Starlight Rising

It was not long after dismissing the troops that Starlight arrived at the armory. When she arrived Steel Mane, the head of the armory asked, "Hello, may I help you?"

Starlight replied, "I need to be fitted for armor as soon as possible."

Steel Mane couldn't help but laugh, "What, you need to be fitted for armor?" His laughing only grew louder as he continued, "But you're a mare! Why in Equestria would you have to be fitted for armor?"

Starlight grabbed him in her aura and sternly replied, "Listen, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have been taken captive by Chrysalis and her changeling army so I am going to lead the unicorn guard ponies into the wastes of southern Equestria to rescue our princesses."

Steel Mane continued to laugh, "Oh come on, an ordinary unicorn mare is going to do that?" He calmed down but sneered, "Oh and what makes YOU so special? Why isn't the royal guard contacting Shining Armor or getting Twilight and her friends to go use the Elements on Chrysalis?"

Starlight was slowly growing furious with Steel Mane. She ripped his cutie mark off and snapped, "Listen, I am Celestia's protege and I have knowledge in more than just magic. We don't have time to contact Shining Armor and because of Twilight being under the control of another pony AND the Elements being in the Tree of Harmony, those are not viable options." She released her hold and allowed his cutie mark to return to him, "Listen, I am training with the new army this afternoon so I need to be fitted ASAP."

Despite getting his cutie mark back, he was still a bit shaken up but realized that he had best measure her. He replied, "Ok, I'll measure you but I can't just make your armor right away. Creating armor takes time."

Starlight laughed, "Wanna bet? Just measure me and I'll take care of the rest."

Steel Mane sighed, "Ok but I doubt you can just make armor appear."

He measured her and using those measurements, Starlight grabbed the proper materials and like she did with making a cake several months ago, she quickly turned those materials into armor. He looked at her and gasped, "Wait a minute, how did you do that?"

Starlight laughed, "When you're as powerful as me, you can do anything you want." She looked around and continued, "Now I'll just need a helmet, a sword and a spear."

Before he could reply she grabbed a helmet that would fit her and grabbed a sword and a spear. She glared at him and continued, "Oh, and I think it would be best if you don't mention Twilight being under the control of another pony nor the fact that our princesses have been captured to any civilians. We don't need ponies panicking around here."

With the confidence Starlight carried and how she seemed to know so much about what was going on, Steel Mane could tell she was running the show. He replied, "Ok Starlight, my lips are sealed."

Starlight nodded and took off towards the base of Canterlot Mountain. When she arrived she saw the soldiers laughing over simple things and speculating over her legitimacy. She yelled, "ATTENTION!"

This caused the troops to stand at attention. She continued, "Alright troops, I want us to be ready for battle as soon as possible."

One of the soldiers asked, "And how are we going to train for this? None of us even know anything about how to attack changelings. The most we know about is freeing one another by firing energy at allies that are covered in ooze and using magic to reveal changelings that have taken the form of other ponies."

Starlight replied, "Excellent question soldier. I have done plenty of research on changelings and I have learned that they aren't as tough as they are made out to be."

One soldier asked, "Oh, and what makes you say this?"

Starlight replied, "Well, as you all remember the first time Chrysalis and her army attacked Canterlot there were no casualties and given the nature of that attack, if they are as strong as they are made out to be, there should have been casualties." She began to levitate and intensely continued, "While they can't kill us we can kill them."

One of the soldiers asked, "Oh, and how do we do this?"

Starlight pointed at her chest, her neck and her head. She replied, "By striking them where they are vulnerable. Now you can strike them in the lower abdomen or their legs and it won't harm them that much. However, like us, they do have hearts so if you strike them in the heart they will die. Also, if you behead them or ram a spear into their brain, they will die."

One soldier sneered, "Oh, and how are we supposed to practice for this?"

Starlight used her magic to create some replica changelings. She pointed at them and replied, "Like this." She began her attack and like real ones, it could move around the same way as a real one. While it took her a little while, she was able to bring it down. She turned to her troops and asked, "Any questions?"

One soldier replied, "Yeah, what about Chrysalis? I'm sure she has to be handled a different way."

Starlight replied, "You don't need to worry about that. I will handle her myself." She pointed towards her replica changelings and yelled, "Charge!"

Immediately Starlight and her troops began firing at the changelings, knocking them out of the sky. The soldiers were quick to strike them with their weapons before they could recover from being stunned. Throughout the exercise, Starlight continued to create more and more replicas to keep the exercise going. After three hours of non-stop training, Starlight stopped creating replicas and the last of them were taken out.

Starlight saw this and was impressed. She said, "Well troops, we did well. A couple more days of training and I think we should be ready to launch our counter attack and save the princesses."

Given that Starlight had trained just as hard as they did, they were all sold on the plan of following her into battle. They could tell she had the knowledge, self-confidence and composure to do this. The only thing that they were unsure about was how they would handle the march to the southern wastes as it is no short journey.