Like he had expected, Ares didn’t get a wink of sleep that night. It seemed that having a hole knocked through your wall really keeps your heart racing throughout the night. That, along with having to deal with the stallion that knocked through said door, meant that there was no way that Ares was going to be able to do anything other than just stare at the ceiling for the rest of the night and think. So, in this rather bleak situation, Ares did the only thing he could to help improve his dampened mood; he was cuddled by his beautiful girlfriend and waited until the sun rose up in the sky.

At least Candy’s getting some sleep, Ares thought as Cadence wiggled herself closer to him with a happy sigh. She needs to get her rest after the whole passing out thing. He ran a hand gently down her side, careful not to wake her. Hopefully she’s alright like the doctor said.

“Why couldn’t they have just let us have another twenty minutes before breaking down the wall?” He muttered. “Is that really too much to ask?”

He had seen the disappointment, the anger, on Cadence’s face when the wall had gone boom. He had known how excited she was for all of this to happen, not that he hadn’t been more than ready for sex himself, and then it had literally blown up in their faces. The only reason Ares knew that heads weren’t going to roll in the guard was because he knew, or at least thought he knew, that they had a pretty good reason for doing what they did. That may not have made the fact that he didn’t get laid any better, but at least he knew why they did it.

Well, at least I get to cuddle my favorite princess, Ares thought with a yawn, wrapping both of his arms around Cadence and pulling her as close to his body as he could, earning himself another happy sigh from the alicorn.

He closed his eyes, taking in the soft, delicate scent of his Cadence. “All I needed was twenty minutes,” he muttered, kissing the top of his mare’s horn. “Then they could have broken down that wall.”

Cadence wiggled herself upward and flipped herself over to face him. “You say that,” she said, her eyes still closed, “but I would have actually loved for them not to have done that at all.” Leaning up, she gave his cheek a quick kiss, “and I’d prefer to have you all to myself for the entire night, not just for twenty measly minutes.”
Ares smiled weakly when Cadence cracked open an eye to stare at him. “How long have you been awake, sweetie?” he asked, trying to decide whether to be amused or embarrassed.

Cadence giggled and kissed him again. “Long enough to hear you muttering to yourself like some crazy pony,” she chirped before her tone became more concerned. “Have you been up all night, Ares?”

Ares raised an eyebrow. “What, no comment about the little pet name I gave you?”

Cadence raised an eyebrow right back at him. “You must have been up all night,” she muttered. “You can’t even change the subject without sounding tired.”
Ares was about to argue before realizing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere by lying to her. “No I didn’t get any sleep,” he admitted, rubbing his eyes with a hand. “I’ve been too busy just… thinking, I guess.”

Cadence buried her muzzle in the nape of his neck. “You know, us taking the day off isn’t going to mean anything if my favorite human is too tired to do anything with me.” She draped a wing over him and closed her eyes.

“I’ll be fine,” he told her. “This isn’t the first time I’ve spent the whole night awake. All I’ll need is some coffee, then the two of us can do whatever you want for the whole day.”
Cadence nuzzled his neck. “Well, I know what the two of us would be doing if there wasn’t a hole in the wall,” she purred, giving his neck a little nip, “but I think I’ll settle for just staying in bed the whole day with my snuggle-puss.”

Ares flinched. “Please don’t call me that, Candy.”

“Aw, what’s wrong, my widdle Ares Wearies?”

“Please stop.”

“My honey bunny.”

“Cadence.”

“My little monkey man.”

“I swear to god I’ll get up and toss your pink ass out the window.”

“Snookums, sweetie pie, my great big stallion.”

Despite himself, Ares couldn’t keep a smile off his face. “Alright, alright, I get it: no more pet names.”

“That’s what you get for bringing it up,” Cadence said sweetly, bopping his nose with a hoof before pushing him downward. “Now,” she forced his head against her chest and wrapped her legs around his neck, “the two of us are going to get at least a little bit of sleep whether you like it or not.” Her tone was forceful, but caring; it showed Ares that she cared about him enough, even with all of this stuff that had just been thrown at her hooves, that she had been willing to stop everything—her duties as a princess as prime example—to make sure that he was okay, comfortable and happy.

Ares pressed his face against his princess’s coat and closed his eyes, trying not to sniffle. “Hey, Cadence?”

The princess looked down at him with a loving smile. “Yes, honey?”

The warmth and softness of Cadance’s coat was easing Ares’ mind, which let the full weight of just how tired he was crash down on him.“I don’t know if I’ve told you enough, but I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have you.” Sure, it sounded cheesy even to him, but it was from the heart, and from the look Cadence was giving him it was more than appreciated.

“Aw, you sweetheart,” Cadence, said, sounding a little choked up.

“I mean it,” Ares murmured, Cadence’s warmth and his tiredness finally getting to him. “I couldn’t have picked a better girl in the whole world; yours, mine, anywhere.”
Even though he couldn’t see it, Cadence was looking down at him, tears in her eyes. “I’m so happy that I’ve got you, my little human,” Cadence said to the now asleep human, leaning down and kissing the top of his head.

@~~~@

Like he had expected, Shining, along with the rest of the guard, did not get a wink of sleep the whole night. Every single one of them, Shining included, couldn’t help but wonder what their princess had in store for them once she woke up. Was she just going to go and fire them all, like a lot of them thought, or was she going to get more creative in her punishments?

Banishment, incineration, a five mile spanking machine, being sent to Tartarus, these ideas, along with more… inappropriate ones were thrown around through the night with so much vigor that, by the time the sun had peeked over the horizon, many of the guards were literally shaking in their beds from fear.

Oddly, the only pony that didn’t look worried at all was Echo, who, after coming back to the barracks, had gone into her office for about an hour before calmly trotting over to her bunk and hitting the hay.

That mare really has some stones on her, Shining thought as he stared at her sleeping form from the comfort of his own bunk. If I was in her position I’d be more than a little worried about being shipped back off to Canterlot.

To be frank, he was still worried about that, but he was thinking about the Sergeant, not himself, at the moment so he was going to start panicking… yet.
If we’re lucky, Cadence isn’t going to be awake for another few hours or so. Shining rubbed an eye and fought back a yawn. I wonder what time it—

As if a silent alarm had gone off, Echo suddenly sat up and threw off her covers. “ALRIGHT FILLIES!” She roared, starling everypony in the room. “IT’S TIME TO RISE AND SHINE AND GET TO WORK! GET OFF YOUR FLANKS AND SHOWER, YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO GET A PEP IN YOUR STEP BEFORE WE START WHAT I PROMISE WILL BE THE WORST DAY OF YOUR MISERABLE LIVES!”

Confused, the guard just stared at her in silence and confusion, each of them wondering if the mare had lost her mind. To many of them, there was going to be no PT today; today, if they were lucky, they were going to receive their punishments.

“DID I STUTTER?” she demanded, suddenly sounding angry. “I’M NOT GOING TO BUCKING ASK AGAIN. GET OUT OF YOUR BEDS AND HIT THE SHOWERS!”

Fear overcame confusion, and stallion and mare alike scrambled off their beds and raced toward the shower room, leaving Shining alone with Echo, who just sighed, all of her vigor gone as suddenly as it had come.

“There’s no doubt about it, we really bucked up last night,” she muttered, so quietly that Shining had to strain to hear her. “But that doesn’t mean the world’s going to stop spinning!”

Shining heard her quietly growl. “I wrote my report explaining everything and I will not apologize for wanting to protect my charge. I could care less if the princess hog-ties me, throws my flank in a crate, and ships me back to my lady with stamps on my forehead; I was sent here to do a job and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability for as long as I’m permitted!”

Whether it was because of the mare’s determination, or her little pep talk, Shining found himself right beside her. “You know, ma’am,” he said, not looking at her, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about the princess doing anything more than just yelling at you. Trust a guy that’s known her for years; if you properly explain to her what happened then you won’t get worse than a slap on the wrist.”

Echo snorted. “I hope you’re right,” she muttered. “I’d really hate to be sent back to my lady because I broke down the princess’ wall while she was about to get lucky.”
“Nopony was hurt last night, and everything that was broken is already pretty much fixed up,” Shining said, trying to sound upbeat. “And, technically, I broke the wall,”
Echo nodded. “That’s what I put in the report,” she said matter-of-factly. “If I’m lucky she’ll be madder at you than me.”

Shining couldn’t quite stop a chuckle from escaping his throat. “Oh, I’m sure she’s plenty mad at me,” he said before pausing, a thoughtful and slightly worried expression coming to his face. “Ma’am, I have a favor to ask you.”

Echo cocked her head at him. “What would that be, Mr. Armor?”

“There’s a good chance that I’m going to be thrown onto the first train that goes back to Canterlot.” Shining muttered, looking away from her.

He paused for another moment, as if debating with himself on whether or not to say more, but then he shook his head and continued. “The reason I came all the way up here was to make sure that these soldiers were in fighting shape. If they were still lacking in some places I wanted to be the one to make them the best soldiers that they can be.”
He raised up a hoof when he saw Echo tense up. “However, since I’ve seen that the princesses have sent one of the most experienced mares in the Night Guard to get the job done, I think that I might just want to join the guard up here, see where it goes and all that.”

Echo blinked. “You want to join the Crystal Guard?” she asked, disbelieving.

Shining nodded. “Yes I do.”

The batmare narrowed her eyes at him. “You want to guard the mare that kicked you to the curb?” She shook her head. “You know how crazy that sounds, right?”

Shining grimaced. “I know that there’s a good chance that Cadence will laugh me out of the castle when I ask her, and I know you probably think I’m trying to join just so I could do something to get back at either her or Ares—”

“That did cross my mind,” Echo muttered.

“I know all of that, but I’d still like to know if you’d be alright with me joining if Cadence actually lets me into the guard.” Shining looked at her desperately. “I know you don’t trust me, Sergeant, but please just give me a chance...”

Echo looked at him for what seemed like an eternity before quietly asking, “And why do you want to join my troop, Shining Armor?” Her eyes looked like they could see through him for a moment. “If it isn’t revenge, then why did you come all the way up here?”

“I just want to protect my princess,” he all but whispered, not realizing that he was shaking. “Even if she isn’t just my princess anymore; I want to make sure that she’s safe…”

“And what if I say that that’s a load of horseapples, Armor?”

Echo almost took a step back when the unicorn’s look turned angry.

“I’ve known Cadence since the two of us were little,” he growled, his whole body tensing like he was ready to pounce on her. “I was there when she got her cutiemark, she was there when my sister first became Celestia’s student!” He took a step toward her. “She watched Twilight grow, the two of us would help each other with our homework whenever she came over, she was my first bucking kiss!” By now Shining was in Echo’s face, panting in anger.

“Even if she doesn’t love me anymore, even if she doesn’t love me anymore, she’s like family to me, and because of that I bucking think I have just as much right to make sure that she’s safe as you, Sergeant.”With a final little growl, Shining took a step away from the batmare to collect himself. “And even if she doesn’t want me to, and even if you just think I’m some crazy pony, I just want to be there to make sure nothing else bad will happen to her.”

From the look on Echo’s face, Shining expected her to just tell him to get out of her barracks. Her eyes were narrowed down to slits and a scowl came to her face as she stared him down, Shining tried his best not to flinch under her intense gaze.

“I’ll tell you what,” she offered him a hoof. “Why don’t you join in our little training day? I don’t know about the princess, but if you work hard out there, I’ll give you a chance.” She smiled. “Not much of a chance, to be fair, and I’ll make sure that you’ll be hurting in the morning but…”

A big grin coming to his face, Shining saluted again. “I’d be more than happy to, ma’am,” he said brightly.
Echo nudged her head toward the showers. “Then you best be getting cleaned up huh? I’d hurry if I was you, you only have a minute or two so you’d better GET YOUR BUCKING FLANK IN GEAR! YOU HEAR ME, ARMOR?!”

With a big smile on his face, Shining spun around and sprinted toward the showers. Well, at least I’ll be too tired to feel anything if Cadence kicks me out, he thought, far more excited about P.T. than anypony had a right to be.

@()()@

I don’t know why, but as soon as I managed to get Ares to sleep I wasn’t able to get anymore shut-eye. I don’t know if it was because I had pretty much slept like ten hours—If you count the time I was unconscious—or if it was because I was still giddy about what my sweet human had told me, but I just couldn’t close my eyes. All I was able to do was giggle to myself while holding my favorite human as I planned out what the two of us were going to do today.

We’re going to be staying in the castle, I decided. I really don’t feel like walking around the town today.

That settled, I then had to decide what the two of us were going to be doing. Staying in our bed and bucking each other’s brains out would have been ideal, but I think that I may want to sort out Shining before I rip Ares’ pants off and… do things to, and with, him. No, instead the two of us are going to be doing more family-friendly activities today, unfortunately.

For about an hour I pondered what we could do, but then I had an amazing idea; why didn’t I go down to the kitchen and make the two of us breakfast?
I could just skip down to the kitchens, make some pancakes for the two of us, maybe some bacon for Ares, bring all of that food back into our room, and the two of us could stuff our faces and decide what we wanted to do together. It was a sweet thing to do, it wouldn’t take long, and after that we could decide what we wanted to do together.

Excited, I wiggled out of Ares’ hug. “I’ll be back in a little bit, honey,” I whispered to my sleeping human, kissing his cheek. “I’m going to make sure that the two of us are going to have the best day ever, and the best day ever needs to start with the best breakfast ever!”

With a giggle, I hopped off the bed and trotted toward the hole in the wall, the sight of it made me frown. I should probably get a few things done before I start breakfast. I thought, looking back at Ares before I trotted out into the hallway, my smile coming back to my face. I need to tell Ares’ employer that he’s incapacitated for the day and I’ll need to get this stupid wall fixed.

I was also going to have to deal with my guardsponies, but buck it, I could deal with them tomorrow. What mattered now was me, Ares, our bed, and some delicious, made-from-scratch food.

Sometime later…

“Ares! ARES! ” A cheery voice said, which was then followed by a light shove.”Come on, honey, time to get up!

Ares grumbled, trying to shield himself with his blanket as he rolled over on his side. Whatever time it is it’s too early for this shit, he thought, stuffing his head in between his pillows in a vain attempt to hide from whomever was touching him.

“Come on, Ares! I know that you didn’t get much sleep but I thought the two of us could start our last day of freedom early.” Ares was nudged again. “Please? I made you some breakfast.”

Oh, it’s just Cadence, Ares thought, before begrudgingly pulling his head from his feathery hidey-hole and sitting up. “Whatcha say, Candy?” he mumbled, rubbing an eye as he looked at the beaming alicorn, who had a food trolley to her left.

With an excited giggle, Cadence hopped onto the bed and nuzzled his cheek. “How is my honey-bunny?”

Tired, he thought, giving his fillyfriend a smile. “You know, the whole pet name thing is starting to grow on me,” he said, wrapping his arms around her neck and pulling her close. “Now what’s got you so excited?”

Cadence ruffled her feathers, the pink mare practically bursting with excitement. “I know last night wasn’t really what the two of us wanted to happen and I know it was probably pretty stressful for you, so I decided to go down and make the two of us some breakfast!”

Ares looked around the room. “It looks like you got the door fixed too,” he commented. “And is it just me or is that door made out of metal?”

“Made out of the strongest and most sound proof metal that money can buy!” Cadence said, wiggling out of Ares’ hug and hopping off the bed. “Now, how about the two of us start eating?”

Ares smiled warmly when he saw his fillyfriend slowly lift off the covering of the tray. “You didn’t have to cook for me, Can—“ With another quiet giggle, Cadence threw off the cover, revealing what kind of looked like two plates of, what might be generously described as, food?

Ares had to struggle to keep the smile on his face when he saw that everything on the plate was just black and burnt and unappetizing. “…It’s your first time cooking, isn’t it, Candy?”

Levitating the plates off the cart and hopping onto the bed, Cadence nodded. “Yep! Nopony ever let me cook when I was a babysitter.” Her smile turned a little sheepish. “And they wouldn’t let me cook at school after I accidently almost burned down the home ec. kitchen. The chef offered to help me, but I wanted to do something for you!”

Ares almost couldn’t bring himself to look at what was on those plates. The white plate was covered in a thin layer of black soot with thick, coal-like lumps surrounding even bigger lumps, each one more unappetizing and unfood-like than the last. In fact, it took Ares a minute to actually figure out that what he was looking at was food.

Plopping the plate, a fork, and a knife onto Ares’ lap, Cadence looked at him expectantly, which left him in an awkward position. There was no way in hell that he wasn’t going to eat this. Cadence had probably spent an hour burn—er cooking all of this up, and he knew that she probably really tried to make all of this, even if it didn’t look like food, so he was going to eat it with a smile on his face.

It was for love and all that; and besides, he had a pretty strong stomach, and if push came to shove he could always excuse himself and go see the doctor for a quick stomach pump.

Leaning over and kissing the mare on the cheek, Ares grabbed his fork and knife and stared at his food like a man that was waiting for the gallows. “It looks fantastic, Candy,” he said, trying to cut what he thought was a pancake, which somehow had the look and consistency of a rock.

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil…

For minutes, Ares battled through his meal to the best of his ability, forcing himself to eat every last thing on his plate, ignoring the horrible, burnt taste, ignoring his protesting stomach, his aching teeth, and his taste buds, all the while trying to make it sound like he was actually enjoying the food.

The whole time Cadence just stood there, a big, beaming smile on her face as she watched her human stuffing his face with the food that she had made. I knew he’d like it, she thought, not noticing that Ares’ knife broke when he tried to break apart one of the larger pancakes.

She had been a little nervous when her head chef had left the kitchen screaming when she said that she was going to try to stir-fry the cereal with a little bit of sugar to give it more flavor, and she had almost just thrown everything out when it all came out black and hard, but now that she saw how much Ares liked her cooking she couldn’t be happier.

I might even start doing this more often, she thought, finally looking down at her own plate and picking up her fork just as Ares finished his last bite. Now, let’s see if this is actually any good…

@>~~<@

You know, sometimes a pony will have a special talent that they’ll never know about unless that try it out once or twice. Like a mare that finds out that she’s a natural at gymnastics or a stallion that can juggle really well after doing it a few times. I like to think that there’s an opposite of that, where somepony will find that they’re actually really, really bad at something. Which, to be honest, isn’t as bad as you’d think it would be. It’s always good to know what both your strengths and weaknesses are; it’s a good character builder and keeps you from getting too full of yourself.

I can honestly say that I found something that I’m really, really not good at and, without a shadow of a doubt, I, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza should never, ever set hoof in a kitchen with the intent of cooking anything ever again. I thought it wasn’t going to be that hard to cook, but after tasting my… food and suffering the consequences doing so, I now know that cooking isn’t my strength and I should stay away from setting hoof inside a kitchen for awhile.

I honestly have no idea how I bucked everything up so badly. All you needed for pancakes was some sugar, flour, water, and a few eggs and bam, you have pancakes. But no, I somehow managed to make something so horrid, so foul tasting, that just one bite of it had been making me puke my guts out for the last half an hour. Ares, who had been holding my mane back and rubbing my back while I had my head in the toilet, must have had some kind of iron stomach, because he was taking the disaster that I had served him far better than I was.

“You should have gotten one of the chefs to help you, Candy,” Ares finally said as he rubbed my belly.

I managed to stop dry-heaving long enough to spit into the toilet and look up at him. “You… may be…. right,” I rasped, setting my head on the edge of the lid and closing my eyes, my stomach empty and my body exhausted.

My human sat down beside me, wrapping an arm around me. “If it makes you feel any better, my first time cooking was a heck of a lot worse than that.”

I leaned into him. “When… was… that?”

Ares paused for a moment. “Um, I might have been five?” he answered. “And even after cooking for myself for years and years the best that I can usually do is microwave something.“

I took a few deep breaths and continued to spit in the toilet, trying to calm myself down and get the foul taste out of my mouth at the same time.

After about a minute of this I managed to chuckle. “Thanks, Ares,” I said gratefully, trying to ignore the pain that had started in my stomach and had spread everywhere else after the fifteen minute mark of me puking. Please body, will you settle down? I begged, looking down at my belly. I’m sure you don’t want me dry heaving for another hour when I could be filling you with something that isn’t poison.

“That’s not really helping the pain in my stomach though.” I looked up at him. “You know, you could have just told me that that my food was bad.”

Ares made a disapproving noise. “It wasn’t that bad, Cadence,” he protested. “You just need some practice is all.”

“Ares, you’re the sweetest man in the world and I love you to bits, but my food almost killed me,” I replied, wrapping a wing around him. I tried to lift my head off the toilet seat, giving up halfway with a pained groan. “How did you even manage to eat all of that?”

“I’ve eaten worse,” he replied, shrugging. “But I’m telling you, all you need to do is get a little practice.”

I don’t know if it was the dizzy feeling or if it was just a spur of the moment thing, but as soon as Ares said that, I realized what the two of us could do today. Cooking with each other. This time I could get one of the chefs to teach us to cook something and I’d get to see him in a chef's hat and apron; it’d be a win-win for the both of us.

“Ares, if I could get up right now I’d shove my tongue down your throat,” I said happily.

My human snuggled closer to me. “That’s great and all, Candy,” he said, “but you might want to rinse your mouth out before you go and do that.”

#@~~@#

When one of the guardsponies had been stupid enough to ask the Sergeant what they were going to do today, Echo had just muttered something about them working up a sweat on some farms. And while this didn’t seem that big of a deal to the ponies that had been shipped up to the Empire from Equestria, the crystal ponies knew better.
You see, for thousands of years, the few farms that surrounded the city’s hills had been the lifeblood of the empire since its founding. Many of these farms had been passed down for generations, from father to son, and, though their produce were usually just wheat or hay, simple ‘peasant’ food, each one of these farmers knew that because of their efforts the empire was able to sustain itself.

Through hard work, dedication, and ingenuity, the farmers had even figured out how to grow crops of all kinds year-round and keep the soil full of nutrients after each ‘season’. There was no field rotation for a crystal farmer, there was no break, just work and work and even more work.

If one looked at these little farms one might not be able to tell them apart from a farm from Equestria, except for one small detail: the way that the soil was tilled. Where the simple Equestrian would use some modern day technology to tear up the soil with less workers and effort, the farmers of the Empire still clung to the old ways. To them, the crops grew because of the strength of one’s back, the sweat and blood that it put into turning a lifeless hunk of land onto a thriving oasis of food. To a farmer of the Empire, it was not love that grew the plants, but suffering, something Echo was more than happy to give, courtesy of the guard.

“Put your backs into it, you maggots! These fields aren’t going to plow themselves!”

Shining resisted the urge to wipe the sweat from his brow as he tugged his plow through the hard, unforgiving earth with all of his might. Just keep pushing, he
thought, shutting his eyes and gritting his teeth. Just keep pushing and don’t you dare throw up!

When the Sergeant had learned that a few of the farmers were in need of farmhands, she had jumped at the chance to get her soldiers suited up with old, dull plows, uncomfortable iron bits, sledgehammers that must have weighed fifty pounds, and yolks that were so big and blocky that they didn’t even look like they had been made for ponies. Echo had assured the farmers that the guard were more than happy to help each and every one of them, and soon, to the Sergeant’s continued delight, they were helping more than them.

Some of the smelters and miners, hearing that there was a chance to get some free labor themselves, had gone over to the bat-mare asking if they could borrow a stallion or ten.

“Ab-so-lutely,” Echo had said while she sipped her lemonade from under her umbrella. “Just go and nab whomever you want; they’ll be more than happy to help you out!” So they did just that, taking over half of the soldiers to dig ditches, break rocks, and drag support beams around.

The remaining guards had been happy to learn that they weren’t going to have to break rocks the whole day, until Echo had happily pointed out that each and every one of them were going to have to complete a field themselves now that the farmers were so understaffed. “We told them that we’d till all of their fields, fillies,” Echo had said. “Don’t you dare make me a liar.”

Shining had been at this horrible, exhausting, and dirty work since before the sun had gone up and he was just about ready to pass out. His lack of sleep was hanging over his head, slowing him down and making his plow even heavier than it looked.

The sun, which had been mercilessly been beating down on him since they had left the castle, looked like it was only going to get hotter as the day dragged on, further irritating and exhausting him. A stallion and a mare had already dropped from heat exhaustion and Shining was starting to wish that he would have been given a job with the miners. Sure, that would have been just as terrible, but there was a chance that it would have been cooler underground than it was above ground.

“Get your flank moving, Shining Armor! Remember, you only get to go back to the castle when you finish your field!” Rousted from his thoughts, and realizing that he had just been standing there looking dazed, Shining started pulling again.

Over and over again he kept muttering to himself to pull, that all of this would be over sooner if he pulled harder. With each step, his muscles cramped, his lungs burned, and sweat poured off of him and onto the ground.

With each step, he was just a little bit closer to passing out from dehydration or exhaustion. With each step that little voice in the back of his head was becoming louder and louder, telling him that it would be alright to give up, that there was no shame in packing up and going back home if staying in the Empire meant this. Each step was becoming a trial, a trial that was getting harder and harder to overcome.

Yet Shining couldn’t have been happier about it. Because this was what he needed, for somepony to try their hardest to break him down and make him give up. He wanted, no, needed to test himself, needed to deal with a simple, yet daunting, task like this. He was going to finish tilling this entire field by himself, not because Echo wanted him to, or because he thought that it was something that Cadence would want him to do. No, he was going to do this because HE wanted to do this.
“Shining! If you got enough energy to smile, that means that you got enough energy to bucking push harder! SO BUCKING DO IT!”

~~---~~

“Wow, Ares, this pizza is really good! I didn’t think we were going to be able to make something like this!”

Ares, covered in flour and tomato and cheese and far more tired than he had been this morning, couldn’t stop himself from grinning in pride as he watched Cadence scarf down the pizza that the two of them had just finished making.

After apologizing for the mess that Cadence had made in the morning, Ares and Cadence had gotten the head chef herself to help the two of them cook something edible, which, as it turned out, was a good deal more difficult than the human or alicorn expected it to be.

The poor chef had watched the couple burn, ruin, and destroy everything from stew to pastry to quiche before throwing up her hooves and all but forcing the two to just make a few simple pizzas with a batch of chocolate-chip cookies as desert. “Anypony could bake a pizza,” she had thought while shoving the list of ingredients and a recipe sheet in Ares’ face before going over and turning on the oven. “There’s no way that these two could get this one wrong!”

She was right. After watching the two like a hawk during the making of the pizzas and cookies and putting the food in the oven herself, she had found something that the two could actually make… kind of.

It had taken a lot to make the three pies and three dozen chocolate chip cookies—the chef had made them work as slowly as possible so as not to damage anything—but after accidently making enough dough to feed a village, grinding a little too much cheese and getting the mixture of mozzarella, fiesta, and pepperjack wrong so many times that the chef had thrown her favorite underling-whacking spoon out the window in anger, and putting too much onion, garlic, and salt in three different batches of sauce, they had actually made something that could actually be eaten and held down.

Every one of Ares’ ancestors were slowly rolling in their graves and Cadence’s mane may have caught on fire once or twice because she got too close to an open flame, but when their pizzas came out of the oven steaming, with the cheese evenly melted and the crust golden brown, all of that cooking seemed like it had actually been worth it. Sure, both of them were filthy, and Ares was sure that he was going to have to get a new shirt, some socks, and pants, but they had had that cliché, silly, amazing fun that only couples can have together.

Cadence had cheered as she watched the dough that she had been kneading start to rise, Ares had done a little happy dance (when he was sure that no one was watching) when the chef’s face didn’t scrunch up in disgust as she tried the sauce that he had made. Both of them had had a blast, giggling, laughing, joking, and teasing each other throughout the day.

But, like all good things, their day as chefs ended, with the relieved head chef tossing the two out of the kitchen as soon as their food was finished, throwing the pizzas, cookies, some plates, silverware, and two glasses onto a food trolley before shoving it out into the hallway, which left the two where they were at the moment, Ares staring down at his girlfriend as she nommed on the piece of pizza that she had gotten when he wasn’t looking.

Leaning down, the human wrapped his arms around his mare. “I told you that you could be an awesome cook, Candy,” he said, tickling Cadence’s stomach.

Cadence giggled, nuzzling his cheek, before taking another bite out of her pizza. “I love you, Ares,” she mumbled through the her half-chewed food, leaning back into him. “The two of us may be horrible cooks and I don’t know if we’ll ever be allowed in the kitchen again, but thanks for getting me to do this with you, it was actually really fun.”

With a satisfied smile on his face and a warm, happy feeling welling up inside him, Ares leaned forward and took a bite out of Cadence’s piece of pizza, trying not to laugh when he heard an angry squeak.

“Come on Candy, let’s go get all of this food back to our room,” he said, cleaning a bit of cheese off of Cadence’s mouth with his thumb. “I kind of want to sit down and eat all of this instead of, you know, just eating it out in the hallway like a slob.”

With a princessly sniff and with her nose raised high in the air, Cadence trotted past the food trolley that was holding all of their food. “Excuse me if I want to taste my food to see if it’s actually any good,” she said with a huff. “Silver Platter wouldn’t even let us taste these babies before throwing us out of the kitchen.”

Ares hummed thoughtfully as he positioned himself behind the trolley and started to push it forward. “She didn’t even let us clean up after ourselves,” he commented, poking his head back through the kitchen doorway to look at all the dishes, pots, pans, and kitchen utensils that had been stuffed into the sinks. “That’s going to take her forever to clean up.”

Cadence shrugged uncaringly. “It’s not our fault that she was in such a bad mood.” She frowned. “Did you hear her yelling at me the whole time I was trying to make the dough?”
Ares patted her on the back. “Weren’t you hitting the dough with a rolling pin and yelling at it to rise?”

Cadence stopped in her tracks, a tint of pink coloring her face as she stomped her hoof. “I’ve never cooked before, Ares!” She protested. “It’s not my fault that I have no idea how ponies make bread!”

While Ares could have pointed out that no person in their right mind would have done that to bread, and while he could also have asked himself why he and Cadence were so horrible at cooking, he decided to keep his trap shut and let his princess vent.

I’ll just send that poor mare some apology flowers or candy or something, Ares decided, scratching Cadence’s ear and trying to ignore the loud clattering of pots and pans and rather colorful swearing that was starting to come from the kitchen.

Was I really that bad of a cook back home? He wondered to himself his face scrunched up in thought. I don’t remember being HORRIBLE at cooking.
Ares gave his head a little shake to clear it of those silly thoughts, he reached down and picked up Cadence, pulling her into a hug. The alicorn giggled, wrapping her hooves around his neck.

“Ares,” Cadence whined, kissing his neck. “Come on and put me down; I want to get back to our room before our food gets cold!”

Ares’ grip only tightened, a happy smile coming to his face. “I love you, Candy,” he murmured, nuzzling the top of her head. “I don’t care if the two of us cook for shit; you’re the best girl a guy can ask for.”

Cadence awed, rubbing her cheek against his. “I love you too, my little human,” she told him, patting his back with her wing, “and don’t worry about the two of us not being able to cook. If we play our cards right all we’ll need to do is get you to show your cute little butt to some cooks and we’ll be eating for the rest of our lives!”

With another playful giggle, the alicorn wiggled out of his grasp and raced down the hall, the food trolley caught in her magic, leaving Ares by himself, the only sounds the chef’s swearing and his own breathing.

Sighing in contentment, he thought, Sweet Jesus, today was a pretty sweet day.

&@~~@&

“Alright, fillies,” Echo roared, looking over her dirty, exhausted, and ragged bunch of soldiers. “I think that’s enough exercise for today!”

The soldiers looked at the mare, wondering if what she had just said was some sort of cruel joke. Out of their group, only about a third of them could actually stand, including the hard-bitten veterans, and most of those paragons of stamina were panting, pale, and just a few short steps from passing out.

Everypony else who wasn’t so lucky was on the ground or leaning on one of the ponies that could actually stand for support, these poor, unlucky ponies covered in sweat, foamy saliva coating their mouths, and their eyes drooping in undeniable, spiriting-breaking tiredness. To his dismay, Shining found himself with these ponies, trying to desperately catch his breath and get the feeling back into his hooves as he leaned on Flash.

Sweet Celestia did I let myself go, he thought, pawing at the carton of water that he had been given after a few hours of working. The carton looked like it would be able to hold about a gallon and a half of water, and even though Echo had made sure that every guard had kept theirs full while they worked, Shining still felt that it hadn’t been enough. Without a doubt, this had been one of the most grueling and mentally difficult things that he had ever done in his entire life. Compared to this, his own time at boot camp may as well have been a cakewalk.

He had heard that the Night Guard’s training was a little stricter than the Day Guard’s, and that they still, proudly, used older methods of training, but if this was what a batpony had to go through to become one of Luna’s protectors then Shining was ecstatic that he had been born a unicorn.

Echo looked at each and every one of them with nothing less than utter contempt. “What you have just experienced, fillies, was what I had to go through as a recruit.” She turned her head and spat. “Except that I had to do all of this in a pitch-black cave and we had to use stones and stalactites as plows.”

The mare’s chest puffed out. “That little warm up is just the beginning, fillies and gentlecolts, of what I promise will be the worst few days of your lives!” She started to pace back and forth. “From what I have seen, your training was obviously insufficient, but I will forgive that on the basis of you all receiving the sub-par training regimen that the Day Guard is famous for.”

For the ponies that had originated from Canterlot, Shining included, this little jab hit a little too close to home, and each one of them would have voiced their opinions if any of them could actually breathe, but they couldn’t so Echo continued her little ‘pep talk’.

“Right now not a single one of you has the right to call yourself a guard. You are all trash; right now the dirt I’m walking on has more value than any one of you sorry salt-lickers. I was hoping to actually have stallions and mares to mold, but it looks like all the Crystal Empire has to provide are colts and fillies!”

Many of the Crystal ponies bit their tongues at this, each of them resisting the urge to defend their country’s honor by walking up to this outsider and giving her a good smack on the mouth.

“But don’t worry your little heads. I promise you, if any of you manage to stick this out you will be able to look yourself in a mirror and be able to call yourselves guards!” She smirked. “For those of you that want to quit, just tell me and I’ll be happy to throw your flank out of the castle by morning.”

Echo paused, looking in Shining’s direction before finishing, “Do I have any takers now?” She waved a hoof encouragingly at them. “Come on, I won’t bite, just trot on over here and tell me that you want to quit and I’ll let you walk away right now. You won’t have to do anything like this again in your lives; all you need to do is walk up to me, look me in the eyes, and tell me that you quit!”

As tempting as that sounded for most of the guards, not a single one of them moved. The Canterlot guard wouldn’t move because they had been called out by some bat horse Night Guard that thought she ran the place, and the Crystal wouldn’t even dare think about dishonoring their clans by submitting to defeat. So, no matter how hard this was going to get, they were going to stick this out, even if it killed them.

And from how today went, the Sergeant might actually be trying to kill us, Shining thought with a small smile. Willing every last ounce of energy he had left in his body, Shining forced himself off of Flash, stumbling, and almost falling, before he managed to stabilize himself.
His knees shook and even that little bit of effort was making him pant, but he still managed to give Echo a defiant smile; the absolutely best buck you that he could think of doing in this situation.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow, ma’am!” he said, saluting. “Then I might actually break a sweat!”

All around him, tired, dirty faces broke out into smiles, each of the guard silently cheering the stallion as he stood his ground under Echo’s glare. Stallions and mares, who were too tired to even think about standing on their own seconds before, raised themselves off the ground and stood with their old captain.

They might have been exhausted, and they may have gotten their flanks kicked up and down today, but they were still standing, and as a group they would continue to stand. Shining felt himself choke up with emotion. He couldn’t even count himself among these soldiers at the moment, but even now they trusted him to lead.
You know, I almost thought that they wouldn’t be happy to see me, Shining thought, a great big smile coming to his face. And here I always thought the real soldiers were supposed to hate the officers.

Echo looked at the group converging around Shining with a raised eyebrow before, with an annoyed snort, she looked back at the stallion. “You didn’t break a sweat, eh, Shining?” she said, her voice becoming low and dangerous. “Well then, you and the rest of the guard wouldn’t mind running back to the barracks then, would you?”
Just like that, the looks of brotherhood and the feeling of admiration died and turned into looks of horror, irritation, and even anger, all of which were directed at Shining, who couldn’t stop himself from flinching, and nearly facehoofing, at his own stupidity.

Seeing that he had trapped himself, he forced himself to say, “Of course not, ma’am!” Oh buck me why did I have to say that? He thought, his exhaustion once again making itself known.

Because of a slip of the tongue, something that had been meant to put spirit back into the tired soldiers behind him, Shining had inadvertently given his exhausted trainees another twenty mile run. A twenty mile run which he was sure to be thanked for in the form of being held down and beaten with bars of soap in socks by his fellow soldiers while he slept.

Well, I hope that they don’t beat me too hard, Shining thought as Echo started shouting orders for the troop to form up for the run. We all probably have one heck of a day tomorrow. For some reason, the thought of another day of horrible, grueling training brought a smile to his face as the Sergeant stood in front of the tired group of ponies and started off toward the castle at a steady but brisk pace.

“Let’s go fillies! If I catch one of you falling behind I will not hesitate to run back and kick your flank all the way to the bucking castle, do you hear me Legionnaires?!”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am!”