"Nah." Gilda taunted as she flipped over an attack.

"I see, they're at about that level." Floral mumbled as he shredded the training regime he had in mind.

"You sure it's fine for it to be a six verse one?" Moon asked lazily as she messed around with a piece of wood.

"Eh, she'll be fine." He replied and added a leaf into the boiling pot next to him.

"The fuck, of course she's gonna be fine. She just never fought against anything weaker than her. I'm more worried she'll end up killing one of them by accidents." She said and took a big stretch, earning quite a few pops.

"She's fought the guards plenty of times before hasn't she?"

"Well, yeah, but those ones had armor."

Despite the six ponies trying their absolute best, going in at the moments they've noticed, something just wasn't adding up. They hadn't even touched Gilda yet.

"Slippery." Heavy Hitter commented with a cold voice.

"Oof, I'm out." Chain Link announced as she collapsed trying to get up.

"Come on, have none of you guys been in a real fight before?" Gilda taunted as she sidestepped, took a short leap before giving a hard right.

"Ow. Was the sky always red?" Silent Step muttered before passing out.

"We have been in a fight before!" Eagle Eye answered the question and threw a punch.

Gilda weaved the punch before hooking with her right, throwing Eagle to the ground. "Then why the fuck aren't any of you guarding your faces?" She asked as she stayed light on her legs.

"It's not like you're guarding!" Stargazer said back as he tried to hit a combo of attacks, only for none of them to connect.

With one last dodge, Gilda rotated as she threw a kick, knocking Stargazer to the ground. "That's cuz none of you have managed to hit me yet." She added and looked forward. "So? Why are you hesitating? You're not gonna die, if that's what you're afraid of."

Looking carefully, Sweetie Drops had a sweat drop as she tried to think of a plan.

"You can stop now." Floral spoke up, stopping the fight as most of them laid there tired.

"But, instructor." Sweetie Drops tried to refute.

"I've seen enough. I can tell what each one of you are lacking currently." He said as he took the pot off of the fire. "Well, for now, it's lunchtime."

"Yes! Finally!"

"Dear Celestia, I'm starving."

"Yo, Stargazer, wake up."

"Ugh, my jaw hurts."

"Guess you should've guarded the face."

With the five engaging in simple talk, Sweetie Drops was slightly unsatisfied as she sat down with her meal. A surprisingly fancy plate of an earthy scented broth.

"It was a good workout." Gilda commented as she wiped her sweat away. "You guys get really tunnel-visioned when you're fighting though." She added on as she took her bowl of soup, along with a grilled fish on a stick. "It's a common problem fliers face when they get an adrenaline rush." She explained before digging into her meal.

Glancing at her, Floral gave a smile before turning to the agents. "She's right, I saw no communication, stopping you all from committing to an attack in fear of hitting your teammates. Only way to fight without communicating is to know exactly how you and your team fight. Well, at least the leader." He mumbled the last part. "For now though, I'll be advancing your combat skills, along with your team skills at the same time. It'll be a hard time, for you I mean." He said ominously as he added two grilled fish Moon's bows of soup.

"Uh, what about me? I don't think I have those skills." Iron Shield asked as he struggled to even hold his head up.

"Yeah, what about that one? He's pretty durable, but he ain't no fighter." Moon asked as she picked Iron up with her shadow and placed him next to the fire.

"He'll do fine." Floral said back and finally poured himself a bowl. "Now, I want you to temporarily forget your experiences of fighting beasts." He said as he took a sip of his soup.

"What? Why?" Sweetie Drops asked for them.

"Simple, you're so used to fighting beasts, you've forgotten to fight like ponies." He simply told them. "I'm not exactly sure at which range your operations take place, but I'll tell you. Just fighting animals all the time, it's not going let you develop more skills than that of a hunter." He warned them as a bloody aura started to leak out. "And, Celestia asked me to fix that. So, five minutes for rest, and you've used up four of them." He told them as he took another sip from his bowl.

Hearing it, the seven agents sat shocked for a few seconds. In an instant, they started to scarf their food down.

"You'll be joining too, Gilda." Floral said with a small smirk as the griffin realized he wasn't joking.

"Fuck you!" She yelled and proceeded to gulp the soup down as if it were a mug of booze.

"Hah!" Moon found it hilarious as she enjoyed her meal.

"You're letting Iron catch up with the others, you realize that?" He asked calmly as he put his empty bowl down.

"Wha? Fuck you, Floral." Moon cussed as she sped up her eating.

"Guess being the favorite didn't save you." Gilda joked as she threw the empty fishbone away. "I'm taking the east side!" She said and went over with her bow.

"Hey! That's the good field!" Moon shouted after her as she gulped and ran after her, a shadow was dragging her dagger behind her.

"We're so bucked, aren't we?" Stargazer asked in a tired tone as he placed his empty bowl down.

"This is gonna be a long month."

"We'll be lucky if we're alive by the end of it."

"Doesn't matter, move out agents! We got a training to go through!" Sweetie Drops announced and ran off.

"Dang, Captain Drops is excited for this huh?" Eagle Eye asked in an interested tone.

"Nah, she's just anxious cuz she's away from her marefriend." Silent Steps replied and wiped his mouth.

"Steps, why in Celestia's name do you know about her personal life?" Eagle Eye asked incredulously.

"I have connections." He replied and turned towards Iron. "Just like how I know this one is being transferred from the thirty third infantry line of the Royal Guards."

"Steps, you know you're not allowed to reveal the team's info without permission." Chain Link admonished Steps with a sharp glare.

"Jeez, fine, ma'am." He replied in a playful tone. "Anyways, we should probably head on over. That Floral dude doesn't seem the type to take these things easy." He commented and stood up.

"Yeah, by the way, Steps." Stargazer asked.

"Yeah?"

"The last time I saw, the sky was blue." He teased and ran off.

"I was disoriented right then!" Steps yelled and chased after.

"Ugh, children." Chain Link mumbled and stood up. "Welcome to the team, Iron Shield. You'll both love and hate it here." She said and walked off.

"Yeah, we should go." Eagle Eye commented and got up with a tap on Iron's shoulder. "You are part of this team, if that's what you're worrying about. We see character more than skill in this job, it's a necessity." He reassured him with a grin. "Ain't that right, Heavy?"

"Skills are easier to acquire than character." He coldly replied and walked off.

"That means he agrees. You'll get used to it." Eagle Eye said cheerfully and hopped off. "Come on! I'm afraid what that guy's gonna give as punishment!"

"Uh, yeah! Coming!" Iron yelled and ran after.

"So, that should work, yes?" Luna asked as she stepped into Celestia's room the balcony.

"Hmm, yes, it's definitely different. We just didn't have the technology before, but it's different." Light mumbled as an excited grin slowly grew on her face.

"So, I can take this as you having found a solution right?" Celestia asked hopefully.

"Absolutely, Princess!" Twilight almost yelled as she read the reports. "This is incredible. It's only been theorized before, but we could never confirm it because nopony had ever made a thaumatic reader accurate enough."

"Um, then where did you get this one?" Luna asked confusedly as she shared a glance with Celestia.

"We built it of course. It was only a matter of studying Gear Head and Tesla Coil's twelve series books on thaumaturgy and technology. Then acquiring the different parts through Blueblood before building it. It was simple really." Light replied and read the last report. "Yes! As we theorized, look!" She said and held up a piece of paper.

"Sister, what am I looking at?" Luna asked with a confused expression.

"It's a thaumaturgy report, Luna. Which rune is this from?" Celestia asked Light.

"It's, not exactly a full rune. More like a component to a rune." Light said as she read through more reports. "Looking on the last readings of your unique magics, they always made no sense. If anything, it's things we've already tried and it always resulted in an explosive failure. It's exactly why we made our own thaumatic reader." She explained as if it was the simplest thing.

"And, what exactly should I be understanding from this?" Luna asked one more time.

"It's really simple, Princess, we checked for each rune and component that your own alicorn magics used and exactly how much influence they have on your spells." Twilight explained and continued to read more reports. "So, with this, we've basically seen what makes up your magic. It's honestly no wonder nopony has found out about this before. They'd have to somehow get an appointment with one of you, attach every single one of these receivers to you, get you to use your alicorn magic. All without somehow getting captured by either you or the guards." She casually suggested treason as she turned to Light. "How's that one coming along?"

"Princess Luna mostly has the lightning element, there's the ice element too. But the obvious thing, is the runes. It's completely out of the ordinary, it's basically an entirely different set of runes than the normal ones ponies use." Light replied and gathered the results.

"Hmm, we'll have to get back to you, Princesses. Please give us time to compile the results and make a proper result." Twilight said and left along with Light, a giant machine with several dozens of different sensors rattling through it following the two behind.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to spend my afternoon like that." Luna commented as she finally touched the lukewarm tea.

"Yes, they seemed to be quite excited by the tests." Celestia said as she took a sip before enveloping both of their cups in her magic.

"Thank you." Luna said and took a sip. "I'm not sure how comfortable I am to have found out so much about my magic from somepony else." She muttered as she used her magic, if only to see it one more time.

"Times have changed, Luna. You no longer need to worry that another would use this knowledge against you." Celestia assured her with a warm smile.

Glancing for a moment, Luna let out a soft chuckle before returning the smile. "Yes, Celly. It's nice to be back." She muttered and looked out the balcony.

A beautiful sunset greeted the two as a nice breeze traveled through the balcony doors.

"I'm glad." Celestia spoke warmly as she turned to Luna.

"As am I."

"In shadows you lurk, with tricks up your sleeve. But my loyalty's strong, and I won't be deceived." One zebra yelled with contempt as she pulled herself back. "Try to strike me down if you wish, but heed this decree. Forgiveness you'll find is a treasure not free." She yelled and threw a vile of red liquid.

Shielding herself from the burst of flames, she slammed a vile of brown liquid to the ground. With a slight sense of vertigo, she rolled on the ground as she stared at her house. Knowing she didn't have much more time, she pulled out her last vile and threw it at the house before running away, an explosion sounding out soon after.

"You won by cheating, escaping death's breath. But face your equal, and you'll cower in dread." She said grimly as she turned around and fled into the woods, several snake like vines following after her.

"Aw, that's unfortunate." One mint coated mare mumbled as she read a small note. "I wonder what kind of business managed to tie her up in a small place like Ponyville?" She questioned.

Author's Note

A shorter chapter this time. Sorry, but I'm actually on the road right now, a bit more than 300km out of the city. So, I just decided to put these basics down first. I'm lucky I can even post chapters while in college anyway.

Anyways, see you later!