"Joining the guard was the worst decision I ever made," Twilight murmured. She was lying on her back with another recruit standing triumphantly over her. The group was currently doing weaponless combat exercises and no matter how much training she did before, nothing she knew could prevent her opponent from overpowering her.

They were only given a brief lecture on proper safety and then let loose to train independently. Twilight figured it was to increase group cohesion, something her group didn't need much. The stallion, who had a red coat and a matching orange mane and tail, held out a hoof and pulled her back up. "You're trying to fight like a unicorn," he stated.

"If you didn't notice, I am a unicorn," Twilight responded slightly agitated. This had gone on for hours now. Nothing she did could get her opponent to the ground, any technique she read up on was ineffective against the stronger pony in front of her.

"You could fold a unicorn in half." He walked over to a table and placed a foreleg on it, the gesture clear. "Ever hoof wrestled?"

Nodding, she sat down and got into position. She and her brother often did something like this during training, he was always winning but made it seem like a close fight every time. Counting down, she pressed against the outstretched hoof but held no illusion that she would last even a minute. A group started to gather as they continued to push against each other, both not giving up even a little bit of space.

They started five minutes ago and were still evenly matched. Minute after minute passed before Bench Press, her opponent, slowly lost ground and his head turned an even brighter shade of red than his natural colouration. A moment later, Twilight pressed his hoof to the table, panting heavily herself. She watched in amazement, as Bench lay there, totally exhausted.

He shot her a smile after getting his breath under control. "Never seen a unicorn this strong, are you sure that horn of yours isn't just taped on?" Twilight was still in too much shock about her victory to respond, she simply looked at Bench with her eyes wide as dinner plates. He started moving back to one of the free sparring rings, motioning her with a hoof to follow. "Come on, I teach you how to fight like an earthpony. There are also a few books in the rec room about it if you prefer that."

Twilight had to think only a second about his offer. Sure, before joining the guard she would have taken the books, but now, she had friends, something that was more important to her. She could always read them later.

Nothing changed for a while, training went by in a blink, but something new was quickly approaching. Everypony looked at the schedule that was hanging in the barracks, not knowing what to think about it. "Survival training in the forest? Are they serious?" One of the recruits shouted. "We're gonna die out there," another added.

"What! Are you fragile earthponies afraid of a small forest?" Twilight teased. They had started doing that two weeks ago when Spear Point called Twilight a prissy unicorn for being afraid to crawl through mud. She immediately countered by calling all of them too weak to climb over a small wall she had no trouble with in return. Now it was a simple back and forth between them, no pony kept score, but Twilight was sure she was ahead. She was surprised when the looks she received were not the small smiles she expected and there was no witty retort coming from Spear. "It is just a forest, right? Sure, there are a lot of stories, but they couldn't be true, right..."

One of the recruits, a dark blue coated mare with a red mane and a bunch of berries for a cutie mark, spoke up first. "That forest is haunted, nothing good comes out of it." She shuddered slightly when a memory returned to her, a small tear rolling down her cheek. "Pa was killed by a timberwolf that came out of that forest. Ma tried to save him but lost her leg in the fight. That's why I joined up, somepony has to keep everypony safe... There are a lot of families that lost loved ones to those attacks and those bucking nobles refuse to help." Anger flared up inside of her, overriding any sense of mourning for her parents. "It's too expensive to have a guard posted in a small town like Ponyville... Mud ponies like us are not worth protecting..."

Seeing one of her battle sisters in this state awoke something in Twilight. She had never tried to use the authority the Princess had given her, but now... "Star, I promise you we will make a difference. No pony should have to live in fear, not as long as I can do something about it. You're all my friends, and I will do everything in my power to make this happen, understood!" Quickly thinking about a way to make this happen, Twilight continued, not noticing the strange looks she was given. "How about this, we do the survival training and make a detailed report on the dangers of the forest and what it does to the surrounding towns. I will send it straight to the Princess and ask her to look into it." Looking back, she noticed the stares. "What? Is something on my coat?"

Pointing a hoof at her Star Berry spoke up again, her earlier emotional outburst already forgotten. "There was a mark on your neck, a purple star just like your cutie mark." Looking down she found nothing and only noticed a slight tingle. "It disappeared when you finished your speech," Star continued. Further discussion was cut short when Sergeant Fire Trail stormed into the barracks.

Back in Canterlot Celestia awoke with a start. A strange dream, no, a vision had come to her about something that was impossible. "The Element of Magic reacted to somepony, but how? It's still too early." Fully awake now she stormed out of her bedchamber, she had some time before raising the sun and plans had to be made. In order to have the slightest chance of saving her sister she had to find that pony.

The assignment for the groups was easy, simply follow the map out of the forest and return to base. Being left on their own, with no guards to keep an eye on them, was a lot harder. Sure, deep down everypony knew somepony was keeping watch, but that did not help calm their nerves. Every sound made them jump, and every strange sensation triggered the instinct to flee. The group of now twenty-two ponies pressed on, some of them keeping watch, some of them holding their crossbow at the ready. They were briefed on the monsters that lurked within the forest and how to deal with them, but it still left an unsure feeling. Twilight led the group onwards, all of them having long ago agreed to make her the unofficial leader of the group. Her magic lit the way for them and she continued following the map.

This continued for hours, the constant alertness sapping everypony's strength. Finding a nice clearing was easy and a small campfire was soon constructed. They knew this would take all day and that frequent breaks would be needed to keep up with the stress. It also allowed them to write down some notes for Twilight's report to the Princess.

It was during one of those rests that something changed. Howling sounded from the darkness, putting everypony even more on edge. "Create a perimeter and keep watch, be ready for anything!" Twilight ordered. Everypony obeyed without complaints. Nothing changed, the soft howling still only faintly audible. After ten minutes of intense alertness, the sounds finally started to grow louder, faint growling and the crunching of branches sounded from the north.

It didn't take long for two guards, in full armour and holding a spear at the ready, to appear, momentarily frightening the recruits. This was serious and not a simple training exercise. "Sir, permission to engage with magic?" Twilight asked, looking hopeful at one of the guards. Both of them looked capable enough to defend them, but if there was a chance to scare off the timberwolves without a fight, she was willing to take it.

All she got were confused stares, something she immediately noticed as unprofessional, they had stopped looking out for danger. "I thought you were the earthpony group. Why are you here?" The Corporal asked. At this precise moment, the wolves attacked, having noticed the lapse in attention as well. Screams rang out as everypony tried to get their weapons ready.

Fire engulfed the lead timberwolf, a long stream of superheated magic rushed through the air and ignited everything it touched. The source became clear moments later. Twilight panted, struggling to keep the complex spell up for as long as possible to give the guards time to get ready for the fight. The forest itself might be highly magic-resistant, but the creatures living in it were not. Magic like this was especially effective against these wooden creatures. The risk of burning down the forest was zero, the chaotic magic of the forest extinguishing the fire almost immediately, something she had taken into account before attacking. More magic poured into the spell, the sound of growling and whimpering long since vanished, but she kept going.

Only a light tap on the shoulder broke her concentration and as quickly as the fire started it was gone, only the bodies of two dead wolves still slightly burning remained. "Is everypony... save?" Twilight asked. Her eyelids felt heavy and her legs were about to give out beneath her. Moments before she collapsed two strong bodies pressed against her holding her upright and allowed her to slowly sit down and not fall. She managed to give a weak smile before sleep took her.

Twilight awoke hours later. Looking around, she noticed she was moving. Another glance around and she saw the two ponies carrying her on a stretcher. "What happened?" She asked. Memories of the last time she was awake somewhat fuzzy in her mind.

Spear was at her side the moment she opened her eyes. "Magic exhaustion, you burned through a lot of magic back there." His expression turned solemn, a slight guilt in his voice. "We're sorry for failing like this. When the timberwolves attacked, we panicked, and instead of fighting ourselves, you had to defend us."

Memories cleared and she looked into her friend's eyes. "You would have done the same if you could. It's not like our guards didn't freeze as well." That made her slightly mad. How could they have failed like this? They were professionals and trained for situations like this. Another thing she would have to bring up with the Princess.

"Are you kidding?" Bench called out from in front, he was one of the ponies carrying her. "They had no chance at all against a pack of timberwolves, I counted at least twenty of them and who knows how many more there were. Didn't know they even form packs this large. When I saw the spell, I thought the Princess herself was here to save us, but then we saw you, standing there and blasting absurd amounts of magic at them. That's the most amazing thing I have ever seen, you're like one of those superheroes from the comics my little brother likes to read."

"I don't feel like a hero, I was just doing what I'm training to do. Stop teasing me already, it was nothing special, any unicorn could have done the same," Twilight said. All the praise was getting to her. Everypony back home always told her she was nothing special and was only lucky that the Princess took pity on her. That's why she studied as much as she did, to prove them wrong. Could she truly be something more? They arrived back at camp soon after, Twilight too engrossed in her thoughts to have any meaningful conversations.

Author's Note

Here is the next chapter for my hungry readers. I experimented with a spelling and grammar checker, if you think it was worth the extra two hours of effort let me know and I will continue using it. Hope you all enjoyed the read.