The next morning Brian flew to the castle in Canterlot and was greeted outside by Shining Armor.

“Good morning. Why did you want to learn defensive magic,” Shining asked curiously

“I'm an expert in CQC, and consider myself good at offense, but I don't know anything about defense,” Brian answered

“What is CQC,” Shining asked

“CQC is Close Quarters Combat. Having trained in Mixed Martial Arts, offense comes naturally.”

“Ah. I'll show you how to create a shield, although in your altered state, you did manage to penetrate and attack Cadence and I,” Shining said

“Every time I see the recording I still can't believe what transpired all those years ago. It's true Ignis and I are better, but it has taken time to get there.”

Over the next few hours Brian was taught how to focus his thoughts on the shield to reinforce the strength. To test his concentration, Shining began to pelt the shield with multiple spells but only managed to exhaust himself as Brian's shield held firm until he broke it. Shining was surprised to note that there was no trace of shield or any magic.

“That's great. I actually thought I could break your shield, but I only broke my energy,” Shining said panting “And how are you not using any magic to perform that?”

“Well, I couldn't do it without your help. Thank you, and I am using magic, but I taught myself how not to show any trace.”

“How are you able to maintain the shield so well,” Shining asked

“I'm guessing it’s a combination of my alicorn ability mixed with Ignis,” Brian said shrugging

“You now know defensive spells. How are you with offensive,” Shining asked

“I could probably create fire or lightning easily, but I'd rather use my blades to conserve energy.”

“Glad to hear. I wouldn't be able to teach you for a few days while I recover my energy.”

“Thank you again for the help. I'll practice as often to get better with creating shields.”

“Yesterday, I received a message from my sister about you helping her get a date with Flash Sentry. Thank you for that,” Shining said holding out a hoof

“Not a problem. When we were on the other side she mentioned him and I had to give him some encouragement to ask.”

“I heard about your first class. Fifteen guards survived out of fifty. Are you really trying to punish them,” Shining asked curiously

“I probably pushed the first group too hard, so I'm taking time off and letting my friends handle things in my place to see if that makes a difference. Sometime soon I'll select my guard and put them through some special training.”

“What kind of training?”

“Firstly, they're going to train in their specific tribal magic: earth, pegasi, and unicorn. Afterwards will be a tiny bit of torture.”

“Torture? Surely you can’t be serious,” Shining demanded

“I am; and don’t call me ‘Shirley’. Outside of Equestria isn't a nice place. We might have laws here, but the only one that matters is ‘Survival of the Fittest’. Lying, cheating and stealing are just as common as killing someone who stands in your way. Sadly, it's the same as my original home,” Brian answered grimly

“Why do you need to torture your recruits though,” Shining asked

“Like I said, outside isn't a nice place. A guard who gets caught could be tortured and have body parts sent back as ransom. I'd prefer to have them prepared in case anything like that happens.”

“Just be careful with it. You don't want to harm them yourself,” Shining suggested

After they were finished, Brian decided to check out the training of the second group of recruits. He wanted to just peek in and leave without drawing much attention to himself. Once he saw 45 recruits remaining entering the second week, Brian was hopeful that more might survive by the end.

Deciding on keeping a promise, Brian headed home to spend more time with his family. If he needed any assistance, Twilight’s library could provide some answer to most questions that could arise.

As he walked in the house, Twilight was sitting there reading a book to his girls. Twilight looked up and was surprised to see Brian.

“You're back earlier then expected. Did my brother help you out,” Twilight asked

“He did, thank you. I managed to surprise him with the durability of the shield I created. He kept launching spells but only managed to exhaust himself in the process.”

“Never thought he'd do that. I'm glad Shining was able to help you out with teaching you how to perform defensive magic. What are you going to do learn next,” she asked

“I'll have to ask my friend Quake about earth magic. He should know about controlling the land itself.”

“I don't know about that as all of my books do not include that information,” Twilight said

“It was in one of the books in Celestia’s castle. Possibly was forgotten over the years and no one knows how to do it, same as the weather manipulation.”

“Why do you want to learn that,” Octavia asked

“I'd like to be able to use my surroundings to my advantage. For example; using the sand in the desert as a smokescreen to get away or create a wall to protect myself or others.”

“Reasonable thing to do. Protecting others is always the best thing to do,” Octavia said

“Agreed. I wish you the best of luck with your studies in the future,” Twilight said hugging him

After his small visit to see the recruits, Brian decided to spend the rest of the year with his family. With all the time he spent away from them, now was time to change and make up for lost time. They visited the park and attended different musical performances; one of which had Octavia playing.

“Hey Captain, long time no see. We just finished up with the last group and had sixty survive. I'm going to take the dozen earth ponies that passed on a trip into the desert to train. They're going to learn how to manipulate the ground. Thorn’s going to supervise and we wanted to know if you wanted to join us,” Quake said

“Hell yeah, I'll join. I've been wanting to learn about it and had to wait until training was completed to actually learn,” Brian said excitedly

The next day, Brian flew to the castle and was met by Thorn and Quake. They grabbed the recruits and headed to the ship. As they reached it, Brian was reminded of battleships from home with the multiple cannons on the top deck along with the heavy armor covering the rest of the ship. The overall size seemed to be reminiscent of aircraft carriers in terms of overall size.

“Like it? Celestia permitted us to borrow it so we can head out of Equestria into the desert. It's protected with spells so we don’t get shot down or damaged by the sand,” Thorn said

“Reminds me of home. It's a combination of a battleship in terms of weapons, crossed with an aircraft carrier due to the massive size,” Brian said

“Find a room. We're leaving immediately and will spend a week training. Steelhorn is the captain of the ship,” Quake said

“It's a pleasure to have a member of royalty on board. What brings you here,” Steelhorn asked

“Training. I may be an alicorn, but I wanted to learn about some things books don't teach.”

“Best of luck to you,” Steelhorn said with a salute

“Thank you,” Brian said returning the salute

A few hours later, the ship was outside of Equestrian airspace and headed into the desert. While the city of Klugetown was there, Steelhorn made sure to direct the ship far away just in case of any tremors. After everyone departed, Steelhorn directed the ship into the air, but kept it cloaked in order to be out of the way. He did have a pair of unicorn messengers with one staying on board while the other was on the ground to relay their pickup.

“Alright we're out here because of what I'm going to teach you. As you all know, we earth ponies are known for our strength and knowledge about the ground in terms of planting, but originally we could actually control the ground,” Quake said before having a sand wall behind him “This is what I mean. Unfortunately, this is a lost art.”

“If it's a lost art, why and how do you know about it,” someone asked

“Simple. I unintentionally caused an earthquake when I was really mad and earned my cutie mark at the same time. I found more about it in a book the princesses have. It mentioned that it had been done, but not exactly as to how to manipulate the land,” Quake replied

Each of them were told to focus on their goal, although Brian had the greatest success. All he did was close his eyes and think of summoning a wall and one showed up. After dismissing it and trying again, resulted in a second success.

“Congrats Captain. What were you thinking about as you did this,” Thorn asked

“I just thought of a brick wall and it came easily for me.”

A few hours later, most everyone was able to create a wall out of sand. Each wall varied in size with some being extremely paper thin, while others were a little thicker. Brian's was about eight inches thick as he thought about a brick wall and how dense they are. The rest of the week went the same, but some were able to start forming a wall faster and thicker than their first attempt. Once everyone was satisfied with their capabilities, Steelhorn flew everyone home.

“Captain, do you know how you plan to determine the finalists for your guard,” Thorn asked as everyone left

“Assign everyone a number and keep track of their scores. I'll take the top two of each group, but I don't want to know who they are.”

The next week, the recruits were monitored while Brian was at home with his family. A few days he spent some time at Twilight’s castle reading to pass the time. At the end of the week, everyone was gathered at the castle when Brian and his family arrived to select the lucky six members.

“When I call your number please step forward. A113, Z539, U571, J007, G050 and D777. Congratulations you six are the first members of the Midnight Guard,” Brian said

Afterwards everyone was led into the castle where Brian set up a table and had a dozen water pitchers waiting for the new guards.

“What are these for,” Celestia asked

“Minor torture. I want to show each of you what can happen if you are caught. Outside of Equestria, laws don’t apply. If we are on a mission and you are captured, you shouldn't expect to be treated well as they don't care what happens. All you are going to do is lay on the table and I'm going to pour at least one pitcher of water over you. This simulates drowning and is commonly used at home. I've been through this and it really does suck.”

Luckily for Brian, each guard only needed one pitcher of water and they were understanding about what was going on. After they were finished, Celestia led everyone to the dining room where they proceeded to have a small feast to celebrate.

The six were informed that they would be staying with the guards in the barracks and would assist the Solar and Lunar guards in the meantime. Luna presented the six with a set of Lunar armor without any markings, making it just solid black armor to differentiate between the two groups.

When everything finally settled down, Brian grabbed a couple scrolls and went to work writing what transpired during a military funeral at home. Having attended a few, led him to perfectly recreate every detail, complete with step-by-step diagrams to accompany the information. After it was finished, he turned it over to Celestia to hold for safe keeping.

“Princess Celestia, I'd like you to hold on to this if you don’t mind,” Brian said
entering the throne room

“What exactly is it, if you don’t mind me asking,” she replied

“Future plans. I just hope it's not needed for a while,” he replied

“Can I see what it is,” Twilight asked

“Be my guest.”

“These are from your home? The images are amazing in this,” Twilight said as she read over the scroll

“Every detail from home. I've attended a few funerals to know the event by heart. Like I said, I'd rather you hold on to this just in case.”

“Of course. If it is needed, I will see to it that a funeral detail be created and trained using these instructions you provided,” Celestia replied

“Thank you for that,” he said with a bow

“Before you go, how did the training with Shining go? My sister and I would like to see the fruits of your work,” Celestia asked

“It went perfectly. He tested the shield and was unable to break it and ended up wearing himself out.”

“Then perhaps, we should try,” Luna said summoning a scythe while Celestia held a broadsword

Brian simply walked over to the middle of the room and sat down with his rear legs crossed and forelegs resting over them as he closed his eyes and meditated. The sound of hooves on the tile floor was heard as both the two princesses charged to attack as Twilight watched in shock.

The weapons never made contact as they seemingly stopped in midair. Nothing was impeding their motion but the shield was there. Spells were tried instead and that did nothing but cause small puffs of smoke to rise. Nearly thirty minutes passed when Luna and Celestia gave up. Sensing no movement, Brian pulled out of the trance and stretched to remove any stiffness from the hard floor.

“So, how'd I do? Did I pass,” he asked casually

“How were you able to do that? There was no hint of magic or trace of your shield. Our weapons basically stopped in midair,” Celestia asked

“I taught myself to barely show any magic. Besides, would it really be good if my magic was black?”

“True. Many would think it was some dark magic and be scared of you,” Luna said

“It is impressive that you are able to accomplish magic that is advanced far beyond my own level. Perhaps you may be stronger than I am some day,” Celestia said

“Well, I have to thank Twilight for teaching me,” Brian said causing her to blush

“Thank you for the compliment,” Twilight said

“You're welcome. It is true that without your help, I wouldn't be able to do this.”

“I was also told that you are now also proficient in earth magic,” Celestia said

“Quake had all the earth pony recruits head out to the desert outside Equestria. During training I would think of the brick walls at home and was able to create a dense wall.”

“Impressive. That was a lost art that he learned. One of my books mentions it, but complete details were lost through the ages,” Celestia said sadly

“Well, perhaps it's not lost now. With the thirteen of us that were taught, someone will pass it down and the knowledge could return,” Brian suggested

“Just be careful that it doesn't get misused,” Luna said

"Of course."