The day had gone along smoothly after the talk with Princess Luna, by now the sun had reached it's highest point for today and Alex sat in the living room,contemplating what he should bring along for this expedition he had been assigned on. He had to admit that he had no idea at all on what may await him. Sighing deeply he decided that he would have to ask someone for advice on those matters, getting up he began wandering the suites halls, it's floors surprisingly barren of any movement, reminding him once more on just how huge Blue's suite was.

"At this pace I will get ready..." He mumbled as he leaned against one of the marble walls, his eyes closed. "Heck, I would not even know where to get the supplies..." He decided to head back into the living room, to see if Nox or Sweet Slumber had returned as well. To his delight he found Nox sitting in one of the soft armchairs, reading a very old looking, heavy book.

"Heya Nox." Alex called out to the changeling who jumped a bit but smiled when he looked at him." What are you reading there?"

"It is a old book on the changeling hives, how they work,their differences and what is known so far about the different hive queens. I thought since we will travel to them, that knowledge would be useful right?" Alex nodded in agreement and scolded himself for not having thought of that himself. "But besides that, should you not get ready? Like pack some supplies, choose a armor for yourself, a weapon, all that?"

Alex shuffled around embarrassed a bit as he spoke slowly. "I....don't really know where to get those supplies, or where the armory is, neither what weapon would work for me...."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you don't know the layout of the place yet." He closed the book with a grin." Well then let me help you , I am not only a guard in this suite but also the top armory expert in here if I say so myself." He hopped from the armchair after placing the book on a table. "Follow me then, next stop the suites personal armory!" With that he began galloping down one of the suite halls.

"Wait! Nox I am not that fast!" Alex yelped as he did his best to follow the rushing changeling.

After a few minutes with Alex running after the changeling they arrived at two moderately big oak doors. The human was breathing quite hard as he looked at the ornaments that had been carved into the wood, it showing a sword and a shield. It all was topped off with Blueblood's cutie mark stretching over the top of both doors.

The changeling turned around to Alex and held his hooves in a kinda ceremonial position. "Alex Terris, I welcome you to this suites royal armory, may it help you find whatever you see for our mission!" He chuckled and turned, pushing the doors open.

Once the doors were opened fully torches were lit magically inside the armory, burning in blue flames they casted a beautiful blue glow onto the inside. What Alex saw made him almost drop his jaw. Inside of a huge room with many doors to the sides were many mannequins placed which held a wide array of armor sets were placed, all of different types and for different uses, from the light leather and chainmail armor for nimble archers or assassins to the heavy plated armor for knights of the heavy caliber. On the walls on the left side hung up were shields of any kind. On the right side however hung and stood all kinds of weapons, from short swords, over more long swords, curved blades of any kind, two handed weapons, pole arms and everything that the mind could ever wish for.

"Quite the view eh? Now, come on in and look around and choose what interests you the most." Nox called as he walked inside, Alex following close behind, still marveling at the sight.

Once inside Alex looked closer at the armor sets, his brows furrowing slowly. "This is indeed amazing, I cannot thank you enough for showing me this but Nox....I see a problem here. " Nox looked back at him, a eyebrow raised in a questioning motion. "All those great armor sets here, were made for Ponies, not humans. " He chuckled softly while rubbing his chin.

Nox gasped in realization and nodded. "You are completely right, how could that have slipped my mind, what to do, what to do.....? " He paced around for a few seconds, mumbling to himself in thoughts before his face lit up with excitement. "I got it!! Just you wait here!" And with that he zoomed away at high speed, diving into the deepest parts of the armory. Only a few minutes later, a weird array of seemingly clutter on his back that he promptly dropped to the floor.

"Uhh....Nox, what is that?" Alex asked the changeling who beamed up at him with excitement in his bright eyes.

"This isa armor set of older times. Many years ago when Princess Luna had not been banished to the moon, the ponies apparently had a pact with the minotaurs. Through that Canterlot's blacksmiths got tasked with the forging of armor sets made for the minotaurs, at least that is what I was told by Prince Blueblood. Now I know that you do not truly fit their body type but it is the best we have so far, so put on what you can and see how you move in it." Nox smiled as he pushed the armor over to Alex who looked at it with a look of doubt.

He began separating the different pieces of armor, to see what he was dealing with, ending up with a simple chainmail shirt which still had a metallic shine to it, a old and much to big looking helmet which seemed to have rusted quite a bit,two slender leather gauntlets that were supported with some metal plating worked into it, something that Alex could only describe as a old, brown,knight mantle with many holes in it, as if moths had feasted on it. Besides that there were some seemingly simple looking cloth leggings, same with the upper body part of the armor, which seemed to have many small pouches for trinkets, still seemingly just made from brown cloth to which he rose a eyebrow to which Nox smirked.

"I bet you are thinking the material this set is made from is just simple leather or normal clothing you are very mistaken. This armor set is something different, to a certain degree." Nox explained with a wide grin on his face.

"Oh really?" Alex nodded with a questioning look. "What is so special about it?" He picked up the mantle, to be surprised when it felt not like normal leather but rather that he could feel a certain hardness to it, which was baffling to him, also felt it a bit more heavy than a normal mantle should.

"Like I said this set is from the times when Ponies were allied with the minotaurs by a pact of peace, through that both races flourished as recourses and crafts, as well as knowledge ran freely between them. A byproduct of said pact were these armors, a mix between the masterfully forging skills of the minotaur blacksmiths and the best materials given by the ponies. This sets seemingly harmless cloth is made from a ore found in the dragon lands, the name given to that ore is duritiam and it is one of the sturdiest materials I have seen so far , if you look closely at this seemingly normal leather you will see it is made from a mix between normal cloth, leather and strings of woven duritiam. "Alex let his fingers run over the hood of the mantle, however he was not able to distinguish the leather form the metal.

"But wait Nox, if you had that metal, why did you not make full armors out of it after finding it?" Alex asked, looking up from the armor.

"Because once the dragons found out they had such a valuable ore in their lands, they claimed ownership on the rights to mine it, defending it by force. Through that we apparently had a very small amount of said ore to use freely, so they decided to use it as sparingly as possible, again. One of the results you see before yourself. Again, about all of the history stuff, this is just what the Prince told me." Nox walked over to the weapons side of the armory, admiring the swords and polearms.

Alex rubbed his beard in thought. "But if this is not fully woven from said metal, what use does this cloth have?"

"Well, I cant say that it will work in all cases, but there is a chance that hits with bladed or spiked weapons like spears and swords will simply glide off it only dealing the force of said hit to you, without cutting or piercing you, however that wont work everytime I fear, sorry but that is the best I can offer you. Also, against blunt weapons it does not really help." The changeling admitted with his ears hanging low and a worried expression on his face.

Alex could not help but just smile warmly at that. "It is fine buddy, heck I am glad you even found a set for me, some protection is better than no protection, should I put it on right now?"

"After you chose your main weapon and sidearm. " Nox waved with his hoof, making the human make his way over to the changelings side and look at the wall before them. " Now I always find it more easier to choose a sidearm first before deciding on a main weapon, so tell me, what are you most familiar with?"

Alex eyes were drawn to one section of the wall where different kinds of daggers and knives as well as had been placed before it and hung up on it. "Back home I used to be quite good with knives, however some of these daggers look amazing to me."

"Daggers eh? Not a bad choice. Well which one do you want? There are many so choose wisely." The human nodded and looked at the wide array of daggers and short swords, which he believed to have seen in some martial arts movie back home on earth. His view halted when he stopped at a pair of two identical short swords. They had a relatively wide blade, however their length was not more than his fist and his lower arms, he assumed their blades to be around 12 inches long, the handles had a smooth but useful steel guard that, so he assumed, could be used both for parrying and attacking up close.

Following the humans look a smile grew on the changelings face. "Butterfly swords? Good pick, although they do need a bit time to master, go ahead, pick them up, see how they feel, weight and all you know, can't use a weapon that throws you off balance after all." Nodding Alex stretched up and piked the two short swords up while Nox disappeared for a second to return with fitting sheaths for the blades.

Alex smiled as he lifted the weapons in each hand, weighing them. "They feel good, a bit heavy for their size but I think I can work with them.....now that I see this up close though, how do earth ponies or for that matter anyone without hands or magic use weapons like swords and the likes of that? Or scissors for that matter, I know there was a hair stylist in Ponyville, yet I never wondered how they did their work until now."

Nox looked at him with a surprised look on his face. "Wait, you lived in the same town as the princess of friendship and yet you were not educated on how everything works in Equestria?"

Alex sighed with a very sarcastic expression. "Yeah, because her being the direct student of Celestia would make her so inclined to speak, let alone teach anything to me right? She would just want to cuddle me all the time huh?"

"Oh yeah, right I kinda forgot about that one....sorry I asked, anyways then I will just have to do that, as good as I can that is." The changeling walked over to a small wooden table and sat down on one of the two, three legged stools that stood around it while Alex seated himself on the other one.

Nox cleared his throat then looked at Alex. " You see, every living thing and sometimes even inanimate objects in this world have a certain amount of magic within them. That magic does not always have to be as obvious as the pony unicorns or us changelings use it. For example, pegasi being able to manipulate the weather and their cloud walking, the minotaurs with their higher than normal skill in forging and crafting, the dragons with their fire and immunity to most kinds of harm and so on, everything has a certain amount of magic within it."

"But what does that have to do with you or any earth pony holding and operating scissors or heck, hold anything in the first place?" Alex mused while looking at the changelings hooves.

"I was going to get that now. What to you seems like a thing of impossibility is simply a way of ponies to use said magic within them, same for me." Alex raised a eyebrow at that. "It is like.....how do I explain it.....a very flexible version of short range telekineses or magnetism. When we approach a object with the wish to pick it up and use it, our magic makes that possible, however for whatever reason, this only applies to our hooves and if our concentration on the act of holding and using it is broken we will drop said item, like if in a fight someone were to parry my mace and try to disarm me, it would work as intended.So in short, through our innate magic we are able to use items with our hooves but only when we also know how to use them, therefore training is still needed. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah I think that should do it for now, maybe I will read up about it later on if I get the time. " Alex stood back up and looked at the weapon assortment again.

"Oh yeah!" Nox jumped up. "You haven't chosen your main weapon yet, go right ahead. Take your time."

Alex looked over the many weapons, his view staying on the sword section. "Hmm...Really hard to decide....what would you advise me?"

"Hmm....It should be a weapon that fits to the short swords....so something fast, a sword.....maybe a rapier....no takes too much skill to use effectively..." With that Nox went towards the swords, mumbling away all the while until he picked one up and held it to the human. "Here, the falchion, a simple to use but effective and trusty sword. Although this ones design is from Germaney a country overseas."

Alex looked at the blade that was before him with big eyes, he assumed the blade to be almost 32 inches long, it being slightly curved towards the end. With a smile he took the handle of the blade while Nox once again left to get the fitting sheath he felt how said blade felt in his hand, it having a good weight, at least he thought so. "I like it but why especially this blade?"

"Well partially because of it's curve at the end, so hits with it can slide in between ribs easier. Now don't be mad if but....have you ever handled a sword before?" Alex cringed deeply at that question.

"Uhhh....no, I have not, is that bad?" He sheathed the swords he had chosen.

"Kinda yeah but I guess we gotta go with it, good thing I gave you this sword then. In any case put on your armor, strap on your weapons and tell me how you feel." Alex nodded and began under the changelings watchful eyes, although letting the helmet stay on the ground.

"Feels a bit heavy but overall good, does not feel bad. I will have to get used to it though I think. The helmet though I cannot deal with, way too big and heavy for me I fear." Alex crossed his arms, smiling happily.

"Good then I would say you go and find Sweet Slumber while i get ready myself. See you infront of Princess Luna's suite. Also keep your armor on, gotta make a good impression for the mission after all right?" Alex chuckled with a nod and left the armory with a jokey salute to the changeling.

After a hour of traveling around the castle and not being able to find the batmare, Alex simply decided to return to the suite of the princess of the night. On his way he noticed how many guards eyed him with worried eyes, as if to make sure that he would not draw out the blades he got on him now and start attacking them. When he came around the corner to the royal suite he noticed that now two batpony guards were stationed before the doors,these two however showed fanged smiles to him as he came to a stop before them.

"Uhh....Hi, how are you guys doing..?" Alex looked at the two with a half smile, feeling incredibly awkward while doing so.

"We are doing good, albeit still a bit sleepy. We heard of your mission for the princess and of your deeds in Ponyville." Spoke the guard to the left of the door.

"Oh really? How so?" He asked with a surprised expression.

"Oh word spread fast around the castle, especially when something like that comes out. We are just happy Silver Mane is dealt with. Now go on in, the princess and Sweet Slumber are already inside!" Cheered the other one happily as she opened the door for him.

He nodded and entered the suite, marveling at the ceiling that looked like the night sky itself. As he went in further he managed to hear the voices of Sweet and Princess Luna, idly chattering as it seemed. Following the chatter he entered the suites living room, which while being bigger than Blue's, had not the same feel of coziness and home.

"Oh, is that you Mr.Terris? We can not say for sure under that hood of yours." Luna who had sat on the couch till this point stood up and made her way over. "We have to admit, never would we had expected to see this armor again, especially in still such a good state. "

"Eh, it was simple luck I think. That and Nox being so knowledgeable on the armory." Chuckling he looked at Sweet Slumber who flew over slowly and stood herself up beside him. She wore a very dark blue, almost black armor, with Luna's cutiemark engraved into the helmet. Onto her back a crossbow had been strapped alongside a quiver with bolts. On her sides small sheathed daggers were held by leather straps. He let out a small whistle after looking her over. "Not bad Sweet Slumber, where did the cuddly batmare I know disappear to?" He smirked.

"Still here but just like you, I had to gear up. We don't know what could happen to us on our little adventure after all." She giggled at him. "Why are you wearing no helmet? Your face is a major target now."

"The helmet was made for minotaur heads and well....horns, so it really did not fit me. Still I will be fine." He tried to reassure her and himself in secret.

"We certainly hope so as well, it would be a scandal if a guest of Canterlot died under our supervision. "Added Luna. "If you were to fall it would be our fault for sending you on this endeavor."

"Not fully Princess." Countered Alex. "Remember I asked for this chance, so whatever happens, I do carry the responsibility for it."

The princess of the night opened her mouth to further argue on that point, when the doors suddenly were opened and Nox stepped into the suite. Turning towards the changeling Alex examined his friends armor with great interest. The changeling wore royal blue heavy plated armor which surprisingly made no sound as he walked. On his back he had a heavy steel mace with a big shield in the same color as his armor alongside it. " I see you two are here as well, good good. I think we are ready then?"

"What about food or at least water? I am sure we will probably need that?" The human inquired.

"That is a very good question Mr.Terris. Sweet Slumber and we ourselves just spoke about that. Usually we would give you provisions, as before Chrysalis hive resided deeply in the worst parts of the badlands. Now however she moves so colse to King Thorax domain that if you were in dire need you could simply travel over to them to rest. Therefore we came to the agreement with Sweet Slumber that provision would be just unneeded baggage." Princess Luna explained with a smile.

"I see....then I guess we are ready, right?" Alex looked at the two who stood beside him who in return nodded back at him.

"Good, then we will send you now to our outpost from which we received the last infos about Chrysalis group." The princess of the night spoke regally as her horn lit up with magic. "Good luck on your journey and safe travels." And with that and with her teleportation spell the three before her disappeared in a flash of light.

Author's Note

And another chapter done! Again, I am sorry that the last two chapters were a bit more exposition heavy but it is all to set up the next bigger arc of the story. I hope you all still found enjoyment in the chapter and hope to see you soon again in the next chapter.

Peace out!!