Swaggering into the armory, I looked around with a discerning eye. The breast plates around me were polished to perfection but riddled with dents and imperfections. Snorting, I turned away from them in disgust and moved further into the room, earning me a questioning look from Mac.
"Now what in tarnation is wrong with this here armor? Looks perfectly fine ta me!"
"Too many weak points a trained castle guard would pick up on in a second. The wearers would have to be extremely skilled to survive a battle in those. I'd suggest camouflaging them with mud and fake plants. It's stealthier and hides the weaknesses." Feeling confident, I continued looking at the armor until I finally found some I found satisfactory and tried it on. Miraculously, it fit my slender yet subtly muscled frame.
"Well, what da ya know? We've been tryin' ta find a pony that would fit that armor since we started organizin'! Didn't even think a putting it on a pegasus!" She seemed pleased with my choice and gave me another of her warm smiles.
Returning the beam, I studied the fit in the mirror. The gold offset my white coat and blue eyes, making me look equal parts fierce and beautiful.
"It's part of a set you know," said voices that seemed layered and dripped with masculinity as matching pieces of armor were magically attached to me. "You look lovely my dear."
Wings fully extended, I turned to confront my helpers, equally prepared to rip their faces off and to shake their hooves. One problem. Only one creature stood behind me, the King of the changelings. I knew who he was because he had once attempted to ruin Prince Tempo's wedding by stealing the bride under the Hate Prince's guise.
Knowing this likely pegged him as a good guy around here, I retracted my wings and nodded respectfully. "King Cocoon, it's been a long time."
"Have we… ah yes. I knew I recognized that pretty face; Dining Armour was it? The mare that caught the hearts of so many stallions in the castle. Hard to recognize you in all this armor, maybe you should take it off…," he moved closer as he said this and gently stroked my chin.
Shocked and disgusted, I promptly turned around and bucked him straight in the chest, finding myself oddly satisfied with the sickening crunch the action produced. Turning around, I saw that I'd knocked the king across the room and the sound had been caused by the crushing of a particularly weak piece of armor rather than his ribs.
Smirking cheekily, he strutted back over to me and leaned in close. "Nice try, but I defeated Solaris once. It'll take more than that to keep me down, Princess." That word, that one word, ran deep with mocking and sarcasm and sent rage coursing through my veins.
Acting scared, I lowered myself as if going into a bow. At the last second I used my knowledge of changelings to ram the top of my head into a weak point in his natural armor, effectively knocking all the air from his lungs. He fell to his knees as he gasped for air and I smiled cockily.
"If I were you, I'd say stay down like a good little king." I flipped my mane as I turned and strutted out of the room to where Mac was laughing hysterically at my victory.
Finally cracking up myself after processing what had just happened, I brohoofed her. We eventually noticed a copy of myself and Cocoon down the hall reenacting the scene silently before shape-shifting into changeling underlings and soundlessly laughing.
Still giggling, I managed to say, "Wow, that was pretty awesome wasn't it? I can't believe I actually did that!"
"Ah can! Prince Midnight's been talkin' 'bout how amazin' y'all are, an' Ah figure ya just proved 'im right."
"He said that? Huh, I never really thought I was all that good until I got here…," I trailed off as I heard a slight hoof fall behind me.
"Why, of course he said those things. Seems you've passed my little test with flying colors. At most I was expecting a hit to a leg joint, you really impressed me. I must say, I rather approve of Midnight's choice in officers." The cunning king was smiling warmly when I turned my head.
In response, I gave a cautious grin before saying, "Well that was without any weapons. If I'd had a sword or even just a dagger… well the changelings would need a new king. Speaking of which," I looked around, hoping to catch sight of a sign or something pointing me where I wanted to go, "where exactly is the weapons room? Makes sense to grab a knife or something at least before meeting the soldiers."
"Eeyup, it sure does! Ya wanna go down this hall an' ta your right, it's gonna be the first door on your left, Sugarcube. From there, our weapons pony'll help y'all out."
"Got it; thanks Mac!" Closing my eyes and humming one of my favorite songs, which just so happened to be about guns and war, I strode confidently down the hall. Perhaps a bit too confidently though, as I soon ran into another pony head-on and we tumbled to the ground. The other pony landed somewhat on top of me but not enough to crush me.
Without looking up, I immediately began apologizing. "Oh, I'm so sorry I just..., I didn't know there was anyone else in this hallway and-"
"No, it's alright. It was my fault really; I should've been watching where I was going. Why can't I ever do anything right…?"
The words were said gently and quietly, yet in a deep voice. I looked up and saw none other than THE Trixter. Baby blue coat, eyes just the right shade of purple, wavy white mane, there was no mistaking it. This was the pony that had often put on magnificent magic shows for the kings, even performing age spells without any magical aid. Yet he'd always stayed so humble, insisting he was nothing special.
"No way!" I exclaimed, I was a pretty big fan of his. "You're awesome, Trixter! Wow, I wouldn't have thought I'd find you here!"
"U-Um, thanks," he was blushing a bit, "but I'm really not anything special. Just a stallion with some magic tricks and weapon knowledge." Suddenly, he blushed bright red as if realizing something and quickly scrambled to get off of me. "A-Anyway… you're Dining Armour right? I-I've seen you a few times while I was performing at the castle. You're also supposed to be the new leading officer, right? We should get you some weapons." He led me down the hall and to the very room I'd been trying to find.
It. Was. Beautiful. All around me were all kinds of weapons, from swords to spears and even guns, something I definitely hadn't expected to see. A tear found its way down my face as I looked around. Quickly, I galloped over to the pegasus-friendly weapons and began drooling over the wing-fitted guns. I didn't recognize any specific models, more than likely they were improvised guns, but I didn't care.
That was when something in the knives section caught my eye. Similar to the guns in terms of wing-fit, a rig lined with sharp knives that seemed detachable. Feeling oddly drawn to the weapon, I quickly fitted them to my wings and headed to the practice area.
Immediately, Trixter tried to give me instruction on using the knife thrower, but I ignored him, trying my own way even as he was telling me something completely different.
Suddenly, my vision was overtaken by a bloodied field, castle guards and rebel soldiers littered the ground. In the middle of it all were four ponies. Midnight and I were on one side, staring down fiercely at Solaris and Tempo. They were both on their knees and were looking back up at us with fear; they knew they were completely helpless in this situation.
My vision cut back to the present and I swung my wing out slightly with the intent to hit the target dead center.
The knives flew through the air silently and, surprisingly as it had been my first attempt, with deadly precision, hitting the practice dummy directly between the eyes.
Trixter's jaw practically hit the floor alongside my own as we stared incredulously at my work. "Di-Did I do that? I was just trying my own thing an-"
I was caught off as a faint glowing came from beneath my armor, right on my flank. Panicking slightly, I removed the plating at lightning speed to be confronted by a white pair of wings, outlined in deep red, lined with what looked like silvery feathers, but they ended in wicked points.
"M-My cutie mark…." I fought back my confusion, my pride, my tears, my joy, all of it and simply wrapped my neck around Trixter's in a pony's version of a hug. "Thank you."
"Y-You're… welcome?" I could tell he didn't really understand what was going on but I didn't offer an explanation, instead I backed away and got ready to throw a few more knives at the target. Paying special attention to my aim this time, I flicked my wing slightly and managed to hit all three main vital points (the brain, heart and lungs) with one throw.
"You showed me my calling. Saving the entirety of Equestria… don't act like you weren't the one who showed me all that." Calmly, I turned to him and smiled, but he only looked confused.
"I'm not acting…," he said seeming completely serious.
"Maybe you showed yourself, Dining." Midnight walked in, calm as ever, and looked right at me. "Time to meet your soldiers." With that his horn began to glow and I knew he was going to teleport us somewhere.
Then I was in a black, empty void….