You glance scornfully at the stone-faced royal guard unicorns, armed with gleaming spears.
"I'm forced to disarm while you keep weapons? Why the double standard?" you demand of Sweetie Drops.
She sighs, maintaining her composure. "The guards must carry arms to face external threats too dangerous for hooves alone. But within these secured walls, your deadly tools pose unnecessary risk."
One guard thumps the butt of his spear in warning, glaring from beneath golden helmet. Sweetie Drops clears her throat. "I suggest you not challenge those trained since birth to protect Equestria."
Turning back to you, Sweetie extends a hoof. "The choice remains - will you abandon instruments of harm and embrace harmony fully?"
You eye the proffered hoof as the stoic guards continue scrutinizing you. "A weapon is a weapon."
Sweetie nods, turning from you. "A weapon is a weapon." She lashes her tail as she walks away from you. "And no weapon is needed right now."
"Tell that to him." You hike a thumb at the guard.
Sweetie slowly turns back to you. "You are something else... I swear... Does you being the only unarmed creature bother you so much?"
"It's just one step, one long step down a dark hallway." You don't move at all. "If they think that's alright, they probably think a lot's alright. Sounds, to me, like ponies don't think too highly of much anything else."
Sweetie pauses, evaluating your words. The guards stir uneasily as the standoff lingers.
"It seems distrust runs deep within you," Sweetie says. " Ponies value life and liberty greatly. But yes - we put community wellbeing first."
Her teal eyes bore into yours. "The spears safeguard our harmony. your daggers only endanger it. Do you grasp the difference?"
You cross your arms. "And if you deem me a 'danger' down the line? Then what? Spears turn my way?"
Sweetie stamps a hoof, frustrated. But she composes herself. "None are judged hastily here. But nor can we tolerate open threats."
Approaching you, voice low, she asks, "If you saw a child threatened, and could save her only by lethal force, would you?"
You nod slowly. Sweetie gestures to the guards' spears. “They safeguard the innocent. But their steps are not taken lightly, unlike yours.”
She extends a hoof, brow furrowed. “I ask again in sincerity – will you join to protect, not destroy?”
You smirk like a cat that just saw an unguarded bird. "You're not innocent. There are no innocents in this hall. Either we all go unarmed, or we, like adults, trust each other as we are."
Sweetie's teeth clench all the harder.
One of the guards lowers their spear, looking ready to fight, but Sweetie steps in, sweeping the guard back. "Stand down... I hate it, but he's not entirely wrong. There are no innocents in this hallway..." She eyes you with a glare. "Put your weapons away, all of you."
The guard hesitates, sharing a glance with the other, but they both set their weapons down and step on them.
Sweetie rolls a hoof at you. "Your turn. We did our part. Put up, or shut up, as they say."
You smirk with satisfaction as Sweetie concedes, ordering her guards to disarm.
Sweetie turns to you expectantly. "Well? We upheld our end. Will you honor your word and shed weapons freely now?"
You know she has you rhetorically trapped. Refusing would reveal hypocrisy you called out in them. Yet an instinctive distrust of these strange, forceful ponies gives you pause...
With a theatrical sigh, you draw your concealed blades one by one, letting them clatter loudly to the floor. The guards watch tensely but Sweetie signals them to remain still.
Finally, you raise empty palms. "There. All gone." You pace around Sweetie. "But I don't need steel to be dangerous..." Leaning in over her shoulder, you hiss, "Remember that, pony."
She stiffens, squaring her shoulders. You smile innocently as you return to face her. "So! We were talking about protecting harmony?"
Sweetie snorts, unable to hide a wry smile. She may yet warm to your roguish audacity. For now, princely decorum restored, discussions proceed less hindered by lingering weapons or egos. "Just to be clear." She turns away. "I am just as dangerous as you imagine yourself to be. Come."
She leads you down a few winding hallways, to where they can send you where you will be most useful. There will be fights ahead of you, but the ponies will cheer you on, from a distance.
The end.