The following day fared much better than the previous. Midnight had shown the entire platoon what to expect from his aggressive stance at starting the day so everypony knew what to expect that following morning. Sure enough at exactly the same time Midnight had teleported into the barracks shouting out in the royal whee for them all to wake up and get out of bed. The private from the prior day that had been wearing earplugs was the first to get out of bed and stand at attention much to Midnight's surprise. The entire company had been moved back to sector three for morning exercise to get the blood flowing. To many of the guard had become lax in the past years and had grown quite the belly. Although many of them were still fit, the extra weight would become a hindrance while on duty should they get pulled into a fight. The regime for the first couple weeks would work each of them hard to burn off the excess fat. Bringing them back to a lean and muscular tone.

After the first couple of weeks of training to get the ponies fit, Midnight had brought Twilight along with him to help train them guard in fighting. No, it's not what you're thinking. Twilight had been working in conjunction with the Princess and her unicorn staff at the school in Canterlot to come up with several new spells that would allow the all three races of ponies within the base to train with. After the spells had been cast and recast to make sure they would work properly, Twilight had agreed to join Midnight on base to help with training.

It was just after lunch when the guard had left the mess hall to start training once again. They had all moved back to sector 3 for hoof to hoof combat. Although they had not been briefed on who they would be fighting. Midnight and Twilight had already setup shop for the days training when all of the guard had arrived. They all stood at attention as Midnight trotted forth.

"Good day everypony. Today we have a special surprise for all of you. Today we will be going over the hoof to hoof combat training you went through under Celestia's training. However there is going to be one little change." Midnight spoke out as his horn began to light up.

"My assistant here as you know is the prodigy of Celestia herself and has been working in conjunction with the Royal Academy's leading unicorn professors as well as Celestia herself to come up with this new spell so that you can train properly. I must admit it took me a few minutes to understand the spell myself, however. I believe it will benefit us all in the end." He grinned as he cast the spell making several grey coated ponies to appear before him. One of each race minus the Alicorn race. The ponies stepped forward to each section of the divided guard. standing stock still as Midnight continued.

"You see. Your previous training allowed you to practice your hoof to hoof skills against each other. However it lacked one thing." He spoke as he moved to the far side of the groups in a perfect line with three fake ponies he had just created. He raised his right wing. bringing it quickly down and impacting the ground, the tip of his wing releasing a large light scythe that split the three ponies in half, each of them giving out a pained expression just before vanishing into thin air. The entire platoon gasped seeing what he had just done bud quickly fell silent as he began again.

"The one flaw in your training before was that you could never kill your opponent so that you would know your fighting techniques worked. You were simply trusting what you had been taught. With this spell you will go up against various sized ponies from both genders. Each pony you will go up against will be fake and will be programed to mimic different tactics in order to throw you off guard. At no times are you to trust them because they are also programed to kill you. On a final note. Their attacks will not harm you. They will only stun you temporarily. Once you have been stunned you are considered dead. Each fake pony will have the same battle tactics that you have been trained in so do not hold back no matter which pony you get. Is that understood?"

"YES SIR!" shouted everypony in unison.

"Alright then, We are going to start the training. Once you have defeated a specific number of enemies, no more will appear in front of you. Each pony is set to random and will be one of two, Defensive or offensive. It is up to you to find out which and defeat them. If you fail more then five times you will have to start over from the beginning. Your final opponent is going to be a very special one so please take precaution in fighting them. You may begin once they appear in front of you."

Midnight's horn lit up to a blistering white as he cast the spell once releasing a fake combat pony in front of each of the guard. He gave a slight pant as the spell was cast before trotting back to Twilight under a large tent taking a seat as she floated a pitcher of water to him. He pulled the pitcher up to his mouth taking a large gulp of the chilled liquid giving a contented sigh as he lowered it back to the small table to their side. Midnight looked to the group of ponies as the first kill sounded of with a loud wail of pain. Several zaps had been heard as well as a few of them had been technically killed by the fake ponies. His attention was brought back to Twilight as she spoke up.

"Midnight, I'm not really comfortable being here and hearing all of these screams of pain. I know they're fake, but hearing them still makes me uneasy." She sighed hearing another scream.

"It's ok if you want to go Twi. You honestly need to stay though. I was going to have you help teach them about all of the spells that were made specifically for the guard. I haven't even got to test them out more than a few times. If you want to leave though you can." He smiled to her as she pressed a little closer giving him a quick kiss.

"Wooooooo! You get'er Captain! *ZAP* AAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHHH!" One of the ponies shouted watching Midnight and failing to see the oncoming attack of the spell which sent him into the dirt causing everypony to laugh.

"Eyes on the target slacker. There may be a pretty flank here but consider Twilight here a distraction. In the heat of battle you need to focus on your attacker. Not a cute flank." He shouted only to get a sock in the arm by Twilight. This in turn causing many of the guard to laugh out, and many others to be taken down.

"Alright smartflank, I think I'll stick around for a bit. But if any of these ponies start staring at my flank I might just have to discipline them." Twilight chuckled.

"I honestly don't know if they would enjoy that or not." Midnight laughed.

"I think I could learn to like it captain." One pony spoke up as he quickly took out another fake grey pony. Just as Midnight turned to speak he noticed the new pony that had appeared was the final one for this specific guard. He quickly stood up heading to the guard as he stared at the blue pony before him, slightly gawking at the sight.

"Congratulations, you were the first to get to the end. As you can see, this finally pony is none other than a perfect mirror image of yourself. I am sure you are aware that with each pony you had previously defeated, the next one you fought was much harder correct?" Midnight smirked.

"Yes sir!" Shouted the pony.

"Your final battle will be against yourself. This final pony is programmed with all of the tactics you used during battle plus those that are within the training book of moves to use. If you have not used a specific tactic then this pony will not know that you used it. Be on guard though because fighting your doppelganger will be a hard fight indeed." Midnight snickered as he stepped away from the two. Both dropping into an defensive stance and circling each other.

Midnight watched as they fought for a good ten minutes until each move began to mirror the other and neither was hitting each other. That was until the guard pony did something he would normally never do in a fight which quickly knocked the fake pony into the dirt. The guard quickly poncing upon it and killing it in a flash.

"Congratulations on being the first to succeed my boy." Midnight smiled as he trotted up to the panting guard. "You're dismissed for the day. be prepared for tomorrow though. That training will be a lot harder."

The guard nodded finally catching his breath before he trotted off. Midnight continued watching the guard fight for another two hours until the last one finished. Midnight did not discriminate between the guard ponies for going slower or faster since making a pony rush to do something like fight would in the end get them killed. The last pony to finish was the only one out of the entire platoon that had not lost a single fight with the fake ponies. He may have been slow but he got the job done efficiently. This made Midnight very proud of that one pony. He would have to remember this for a special occasion in the future.

Once the final fight had been won Midnight had called it a day, taking Twilight with him on a walk back to the Library. Although at least a thirty minute walk it would give them time to chat.

"So what do you think Twi? Am I doing right by retraining the guard? Do they show any improvement from what you have seen?" Midnight asked as they walked along the path toward Ponyville.

"Although I haven't seen them fight before. As long as they don't die then I would see it as an improvement." Twilight giggled.
"I think you should give them all a week off though. Everypony has been working very hard as of late and I can see the fatigue in their eyes. They aren't used to all of this training." She continued.

"I think that's a good idea. I have been hard at work here and I would like to visit the girls. Tia has been leaving Star in the care of others at the castle when she visits so she can oversee how well I am training everypony. I would like to see my boy. That and spend some quality time with a few ponies." He grinned giving Twilight's ear a quickly nibble causing her to stiffen up.

"NIGHT! Don't do that! What if somepony saw?" She squeaked as she looked around.

"Doesn't matter to me. I think I could take you into those bushes over there and have my way with you right now if you weren't such a baby about rutting in public places." He chuckled.

"A baby huh? Alright then. I accept your challenge." She smirked.

"Seriously? I don't believe you!" He chuckled but stopped as she trotted ahead of him swinging her tail back and forth teasing him. He grinned leaning his head down and giving a quick lick causing her to jump forward startled.

"Tastes like grape soda." He picked giving her a wink. She only glaring back at him with a flushed face. "What? You said you accept my challenge." He chuckled as he changed course heading toward an opening in the bush line.

"WHAT?! YOU WERE SERIOUS?!" Twilight gasped in shock.

"Of course I was, You know I NEVER joke about a good rut." He grinned as his horn lit up. Lifting Twilight off the ground and pulling her toward him. She only gave an annoyed sigh rolling her eyes as they disappeared behind the brush.

A couple hours had gone by before the two were back at the library where Celestia and Luna were waiting for them. Spike was organizing books as they sat chatting.

"Tia? Luna?" What are you two doing here?" Midnight asked as soon as he saw them. Twilight giving him a hard nudge as she passed him.

"We both came by to check on the status of the guard's training. It has been almost a month now since you have started and although we have gotten many updates. Today was the first real day of training." Celestia said as she watched Twilight come to her side.

"The training has gone very well today. Although I will admit that quite a few of the guard were careless in fighting the spells cast before them. I was surprised to see a single pony go through the entire training without once getting hurt. He may have been the very last to finish but that only shows that he is highly skilled and a rational thinker." Midnight said as he made way to the two Princess' before him, taking a seat across from them.

"So the new spells worked well?" Luna smiled.

"They did very well indeed. Although I would like to continue the training tomorrow, Twilight has asked me to give them all a week off to relax and enjoy themselves." He said as he cocked a brow at the purple unicorn.

"I think a small vacation is in order then." Celestia giggled.

"I guess I can handle that. I have recently heard some rumors going through the barracks that a celebrity nightclub singer has made their way toward Canterlot. I believe her name is Rainy Days. With as much as they have all talked about her I would think it would be great to have her perform for them. Tia, do you think you could pull some strings to get her on base to perform for the guard?" He asked giving a smile.

"I think that could be arranged." She smiled back.

"Alright then, as of tomorrow the entire guard is on vacation." Midnight chuckled. "Let's just hope Rainy can make it before their vacation is over with."

They continued chatting the night away as they sat in the library. The thoughts of giving the guard a week off still playing into the conversation. The guard was almost entirely made of stallions with the exception of a few mares here and there. All of that testosterone building up over those few weeks will boil over once Rainy makes it to the base. Although most of the stallions had families and would go off base to visit them for this week. Many of them were still young and without a mare to call their own. The following week is going to be very interesting.