I sighed looking at the ceiling of my living room. After clean up, which lasted for days, I was finally able to rest, Celestia relaxed more around me, which in turn, finally made everyone relax around me fully, just was what I wanted.

“That’s not fair!” Lilly shouted, I looked at her and Dodge. Four Dodges were holding her down and the main Dodge was smiling. Lilly had been learning a lot faster than I thought, especially in fighting. It now took at least four to hold her down.

“Hey you’re the one that didn’t set rules.”

“No Splitn’!”

“Too late, I won.” Lilly sighed.

“Hey you two, how’s it going?” I asked and they looked at me. All the Dodges went into the original one.

“Great.” Lilly said getting up.

“I’ve gotten to two percent!”

“In a week, wow, that’s big.”

“Yes it is, I’ve worked hard to get’ there!” I smiled as she came over to me.

I pet her and pulled her close to me. I was acting far too much like a father would. If it wasn’t for the fact I enjoyed it, I would’ve just had Trixie shouldered everything, which she had also started to enjoy having them around the house. She used them like mini work horses for things she needed. They made a game out of everything.

“What’s two plus nine?” I asked with a smile.

“Eleven.”

“One times two?” She paused.

“Um.” She looked around for a moment. “Two?”

“Correct.” She smiled as I pet her. “You are getting so smart.” She nuzzled me a little and I pulled her closer to me petting her.

“Enjoying Lilly?” Trixie asked walking down stairs yawning and then smiling.

“She’s getting really smart. I doubt you’ll find another four year old which is as smart as her.” Trixie came over and sat down next to me, she pulled Lilly from me to her and licked the back of her neck.

“You get so messy, I swear.” Lilly whined a little. Trixie had almost started acting like Lilly was her own filly. I didn’t question it, and Lilly didn’t complain. I pulled Dodge over and pet her a little making her smile. Dodge wasn’t living, she couldn’t feel love, but treating her like she was real made Lilly feel less alone than she was.

“So what are you going to do today?” Trixie asked and I looked at her.

“Nothing planned, we finished yesterday with the bodies, we’re lucky they didn’t fully rot, would’ve been messy. As for everything else, it’s moving just fine, the factory and foundry have been started, it’ll take a while longer for that.”

“Next monster attack?”

“Around a week, that one’s not too big. It’s just the fire bunnies, it’s more of a pest control than an actual attack, or well more I hope so. For all I know, they now have a leader bunny and are charging Filly Delphia by now.”

“Seffron!” Applejack yelled.

“I did not just jinx that! I did not just jinx that!” I shouted into the air. I got up and went to the door opening it. “Do not say fire bunnies are attacking.” She paused.

“Wah?”

“Never mind, what?”

“Oh I just got some free time, I figured you could help with training, and whatnot.” I turned around.

“Sure, let me grab Lilly.”

“Lilly? Oh right, that one filly.” I went over to Lilly and picked her up, putting her onto my shoulder strapping her down.

I had left her with Trixie while I did clean up, but for anything else I had her on my shoulder. I didn’t want to risk her being alone, and while Trixie was very powerful, she always left Lilly alone, even if only for a minute at one point or another. I picked up Dodge and put her on my other shoulder. I went over to Applejack and she stared at Dodge for a few seconds.

“Ready?” I asked.

“I, um, I didn’t know ya had two fillies.” I paused, I hadn’t told any of them about Dodge, in fact I never brought Dodge out of the house, this was the first time she was going to be going outside for more than a few seconds.

“Oh this is Dodge, anyway, let’s go.” She swallowed a little bit clearing her throat.

“Sure.” I followed her and she kept looking at Dodge nervously. “So, Dodge wasn’t it?” I looked at Applejack for a few seconds.

“Yep.” Applejack stopped hearing her voice. She quickly moved up keeping pace with me again. “Whatcha want?”

“Oh, I’m just wondering, where ya from?”

“Ponyville.”

“I thought Lilly came from Dodge.”

“She did, but I was made in Ponyville.”

“Applejack is everything alright?” I asked and she looked at me.

“Yep, I’m, no I’m not fine, I’m sorry.” She stopped making me stop. “That pony just looks way too much like me, and sounds too much like me, and it’s bothering me. I don’t know why, but I just.”

“What?”

“Where did you get her? She’s too much like me to not be related, where did she come from, who’s her parents?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain, she’s more like a magic doll.”

“Say what now?” We kept walking.

“She’s not living, she’s a doll.” I popped off her head and Dodge giggled, I put it back on making Applejack’s eyes go big. “See, I can’t let Lilly play with others so I made her a friend to play with. Dodge teaches and trains her, saves me the trouble, and is very life like so Lilly doesn’t feel alone.”

“Really? Why did ya make it look and sound like me?”

“I didn’t, you see Lilly named it Dodge and it took traits related to the name, plus traits from Lilly, like her accent, and general needs. The perfect doll for her, it looks and sounds perfectly for her.”

“That’s really creepy, sorry, but it is.”

“I can have her go home.”

“Na, don’t worry about it, Apple Bloom will have a field day, two new fillies just her age, and both of them having blank flanks. Her little club will go nuts.”

“Dodge what’s your rating?”

“Twenty two.” Dodge said.

“I suppose if we move that to forty we can have you protect her just fine.”

“What rating’?” Applejack asked.

“Combat rating, she can also fight and defend. The higher it is the better she is, but I don’t want to go too high, too high and she puts defense overall else, won’t be much of a talker like that.” We jogged and got to her farm. “Actually could I meet Apple Bloom and her group, I want to check a few things.”

“Sure.” We walked into the apple fields going to a tree house, we went up to the door.

“Then we’re gonna.” Applejack knocked. “Quick hide it!” She opened the door walking inside looking at three fillies. “Hey sis.”

“Don’t be doing anything troubling now.”

“We won’t.”

“Okay now introduce yourself.”

“I’m Apple Bloom!” A yellow filly with red hair said.

“I’m Scootaloo.” A orange filly with red-ish purple hair said.

“I’m Sweetie Belle.” A white filly with two tone purple hair said. All three didn’t have cutie marks and were rather odd in appearance. They seemed stressed and unnerved for some reason I didn’t know. I set Dodge and Lilly down.

“This is Dodge and Lilly.” I said sitting down.

“Hey!” They all said excited.

“Wait!” I said pushing them back. “I need to explain a few things, first of all Dodge isn’t a real filly, she’s a doll, so you can do whatever you want with her, but she is not to leave Lilly’s side for any reason. Anywhere Lilly goes she goes.” They all nodded. “Now as for Lilly.” I pet her a little. “They are normal, don’t go hurting them.”

“We won’t.” The three said.

“And that’s all I have to say really, Dodge you know how to act, keep all of them safe alright.” She nodded.

“I will be watching you all.” She said appearing behind them and making them jump, startled. “You won’t escape me.” She grinned.

“Oh no you don’t, you ain’t gonna get them!” Lilly said jumping over them all and tackling Dodge to the ground. “Sorry bout’ that, she likes sneaking’ up on pony which aren’t expecting it.”

“Not like you can stop me.” Dodge rolled and split into six. They all stared and I chuckled. “I’m gonna get ya all.”

“We better leave before we get pulled in.” I said to Applejack.

“But, but she just.” I chuckled pulling her out of the tree house, giggles soon filled the air from all of them. We started walking again. “That’s some doll.”

“Yeah, I had six of them when I was a baby, but mine weren’t so nice, I learned how to fight or die.”

“Ya sure that’s alright?”

“Oh yeah, it can heal them, and it won’t let them get hurt. It’s made for fillies, teaches them and stuff. Anyway you said something about training?”

“Yeah, and we’re late!” We started to run. We got to a barn and three ponies were waiting for us in fully golden armor.

“They look nice.” I said with a smirk.

“Everyone stand to!” Applejack ordered and they got up lining up in a row. “This is Caption Seffron, our head commander. He is not from our world, but has defended us against the Bog, Egg Con, and the Oaka. You may have heard stories of him, and he’s more than what they say. Now introduce yourselves and step forward!”

“I am Lieutenant Spear.” An elder purple earth pony said stepping forward. “I am ready for battle.”

“Next.” Applejack said and he stepped back.

“I am second lieutenant Epee.” A silver unicorn said stepping forward, he was much older than Applejack. “I am ready for battle.”

“No need to say you’re ready for battle, just names.” I said and he stepped back. The next one stepped forward.

“I am third lieutenant Bouclier.” A green pegasus said, he was about the same age as Applejack, he stepped back.

“These three are decorated royal guards,” Applejack said. “They were personally hoof chosen by Celestia. They have seen the most battle.”

“Is that so?” I asked and none of them lost composure. “Spear, tell me, if you were outnumbered ten to one by timber wolves, trapped in a trench, you had five untrained pegasus which couldn’t fly, and had no armor. The enemy is moving in from the north, west and south, you were ordered to hold position, what would you do?”

“I would fight.”

“And in doing so you would get killed and lose your position anyway. You would fall back, you can’t ever let them surround you. If you’re in that situation, wasting even one life is not acceptable. You’re lives matter, you should know when orders aren’t smart.”

“Yes sir.”

“Bouclier.”

“Yes sir.” He said stepping forward.

“You just hiked across desert into a rock bed area and it is raining hard, floods are likely, you have a trained group of fifty soldiers, all earth pony, so you they can’t fly to higher ground like you can. You heard waves coming from the north, there is nowhere to hide, what do you do, you have less than a minute before the waves reach you.”

“I would.” He paused. “I would group all my soldiers together, tie rope to make an arrow with the heaviest ponies and put them at the front so when they waves came they could divert most of the water away allowing none of my soldiers to get washed away. Then I would have them move till we found higher ground.”

“Good, now Epee, you have an army of a thousand soldiers at your command, mixed between all three, equal in size. You are needed to slow a dragon coming for your main base, if he gets past you, then he’ll completely wipe out the entire army, which is fighting against thousands of other creatures. No aid is going to come no matter how long you wait, but you need to hold out for at least ten minutes, there is a river nearby, but no trees or any cover. How would you stall the dragon?”

“I would split my soldiers into groups, then annoy the dragon with attacks, doing my best to have it change which group it was attacking, constantly.”

“The dragon catches on, your small attacks aren’t doing enough damage, you still have to hold for five more minutes, and gathering any of your groups together would cause the dragon to kill that group. What now?”

“I would have all my unicorns shoot it even while being separated, while it wouldn’t kill it, it would slow it down, I would then have my pegasus attack it’s wings.”

“Okay over half of your pegasus were wiped out, but the wing of the dragon are burned away from it. It falls and gets up even more mad, now what?”

“I would try to keep it angry and distract it for as long as possible.”

“You have completed your mission, how do you escape? No aid is coming, and the dragon is even more pissed than ever before.”

“I would.” He paused. “Head for the main base.”

“And lose two thirds of the rest of your army in your escape, as well as lead a very pissed dragon into your main base hoping they weren’t over run from their attackers.”

“Ah.”

“You’ve just been wiped out because your main base was overrun. What you should have done is move across the river, the dragon wouldn’t have been able to swim and would have sunk in the river bed drowning it. It was enraged, it wouldn’t have realized it shouldn’t do that, and none of your soldiers would’ve died, maybe burned, but you got water to hide under.”

“Yes sir, but what’s the chances of fighting a dragon?”

“I’m a dragon.” I said appearing in front of him and he backed up. “If I was taken control of, how would you deal with me?!” I growled and he swallowed. “Getting attacked by a dragon or several is very likely, and easily possible. You need to learn the weakness of every beast and every creature you might fight. Dragons are powerful, fast, and smart. They are some of the most powerful creatures in the world, you need to be ready.”

“Yes sir.”

“How would we do it without losing any soldiers?” Bouclier asked and I smiled.

“That’s the question I wanted, aim for the eyes, a blind dragon is a weak dragon, then aim for the trail wings, a broken winged bind dragon is a dead dragon. It’ll fall to the ground, while dragons are very strong, their bones will break from any far fall. The downed dragon wouldn’t be able to move, you would then retreat leaving a small force to keep it there and assist your main base and fight off the incoming force.”

“And if we miss?” I chuckled.

“You wouldn’t, dragons are too prideful, they wouldn’t think you had enough power to do them harm, but they are so wrong, it just takes one shot, not much. They would fly low and slow, perfect targets.”

“Yes sir.”

“So?” Applejack asked.

“They aren’t even rookie commanders, they might as well be new recruits, but they are fit and able to learn. They’ll be ready by the time we have a real battle, the next one will be a good training exercise.”

“Next one?” Spear asked.

“Fire bunnies.” Spear and Epee chuckled a little, I smiled seeing Bouclier frown. “Speak your mind.” He looked at me.

“Well the fire bunnies are very fast, have razor sharp teeth, claws, and can light on fire at will. Just one of them can burn down an entire crop field in seconds, they eat ashes so they do that on purpose.” Spear and Epee stared at him.

“And a herd of a few hundred to a few thousand will be attacking Filly Dellphia in a week, since you know about them, you’ll be in command of all squads till real rank can be given out properly. How many recruits do we have?” I looked at Applejack.

“We have about four hundred here,” Applejack started. “We only have a hoof full of gear, and that’s because some of them brought armor and gear themselves.”

“Bouclier, how would we beat an army of fire bunnies?”

“Well we would have capture them in a box and let them burn themselves out, but hundreds I wouldn’t know.”

“Same idea, but we just make a large ground box, we pile them in and let them burn themselves out, or we blow them up with explosive. Now then, Applejack where are the training grounds?”

“There’s an area to the west of Ponyville, behind ma fields, there were simple buildings created.”

“Good, Epee and Spear, start running.” They ran past me and I sighed. “Applejack, on my back.” I grew changed to a minimized dragon form, but I was still three times my normal size. “Bouclier, fly with me, you’ve gained my favor so far.”

“Yes sir.” We walked outside and took to the air. I looked down at a small encampment of ponies. Ponies started running around and I grunted a little bit landing. I looked around and not a single pony was in sight.

“This isn’t even funny!” I roared. I shrunk down and Applejack got off of me as I changed back to my normal Celestia high form.

“GET YOUR SORRY HIDES OUT HERE!” Applejack commanded and ponies fell into line making a long single line.

“Make groups of six! Evenly spaced!” I shouted and they did it bumping into each other rather messily. “We are so screwed. Listen up, from now on you will be in groups of six, look at your row, that’s your teams for training. Applejack, would you like to?”

“Alright, I see some beer bellies! I want those gone! Start running, ten laps!” They started to run going onto a track. “Should I be running with them?”

“If you like.” I pet her a little. “You look pretty fit to me.” She chuckled and started to run. “Bouclier you to.” He nodded and started to run.

I walked a little, then punched into the ground and then blew fire into it making a ton of small gems pop out of the ground. I snapped my claws making them all float, then a symbol appeared on them, as a pin and handle appeared on them. I blew fire roasting them all in seconds and the symbols melted into them.

I put all the gems into boxes setting up a wide wall and then dummies on sticks far away from it. Applejack finished first with Bouclier and came over to me smiling. Ponies lined up at the boxes on a guess making me smile.

“I hope every pony enjoyed that run!” A lot of them were breathing really hard and a few threw up. “Good, now then every pony, listen up!” I held up a gem. “Say hello to the gem grenade, take one out of the box and pass it back, do not pull the pin!”

“Now what?” Applejack asked being in her own little area with Bouclier.

“Look at it, this is a weapon, the first you’ll get to know of many, it explodes, and sends fragments of gems into everything. I will show you how to use it, hold down the handle, and then pull the pin. Then throw!” I threw it, it hit a dummy sticking to it right on the chest of the pony shaped dummy. It exploded making ponies take cover a little. “The red ones stick! So don’t toss it to a friend! Now then, once you release the handle after being pulled, you have about five seconds before it explodes. Don’t be holding it.”

“Um,” Applejack said. “How are we suppose to pull the pin?”

“Teeth.” There was like a wide spread, OOOOO among them all. “Throw one and then move to the back.” They all started to throw them and they couldn’t even get close, ponies weren’t used to throwing gems. I caught a bad throw and frowned at the pony. It blew up in my hand and it didn’t even scratch me.

“Crap.” The earth pony said moving down scared.

“Two laps.” I growled and he started running. “Now do not mess up! These things will kill!” They finished after a while and I smiled seeing the sun go down. “Congrats! You all made it through the first day!” They cheered and I chuckled making some of them nervous. “Time for night training every pony!” They went silent. Spear and Epee finally showed up joining Applejack’s group. I smiled a little.

“Don’t you think we’ve done enough for the first day?” Applejack asked.

“Actually I do need to go check on Lilly, um, dinner?” She nodded.

“DINNER!” She shouted and they started running. She got onto my back and I flew back to her farm quickly landing. “So that grenade gem, that was cool, but where did you get them’? I mean I didn’t see dem’ before we started running.”

“I made them while you were, till we get the factory and foundry up and running, they won’t be able to get geared or armed. The grenades will be the only weapon against the fire bunnies that we will have. So they will have to get used to them and throw like pros.”

“Right.”

We went to the tree house and lights were on inside. Little screams could be heard and then laugher. We went up quietly and opened the door. I grinned seeing Dodge putting on a play by herself.

“And we will finish this next time.” Dodge said and all her doubles merged into her. All of them stomped their hooves on the ground.

“Glad to see you all happy.” They looked at me surprised and Dodge smiled. “Was that the street mare?” She nodded. “Good one.”

“Street mare?” Applejack asked.

“It’s a murder mystery, but a funny one. It’s about a mare that makes its victims laugh so hard that they die. It’s a real laugh.” I chuckled and she smiled a little bit. “Anyway, Lilly, Dodge, it’s time to get home.”

“Aaaa.” They all whined.

“Next time Lilly.” Scootaloo said hoof pounding her. “And Dodge you gotta tell us who the villain was next time!” She hoof pounded her as well.

“Will do.” Dodge said smiling.

“Yeah it was fun.” Apple boom said hugging Lilly.

“See you later.” Sweetie Belle said hugging her as well. I put both Dodge and Lilly on my shoulder.

“Bye!” Lilly said waving and I walked outside flying off and going home. I landed and walked inside.

“You’re back, how did it go?” Trixie said walking over to us.

“Pretty good all things considered.”

“Dinners ready.”

“That’s great.” I smiled, while this world was going to test my nerves, it was going to be a lot of fun, I had let so much slip away from me.

The week moved along and they learned nicely becoming decent soldiers, we headed to Filly Delphia and readied for the battle.