When I finally wake up I find myself in a cot with dark green blankets. I look around to see all of the bunk beds in the long buildings and realize that I'm in the barracks for the royal guard. This can't be good. Maybe if I can sneak out here I can get away without anypony noticing me. I look around to find that the only exits are the front and back doors, so I head to the back door. When I reach it I look out the window to see two unicorn day guards waiting by the door. OK, front door it is then. I turn around and start to trot to the front door, but stop halfway when it swings open, revealing Shining Armor and two unicorn day guards.

"Storm Cloud, glad to see you up. Could you come with me please, there's something I'd like to show you," he says before he turns and walks out the door. The two guards wait inside, staring straight at me. I could probably take them both... but then the entire grounds would be after me, so better to just go along with it, for now. I walk past them and head out the front door where I find Shining waiting for me patiently. "Good, just follow me please," he says as he starts to walk off. I follow after him with the guards following close behind me. He's walking me around the main workout area, a large track with various obstacles in the center of it. There are ponies running about the track as others go through the course. He stops in the center of the straightway of the track and watches some of the ponies going through the obstacle course.

"Why did you bring me here Shining?" I ask, barely getting an ear twitch from him.

"I need to know something Storm, was Spartan training better than royal guard training?"

"Easily. This training made me a guard, Spartan training made me a soldier."

"And what’s the difference?"

"A guard enforces rules; a soldier protects them."

"And what does that mean?" he says as he looks down at me.

"Look, I was a guard too, but... the royal guard’s a joke," I say, getting everypony within earshot to look over at me in disbelief.

"You want to repeat that?" Shining says as he steps closer to me.

"Look at what happened with the changelings! We almost lost the Princesses. If Miles hadn't come by and told you what to do, who knows what would have happened? Let’s face it, the royal guard aren't ready for the shit that would befall the Princesses. If something strong enough to kill one of them came here right now, all you would be able to do is slow it down before it got to them..."

"And what, you would be able to stop something like that!?" he says as he gets in my face.

"I would and I could, I have that mentality and the training to do that," I say as I push back. I see him start to use his magic so I flap my wings and send myself high into the air, avoiding his magical restraint. I keep flying up as different pockets of magic try to grab a hold of me. I glance back to see a few pegasi flying after me, and gaining quickly. I wasn't always the greatest flyer, but I can at least hold my own. I roll over and dive towards the ground. I can see all of the glowing horns of the unicorns trying to catch me with their magic as all of the pegasi start to take to the air. I shoot towards one side of the obstacle course and continue to fly down until I'm a foot away from the ground. I pull up and fly towards the obstacle course. I weave through the course, going up walls, twisting around posts, anything to keep them from gaining on me. When I shoot out the other side I fly straight for Shining, who brings up a magical wall to catch me. I pull my wings in and roll forward on the ground, letting one pegasus fly past me into Shining's net. When I'm upside down I push my body straight, sending both my back legs into the chest of the next pegasus and sending him flying. I flip over and land on all fours as the next pegasus flies straight for me. I try to jump out of the way only for him to tackle me. As we roll together I knee and punch him until we come to a stop. I try to take off again but stop midair as Shining catches me with his magic.

"So how would you do against a monster that was after one of the Princesses?" He says as he levitates me over to him.

"It took the entire guard to catch one pegasus, plus I wasn't fighting you. I was just trying to get away," I say as I look at the crowd forming around us.

"Oh, so you think you could best me in a real fight?"

"I would kill you, but that will never happen..."

"And why's that?"

"I would never harm a family member..."

"According to Twilight you would. You snapped your own brothers neck..."

"Breaker was no brother of mine! He was a twisted monster and gave me no choice!"

"I'm sure he was," he says as he sets me down. "Look, I've got a proposition for you."

"Yeah, and what would that be?"

"A fight. Me and you. If you win I'll let you marry my sister, no problems no conflict..."

"And if you win?"

"Then you train a group of guards to be Spartans, I will give you that Miles has something a little more to him, but I doubt you got all of his secrets. I want to find all of them, and the best way for me to start is to make sure I can take his training. So test me. I want to see what a Spartan has to offer."

"Are you kidding me? The training was more than just physical; it was mental also. I didn't sleep for weeks because of the shit I went through! Winning a fight isn't going to make you a Spartan! It’s more than that. I've been forged to win fight after fight..."

"Then what do you have to lose?" He says as he starts to walk off. I glare at him as he walks towards the sparring arena. I don't want to do this... but I don't want Twilight’s family trying to stop our marriage either. With a heavy heart I start to trot to the sparring arena. I won’t kill him, but I will teach him the difference between a guard and a soldier. When I get there Shining, stands up with two wooden swords and tosses me one. I catch it as I stand and let it fall to my side.

"How're we going to do this?" I ask as I start to walk to my left, Shinning going to the right.

"To make sure that the victor doesn't win by a lucky hit, we'll do the best of seven. These swords are enchanted to leave colorful marks when they hit something, so we'll see when a kill shot has been delivered." I nod to him and continue to walk, waiting for him to make his move. As we circle each other, every guard in the square runs over to watch, some yelling random cheers, others placing bets.

He starts by trying to swing his sword down onto my shoulder, but I block it quickly by raising my sword and catching it. I thrust my other hoof forward and punch him in the gut, making him stagger back. I take this opening and swipe my sword at him, getting a clean slash against his chest with the first and across his face with the back slash. Using the momentum from the swing I spin and kick him with a single hoof in the gut, sending him on his back and making the crowd erupt in cheers and boos.

"One," I say as I take a more relaxed stance. He quickly gets up and glares at me as neon red lines appear where I hit him. He runs at me, slashing his sword at me as he tries to clip my sides. I walk backwards as I block swing after swing. When he tries to do an uppercut with his sword I spin to the side and slash his neck with my sword, making the crowd erupt again. He staggers back and holds his neck, as I hold my sword in front of me and take a readied stance. "That's two."

"Shut up!" he says as he takes his stance. This time I run towards him and thrust for his gut. He steps to the side and tries to hack at my neck, but I roll forward to avoid the attack. I pivot around and raise my sword sideways to block his chops. I hold this position as he hacks at me continuously until I roll next to him and slash up his side as I stand. I then spin to the side and slash him across the gut as I take his sword from him, sending him back a bit and forcing him to his knee. Again the crowd erupts in a frenzy of cheers and profanity. Most of the profanity seems to go towards me, but there are a few supporters.

"That's three, give up Shining, you can't win," I say as I take my stance, holding one blade high and the other low. He looks at me with a look of pure rage as he starts to flare his magic. I shake my head as I fling one sword at him, hitting him square on the horn and ending his magic. I take my other sword and toss it aside as I take a few steps towards him. He tries to tackle me but I hop above him and slam both my hooves into his back, sending him to the ground with a loud grunt. I land over him and walk to his side and watch him roll over to his. I drop to my knees and start elbowing his chest. I slam harder and harder as he tries to cover himself. He swings a leg around me and rolls me over so that he's on top as he starts to punch away at me. I ignore his punches and slam my knee into his back, sending him flying over me. I get back to my hooves and charge at him, tackling him as he tries to get back up. We roll around for a while, each trying to gain the dominant position until we both levitate off the ground. I look around to see every guard bowing to something to the right. When I look to the right, I see a very pissed off Princess Luna glaring at the two of us.

"Is there a reason the two of you decided to hold this barbaric act and wake me from my slumber?" She asks as she sets the two of us down, Shining bowing immediately.

"Forgive us Princess, we were settling a personal..." Shining starts.

"Is there a reason you're not bowing?" Luna asks me, getting every guard to look at me in disbelief.

"Because I no longer need to bow to you," I say nonchalantly, getting bewildered looks from everypony except Luna.

"Oh, and why's that?"

"Because I'm a Terradisian," I say, getting a confused look from her. "Miles put me through Spartan training, and part of it was becoming a citizen of Terradisia. I was put through a rigorous loyalty test to make Terradisia my first concern - I am still an Equestrian, but I'm a Terradisian first now." When I finish telling her this, she looks down a bit before she looks back to me.

"And... how is Miles?"

"OH MY GOD YOU DO - MMMMM," I yell out, only to stop when Luna shuts my mouth with her magic, looking around in a panic.

"Shhh! Uh... please come with me... I must... discuss some things with you," she says as she quickly walks off. I look back to Shining before I follow after her. I seriously hope he doesn't do anything to ruin my plans. I follow her to the castle, where we enter a hallway and walk down it at a brisk pace until Luna teleports us to her room.

"Whoa, uh, Luna..."

"What do you know?" she asks as she glares at me.

"What? I don't know anything..."

"Then what were you going to say?"

"Well, it’s speculated that... you... and Miles... are in love."

"NO!" she yells as she starts to pace around. "Nononono, why does this have to happen?"

"So... I'm guessing this isn't true?" I say, getting her to stop and look at me with the saddest look I've ever seen her with. "Oh... sorry. It just seemed that that upset you."

"I...*sigh* I did love him... but when Celestia found out... we aren't together anymore, and it needs to stay that way," she says as she lowers her head.

"Why can't you be together?"

"Well, I'm ageless and he's mortal..."

"So, look at Cadence and Shining."

"That's not the same. Cadence isn't part of the royal sisters, she's just a part of the royal family. Plus, Shining has more time than Miles."

"What do you mean?" I ask, getting her to look up at me in shock.

"You don't know?"

"Know what?" She takes a deep breath before she looks me in the eyes.

"Miles is dying. He has anywhere from six to sixteen years left to live." As she says this I feel my heart drop. He's dying... he can't be dying, he can't be.

"H-how do you know this?"

"He told me and my sister when Celestia separated us. It has something to do with his power constantly growing. Eventually it’s going to get to a point where his body can't handle it anymore and burns out,” she says as a tear rolls down the side of her face.

"So why would you leave him then?" says a new voice. I look over to the balcony to see a griffin standing in the doorway.

"Regina? How long have you been there?" Luna asks as Regina walks up to us.

"Long enough, Luna, I respect your sister and value her word, but this time she's wrong."

"What..."

"Look, he's dying. He must be scared out of his mind right now. He falls in love only to be told that he's not allowed to have that because he's dying... how would you feel?" she asks, making Luna tear up as she thinks about it.

"I... I... I don't know what to do!" she says as she drops to the ground and begins to cry. Regina walks over to her and lies before her as she hugs her. "I want to be with him... but... I don't want to lose him either. Celestia's afraid that if I'm with him... and he dies... I'll die the same way my mother died..."

"Shh... shh... it’s alright, it’s going to be OK," Regina assures her as she rubs her back. I just kind of stand here awkwardly. not sure what to do. "Luna, look at me." She gives a couple of sniffles before she looks up to her. "Look, I know it’s going to hurt later on, but I really think you should try to get him back."

"But... what about when..."

"What do you think will hurt more, having him die with you, or to have him die alone?" OK, that was kind of harsh and only made her cry harder. "What’s your name?" Regina asks me.

"I'm Storm."

"What acquaintance do you have with Miles?"

"Uh... I guess you could say we're best friends..."

"So, how is he then?" she asks, getting Luna to pause her crying and look up to me.

"Well... I'm not sure. He’s sort of... lost that spring in his step. He acts normal enough, but... I don't know what's going on the inside."

"Hmm... Storm, I want you to do me a favor. Go back to him, assuming you don't have any business left here, and see if you can get him to open up a bit. See if he's hurting, then write a letter to Luna discussing what you find."

"I don't know... I don't like the idea of spying on my friend..."

"But it's going to help him in the long run, please Storm."

"Storm." Luna says weakly. "If you don't want to you don't have to. I understand how you wish to respect your friend’s privacy... but if you did this... it would mean the world to me." I've never seen Luna this desperate before... buck, I can't say no.

"I'll do it..." As soon as I say that Luna levitates me over and squeezes me in the tightest hug I've ever felt.

"Thank you Storm! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Princess! Can't! Air!" I yell as I try to tap her shoulder, getting her to set me down with a blush.

"Sorry... thank you, again. This really means a lot to me." I nod to her and stand there for a few moments, filling the room with an awkward silence.

"Well. You should get going, you must have other things to attend to. I'm going to stay and make sure Luna's up to speed on current... rulings of the heart. Let’s have dinner together," Regina says to Luna as she stands up.

"Alright, what do you want?"

"Hmm." She hums out loud as she puts a claw to her beak. "I want dirt and worms for dinner."

"What?" Luna says with a chuckle.

"Dirt and worms. You know, chocolate ice cream mixed with cookie crumbs and gummy worms, sheesh, they didn't have anything fun a thousand years ago did they?" Regina says, getting them both to laugh. I start to walk towards the balcony when Luna calls out to me.

"I'll teleport you wherever you need to go. It would look suspicious if you just flew out of my balcony door."

"Right, could you teleport me to my hotel, the one on the corner of Sunset and Eclipse?" She nods with a smile as she starts to charge up her magic.

"Thank you again, Storm," she says as she teleports me out front of the hotel. I sigh as I start to walk towards my room. This is too much. Miles is dying, is in love with Luna, I have to set up some elaborate scheme for when I pop the question to Twilight, then there's the actual wedding... assuming she says yes… shit. I shake my head clear of that thought and unlock my door, only to be tackled by a purple blur.

"Where were you Storm!? You had me worried sick!" Twilight says as she stands over me.

"I was... having a chat with Shining... and Luna... did you know Miles is dying?"

"WHAT!? What were you three talking about!? Miles is DYING!? How long does he have? What's going on!?" she asks in bewilderment.

"Twilight, I'll explain everything, but I think we should head back to Ponyville and confront Miles about this... as well as some other things.”

Shout out to PTTN for picking dinner. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. And like always, Brony on!