The Forgemaster was in his office, and in his pony form seeing as how Celestia still didn't want his soldiers to know that, the one commissioned for him by Princess Celestia so that he may carry out his duties as Lord-general of the guards. The office was fairly Spartan in its furnishings, with only the desk and a few chairs, though it did offer a rather splendid view of his 'Killy Circle'. It was enough to do some work in, and that's it. Unfortunately, the work to be doing was paperwork… lots of it! It was the only kind of work that he despised with a passion. For instance, he was, at the moment, going through the Royal Guard finances, and managing them appropriately.

An army runs on exactly 1 thing: money. Of course, that is an entirely over-simplistic way of viewing it but it is also entirely true. A more expanded way of looking at it would be that an army runs on food, soldiers, equipment, and money, but that's beside the point because you can buy food with money, buy equipment with money, and hire soldiers with money. So, the bottom line is everything requires money.

Thanks to his recent budget adjustments, The Forgemaster had acquired more funds for the Royal Guard and the Equestrian Army. At the moment, he was deciding how he was going to distribute the new funds. Well, nothing an army loves more than wage increases… except for maybe better rations.

'Hmm, maybe I should set up a poll: who wants better rations and who wants pay increases…'he thought.

Unfortunately, his musings and paperwork were disturbed by the sudden entrance of his right hand stallion Shining Armor. The stallion in question walked right up to his desk and stood at attention.

In the way only older people, or ponies, could tell, The Forgemaster immediately knew that something was upsetting the younger pony.

He looked up from his paperwork and asked, "Is there something bothering you?"

Shining Armor cocked a brow at him, "How did you know, sir?"

He grinned at him, "My father-figure senses were tingling."

The colt didn't seem to understand, so he offered this as an explanation, "Ever notice how the Princesses seem to notice when something is wrong, too? Well, that's their mother-figure senses tingling. Similar to mine, only feminine. These senses only occur in those old and wise enough to have seen virtually everything, and know enough to see things in others."

"Oh, I understand now. That's true, you know, the Princesses do seem to know whenever something is wrong, sometimes before it even happens."

"Yes, that's another way of saying exactly what I just said." He barked out a laugh at Shining Armor's indignant face, "Anyways, you wanna talk about it?"

"I wouldn't want to impose, sir."

"Nonsense! It is the duty of all commanding officers to make sure their men operate at peak efficiency, and that certainly won't happen when my second is moping about! Now tell me what's on your mind."

Shining Armor took a moment to gather his thoughts, and work up his courage even though he had practically demanded that he help out the younger male.

With great hesitation, he began, "Well… there's this mare-"

"Ah, mare problems." The Forgemaster said, remembering his own difficulties with the opposite sex, species being disregarded, "So who's the lucky mare?" he asked joyfully.

With even more hesitation, he said, "Princess… Cadance."

"Hmm, good choice. Real name: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Alicorn, pink, special talent is spreading love, intelligent, courageous, beautiful; if you like pink, I suppose, no history of diseases in her family, close link to the throne, Princess Celestia's niece. All in all, an excellent pony to be in a relationship with… so what's the problem?"

Shining Armor almost visibly flinched when he heard the quick, business-like summary of the one he was interested in.

"Well, the, uh, problem is that I, uh, I mean: she and I, uh-"

"You haven't yet asked her out on a date, and you aren't sure as to the nature of her feeling regarding you?"

The Captain of the Royal Guard nodded meekly, clearly impressed with the perception of his boss.

"Alright, look at it this way: you certainly won't resolve the situation by standing here, will you? You have to go and ask; be a man! Er, a stallion!"

"I can't just walk up to a princess and ask her if she wants to go on a date with me!"

"I can!"

The Forgemaster reaches over his desk, and grabs Shining Armor's hoof. The instant they touch, The Forgemaster teleports them to the throne room, with Princess Celestia sitting on the throne.

He looks over at the bewildered Shining Armor and says, "Watch! It's as easy as this!" He looks up at Princess Celestia, who is looking slightly confused and asks, "Celestia, will you please go on a date with me?"

There was an audible intake of breath from every pony currently in the throne rrom.

He looks back over to Shining Armor and says, "See? Easy as name, please, question. If she says no, you take it like a, uh, stallion, thank her for her time and then walk away. If she says yes, then you take her out to the fanciest-shmansiest restaurant in town and treat her like she's the only mare in existence. Right, Celestia?"

Celestia slowly blinks twice, "Were you using me as an example to ask mares on a date?"

"Yes."

Celestia seems to ponder the original question for a moment, "Well, that is basically how you ask somepony on a date, and certainly how you treat your marefriend, regardless of whether or not you are on a date. So yes, Crimson, that is correct. But, no, I don't want to go on a date with you; you're not really my type."

He looked back over at her and said, "Strong and silent type, right?"

She glared back in response, as some of the guards giggled.

He looked back at Shining Armor, who was now stewing under the collective looks of much of the Royal Guards currently in attendance; he said to Shining Armor, "Well, in case it doesn't work out with your lady-friend; this is an example in taking rejection like a stallion." He looked back to Celestia and said, "I understand, and have a nice day, I'm truly sorry that it wouldn't work out between us. And then you walk away with your head held high, or, in this case, teleport away. Thank you, Celestia; I'm sure your dating advice will resound through the ages, oh wise one."

He turned towards an open window and screamed out, "If anypony needs dating advice: please ask Princess Celestia!"

He grabbed Shining Armor again, and was about to teleport, but said something to the assembled guards before leaving, "Hey, now, we all went through the dating phase once, there will be no idle gossip, nor will there be any insulting of the good Captain."

He then immediately teleported back to his office, with Shining Armor coming along for the ride. The Forgemaster went back behind his desk and sat down in his chair while Shining Armor stood in a daze, unable to process what had just happened.

"Alright, now that you know how easy it is to ask somepony on a date, all you have to do is find your mare and ask her."

Shining Armor was only just now recovering from his panic attack, "Th-thank you, sir?"

The Forgemaster sat down in his chair and looked out his window, "Don't mention it- hey wait! Look!"

He pointed out the window to see 2 of the guard ponies inside the 'Killy Circle'. It soon became apparent that the 2 were not pulling their punches.

"Oh, damn! He just got kicked in the nuts! Poor guy…"

Shining Armor joined him at the window, "Hmm… I didn't know they could use chairs… then again, you did say that there weren't any restrictions…"

They watched as the 2 nearly killed each other, though neither seemed to slow or stop as they fought again and again.

"This is just too good! Whoever these 2 are, they deserve a pay raise for this kind of quality… wait. I control pay raises, don't I?"

"Yes you do, sir. Oooo, that one looked painful."

"Did that mare just buck him in the wings?"

"I didn't even think that was possible… Holy Celestia, that mare broke his wing but he's still going!"

"Shining Armor, take a letter: all guards are to be formed into teams of 3 and are to go into the Everfree forest and find and kill a manticore."

"W-what!"

"Something about the way that mare is fighting reminds me of a manticore, and besides: they could use the experience. Call it a team-building exercise. Now let's get down there for some front seat entertainment."

He opened the window and jumped down, levitating Shining Armor down with him because he was afraid of falling a few stories. He quickly got to the edge of the circle with Shining, and watched the truly barbaric ponies fight. The 2 fighters didn't even realize they were there, so involved were they in the fighting. The mare seemed to be constantly calculating and re-adjusting the way she fought. The stallion rushed in, heedless of danger, and kept pummeling away at her no matter the damage he sustained. As they watched the mare and stallion physically traumatize one another, he whispered some things to Shining Armor.

"Now listen here; there are 2 ways to fight. Number 1 is ice cold. Number 2 is red-hot. Those who fight ice cold keep a level head during a fight, and are fully in control of themselves and acknowledge their surroundings. Those who fight red-hot lose themselves to the battle-wrath, they become unaware of their surroundings and only focus on the target at hand, some even going so far as to completely ignore all types of pain. Obviously; the mare is cold, and the stallion is hot. Gods, I love my 'Killy Circle'. I like these 2 ponies, too: something about the way they're killing each other strikes a chord in my cold, dead heart."

Eventually, both parties had become so injured that they had to stop fighting. Both, however, disregarded that rule and they kept fighting each other, going against all sanity to win. The Forgemaster and Shining Armor were forced to intervene. Shining Armor stopped the mare, the ice-cold one, and she quickly ceased her struggles and agreed to stop fighting. The stallion, on the other hand, was in the grips of battle-rage and wasn't stopping. Well, he tried not stopping, but a simple spell rendered the stallion immobile.

As The Forgemaster held down the struggling stallion, even through the immobilization spell, he looked over to Shining Armor and the mare and said, "Ladies and gentlecolts, please meet the company berserker-pony." And chuckled when the stallion bucked once more to get out of his hold.

It took a full 3 minutes of not moving for the adrenaline in the young stallion's blood to die down. He was immediately rendered unconscious from the lack of energy. The Forgemaster took him and the mare to the medics. The Guard medics have become ever-so-much more experienced since he started the circle, and he was glad: more experienced medics meant less dead!

The Forgemaster decided to walk around the barracks and see how his guards were doing. As it turned out, they were doing surprisingly well. He and Shining Armor began to talk once more on his problems as they inspected the Royal Guards.

"Have you given any thought to your mare problems?"

"Yes, I have. And I noticed that you are much more courageous than me, so it may be more difficult than I imagined to ask her."

"Pussy. Where is she? I'll lock her and you into a closet until you ask."

"What! No!"

"Yes, c'mon; we're going to go find her now. This has been too much fun for me to simply ignore, now."

He then stalked off, looking for Princess Cadance, with a begging and pleading Shining Armor behind him. As if the kid could get more embarrassed than from what happened earlier with Celestia.

He searched high and low for the princess, before finally having to go and ask Princess Celestia, who informed him as to Cadance's location, and gave the Captain a knowing smirk on the way out. As it turns out, Cadance was in the Canterlot gardens, helping to organize a school field trip from Ponyville that was currently there. He found her amongst a crowd of students that he recognized as being from the school in Ponyville, with Ms. Cheerilee leading the rambunctious group. The Forgemaster approached the pink princess with a stubborn Captain on his heels begging him to stop, though he became quieter and quieter the closer he got to Princess Cadance.

"Excuse me, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?" he asked her

She immediately waved a hoof in his face, "No, no. Please don't call me that: call me Cadance instead, please!"

He snorted, "Very well. My name is Crimson Hammer and I am in charge of the Royal Guard, this is my second, Shining Armor." He gestured towards the stallion in question

Princess Cadance smiled at him, and gave him a friendly greeting, which he returned… hesitantly.

The Forgemaster continued his conversation, "I was here to meet, in the flesh, all of the royal family members. My mission here is at its end, and it is nice to finally meet you. However, Princess Cadance, my second here had a question of undying importance to ask you, but I must be on my way. Please answer him to your fullest ability."

He shooed them off in the direction off the castle, with Shining Armor actually talking to the princess, which came as a slight surprise.

'After all the work I had in getting you 2 together, I had sure as shit better be invited to the wedding!' he thought.

He looked over at the group of students following Ms. Cheerilee, and decided that he didn't have anything important to do, so he followed them. He didn't really join the group; he just followed close behind to listen in, but far enough so that he wasn't interacted with.

The group was having a rather nice tour of the Canterlot gardens, seeing as how Ms. Cheerilee was leading them. Most of the other guides were incredibly dull, but she was doing a great job. They stopped in front of the statue of 'Discord' that he and Rainbow Dash had passed on their night out here in Canterlot.

Ms. Cheerilee told them of the statue and pointed out some rather interesting facts about it. The Forgemaster was seemingly the only one besides the Princesses that knew it was an actual creature, and not just a statue.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were being their usual selves, and caused an argument amongst the friends, which quickly escalated into a full-on brawl. This caused Ms. Cheerilee to assign them homework, and caused The Forgemaster to start chuckling.

This chuckle immediately died in his throat when he noticed the cracks in the stone prison.

Only one thought went through his head.

'Aw, shit."