Long ago there lived five tribes. Unicorn, Pegasus, Earth Pony, Thestrals, and Changelings but only three tribes lived in the light for long and the others were all but forgotten...

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"C'mon Tic! We have to train if we want to join the guard one day!" Tac yelled over at Tic.

"Fine!" Tic yelled back at his younger brother, before galloping over to Tac and slamming his hooves against Tac's chest.

"Youch!" Tac screamed as he was flung over to the other side of the makeshift training arena Tic and him set up.

Tic trotted over to Tac with a fake evil laugh "Ha ha ha ha ha" before looking down at the younger Pegasus. "Tac please I don't really want to join the guard especially cuz of what I am."

"C'mon Bro! I will personally deflect any suspicion about you!" Tac beamed.

"Fine..." Tic mumbled before getting an enthusiastic look.

"Tic..."

"Tic please no..."

"SOLDIER 100 PUSH UPS!" Tic declared in the most intimidating voice he could muster. "WE DON'T WANT ANY WEAK SOLDIERS THIS YEAR!"

Tic immediately began doing push ups and within a matter of 2 minutes finished all 100 push ups, before noticing Tac on his 28th Wing up.

"MAGGOT DID I SAY WING UPS? I SAID PUSH UPS!" Tic stared down at his brother.

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"So you two want to join the Royal Guard?" Shining Armour looked at them closely.

"Yes sir!" The two of them yelled out at the same time.

"I'm glad I'm not captain..." Shining Armour muttered under his breath. "Anyway you two can join the guard's basic training in one week since that's when it starts."

Tic stared in disbelief, "So we just get in?"

Shining armour laughed for about five minutes straight a couple of tears rolling out of his eyes. "Hah... No. You should be warned training is hell."

Tic and Tac stared at each other for a couple of seconds before Tac finally said, "Alright."

Shining armour sat there in silence That plan usually gets over eager kids from joining the guard but these two... "Alright go here." He said pulling out a map of Canterlot and pointing to a spot on the map. "In five days." He pulled himself up and sighed, "If I were you I would wimp out on this now before you get hurt."

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"Huh these skips are getting too repetitive." Tac said staring into the sky.

"What do you mean Tac?"

"Oh nothing. We should go see Shining Armour!" Tac exclaimed happily.

"Oh alright let's go I've been waiting to see what he has for us."

After a couple of minutes getting ready the two 'brothers' grabbed their map and started to trot over to the marked area.

“Hey Tac I want to show you a spell I've been working on when we train alright?” Tic said looking over at his fuzzy blue brother.

“Alright sounds cool!” Tac chirped happily.

After awhile the two ponies finally made it to the training grounds Shining Armour had mentioned, before abruptly stopping.

"I see the two maggots Shining told me about are finally here." A old, grouchy male voice ran through their heads.

"This'll be fun they said." Tic muttered, "This'll be great they said."

"Hey!" Tac yelled, "I said that!"

"I know..."

The two brothers were quickly introduced to their commander who was unsurprisingly, named 'Boot', although the two thought this was just a dumb nickname kinda like their own, they just went with it.

They started training with some simple galloping around and avoiding obstacles at first. It was mediocre at best, but by the 11th lap Tac fell. And around the 27th lap Tic admitted defeat and slammed his body onto the ground.

Tac got a harsh punishment. The commander yelling at him was bad but the pegasus also had to do 50 push ups which lasted 43 push ups before he tried again and by the 6th time he was toast.

Tic on the other hoof was an lucky ling, at first and only had to do 25 push ups and the commander even congratulated him on getting 8 more laps than useal trainees get; before making him do 125 extra push ups as punishment for celebrating.

The rest of the trainees showed up. Two Unicorn stallions, Three Earth Ponies, and One Pegasus. Everyone started getting ready when Boot pushed one of the Earth Ponies into mud and they got told to do some running.

The first stallion a short brown coated Unicorn with a blue mane and Wait... A PAIR OF HEADPHONES, H E A D P H O N E S AT A TRAINING GROUNDS!?

After a moment of confusion Tic eventually looked over at the other trainees. Another unicorn white with purple mane but he was pretty ordinary, the one pegasus a light blue one with a weird blue almost gray mane, the three Earth ponies, one white, one green, and the last a red coated one.

Boot made everypony line up on opposite sides of the training grounds and he called this 'The Arena' if it was a real arena it would be a bad one. "Maggots you will fight to test your strengths!" Boot exclaimed, "This. Is. A. Team. Effort!" Boot exaggerated every word, "And you sorry buckers will battle each other while also trying to help your teammates!"

Tic looked over at his brother in the opposite line, Good I'll be fighting him... Tic thought to himself.

Boot started explaining the rules of the arena which were very specific but Tic just narrowed it down to a couple main rules.

1. Only 4 ponies in the arena at all times, two ponies from each team.

2. Since the amount of trainees were short this year each team got a handicap for some reason, only about ten pound weights on their legs, fifteen for Earth Ponies, a slight magic suppressor, and the pegasus got of easy and didn't have anything extra.

2.5. Although this wasn't explicitly said the magic suppressor made it harder for Tic to stay in his pony form reminding him to create a pony shell for training instead of the regular disguise method.

1. Do not severely injure any pony, you are allowed to knock them out though, and give them a thoroughly bruised and blooded body.

2. Any siblings or ponies that had significantly affected another's life were put on the opposite team.

3. One Life.

Tic was teamed up with Red, Green, and.. Headphones… he was glad when Boot called him and Red up to the arena first as they looked at their opponents, the blue pegasus, and the white earth pony.

Tic ran straight up to the pegasus and slammed his hooves into the pegasus’ chest. Tic quickly cast a focused magic bullet at the pegasus before turning over to the earth pony stallion fighting his teammate and sending a blast of raw magic at his face. While Tic was distracted the pegasus quickly made a beeline to him and slammined his hooves into Tic's side.

“Argh..” Tic grunted looking over at the pegasus, “You know it would be convenient if I knew your name..” He muttered a slight glow on his horn.

“Fine… name's Sky Thunder.. .” He blurted back.

“Well hope you last long enough for me to enjoy this battle.” Tic quipped back before launching a trap he set up for Sky. A spark lit on Sky's hair which started to spread quickly.

“MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR!” Sky exclaimed as he tried to get the flames away. Realizing the fire was indeed fake he quickly looked around seeing no sign of Tic.

Tic grinned manically as he dropped on top of Sky yelling. “THE SKY SMITES THIS FAKE!”

Tic jumped off of Sky and looked over to see his teammate the red stallion which Tic never learned the name of knocked out on the floor and an earth pony stallion charging at Tic.

A bolt of raw magic hit the stallions face as he passes out. “Huh..” Tic looked over and saw… Headphones looking at him.

“Names Crate nice to meet you. Now if you please start fighting, we have to worry about that new white unicorn entering.” Crate spouted out before running over to the new unicorn and kicking him in the face.

Tic immediately liked Crate at least five times more than he had before. But before Tic had time to do something a hoof was rammed into his horn.

“Ah! Mother Bucker!” He yelled as he was thrown backwards, looking up he saw his pegasus brother looking at him intently. “Fuzzy blue bastard…” He mumbled to himself.

“Hey! At least I'm not your ugly shade of dark blue!” Tac - the 'Fuzzy blue bastard’ -yelled.

“Oh. It. Is. ON!” Tic screamed sending a green magic bolt at his brother. “How do you feel now Fuzzball!” Tic jumped over to his brother and delivered a much deserved kick to the face.

Tac took this as an opportunity to jump on top of his brother as kick him in the back but Tic quickly teleported himself away leaving a stunned pegasus.

“Bet… that… surprised you… right?” Tic yelled panting like a mad horse.

“Wow… is this the thing you've been wanting to show me?” Tac questioned.

“...Yes… but…” Tic immediately launched a bullet of raw magic at Tac sending him sprawling backwards. “I… have a… few… tricks… up my… metaphorical… sleeve…”

Tac barely regained his footing when Tic made a mad dash for him, Tac jumped out of the way before telling Tic, “Cheesecake!”

Tic immediately sat down and started to pant, “Already…” he mumbled. After Tac nodded once or twice, Tic wasn't counting he eventually said, “I… surrender…”

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Much to Tic's surprise his team only barely lost, due to Crate being a lot better than expected.

“Wow Crate you did pretty good out there.” Tic said trotting over to Crate's bruised side.

“Heh… yeah I was pretty great!” He smiled happily, “but, why did you just surrender?” His face suddenly darkened a notch or two, “Your brother said 'Cheesecake’ and then you just surrendered!”

Tic stood still for a bit before sighing, “Look… it's an… uncomfortable topic…”

Crate nodded before saying, “Well you're gonna have to tell me eventually.”

Tic looked to his side and said nothing.

Crate just sighed, “Fine but I expect you to tell me in around three ish years, cuz I'm staying in the guard for as long as they'll let me and I think the same goes for you.”

Tic looked at the ground uncomfortably before blurting out, “Look… It's a codeword…” Tic noticed the confused look on Crate's face before saying, “‘Cheesecake’ Is the codeword for when I'm running low on magic reserves… I can't tell whenever I'm running low but Tac… he can… it's mainly because he has lived with me for so long he practically knows at all times how much magic I have.” Tic chuckled at his own joke, “Anyway, the doctors tell me I have to stick with him because of this.”

Crate looked at Tic questionably for a couple seconds before saying, “So the reason you're in the guard is because Tac wants to… or the other way ‘round?”

Tic sighed again and said, “Mainly first option… but I do want to join the guard don't get me wrong. And it's not just because of my brother either.” Really dodged a bullet with that fake magic issue.

Crate started trotting again before saying, “You should come over to my sister's club it'llbe fun!

Tic looked at Crate and said, “So… who is your sister?”

Crate smirked, “Why only the best DJ in Canterlot!”

Author's Note

Hello people!
This was really fun to make!
And as my favourite guy on here always says, "Comments are an author's food pellets!"

Proofreaders:
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/334314/Blackyoshi