It has been a few weeks, and mom's final qualifications are going to be tested in a physical condition exercise, thankfully her written exams weren't hard for her, and she uses her mouth to write like earth ponies do, she's very skilled!

I now knew the way towards Sunny P&K yes that was the name, maybe some other Celestia type names were taken, the P and K stood for Preschool and kindergarten, apparently.

Along the way I saw many parents taking their foals there too, and other from different schools or from the older Kindergarten age.

Since the first day, many foals seem to have told their parents about me, after that, a good amount of foals stopped talking to me or playing with me, and I heard them talk behind my back all the nasty things their parents told them about dragons.

I was not surprised, this was a school for mostly noble ponies and the rich, and usually there were a rotten bunch when it came to anything not of their same social class or species.

I could only sigh as I approached school and many parents looked at me with disdain, and even hate in their eyes, there were a few who still, despite having told their parents about me, weren't told 'stories' about dragons, and who were still happy to talk to me.

Shining armor and small group were still friendly towards me, while there were some neutral ones, and the ones who seemed to hate me, I didn't resent any of them, it was clear that all of the ideas and hurtful words they were talking about me weren't their own, i didn't care more than just feeling bad for them, for having such terrible parents.

Shining's parents were from a long line of mages and scholars, or so he told me after we get to talk more, I told him I was adopted by my wolf mom, and that she was from a tribe of creatures from the far north, he seemed fascinated by the idea of intelligent wolves, all in all he was a great friend, and we played every day with all the ponies who wanted to join us.

I got in and headed for my classroom, and thankfully there weren't yet many ponies inside, so I went to my usual seat and waited there, some ponies looked at me and made faces of child like disgust or anger, some fear, I simply ignored them or just waved at them, causing them to look a bit embarrassed.

Green Apple was very upset at the parents over this, but she knew she couldn't do anything without probably losing her job, the school would be in the defense of the paying costumers after all, but she did talk to me sometimes to check up on me, and was always surprised by my happy smile and words of reassurance.

Still she wasn't happy, and it could clearly be seen.

A few minutes later my friend group arrived and we all sat close together, Shining next to me, and the rest to the right, we occupied a corner of the classroom, the ponies, names were sort of confusing for me at first, but I could now identify them by color, mane and eye color, there was Summer Sprout, an earth pony colt with two toned green and blue mane and green coat.
Ruby Ray, an unicorn fully with red mane and coat, both sat in front of us.
Calm Breeze was a pegasus mare with a pastel pink coat and curly light blue mane, and her close friend was a bright bright blue earth pony mare, Aquamarine, both sat our right right, then there were the last two friends, Silver Shield and Sweet orange, Silver was an earth pony colt and Sweet an earth pony mare.

I wanted to have a bit of fun, so I got all of our friends together and offered an idea, grabbing a an equestrian coin from my inventory, while my hand was hidden under my desk, then return it to an empty slot.

"Heyhey everypony, do any of you wanna see a magic trick? It's fun I promise" I smile confidently and wrap my arms around the nearest ponies pulling them in with my arms, they all look with various levels of interest, I show shining since and seems interested.

"Okay, watch, my paws are fully empty, see?" I show them my paws with claws retracted, from both sides, they all nod.

"Okay, Shining did you know there was a bit inside your ear?" I say reaching my hand and gently out the paw against his ear, and make the coin appear on the tip of my paw, making it seem like it came from inside his ear, everyone looks at me dumfounded.

"How? How did it appear there? I didn't hear anything, I just felt the cold of the coin after you says it was there and it touched my ear!" I smirked at that.

"It's magic! A... Magic trick, neat right? I can do even more, let me show you something even better, pass me your bag shining, and check it first to see if all is in order." He did, he checked his blue and black schoolpack, it was cute, with some comic character design sewn in or something, I had a simple one made of canvas that I just got for the utility and carrying toys.

"Thank you, you can confirm it didn't have anything other than your stuff in it right?" He nodded, everypony looked on in confusion but entertained enough, I showed them my hands and arms again, they were empty, also I had stored back the coin in my inventory with my hand under the desk.

"Okay you saw I had nothing, and the schoolbag is on the table, now I will cast a spell that will let me get... A toy sword and a toy shield!" With that I took my toys out of my inventory, the backpack expanded visibly and suddenly, but without breaking, thankfully because it looked expensive and id probably piss off my friend.

"No way, how? Is this a spell? But you are not an unicorn, how did you do it??" He asked loudly after I pulled out my toys from inside his bag, the other friends nodded and asked similar questions themselves, I raised my hand to interrupt.

"It's not aceptable for a showpony to reveal the secrets behind their tricks, if I did, how would I be able to amaze and intrigue you? But you will see more from me yet, once I start real school I will become the most powerful and prestigious magician you have ever heard of! And you will see my magic shows, and amaze at my power!" I said dramatically, but laughed afterwards.

"I can imagine, you could use magic and your dragon breath at the same time to make floating flaming hoops and then a daring pony jumps through one, or two, and they land in heroic pose, or a pegasus flying thought several in an aerial show!" Aquamarine explains with excitement, seems like she likes daredevil tricks.

"I will show you more tricks eventually, you'll see, I have big plans coming! I just need to gain a bit more experience first..." I tried to play it off as a sort of spell, everypony was convinced it was magic, so they just nodded, no one knew a lot about dragons except experts and maybe the princess, so im sure they could be convinced that dragons can cast like unicorns.

Shortly after we went outside and decided to play knight against monster, and this time shining armor was the knight, I was the monster naturally.

I gave him my toy shield and sword, he had the shield wrapped around his hoof with the elastic cloth it uses to hold around your leg, it fit him perfectly for his size, the sword was wielded by his telekinesis, I smiled and readied myself, the rest of the group watched in anticipation, I prowled, walking in circles around my prey, the brave knight following me with his eyes and having the shield at the ready and the sword above aimed at me at all times.

I simply waited a few seconds and pounced, the sword softly was brought down on me mid pounce but I easily deflected it with a swat of my paw sideways, throwing the sword away from his ti field and making him focus to try to get it back, while holding his shield bravely, I took advantage of my opponent's unarmed state and pounced on him, claws retracted, and he blocked me with the shield, but the weight of my pounce made him slide back and stumble, I pushed myself back against his shield, landing on all fours.

"Rawr!" I announced with a confident smirk. "It's over pony."

"it's not over until you are defeated!" He answered defiantly.

"Rooowrr" I announced my inability to be defeated and charged forward, unafraid of being stopped and ran in circles around until I was behind him, pounced and when he wanted to block, I stepped on top of the shield and jumped up, pushing shining down at the same time, while I landed behind him, ready to pin him down.

But right at that moment, before I could finish turning around and pin him to the floor, he grabs back his sword with his magic and it sends it at me fast, hitting me right on the side of the body, I pretend to fall over, letting out a gasp and coughs of supposed agony.

"Ouugh, you have... Proved yourself stronger than me, pony warrior, take care of my hoard from now on..." I then play dead with my tongue out and eyes closed, my arms and legs spread comically as I lay on my back.

"Hahah you are very funny Onyx, but there's no reason you couldn't have grabbed the sword for yourself and used it! I'm still nowhere near close as strong as you, but this is really fun, you made my day Onyx! I'm glad miss Apple is okay with it too." I smiled at the praise, getting up and patting Shining on the back.

Ms. Green Apple just waved at us, she had watched everything and was making sure we didn't go overboard, but since we were being careful, it was fine, she winced a bit at the sword hitting my side, but it was really like having a small stick thrown at your back from a few meters away, it wasn't as painful as it would be as a human.

"You are strong, My advice is to take advantage of your telekinesis and attack from where I cannot see it coming, like you just did, because if I can see it coming I can dodge or parry, and even disarm you from your sword, from what I read, telekinesis is easy to cast on inanimate objects, but if you cast it on a sword and somepony grabs it, it's much weaker and you will have trouble recovering your weapon from them." He looked at me with a questioning expression.

"But... How do you know all of this, and so much about fighting and magic? You are the same size as all of us and we just learning to read... So how?"

"Well that's easy, my mom is going to be a royal guard soon and she studies and practices fighting and has to read a lot about magic, I help her by reading the book and checking with the book if her answers are correct, I have to also watch her practice her swordplay, but most from what I know is from books for future guards, it's so cool! She's gonna get her own sword and armor and everything, it's exciting!" I jump in place, very excited to see Sylf become a full fledged royal guard, I see Shining have a sparkle in his eye from the idea of the royal guards, he clearly looks up to them, some other ponies also look excited or happy too, but some don't seem so thrilled.

"B-but... Isn't that a dangerous and scary job? I heard royal guards have to fight monsters and capture bad ponies and sometimes they can get hurt..." Summer Sprouts asks with a look of worry, I nod but still don't lose my smile.

"Yes it is, but it's worth it, to keep you all safe and happy we need the guard, for everypony to live in harmony and not have to fear monsters attacking them in their houses, we need to have guards and my mom is very capable, don't worry about her Sprout, she will have me to protect her too when I'm older." I say and puff out my chest, trying to look stronger, it does have some effect at least, as little Summer Sprout looks reassured.

The rest of the day goes on as normal, we chat about all sorts of topics and play some more games like usual, sometimes we even grab sticks and dig in the mud for fun, then the day is over and we all head home, I can see Shining's parents and mom, I waved at his parents and they wave back, surprisingly, and then run towards mom and jump her, wrapping my forelegs around her neck in a tight hug, she returns it with a big smile and nuzzles.

"Mooom! Hii, I'm really eager to know how it went, but I'll wait until we get home, don't wanna make a scene on the streets..." She nodded and I climbed around her neck and reached her back where I simply laid with my limbs splayed.

'Right you are, let's talk at home, don't want those nosy nobles and parents to hear our private affairs, they're not the nicest bunch' I nodded and we headed home, I happily cuddled her from above and she nuzzled back against my chin.

We reached home 15 minutes later, and headed straight for the sofa, where I laid cuddled with my back against her warm furry body.

'The final exam was pretty easy, I passed with top score my little dragon! Now I'm officially a Private Sylf of the Equestrian Royal Guard, Im no longer just a recruit in training, the physical test was a breeze, but they pushed be hard, I think the instructors were done at some point and didn't try to push me further, they said they would recommend me right away to a better rank that suits my abilities better, but I'm glad." I turned around and hugged her tightly very tightly, but it seems she was too strong for me to affect and just hugged me back with one leg, I purred in her embrace.

"I also will have training two times per day, one in the mornings and another at the evenings, so I'll pack you lunch and dinner. And will see you at night when I come back from the evening trainer, don't worry I will go pick you up from preschool! It's expected otherwise the school and the other parents will find something to complain about, I know how those ponies are, if they have something they can use against you, they do it without a doubt." I knew it well, they tried to get me expelled and a few even went to Celestia to request my removal from the classroom their precious foals went to, making up stories about how I was evil and and a bad influence, Celestia quickly shut them up and sent them on their way, and now the parents just look at me with hateful glares but dont try anything.

"Yeah momma, I know, I will not ever get to their level, I don't even let it ruin my fun with my friends, I prefer a smaller group of friends than an entire classroom anyway so I'm fine with the ponies I talk to.
By the way... We will be seeing each other less mom, i-i will miss you, but I know you will be safe, if anything happens remember I can always watch your health points... I will come to your aid even if it means blowing our cover, I don't care." I said with conviction, she nodded in understanding.

"If my health falls below half, it means something has gone terribly wrong, so maybe even going to me will put you in danger, but soon you'll grow strong enough to save me even then, I know it my precious dragon." I agreed but I would go to her even if there was danger, I didn't need to tell her that.

'I will learn and become strong enough to defend you from anything, but... Once you go to the guard, if they let you read about spells, specifically combat spells, please try and copy some for me, if you can find magic missile it would be a great one to learn. I will need the spell matrix and the name of the spell, maybe if you memorize them you can copy them here much more safely, I think.'

'Yes, memorizing then is the best way to do it, but only for simple spells, sadly I doubt they even let non unicorns read the books that contain those spells... It is what I fear, but I'll do my best if it doesn't mean losing my job or worse.' I thought about it, if I couldn't get access to the spells I would have to learn how the spell matrixes worked.

'Yeah don't worry if you can't, I may have an idea that could work, but it will requiere much more study and experimentation with runes, maybe there is a book you could get from the library that explains what each runic symbol means, if you did that I would be able to recreate or even design spells!'

'You can do that? That sounds very dangerous... But if you're sure... I'll get you the book, if it's not restricted.' we ended up napping for a bit after that.

POV shift Sylf later that day, royal guard barracks at the castle, training yard.

"Private Sylf, I'm Lt. Striker, welcome to your first weapon practice of your career, I must congratulate you for your physical score and mainly your endurance and speed, let's hope that translates well enough to your skill with the sword, but if it doesn't, don't worry, nopony is born wielded a sword, practice makes perfect." The middle aged earth pony mare greeted me, I saluted as best as I could with my not so flexible paws, but it looked more like I was covering my face with it, honestly I envied my son and even ponies, they had much better articulated legs.

"Are you unable to do a proper salute Private? I have never worked with someone of your species, as I remember from the dossier you are a newly discovered sapient species, but I don't know much if I'm honest." She said with confusion but not really a hostile tone.

"You are absolutely right Lt. Unlike you ponies, I cannot bend my legs from the shoulder joint in some directions, I am honestly not sure how I should salute and not look ridiculous doing it, I apologize..." I said with sadness in my voice, the Lt. Instructor had an understanding smile.

"Hey now....don't get upset about it, it's not a big deal, we will make an exception for you, maybe just a courteous nod will suffice, it looks more dignified and simple than trying to make a gesture that doesn't convey on your body, understood?" I nodded rapidly.

"Yes ma'am, I agree it looks better and simpler to try to do for me."

"Well said Private... Sylf right?"

"Yes lieutenant Striker."

"Ready for your practice? Let me help equip your training gear. We had this custom made once you passed the exams, training gear are essential to protect you from getting covered in bruises or worse during training, even if we use wooden swords, we are expected to hit with some force and it can cause damage, so better safe than sorry." I allowed her to equip me and tie around many protective equipment, made seemingly of some fabric with a dense yet compressible filling.

It covered every important part of my body, but had a visor with holes to see, the visor is made of metal, well I felt safe at the very least, after i was encased in it, i helped the Lt put on a similar suit, it took a bit longer because i didn't know what I was doing, but in the end both were suited up, we put on mouth guards as well, which allowed us better grip on the swords.

She grabbed a longsword with her teeth and I did the same with the other, the sword was wooden and light weight, had good balance too.

We both moved to our own side of the combat arena and prepared, I held my sword at a downard angle the mouth guard made it harder at first to hold but after I moved it and held it for a while, I got used to it, I was glad they made a design with holes for my fangs to fit into, it was more comfortable than just using my fangs fully to hold a sword.

"Now private, I want you to come at me with your best attacks, don't be afraid of using more than one, and don't be afraid of hurting me, the padded armor protects us." I nodded, lowering my stance.

I pushed forward with my powerful legs, instantly rushing the Lt. And when I was close enough I lunged and swung my sword at an angle, right at the center of mass, making it harder to dodge to any side, my strike had behind it the force of a charging bull, and when it struck the sword she was using to parry, it pushed her back a good distance, while she was sliding back I slashed again in quick succession, managing to grace her on the padding of her right foreleg, it was a decent hit, she clearly felt it as she let out a soft cry of shock, either from the first attack or the follow up.

"W-wait wait! Don't keep attacking, I wasn't prepared for such speed and power... I apologize, but wow! You not only managed to overpower me and almost send me flying in one hit, you followed up and landed good slash to my knee before I could parry, if it wasn't for my earth pony ability to stay grounded, I would have been sent flying much further..." I tilted my head, confused by what she meant, I didn't know of that ability.

"Fighting is my special talent, I can use any weapon, sort of equally good, I'm not a master at any specific weapon but I have years of practice, I honestly got a bit... Panicked when you rushed me, it's embarrassing to admit but, no offense, you're very big and fast for your size, a real opponent would be terrified." I nodded in understanding.

"Let me explain something important, attacking weak spots is only allowed in extreme emergencies, don't render a pony blind, or legless or disfigured and dont kill, ever, we are guards and we must protect, even those who commit crimes, we have to knock them out or pin then and arrest them."

"On unicorns, the weak point is to hit the horn, to get them to be unable to use magic, but do not try to cut their horn off, or break it with overwhelming force, pegasi wings, are also another no no, don't cut at them, but its okay to hit them a bit, as long as you don't cause a compound fracture, they should be fine. Try to just grab them and pin their wings to their body, once they are caught and their wings are in pain they won't try to fight back and will surrender, pegasi value their wings a whole lot, but broken pegasi wings can heal, if they are treated correctly, as for unicorns, if their horn is broken off from their body at the very base, they could die from brain trauma, since the horn has brain matter inside it, some unicorns can survive horn breakage but they lose their ability to use magic normally." I was surprised at this, I had read information on the various races, but such visceral details were left off the books.

"A few other things Private, when it comes to stallions, look I don't know how it is in where you live, maybe there is an equal amount of stallion wolves and mare wolves but here... We have one stallion for about 8 or so mares, its worse in some places. Do you know what this means? Well I'll explain it in detail anyways because you are a royal guard.

Do not, under any circumstances, attack a stallion's private areas, their testicles, or penis, or even near his lower area, in fact if you can get the stallion to surrender by pinning him down do so, even if he fights back, stallions may be stronger than mares sometimes if they are raised doing hard work, but most stallions are raised with cushy jobs that don't require much physical exercise, a good amount don't even participate in the work force, they stay at home and look after the foals, while the mares of the herd go to work, it keeps the stallions safer, and weaker. The reason is obvious, if you fight and render a stallion unable to procreate, there will be about 8 to 10 lonely mares and an equal or greater number of foals who won't be conceived, and since even older stallions can sire foals, you get the picture?"

"Oh, yes I understand, I read about the population unbalance and I know how important stallions are for the nation, and while some cities have more, some have little.
I promise I will always be gentle with the ponies I detain Lt Striker, I may not even need to fight. Ponies get very shocked when they see my happy everyday face, I don't usually show my angry face because i am almost never angry but... I can pretend!" The Lt smiled at that, and had an idea.

"Okay then Private, show me your war face!" I smiled and then thought of something that truly made me angry, the Broodmother, hurting my son and almost killing him, I felt my blood boil and my pupils contract, my gaze intensified and the fur on the back of my neck stand on end, making me look much bigger, a vicious snarl on my face, showing off my large fangs, a bit of drool falling from my maw I spit out the sword and maw guard and continued to snarl for better effect, then looked at Stiker, actually glared at her, her face grew pale and she took a few steps back, I took a step forward, she yelled.

'Your Intimidation skill has evolved into Terrify, your expression and the correct choice of words is enough to make even a hardened criminal's legs weak and their bladder empty, affected targets will surrender, only works with creatures of equal or lower level than yourself, higher level creatures may be unnerved or apprehensive, or even scared, but they won't be deterred or intimidated into obedience.'

"STOP please!" i blinked and relaxed my maw, going back to normal, the poor pony in front of me was shaking and had tears running down her face, looking at me like I had insulted her and then stepped on her birthday cake at her own party. "I... I asked for it, I know, but that was the scariest face I have ever seen, I feel like I peed myself a little! What did you go through to provide you with so much anger?" I made a 'you don't wanna know' face

"Maybe... I don't wanna know, but please only use this face when a pony is doing something real bad, don't intimidate teen ponies who are trespassing just to play a prank or even vandalism, I think they would be scarred for life and their parents could sue the crown, only... Use it when a pony life is in danger, or your own, okay? Of course it's much better than actually cutting down a pony, if just an angry look and some words can win the day, use it! Oh Celestia, I'm not going to sleep tonight after that..." I lowered my head and looked apologetic.

"I'm really sorry Lt. Striker, but to switch topics what about monsters? What do I do if a monster attacks the city and tried to eat ponies, do we have protocol for that?" She seems to welcome the distraction.

"Of course, it's very rare here in Canterlot, because we are outside the dense forests that monsters prefer, but occasionally from the valley below, some monster may come looking for food, we must try to knock it out using magic, if that fails we use large steel nets o trap it, and a squadron of pegasi to grab every corner and take it back to it's habitat, but rarely we have to actually hurt or kill a monster, there are even specialized groups that can be called upon to neutralize monsters who can resist both nets and magic, and they sometimes use paralyzing agents to knock them out, those never fail." Very interesting, didn't know about the last one.

"That makes sense, does the Royal Guard work as armed forces in case of conflicts right?"

"Yes and no, when there is a war, we have units specifically trained for that, usually unicorn mages with their support, our doctrine as you probably know already is overwhelm enemies with magic, either stun or lethal spells, but we tend to go for stun first and lethal if that doesn't work." Well, I think I gave you enough of a general summary of how our Guard operates, we are here first and foremost a peacekeeping force, so have that in mind, ponies and other creatures even if they are commiting a crime, do not deserve to be mutilated."

"I promise Lt. Striker, i will keep the attacks to disarming, pin down and at most, knock out!" I said with conviction and a respectful nod.

After that we trained some more, but instead of charges we focused on the various sword guards and how to parry an attack from each angle, specifically in cases like ours where we had the sword in our maws, what I couldn't parry I had to learn to dodge, and dodge even attacks I could only hear, coming from a blind angle.

At this, Lt. Striker was better than me, actual dueling, she clearly wasn't lying when she said she was caught unprepared, now she had an estimate of my ability and knew just how to counter me and put me in my place, but little by little I was learning, managing to parry more strikes and using faster attacks, but she didn't let it surprise her anymore, and deflected what she couldn't parry, returning slashes that i didn't parry well enough.

I needed to improve a lot if I wanted to become an expert, clearly, while I could overpower an experienced fighter with might, it wasn't good enough and as a guard I needed to be gentle with my opponents, so I order to do that I needed to be much more skilled.

A month later

As a guard now I patrolled the streets at night, it was, all in all, very boring but I met new ponies who were usually very friend and easy going outside of work hours, I finally had friends my age to look up to, I was promoted to private first class and now I could choose to either stand at the gates or patrol at night, and since there were less ponies at night giving me nasty looks.

I chose night duty, I had come to accept ponies would always look at me like I was some monster or a weird tamed wolf, rarely I was considered as a pony guard and even more rarely I was shown the respect the other guards had, but I stayed strong, and did my job, now the salary from the job was like ten times higher than the 'allowance' Princess Celestia used to send us.

But I'm no less thankful to her, she pays me fairly and the work is not so bad, the most trouble there is, a drunk mare or rarely stallion, going around causing issues like property damage, vandalism or even peeing on the street, vandalism was usually done by younger ponies who were feeling rebellious and would usually paint something on a wall, door or public sign, if caught they were arrested and spent a night in the dungeons to give them a scare, and had to pay a fine of a few hundred bits.

I had personally arrested two ponies, one trying to enter a rich pont's home to steal and the other was painting on private property, and yes by painting I mean they were out there with paintbrush and a few small jars of different color paint, just some drawing on somepony's white wall, it wasn't their wall. Both surrendered fast when I showed my badge and they saw how tall I was compared to them.

Onyx had been right, the magic library is limited to only the unicorn guards, at least the combat spells, I could however get the book he wanted, a guide to rune crafting and what each symbols represents.

They even let me take it home as a guard, as long as it was not combat spells I could take home pretty much anything, maybe... I could show them I can use magic and they would let me read those as well? It was a risk, if they found out they would see my species in another different light, maybe even as a threat, which worried me, my species usually didn't show a talent for magic, but they never tried to learn, maybe it had something to do with Onyx's powers that awoke that aspect of me?

There was no easy answer to any of this, everything was a calculated risk, question is, was I willing to take it?

Author's Note

Sorry for the lack of chapter yesterday, I wasn't feeling the best but hopefully today I'll have this and another chapter up, or at least the other chapter will be mostly written by the end of the day, there may be more time skips to advance the story in the next.