The next morning, at the allotted time, she and her officers were all waiting at the designated assembly area. To her surprise, all of the Royal Guards arrived at the same time, putting themselves into a rather broken formation. She had to walk up the line, using her swaggers stick to properly arrange the soldiers. Lifting up heads, spreading open legs, etc, etc. Finally, she moved back to the front of the company, sighing before she slung her swagger stick under her wing.

"Alright, gents. Like I said, I've been given command to update your training. So, let's begin." She stepped over to the side, pulling out of her swagger stick. "A Pryhan soldier is expected to march at least thirty miles in five hours, and believe me, that is fast. So, in your first hour, you should be able to go over there", she said, pointing at one of the plateaus. "And back two times, which is just under three miles. No using magic, no taking off your gear, nothing; just follow orders, and get a move on." The Guards all looked around nervously, and she narrowed her eyes. "Well? Go!"

One of the Guards spoke up, "What kind of stupid 'training' is this!?"

"Whoever said that, step to the front". The guard in question stepped forward: a somewhat familiar-looking grey stallion with a black tail. "Now, what makes you say that?"

"We have to walk over there and back twice, for what? We're in all our equipment!"

Rainbow just smiled, finally getting the chance to do her job. To the whole company, she said, "This soldier just disobeyed an order!" She turned to one of the Centurions, who just shared her grin and walked off to go get something. "A unit is held together by discipline and cohesion! If one of you fall behind, you all fall behind! Now, while the rest of you will be marching in full armor and weapons." She then grabbed the fully packed Sarcina that the Centurion got her. "You will be marching. WITH FULL KIT!" She then shoved the sarcina into his hooves. "NOW MOVE!"

The guard in question and the whole company all balked in shock. Then, when they all realized that she wasn't kidding, they all began mumbling and moving out, the soldier who had been called to the front taking the Sarcina. They all started walking, the formation falling to pieces. "I didn't say you could break formation!" She growled and said to one of her officers, "Watch them. They break in formation, add an additional ten yards."

"Yes, Praetor." The caragor trotted off, yelling at them yelling in a bit of broken equish, mostly to maintain formation and to keep pace. Rainbow leaned against the wall, sighing. This was gonna be a long day.

An hour later, the Guards returned. All of them were sweating like crazy, panting like dogs and slumped down to the point they resembled semi-circles. Despite this, they did all hold onto a loose sense of a formation, still holding onto the shreds of the old block of their company. The Decurion who was in charge of watching them came up to her, having only a light sweat, most likely from the heat rather than exhaustion like the rest of them.

"How were they, Decurion?", she asked, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

"Not the best, Praetor", she said, shaking her head. "I mean, they're better than raw recruits, but not by much. They don't know how to march in time, they can't hold their weapons properly. They don't have canteens, or sweat rags, or any other source of water worked out while on the march. I could probably teach Rhinos to sing 'God save the Caesar' faster than I could teach them to be proper soldiers."

She turned to Vexillum, and said, "Vex, go get your translation rune. I'll go yell at them." After he saluted and walked off, she moved over to the still at attention Guards. "Fall out", she cried, and they immediately collapsed like sacks of flour, moaning, sighing, and groaning in pain. "Pathetic. So, how's the morale?"

A light brown stallion with a darker brown mane and tail said, "Oh, it's great."

"Excellent. Because we're not done." They all groaned as Vexillum came back, the glowing blue rune glowing on his necklace. "This is my second-in-command, and for the foreseeable future, your DS, Praefect Vexillum Aeternam. So, Vexillum, from what you've seen, I'd say at least an hour before lunch?"

Despite the mimed 'no's, looks of outright terror, and other sighs of protest, he said, "With this sorry lot? At least an hour."

That night, she entered the small, mudbrick building that acted as Princess Luna's HQ and living quarters. She had been asked to come, namely to discuss the situation with the Guard. When she entered, she was greeted with a simple abode, far more than some of the nobles that had managed to be evacuated. Over the low table that was the only major piece of furniture in the living room, she had set up a small plate of food. She said, "Greetings, Praetor Rainbow Dash. Please, have something to eat."

"No thanks and just Rainbow is fine." She then set down on the other side of the table and sighed. "You wanted a report on how the Royal Guard training is going?"

"That is why I asked you here, yes", she said. "So, please. Indulge me."

She said, "Well, to be blunt, they all suck. I don't know about your troops, but they are of decent quality from what I've seen. Not at Pryhan, or Griffonian, or even at Saddle Arabian levels, but they could probably give a decently equipped Militia unit or a Brigand gang a run for their money. But, your sister must've been a complete idiot when it came to the army. Er, no offense."

"None taken. Sometimes, historians and fanatics of my sister tend to, exaggerate, and the fact she spent a lot of her time with the elites didn't help", she said.

"Yep. Bunch of fucking leeches, aristocrats. Thank the Gods that the Empire doesn't have any. Back on topic, yeah, the Royal Guard sucks. No unit cohesion, little to no weapons proficiency, poor equipment maintenance. Hell, they can barely march a half mile before they start panting and wheezing. And don't get me started on the whining. Point is, in as short a time as I have, I can't make much out of them. You, and by proxy, you Equestrians, are lucky that this force is mostly Night Guards, cause otherwise, this would be a short campaign."

"I see", Luna said, sipping some water. She looked at her, sadness and barely concealed pain in her eyes. "Just do what you can."

"Yes, Princess." She turned to leave, stopping at the edge of the doorway. "Princess", she said, drawing her attention. "From a friend to another, you can't hold all of it alone. You go it alone, you'll eventually break under your burden. Trust me, I know." She then left the room, flying back over to her regiments temporary HQ.

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