slightly then gently landed.

“It can also act as a shield for Fluttershy. I made four of them, if you want to keep one.”

“I think I will, but I want to get some more flying experience before I strap some on.”

“Also the blasters have a shield mode as well.” Steel mentioned. “The last thing is this.” He held up a headset. “All great teams need to be able to communicate if they want to be effective.”

“This looks like the symbol on the omnitrix.” Twilight observed.

“That’s because it can sync up with the omnitrix and act as a communication between the two.” Steel said. “But it’s only exclusive to these six, I’m sure Spike doesn’t want to overhear what the guards up in Canterlot are doing.” Steel smiled and I chuckled. “Then there’s some armor I made to help protect the more vital areas.”

“I can’t thank you enough Steel.” Twilight hugged him.

Steel blushed a little and scratched the back of his head. “It’s not a problem.”

“So now that you’ve taken care of what we requested, what’s going to happen with you now?” Twilight asked separating from the hug.

“I’ll spend some time catching up with Flutter, take a few weeks to relax.” Steel said.

“I can send the prototypes to Celestia.” I said and Steel selected the items and I sent them via my magic flame.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Steel shouted.

“Steel calm down, that’s how he sends things to Celestia.” Twilight explained. “It’s a magic flame.”

Steel then visibly calmed. “Sorry.”

“I should have explained before.” I said and Steel packed up his stuff. “Do you mind if I stay here while I visit?”

“Not at all.” Twilight smiled, then she took of the wing blades then she examined the blaster and strapped it to her hoof using her magic. “So how does this work if we’re walking and don’t want to set anything off?” She asked Steel.

“That’s easy.” Steel showed her. “You can rotate the trigger mechanism to make sure it’s on the front by sliding this plate here and locking it in place with this latch.”

“Thank you Steel, for everything.” Twilight thanked her.

Steel bowed his head. “It’s my pleasure.” Steel walked back upstairs. “Now I’m going to go out and enjoy the town for a bit.”

Twilight and I looked at each other. “Send a message to the girls?” I asked.

Twilight grinned. “They’ll be happy to have a hoof up in a fight.”

Back at the gym Rarity was trotting on the treadmill, Pinkie was on a cycling machine. Applejack was bench pressing around 350 pounds. Fluttershy was lifting weights appropriate for her, they were small 10 pound weights. Rainbow Dash was in a flight machine designed to make pegasai fly harder. Then Rarity felt her horn buzz. “Hmm?” She turned off the treadmill and wiped her head then a scroll landed in her lap. She read the scroll, then got the girls and they showered then left the gym.

“So what did the scroll say?” Pinkie asked as she walked, she wasn’t bouncing like she usually did, not even Pinkie can work out for a few hours and still have that amount of energy.

“Twilight said that Steel was done with what we had asked and has some surprises for us. She also said that Steel would be out in town for a bit and stay for a few weeks.” Rarity explained as they entered the castle. “Also as it turns out the castle has a training room. Twilight thinks that it’s supposed to be for a guard regiment but since she doesn’t have any of those that we’ll be using it for now.”

“Cool, we got our own personal gym!” Rainbow pumped her hoof.

The 5 ponies entered the training room to see Twilight in some new gear. “Hey girls.”

“Whoa.” Rainbow said. “Twilight… you look…….cool.”

Applejack whistled. “Dang, Fluttershy’s cousin must know her stuff then. If he can make a bookworm like you look intimadatin’. No offense.”

“None taken.” Twilight then stepped aside. “Would you girls like to try your gear on?”

The girls were excited as they approached the new items. Twilight helped her friends put them on and gave the same explanations that Gear did. Fluttershy gulped. “Wing blades? I don’t know Twilight.”

“Don’t worry, they can be used as a shield instead if you move your wings in front of you.” Twilight said.

“Twilight, may I ask about the staff on your back?” Rarity questioned.

“Oh, that. I was testing the strength of my shield and my attack against Spike as Diamond head and well, his arms kinda exploded.”

“WHAAAAAAT?” Rarity gasped.

“Don’t worry, he’s fine. In fact it helped us find out that Spike can regenerate at a fast pace and he can manipulate the crystals he produces. He made the staff for me.” Twilight calmed down Rarity.

“Alright, as long as Spikey-Wikey is alright. But I’m disappointed that I missed seeing Diamond Head. Shiny Spikey-Wikey.”

“Yes, but the experiments I ran on the crystal from the farm determined that the Crystal that Diamond Head’s species is can absorb, reflect, and refract energy very well.” Twilight said. “Which means it’s great for a staff for spell casting.”

“Here’s what I don’t get, why use a staff if you already have a horn?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s quite simple. My horn is my source of magic, though a staff, can amplify that. It’s like using a microphone and speaker, sure I could use my normal voice and shout but this helps things.” Twilight explained.

“I got you.” Rainbow said. “Now let’s test these new bad boys out.”

“Before we go any further.” Rarity approached her friends with her horn glowing. “A small adjustment.” She then cast a spell which made the color of the armor on the equipment change from black and dark red to something that fit the girls more. Cyan and white for Rainbow, pink and blue for Pinkie, bright green and bright red for Applejack. Yellow and soft pink for Fluttershy, navy and lavender for Twilight and for Rarity herself she changed it to white and baby blue. “How’s that?”

“Now it feels more adjusted to my personal style.” Rainbow said. “Thanks Rarity, you’re awesome.”

“I always do my best.” Rarity smiled. “Now let’s see what these beauties can do.”

Author's Note

I really wish I had some concept art for the weapons. If anyone is willing to draw them for me I will be very thankful.