Waiting at the front door of the office was not easy for Sparklebright, but when she'd been approached by Poppy Bread, and heard the offer, she'd felt compelled to jump on it. Lyra Heartstrings had been her mentor early in her career, and they'd crossed paths several times since then. It wasn't so much she felt like she owed Lyra anything, but more that her commander had told her it would be a good use of her abilities.

"Sparklebright? Got some time off to visit, or—" Lyra froze as meaning sank in. The mare was wearing her armor, but rather than the crests of the Royal Dragoons, there were no insignia present. "Poppy sent you?"

Nodding, Sparklebright saluted. "Captain Lyra Heartstrings, I request a transfer to your regiment and seek the position of training sergeant for unicorns."

"You remember we fought together in Vanhoover?" Lyra waited for Sparklebright's nod. "Then you know I trust you. You've got the job until you don't want it. Come inside and I'll brief you on the changes I'm making and why you're going to be looking for a junior sergeant."

Blinking in surprise, Sparklebright followed Lyra into her office and listened to the same spiel and briefing that Blaze had gotten. By the end of it, she felt filled with excitement and determination. She needed to build a month and a half course of training that would ensure all of the unicorns trained would either be the most effective spell-casters the Training regiment had ever produced, or at least could leverage their natural special talent to as devastating an effect.

Her first target was the regiment's library. There were dozens of copies of Lyra's revised training manuals. Even though Sparklebright could rattle off the thing from cover to cover from memory, she still read through it. It was a newer revision than the last one she'd read, and included some new teleportation techniques that she liked the sound of.

Since her earliest days in the Royal Dragoons, Sparklebright had been presented with the doctrine that positioning was everything. Her training there had been with specializations in quickly teleporting her allies and herself around, using the most efficient spells she could to ensure everyone was always in the best spot to deal with a threat. It was a unique ability for unicorns, and she intended to strengthen that role.

She moved on from there to direct combat magic. There were some unicorns who had talents for it, and others who had none. She had to pause her plans, though, when she remembered that she wasn't training explicitly for the 'Dragoons. There were ponies who needed less deadly spells, too.

While she did know the full repertoire of spells for a guardpony, she didn't know what the Police would use, specifically, and what the Monster Hunters wanted. She knew they required more options than any other regiment. Once she had all the questions she needed answers to, she grabbed up all her notes and left the stuffy library.

A morning spent talking to the Police's training sergeant and an afternoon with the Monster Hunters' had left Sparklebright with revelations and new equipment. Both had liked her plan to emphasize positioning and repositioning tactics, but both had stressed that it was often less important than communication.

What had done a number on her previous understanding of how the different regiments of the Guard worked was finding them both using short range radios. More, though, they'd arranged to get the same units so they could coordinate.

Most of the following morning had involved her learning to use the devices and ensuring she was on a frequency that wouldn't interfere with either regiment. She arrived at the mess for dinner and was relieved to see Lyra there. "Commander, I think I have something that was overlooked, and it's more than simply a unicorn training issue."

Raising an eyebrow, Lyra didn't think she needed to ask to get the full rundown.

"I read your proposed training schedule, but none of it includes training in radios." At the surprised look Lyra gave her, Sparklebright knew she had gotten something juicy. "I met with the Police and Monster Hunter sergeants yesterday. Both their regiments use radios to keep in contact. We're going to have to teach recruits that, and more, teach other regiments about this."

Pausing to think about it, Lyra realized she'd completely forgotten aspects of her old life and how they could pertain to Equestria. "I'm an idiot. You're absolutely right. What range do they have on these radios?" She could dimly remember hearing about how some were line of sight while others could reach much further.

"The ones the Police use can cover a city. The Monster Hunters use a similar model, though they mostly have their scouts and squad leaders using them."

"Is there an advantage to having a single large transmitter? That would mean we could send more clearly to each, right, but they would be lower range on a per-unit basis?" When Sparklebright stared at her, mouth slowly dropping open, Lyra raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

"I made notes. I talked to ponies and got the numbers. How did you know all this already?"

Lyra still wasn't sure how much she should tell regular people about her history, but it wasn't exactly a secret. "I've spent a little time in Batstralia. They have way more extensive radio equipment there. Hey, maybe we could see about buying some long range stuff from them?"

"That would be a good idea, but it's not exactly something I need to research before our first intake. Is it?" A tiny trickle of worry ran down from the recesses of Sparklebright's mind, but was quenched when Lyra shook her head. "One idea I did have was to have a central radio system in each city, and then connect those with the telephone system. Most of the major cities already have some connections between them." It was a relief to see Lyra look surprised. "That way information could be spread far faster from ponies in the field, to a central office in the city, then to other cities."

It was more than what Lyra had managed to cook up since being told about the issue, and she liked the depth that Sparklebright had taken with it. "Could you drop your notes off at my office and ask my secretary to put them on my desk?"

"Yes, sir."

The conversation wasn't missed by Blaze, who'd been soaking it all up. "Commander?"

"Can I establish a new rule? No ranks at the dinner table." Lyra looked around to the various sergeants sitting with her, and when she got nods from them all, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. Now, go ahead."

Blaze set her fork down. "It feels like a bad idea to dump these recruits, expecting all these new ideas to already be implemented, into the hooves of regiments who have no idea about them. We could offer an officer training, prior to the intake training, to advise them how we'll be training the newbies and what new equipment they might find useful."

Nodding to that, Lyra had to finish off her mouthful before replying, "Good idea. No, great idea. We have two weeks before intake. Can each of you put together a summary of what you intend to teach our recruits, and I'll assemble a keynote speech and handle the radio."

Lyra had to admit it would be more work on top of an already massive workload, but it would only be a few hours and would be a summary of their training plans. If anything, she figured building the presentation would be good for each of them to find any last minute flaws in their work. It meant, of course, she had a lot more work too—but that work was literally Lyra's job.

Two weeks had flown by. Talks with the other regiments had been a daily event that Lyra was sure they were getting sick of. The presentation had left everyone talking seriously about communications, greater mobility, and far more agile pegasi. Lyra had even squeezed in a meeting with the people who made the radios that the Monster Hunters and the Police were using, and arranged for purchase of the equipment for the Training regiment and assurances there would be more orders coming.

She sat behind her desk, still well before dawn, and contemplated what the next month and a half would bring. There might be things that wouldn't work. No plan survived first contact with an opposing force—so they had plans to recover from failed plans. The final plan, for anything that doesn't seem to be working, was to get the recruits out and run them around until they are all exhausted, then see what could be done to recover.

Collating all her plans together, she set them aside and reread her opening speech. Like the other four hundred or so times she'd read it, it seemed fine. She got up, still cursing her decision to not wear armor for the introduction, and left all the paperwork behind.

Today she needed authority, and there was nothing better at imparting that than what she now had on her back. She walked to her door and opened it. The office was still empty, which meant she had time to go for a little run.

The morning air had some bite to it, but a pony's coat was proof against it. Soon, as she rounded back toward the fields, she was warm enough that the temperature didn't even register to her. For her second lap, Lyra took to the sky and flew as fast as she could around the city. Flying, of course, went a lot faster than running, so Lyra did two laps like that before landing at the gate. Still cantering, she made up a new rule for her final lap—she would go no more than one stride between teleports.

Again and again she flashed the spell, shoving herself forward in momentum conserving jumps that from her perspective had her running normally while the world around her stuttered past. She spared a single glance for the Royal Guards at their post before the castle entrance as she zipped through, and three teleports from the gates of the training fields she felt and saw the sun rise.

It shouldn't have been as much of a revelation as it was to realize that Celestia had done this, every day, for over a thousand years. With a jaunty grin, she trotted to the gates. "At ease," Lyra said before either could salute, "any early risers turn up yet?"

"Three griffons, a dragon, and the usual assortment of reserves."

It perked Lyra up even further to hear that a dragon had arrived. "I'll go see how they're faring after their long trip, then." She trotted through and into her command. There were indeed three griffons and a dragon among a group of ponies waiting within, and she recognized one of the griffons immediately. "Gavin! I'm glad you could make it. Are these your two?"

"Of course I'd come, but I'm afraid these two aren't mine—these three are. Grendel, Glint, and Smash, daughter of Mighty Fracture, protector of Den." Gavin gestured to each of the two griffons he was with and the dragon.

Looking over the three, Lyra had a lot of questions but no reason to ask any of them. Grendel was the biggest griffon she'd ever seen, a mix of some kind of eagle and a tiger and he seemed to balance his height with a solidness that told her she didn't want to get into a wrestling match with him. Glint was far slimmer, and she had what looked like a mix of hawk and some kind of bob-tailed feline. But Smash was something else. Standing nearly twice as tall as Lyra, the dragon had a big pair of leathery wings on their back and a perpetual scowl. "It's good to meet all of you. I got to meet your mother, Smash, when I visited Den a few weeks ago. She didn't mention you."

"Yeah, well, I came all the way to Equestria to see what she was doing, and she kicks me out and tells me if I want any of her gems, I have to earn them. Says I should talk to the mayor, and he said I should come here and prove myself. So here I am! Are you going to fight me?" Thrusting her chest out, Smash glared down at Lyra.

Debating her chances, Lyra came up with a plan. "Sure. You have your adult scales, I see."

Surprised to hear a pony agree to a fight, Smash grinned and found herself respecting Lyra a bit more, if only because of that. "Yeah. Your magic is useless."

"No it's not," Lyra said, walking toward a practice field and nodding at it. "First touch, or until one of us gives up?"

"It's no fun if it's just to first touch." Clenching her talons, Smash balled them into fists. She'd been kicked out of the dragon crèche by Ember, and now she was in the awkward phase of dragon maturity prior to being quadruped but having a lot of traits that would better suit her being that way.

"Okay then. First to leave the circle or surrender loses. Flying above it will be fine, since we both have wings." Lyra stopped at the far side of the field big enough to hold fifty sparring ponies. "When you're ready."

Wings. Something about that set off an alarm bell in Smash's head. But, with the prospect of fighting a pony and not having them cry foul, she ignored that and rushed at Lyra. Two steps into her charge and a barely begun war cry were halted when the mare vanished. She stopped and looked around, unable to see where they were. "What are you—"

Ending her crash-dive with both forelegs extended, slamming into Smash's head, Lyra teleported a second time to arrest her forward momentum in a strike directly into Smash's chest.

The one-two blow of the hits rung Smash's bell and sent her flying backward. She tumbled from the circle and roared her fury at the sudden strike. "What was that?!"

With her wings held up and her horn aglow, Lyra stepped out of the circle herself and right up to Smash. "That was showing you that your magic-immune scales and toughness can count for nothing when an enemy knows how to work around them. Do you want to learn how to stop me doing that and kick my ass?"

It made sense, now that Smash had realized what horn and wings meant. With her tongue she checked her teeth and found a loose one. A tiny stab of pain and it was completely free. She spat it onto her palm and thrust it out to Lyra. "You got a deal. But if this gets too boring, I'm gonna leave."

"That's okay. If you leave, though, I'll chase you down and kick your ass again, then your mom will know that you didn't just drop out, but a pony kicked your butt twice." Spitting on her hoof and shoving it into the saliva-filled talon, Lyra shook—only to find the tooth. "Uh, you want this back?"

"Teeth grow back. So, how many ponies are like you?" At Lyra's raised eyebrow, something Smash figured was a question, she added, "I mean can fight."

"All the Guard can fight, most will even give you a surprise if you push them to it—some will beat you." Tucking the tooth away for later examination, Lyra walked beside Smash to the group where the griffons were talking to some new arrivals.

"Being a"—Smash gestured at Lyra's horn and wings.

"Alicorn," Lyra said.

"Does being one of them make much of a difference?"

"Yeah, but in our fight it wasn't anything a unicorn and a pegasus couldn't have done. That's where the Guard gets most of its strength, filling in gaps and making a stronger whole. Picture it. If you and me were fighting something nasty, like Chrysalis, any time she tried to use her mind magic, you could put yourself in the way and block it. Meanwhile, I can teleport close to her and distract her while you rush up and beat her senseless."

"I like the sound of that!" Sauntering back to the others, Smash looked at the griffons and wondered if she could beat them up—or if they'd even accept a fight. When they all paused talking to look at her and Lyra, she shrugged. "Ponies are tricky."

"Yeah," Gavin said, "she beat me too."

"That was a close fight. You almost had me from the get-go." Lyra was glad that she couldn't feel the squelching squish of spit on her hoof anymore. "You'll have to excuse me, I see another new friend I need to talk to."

"March," Lyra said as she approached the next pony she wanted to discuss things with. "You can relax here, I've talked to all my guardponies."

Months spent in Vanhoover without the need to conceal herself had been quick to undo when March had gotten on the train to Canterlot. Every pony face that she didn't recognize felt like a potential alarm. She looked at Lyra—took in again the open safety the mare radiated—and let her magic undo.

As March unfolded her full size and shape, Lyra stepped forward with a wing extended to hug her. Among the groups of ponies and griffons gathered already, there was a moment of quiet before conversations continued.

"They were more surprised at my shape changing?" March asked.

Stepping back after the short hug, Lyra nodded. "There are plenty of folks who are going to be different from the norm here today. We have griffons, a dragon, and there should be some diamond dogs coming."

"What kind of training can you give me?"

"We can train you to work with a group of others. Meshing your own skills with theirs to create a whole that is stronger than all of you would be on your own. I am sure you will learn something new about yourself by the end of this." Shrugging, Lyra laughed. "And, if you don't, it's only a month and a half."

For all that March wanted to hug Lyra again, she also had a stoic reputation to uphold. "That's exactly what Staccato said."

"Staccato is very smart." Lyra shared a grin with March. "I'd better go. I have one more new inductee to greet and then I'll have to give my speech and start this ball rolling." With a nod from March, Lyra turned and made her way over to where a lone pegasus mare stood. "Howzitgoin'?" she asked, letting her voice drop into a drawl.

The question, Rolling Thunder knew, would only come with such a delivery from one source local to Canterlot. Turning, she stood straight and performed a salute precisely how Short Fuse had taught her. "Sir! It's goin' good, sir!"

The salute was better than Lyra had seen any non-Guard give for a while, and Lyra returned it with her own sloppiest one. "Glad to hear it. How's Short taking things?"

"He's kicking flank. Got all the moves down, and Firelance has him teaching foals how to fly." When she saw an eyebrow rise, Rolling snerked. "Okay, and he's more relaxed about us too. Thanks for that push."

"I learned from the best, and when that didn't work, I took up being a chaotic gremlin that kept her eyes open," Lyra said. "I hope you're ready to work your tail off, because this is going to be entirely new—to the point where I suspect a lot of guardponies will want to rotate back through for this training."

"So you're actually going to give me a challenge, huh?"

"Not me, cadet." Lyra nodded to where Blaze was standing. "See Blaze over there? You've got yourself a training sergeant hand-picked from the Wonderbolts. What she doesn't know about flying isn't worth knowing. Your own unique talent aside, of course."

"Yeah, yeah. We can't all be the fastest flier in Equestria."

Groaning, Lyra nodded to where the three training sergeants waited in their gleaming armor. "Time for me to give my welcome speech, I guess. Better put my authority on."

Rolling was about to ask what she meant, but then Lyra spread her wings and held them out and tilted up. The image of an alicorn replaced the interesting friend she'd been chatting to and it was all she could manage to not bow. The reaction was so instinctive and overbearing that she gasped softly at how insidious it seemed.

"Everyone, it's great to see so many new faces." Lyra had debated on how to address them all, and unlike the normally accepted everycreature, she preferred a simple everyone. The silence that had cloaked those present, even before she'd turned to face them, had been a testament to how powerful the alicorn look was among Equestrians. "Welcome, to the first of a newly envisioned E.U.P. Guard training intake. I know you were expecting the usual three weeks of training, but I think you will all agree by the end that the extra time spent will prepare you to be the best protectors Equestria has ever seen.

"From pegasi, to unicorns, to earth ponies, bat ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, dragons, and even one of Equestria's sirens—you're all going to have a chance to be part of the Guard. It won't be easy. You will be expected to work as hard as you ever have in your life—and then some. This intake has required a more focused training routine than ever, and the best ponies to teach the specific skills of their species were an absolute requirement.

"Blaze, former Wonderbolt by only a few weeks, has stepped up to be your training sergeant in all things flight related. She is without a doubt one of the most elite and special fliers Equestria has ever seen, and she will be able to instruct on all aspects of flight—if you have wings or not. She'll also be taking on duties for anyone who has a flight-focused special talent.

"Sparklebright, former Royal Dragoon likewise only by a few weeks, will be tackling the immense task of magic and special weapons training. Her experience among Equestria's most expert fighting force will see that she can impart you with a flexibility of action and power such that you can perform to the minimum standard of any active combat regiment in the Guard. She will also be working with anyone who possesses direct combat talents.

"Solid Ground, a returning veteran of this regiment and master of earth pony magics and engaging in close quarters fighting, will ensure those of you who are capable of mastering the qualities of not getting beaten up worse than you absolutely wish to be. She will also be assisting with support equipment training.

"Finally, it's important to highlight that if you feel this isn't for you, or you're having any other problem, your sergeants will listen. But, my door is always open and I will always listen to you." The introduction, Lyra felt, exemplified each of her sergeant's skills and what her new recruits could expect. There was only one thing left for the day to start properly for them. "Now, who here likes to run?" It was an agreed upon signal. Lyra grinned as Solid Ground strode forward.

"Alright! You heard the commander. She wants to know if you enjoy running? You know what the Guard is best at, right?" Solid didn't hold back. Her voice boomed across the assembled.

"Running!" The reply came from several voices among the group. Most were the returning and re-certifying Guardponies, but Lyra saw Rolling Thunder shout it just as loud.

"Then get moving! I want to see the first lap at a gallop!" Solid led the way to the front gate as ponies, diamond dogs, griffons, and a once-more pony March thundered along with her.

Lyra advanced on Smash. "Don't like running?" she asked.

"No. It's stupid." Crossing her arms over her chest, Smash blew out a gout of flame from each nostril. She wouldn't ever admit it, but it was less doesn't like and more can't, thanks to her being between juvenile and full adult. "Besides, why run when you can fly?"

"So, let's fly." Spreading her wings, Lyra nodded over to where Blaze stood. "You ever tried out-flying a Wonderbolt or two?"

Not stupid—not like some dragons she could name—Smash looked around. "Two? Where's the other one?" Lyra was smirking at her, and it took a moment to pick up on that as being her smug grin. "You? But you're an alicorn."

"I've been around a bit. So, do you think you can keep up?" Lyra asked as Blaze joined her. "Smash needs to work out her wings more than her legs. Wanna join us?"

Blaze shook her wings. The light armor she wore felt like lead compared to her Wonderbolts flight suit, but once she was in the air, she knew, it would become reasonably weightless thanks to her pegasus magic. What enticed her, however, was the size of Smash. "Sure. Who takes point?"

"Since our cadet isn't used to flying formation, why don't we fly four loops of Canterlot as fast as we can, and whenever someone gets in front, they have to slow down until they are behind the last of us?" Lyra asked.

"What? Why would we do that?" Smash felt indignant at the idea of flying slower than as fast as she could.

"Because you need to keep in formation with your squad mates. If you're faster than them, they need you to slow down. If you're slower, they have to keep back with you." Blaze slipped into her training voice. It wasn't a shout-orders parade ground voice, but conveyed the information she wanted.

The premise sounded dubious to Smash, though she wasn't going to say it that way. "I guess, but why?"

"So no one gets to the fight late and misses out on the fun," Lyra said.

Blaze fought the need to facehoof at that. She could see why a dragon would appreciate it, given everything she knew about them, but it was another reminder how far out-of-the-box Lyra could think. "So, think you can keep up with us?"

"Pfft, of course."

Blaze hadn't been ready for a dragon that weighed probably ten times her mass to spread a pair of huge wings and launch herself into the sky. The wind and pressure was immense, but the moment she figured out what was going on, she drew on her pegasus magic and shot upward with Lyra at her side.

When Smash turned her upward momentum into forward flight, accompanied by a huge flap, she shot forward like a missile. She wouldn't rest easily, though, since she still felt the dull impact Lyra'd dealt her in the mock fight. She wasn't going to take Lyra (or any alicorn) for being a mere pony with lots of bits attached. Looking back, she saw both of her pursuers gaining.

Smash was smart, though. She'd already figured out the key here to not losing, and although it meant not winning—she didn't see this as something she could win with the rules Lyra had set out. So, smirking, Smash slowed herself down so the other two could pass a bit easier than they would have otherwise.

As Blaze blew past Smash, she mentally gave a cheer to the dragon. This was exactly how the game was meant to be played. She could already see that Lyra and herself were faster than Smash, but Smash had done the right thing and let their grouping reach her faster. "You've got me by a nose, Commander!"

"Yeah, but that leaves you up here on your own." Peeling off and bleeding her speed, Lyra waited until she was level with Smash, while Blaze did the same.

Smash sped up a bit now. She could see that the other two had her beaten for raw speed. "Now we do laps?"

"As fast as you can, Cadet!" Blaze ordered, and if it wasn't for flying even with Smash barely beyond her wingtip, she knew the horrific currents she cut through the air behind her would risk swamping both her and Lyra.

It shouldn't have felt so good, Smash kept telling herself. She got to fly without any worry of another dragon getting in her way, and the two ponies flying with her could fly better than any dragon she'd ever seen.

There was still the conundrum of Lyra. It wasn't often a creature could best a dragon at physical combat, but here was Smash having to remember the fight over and over. The spell Lyra had cast confused Smash at first, until she remembered that her scales stopped magic affecting her, but didn't stop it affecting Lyra.

As they banked hard to swing past Canterlot castle, Smash realized what she had to do. A big grin split her face and left her fangs showing in a jagged line of white.

Lyra saw Celestia and Luna standing below. They were watching as the recruits galloped past, though Luna did lift her head in time to see the three of them bank away from the castle and back toward the fields.

They were leaving the runners behind, but that was always going to happen with the distance they were covering. Their speed was deceptive. It almost felt to Lyra like they were barely moving. Looking down, though, revealed a blur of ponies and buildings that told the truth: they were flying very fast and so low she was amazed they weren't clipping the tops of buildings. For that matter, she wondered if Smash would notice if they did.

A second, third, and finally a fourth circuit was completed and they broke off finally to land in the field as the runners returned.

Lyra felt like her wings had been given a good bit of work. "You fly well, Smash. How are you feeling after that?"

Smash wanted to bluff and say she was fine, but the truth was she'd flown hard to keep up that pace. Dragons like her had great wings for soaring on high thermals where flapping wasn't all that required, but she'd just been forced to fly as fast as she could without any benefits of such air currents. "My wings are sore."

"Sore as in painful, or sore as in they got a good stretch that they aren't used to?" Blaze asked.

"Not painful. Not like that time I broke one of my wings. Sore and stiff." Turning her head, Smash looked back at her wings and growled at them.

"I've got good news and better news for you, Cadet," Blaze said, her own wings tucked at her sides and feeling perfectly fine. "The better news is that by the end of two months, flying that hard will no longer make your wings sore."

Smash didn't like the sound of that. She narrowed her eyes at Blaze. "What's the good news?"

"That it'll be because you'll be flying three times a day, and a lot more than four laps of the city." Appreciating that Smash didn't attempt her namesake, Blaze added, "But don't worry. I'll be flying every lap beside you."

Leaving her sergeants to their work, Lyra headed to her quarters and put her armor on. Since her first suit, she had always given utility more thought than the look of her armor. There was the time when she denied her new wings, that she had additions made to keep them hidden, but even that was a function she wanted.

When she had her armor on—her newest suit—she groaned at her image in the mirror. Gold trim on her armor was nothing new. Royal Guard armor had it, and it was seen as useful since it could hold a lot of enchanting. What made her vocalize however was the crest on the front. A unicorn's head with proud wings to each side of it, picked out in intricate detail.

The styling on her shoulders was standard for a commander, and something she'd had during her time in Twilight's Friendship Guard, but now there was a pair of wings on each side of that, and a swirl of magic around the ring of stars.

She marched out and mentally worked over her itinerary. "Yeah, I have time." The walk to Sharp Horn's smithy took Lyra out of earshot of the main buildings of the Training regiment. She could hear the dull ring of hammer on steel as she approached. When she stepped inside, the enchantment that was keeping most of the sound at bay was behind her.

"Sorry, Commander, I can't stop with this," Sharp called, her words punctuated by her hammer beating a curve into a magically imbued piece of chestplate.

Biding her time, letting the steady rhythm of the hammer sink into her, Lyra felt an echo of the strikes in the armor she wore. She didn't for a moment doubt that there could be such a thing. Magic was sympathetic to its caster, and Sharp was in the midst of a major protective spell being worked into the huge chestplate.

It was definitely a piece for a pony, but even Twilight and herself wouldn't fit into that massive interior. Nor was it for Sharp, not that Lyra would begrudge her such a piece. "Celestia?"

Nodding with the next strike, Sharp bored down into the metal with her magic, carrying along the enchantments she intended to become part of the whole suit. Lyra kept quiet after that, giving her the minutes she needed to finish feeding the spells into her work. "The metal has cooled too much now. Sorry, sir, you have my full attention now."

Lyra waved the apology away with a hoof. "Nothing to be sorry for, Sharp. I was here about my new armor." Lyra contemplated how this would normally go. There was always a right way to handle something, a wrong way to handle something, and the Lyra way of handling something. Her way was normally the wrong way, but faster. "There's a lot of—"

Seeing Lyra gesture at the crest on the front of the breastplate, Sharp said, "Delicate motifs? I can assure you, sir, that will not weaken the armor at all. Princesses Celestia and Luna both donated enchantments for that—and right now there is nothing in this country that's its equal in protection."

"Oh." Now feeling terrible for wanting to ask for it to be changed, Lyra realized what it meant to be enchanted that much. "Oh! I guess they don't want me working some desk job forever."

"Not unless your desk is liable to be far more dangerous than Stiff's was." Tapping at the piece of steel with her hoof, Stiff picked it up with her magic and carried it back to the forge. "A lot of changes, I hear?"

"I kept you in the loop on this. I know I did!" Lyra caught the smirk on Sharp's face. "A month and a half of training, specialized training course, all that. It will be the same for you, of course. They will be getting armor training around the same time as the old classes did."

"Just checking if anything has changed in the last few hours. I can never tell with you." Stepping over to the bellows, Sharp used her magic to start working them. "I've got all the metal already. I had rough numbers of pegasi and unicorns, so there are already plenty of helmets and wing-casings. The rest I have to finish off." She waited a moment. "There was something I had meant to talk to you about, if you're not busy now?"

"I have a brace of meetings in the afternoon, but between now and midday I am free. What do you need to talk about?" Lyra was about to throw up a ward against the forge fire, but remembered that Sharp didn't like having others' magic in here. Instead, she took a few steps away from the heat and flicked her wings a few times.

"There's a pony in that—" Sharp cut herself off. "You can't overheat in that armor and your feathers won't singe." Laughing at Lyra's antics, she narrowed her eyes. "Are you actually getting hot or just reacting to the perceived heat?"

Blinking in surprise at the astute question, Lyra stepped back closer to the forge and stood there a while with her wing held out a little. "Huh."

"Good huh?"

"Yeah. You're right. I'm not getting hot, but it feels weird not to be hot. I think it's because you are negating the heat rather than mitigating it. If you reduced the heat down so it scaled from normal temperature to mildly hot, I'd be able to get a feel for the heat of the forge instead."

The insight, Sharp admitted, shouldn't have surprised her. Lyra was no slouch at magic and she couldn't recall the mare ever having had a bad result at problem-solving. "I could have the you would be severely injured level give some other kind of feedback. Yes, this will work. There was another thing I wanted to talk about apart from the ergonomics of advanced enchantments. I need an assistant, and I needed one yesterday. I would have spoken to you then, but you were busy."

"You could teach two as easily as one, right?"

"Y-Yeah." The question caught Sharp by surprise. "I'd need a second forge and— I'll need a budget then. Two ponies can use the same equipment of one, but three will need a second set of everything. It wouldn't need to be as elaborate as this, they wouldn't be working the same metals, but it— Yes, Commander, I need a budget."

"Then write a proposal and I'll approve it. You have anyone in mind to be your apprentices?" The sour expression Lyra saw on Sharp's face told her volumes about how that was going. "So you want a pair of ponies with an affinity for metal, an aptitude for magic, and a willingness to learn?"

"Yeah, but I'll need to talk to them. And try to find them within a few months. This"—Sharp nodded to the door Lyra had come through—"is too much for one pony to keep up with, if you'll have me making armor for Wonderbolts and Police, as well as those going into combat regiments."

Nodding to Sharp's assessment, Lyra walked for the door. "I'll find you three, then. You said two ponies can share a forge—so you can teach three with two forges." Smiling to herself, Lyra walked out of the forge and left Sharp behind. It had, she mused, been a complete write-off with her attempt to get more plain armor, but when it came to work, she'd given her armorer paperwork—where all Lyra had to do was accomplish the impossible in a month or two. "This day is getting better and better!"

Author's Note

Lyra: Do you ever worry your increasing of the prominence of the guard would lead to a heavier militarization of Equestria and, if so, could create power struggles or bloated messes in governance?

"It does concern me. We aren't conscripting, though, which I think would be the biggest red flag to my personal efforts. I love the chance Princess Celestia has given me, here, to find who and what I want to be. Twilight and her friends shouldn't be the only line of defense, though." Shrugging her shoulders, Lyra smiled ruefully. "It'd be great if they weren't required as a line of defense at all. There are a lot of ponies who want to protect other ponies."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any character within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right character to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post!

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