I could see through their strategy the moment I really stopped to take in their positioning. It was flawed right out of the gate, but I couldn't blame them for that. I'd seen this kind of thing before, during the other times Barbut had used me as a very hostile training dummy for his recruits. This was meant to be both a lesson and a break from their training.

The Royal Guard stands as the top tier of ponies in the military. Everyone, no matter their origin, is put through boot camp as if they were new to the military, despite many of the recruits being plucked from other branches. They're meant to be the best of the best, given the privilege of serving the crown directly, and that meant they needed to be prepared for any situation...including dealing with a foe that could easily take them apart, if not for their armor.

Unfortunately for the recruits, they didn't have that special armor, not that it would've helped them against me.

The pegasi were easy to deal with. They were flying above me at approximately thirty hooflengths above me, likely preparing for diving maneuvers to end this quickly, with the earth ponies and unicorns in front of me forming an oppressive barricade. Police tactics when dealing with street mages. That meant whoever was deemed in charge of this group was probably selected from the Canterlot police force, or they had a history of serving in the police.

Of course that likely meant they were on the Mafia's payroll, but that didn't matter in that moment.

The reason they were flying at that height was because for the average street mage, that height meant their telekinesis couldn't grip them with enough power to pull them from the air, and the distance gave them ample opportunity to put their superior aerial agility to use in avoiding any spells they cast. Their error in judgment was that I wasn't some untrained street mage.

I reached out and took hold of them by their hooves, freezing them in their circling pattern and catching them by surprise. In the brief moment where their wings began to flail to right their flight, I yanked downward and snatched all four of them out of the air. Their wings couldn't save them from me dragging them to ground level and tossing them towards their earth pony and unicorn compatriots with a quick flick of my head.

"I am not a street mage! I am a rogue mage," I shouted quickly, eyeing the pegasi with a stern gaze. "If this were a real encounter with a rogue mage, I would've grabbed you by your wings and snapped them like twigs! Try. Harder."

"Did I mention this was timed, recruits?" Barbut chimed in from the sidelines. "You've got five minutes to lay a hoof on that mage! Get your lazy flanks off the ground and get back in the air, pegasi!! You think a rogue mage would give you the chance to lounge around and whine?! You'd be fried to a crisp if this were real!"

That got them moving, if only because I'm sure Barbut had made it clear that slackers got the entire group punished. Immediately, the pegasi scrambled to get back in the air, flying much higher than they had previously, almost to the point of uselessness now. If they decided to dive at me, I'd see them coming long before they ever reached me, and I had several ways of evading them...including not evading and just blasting them out of the air.

Just to test them, I sent out a wave of kinetic energy in the direction of the earth ponies and unicorns. I watched it crash over them like a tide, pushing against them from every side except behind them. To their credit, the earth ponies didn't stagger too much, though it did catch them by surprise. Only their raw strength kept them on their hooves. The unicorns, however, saw it coming and all but one managed to defend themselves from it before it could topple them. The one that was too slow on the draw didn't fall over, but it made him slide back and crumple down to the ground in order to not topple backwards.

The pegasi took that opportunity to dive at me. It was a shame I wasn't going to be where they were headed for long. I let the pegasi draw closer while preparing two different spells, weaving the array above my horn while weaving another in the direction of the earth ponies and unicorns. Because I wasn't going for something lethal, it was far easier to craft a stunning bolt for the pegasi, and a good distraction for the bigger targets in that scenario.

I clung to the array and wove another around it, securing a teleportation for myself while the pegasi closed in. I pretended to pay them no mind, putting the final touches on the second array before executing them. The earth ponies had recovered just in time to catch a stunning bolt to their chests. I didn't take the time to observe how the unicorns would react to the attack, though they did try to stop my bolts from reaching their companions, albeit in vain.

Just as the pegasi were about to reach me, I disappeared. In a brief instant, I was behind the unicorns and the earth ponies, watching them for a time. It was amusing to see them looking around the yard for me, though the pegasi were the first to spot me. They had already landed and taken off again, and it's pretty easy to spot someone in an open field when you're up in the air.

That didn't help them, however. On top of having greater focus and knowledge of the arcane arts, I had the gift of overwhelming force on my side. Just as the unicorns turned to face me, I grabbed them by their forehooves and yanked them out from under all four of them. They all stumbled and clonked their heads on the ground, but I was glad to see the earth ponies quickly pulling them back on their hooves. They didn't need the help, but it was teamwork.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't last. The combined knowledge that they were outmatched as well as under-equipped began to wear down their morale, despite a few of them still trying their best and encouraging the others to get back on their hooves. Again and again I allowed them to come close, only to push them back or teleport out of their reach, purposely baiting them to come after me.

When their time was up, I could tell they were frustrated and even fairly exhausted. I'd led them all on a merry chase, but the end result was an inevitability. None of them had managed to lay so much as the tip of their hoof on me. I stood in the center of the area, taking the time to catch my breath while Barbut approached from the sidelines.

He wasn't coming to give them a 'Good job!' however.

"That was the most piss-poor display I've ever seen! You think relying on the same tactics the police use is going to get you anywhere against a mage that knows what they're doing?!" he shouted for everyone to hear. "I don't think I've ever dealt with stupidity of this caliber! Your target, once again, is not a street mage! She is not some sloppy-seconds waste of her father's load idiot who thinks she's unstoppable just because she can make something go boom with her horn! She is a trained, professional mage gone rogue! Use your heads, recruits!"

I could see the anger in his eyes as he watched the first group walk off of the yard, a few of them shooting dirty looks my way, though they did so as discreetly as they possibly could. Wasn't the first time I'd experienced that sort of thing, definitely wouldn't be the last. There were a lot of egos big and small in the Royal Guard, the former usually far more than the latter, and some rich noblemare putting them through their paces like their years of prior training never mattered at all is a real good way to bruise those egos.

I opted for a much more aggressive approach once the second group came at me. As soon as Barbut gave them the order, two unicorns and a lone earth pony charged me, and these three seemed like they had their heads in the game better than the entirety of the first group did. Both unicorns were working together to form a forward-facing barrier in front of the earth pony, keeping in pace with him while he charged headlong towards me. A perfectly viable and much more thought-out strategy compared to previous attempts.

Along with their bold move, I was almost caught off-guard by a volley of magic missiles from behind them. The other three unicorns had decided to try and divide my focus with a quick barrage, not to mention the pegasi had slipped out of my direct view, though I could hear the powerful beats of their wings. Two were coming around on my left, and the other two were approaching from my right. I silently applauded their coordination and their creativity. The three remaining earth ponies had taken up position in front of and behind the three unicorns, two behind them and one in front, likely because of my ability to teleport.

All in all, I gave them a seven out of ten, maybe a B minus if we're going for a school grade. Their plan was clearly designed to counteract what I'd done to trounce the first group, and mixing their strategies up to be more active in their pursuit of me was a step in the right direction. It was definitely better than the bare minimum the first group had put forth because they underestimated me.

Sadly, they were still missing the most crucial detail...among other things.

The pegasi were the first to feel my restrained wrath. They were easy enough to deal with, but I felt like being flashy when the opportunity presented itself. Instead of shooting all of them myself, I grabbed hold of them and yanked three of them in the way of the magic missiles the unicorns had fired at me. I saw three of the four pegasi's faces twist up in pain when they hit, but not in any way that would incapacitate them. I guess those unicorns really didn't want to hurt me.

Without missing a beat, I spun them around each other and forcibly mashed them together a few times, the clang of their metal armor sounding off whenever they hit one another. After four times, I heard the weak groans of the four dazed pegasi, and with a simple flick of my head I threw them into a pile far behind myself.

My attention shifted to the charging earth pony next. If we were in a narrow hallway, the whole forward-facing barrier idea would've worked out perfectly fine, especially against a street mage. I saw all the flaws and ways to exploit them from step one. I reached out with my telekinesis to the left and right of him, and smashed inward from around the sides of the barrier, mashing against both sides of his body and making his legs cross and seize up under him. The end result was him taking a pretty nasty tumble head-over-hooves. I winced when I saw his snout mash into the ground as he flipped over. He was going to feel that one.

I could hear the shuffling of the pegasi behind me, trying to untangle themselves from each other. Guess they weren't as ready to give up as I figured they'd be. Not that it would help much, because in a real encounter, they would've already been dead. They took those bolts directly to their faces, and if I'd been trying to kill them, all four of those shots would've zapped their eyes out of their skulls.

Just as the pegasi began to stand again, I tilted my head back until my horn was pointing straight up at the sky and sent a wave of kinetic force back that knocked all four of them out of the area, and out of the encounter for the time being. The earth pony had managed to get back to his hooves, but his nose was bloodied and his muzzle had a few scuff marks. He hadn't taken that fall very well for a trained soldier.

I gave them the time to reorganize themselves, easily swatting aside another volley of magic from the unicorns and stepping back while they all got back to their hooves and prepared to make another attempt on me. I could see they'd been shaken by the removal of their pegasi, and the utter devastation of their entire plan, but that was only to be expected. The unicorns looked like they were far more aware of what they were up against than the earth ponies. I could see it in their eyes.

We were nearing the five minute mark however, and I just didn't find it fair that most of them were standing over there relatively unscathed compared to their pegasi companions.

It wouldn't do to make them go boom. That would've torn up the ground, and I would've caught a fresh slice of Tartarus for that. I had a better idea in mind, one that would put something of a strain on me. I wanted more of a workout.

I chose to go for overkill. I began to form two different arrays, one to erect a more intricate shield, and one for a surprise later. I still had another group to chew through after all, and if they thought I wasn't playing around with the second group, well...they were sorely mistaken.

Forming a shield came so naturally to me that it only took a few moments to piece the array together. It's hard to describe how it feels, but it's something inherently different from most other spells. That's not to say that I can't form other spells just as fast, I am a trained mage, but I never had to study and practice to be good at pulling them off. Well...not as much as I should've. If you're someone who had something come naturally to you after just a few attempts, you know what I'm talking about.

Once the shield appeared around me, the entire match was a foregone conclusion. I looked over the shield's makeup while I walked towards the remaining recruits, mostly because I wanted to be sure I wouldn't shear off their faces outright. See, I'd crafted the shield to be an oscillating shield, same as the one I used to deal with Nightmare Moon, and because she was a freak-beast that could touch it and not get her hoof knocked away, I feel the need to explain what this shield would do to a normal pony.

This shield was designed specifically to disperse the inertia of incoming projectiles, physical or magical, by altering their trajectory on impact due to the shield constantly rotating in one direction. The more power you give it, the faster it rotates, and the more sturdy it is. There's an upper limit of just how much it can take based on the array used to form it, at least for most ponies that learn how to do it, but my knowledge and skill gives me a certain amount of freedom to tweak the array and alter it to suit my needs.

With all that being said, try to think about this: what would happen if I ran into a pony and pinned them to a wall with this barrier, and then poured a massive surge of power into it? The answer is chunky salsa if I bother to try hard enough. Mind you, that's an absurd waste of arcane energy, but it's certainly possible.

They were lucky there weren't any walls behind them. As it stood, I'd just have to settle for an easy ring-out. All I had to do...was walk.

I began to meander towards them, head held high with pride as I went. I smiled at the remaining recruits and made a point of giving my shield another round of glances. My horn was glowing with raw power as I funneled more energy into my barrier, the dust and dirt at the base of it kicking up and whipping around me.

"I wouldn't recommend touching this!" I shouted over the minor noise the shield was starting to make. "Might rip your fur out! Now I'm gonna keep walking, and whatever happens happens!"

It was a shame they hadn't displayed a pattern that involved them having flexible minds. Upon losing their established plan, their teamwork suffered a critical failure. The earth ponies charged, likely an attempt to keep me far away from their unicorns, and the unicorns continued to fire volleys of spells at me. The spells didn't just bounce off my shield, they were knocked away with enough force to send them flying toward the walls of the training grounds, faster than the unicorns had fired them at me. The earth ponies, however, weren't quite as fortunate.

The first one to reach me reared up and brought his forehooves down as hard as he could on my shield. I knew exactly how that was going to turn out, and I quickly responded by dialing back the torque in my shield. The moment his hooves hit, they held him up for only an instant before my barrier yanked them right out from under him, causing his body to twist and get thrown off-balance. I watched him collapse forward, and the painful impact of his face, neck and armored side against my shield was accompanied by a crackling scraping sound against his armor, and a sound I really don't know how to describe when his face and neck touched it. How do you describe the tearing of fur?

As his weight settled against the shield, his body was spun around and his hindlegs tried to keep up, all in vain. No matter how much he attempted to correct his balance, there was no way he was going to stabilize himself unless he removed himself from my barrier. The end result was him being thrown off to one side in a haphazard tumble hard enough to toss him right out of the ring. I continued to walk while I watched him clutch at one of his forelegs in pain, the side of his armor having some nasty scratches on one side.

Well...I mean, I warned all of them.

One other earth pony made that exact same mistake before the other two saw it and backed off. The unicorns were still firing spells at me, but they were barely registering for me. They were all running out of ground, and the outcome was an inevitability. It only took one more minute before my shield forcibly ejected each of them from the ring.

"I believe that means I win, and you're all dead," I said while looking over to Barbut. "You've got your work cut out for you. They still haven't figured it out."

He walked over to me with a scowl. "I noticed. At least we know they were trained as well as they seemed when we picked 'em."

"True. Let's get the next group, this won't take long."

As much fun as it was for me to get a few shots in on the new recruits and thoroughly bruise their egos for a few minutes, I wanted to get to the point that mattered. While I found it strange that Barbut was holding Gadget back from joining the final group, I figured he probably had something special in mind for her, so I shrugged it off.

I gave them one minute to figure out the correct course of action. They did not succeed.

One by one, I grabbed each of them and roughly tossed them out of the ring as if they were dolls to be discarded. Toys to be tossed aside by a petulant and ungrateful child, one that never learned to cherish what they'd been given to play with. The kind you want to slap clean across the face with the side of your hoof when you hear them crying so loud they may as well be screaming bloody murder in the middle of the store.

Look, I really hate it when I have to put up with that shit, okay?

"I can't believe what I'm seeing," Barbut growled out as he walked out onto the field once more. "Not a single one of you could lay a single hoof on some soft, squishy noblemare!"

"I take offense to that, Barbut," I chimed in. "I like to think of myself as festively plump in all the right places, thank you very much."

He rolled his eyes and didn't find it necessary to give me a direct response. Instead, he walked up to Gadget, who had been dutifully standing at the sidelines, conspicuously separated from the rest of the group. With the way he was looking her up and down, I had a feeling that whatever he had planned for her, it was going to happen right that moment.

"Miss Steelmare," he started, practically hissing her name out. "Since you found yourself in such good shape that you thought you could get away with getting under someone's tail on my watch, I can only assume you think you're very clever. Maybe you can put some of that energy to use here instead!"

So that was his game. I wasn't going to say anything against it, since that would just undermine Gadget's position even further. Plus I could see what Barbut was doing. He wasn't taking any sides, but he was giving Gadget an opportunity that could also be a punishment if she fucked it up.

Once Gadget stepped into the ring, I dug my hooves in. Despite knowing I could take her no problem, some part of me found her size and presence intimidating. She was staring at me like she was trying to decipher a puzzle, a kind of stare I knew all too well from many, many nights spent with my fifth cup of coffee and a thick tome I needed to finish studying. Well...need is a strong word.

"I will repeat myself one last time, since all of you appear to lack the attention span necessary to take your instructor's words to heart," Barbut shouted from the sidelines. "Use your head! You have five minutes, starting now!"

I expected her to make a move immediately. Considering her lack of arcane aptitude, a bumrush would've made sense. It was her only option in this situation. Well, her only option if she planned on fighting me and completing her task.

Instead, she began to carefully step off to one side, moving towards my left. I only intended to give her one minute, since I couldn't risk showing favoritism, nor could I take it easy on her within that short amount of time. The moment she tried to step closer to me, I fired a bolt of magic directly at her neck. She managed to dodge it enough that it only grazed her fur. She took another step, and I immediately fired up another barrier, brighter and stronger than the last one. I wanted it to be as intimidating as possible.

My actions froze her in her tracks. Her eyes were wide and darting around, trying to find some kind of vulnerability, but I already knew she wouldn't find anything. The end result, once she realized there was no simple way of dealing with me, was a silent stand-off. Then she did something I didn't expect.

She bolted further to my left, running right out of the ring.

My focus immediately darted over to Barbut, who was already moving across the field. The other recruits were looking between us in confusion, but I could see the glimmer in Barbut's eye. He looked angry, beyond upset, but there was a glimmer of hope there. I already knew exactly where this was going.

"What is your major malfunction, coward?!"

Oof! Even Gadget flinched at the booming tone of his voice. I watched her step back, a hesitant backstep that only prompted him to step in closer to her. The rage in his eyes made him look like a rampaging minotaur, and I could tell Gadget was fighting the urge to either run away, or take a swing at him and then run away. Well, that was my guess, at least. Maybe I was projecting.

"I don't know which was worse. Watching you waffle around in the middle of a combat situation like a pony that's just begging someone to put her out of her misery," he said, turning to point at the white line in the dirt that marked the boundaries. "Or the fact that you, in some bizarre leap of logic that someone of sound mind like myself could never comprehend, decided that defying a direct order was a good idea!"

That was when Gadget made a mistake. At least, what I would consider a mistake in that situation. She opened her mouth.

"It was pointless to fight!" she stated, her voice tinged with desperation. "I stood no chance!"

"I did not give you permission to speak, recruit!"

"But she-!"

Barbut stomped his hoof hard enough to cause a tremor in the ground, nothing serious, but you could feel it in your hooves. It was that special kind of earth pony-quality tremor that rumbled through your hooves and into the bones of your legs. Felt kinda good on my bad leg actually, I could've gone for another one. Did I mention he's an earth pony?

"Drop and give me fifty, recruit! RIGHT NOW!!"

I could see the frustration on Gadget's face even from where I was. When you hang out with the Royal Guard as often as I do, you learn to tell the difference between a stoic face, and a stoic face that's trying real hard to hold something back. A life on the streets didn't tend to make someone very good at being yelled at, and Gadget was no exception. I considered it a testament to her character that it only took her a couple seconds to drop down and get straight to work.

Barbut glanced back at me out of the corner of his eye. I wasn't sure exactly what he wanted from me, or if it meant anything at all, but I could see his smile. He was having fun.

He returned his attention to Gadget when she hit her twentieth push-up. "You're going to explain something to me, recruit. You're gonna explain it real clear, and real concise."

"Yes sir!"

"What was your reason for fleeing the exercise and disobeying a direct order?"

Gadget huffed and continued to quickly push her way through her punishment. "I had no chance of winning, sir!"

Barbut lowered his head to get closer to her. "You think that justifies you not doing what you're told?!"

"No sir!"

"Then you'd be wrong!!"

Gadget paused a second after he spoke, staring at the ground. "...What?"

"DID I TELL YOU TO STOP?!" Barbut roared, looming over Gadget's near-prone form.

Gadget immediately went right back to her exercise, her armor seeming to do nothing to impede her pace. That didn't really surprise me, considering the shape she was in. When you take that good care of yourself, doing push-ups with some extra weight is usually the standard.

Barbut lowered down until he was almost right in Gadget's ear. "You sure you didn't run because you were afraid, recruit? You didn't even try!"

"No sir!"

"I think you're lying!" he barked, straightening up and marching around her. "I think you saw that tiny mare with her big shiny horn ready to blow you to bits and you froze like the coward you are!"

"I'm not that small, Barbut!" I rebuked quickly.

"Can it, civvie!" he shouted back at me, his focus entirely on Gadget despite my interruption.

He was like a predator, with how he stalked around her, watching her finish up her punishment. His eyes hadn't moved away from Gadget the entire time, no doubt just so he could count just in case she had the gall to try and skip a few. It wouldn't have been the first time a recruit had tried to put one over on their instructor.

"You care to repeat that, street-mare?! Care to explain to us again why you decided to tuck your tail and run away?!"

Gadget, having finished her final push-up, stood up at attention once more. "I-"

"I did not tell you to stand, recruit!!" he roared at her, getting close enough that he had to look nearly straight up at her to get in her face. "Continue!"

"I saw no reason to make an attempt, sir!" she said, only sounding faintly out of breath. Not surprising, considering how physically fit she was. "I was alone with no way to incapacitate or kill her! If this was a real situation, it would have been suicide!"

Barbut stepped back and glared into her eyes. "Sounds to me like you thought you'd be scared to die if this was a live encounter. Am I right, recruit?"

Gadget's gaze stayed straight forward, pointedly trying to avoid looking down at him. "No, sir!"

"Are you saying that because you think it's the right answer, recruit?! You lying to me?!"

Her eyes darted in my direction for an instant, then quickly returned to staring straight ahead. "...Yes, sir."

"Then you give it to me straight, recruit," he growled, straightening his posture. "Were you, or were you not afraid?"

"Yes, sir! I was afraid sir!" she stated loud and clear, adjusting her posture to stand straighter as well.

Barbut remained silent for a time, stock-still where he stood, his eyes searching her for any sign of weakness. It was a solid half-minute before he finally broke his silence. A loud, piercing laugh that echoed over the yard, with several of the other Royal Guards watching the exchange joining in. I couldn't help my amused smile, but I refrained from joining in. Gadget certainly surprised me, let alone Barbut.

"She's the only one that figured it out! Fuck me!" he shouted amidst his laughter.

I took the time to watch the other recruits on the other side of the field. They all seemed confused, it was plain as day on their faces, but at the very least they stayed at attention. There were a few occasions where I'd seen them start to get relaxed and cozy watching this kind of thing play out, and I swear Barbut has eyes in the back of his head for that shit.

Barbut calmed himself quickly enough, though his smile remained as he pointed at Gadget's chest. "Sometimes fear is the correct response, recruit. But only if you're in control of it, and not the other way around."

I grinned wide. "I know how to pick 'em, don't I?"

"Yeah, yeah, get any more smug and your head will be enough to let you float around the world," he responded, turning away from Gadget to walk out into the middle of the field once more. "Listen up, you ignorant, dim-witted morons!"

I chose that moment to go ahead and step off the field. My generously-offered services were no longer needed, so that meant I could get something to drink and watch all of this unfold. It wasn't anything I hadn't seen before, though I got the added bonus of being able to see how this went with a group of recruits where someone actually figured out the lesson plan, even to such a small extent.

One of the guards had a bottle of water to offer me, and he walked around the recruits and observers to bring it to me. Some tall, stocky stallion, looked like he worked out. Kind of my type, but I didn't make a habit of taking the guards to bed. Reputation notwithstanding, it'd be really awkward to put my brother through that.

"Out of all the ponies in this batch of pond-scum that we dare to consider recruits, the one we scraped out of a gutter was the only one out of all of you who actually did what she was told to do," Barbut explained in his usual elevated, overwhelming tone. "She used her head! You were all told more than once to do so, but instead you all fell back on your training. You all failed."

Some of them looked indignant. No doubt most of them wanted to say something to defend themselves, but there were a few among them that I could see from where I was standing. Just a few, but enough. They were the ones whose facial features had changed just enough that I could tell they were taking the lesson to heart better than most of their peers. That was a good sign.

"The Royal Guard are not like the police, nor are we like any other branch of the Equestrian military. We are given the greatest honor. The honor of standing as representatives of Princess Celestia, and following her will! That means that we function differently, we think differently," he continued, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the line of recruits. "And if you cannot learn this, you have no place among our ranks!"

The other guards that had come to watch had begun to mutter amongst themselves. This was fairly standard practice whenever Barbut got to mess with new recruits, and the others always gave him shit for it. He was one of those passionate believers, the ones that believed in the purity and good will of Princess Celestia above all else. Not everyone shared his beliefs, so of course they took jabs at him over it. He tended to take it in stride.

"You all executed progressively more intricate tactics against your target, but your tunnel-vision, your reliance on your training, blinded you all to what mattered more than anything else," he said, pointing to me. "You never had a chance against her to begin with. You had no ranged weaponry, you did not have the advantage of a surprise attack, and you had no nullstone, not to mention your armor was of no benefit against her. You would've been better off naked, because at least then you could have run away faster."

"Sir!" one of the recruits shouted, stepping forward. "Permission to speak!"

Barbut regarded him with a frown, but motioned to him with a hoof. "Go ahead, recruit. You have something you want to say?"

"Were we set up for failure from the start?"

"Yes, you were," Barbut said, his scowl slowly turning into a toothy grin. "But only if you decided to follow my orders."

The stallion seemed even more confused. "...We were supposed to defy orders from a superior, sir?"

Barbut shook his head. "Don't take it the wrong way, recruit. You were supposed to follow my orders, but only if those orders didn't conflict with the scenario you found yourself in. You were in a no-win situation, under orders to throw yourself against a wall and die in the process. Do you value your life, recruit?"

"Of course, sir!"

Barbut stepped in towards him. "Then why wasn't your first thought to retreat?"

"Because we were-...."

I could see the gears turning now. I mean, many of them probably figured it out already, but the point remains.

"Because you were what, recruit? Because you were following orders?" Barbut asked. "Maybe you weren't taking it seriously and putting yourself in the situation presented because it was just a training exercise?"

None of them had much of anything to say to that. The answer was plain as day to everyone there. The Royal Guard was strange like that, encouraging the open-minded individual thinking needed to make decisions on whether or not to follow your orders.

"Having fun, Barbut?"

All the Royal Guards stiffened and stood at attention, and one of them near one of the other entrances to the yard called out with a booming voice.

"Captain Shining Armor on the yard!"

Author's Notes:

I guess they're just gonna come out when they come out.