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// Prompt #337-Days of Yore 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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Twilight had honestly never realised exactly how large Canterlot Castle was. She supposed that more or less growing up in it with Princess Celestia as her private student had warped her sense of scale of the place. But now she was older, and an alicorn princess herself, and thus had taken it upon herself to more fully explore the castle. Most of the places she had visited thus far had been empty rooms, though one or two had been repurposed as guest rooms for visiting dignitaries. With a slight smile on her face, Twilight magicked open the next door, and entered.

The room was dark. That was the first thing that came to Twilight’s notice. Still, that was a problem that was easily solved, and a glowing orb of light leapt from Twilight’s horn and hung in the air like a miniature sun for the room. This room only contained two items, but they were amazing. Two alicorn-shaped ponyquins, matched to Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s dimensions rested in the room, and each was covered in a suit of armour. One was golden, and the other was blue-silver. Twilight moved over to have a closer look. The armour was not pristine, as she thought it had been, but rather covered in small pockmarks and cuts. As Twilight reached out to brush a hoof along a particularly long gash on the side of the golden armour, she was interrupted by a voice.

“Impressive, are they not?”

Twilight whirled around, and then relaxed when she saw it was Princess Luna.

“Princess, you frightened me!” exclaimed Twilight, and then turned back to the sets of armour, “And yes, they are very impressive.”

“These were our armour, back in the days when such things were necessary,” began Luna, moving over to the silvery set of armour and giving it a loving stroke, “Over time, as Equestria became more and more peaceful, we began taking them off, piece by piece, and storing the full sets away. It also helped our little ponies to become accustomed to seeing our faces.”

“But why did you even have the armour in the first place, Luna?”

The alicorn of the Night made a thoughtful noise.

“Back when it was needed, Equestria was a much more dangerous place. Pegasi were still very much warriors, and even unicorns and earth ponies were familiar enough with battle. And then there was Discord.”

“But I thought Discord only played tricks. Cruel tricks, but still just tricks.”

Luna shook her head, “No Twilight. The Discord you faced was not the one we faced. When you turned him back into stone after his accidental release, he’d been just warming up. Chocolate rain, ignoring gravity and mutating creatures was just the beginning. Discord was a fickle creature, and easily bored. He kept making the world more and more chaotic, and dangerous. The armour here was very much needed against him. Do you see this gash here?” Luna motioned to the large cut that Twilight had found earlier, “That was from a creature of his own design that had started off as a manticore. It nearly mortally wounded Celestia.”

Twilight frowned, “I hadn’t realised that Equestria used to be so dangerous.”

“Fear not, Twilight Sparkle. My sister and I worked hard to pacify the land. The only truly dangerous place left in Equestria these days is the Everfree Forest.”

~~~time~~~

Luna ran another hoof over the silvery-blue armour. “We keep these suits of war not for future emergencies, but to remind ourselves of what we had to go through to get to today. Still, it is good to see them again. For years, they were our protection against the world, while our rule was still in its infancy. But come, Twilight! We doth desire thy company as we prepare our sister’s birthday cake!” Luna threw a hoof forward dramatically, and marched from the room. Twilight took one last look back, and followed the Night Princess to the kitchens, extinguishing her light and shutting the door behind her. That was enough exploration for today, at least.