Celestia was walking through the castle halls, using a chance between duties to stretch her legs. As she listened politely to her steward as he discussed some of the information that had been dug up about some of issues brought to her attention, she heard very odd noises. The noises themselves weren't odd, but there shouldn't be ponies engaging in combat inside the palace.
Her eyes tightened slightly as she shifted her course to take her towards the fighting. As she got closer the sounds became clear enough that her steward noticed them.
Arriving at the room, one of the empty multipurpose rooms that the staff tend to use to take breaks in or just hide from superiors looking for those taking breaks, Celestia cast an illusion over the door to see what was going on before stepping in to handle it.
Hearts Shadow was enjoying his book, turning a page as he sat in the middle of a large and empty room. Even the guards trying to hurt him were nothing more than a pleasant challenge.
He threw up a small shield to block a few daggers flying at him from on side before pushing on of the shields into the air to divert the pegasus guard.
Grabbing one of the knives he moved it to take a blast launched by an unicorn. The guards took a moment to catch their breath while the warlock just casually read his book, though only one other pony noticed when his eyes flicked to the door before returning to the page.
Celestia smirked as she dropped her spell on the door. She waited a moment when the sounds started up again and opened the door.
The guards fell over themselves as the snapped to attention.
"So would somepony like to inform me of the purpose of this... sparring session." The Solar Diarch questioned, with a little more than command in her voice.
"Sorry, your highness. I was talking to Hearts Shadow about our anti-warlock techniques and we ended up discussing possible improvements. He wanted to check out our current methods and this squad was more than eager to volunteer, once they got back from their leave in Las Pegasus." Answered an older pony whose uniform denoted a rank of captain.
"The reason you chose one of the rooms in my castle rather than the sparring grounds?"
"Well, we had to go searching for a couple of the soldiers, and when we had herded them all together I came up with the idea of a more real-world training scenario." The captain said, his voice indicating he was willing to take full responsibility for the fight.
Celestia hmmed at him, then turned to the warlock. "Well, what do you think of the guards?" She asked.
"Their techniques are good, if in need of a little more polishing. I would still need to check on some of the other aspects of dark magic, and have a couple ideas for them, but mostly, the armour needs to be upgraded. With your permission, I can forge a... prototype of sorts to present to you." Hearts Shadow stated, looking over the guards who had been fighting with him.
"Granted. I look forwarded to examining your work." She said to him, before addressing the gaurds and captain. "As for you, I believe the groundscrew always need help checking for weeds and leveling out the sparring grounds at the end of the day."
They all saluted as she turned to leave the room.
After a harrowing death-defying journey, to see the quartermaster so as to requisition the materials he needed. It took a couple weeks before everything had arrived, but once it did Hearts Shadow headed down to the royal armourer.
Knocking on the door a rather stocky unicorn opened it.
"You ain't a guard." He stated after looking over his visitor breifly.
"And you are the royal armourer." The warlock replied. "I would like your assistance with a project." He continued tapping one of the boxes he had brought with him.
Looking at the boxes, one of them caught the armourer's eye.
"Cold iron. What do you plan on doing with that?" He asked.
"Incorporate it into the armour I will be making. I have a couple other things I want to experiment with, and any techniques we figure out you can keep to upgrade the normal guard armour." Hearts Shadow said.
"Well, lets see what you've got planned before I make a decision. Names Burning Forge." Stated the unicorn as he stepped aside.
"Hearts Shadow." The warlock stated.
He then moved to boxes right next to the one containing cold iron and used the pressure of them against it to lift all three. Picking up the remaining boxes he carefully floated them all in to the large room where the forges were and placed them in an empty area off to one side.
Walking over to one he opened the top and pulled out several pieces of paper and handed them over to the smith. Forge looked them over noticing several differences than how the guard armour is normally made.
Some time passed, as well as lunch being some forge fried grilled cheese with tomato soup, before the smith finished looking over the plans.
"Why don't you explain some of these ideas to me. Specially how you plan on integrating the cold iron." He asked of the warlock.
"Well, the silver will be made into small disks that the enchantments will be applied to. That will keep the actual effects of them from being warped by the cold iron. The armour will be made in two parts, an outer and inner which the cold iron will be added into the armour as scales in between. Then the two parts will carefully welded together. Don't want the heat to ruin the effect of the metal. Other than that, runes will be included to help boost defenses." Hearts Shadow explained.
The smith nodded and moved over to the crates to examine their contents. Then the two started pulling out the silver to began their work.
The earth pony guard stood in front of several superior officers including both diarchs and Princess Twilight. The latter was darting about him and even hovering as she examined the new armour he was wearing. The armourer and warlock standing off to one side watch with amusement as the guard stood still under the scrutiny.
"I have included multiple new protections specifically designed to block dark magics. For example, Twilight stand away for the demonstrations." Hearts Shadow talked, pausing while Twilight sheepishly returned to Celestia's side.
He powered up his horn and tossed a few simple spells, which diffused harmlessly against the armour.
"Beyond the basic magical enchantments, the cold iron embedded into the armour helps weaken stronger magical attacks so that the defenses can better handle them." He said, following up with a much stronger blast, which caused the guard to take a sharp breath just before being struck.
The spell dissipated against the armour and the guard sighed in relief.
"The helmet has protections against mental attacks. Both normal spells and against mind control." The warlock powered his horn tossing confusion and sleep spells at the guard.
The spells washed over the helmet with no effect, and Hearts Shadow powered his horn to attack directly at the guards mind. He did hold back his power to that of what most warlocks would be able to do.
"The helmet can also be used to aid others. Forge if you'd be willing." He said to the smith, who nodded.
The warlock then dove into the unicorns mind and took control. Seeing this the various officers and alicorns watched carefully.
"Please remove your helmet and place is on Forge's head." He asked of the guard.
The earth pony removed the helmet, leaving the leather cap underneath on his own head. The cap had plenty of runes carved into it. As the guard placed the helmet on the smith's head, it shifted shape to accommodate the slightly large head and the horn upon it. Once it was on the smith mind was cleared of the warlock's control.
"As you can see, the leather cap includes the same protections, which will work with the rest of the armour to provide similar defense as the helmet alone. This combination will allow your guards to free enthralled ponies and help get them to safety. Of course, extraodinary powerful warlocks can still get past the various defenses, but it should require a stronger one than the previous armour." Hearts Shadow finished.
"Very interesting demonstration. I will let the Royal Guard check it out some more and experiment on the limits of it, but I think it will pass inspection." Celestia said. "Now I take it you have the methods to be able to make more of it?" She asked of the smith.
"Yes, your highness. I can go over the techniques with you one day, but I have been asked to keep them a trade secret." Forge replied.
"Excellent. I think I might even have you make some for myself." Luna stated, examining the armour herself.