The Royal Princess Guard

Every year the entire Guard, excluding those on vital duties take part in a large scale exercises to keep them all trained for any unforeseen circumstances. They occur once every year and are usually overseen by some a high ranking Guard, usually the Captain of the Guard. However a member of royalty may take an interest in a certain year and oversee the large scale simulation personally.

The entire event consists of the Guard being split in two armies, each army being commanded by a Lieutenant of the Guard. The exercise takes place on anything from 5 to 500 miles squared of land in Central Equestria, usually farmland, depending on the number of Guards that are available that year. The cost of the exercise is usually substantial as the ponies that have their lives disrupted by the exercise are given hefty compensation. It is not uncommon for the exercise to take place around a village, allowing for the Guard to practice civilian control and handling.

This year the exercise was taking place on a piece of land roughly 100 metres squared in size, consisting of a large amount of forest, with a large strip of open fields around the centre of the area, splitting up the two halves that each side would inhabit, creating an instant place for the frontlines to be formed.

The whole thing takes about three weeks to complete; however the time taken can depend upon the victory conditions and the speed at which these are completed, the longest any has ever taken is two months where both sides had no option but to grind each other down in a war of attrition.

Although the entire exercise is often argued against due to the cost the results can't be disputed, there are many battles that have been won using the experience gained from the exercise and although there has never been any recent need for a large scale mobilization of the Guard similar to that which occurs on the exercise, any and all skills and tactics that have been used during the exercise have always met with at least equal success when employed in actual combat situations.

Diamond, Flourish, Dive Bomb, Crush, Shield and Spear sat at the back of the tent, along with Sergeant Hale, the tent itself was gargantuan, able to fit at least two thousand ponies in easily, however it was still overflowing with the number of Guards that were present. The exercise this year was easily the largest ever recorded; mostly due to an ever increasing population and an ever increasing need for Guards because of that fact. The six had taken part in the exercise last year as well, however back then they had just been used as frontline grunts, just another spear on the ground.

This year however they were going to be used differently, they were one of the elite squads that they could identify there; the others included the Border Guard Marauders, the Equestrian Airforce’s Lightnings and the infamous Red devils. All renowned units with multiple battle honours under their names, and on top of that they had all had at least one tour of duty in the more hospitable areas of Equestria; this all led up to them being well known by nearly all those present. Because of that fact they were all being treated with great respect from the other less elite units there.

The difference between those units and the RPG's however were great, however what stood out most was the size, while usually a company consisted of around a hundred Guards, the RPG's had but six, and they were unknown by all but the higher ranks in the Guard, meaning that they had received the joy of being pushed to the back of the briefing tent by the other companies where they could barely hear the Lieutenant giving the briefing.

Not that they need to hear it, Sergeant Hale had already blagged detailed maps and information on the entire thing, and  Shield and Spear had managed to get complete lists of all who were taking part along with whether they would be on the ‘Reds’ or the ‘Blues’. This year it seemed like their 'army', a.k.a. the ‘Blues’ looked to be the stronger of the two; with more elite units on their side, they seemed to be in a strong position.

However, and this was a big however, the Lieutenant in charge of them was called Bellow, known very well for his stubborn ways, and for the fact that he had used similar tactics in all the conflicts he had participated in for the past 40 years. This meant that the seven of Celestia’s Guard already knew what to expect, as did their enemies. One good thing that came out of this however was that he would likely just dismiss the small group of seven ponies as being useless to the frontlines. They were certain of this as he was known to dismiss all new ideas out of hand, and, due to their low strength in numbers and unknown battle prowess, should cause him to just dismiss them as useless. This should hopefully land them a cushy unimportant job, that they could quickly forget and go to town on the enemy supply and command structures.

Yet there were still more downsides, mainly in the shape of six particular dark grey ponies and their sergeant who would be causing equally as much trouble for the Celestial Guards' side of the conflict. At least it gave them a chance to show each other up though. The competition between the two groups had grown so fierce recently that they had started surpassing what was previously thought to be the limits of a ponies endurance just to get a one up on the other group, much to the amusement of their sergeants and Lieutenant Spears.

They sat there half listening to the briefing while letting their minds wander, they wouldn't have been told anything they didn't know anyway, although they all perked up when the list of jobs that each unit would have was read out. The list was long and the seven Guards waited with baited breaths, hoping to hear their unit name and their preferred jobs, they were however very disappointed. The Lieutenant droned on, naming unit after unit followed by their roles in the upcoming operation: Red devils – cut off group alpha, Lightnings - Aerial support Charlie. The list went on; however there was no mention of the RPGs.

Eventually the Lieutenant finished by announcing in his upper class voice. "If your unit has yet to be assigned a role, remain behind. The rest of you are dismissed to prepare for the exercise."

With him finishing the entirety of the ponies present stood up and started to file out of the single opening at the rear of the tent, all except the seven rather annoyed looking white coated ponies sitting at the rear of the tent, waiting for the Lieutenant to come up and give them their orders.

The Lieutenant himself was a tall well built earth pony stallion, with a large handlebar moustache and an air of self-importance that gave him a reputation as an insufferable fool in the eyes of most ponies in the Guard. He was constantly followed around by a group of unlucky orderlies that he insisted on surrounding himself with, each carrying a load of papers that no normal pony would ever need for anything short of writing a novel.

What he told them was completely unexpected though. The Lieutenant strolled up to the seven, and looked each one in the eye before stating. "I've read the stories of what you are meant to be able to do. I don't believe such a small group of ponies could be so effective, however, against my better judgement my advisors told me that it has shown to be true so far in your training. Therefore, you will be my Vanguard for all intensive purposes until I have a good enough reason to give you a less important job." He didn't even try to hide the disdain in his voice.

Sergeant Hale stood up and started "Sir, I think it would be better if we...” However he was cut short as the Lieutenant raised his hoof.

"You won't change my mind sergeant; you have your orders, now fall out and get prepared. I plan to finish this exercise within the week."

With that the Lieutenant turned around and marched out of the tent, followed by his orderlies trying not to spill the various documents that they were holding.

The group waited for them to leave before Sergeant Hale turned around and bucked the bench in front of the sitting ponies a clear twenty metres or so across the tent. The other six were all taken aback by the pony’s sudden outburst of anger, never before had they actually seen him angry before, and his outburst drew looks of worry from all around.

"Pig-headed son of a GOAT!" shouted the sergeant slamming his hoof on the bench the group were sitting on causing a hairline crack to appear where his hoof had struck.

The reason for his anger was obvious to the six ponies of the Royal Princess Guard. The vanguard was to be at the head of every attack, they were always first in and last out, and usually it consisted of two companies of at least 100 strong each, not seven ponies. They should have been using the skills that other ponies wouldn't have been able to match, they were meant to be precision instruments able to stab at the heart of an enemy and destroy them with the lowest possible casualties for both sides. Instead the Lieutenant was using them as blunt instruments designed to club the enemy into submission.

"Damn that stallion!" said Sergeant Hale, in a quieter tone if no less angry. "What a fool." E threw his hooves up in exasperation and regained his seat, head down, thinking of ways around the role.

The group sat still for a minute unsure how to defuse the situation, until Diamond had a stroke of genius.

"Maybe it can be used to our advantage." He announced, piquing the curiosity of all the others there. "I'll explain by the map," he said standing up and trotting down to the map, followed by the other six, all curious how he was going to turn this around.

"Alright then here's the plan...” He started making complicated movements with his hooves over the scale map at the front of the tent, outlining what he had planned in store for the exercise.

When he had finished all of the ponies nodded in silent agreement, going over the plan again and again in their heads, looking for anything that might go wrong.

They did this for a while before Sergeant Hale said "Diamond, you are undoubtedly a Genius."

With his confirmation they walked out the tent, sure that what they had planned was going to make history.

The rain was everywhere; it was clearly part of Lieutenant Bellow’s plan to have the Pegasi under his command set up rainclouds everywhere on the battlefield to cover the obvious attack. It was only really working to make every pony there wet, the rain was a constant pattering drumbeat, soaking every Guard present through to their skin and making them all more miserable than they were already, the Royal Princess Guards were in a small wooded area set in the centre of the divide of the battlefield. Hidden from the enemies’ sight by careful use of the terrain and the camouflage available to them. The same could not be said of the Guard units either side of the Vanguard who were considerably less elite than the seven.

The seven were given a space along the frontline large enough for a normal sized Vanguard to occupy, meaning that there were huge gaps either side of them that anypony could have walked through with ease. The lieutenant was so predictable that he hadn't even changed the spacing for any of his units along the frontline and the whole setup reeked of his handiwork.

The enemy were set up in an opposite tree line, almost a mirror image of the allied lines. They could just about make out furious preparations being made, small trenches were being dug all along the line, some stakes were being made, enchanted and then planted in the ground along the line. Low level branches were being cut to provide clear flight lines for hoof-held projectiles.

It was the second day of the exercise and as predicted Bellow had planned the attack for this day. Heck he was so predictable that sergeant Hale had even guessed the time he was going to attack spot on. This was far from good news though, as it meant any pony that even half-knew the Lieutenant would know exactly the same information.

This wouldn't have been so bad except they were up against Lieutenant Braveheart. As part of their training they had studied the ins and outs of all of the commanders in the Guard, and of them all Braveheart was one of the best, he was a young Earth Pony Stallion who had shown to be an extremely competent commander when it came to pretty much all situations. The entire thing was FUBAR and the seven could see it, however their plan may actually make this work. They just had to get a little but lucky.

Now all they could do was wait for the attack start to be signalled. This wouldn’t be for another hour, so all they could do was sit, wait, and have a nice shower.

On the exercise every Guard present had all their personal weapons enchanted so that upon contact with part of a creature’s body it would render that part paralyzed until a release spell was cast. The enchantment also made sure that the weapon’s energy was then deflected from the weapon, by either causing the weapon to veer off at an angle to any living thing, or to push the victim of a blow back with the same force that the blow had been made with. This allowed for the entire exercise to be as real as possible without actually having the Guard slaughtering half of itself every year. However this was great downside to the seven ponies of the vanguard as it meant they couldn't use most of their hoof-to-hoof training as it would cause lasting damage. Although this severely limited their options they could still use some of their less lethal takedowns in their arsenal as well as any spells they knew that weren’t going to do any harm.

Luckily this wasn't a major part of their plan however so it shouldn't cause them too much trouble, allowing the members of the squad to focus on the fight ahead.

The vanguard is usually meant to be a large mass of bodies charging towards the enemies, all screaming at the tops of their lungs, using shock and awe tactics to intimidate the defenders into a less useful state than full on alert. The seven ponies charging towards the enemy line was less shock and awe, and more comedic for the defenders. Who didn't start to use any ranged weapons until the seven had closed half the distance between them and the enemy.

Entirely sure that they would easily wipe out the small force they started firing sporadically, which was to the groups advantage as instead of a wall of enchanted arrows it was one after the other. The confidence of the defenders was soon lost as every single arrow that was fired missed, each pony avoiding arrows that would have taken any lesser trained pony out of the fight then.

The defenders finally got their act together with less than a quarter of the distance left to cover for the attackers, in time to throw their javelins, however this just demoralised them further as each javelin missed the dodging ponies. Dive Bomb even caught one and hurled it back at the defenders, his trained eye picking out the Commander of the defending company and taking him out. This loss of command led to a mass panic and total confusion amongst the company.

Charging at them, spears levelled were seven unstoppable ponies, the NCO's of the company managed to get a sporadic defence set up before the seven hit the line. And they hit it like a truck. The initial contact into the line caused at least twenty casualties for the defenders as the levelled spears found multiple targets. Leaving the company at least fifth down in horsepower before they could even begin to try and mount an effective resistance. The seven highly trained ponies of the special unit incapacitating ponies left and right in a flurry of blows, every swing connected with something; behind them they left a trail of unconscious bodies, wading deeper and deeper into the lines of the enemy.

By now the rest of the line that had been left behind by the Vanguard’s charge started their assaults across the entire battlefield. However none faired anywhere near as well as the seven ponies in the centre. The defenders were well dug in and prepared for the head on attack, most of the rushing attackers were cut down by ranged weapons before they reached the defensive lines, reducing their combat strength hugely. This meant that the ensuing melees did not fare well for any of the Guard’s on the attacking side as they were nearly always outnumbered two to one.

The very centre of the line was the only area where Lieutenant Bellow’s forces succeeded, driving the defenders back as the seven ponies of the Royal Princess Guard carved a large break in the line, which their allies poured through, bypassing the defences that were set up and flanking the defenders. This drew a considerable response from Lieutenant Braveheart as was the plan, after all the seven couldn’t pull off their plan facing just any old company of Guards.

The bustling HQ of Lieutenant Braveheart was awash with activity; the attack that he had predicted had come, he was happy about that, however what he had not expected was that his defence would break so easily. One of his best units had been placed opposite where he predicted the opponents vanguard would attack and yet they had broken almost immediately, he had only received reports from scouts about it but it seemed that less than half the company had made it out of there and the enemy force that had done it wasn't anywhere to be seen.

For the first time ever while in command Braveheart was sweating from anxiety, what did the enemy have that he didn't? How could he have broken them so easily? Then a single pony from the broken company staggered into the command centre one leg rendered useless from a blow received by a weapon, he saluted and then said.

"Sir." He stood there swaying from the exhaustion.

Everyone went silent as they heard the company’s name; they all listened intently as he delivered the news. "There were seven, sir, we couldn't touch them, they took out Commander Jones straight away sir, and, we couldn't do anything." He finished apologetically.

At the mention of there being only seven ponies a group of dark grey ponies stood up from the corner of the command area and strode over. The leading one asking.

"Only seven?" The exhausted pony nodded. The dark grey ponies smiled to each other and then turned to Braveheart; their eyes alight with expectation, bat-like ears twitching slightly. "Sir, if we may?"

Braveheart thought about this for a minute before replying. "No, we need you back here for our plan to work." He quickly turned to one of the runners that was milling about around the place and said "You, get the Green berets out of reserve and send them to bolster the hole in the line. GO!"

He then turned back to the Dark grey ponies, six of which looked utterly disappointed. He pointed to the sergeant that he knew was training them and said "Sergeant you can go and make sure they don't make the same mistakes as the other company, understood?"

The sergeant nodded and stretching out his wings, flapping them a few times to leave the ground and then flying off in the direction of the frontline. Leaving the six ponies left looking unhappy with the situation, however content to deal with it.

Spear threw one her namesakes at an oncoming enemy, it impacted with his chest and knocking him back into a group of his buddies, although the weapons didn't harm the ponies the force of the blow had to go somewhere meaning any spear thrown by one of the elite seven usually threw the poor target back a few metres before landing in an undignified heap on the ground.

Spear then ducked out of the way of a retaliation spear and quickly dove behind a tree, which was promptly riddled with arrows as the archers released a volley of arrows at her. Flourish was in a world of her own, jumping between cover to cover engaging the unfortunate Guards when she could. Overhead Dive Bomb streaked through the skies unleashing a spear at an unlucky victim before swooping away, quickly followed by the streak of a group of enemies hot on his tail, not quite able to hit him as he teased them with the prospect.

Shield kept a constant array of spells up on the rest of the squad while Spear took out enemies left and right. Crush was surrounded by at least ten enemies, all afraid to get within reach of the giant pegasus, at his hooves a bunch of unconscious Guards, all unfortunate victims of the mace he had decided to accrue from the armoury.

Diamond and Sergeant Hale were back to back, holding off the enemy command squad, who were doing very well to match up to the two highly trained stallions, however the special training was paying off as slowly Diamond and Hale picked off the command structure of the enemy company.

This, however, was not the plan, and giving Diamond a brief nod, Hale carried out his vital part of the plan.

Diamond was just too slow to avoid the next spear that was thrust at him, however as he watched, a look of horror on his face, sergeant Hale leapt in front of him, taking the blow to the chest. He was hurled back into the nearest tree and lay there unconscious. The six ponies of the Royal Princess Guard all froze. The pony they had looked up to for the past ten months had just been taken down in front of their eyes.

The shock caused them all to drop their defences, and in that moment they all received crippling blows from weapons, Crush receiving a hit to his front left foreleg, Spear and Shield both took hits to their flanks rendering their hind legs useless. Dive Bomb took an arrow to the wing, bouncing off due to the enchantments however still leaving it paralyzed causing him to plummet out of the sky. Flourish and Diamond were backed up together by now, and seeing their friends all take hits they lost face and put up their hooves in surrender, dropping the weapons they carried.

The six were all herded into a small group, where the remaining commanders of the Green Berets surrounded them, the Second Lieutenant in charge of the nearly decimated company stood over them, looking triumphant.

"You put up a damn good fight." He said in a gruff battle worn voice, he had a single scar across his right eye, an old wound from the border, leaving that eye clouded over and useless. "But not as good as I thought you would." His tone was almost, disappointed. "Oh well cuff them and take them back to HQ, Lieutenant Braveheart will want to meet the six ponies that have been causing him such trouble."

He then turned to the unconscious Sergeant, and after looking at him intently for a while dismissed the ponies from his company who had come to clear up the casualty. “We’ll leave him for the final cleanup crews.” He said standing up. “Get clearing the rest though.” At his words the group of makeshift medics went about cleaning up the casualties from the skirmish.

The six were all staring at their Sergeants body expectantly, and when only they were looking he slowly opened one eye and winked. Closing it almost immediately afterwards. The six smiled as they were ushered to their feet and placed in the centre of the column that the company had started to form, surrounded by Guards ready with their weapons in case they tried to escape.

As the remaining of the Green berets set to work clearing the battlefield of unconscious ponies the group were cuffed and set up for marching, Spear and Shield being helped by Diamond and Crush leaning against Dive Bomb and Flourish, and even with both of them they were struggling to maintain the Pegasus' weight.

The remaining ponies of the company they had fought gave them a mixture of looks, ranging from pure hatred to looks of endearment and respect. One mare even gave Dive Bomb 'call me' sign, much to his delight, which he returned with a wink. Most of the company were just grudgingly accepting though, they were clearly used to such harsh battles.

The six were about to be led off when out of nowhere a Dark grey Pegasus with black bat wings and ears landed in front of the second Lieutenant. He was instantly recognised as sergeant Phalanx, the pegasus in charge of training the Luna's. He spoke out to the commander of the Green Berets.

"You're not serious about taking them back to the HQ are you?" He flared his wings to give him a more opposing appearance. "You should deal with them now before they have any more chance to do damage."

"Sergeant, these six are defeated, four of them have crippling injuries, they are cuffed, and they aren't going to escape." Said the Lieutenant in a mocking tone. "Also you know the rules, we don't kill prisoners."

"They aren't your prisoners." said the Sergeant, "They are letting you waltz them in to our very base of operations."

"Sergeant, these are my prisoners and I will decide what I do with them. Now if you have nothing more useful to contribute then you may as well fly back to Lieutenant Braveheart and tell him the centre of our line needs reinforcements, and that the enemy vanguard has been neutralised."

Phalanx snorted angrily, before flaring his wings and with a couple of flaps lifted off and flew in the direction of their HQ. After he had left the Green berets moved out in a column, barely under half strength, moving the prisoners towards the heart of their war effort.

The six were now in a cage made from orange magical energy, they had arrived at Braveheart's HQ a couple of hours ago, and after being paraded in front of the entire HQ one of the unicorns present had conjured up this magical prison within which the six were now held captive, with a couple of the combat half of the command squad guarding the door.

The whole set up of Braveheart's headquarters was a world away from that of lieutenant Bellow's, the entire thing was based in a wooded area, off centre from the centre of the battleground; it was a maze of camouflage netting, both physical and magical that hid them from aerial observation. In the centre of the entire complex was a table with a detailed map of the entire area displayed on it, with various models representing different units of his army.

The real clever thing about it however was that he had a fake HQ set up in a civilian building he had commissioned, from rich they had fake runners running to and from, any sort of attack against that HQ would make Bellow think he had removed Braveheart’s command structure leaving him overconfident and prone to mistakes.

This however was clearly a fallback plan as the initial attack had scattered against the defenders and it was clear that Bellow was falling all his remaining units back into a tighter defensive ring to have the best chance of holding on.

The six prisoners were all having a bit of R&R, waiting for something to happen, since they had arrived the Luna's had yet to take their eyes off of them, looking for any sign of what they were planning. Eventually Dive Bomb decided to try provoking them by calling out.

"Hey! If you guys like the look of us so much why not take a picture?" He then splayed himself out on the floor in a provocative position, pursing is lips towards the group of seven.

"How about this?" He shouted out. After they didn’t reply he then went into others one after the other, each time making silly comments and questioning whether that was better. The other five prisoners could barely contain their laughter as the Luna's stared disapprovingly at the Pegasus.

Eventually one of the Guards of the group rapped on the cage and bellowed at him to stop.

"Alright, alright." said Dive Bomb holding his hooves up in submission "Whatever you say sir."

He then went to sit down opposite Diamond, who used magic subtly to teleport a small ball into their temporary prison. The two started bouncing it between them, keeping up an impressive volley of bounces, the ball making a thudding sound every time it hit the rain soaked floor of the cage.

Thud!

One of the guards standing outside the cage pricked his ears up and turned round. Seeing the bouncy ball he looked annoyed and shouted

“Hey! You’re not supposed to have that. Give it to me.”

Dive Bomb caught the ball in his hooves and glared daggers at the guard, who understanding the threat backed off. He was at least smart enough not to provoke them.

This carried on for the next hour or so, Flourish, Crush, Spear and Shield watching as Dive Bomb and Diamond bounced the ball between them, both hitting it with a hoof as it came towards them.

Thud.

This was when the command centre started to bustle with activity.

Thud.

Commanders from at least ten companies had gathered around the central map table.

Thud.

The six watched closely as they began discussing their plans, just out of earshot.

Thud.

The Luna Guards then took their eyes off of the prisoners for the first time since they had arrived then as the First Lieutenant called them over to discuss plans.

Thud.

After five minutes of gestures at the map one of the Luna Guards pointed to the cage.

Thud.

Braveheart glanced at the prisoners; he then looked back at the Luna’s and shook his head.

Thud.

All seven of the Dark grey ponies looked again at the prisoners uncertainty played across their faces.

Thud.

They then accepted the orders and started to move off in a direction that was to the flank of one of the front lines.

Thud.

Braveheart dismissed the rest of the commanders, who scattered in all directions.

Thud.

He then made a circling motion with his hand causing all ponies present except the two guarding the magical cage to start packing up all the equipment.

Thud.

Eventually Braveheart walked over to the cage and peering in said "Well I'm terribly sorry."

Thud.

"However we're going to have to leave you here, we have a war to win."

Thud.

The ball was now heading towards Diamond who was facing the Lieutenant, he hit the ball with his hoof and instead of returning to Dive Bomb it sailed through one of the bars of the cage and hit the Lieutenant, causing Braveheart to drop all the papers he was carrying.

Dive Bomb stood up and apologised profusely. "Oh my sir, I'm so terribly sorry, that was my fault." He walked through the bars of the cage and started to pick up the papers.

Shield hid her horn, which glowed a brilliant white as she used the spell that allowed Dive to escape their prison. Every pony in the HQ paused as they saw the pegasus unhindered by the bars of magical energy, shocked into doing nothing everything stood still for a second while Dive Bomb picked up the papers and handed them to the Lieutenant, whose mouth was nearly falling off his face. He accepted them and feebly said

"Thank you?"

"No problem." Replied Dive with a cheerful smile before spinning round and helpfully relieving the spear from one of their guards, quickly swung it, dispatching its unfortunate previous owner and his pal next to him. He then rounded on the Lieutenant

"Sorry about this sir, but, well I'm sure you understand." He then followed this by touching the spear to the Lieutenants head, who was sill in a state of rigor mortis. He collapsed in a heap on the floor. Dive Bomb then looked up at the rest of the ponies left in the area.

Looking over them all he whispered "Boo."

Shining armour was standing on the flagship of the Guard’s airship fleet, watching the melee that was occurring below, him. The Royal Princess Guards he had seen charging in as the vanguard were living up to their reputation, and although he knew that no Guards would receive anything more than bruises from the exercise, he still couldn't help but feel sorry for the company that was currently being crushed underneath the elite pony's hooves, when he noticed that the Green Berets were moving in to plug the leak, he gave a little smile, knowing the fight below was about to get a lot more intense.

The rain was mostly kept off of shining by the Balloon that kept the airship afloat; however he was still being splashed by drops that hit the edge of the ships wooden railing around the edge. The rain made it hard to make out what was in the distance however he could still make out a lot of detail of anything directly below, and within around a mile of the ship.

All he could hear was the gentle patter of rain as it hit the giant gas bag, creating a melody that he swayed to slightly, it came as a surprise to him when the rhythm was broken by three thumps behind him, followed by gasps of amazement by the crewmembers of the airship followed by a cluster voices saying in unison: "Your Highnesses"

He turned round to see the princesses all standing on the deck, looking incredibly regal, all dressed in their royal garments, he smiled as his eyes met Cadence’s and he walked up to her and they affectionately kissed. He then turned to all three of them and asked

"Why have you all come here? You always said that you thought this was a barbaric way of training."

He looked at each of them quizzically before Celestia said

"My dear, we are here to see how our personal Guards are coming along."

Luna then continued "Plus we are here to see my Guards beat mine sisters', as they well should."

Shining Smiled at the rivalry between the sisters, but then turning to Cadence he asked, "If that's so why are you here?"

Cadence smiled cheekily "To see you of course, and to see Luna's Guards win." She turned to Celestia and apologised

"Sorry but I always thought Luna's looked cooler."

Shining was a bit taken aback at this, he had never thought that Cadence would have paid attention to the Guard, but then she had probably started paying a lot more attention since she had married him, due to both security reasons and general interest in her husband’s life.

The four royals then moved to the edge of the airship and looked over the edge, only to see that the melee had ended and that the Green Berets had six prisoners.

"AHA!" exclaimed Luna "I told thou that mine were better! Do you wish to concede?"

Celestia only gave a knowing smile before saying calmly. "You are not the only one who has been following their progress Luna. I think we need to wait before we jump to conclusions."

When they turned back to look at the battlefield they noticed a small white shape coming towards them. When it got closer Shining identified it as Sergeant Hale. The Pegasus flew up to the shape and landed, a look of surprise on his face. He bowed at the four royals on the airship before turning to Armour and asking

“I hope you don’t mind me hitching a lift for a while?”

“Not a problem, but wouldn’t it be best if you join your trainees?” Replied Shining “Now they’re one pony down against the other half of the Royal Princess Guard.”

“For now yes, however I do believe Phalanx is going to come join us at an opportune time. We planned this well ahead of time.”

Shining and the three princesses looked puzzled at this however upon further questioning Hale refused to elaborate, instead insisting that they wait for whatever it was to happen and that it was going to impress them all.

Trusting the Sergeant’s judgement they turned back to look at the entire Battlefield, Shining pointing out the tactics that both sides were employing and the strengths and weaknesses of both. Swooping over the Battlefield they watched as slowly the lines of both sides flowed back and forth as attacks were made and positions were lost. However the noose was slowly closing around Bellow as Braveheart’s forces kept making the correct moves every time. The entire exercise was looking to be over tat day at this rate.

Eventually the Princesses questioned about their personal Guards again, Shining could only smile as he happily showed them. Celestia had finally warmed up to the idea and it was good to see them all take an interest in their own safety, if nothing else. He asked the commander of the airship to fly over to Braveheart’s headquarters to check on the captured Guards.

As the ship flew, unbeknownst to the four royals, Sergeant Hale was joined by Sergeant Phalanx, they greeted each other with a bump of hooves and quietly whispering to each other went over a few things. This was followed by them silently lifting off together and flying towards Bellow’s headquarters.

Shining gasped at the site of Braveheart’s command centre, the entire area was littered with he bodies of unconscious ponies, he could make out the shape of Braveheart, lying next to two Guards in full combat dress, the rest of his staff were all out of action as well, in a ring pattern surrounding the point where the Lieutenant had been removed from the equation, suggesting they had been running from something.

Celestia smiled as she saw what had happened. "It seems Luna you were too quick to judge my Guards, I believe." she paused, turning to Luna who wore a similar expression of shock to Shining. "It, is, ON!"

The six members of the Celestial half the Royal Princess Guard had split up, the three unicorns had healed any injuries that the group had obtained before they all moved off to carry out the plan. They were to each hit an area of the line from behind during the upcoming final attack on Bellow’s headquarters. Everything in Diamonds plan had come to fruition perfectly, everything they had predicted would happen had happened and now they were about to deal the crushing blow.

They had studied the map table at Braveheart’s Command centre before splitting up the job between them. The attack was to happen along a last line of defence, Bellow had chosen his position well, there were swamps on either side of his forces prevented the superior numbers of the Braveheart forces from flanking them and wiping them out. This had bought him time, however the numbers were sure to tell, there was no way of knowing what Braveheart had requested  his Royal Princess Guard to do, so they had decided to jump that hurdle when they came to it. The plan was to each take a section of the line and just wade in, finesse was not a luxury they had available to them, the plan was simply get in there and start cracking skulls.

Each Pony had to move on foot to their designated positions so as to avoid detection by any Pegasi that were roaming around. Diamond had the longest to run, but at least it was mostly through thick cover in a forest, it was Dive Bomb that had the worst of it though, he was to take the centre group, which was across open ground and was going to consist of the greatest number of 'enemies'. He had of course insisted on taking them because he was a massive fool.

However at this time all Diamond was concentrating on was the task at hand, usually one pony against three or so companies was unfair. It still was, but Diamond wasn't about to go easy to make it fair.

He galloped for nearly five miles, panting heavily all the way, eventually breaking from the cover of the trees into the open, seeing the fight had already begun and his allies weren't doing too well. They were outnumbered and looked to be barely hanging on. Ideas rushed through his mind as he thought of ways to alleviate the pressure. Suddenly it struck him and his horn began to glow with magic.

A screaming roar pierced the air as Diamonds magic enhanced his voice to gargantuan levels, all fighting along the entire line stopped as his great shout was thrown through the air, causing all those fighting to turn their heads in an effort to see what was causing the noise.

Diamond didn't know that this was the effect of his magic, he was too concentrated on closing the distance between him and the enemy formation, as he was running he smoothly dove into a role, acquiring a discarded spear from the ground, keeping up his pace all the time. He rushed towards the enemy line, however by this time they had formed a proper defence; this wasn't too much of a problem, more an annoyance.

As he closed they unleashed a bushel of spears, all flying directly towards him, however instead of dodging he focused all his power into his horn, disappearing in a brilliant flash of white just before the spears hit, reappearing behind the first row of the Guard, swinging his acquired weapon low so as to sweep the legs of all that surround him clearing all the ponies around him and removing a large threat from the fight.

He then found his next target, a brave mare with a spear holding her ground in from of him; he smiled at her pleasantly and set about his work. He went from pony to pony delivering crippling blows; he seemed to flow through the formation with each Guard that tried to stop him meeting with the business end of his spear. He received multiple glancing blows on the way, leaving him with one hind leg out of action and half of his face paralysed by the end of his movement through the formation.

Having swept across the enemy lines from one end to the other he finally emerged near his side of the ponies, all looking at the crazy pony that had just carved through their opponents leaving a trail of unconscious ponies in his wake. He turned round and cursed the damn magic on the weapons, the blows in reality that slowly causing him to lose would have been but scratches in any real situation.

His current state of being wounded as it were meant that some Guards from the formation he had just cleaved through felt braver about attacking him. They approached him spears down, using their numbers to their advantage, forming a semicircle around him to get the best angles of attack. However they paused as Diamond closed his eyes and his horn began to glow. The ponies watched in shock as his face regained all composure and his limp leg suddenly regained all movement. He smiled at them and crouched ready to pounce towards them.

He was interrupted before he had the chance to do so as a magical yellow flame burst forth a scroll wrapped in a red ribbon. He paused, looking at the ponies facing him, slowly he used his free hoof to pick up the scroll and open it. Making sure to keep his peripheral vision at the forefront of his mind he read the message.

Luna's attacking centre, Lieutenant Bellow in deep. Help would be nice

SM

Diamond finished the scroll and looked down the long line of fighting Guards; he could just about make out a really fierce battle a mile or so away, with an airship hovering above it, and in between him and it was about a thousand members of the Guard. He also noticed that the rainclouds had disappeared and a glorious sunshine was smothering everything, embracing the land with its warmth.

Diamond took a deep breath, allowing himself a quick rest before focusing on the melee in the centre. Smiling quickly, he charged.

Dive bomb was being chased by the Luna's pegasi, he hated to admit it, but he was in way above his head, the best thing he could hope for was that he could keep them off for long enough for the rest of his squad to regroup. Also there was the fact that Lieutenant Bellow had decided it was a good idea to join the defence in the centre. Mid flight he put his hoof over his eyes at the silliness of the mistake, nearly being hit by a spear thrown from the pursuing pegasi.

They were smart, they had spread out and were herding him, however he was only going that way because he needed to, he was scanning the ground furiously looking for a trail of bodies that would depict one of his squad. Sure enough he spotted one, and at the head of it a Unicorn mare wrapped in a tight purple skin-tight sheen which projectiles and spears were bouncing off.

He swooped down low overhead and diving straight at her, tackled her to the ground. This should put off those damn bat bastards for at least a minute, which was all he needed. Shield recovered from the tackle quickly and looked ferociously at him.

"Shield we have a problem!" he shouted above the clamour of battle

As if to illustrate it the three pegasi flew overhead looking for where the two had gone. Realising that was the particular problem she shouted back

"Where?"

"The centre, under the airship, I'll distract them for as long as I can." Taking off as he said it, he had to carry out an emergency barrel roll to avoid an incoming projectile and then bolted off the way he had come.

Spear swiftly started furiously using her magic, ignoring any incoming blows that just deflected off her shield. First she teleported four scrolls and a quill to her which she used to write four messages quickly, she then followed that up by sending each scroll to a different member of her squad. After she had done this the effort caught up with her all at once causing her to stumble. Luckily her shield held and no blows directed at her connected.

The Guard’s on her side surrounded her protecting her while she recovered, fending off anypony who tried to attack her in her weakened state. When she recovered she thanked the Stallions and Mares that had held off the enemy and turned towards where the airship was located, starting to make her way towards it through the crowds of battling ponies.

She quickly recovered from the exertion and stood tall, seeing Dive Bomb using what was available to his advantage, flying around the airship, keeping it in between him and his attackers as long as possible.

Dive Bomb was desperately dodging everything that was being chucked at him, he had initially hoped that they would run out of instruments to throw but some damn magic kept causing more spears, or swords and even a mace at one point to be teleported to them, he was fairly sure that it was their unicorn buddies on the ground that was causing this massive pain in his flank. All he could do was keep dodging and hoping for the best.

Deciding to use the airship to keep them at least far enough away from him to not deal damage he led them on a roundabout chase, carrying out complicated manoeuvres to try and throw them, their advantage in numbers and training meant it was only a matter of time. Eventually he had no choice but to fly over the deck of the airship, narrowly skimming the railing he flew past four bewildered looking streaks.

"Were they the Princesses?" He asked himself, looking back in shock, only for him to miss a well placed spear until the very last second. It just clipped his hind leg, causing him to plummet out of the sky. He managed to extend his wings and regain some composure just before hitting the ground and bouncing into the air again, causing more scrapes than he would have wanted to gather. And just in time for him to notice before Lieutenant Bellows was about to be attacked by the three Unicorns of Luna's Guard.

Using many expletives Dive Bomb cannoned over to the Lieutenant and descended to ground level, using his three good legs to skid to a halt between the Lieutenant and the three Unicorns.

He stood tall and defiant as the three Pegasi went to hover behind the unicorns; each had replaced their dropped weapons with a spear. Dive Bomb flicked a spear near his hoof up and caught it under a wing, ready to at least go down fighting.

Flourish was hurtling towards the outnumbered Dive Bomb, he was still having a standoff with the six ponies of Luna' Guard when she managed to catch a glimpse of him, the sight made her redouble her efforts and she galloped faster than she ever thought she could gallop. She had managed to pick up a sabre from one of the officers she had dispatched along the way and had it held in her mouth as she ran.

Time seemed to slow as one of the Unicorns thrust a spear at Dive, he blocked it easily, as well as the next one, however the third strike was going to collide and everypony knew it. That was until Flourish blocked it with the sword in her mouth, flicking it away, throwing the sword into the air and then catching it with her magic, levelling it at the enemies.

"This is becoming quite the party eh?" Flourish gasped as they stood there staring down the six, still horrendously outnumbered.

That was until Crush and Spear landed behind them, and Diamond and Shield appeared from the flanks. All holding various weapons of choice, Diamond set about using magic to fix up Dive's injured leg, getting a relieved grunt as the stallion regained feeling. They then stood opposite the six dark grey ponies, one to one, choosing their targets.

"I've been looking forward to this for a while" said the unicorn at the head of the Luna Guards.”

He then lunged.

Every single pony on the airship watched the vicious duel below between the two squads of Guards. Much of it was too fast to see with the naked eye, the three unicorns duelled each other ruthlessly; using spells to try and gain the tactical advantage. Sometimes teleporting behind the opponents, sometimes wielding two weapons at once from different angles, and one time one of the white coated mares even turned the ground below a dark grey unicorn into quicksand, forcing a hasty teleportation spell to escape.

The Pegasi were even more impressive, they were all moving about the nearly as fast as the renowned Wonderbolts, dodging blows and thrown weapons alike, using ever more complicated manoeuvres to get behind their opponents. They all moved with surprising speed, especially the largest one who moved with speed that belied his size, it seemed somewhat unnatural.

This kept going for five minutes with neither side gaining the upper hand, each evenly matched, the question was who would become more exhausted first, and that was unlikely to happen within the hour. Surrounding them were the remnants of Lieutenants Bellow's army, barely over a hundred Guards, they watched with amazement at the prowess of both sides of the combat. Unable to join in lest they hinder their side.

Eventually Celestia and Luna looked at each other knowingly, and slowly nodding at each other jumped off of the edge of the airship and slowly descended towards the field of battle.

"BE STILL, GUARD!" Bellowed Luna, using the Royal Canterlot voice.

The impact the voice had on the combatants was negligible, they continued their frantic melee, unabashed at the Princess of the Night, who was taken aback at her voice not usually working.

Celestia just giggled and said, "Maybe we should use a bit more vigorous means?"

Her horn was surrounded by the familiar glow of her magic and releasing a burst of magical energy she sent out a blinding flash towards the ponies that were part of the combat. They all froze as they were caught in its power, for a couple of seconds they could do nothing but breath. When the spell wore off they all stood in the exact same position, unsure whether they were still fighting or not.

Celestia then announced.

"It seems that Lieutenant Bellow's forces have won." A great cheering arose from the gathered ponies, giving each other claps on the back. The twelve ponies of the Princess Royal Guard however stayed in exactly the positions they were in before, wondering if they were going to continue their duel or if they were going to be told to abandon it. Unsurprisingly they all wanted the same thing.

"That means there is to be no more fighting today my little ponies." she then turned to Shining and whispered a question in his ear followed by her standing up again and telling the crowd. "And all who have taken part in this exercise are to have the next week off for leave."

This final announcement got the largest cheer of all, with helmets being thrown into the air to celebrate. Shining then stepped forward and held up a hoof to signal silence.

"Before we can leave however we have to deal with the Cleanup." Shining then set about organising the ponies that remained standing to go around and clear up the entire area they had fought on. Also instructing any Unicorns capable of doing so to go and release any ponies that had been made into 'casualties' and who had yet to be revived from the magic that held them.

Finally he turned to the twelve members of the Royal Princess Guard who had relaxed, and much to his surprise had started to congratulate each other on their fight. He stood there in shock as what he had thought to be mortal rivals congratulated each other about nearly every aspect of the fight they had just taken part in. He even heard mentions of pints being owed to various members.

He smiled at that, there was nothing quite like a good old fight to bring together rivals. He then knew that he had chosen the best, and they were ready.

"Alright you lot gather round." He beckoned to the twelve who quickly gathered around him and the princesses in a semicircle.

"Based on that display, and with the consent of the Princesses…" He paused to look at the two rulers of Equestria who both smiled and nodded, understanding what he was about to do.

"You are more than ready to take on your full roles as personal Guards to the Princesses." This caused the twelve to look with excitement between each other

"From this day you are now officially Royal Princess Guards, you all already know what this means." There were a couple of high hoofs at this news. Shining cut them off before they could celebrate any more however.

"But... first I have a very important task for all of you." He paused as he received a dozen puzzled looks.

"You are all to accompany me." He quickly looked around at all three princesses who gave consenting nods. "And the three princesses here to a bar, where I will buy you all a round, and you will have fun. Any questions?"

This statement just received another round of high hoofs and hoof bumps, followed by many promises of getting hammered and making Shining pay as much as possible for the round. Shining smiled at the revelry they were enjoying, and turned toward the Princesses, gesturing them onto the airship accompanied by the twelve Royal Princess Guards’.

The airship under orders took off and flew off towards Canterlot as Celestia’s sun set over the horizon and Luna prepared to raise the moon, a sense of happiness and joy flooded through the airship as the twelve Guards aboard spread their joy. It seemed as if nothing could go wrong for them at that very moment and they forgot all of their troubles and worries and conundrums as they had finally achieved what they had trained for the last year, and they were overjoyed at it.