Commander Twilight Sparkle walked alongside her counterpart as they made their way to Princess Celestia’s study, the Princess had told the first guard they came across to have Celestia informed that herself and the Commander would be waiting for her in her study. The guard has saluted before going to carry out the order, the Royal Guard would fine the Princess of the Sun faster than the two of them would as the guard probably knew where she was already unlike the two mares.

Even though Twilight knew the study well she still let the Princess semi-take the lead as she was still a guest in this land, no matter how similar to her homeland it was and it was also out of respect for the young Alicorn. Twilight had already had a bit of respect for her counterpart just for having become a Princess, but that was more a courteously then anything else. Now though Twilight had true respect for the Princess for being able to drag her out of the dark hole she had fallen into despite knowing very little of whom the unicorn mare was and only the Major had been able to do that after knowing Twilight for months.

Twilight glanced at the Alicorn beside her out of the corner of her eye, she defiantly deserved the title of Princess of Friendship for knowing how to help her and Twilight made a mental note to be careful around her as well when it came to anything political as though she have only a few similarities between the two of them, Twilight knew that key aspects of her personality either were present in the princess or had evolved from them. It wouldn’t be too difficult to push the Princess into being just like herself. Twilight would need to make sure that didn’t happen as she didn’t want the Princess to live the life she had been forced to.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the door to Celestia’s Study and after a knock they entered the empty room to wait. Both of them found a seat and got comfortable for what would most likely be a short wait. While Twilight was used to waiting, or at least had the discipline to not show her boredom it seemed the Princess did not share in that skill as after a few moment she spoke up. “So…..how do you deal with the headache that that alcohol of yours gives you? I only got a few drinks of it and it felt like a dragon was using my head as a drum the next morning.”

Twilight couldn’t help smiling at this. “Practice, I’m not a lightweight when it comes to drinking so I don’t get drunk so easily and when I do I can ignore the headache.” She said.

The Princess nodded and looked thoughtful. “I guess that means I could end up that way to if I drank as often as you.” She said. “Though I rarely drink and from what I can tell nothing in Equestria has that fast of a reaction as your whiskey.”

Twilight chuckled. “No, the normal drinks in Equestria are like water compared to Nightfall which was why I needed to figure out how to make my own as soon as possible or be forever without proper drink.”

The Princess looked at the other mare. “You really enjoy drinking don’t you?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes I do, it helps me relax, I don’t normally get drunk mind you, and that is usually only once a month just to have a good time or when stress is starting to get to me.”

The Princess nodded at this and before she could ask anything else the door opened to admit a slightly concerned looking Celestia who looked over the two mares before relaxing so slightly that it would be missed by one not used to watching ponies as if their life depended on it.

“It is good to see you well Commander, you had us worried when you disappeared.” The older Alicorn said as the serine mask returned to her face she wore for everyone though normally not in her study. Twilight smiled ever so slightly. So you see me as a player or a pawn, do you Princess? Well I can assure you I am no pawn.

As Celestia made her way to her customary seat she was followed by two others who Twilight hadn’t been able to see as they had been around the side of the door but when she saw who it was the mare couldn’t help stiffening slightly.

Shinning Armor and Cadence made their way to the other unoccupied seats and Twilight couldn’t help tracking Shinning’s movement. She knew he wasn’t her brother but at the same time she wanted to leap forward and hug him and thank the stars he was ok and apologize for what happened. The only thing that snapped her out of it was the Princess placing a hoof on the unicorn’s should to ground her. With that small gesture Twilight was able to push back her emotions and allow her logical mind reaffirm itself.

Twilight said and looked at the Princess, nodding in thanks and the Princess smiled back before allowing her hoof to drop back to her seat where it had been. When the unicorn looked away she saw Captain Armor looking at her with both confusion and amazement. Twilight smiled and nodded her head. “Greetings once more Captain Armor, I must apologize for leaving so suddenly earlier. I had….something personal to take care of.” She said truthfully.

The Captain nodded. “It’s alright, Twilly was able to explain the basics of what happened and I must say it is….both confusing and a pleasure to meet you Commander Sparkle.” He said formally.

Twilight nodded once more. “Like wise Captain.”

“Shinning Armor, the Commander is the special consultant I mentioned on our walk here. She has agreed to lend us assistance in a very dire matter Equestria has found itself in.” Celestia said formally from her seat once introductions were done.

The Captain nodded. “Yes I heard some of the guards talking about some sort of incident that happened in Ponyville and I was concerned but Twilly seems fine so is it really as bad as you make it sound?” He asked.

Celestia nodded. “Unfortunately it is, Equestria is facing an old enemy very different then it has faced before and you’re Sister and her friends may not be able to handle this threat like they have the others. It is why I asked for the Commander’s aide as she showed a particular set of….skills that makes her an asset against this threat as if not for her we most likely would be searching for Twilight’s whereabouts and hope we weren’t too late.” Celestia said and the Princess shivered slightly at being reminded of what happened at the party while Twilight remained impassive.

The Captained eyed the unicorn. “Well then I suppose I should thank you but may I ask what it was you can do that my sister cannot? She is very skilled and powerful. And her friends and her have done some of the most amazing things in Equestrian history.” He said with a bit of pride for his little sister, Twilight had to push her emotions back down.

Twilight looked at Celestia to see if she should explain or not. Celestia gave the barest of nods. “It would be better if you explained both your skills and what happened in Ponyville Commander.”

Twilight nodded and looked back at the Captain before removing her sunglasses so he could see her scars clearly. “Does your sister have a confirmed kill count of four hundred and thirty six?” Twilight said and the Captain’s eyes widened and Twilight tilted her head in thought. “Actually I should say four hundred and fifty-one thanks to the ponies who attacked the party.” She said and looked at the Captain’s shocked face as well as Cadence’s.

“You….you have killed? That many? Ponies?” Cadence asked hesitantly as a look of horror spread across her face.

Twilight nodded. “Confirmed anyway, the number is probably much higher but you don’t count them unless you are 100% sure it was you that killed them and that they are actually dead.” She said. “I am a soldier, I am trained to take lives and I am both ready and willing to do so when necessary and I will not hesitate to do so.” She said.

“I am trained in hand to hand combat as well as many different types of firearms and have an accuracy of almost 100%. I am an explosives expert and am very skilled with blades. I am trained as a medic and have studied medicine of all the races on Equus so I know both how to save lives as well as take them. In short I am a professional soldier and will see my objective through to the end and right now my objective is aiding your country against this threat till such time it has been eliminated or I find a way home.” She said. “If you need confirmation of my skill level you need only ask the civilians of Ponyville as they have seen me work.”

The room was silent after Twilight was done speaking as the full weight of what she explained of herself sunk into the gathered ponies, the Princess had already heard part of this information and had witnessed the mare in action so the only part that affected her was just the number of “confirmed’ kills and the fact the unicorn was confident it was far higher than that and the fact she spoke of her skill with a hint of pride in her voice.

Celestia already had some idea these facts though not to this extent but she had been alive for a long time and seen war before so she was the least effected but her concern was for the Captain and his wife whose only real experience with any major violence short of monster attacks was the Changeling Invasion of their wedding and dealing with Sombra in the Crystal Empire, which was only a fraction of what this simple looking unicorn seems to have experienced in her life.

Celestia, the Princess and Twilight remained quiet as they let the two of them process what they had been told. The Captain was the first to recover after about ten minutes he looked at Celestia. “What….What situation is so dire that we would need….”He looked at Twilight who saw with a neutral face. “Her?”

Celestia sighed and began to explain about the Purifiers both who they were and what they were capable of and how they are the reason the Badlands exist in the first place as well as their hatred for Alicorn as they saw them as creatures of chaos like Discord. She covered everything about the group not leaving any detail out so the two would understand why they needed the Commander’s help to fight them.

The Captain was quiet for a long while again as he closed his eyes to think and Cadence just looked between Celestia, Twilight and the Princess as if not sure what to say or to who. Twilight couldn’t blame her, it was a lot to take in, both about the purifiers and the facts about a mare who looked almost exactly like the Princess she had helped raise.

The Captain finally opened his eyes and put a hoof around his wife to help calm her as he knew she was bothered by all of this before he looked at the other three ponies in the room. “OK, so what do we do?” He asked.

Twilight replaced her sunglasses and smiled slightly, the Captain was just like Shinning Armor. “I already have a full proof plan in place for this phase in operations.” She said and all but the Princess looked a there expectantly, the Princess who was what coming and also knew the Commander was going to have a bit of fun as she seemed to always want to do.

“We do nothing.” She said, this caused even Celestia to blink in confusion.

“Commander, could you please explain how this is a plan to deal with the threat?” She asked coolly but Twilight was used to her Celestia and had been trained by Equestrian politics so she could see the large Alicorn was very confused and concerned but hid it very well.

“Well we don’t know how many of them there are, nor where they are or what their strength is so if were to simple go charging off in a random direction we would most likely get our asses handed to us on a silver platter. So we do nothing and wait till they make a move and take a prisoner. Once we have one or two of them we can learn all we need to know about them and from there we can make plans.” She said.

The Captain nodded. “It’s a good plan but if they are as zealot as Celestia explained I don’t think they will tell us anything.”

Twilight smiled. “Oh, you leave that little task to me and I’ll have all the Intel we will need.” She said and the room became noticeably colder to the gathered ponies but nothing seemed to have changed. “I don’t plan to be idle for the time being though, I plan to work a bit with the Royal Guard and give them a small bit of training to make them more effective if that is alright with you Celestia?” She asked looking at the Alicorn and ignoring the Captain and Cadences eyes as they widened at how Twilight used the princess’ name. Twilight counterpart already knew the reason for it so she didn’t react as it had ben expected.

“Yes I think that would be much appreciated Commander and I’ll make arrangements for you to be able to do so.” Celestia said calmly.

Twilight nodded. “Thank you kindly.” She said and looked at the gathered ponies. “I look forward to working with you against this threat.” She said formally.

“Yes well….I look forward to working with you as well.” The Captain said just as formally. He then looked at Celestia. “If there is nothing else?” He asked.

“Actually there is one more thing I needed to discuss with you all.” She said and the gathered ponies looked on expectantly as her horn lite up and she opened a draw in her desk behind her and pulled out four gold slips of paper and passed them to each of the four ponies. “You four are her by cordially invited to this year’s Grand Galloping Gala.” She said with a smile. “And Twilight I’ll send some more tickets along with you for your friends.” She said to her former student.

The Captain and Cadence nodded respectfully and gave their thanks while the Princess reacted with excitement of all things while Twilight’s eyes widened slightly behind her sunglasses. “Why the hell am I invited?” She blurted getting strange looks for the word she used as it was unfamiliar to the ponies, except the Princess who had heard the Commander use the word before.

“Well I figured since you are technically an ambassador as well as helping Equestria I would invite you as a courteous.” Celestia said with a small smile.

Twilight blinked and worked her jaw. “Ah…um…ok. “was all she said, she hadn’t expected this nor wanted it as she tried to avoid the Gala if she could help it for it had to be one of the most terrifying places in all of Equus and she would rather be dropped into the middle of a Federal Army base in just her hide and both arms disabled then go to the Gala. The fact the Princess was excited to go had to be the strange things to Twilight.

The military mare had used to think the Gala was just a really boring party but after becoming a player in The Game of Houses she had learned it was one of the most dangerous fields of battle the mare had ever set foot in. The Gala was where The Game was at its peak and maneuvers that would affect the nation in the coming year took place. Ill prepared ponies had been ground to dust at the Gala and there was no way of knowing who would be walking away with power and who went home as a pawn, She had witnessed firsthand major power shifts as the ponies at the Gala went from Players to pawns and pawns to Players in seconds and then back within the hour.

With the invitations given and the details of the plan laid out the meeting was ended and Twilight left with the Princess and waited patiently as she talked to the Captain and they made arrangements to meet up for dinner that night before they went their separate ways. Twilight walked alongside the Princess as a quadruped as she didn’t really have anything to do without paper or other EDF duties to attend to.

“Oh this is so exciting!” The Princess said. “You got an invitation to the Gala! We need to talk to Rarity about getting you a dress; I wonder what she will make for you.” She said as she scratched her chin with a hoof.

“I already have a dress uniform so I’ll wear that, but thank you for the offer Princess.” She said politely.

“Oh? Well Rarity will probably insist on making you one as she won’t think a uniform is very fashionable.” The Princess said.

“I think she will consider my Rarity is the one who made it.” Twilight said. “And so far I haven’t seen anything to suggest they are different people.”

The Princess thought for a moment. “Yes I suppose that is true.” She said as they walked. “Anyways is there anything you want to do while we are here in Canterlot?”

Twilight shrugged. “Don’t really care, I’m just following your lead as I have nothing to do till the enemy makes their next move.”

“Oh….well…it’s around lunch time so how about we go to the dining room?” The Princess suggested.

Twilight smiled. “Actually I know just the place to go as it’s a favorite of the EDF and I’m sure it exists here as well if you will indulge a simple soldier’s request?” She asked.

The Princess looked at her for a moment then shrugged. “Sure, I’d be happy to see somewhere the EDF thinks so highly of.” She said with a smile and Twilight took the lead as they headed for the city. She walked the familiar path from the castle gate through the Canterlot side streets till she came to a simple looking building with a sign hanging above the door and the Princess glanced up at it. “The Ivory Wheel? I don’t think I have ever heard of it and I’ve lived in Canterlot most of my life.” She said.

Twilight chuckled. “Well I don’t think it is somewhere you’d usually hang out but I can assure you it is a favorite of every EDF soldier stationed in Canterlot.” She said as she pushed the door open and entered the familiar looking bar, well familiar in that it had the same design but lacked the EDF soldiers enjoying their off duty hours.

Twilight breathed in the familiar scents of the bar and took in the exact same atmosphere. She looked back at the Princess who looked around at the place. “Somehow I’m not surprised it’s a bar.” She said and Twilight laughed.

“Hey soldiers love a good place to get a drink when off duty and this is one of the best places to get it.” She said patting the Alicorn’s back before she walked deeper into the bar and found a seat. And the Princess joined her. Within moment the yellow Pegasus mar who was the owner and bartender arrived and blinked in surprise as she saw the Princesses. “Oh my, I never thought’s I’d have Royalty in my humble establishment.” She said and quickly smoothed out her apron and tried to make herself as presentable as possible. Twilight smiled as it was just like her as one of the reasons the place was popular is the bartender always did her best to make all patrons feel welcome and at ease.

The Bartender looked at the unicorn beside the princess and did a double take and Twilight knew that her sharp eyes easily saw how similar she looked to the Princess, but just like the bartender back home she didn’t bring it up and instead smile. “Hello and welcome to the Ivory Wheel.” She said looking between the two of them. “What can I get you both, we have some of the finest selections of cider from around Equestria and our food is highly praised.” She said in friendly professionalism. Twilight had only seen the mare off balance once and that was when the EDF raised the bar to arrest a group of ponies who had made the grave error of assaulting two Changeling Workers who were part of the EDF, that was the night Equestria first learned that the EDF took care of its own and that attacking one member would bring the full weight of the EDF crashing down on you.

“I’ll have a glass of Sweet Apple Acres Cider as well as a hayburger and a side of hayfries.” Twilight said and the Princess looked over the menu before ordering the same but with just apple juice rather than cider.

The bartender nodded before she headed off to the back to deliver the orders to the kitchen staff and returned a moment later with their drinks. “If you need anything don’t hesitate to holler.” She said as she placed the drinks before them and made her way to the other end of the bar to give them privacy.

The Princess took a sip of her drink and blinked. “This is really good.” She said and Twilight chuckled once more.

“Yeah Glorious Dawn gets the high quality stuff.” Twilight said and sipped her own drink, it was no whiskey but it was passable. “There is a reason this place is popular with the lads.” She said as she turned and faced the rest of the bar, her cider held in her magic beside her.

The Princess copied her and looked around at the place. “This place does seem nice.” She said after a few minutes and Twilight nodded and they lapsed into comfortable silence as they waited for their food. It wasn’t long till the food arrived as the bar had some of the best service in Canterlot, though Twilight might be a bit biased as she either rate in the mess hall, this bar or Dot’s Diner as they were the only places she really knew that had good food in Canterlot.

The two ponies began to eat and Twilight marveled not for the first time at how her Alicorn self ate and shook her head with a roll of her eyes as she ate more neatly, though faster. “So can you tell me what it’s like? Being a soldier I mean.” The Princess asked.

Twilight paused in her eating and thought. “It’s hard work.” She said finally as she sat back in her stool. “It’s dirty and you have to do some unpleasant things sometimes. The hours are long and there is always the risk of you never coming back from a mission. It can also be difficult relating to civilians when you’ve served for a long time as military life and civilian life is very different and it can be hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it.” She said and took a sip of her cider.

“However there is a sense of accomplishment when you complete a mission and do your duty well and you know the once you serve with have your back and you can count on them to be there when you need them. You know that when the chips are down you can stand ready to face whatever is thrown at you and your fellow soldiers will be right there with you to face it as well. “She looked at the Princess. “The bonds formed under fire are some of the strongest ever and nearly impossible to break, though makes sense when your life is literally in the hooves of the one beside you.”

She looked back at her drink. “A lot of people just assume we sit around waiting for the next monster attack or some form of attack but really we are always training and improving our skills to make sure we are ready. “She said. “And we don’t just deploy for monster attacks, we go out for any disaster that strikes Equestria to provide aide whether it be medical or digging someone out of a building that suffered damage from some disaster. The EDF stands ready to protect the nation from all threats both foreign and domestic and we do, whether to be fighting off a monster attack or simply handing out food and medical supplies and helping rebuild after the attack the EDF is there for the people of Equestria ready to lend a hoof. Like is aid it’s hard work and sometimes a soldier is awake for hours on end but I don’t think anyone of them would trade it away just so they can experience that feeling of seeing the relief on people’s faces of people when the EDF arrives on site with everything from food and medicine, to blankets and clothing and even toys for the foals or the look on a family’s face when an EDF soldier informs them that their family member has been found after getting lost in the mountains or the woods or wherever.” She smiled. “Nothing beats that feeling and I don’t think anyone in the EDF would trade it away even if the hours are hard and the risks high.”

She looked back at the Princess and saw her staring at her. “What?” Twilight asked.

“It’s just; it sounds amazing what you built.” She said. “When I first met you I thought you were a violent and disrespectful mare who didn’t care for anything but what you wanted to do but…while you do have those traits I know I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.” She said with a smile. And lightly pushed the Soldier’s shoulder. “You are a very good pony Commander Sparkle, one of the best I have ever met.”

“Eh, I’m not that good; I just do what I have to.” She said. “I am a simple soldier, nothing more, nothing less and that’s all I want to be.” She said with a nod.

The Princess smiled. “Well then you are a good soldier.” She said before she returned to eating and after a moment Twilight did as well.

Author's Notes:

Well we get to hear about what life as an EDF soldier is like as well as what sort of task the EDF is deployed to handle and we learn a lot about the Gala as well.