The royal guard were treated to a rather unusual spectacle that day. Several of the guard had come out to get a little exercise and practice in, only to find that one of the several training yards had been taken over by a grade school colt and a baby dragon playing soldier. At least they seemed to be playing soldier; they were wearing suits of odd looking armor, running about with training weapons and seemed dead set on half-killing each other.

In the months since that fateful trip to the Crystal Empire, Bright Eyes and Spike hadn't been idle.  They had taken to getting up early in the morning(1) and jogging to the schoolhouse before anypony else had arrived, and spending time training and exercising a little on the playground equipment while they waited for Cheerilee to arrive. They were both a great deal more fit than they'd been when they'd first met; Spike's pudge was gone and he was looking a bit leaner (and maybe, just maybe a smidge taller) and Bright Eye's skinny colt body was filling out with the start of some decent muscle.

Of course the "training regimen" was almost entirely of Spike and Bright Eyes' own invention.(2) The Princesses had left them largely to their own devices. Despite everything, they were just children-- and neither Luna, Celestia or Cadence wanted to press them too hard; there would be time enough for that sort of thing when they were both adults. In addition their peculiar role in the national defenses of both Equestria and the Crystal Empire meant that their training involved a few odd quirks and routines that would make no sense to anypony not in the know. And which, truthfully, looked a bit ridiculous.

The training yard was an open rectangle, a courtyard large enough to hold the Golden Oaks library twice over with room to spare, surrounded on three sides by archways and a low stone wall. Ponies, mostly off-duty Guards, had idly gathered and were leaning on the stone wall, watching in puzzled curiosity and chatting quietly to one another.

At the moment Spike and Bright Eyes were practicing the skills that had been fundamental in saving their bacon back in the Crystal Empire. Spike was in the center of the courtyard, dressed in his crystal armor (to their mutual delight, they'd learned that they could summon the armor at will). He was surrounded on all sides by poles,  more or less spaced out in a grid, each pole topped by an egg. Other eggs were set on little cups here and there on the ground. Scattered among the pillars were about a half dozen straw and cloth training dummies. He was wielding a crystal staff in his claws.

Bright Eyes was running around the perimeter, his eyes fixed on Spike. He was armored as well, his visored, airfoiled helmet cutting an odd figure amongst the backdrop of ponies in greco-roman armor.  He was shouting a continuous stream of instructions at his partner as Spike ran through the obstacle course. The dragonling hopped over the scattered eggs, dodged between the standing poles and lashed out with his staff left, right, forward and back as Bright Eyes instructed.

It was comical as hell. He had no form whatsoever; he flailed with his staff like a pony trying to kill a snake in a phone booth, thrashing about comically as he lashed out at the straw dummies, chaff dust flying when he made a hit, staggering wildly as he tried to avoid stepping on eggs underfoot or knocking any off the poles around him. More than one onlooker chuckled at the scene; pretty soon the whole crowd was laughing outright.

The acoustics in the courtyard were good; Spike and Bright Eyes could hear every laugh and condescending remark. The only sign they gave was the grimace on Spike's face and the steadily spreading blush on Bright Eye's cheeks. Finally one catcall of derision was one too many-- "what is this, the Foal's Maypole Dance?"-- and Spike stopped where he stood and  turned to face the voice. He marched over to the edge of the field-- still stepping between the poles per Bright Eyes' instructions-- and turned his helmeted face to the speaker. "Do you mind shutting up?" He barked at the speaker. "We're trying to train here, and your stupid yapping is distracting us!"

The sounds of amusement slowly turned to murmurs of puzzlement and surprise as the guards he was addressing realized that the dragonling was blindfolded. The visor of his helmet was down, and it was a solid, opaque piece of crystal-- completely blocking his sight. This was followed by the realization that he had struck every manikin at least one blow, and had not cracked or jostled a single egg.

"You got a problem with how my trainees are trainin' ?" The voice was calm and level and as deep as a barrel. The idling soldiers turned around and gulped as one. Standing directly behind them was a red crystal earth pony the size of a buffalo. He was dressed in a lieutenant's armor and was eyeing them all with the air of somepony debating on whether it was worth having to clean out his horseshoe to step on them.

Today was the first day that Spike and Bright Eyes had received any "official" training or oversight. Lieutenant Rock Steady and Diamond Bright were there as official liasons from the Crystal Empire... more realistically, they were there to oversee Spike and Bright Eyes' training, and coordinate their own teams with them. The Crystal Champion team (when they were old enough, at least) was to be coordinated with their platoons, who would act as support teams for when the Champion was on the battlefield.

Diamond Bright was commander of the S&S "Builders and Busters" platoon (3), who specialized in sapping, sabotage, demolition and unusual--- VERY unusual--- weapons ( Quite frankly, nothing got more unusual than a musclebound dragon in magic armor....)  They were known for crazy stunts and razor's edge brinkmanship that turned their commanding officers gray before their time.(4)

Rock Steady's Heavy Platoon was a fifty-fifty mix of monstrously strong earth ponies and Imperial Pegasus Scouts(5). It took ponies with nerves of steel to run in and out under the stomping feet of a giant monster, or fly within range of their thrashing limbs or flaming breath just to provide tactical support, and Rock Steady's group already had an almost frightening reputation for stoic fearlessness.

Spike had his own suspicions as to the reason those two had been selected. He figured that Shining Armor wanted Rock Steady to have a chance to see a Crystal Empire unicorn as something besides a conquering despot. It had worked like a charm; the hulking earth pony had bonded with the diminutive colt almost immediately. Bright Eyes hero-worshipped Rock Steady as much as Scootaloo did Rainbow Dash, and as Rock Steady put it, it was hard to hold a grudge against a unicorn he could pick up in one hoof.(6)

As for Diamond Bright, Spike guessed anyone who could come through one of Nyx's debacles as unflappably as him was ideal for hanging around the Sparkle household.

The guards thoughtfully considered Rock Steady's question. They also thoughtfully considered his size, muscles, the fact that he had reportedly smacked a full grown dragon in the face with a boulder the size of a house, and the general less-than-amicable tone of his voice at the moment. As a group they shook their heads 'no.'

Except for one pony. You know the one. The one in every group who imagines that he is appointed the speaker for the group, and whose first thought is that he needs to question everything, and who is this big overgrown sparkly guy anyway, he's not even in the chain of command so far as I know.... "What the buck kind of training are they doing anyway?" this tactical genius decided to ask. "Some sort of morale-boosting BS or something?"

"The kind with a security clearance higher than you lot will ever even see the backside of," Diamond Bright said behind them. The lanky yellow crystal pony put his clipboard away and glared at the stallions idling around the training area. "Sergeant!" He said, playing the odds that there was one somewhere in the crowd. There was; he snapped to attention, took a look at the decorations on Diamond Bright's uniform, then somehow managed to snap to attention while being AT attention. "These fine ponies want to chip in their two bits on our training regimen. I understand that Canterlot once included in its training regimen a hiking trail that circles the wall of the city. Is that still there?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good," Diamond Bright said. "Have these ponies conduct an on-hoof survey of it from start to end. Preferably at a healthy canter. When they reach the other end they can report back to us it on its condition." A smothered groan of dismay went up from the soldiers.

"You heard the man, slackers!" the sergeant barked. "Get to the track, on the double!"

Rock Steady chuckled as he watched the dejected soldiers vacating the courtyard at a trot. "And ponies think I'm the mean one," he said.

"It was an easy way to get everypony without clearance to leave-- and to stay away," Diamond Bright shrugged.

Spike and Bright Eyes had crossed the courtyard and were standing together, looking up at the two guardponies a tad anxiously. "Um... we're not gonna have to run that trail... are we?" Spike asked faintly. "It's something like ten MILES..."

Rock Steady chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound. "Take it easy, pint size," he said. "We ain't gonna work you to death. Least not for a few more years." Both Spike and Bright Eyes visibly relaxed.

"We've been watching," Diamond Bright said, pulling out his clipboard. "You've actually been doing pretty well. Regular calisthenics, situps, pushups, continuous runs, so on and so forth, in the upper marks for your age group... ah, well, for ponies, that is," he amended. "We're sort of having to guesstimate the stats on baby dragons--"

"Dragonling," Spike muttered. "I got tired of being called a baby when I turned EIGHT. At FIFTEEN it's past insulting."

"Right. Dragonling." Diamond Bright gave a half grin and actually took a moment to make a note of it. "After that, though, we're having a little trouble evaluating some of the skill training you've been doing."

Spike pulled a face. "Yeah, it looks kind of weird. We kinda had to make stuff up as we went along."

"Actually, Dumb-Plot back there--" Rock Steady said, pointing a hoof in the direction the hecklers had left-- "kinda had a point. We cain't figger exactly what you're trying to do."

"Like what?" Bright Eyes asked.

"Like this here." The brawny crystal pony waved a hoof at the courtyard, still covered in poles, eggs, and straw dummies.

"Not that it wasn't impressive," Diamond Bright said. "But-- well, let's start with this. What's it for, exactly?"

Spike leaned on his staff and looked steadfastly at the ground.. "Well, you know that back in the Crystal Empire... in the fight... I got blinded. Couldn't see where I was going, what I was doing. "

Diamond Bright nodded. "That's how you ended up with Bright Eyes being your Spotter. Did a heck of a job, too." Bright Eyes puffed out his chest a little at the compliment.

Spike kept looking at the ground. "Yeah, well. I still smashed a lot of buildings. A lot of ponies could've--" he stopped and started over. "I figured if I have to ever... go gigantic again... I'll be fighting some monster. And I'll be in the middle of some town or city. And there'll be ponies everywhere--" he shuddered. " He shook his head. "Besides," he went on in a more chipper tone. "I needed to practice following Bright Eye's instructions and stuff. Even when my eyes are working, he's the eyes in the back of my head..."

"Well you certainly have that part down..." Diamond Bright said cautiously. "But you do realize that accidents still happen--"

"It won't happen," Spike said fiercely. "I'll practice until I can walk through the Crystal Empire without cracking a single flagstone, if I have to."

Diamond Bright shared a look with Rock Steady. Rock Steady took the hint. "Here. Lemme up your game a li'l," Rock Steady said. "Up the challenge a little bit on your training."

"Okay. How?" Spike said amiably.

"Well, if yer fightin' dragons or other monsters, they ain't gonna be sittin' still like them dummies," Rock Steady pointed out. "Lemme take the place o' them straw monsters, give you an opponent that's moving around a bit."

"Oh, okay," Spike said. "Lemme get one of the padded staffs." The crystal staff he was holding shrank in on itself and vanished. He grinned when the two Lieutenants blinked in surprise. "The Crystal Armor comes with a whole bunch of different weapons and stuff that we can summon," he said. "Cool, huh?"

"I can't wait to try the Rainbow Cannon," Bright Eyes said, rubbing his hooves in anticipation.

"The rainb---? You know what, I think that one can wait," Diamond Bright said. "...As long as absolutely possible," he added under his breath. He didn't know what a Rainbow Cannon was, but he was fairly sure he didn't want a pair of grade schoolers demonstrating it for him.

Rock Steady picked a training staff from one of the racks of weapons in the corner and took his place on the other side of the courtyard. "Let's make this interestin'," he said. "You gotta gimme one pushup for every egg broken."

Spike blinked. He thought about it for a second and grinned. "You know what? Sure, okay. But you gotta do the same."

"Sounds fair."

"--And I get to do this without the blind visor down."

Rock Steady nodded. "Works for me."

Spike held out his hand; there was a spark in his gauntleted palm and a new staff--- this one padded on both ends--- appeared in his hand. "Ready," he said.

Rock Steady held his staff in his teeth. "Call it," he said to Diamond.

The yellow pony nodded. "Okay? Ready? GO!" he said.

Spike began racing toward Rock Steady as fast as he could go, jumping over the fragile obstacles and dodging between the standing poles. But before he got halfway there, Rock Steady reared, bellowed-- and began swinging his staff in every direction around him, knocking poles over and sending eggs flying, trampling the ones set on the ground under his feet.

"Hey!!" Spike yelled in outrage. "Stop that! No fair!!" Rock Steady ignored him and went on with his rampage, smashing eggs by the dozen, sweeping his staff through them like a scythe.

"I said stop it!!" Spike yelled, trying to dive between the fragile poles and dodge Rock Steady's wild swings at the same time.

"Make me!" Rock Steady said around the staff in his teeth. He took the staff by one end and spun in a circle, sending another dozen eggs to their yolkey doom.

"You jerk!" Spike charged, heedless of the two or three eggs he trampled himself. He began pummeling the guardpony about the head and shoulders with his staff, trying to drive him back.

...To no avail. The mountainous pony kept on causing as much collateral damage as he could. He dropped the staff and backed up a few steps, then deliberately stomped on an egg while Spike watched. "I can do two hunnerd pushups in my sleep," he said. "How many kin you do?" He lifted his enormous hoof and stomped on another.

"RRRAAAAAAHHHH!!" Spike lost it. He dropped his staff, reared back and spat a six foot gout of flame at Rock Steady's hooves. That did make Rock Steady back up. He danced backwards with a whoop of surprise as the flames singed his fetlocks, till he was clear of the obstacles.

"Was wonderin' when you'd finally do that," he said, snuffing out a few burning hairs on his fetlocks. "You gotta stop holding ba-- whoa!" Spike had charged him, yelling and swinging wildly. Rock Steady let him get a few whacks in, then tripped and pinned the dragonling to the ground with one hoof. "Easy, kid-- they're just eggs!"

Spike grappled with the hoof on his chest, trying to pry it away. "They're not just eggs, they're PEOPLE!!" he yelled. He froze, eyes wide in confusion as he realized what he'd said.

Rock Steady lifted his hoof. Spike scrambled to his feet, anger and confusion and dismay running across his face. He scurried over to the wreckage of the obstacle course, stepping delicately among the eggs, looking for something. He found one egg that had survived it's tumble to the grass and picked it up, cradling it in his claws. He stood for a moment, then crouched down, tail curled around his feet, a tiny armored ball of unhappiness.

The earth trembled lightly under him as Rock Steady slowly stepped up and stood behind him. The enormous pony didn't say anything.

"They're so tiny," Spike said. "Everypony is so tiny when you're that big. And so fragile. All it'd take is one misstep-- one slip-- and I could smash somepony into nothing. If I hadn't been as fast with my hands as I was, Rarity would have been smashed. Bright Eyes would have been a stain on the ground. And in the hospital, I saw ponies-- whole families-- who'd been in buildings I knocked down or tripped over..." He wiped his eyes on his arm. "I gotta be perfect. I gotta be."

"That ain't yore problem t' worry about," Rock Steady said bluntly.

"Yes it is!"--"

"No it ain't," Rock Steady said sternly. "All them ponies that got hurt. Those were our fault, not yours."

"How do you figure that?" Spike said scornfully.

"Cause it was our job-- the Guard's job-- to clear folks out of the battle zone," Rock Steady said soberly. "We weren't prepared. We got sloppy." He paused. "We got lucky.

"That's what this trainin's about," he said. He flopped down on the ground next to Spike, heedless of the crushed eggs and toppled poles. "Makin' sure we're all working together off the same page, the next time this kind of thing happens. That's why we got assigned to you."

"Really?" Spike said.

"Rock Steady and I each have a platoon, and they've both been assigned to this," Diamond Bright said. "We're to provide backup firepower, ground support, and to handle evacuation and cordoning off the battle zone when you, ah--" he made a 'growing' motion with one hoof.

"What he said," Rock Steady said. "That's our job; clearin' folks out so you can tackle the monster without worryin' about steppin' on nopony."

Bright Eyes had trotted over and joined them. "Wouldn't it be better if we just didn't step on stuff at all?" he asked soberly.

Rock Steady heaved a sigh that stirred the grass yards away. "Tell me, kid; didja ever wonder why we didn't fight back against King Sombra?"

Bright Eyes blinked. "Kinda, yeah," he admitted. When he'd been littler, hiding in the tunnels and sub-basements under the Crystal City, he'd been terribly angry about it. Why didn't anypony fight back? There were thousands of Crystal Ponies and just one Sombra!

"We did," Rock Steady said. "Some of us tried, anyway. But every time anypony did anything, anything at all--- Sombra would smash something. A building. A street full of ponies." Bright Eyes gasped. "a whole block full of buildings... Or he'd cut off rations so ponies starved. Or he'd have his soldiers drag a few hundred more ponies at random to the mines, for nothing." Rock Steady closed his eyes in pain and sighed again. "See, he had one big dirty cheating advantage over us; he didn't care how many ponies he hurt.

"Same reason I could smash alla them eggs without thinkin' about it. I can do pushups till the cows come home. You can't. I was willing to pay a higher price than you could. I didn't care how many eggs I broke cause it cost me nothing, and it cost you everything. And if you ever have to fight a dragon or a hydra or an ursa major or some other monster, and they figure that out, they'll have you over a barrel. You'll hold back, and they won't.

"That's why the Princesses put us with you. It's a good thing you're trying t' learn how to avoid breakin' stuff or hurtin' people by accident. But yer a big fella; stuff's gonna get broken, and yeah, ponies and other folk might get hurt. But streets can be paved, buildings can be fixed... and anypony who's out running around underneath a giant monster's feet, well, they knew the risks. But if you don't throw your all into fighting whatever bad guy you're facing, he'll roll right over you-- and destroy a whole lot more than he would have." Spike winced, but nodded.

"Next time you go out there-- and Maker willing it'll be a long, long time from now-- you let us worry about clearing the field; you just concentrate on kicking that sonuvabucker's plot." Rock Steady gave Spike a friendly nudge with his hoof. "All right?"

Spike nodded. "You got it."

Bright Eyes looked unusually somber. "I'm sorry, Spike," he said.

"What for?" Spike asked, puzzled.

Bright Eyes shrugged, a guilty look on his face. "I've been running around thinking this was all exciting and cool and--- not really thinking about what it's like for you," he confessed. "Or how dangerous or scary it could be. I was being a dumb foal, thinking it was all a big game--"

"Now hold on," Diamond Bright said, holding up a hoof. "Don't be too hard on yourself, now."

"Yeah," Spike said with a half laugh. "Even with all this heavy stuff, it's still pretty cool."

"Yeah, but-- now I feel kinda bad about it," Bright Eyes said. "When it happened it was all scary and exciting and wild---"

"Hey," Rock Steady said in his low, calm voice. "No matter who you are, you gotta like what yer doin', at least a little bit. Just 'cause what you're doing is serious don't mean you can't enjoy it. Stoppin' monsters and villains ought to feel good."

"Too right," Diamond Bright said enthusiastically. "You were the good guys, they were the bad guys, and they made a most satisfying THUMP when they hit the ground. What's not to like in that?"

The colt smiled, but only hesitantly. Rock Steady took note of it. Only one cure for it... He heaved himself to his feet. "Eh, enough lyin' down on the job," he said. He shook the dust and grass off himself. "They got a shootin' range around here?"

"Yes, just a short hop from here," Diamond Bright said. "Why?"

"Well, while we're running down the list on what all gear these boys have, and what-all training they need, we might as well have 'em test-fire that 'Rainbow Cannon,' whatever it is," the laconic red pony said.

That did the trick. "All riiiight!" Spike and Bright Eyes brohoofed.

Diamond Bright slumped fatalistically. "Very well," he said. "But let me go fetch my platoon."

"What for?"

"Because the Busters would never forgive me if I let them miss it."

1) Okay, BRIGHT EYES had taken to getting up early in the morning. Spike had taken to getting dragged out of bed.

2) Gleaned from various popular exercise programs, and not a few comic books.

3) Unofficial slogan: "Hey Y'all, watch THIS"

4) The most terrifying phrase in the S&S lexicon wasn't "Fire in the Hole" or even "Incoming!" but "I wonder what would happen if..."

5)Slogan: Si vobis primum non videmus. "Not if we see you first."

6) And did, on occasion, to the amusement of onlookers.