After their lunch Commander Twilight and the Princess made their way back to the castle with no real plans till the Princess met with her brother for dinner that night, she had invited the Commander to join them but she had respectfully decline siting it was her family and Twilight would be just a third wheel. She then had to explain what that phrase meant.

As they neared the castles main gate Twilight automatically glanced to the side of the street at the large mansion that sat there with its large wall and fancy gate. “That’s the third time I’ve seen you glance at that house today, do you know the pony who lives there?” The Princess asked as they walked.

Twilight shook her head. “No, I have no idea who lives there, it’s just that place isn’t there in my homeland.” She said.

“Oh? What is there?” The Princess asked, ever the student.

“A wall.” Twilight asked simply and the Princess looked at the other mare as they passed through the gate and Twilight could tell she was expecting more and wouldn’t really drop it so Twilight sighed. “Remember when I told you about what Tirek did?” She asked and some of the color drained from the Princess’ face as she nodded. “The EDF lost two hundred and fifty thousand good soldiers in just four days, entire bases wiped out with no survivors, garrisons once fully staffed with reserve soldiers waiting in the wings, staffed with what could barely be called a skeleton crew.” The EDF collected and identified everyone we could though some are simple listed as missing in action, presumed dead as we either never found them or they are lost among the many bodies that remain unidentified.”

Twilight sighed once more and stopped in the court yard as trying to walk and explain wasn’t going to work, this was too important to be treated as a simple conversation. “It took a little over a month to find and identified those we could and return them to their families but….it wasn’t enough, not for what they had done, not the price they had paid in defense of the county.” She looked at the Princess who was listening with a solemn expression. “It was Princess Luna’s suggestion, it seemed so obvious I can’t figure out why no one thought of it till then, why not build a memorial to those that fell saving lives?”

Twilight nodded. “It was such a simple idea and we all were quick to agree. Some noble, I was too busy overseeing the EDF reconstruction efforts as well as gathering the names to find out who, donated the land where that mansion stands, it had been destroyed during the battle. I still don’t know if the noble did it out of the kindness of their heart or because it would be cheaper to build a new house else wear and frankly I don’t care. I help plan and overseer the construction of the memorial.”

Twilight looked back towards the large house hidden by the wall but that wasn’t what she was seeing. “A simple wall was decided on, made of the highest quality obsidian that could be found, polished to a perfect sheen and three powerful preservation enchantments placed on it so it will remain forever. Upon the wall are the names and ranks of every single dead and missing soldier as well as the few Royal Guards who died aiding the EDF in the final battle. “She said. “Most of the memorial is taken up by a garden made up of different types of flowers in no real pattern, the seeds were simple tossed into the soil and allowed to grow where they landed, a symbol as the soldiers come from all different walks of life and personalities and skills.”

“There is a path that runs from the street, through the garden and up to the wall; it runs right past the only of item in the memorial.” She looked back at the Princess. “A raised platform with what remains of an EDF main battle tank.” She pauses a moment as she thought how to best describe the tank. “Think of a heavily armored cannon that is self-propelled and crewed by three people.” She explained. “Anyways one of them, Hammer Two was what it was called, had been ordered to fall back to the castle to help defend it and the crew disobeyed the order as they had found foals hiding in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, they had been separated from their evacuation group and hide in the only place they knew in the city.”

“Hammer two refused to abandon them and they gave their lives so the foals could escape out the back of the school and get to safety.” Twilight finished and smiled. “They fired a shot right into Tirek’s face from point blank when he picked up the tank in his stolen magic, defiant right up to the end.” She said and the smile fell as she sighed. “All of them were every one we lost in that bloody war refused to surrender or give up, it’s how the EDF got its motto.” Twilight said.

“What’s the EDF’s motto?” The Princess asked gently.

“To the last.” “Twilight said smiling once more. “It means that the EDF will defend the nation to the last soldier, as long as at least one still stands they will fight on and never surrender.” Twilight said her voice swelling with pride as she explained.

“That’s sounds beautiful.” A voice said behind the two mares and they both spun and found the Princess’ friends as well as Celestia and Luna standing not far off, Twilight had failed to notice them during her explanation of the memorial. “I wish we could see it. “Rarity said continuing with what she had been saying.

The gathered ponies looked at Twilight as if their opinions of her were shifting once more. Twilight wasn’t really sure what to say and was thankful the Princess saved her from having to do so. “Girls! What are you doing here?” She asked stepping forward.

“Well we all heard you got invited to Canterlot for some meeting and we thought we’d come and keep you company surgercube.” Applejack said. “Didn’t expect to see you and the Commander hanging out though.” She said eying said mare.

Twilight shrugged. “Without the EDF to have to manage I don’t really have much to do and I was showing the Princess here a favorite place of the EDF in Canterlot.” She explained.

The Princess nodded. “Yeah, I had to admit despite being a bar it was a rather nice place.” She said and her friends all started at her.

“You went to a bar?” Rainbow asked. “And liked it there?” The Princes nodded hesitantly and Rainbow looked between the Princess and the Soldier. “I think your unicorn self is rubbing off on you egghead, you might want to be careful” she said and Twilight scowled at her.

“You two do realize I was just like her before everything happened to me right?” She asked in annoyance and the mares blinked and looked at the Princess with concern.

“Wait, you mean to tell up that you and Twilight were the same at one point?” Rarity asked.

Twilight wished she could take back what she had said as she didn’t want to cause the Princess’ friends to be wary of her but it was too late so might as well explain. “Yes, from what I have gathered me and her shared the exact same history right up to a certain point where it diverges, that being somewhere around when Trixie had the Alicorn Amulet as that was the last point in time we had in common.” Twilight explained. “She became a princess and I became a soldier.”

Just as she had predicted the Princess friends looked concerned and weary, well besides Pinkie Pie but predicting her reaction is like trying to eat soup with a fork. “Come on girls, its Twilight, she wouldn’t hurt a fly!” Pinkie Pie said, whether out of concern for how the others would end up treating the Princess, or just not wanting anyone sad Twilight didn’t know but whatever it was Pinkie Pie literally appearing from behind Twilight and put her hooves around both her and the Princess. “These two couldn’t be more different if one was a Pegasus and the other an earth pony.” She said and pulled both mares close so their faces were side by side allowing the others to see the differences between their faces. One unmarked and friendly with eyes that shone with the light of a scholar with a look at surprised at suddenly being moved around by the pink pony, while the other was scared and harden by years of military life whose eyes were filled with a look of defiance and determination and whose face showed a surprises and an urge to fight do to being surprised.

“See?” The party pony proclaimed and the other mares relaxed as they could see that Pinkie was right, both Twilight and the Princess were basically opposites in almost every way, at least as far as they could see. With that Pinkie nodded and released the two ponies and bounced back to the group and Twilight noticed she was wearing her mirrored sunglasses, when the hell did she take those?

Twilight rubbed the bridge of her muzzle as she filed it away into the Pinkie Pie file and held out a hoof. “Can I have my sunglasses back please?” She asked and Pinkie turned back to face her no longer wearing them.

“You already have them silly.” She said and giggled and Twilight noticed that at some point between now and when she had noticed them missing everything had become slightly tinted, despite the fact the party mare was at least three meters away. Twilight just rubbed her temples to try and suppress the minor headache she was getting. At least the others seemed to be getting their own headaches from Pinkies antics, Twilight suspected that was just how the pink pony planed it as it defused what would have become a very bad long term situation for the Princess.

It was at this point Celestia decided to speak as she and Luna approached the gathered ponies. “As much as I don’t wish to interrupt I wanted to tell the Commander that I have gathered a few Royal Guards for you to train if you are ready.” Celestia said.

Twilight nodded, glad for the distraction from the Princess’ friends wanting to compare the two of them. “Lead the way.” She said gesturing with a hoof.

Princess Twilight Sparkle followed Princess Celestia along with the Commander and her friends to the Royal Guard training room. She was both curious and concerned to see how the unicorn was going to teach the Royal Guard to fight as. Curious as she wanted to know more about the mare and the EDF as well as her version of Equestria, and concerned as she had seen the mare fight on two separate occasions and it could only be describe as brutal.

As they neared the room Twilight saw the Commander switch to what she referred to as “biped mode” and clasp her hands behind her back, Twilight had learned the commander referred to her front hooves as hands when walking on two legs. She was more used to seeing the Commander walk like this then her friends but it was still strange to see a pony walking like that and she suspected that was one of the reason the unicorn did it so often, she had a very strange sense of humor at times.

When they entered to room they found a group of the Royal Guard, both full guards and trainees gathers, Twilight assumed they had heard about the new training some of them would be receiving and were curious. As she looked over the gathered ponies she saw that Shinning Armor and Cadence were also there, most likely to see what sort of training the Commander was going to give the guards as well.

Twilight glanced at the Commander who though she was looking at Shinning with some sadness she didn’t seem to be on the verge of another breakdown. The Commander noticed her looking and nodded that she was ok and Twilight smiled before making her way over to her brother and his wife.

“Shinning! Cadence!” She said happily, she hadn’t gotten a chance to rally talk to them do to the meeting with Celestia and both of them needing to get settler into their room so she was happy to see them.

Cadenced seemed to have recovered from hearing about the Commander’s skills, Twilight had to admit she was a bit disturbed as well but she had spent enough time around the mare to have been more prepared for it and after hearing a bit of what she had had to deal with Twilight could somewhat understand.

“Twilight.” Cadence said with a smile as the purple Alicorn neared and stood before her old foalsitter.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!” They both said in unison as they went through the motions.

“So that’s what that looks like.” Twilight heard the commander say and turned to see the unicorn watching them intently from behind her sunglasses. “I honestly wondered how that looked to other people.”

Cadences lost a bit of her good cheer as the Commander spoke and Twilight guessed she was completely comfortable around her. “So you do the same thing?” Twilight asked out of curiosity.

The Commander nodded. “With my Cadence? Yeah, when I meet her when I’m not on duty mind you.” The Commander said. “Though we haven’t done it often since…..well you know.” The Commander said as the sadness around her returned.

Twilight nodded in understanding. “I have to admit I think it would be interesting to see you go through the dance.” She said with a smile, it would be interesting to see the battle hardened mare do something so carefree.

“Maybe someday, for now I have a job to do.” The Commander said changing the subject suddenly and Twilight blinked till she noticed Cadence had been about to ask a question and it was most likely going to be about what the commander said about not doing the dance since something happened.

Twilight moved to stand beside the training ring alongside her friends, brother and the Princess who stayed to observe the training. At one end of the ring stood ten Royal Guard in their gold armor and based on how they looked they appeared to be veterans.

They stared with a bit of surprise as the Commander walked into the ring, still on two legs. The Commander stopped in the middle of the ring and looked at the guards for a few moments. “I am Commander Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force and as of right now, your asses belong to me.” She said pointed at her chest with a thumb before reaching up to remover her sunglasses. “And I am going on record to say you are the most pathetic looking ponies I have ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on.”

The guards scowled at her as the mare folded her sunglasses. “Catch Princess.” She tossed them to Twilight who caught them in her magic, as well as the cap the Commander tossed over before looking back at the guards. “I’d like to ask you all a question, what is the purpose of the “Royal Guard?” I mean honestly, you lot probably couldn’t even fight your way out of a wet paper bag.” She said and the scowls grew.

“What is she doing? I thought she was supposed to be training them, instead she’s disrespecting the guard.” Shinning said, his voice laced with anger as he scowled along with the crowd.

“I think she is trying to get them angry.” Twilight said after a bit of thought and Shinning looked at her. “I’ve gotten to know her and I know for a fact she doesn’t do anything without a good reason and I don’t think she would disrespect the Royal Guard under normal circumstances.” She said and Shinning slowly nodded.

“If you say so, but right now she is making a lot of enemies and is going to get herself hurt at this rate.” Shinning said as they turned back to watch.

“You can’t fight, you can barely guard, hell about the only thing you are good for is decoration as you are all adorable when standing like stations.” The commander was saying and the Guards were glaring at her. “I mean honestly you are nothing but glorified statues, heck get some of the training dummies, dress them in armor and they would be just as effective as you are. “She said and the guards glared daggers at her.

The Commander’s Datapad appeared beside her and she started to tap on it as she brought up something. When she was done she looked up at the guards and smirk as she slide her fingers along the screen. “Oh did I hurt your widdle feelings?” She asked in a condescending tone and tossed the Datapad at Twilight who barely caught it in her magic as she hadn’t expected it and a voice spoke from it saying something about a ROUND ONE.

The Commander smirked at the guards as the Datapad started to count down. “Why don’t you teach me some respect?” She asked and the guards surged forward just as the Datapad let blasted out with type of music the Commander seemed to favor.

The first guard to reach the Commander was a Pegasus who tried to tackle her. The Commander side stepped and deliver a powerful jab to the back of the pegasus’ helmeted head that sent him face down into the floor where he slide a ways. The Commander continued to turn as she raised her elbow and it connected with an earth pony’s face that was next to reach her causing him the come to a dead stop.

The Commander grabbed the stunned guard by the collar of her armor as she spun to dodge an earth pony mare who tried to tackle her and threw the guard she dragged with her into the charging mass of guards. Most fell over their comrade but a couple were quick to react and dodged around the thrown guard.

One was an earth pony who came at the commander from her left to deliver a buck to her side. The Commander dropped below it and rolled under the earth pony before she delivered her own buck to his stomach from bellow, both knocking the wind out of him and carrying him off his hooves.

The Second guard to dodge was a unicorn mare who charged up a stun spell. The Commander jumped to her hooves just as the mare fired the spell which struck the commander in the chest and just smiled before shaking a finger at the surprised unicorn. “Ahah, that doesn’t work on me.” The Commander said before lunging forward and delivering an uppercut to the mare’s jaw carrying her into the air.

By this time some of the other guards had untangled themselves from the floor as the first guard recovers from the blow to the back of his head, both side charged the Commander who smiled as two pegasi from the larger group took the air and rushed forward, their forehooves out stretched to deliver powerful blows fueled by their speed.

The Commander reached up and caught their hooves, their speed causing her to slide a foot back from where she had been standing but she remained upright. She let the Pegasus hooves go and her hands darted for their throats and she gripped them tightly as she moved them to either side of herself at arm’s length. She started to spin once more and after one rotation she released the two guards who sailed into the charging guards on both side of her.

The First guard wasn’t fast enough and he and the Pegasus went tumbling back, most of the group of guards had been ready for her to do this as she had done it before and they dodged, though two of them weren’t fast enough and they went down once more.

Twilight along with her friends, Brother and his wife stared at the fight as the Commander had a smile plastered to her face, clearly enjoying the fight as the music changed once the song that had been playing over the fight ended and another SONG started playing.

The guards that had dodged the thrown Pegasus now found themselves scattered around the ring and they had a moment to realize this before the Commander launched herself at the nearest guard, an earth pony, who had enough time to turn and face the charging soldier before she wrapped her arm around his neck and heaved him off of his hooves and thrown towards the edge of the ring where he crashed into a weapons wrack filled with training swords and spears.

A Pegasus guard took advantage of the Commander being slightly off balance from the throw and tackled her from behind managing to knock her off her feet. They landed with the Pegasus on top of her trying to get a hoof on her arms to pin her but before he could the Commander flung her head back and the back of her skull connected with the Pegasus’ face knocking him off the mare.

The Commander rolled to the side just in time to dodge a magical blast that scorched the ground where she had been, it had been an overcharged stun spell which has a high chance of being lethal.

The Commander rolled to her feet and faced the unicorn stallion who was back peddling as he charged another spell. The Commander choice to put some other guards between herself and the unicorn so she sprinted at another earth pony and Pegasus guard. The Pegasus wasted no time taking to the air to dodge as his earth pony companion tried to jump to the side, he wasn’t quite fast enough and the Commander grabbed him and spun him around. Grabbing one of his forelegs she twisted it back around behind the stallion as it would go as she held him up with an arm around his throat and him squarely between her and the unicorn with the charged spell. The Soldier smirked from behind her meat shield as the guard didn’t have a clear shot.

The guard hesitated which gave the Commander enough time to charge her own spell and once it was read she kicked her shield into another guard and fired her spell. The unicorn stallion took it right in the chest and was blasted off his hooves where he crashed into the wall behind him and slumped to the floor out of the fight.

The Commander saw movement out of the corner of her eyes and barley ducked the practice sword that was swinging for her head and she quickly rolled away to find the earth pony she had thrown into the weapons rack now wielding one of the swords.

“What are they doing? I thought this was an unarmed fight?” Cadence asked.

Twilight answered before Shinning, her eyes glued to the fight. “I think the Commander has pushed them to try and do anything to take her down.” She said as the earth pony guard tossed a training spear to another guard, a unicorn mare, who was quick to catch it in her magic and the two circled the Commander on opposite sides.

The Commander Smiled as she took a defensive stand and tried to watch both guards as best as she could, there was no way she could watch both and that was what the two guards were counting on. Once they were on opposite sides of the Soldier they launched their attack, only to have her vanished in a purple flash and they skidded to a halt and looked around for their target.

They heard the sound of steps approaching them rapidly from behind the unicorn mare and she hand enough time to look back before the Commander fist connected with her head as she ran by, the mare’s head snapped back and the Commander kept running allowing her fist to connect with the stallion behind the mare as well and both of them were knocked out cold.

The Commander look and saw all the pegasi guards in the air and a few other guards had grabbed weapons as well and were quickly organizing into an offensive formation. The Commander stood at her full height and gestured for the guards to come at her.

The Guards obliged her as they rushed her from all sides and she vanished in a flash of light once more. The guards skidded to a stop and took up a loose defensive formation in the ring as they searched for the mare who seemed to have vanished completely.

Twilight looked for the mare as well as she wasn’t anywhere in the ring and she could hear some of the spectating guards muttering that she ran at the sight of the organized guards as the song ended and was replaced by a swelling GUITAR the let loose with the rest of the song just as the Commander dropped from above and delivered a powerful blow to the top of an earth pony guard knocking him out cold before launching herself at the ambushed guards.

She delivered an uppercut to the next guard that carried him into the guard that stood behind him and the Commander kept moving, delivering a kick to the side of the downed guards head as she ran by. The next guard swung her sword and the commander ducked it before grabbing it and twisting it from the pony’s grip and hurling it at the nearest guar, the hilt connecting squaring between the guard’s eyes.

As the now disarmed guard recovered, only got had the side of her head grabbed and the Commander to head-butt her, making sure her horn didn’t strike the guard, and knocked the guard out. She then jumped to the side as one of the remaining pegasi guards came in low and tried to sweep her legs out from under her with his spear, the spear barely missed and the Commander charged another guard who raised his sword to strike but was two slow as the Commander came in fast and low to deliver another uppercut to the guard sending him flying back and removing him from the fight.

She turned to face the remaining ground based guard and had to duck as the unicorn let fly spell followed quickly by another, and another as the Soldier had to dodge as the guard kept launching spells in rapid fire, The Commander wasn’t sure what the spells were but she could tell they weren’t stun spells so best not to find out.

The unicorn stopped firing which warned the Commander another guard was near her and she ducked just in time to avoid being clotheslined by another spear from a Pegasus guard. She came up just in time to see the other Pegasus trying to sweep her feet again and she jumped jump and came right back down on top of the swear. With her weight he spear stopped it forward momentum but the Pegasus guard’s didn’t and the spear was torn from his grasp and caused him to lose control and crashed head first into the wall, removing him from the fight.

The spell-happy-guard started back up with his rapid fire spells and the Soldier had to didge once more while trying to watch for the last Pegasus guard, it didn’t take long for her to find him dive bombing her with the spear tip aimed right for her and at his speed it was clear he was coming with the full intent to kill her and was disregarding the fact he would be severely injured as well. The Commander shifted her stance and drew her shotgun from her pocket dimension as she jumped and twisted in the air aiming up at the diving Pegasus. “Sorry buddy, this is for your own good.” “She said as she pulled the trigger. The shotgun blast echoed throughout the room as the kick sent the Commander crashing back to the ground on her back to slide on the floor till she came to a stop a moment later. Her eyes never left her target as the beanbag struck the guard squarely in the chest and even with his armor the force stunned and slowed him and he came crashing into the floor hard enough to knock him out but not cause any series injury.

Twilight jumped to her feet and pumped another beanbag shell into the chamber and aimed at the only still standing guard and pulled the trigger. The beanbag caught him in the side of the head and carried him off his hooves and she calmly walked over to the dazed guard, raised her shotgun and brought the butt down in his face knocking him out cold before pumping another shell into the chamber and looking around to make sure there were no other active guards.

The ring was littered with the ten guards either groaning in pain or completely unconscious, good. With a nod the Commander stored her shotgun and collected her beanbags and spent shells, she didn’t have many of the non-lethal ammo so would need to reload them.

Princess twilight and the gathered spectators stared in stun silence as the mare who just wiped out ten veteran Royal Guard with ease calmly walked over to her and retrieved her Datapad, turning off the music and storing it before grabbing her cap and sunglasses and placing them where they belonged.

Once that was done the Commander turned towards the guards who were just starting to pull themselves to their hooves or waking up and said in a loud voice for them all to be able to hear her. “Lesson one, when facing a superior force use anything you can to gain an advantage and come at them with everything you have, most of you did so from the start and also scavenged weapons during the fight so you pass this lesson. “She said as the guards, both in the ring and spectating stared at her as she clasped her hands behind her back. “Class dismissed.”

Author's Notes:

I know i may have went a bit overboard with the music in this but i think CTS would have made a playlist of music to beat down the Royal Guards too and those were the most appropriate songs i could think of.