//------------------------------//
// The Mane Six 
// Story: Something Old, Something New 
// by JaelynPotons 
//------------------------------//

	“Where in all of Equestria is Fluttershy?” Twilight asked aloud as she paced around the train station.
“She’s just running a little late, darling. Rainbow went to her cottage, they’ll be here soon enough.” Rarity flipped her hair and pumped her curls up with her hoof.
As if on cue, Rainbow Dash flew into the train station at top speed and skidded to halt. Without saying a word, she handed Twilight a piece of paper with Fluttershy’s delicate handwriting scrawled on it.
“At the castle. See you there, Love, Fluttershy.” Twilight read aloud.
“I wonder when she left? And why she went there early?” Applejack said, reading the letter over the purple unicorn’s shoulder.
“C’mon you sillies, she obviously went to convince Discord to come with us. DUH!” Pinkie replied, bouncing around.
“All aboard for Canterlot!”
Twilight sighed as she headed towards the train. “I guess we’ll know soon enough.”

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The next morning Fluttershy and Ebony joined Celestia and Luna for breakfast. It took some time, but Fluttershy had finally convinced him that they needed to talk to the Princesses about keeping who Ebony really was away from the other Elements. Thankfully, they understood and agreed to keep it from them. Celestia warned however, that they needed to tell them eventually. The rest of the time was spent talking. Fluttershy mostly listened as the three alicorns caught up.
“So, you two are…?” Luna finally found the nerve to ask.
Ebony spit his chocolate milk all over the table. “Wh-what do you mean?”
Celestia’s musical laughter filled the room. “Come now, Ebony. We’ve known each other for years, how stupid do you think we are?”
“Besides, we knew from the start you two were perfect for each other.”
“Now that’s a lie Luna, and you know it. Pay up.” Celestia held out her hoof and Luna reluctantly handed over a gold coin.
“Wait-wait-wait! You two bet on whether we would be together or not?!” Ebony was in a state of disbelief.
“Not exactly. We bet whether you would be with Fluttershy, or Pinkie Pie.”
Ebony sputtered. “Well, ladies! I think there’s a word for you two!” The lions paw appeared and snapped its fingers, causing two dunce caps to appear on the princesses heads. Another snap made confetti spurt from the tops. They all laughed at the little trick, until the door opened on the far side of the room.
“Fluttershy! There you are! Where’ve you been, sugar cube?” Applejack trotted over and hugged her friend, then caught sight of the stallion sitting next to her. “And, uh, who’s yer friend?”
At this point Ebony stood up. “My name is Ebony Laughter, nice to meet you. On Discord’s refusal to accompany you ladies on your journey, Celestia and Luna asked me to go with you instead.”
“Oh! Glad to have ya along, Ebony. My name’s Applejack, and this here’s Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and… where’s Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie Pie had snuck around while the introductions were being made, and had drank all the chocolate milk left in Ebony’s glass. Now that the deed was done there was no sense in sneaking around, and she exclaimed, “Here I am!” and bounced back over to her friends.
Ebony looked in his glass and frowned, but simply used his magic to get the pitcher from the table and poured himself a new glass.
“Pinkie! You shouldn’t drink from somepony’s glass!” Twilight scolded her.
“Not even if it’s delicious chocolate milk?” She licked the drops of  brown liquid off her lips.
“Chocolate milk, huh? That’s an interesting drink there, Ebony.” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes.
Ebony looked around nervously, then cleared his throat. “Rainbow Dash, is it? Who are you to judge what I drink? Are you saying that it’s unusual for someone to have milk with their breakfast?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
Rainbow was still looking at him suspiciously. “No, but that’s the kind of thing Discord-“
“AND PINKIE!”
“-would drink.” Rainbow finished, despite Pinkie’s interruption.
“Rainbow, I think perhaps you’re being a little paranoid, darling. Anyone can tell this handsome gentlepony is certainly not Discord.” Rarity batted her eyelashes at him, causing Fluttershy to giggle.
Ebony gave Fluttershy a quick look before turning back to the other Elements of Harmony. “Uhh, thank you Rarity.”
“My pleasure.”
“Could we please get to business here? Misfortune isn’t going to wait for Rarity to stop flirting with Ebony.” Applejack said, rolling her eyes.
“Now just a minute here you—“ Rarity was cut off by Celestia.
“She’s right. You must leave as soon as possible. You have the Elements?” After everypony nodded, she continued. “Good. Normally I would have let you depart from PonyVille, since its closer. But there’s something I want to give you before embarking on your journey. Please, follow me.”
Princess Celestia led them through the halls of the castle. “You see, when Luna and I battled and defeated Misfortune, our main weapon was certainly the Elements of Harmony. But there was one other item we used to help us, and we would not send you off to her without a set of your very own.”
“A set of what?” Rainbow Dash inquired.
Celestia opened the door they had just reached. As she started to open the door she responded, “Armor.”
Inside were seven sets of armor, six small ones and another larger one clearly meant for Ebony. Each set was silver with gold details, along with simple outlines of their cutie marks.
“Oh my gosh. These… are… AWESOME!” Rainbow sped forward to her own set and proceeded to put it on. “Who knew I could actually look cooler?” She admired herself in the mirror.
“Each set was designed to the exact measurements of each of you. Luna and I enchanted them ourselves with powerful defensive magic.” Celestia explained as the Mane 6 and Ebony put their armor on.
Ebony looked at Celestia with disbelief. “You… you saved mine? After all this time?”
Celestia only smiled and nodded to him.
“What do you mean, ‘after all this time?’” Rainbow Dash inquired.
It was Celestia who responded. “Ebony here used to be the Head of the Royal Guard. This was his armor from then.”
Fluttershy blushed. She knew that wasn’t the truth, of course. She smiled to herself and looked over at Ebony, who had tears gathering in his eyes as he put on his armor.
After everypony had put their armor on, they were set to go.