The Royal Princess Guard

"Look Princess" said Shining Armour sounding exasperated "We are stretched too thinly to be able to keep up giving you guards, they have duties that are being abandoned elsewhere and it's starting to show, we don't have the numbers."

They were in Celestia's chambers with Celestia herself lying down listening intently, she had a pile of scrolls beside her and a quill and plenty of inkpots on a table nearby. She nodded slowly and then asked "So what are your suggestions that we do then?"

Shining Armour was prepared for this and said "We either increase the numbers of the guards." He said looking hopeful however Celestia slowly shook her head

"You know we can't do that, there isn't any room for manoeuvre there."

"Then the other option is we bring back the Royal Princess Guards." announced Shining Armour

At that Celestia looked up in surprise. "How do you know about that?" she said with concern in her voice

"I wrote to Twili about my problem and she sent me a book about the history of the Guard and suggested this would be a way to solve the problem." he stated

Princess Celestia looked very concerned about this suggestion and said "That won’t sole the problem you have though."

"It will Princess, this solution will easily free up a couple of dozen of my guards that would have been on duty Guarding you it's the perfect solution." said Shining Armour defiantly

"But..." started Celestia starting to try and find a reason to stop this idea, but Shining Armour was looking stubbornly at her. She finally relented saying "You know why the old Royal Princess Guard was disbanded don't you"

Shining slowly nodded, his face a mask of seriousness, he knew what Celestia was getting at.

"Very well, do what you must." She said, levitating one of the scrolls in front of her as she began to do her royal duties again. Shining gave a small bow as he retreated out of the chamber, face still locked in an expression of determination, ready to do what he must.

Extract from The Guards Handbook:

A Guard is to look at His or Her best at all times, this priority should only be second to care of their personal weapons. The reason is so that the Guard has maximum presence in all situations and will be recognisable at a glance. The Guard is by far the most recognised authority of Celestia and they should appear as such, they are the first point of call for all civil troubles and must be easily recognisable. Having a Uniform that does not adhere to even the Basic standard for the Guard is an offence that is on the level of Desertion as it reduces the effectiveness of all actions that guard takes. Therefore from the very start of Basic Training a future member of the Guard is taught that uniform is to be addressed before everything but the upkeep of weapons, this ensures that the Guard is extremely Proficient at their uniforms upkeep by the end of their training. The only exceptions to these rules are the Border Guards where uniform is the lowest priority due to the constant threat of attacks from outside the kingdom and the disadvantage of being easily recognisable in a battle situation

Diamond shield had the mother of all hangovers, it was the day after the passing off parade of the Guards and he had spent all of last night up parting and getting completely hammered, this would have been more manageable if he hadn't been called to the Captain's office at 8o'clock in the morning, after being told at half seven, he had spent the better part of 20 minutes just getting his uniform on, which he couldn't have imagined doing without his magic, and the next 5 sprinting across the Guard base to get to Captain Shining's office, trying to dodge the, now fully fledged guards all packing ready to have their obligatory leave. This had all helped to turn his hangover into a full on, 'oh my gosh my brain is going to explode' migraine.

Diamond looked over himself in the mirror in the Captain's waiting room, he was dressed in full Guard uniform, helmet, boots and flank guard, he had the white coat of all Guard trainees’ although he was thinking he might go for the dark grey coat when he was deployed. He would have changed his colour that day but sadly he didn't know the spell. He was of a usual build for a Guard, tall and powerful, Basic training had seen to that, as it had with all the other recruits he had trained with.

Two of which had just entered the waiting room now, and from the look of them Diamond had been restrained last night. They were his good friends, flourish, who was a slender unicorn mare who was known to take no prisoners, and dive bomb a pegasus stallion who could fly the socks off of anyone else in the academy. They had arrived just after Diamond and looked even worse than he did. To describe it you would have to say that they both looked like they had been gagged and tied, then dragged through a bush backwards, then forwards, then backwards again before being used to hammer a nail into a wall and then hung on the nail to have coconuts thrown at them like a carnival game. In short they looked utterly terrible.

As they arrived they greeted him with silent nods, not risking the danger of having their thumping heads become any worse. Those two had been his friends since the start of basic training, they were great friends to have by your side pretty much anywhere, especially in the field and out on the town. While they were busy attending to themselves in front of the mirror the next pony arrived.

This pony was the infamous Crusher, he was a huge pegasus, nearly as tall as Celestia, however much heavier built. No one in their right mind would mess at first glance, in the first week of Basic no-one dared even to sit within a table of him in the mess hall, he had an expression of perpetual anger which made it look like he always wanted to rip off your head and then eat your innards. Fact of the matter was he was a bit simple and also a massive softy, as long as you stayed on his good side you could be sure to win pretty much any fight you were in.

Crusher looked perfectly fine, head held high looking happily at the world around him, which was amazing since he had downed a couple of kegs of cider during the celebrations.

"Hey Crush." whispered Diamond using his nickname "How come you don't have a hangover? I recall you drinking at least twice as much as me."

"Dunno" said Crush shrugging "Guess I'm just too big."

This caused the other three ponies to flinch Crush's deep voice caused massive relapses in their already throbbing headaches, seeing he had caused them harm caused Crush to gasp and start apologising profusely.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry you guys, I wasn't thinking because..." He was cut off as Flourish put a hoof to his mouth and slowly shook her head, followed by Crush drawing a hoof across his mouth in a zipping motion. The other three took a moment to recover from their headaches before looking up again.

Entering now were Spear and Shield Maiden, identical twins in all aspects, except Spear was a pegasus and Shield was a unicorn, they both had well set frames clearly showing their working background. They both approached looking as bad as the rest of them, except crush, they gave a nod to acknowledge the shared pain and went up to the mirror to sort themselves out. They then sat down on the chairs in the room and proceeded to sit in silent agony waiting for Captain Armour to call them in.

They didn't have to wait long it was a short wait before the door to Shining's office opened and all the ponies outside stood to attention, Shining poked his head out of the door and said

"You can all come in, and drop with the formalities; you're all on leave remember."

He retreated back into his office and went to sit behind his desk, he brushed a few papers out of the way and looked into a coffee cup he had on his desk while he waited for them all to shuffle in. When they had all squeezed in to the office he started to speak.

"What I am about to tell you doesn't leave this room, you are to tell no-one unless if you have my express permission, and only my permission. Understood." He looked at each one of them in turn, they all nodded. "Good, any questions can be held until the end." He paused for a moment before continuing "I have called you all here today because you have all been chosen to 'volunteer' for a new unit of the Guard that I am forming this year." He leaned back in his chair "Your names will not be on the list of company placements when it goes up in the mess hall, instead next week after you have all had a good relaxing leave a carriage will be sent to each of your residences to pick you up. Do not take any belongings everything will be provided there. It will then take you to an undisclosed location where you will receive a full briefing on what you will be doing. Is that understood?" They all nodded "Any questions?" They all shook their heads. "Good, now go enjoy your leaves, you won’t get too many in the future."

They all filed out of the room closing the door behind them, Shining Armour gave a sly smile and adjusted his desk clutter, focusing on a picture of Princess Cadence he had on his desk. He then went back to the papers and started to fill out forms, waiting for the next group of six to arrive."

When outside they all stood there looking at each other with bemusement on their faces, they had no idea how to react and couldn't think of any reason to react until Dive Bomb broke the silence by saying.

"I wander what the pay's like?"

This was followed by flourish giving him a quick wack round the back of the head with her hoof causing him to flinch followed by her saying

"And that is why more Mares are needed in the Guard, come on idiot start moving before I have to carry you out." She said ushering him out. The maiden sisters smiled when she said the comment about the Guard and gave little nods of agreement.

They all shuffled back out the single door of the waiting room and said their farewells before going back to packing and taking their leave. Oblivious to their future, but sure it can't be too bad.

Shining Armour walked into the waiting room to his office and addressed Lieutenant Swift who was sitting in a corner.

"So, what did they say?"

Swift lowered the newspaper he was reading and said. "Dive's mind was on the money as usual, however they didn't question it or show any sign of not being willing."

"So, we made the right choice then?" asked Shining sceptically

"If not then there was no right choice." Finished Swift carrying on reading his paper.

Shining retreated back into his office, smiling wryly to himself, he sat down waiting for the next six Guards he had summoned to turn up

Extract from the Book Of the Old Guard:

For each Princess there were six Guards, three Unicorns and Three Pegasus, each the best of the Best, their only duty to protect the Princess, and through the Princess the Realm. Each was as capable of acting independently, trained in all the arts of espionage, combat, diplomacy and every other way that would help them carry out their jobs. However it is when they act as a group that their true power is revealed. It is said that they were capable of defeating entire armies by themselves, saving Equestria from certain destruction countless times. However this didn't come without its downsides, the unit had the highest casualty rates of any unit that has ever existed, although their success cannot be argued with. The Unit was disbanded after the Nightmare Moon uprising at Celestia's personal request, why no-one knows except the Princess herself, and any that have known have long since passed away.

"You are going to be the new Royal Princess Guards, over the next year we will train you to become the best of the best, you will form a fighting force that will be matched by no other. You will be tasked with two things, the first and most important is guarding the Princesses, the second is acting as a tool of the Princesses as they wish so that they may better the good of the real."

Lieutenant Swift as he had introduced himself to be was addressing the twelve ponies that stood before him at attention. He was known as being Captain Armours right hoof stallion, as were several others. He was a clean shaving, large Pegasus, known for being a master of aerial combat, he was usually entrusted with all Pegasus deployments in the Guard. His coat was a dark grey, so as to hide any dirt that was always accumulated when flying.

He was addressing twelve ponies in a cinema, Diamond, Crush, Flourish, Dive, Shield and Spear were sitting on one half of the room, with six other ponies in the other half, all from the same Basic training as Diamond recognised at least most of them, but he couldn't remember their names, just like the group he was in though there were three mares and three stallions.

"You have all been selected" the Lieutenant continued "Because you have the potential to be the best, here we will mould you into the best of the best. This will NOT be easy, but we chose you for a reason, don't make me regret that decision." He gestured towards two Pegasus stallions standing next to him one with a white coat and one dark grey; these will be your drill sergeants for the next year."

The two ponies that he had gestured to were both wearing the usual perpetual angry looks on their faces, scowling at their soon-to-be recruits.

The lieutenant continued "Any questions?"

One of the ponies that Diamond didn't know stuck his hoof up, the Lieutenant nodded at him. "I thought we were done with basic training sir?"

The Lieutenant replied quickly “Son, you will never be done with Basic training in the Guard. Any other questions?" He looked around but there was no response "Good, Sergeants take your recruits and do what you must."

The Sergeants both stood at attention and then marched towards their respective group of six. The sergeant that approached Diamond and his friends was the shorter of the two sergeants, with the pristine white coat, he had an angry scowl on his face.

"Alright you lot." He said scowling "I've been given the unenviable task of getting you to be worthy of guarding princess Celestia." He quickly scanned the group and said "Don't know why any of you were picked, you look like you couldn't guard a fish in the desert, hell you'd probably lose it." He gave a quick look over the group again and then continued "Alright you sorry lot, we're going to the store to get you set up with your kit, not that you'll need it for more than a week. Hell you reek of weakness so much the enemy will be able to smell you from a mile away, hell I smelled you from two." His scowl deepened for a second before he braced and shouted

"ALL RIGHT FALL OUT SIDE IN FILE"

The six ponies quickly ran out of the briefing room and formed up on the snow covered track. The sergeant came out of the door after them and proceeded to march them along up the side of the mountain.

The compound that they were in was a few hundred metres above the city of Canterlot, jutting out from the mountain just like the city, however it was camouflaged using spells and physical camouflage netting stopping anypony from seeing it, the compound itself was large enough to house about 100 Guards and the track up to it was hidden from the main road to Canterlot so only those that knew of its existence could find their way to it. The compounds buildings were all grey brick with grey slates on the roof, with signs by the door saying what they were.

This was going to be their home for the next year, any of them would have lied if they didn't all dread the coming year, they all still had fresh memories from their days of Basic training and they did not want to have to relive any of them. They all marched grimly towards what they could only assume was the store. When they reached it the sergeant told them to enter and proceeded to wait outside.

The store itself was a huge building on the site, easily the largest, it was also less of a store and more of a mix between a warehouse and a messy pony’s room. Cluttered on the floor everywhere were bits and pieces of complicated looking machines and gadgets, lots of them with blinking L.E.D's and a lot more with what looked like explosives lazily strapped to them.

There was a strange earth pony sitting near the entrance to the building with a welding mask on, intent on whatever project he was working on, he had a strange multicoloured shirt on with outlines of palm trees and his cutie mark was of a disassembled clock. The piece he was working on was some sort of strange metal backpack with two straps on and a dangerous looking rocket strapped on.

Suddenly something in the rocket ignited, causing a jet of fire to suddenly stream out of the end, hurling the weird device straight forward sending it crashing through a wall of the building and off into the distance, there was a pause before a distant explosion could be heard followed by a the thumping of rocks falling. Then there was complete silence for a few seconds, snow billowing in from the new entrance/exit to the building. The strange pony that had been working on the device slowly took off the welding mask and said

"Bugger." He looked around to sort out his tools when he noticed the six ponies standing there in bewilderment. "Oh good, the new guys, it gets lonely up here sometimes." He said beaming at them. He stood up and walked over to a bunch of shelves stacked with all kinds of gear that the Guard used. "You'll be here for your kit then, PT gear?" He said glancing at the group, they all nodded

"Well then, my names Tinker." He said grabbing various tops and shorts off of the shelves. "I'm the armourer for this base." He looked round quickly eying up crush, he then thoughtfully hummed and climbed up the shelves to the very top looking for the larger gear.

"I thought this was the store?" asked flourish looking with curiosity at all the things strewn about the place.

"Technically it," he grunted as he unstuck a piece of clothing from behind the shelves, "is, but it's also the armoury, and my workshop," he paused looking to the heavens as if thinking "and sometimes the kitchen, its best avoid the food on those days."

He came up to the six ponies holding a large bundle of clothes in his fore hoofs, trotting down the line giving each pony a kit, pausing at crush to check the size, and when content with his choice finished off. The kit he had given them was pitch black, with Guard stitched onto the shirt and shorts, the pegasus gear had holes in the shirt where their wings would be able to go through.

Spear held up the kit in front of her with a look of mild disgust on her face. "Have these things ever been washed?" She asked grimacing

"Lord No." said Tinker with a dismissive smile, "Heck I haven't washed anything in, what a year now. Too busy inventing stuff, furthering the entirety of equinekind in endeavours that only I can make happen." He said searching through a pile of what seemed like junk, pulling out a pile of wooden planks, a hammer and a nail. "Anyways you should be getting back to your sergeant, he won’t be too happy with being kept this long, and don't worry you'll be coming back for the better gear later. Cheerio" he gave a little wave as they left, going for the hole in the wall with the wooden planks, hammer and nails.

The ponies filed out of the building in single file where they were formed up by their sergeant and then marched off to their new residence.

Unofficial letter from Captain Armour to Lieutenant Swift:

Dear Swift

The recruits need to be pushed beyond their limits for this to succeed, this means that they need to be as physically fit as possible, I want you to make a change to the routine you sent me, for the first two weeks they must exclusively do PT, after that the schedule that you sent me will do fine to teach them all they need to know.

"For future reference my name is Sergeant Hale," The sergeant started, the six were lined up outside their new billet holding their Pt kit in hoof. "This is your billet for the next year, tomorrow we will begin the year's training with PT..." The sergeant continued, telling the six about the whereabouts of the important buildings in the camp and how they were already a disappointment to him. The wind was billowing around them the whole time chilling them all to their bones as they stood there waiting for him to finish, absorbing all the information. He eventually finished by saying "When you are all in your billet the first thing you need to do is check your PT gear, if it doesn't fit then take it back to the store and change it. Other than that you can have the rest of the day to do as you wish" He then proceeded to dismiss them and marched off.

The bedraggled six shambled into their new billet with their PT gear, in the building there was six bunk beds, and two shower and toilet blocks all connected by a central corridor, compared to Basic this was luxury. Dive Bomb checked the toilets and showers and found that they all worked as well which was a bonus. They then all went into the bunk room and started to sort out their areas that they chose. They also started to have general chat.

"Well I can already tell this is going to be a year of hell." said Diamond sceptically

"Yeah but at the end of it we'll be guarding PRINCESS CELESTIA, man that's gotta be good." said Spear imagining it

"We've still got 12 months to go yet" said Shield putting on her first pair PT shorts and top "I think we've got to get through this fresh hell first."

"That's what they want you know, Hale's gonna do everything he can to break us." said Dive Bomb "Well he's going to get a big surprise when I destroy every test he throws at us." he smiled confidently to himself."

"Oh come on." said Flourish rolling her eyes "What can they do to us that they haven't already done in basic?" she paused as the PT top slid over her slender frame. "This can't be too bad."

"Suddenly the door of their billet burst open and Sergeant Hale shouted "ALRIGHT FILLIES AND COLTS P.T TIME." He had a cruel smile on his face as he continued "PT GEAR ON AND GET TO THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE COMPOUND. LETS GO, GO, GO!!"

The six ponies rushed to get their PT gear on if they hadn't yet done so and galloped out the door, Dive Bomb was the lost one out and got a cruel glare from the sergeant who proceeded to gallop to the top corner of the compound where the rest of the group were waiting.

The sergeant still had a wry smile on as he said "Change in plans today, there's been a weather change and I wouldn't want us to miss the storm."

He motioned towards a small track that was barely visible under a layer of snow. "Anyway welcome to your new love for the next year, Mount Tarturus I call it, because it is hell. By the end of the year you will be going all 5 miles up and all 5 miles down in an hour. However I'm realistic, for now I'm expecting an hour and a half" He gave a cruel smile at that. "The track you are to follow is behind you, no wings, and no magic. GO!"