Everything was moving along rather well. The guards were up to nearly a third of the strength level that I wanted them at so I let them take about two days to rest and enjoy themselves. The Elements had made leaps and bounds in their targets area but were still lacking in overcoming their faults. While Polearm was finding it rather hard to fight in hand-to-hand and close ranged fighting. Spike was making astounding progress in all his fields, but that just goes to show the little guy was all lot tougher than everypony gave him credit. Twilight was progressing through the alchemical studies I'd fairly quickly, but her applications were still lacking in a few areas. I was improving as well, where before I could barely use my Arc of Embodiment to produce sophisticated objects I was now able to easily make more and more complex items in rapid succession. This was due to meditation session while I had the magic activated.

During the guards' downtime, I upgrade their Ed golems with my Arc as they were in need of repairs. I also had Shining help me tag team the heavy hitters, Aj and Rainbow, of the Elements to give them a break from the golems and have a taste of what is like to face an opponent that can mix things up in battle.

“Come on Rd, I know you've been wanting to sock me in the face since we first met,” I said taunting the Cyan pegasus.

“Then hold still so I can!” Rainbow said coming at me around mach four in an instant, but I simply move out of the way allowing her to hit the sandy ground.

“Must be why you're called Rainbow Crash,” I said with a smirk as she quickly pulled herself out of the small crater and continued to try and assault me. “It's a lot harder when your opponent isn't a pile of rock, eh?”

“Hold still you jumpy bucker!” she yelled.

“Now now Dash, language. Tell you what I'll do, I'll let you go for your sonic rainboom-” I started to say.

“Now you've done it. I smoke your red but with this in one go.” Dash said wish smirk.

“Aha, let me finish. Now, like I was saying, I'll let you hit me with your sonic rainboom, but you have to keep coming at me while your in this state. Even if you manage to land a single blow on me keep it up until you can't go anymore and then keep it up after that.” I said with a serious look as a pointed at her.

“A challenge eh? Then let do this,” she said in confidence.

With this Rainbow flew straight into the clouds out of sight. My goal was to have her to perform the rainboom in an instant eventually, or at least without having to go long distances. In less then fifteen seconds I was surrounded in a swirling array of color. I crossed my arms across my face to block any incoming hits. Rainbow did manage to keep me nailed down in a barrage of blows for all of six minutes, which was an extreme improvement from only a months worth of training. 'The results were undeniable, but there were still things she could improve on' I thought as I brought my arm out and knocked the weather pony down with some strength.

“I... got... you... good. Didn't... I.” Rainbow said catching her breath.

“I'm impressed Rainbow Dash. If you keep this up you'll be able to do your rainboom in less the ten milliseconds by the end of the training camp. Now go see Pinkie for refreshments and take it easy for the rest of the day and no buts” I said firmly as I pointed to the pink dot in the distance.

With a slight pout, she slowly flew over to Pinkie. I then turn to see how Shining Armor and Applejack's sparring was going. Not surprising, that Aj was keeping up a pretty good pace with Shining, but I could tell he wasn't putting up much of an effort on his end. Aj could tell that he wasn't trying either, and this got under her skin. Being the Element of Honesty you can't hide anything from her.

I was looking forward to the change of pace from the training regiment that Edward had me doing with the guards as I hadn't had a chance to really push myself self against a real sparring partner since my fight with Ed in Canterlot. Sure Edward's golems were good for training but I was easily able to bring mine down after a few days a fighting with it. So naturally, I jump at the chance to fave a new opponent. In truth, Applejack probably could've given the guard ponies back in Canterlot a run for their bits well before this she ever started this training. Even the guards I've been training would have a hard time with keeping up with her at this point, but I think Edward knew this and wanted me to face off with her because he and I are the only ponies that can really test any of The Elements of Harmony.

I glanced over to see how Edward was fairing against Rainbow Dash only to see him watching me with his arms crossed, but it wasn't me he was paying attention to but Applejack. He noticed when I shifted my gaze towards him and then he motioned his finger towards the direction I was facing. Then, I was promptly met with a cowboy boot roundhouse to the face which brought me to the ground.

“Gosh, are ya alright Shinin Armor?” asked Applejack.

“Yeah, I'm fine Applejack. I just lost track of your movements cause I let myself get distracted for a bit.” I said as she helped me back to my feet.

I brushed the sand off my pants and then looked over at the farm pony who was completely out of breath. Edward had said that he'd wanted the girls to try with all they had, but I decided to go on the offense this time as being a punching bag was getting rather old.

“That was a good kick Applejack, but you're going to have to keep it up if you want me to start using my magic. So come at me even harder, because I'm now coming at you.” I said taking up my stance.

“Alright, just remember ya asked fer it, and don't ya go thinking ah'm takin it easy on ya cause your Twi's brother,” she said with a smile as we started to face off again.

She kept up a serious pace for at least another hour and a half before she finally started to show any signs of fatigue. Then I heard Edward cheer her on.

“Come on Aj go past your limits!” exclaimed Ed.

“Guess if ah got the guy that kicked your butt cheering for me ah'll have to do better, but this'll probably be my last round,” she said as she leaped forward full speed ahead.

We sparred for another thirty minutes until Edward stepped in and told her to take the rest of the day off. He motioned with his hand for Rainbow Dash to come and help Applejack and proceeded to have her taken to the Pinkie Pie for refreshments.

“What's your overall evaluation?” asked Ed.

“She's definitely getting there, but she's still got a ways to go before she'll be able to get me to use my magic in a fight. What about Rainbow Dash?” I asked.

“About the same actually. I'm going to modify her golem into a wood and light stone model to increase its speed and upgrade its fighting style to be more erratic. That way she'll have to think on the fly.” Ed replied.

“You wanna go a few rounds with me old man?” I asked teasing.

“Sure thing, but no magic and alchemy augmentation. That way we can get a bit of a workout and entertain the peanut gallery over there for a while.” Ed said taking up a fighting stance.

“I agree. Now, let's start the show.” I said taking mine as well.

And with that, we went at each other for a few hours.

I had decided to change things around a bit this last month with everyponies' training by having them train with more each other instead of the golems. This was because I need to focus on my own projects at this and I needed Twilight's help for this. So I went ahead and incorporated it into her alchemy studies. I brought out my crystal sword for this in order for us to begin analyzing its magical structure.

With Twilight's help, we were able to find out all of the sword's properties. The first was that the sword was, in fact, a naturally occurring magic crystal that suppressed magic, but was only where half of the swords magic negating abilities came from. The other half had come from the that the sword had been infused with tatzlwurm venom. This explained why the sword hadn't completely nullified Shining Armor's magic during our fight. Now that I had the sword's analysis completed I could start on making an automail based off its make-up that way I wouldn't have to carry the sword around all the time. Also, knowing what it's made of would allow me to create various crystal objects via my Arc of Embodiment.

Now that the analysis was completed I was going to focus on combat training for Twilight. This would prove to be difficult as the only ones who were strong enough to match in terms of sheer magical power were me and her brother. On this note, I knew he and her friends wouldn't just stand by and let me beat on her, even if was for training purposes. So whenever I was training with her I made sure it was out of sight of everypony around, except for guards, Polearm and Spike. As they were the only ones with enough self-control to not jump in between us.

“Come on Twilight. I know you're much stronger than this. You can use your magic as much as you want to augment yourself. Don't be afraid to hurt me. We're here to make you stronger, but we can't do that if you keep holding back.” I said crossing my arms.

“I'm sorry Edward but this just isn't a real enough situation for me to take it seriously. You know I've been in worse spots like when I went to get the Elements of Harmony and faced Nightmare Moon.” Twilight said but her tone started to trail off after she felt a sensation creep up her spine.

She then looked towards me and noticed that my fists were clenched and had started to shale a bit.

“Okay Twilight if it's not real enough, then I'll make real enough,” I said with a smile and my eyebrow twitching.

“Ah? Ed I don't like that look on your face, or the vibes you' re giving off.” said Twilight as she started to back-up as I got in position to start the fight.

It was safe to say Twilight had ticked me off enough to where I used a little bit more force. This got her to take me seriously, so the ends justified the means. Twilight began to use some of the techniques I'd programmed into the golems, but this didn't surprise me in the slightest. She had a photographic memory after all, and this allowed her to analyze the fighting style after the fight. Which she then replayed in her mind over and over until she had it memorized.

I had to add met Twilight was running circles around me after about an hour when she started teleporting. So I up my game and decided to try using a flash step maneuver I picked up from one of the countries I visited. It was safe to say I confused the crap out of the unicorn to the point she flooded the area with a burst of magic, knocking me down in the process. Twilight had pretty much exhausted her magic at this point, which disappointed me cause I was starting to enjoy the fight.

“Looks like that last blast pretty much put you on empty Twilight,” I said in disappointment.

“No, I want to keep going,” she said trying to stay on her feet.

“That's what I wanted to hear,” I said with a smirk.

Amazingly she kept going until sundown. At which point Spike pointed out it was time for supper and I couldn't think on an empty stomach.

After supper, I decided to test Spike to see how far the little fella had come. I didn't have anything to worry about except for him needing to learn some restraint. Only after two months of training and the little drake had already made it up the Shining level, physically anyway. I decided that he would start on meditation and that was going to be his focus for the remaining time of the training camp.

The next day I pair Polearm with Shining Armor to test his progress. The difference from when Polearm started to now was phenomenal. Not only could Polearm keep up with Shining blow for blow, but he also forced Shining to use his magic to get an edge in the fight. In armed combat the still evenly matched, until Polearm switched to a spear, then Shining got fed up with him and decide to use his shield talent to get the edge back and when the fight. This went back and forth around two hours until Polearm collapsed leaving a very proud Shining Armor standing in front of the earth pony. I walked over to help him get Polearm to his tent for some much need rest.

“I see that smile Shining. Polearm gave you a decent work out didn't he?” I asked proud of my assistant's progress.

“The guy's going to completely outclass me in terms of raw physical power by the end of next month. He'll pretty much be on par with Spike. If he isn't already, then it won't take him long. I bet he and Applejack could tag team us.” said Shining while readjusting his grip on the unconscious Polearm.

“Noted and not a bad idea my friend,” I said as we got to Polearm's tent and put him to bed.

“Well, I leave you here cause I got to call Cadance and give her an update on how things are going here and she's probably want to know how Twily's training is going. Good night Ed.” Shining said as waved.

“Goodnight Shining. I'll see in the morning.” I said heading to my tent. “I need to talk to Luna and Tia on the group's progress as well. Although, I'd prefer to just spend some one on one time with Luna. I'm just gonna leave the part where I kind of lost my cool on Twilight out, for now. After the update then it's dreamland.”

*****

Two months and three weeks of training

“All right everypony you've all made leaps and bounds since we arrived here in the few months, and I understand if you all hate me with a burning passion but just put up with it for another week,” I said addressing our whole group.

“Rarity and Fluttershy you guys have made enough progress to face me in a tag match with Pinkie,” I said pointing at the duo.

“Are you sure darling? We aren't fighters in any way whatsoever,” commented Rarity.

“Look I know you guys aren't fighters, but you two still did some training so you can defend yourselves much better now. Rarity I know you put in a lot of effort towards your magic, but if ya want you can just face off with Pinkie. The only thing I've seen her do the whole time as far as training goes is use her party cannon on the golems or try and shoot them out of it.” I whispered to Rarity and Fluttershy.

Of course, I wasn't expecting the girls to actually go up against each other, even I wasn't stupid enough to go up against the reality bend power of a 4th wall breaker. That's just plain stupid. Which is why I never sparred or training her, but the girls are thought it would be good to have a little friendly competition. It was a total disaster.

“Are sure you're okay with it Pinkie?” asked Fluttershy.

“Fine with it. I'd love to have a match with you and Rarity. It'll give us all a chance to show-off what Ed's taught us. I mean, I've seen all the stuff he's been doing with all of us, but he's never asked me to spar with anypony until now. So, it must be super special, right Ed?” asked the party pony.

“Yea Pinkie, really special,” I said with a hesitant smile.

“Well if you're on board with it, then I am too, darling,” agreed Rarity.

“Okay, now that we're all on the same page I think we'll head over to the clearing in the forest,” I said leading the trio out of the fort.

We made it to the clearing that we'd been using for the sparring matches and picked up a few of the animals the Fluttershy had befriended along the way. This had been my plan as I knew they'd be there to help Fluttershy and Rarity in the match. This was an advantage I wouldn't normally allow, but they were up against I pony who pull practically anything out of her mane. Fluttershy's pack consisted of birds, a bear, a family of bunnies, and a few other critters. Rarity decided it was time to unveil her 'sparring' outfit. This attire consisted of a purple visit over a white button down shirt and ink black denim pants while she wore a pair of gold high heel shoes.

“Okay girls this is in good fun, but I still want you guys to try and push each other to better yourselves,” I said to the trio of ponies.

“Okie Dokie dokie,” said Pinkie.

“Certainly darling,” agreed Rarity.

“Okay, I guess,” lamented Fluttershy with the support of her animals behind her.

“Then let's get started, and try and draw out the best of each other. Now begin!” I shouted as the girls faced one another as I jumped back out off the way, a considerable distance to be on the safe side.

The first that Rarity did was charge at Pinkie, with her horn let. Pinkie proceeded to pull out a modified rapid-fire party cannon of some sort and started to fire cake and streamers at the charging unicorn. Fluttershy cowered behind her bear friend keeping her head down. I could tell Rarity was using her magic to augment her body to dodge Pinkie's shots. Rarity made it to Pinkie, but the Pink pony ducked behind the canon out of sight to reappear next to Fluttershy.

“Come on Fluttershy, you can't just hide behind this big fuzzy guy, no offense Mr. Bear, the whole time,” said Pinkie while the shrugged at her comment.

“I know but you know I'm not good with violence Pinkie,” said Fluttershy.

“Excuse me, but you're not supposed to act friendly in a fight, even if it just for a bit of fun!” yelled Rarity as she stomped on the ground then, SNAP, and Rarity fell down to the ground.

I saw her fall and move a little closer to see what had happened. Once I got to the scene I heard a blood curled scream. I looked over to the source of the scream was Rarity now back on her feet while holding her shoes in her hands. That's when I noticed what was wrong. The heel of the right shoe had snapped off in the ground.

“O crap,” I said as I saw the fashionista started to turn dark red.

In the next instant, Rarity targeted Pinkie as she began to assault the party pony in a barrage of kicks and punches. Pinkie simply hopped and skipped around the fiery fashionista all while giggling along the way. I started to think, 'at least those two are trying something.' until Rarity managed to hit the bear in the face causing it to fall over unconscious on to the ground. After I saw this, I looked toward Fluttershy and I saw her eyelid start to twitch.

“How dear you.” hissed Fluttershy as she jumped up towards Rarity.

“This isn't going to end well out all,” I said staring at the trio with a frown.

I quickly clapped my hands together and raised a wall around the entire clearing.

“This wall should keep those three contained for a while, or a least until Fluttershy and Rarity calm down enough to have a decent conversation,” I said.

I put my hands my behind my head and proceeded to I lay down on top of the wall. Then, a few explosions of cake and blue magic went off to my side. There were also a few roars and angry chirping noises. I could only guess these were the sounds of Fluttershy's animal friends. If I had to pick somepony to go into battle with based on their unique talent it would be Fluttershy hands down.

You see Fluttershy's magic is normally channeled through her body to manipulate weather like any other pegasus, but unlike normal pegasi, she has a stronger connection to the earth. Which is why she's able to connect with animals more easily like an earth pony. Fluttershy is able to use a move what everypony refers to as the 'Stare' which imposes her will on to other beings, and this ties back into her magic as well because she uses this move with her eyes. So technically this is how she uses her magic. I thought that by having Fluttershy doing meditations to strengthen her will she'd easily be able to influence others, not just one at a time, but in large groups as well and more precisely too. And from the looks of those birds, it worked all too well.

It safe to say that this fight went on for a few hours, and the win was no pony in particular. Unless you count Pinkie setting on the wall next to me while we had tea and cakes and watched Rarity and Fluttershy have at each other. I didn't bother to ask her how she got up here in all the commotion and just chalked it up to Pinkie Logic as I called. As the dust started to settle we saw the others passed out on the ground, animals included. So I brought down the wall and had pinkie carry Rarity on her back and I carried Fluttershy on mine as we returned to the fort.

We had wrapped up training and were waiting on the train to take us back to Ponyville to drop off Twilight's group and then to Canterlot. By we, I mean the Elements of Harmony, Spike, Polearm, and myself. This was because I'd ordered Shining Armor and the guards to return to Canterlot the week before on the day of the Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie fight occurred. I wanted to get Shining Armor back in order for him to get preparations for his wedding underway. I also wanted the elite guards in place for this in case things to go to hell, but I wanted to prevent this if I could. The thing is, the show from back in my homeworld wasn't detailed to the point of when Queen Chrysalis took Cadance's place, or I just couldn't remember that far back anymore. Most of my memories of my original homeworld have either faded away or are buried deep in my subconscious. I really didn't care cause I had the present and the future to look forward to and the past is the past, but there are things that I just can't get over so easily. I noticed Polearm coming and decide to chat with my buddy for a minute so I got from bench to stretch a bit.

“Hey Polearm, where are the girls and Spike?” I asked as I started to stretch.

“They went to go to the bathroom and Spike said he wanted to try and find some gem he could snack on for the train ride back to Ponyville,” answered Polearm.

“Hey, there they are,” I said pointing past his shoulder to our group as they approached the station.

“Will he train won't be here for about another twenty-five minutes so let's just sit back down for a little while, shall we sir,” said Polearm.

“You're not going to hear me complaining. After all, we still have a lot of work to do once we're back in Canterlot and I'd rather spend my time relaxing before I have to do anymore” I said as I started to sit back down as a portal opened up behind me once again.

“Sir Edward watch out!” yelled Polearm.

“OH CRAP...” I shouted as I fell backward into the void.

Alright, guys another crossover in the works here. I'll be work with ROZONROZARK this time around in his world of My Little Mage for a little bit. Then, it's time for a wedding.