"So be it, please know that your choice will have lasting consequences for the rest of your life." As Twilight looked behind her she felt her jaw go slack as all the other Twilight's began to systematically disappear from oldest to youngest. When only she remained, she felt something breeze by her left flank, causing her to jump. Turning around, she discovered something especially strange. Standing in front of her was a unicorn filly. Her coat was a light pink with little flecks of purple scattered throughout. Her mane was cut short from around the base of the skull down the length of her neck, and what wasn't short came into a medium sized bob. Her eyes were a light hazel with a tinge of what looked like purple. She barely came to Twilight's shoulder, and as such was forced to look up at her. "Before I let you loose on the world, you need to be trained."
"Wait, train? Shouldn't we like, get me back to Equestria so I can save Canterlot before it falls?"
"Silly Twilight, we never left the room where you put me on. We are inside your mind, where time travels faster than you've ever thought possible."
"Wait, if we're in my mind, then haven't I thought..." Twilight suddenly found her mouth filled with filly hoof.
'"Be quiet, I've wanted to say that for centuries." As she spoke, the filly removed her hoof.
"... so... training?"
'"Oh... Oh! Yes training, we should probably... do that. follow me..." The young filly stammered as she began walking in a seemingly random direction, with Twilight following close behind.
"So... who are you exactly?"
'"Isn't it obvious?" The filly said, glancing over her shoulder at Twilight who shook her head, "I'm Pure Heart, But please, just call me Heart. I help run the armor"
"So why is your name on it?"
'"Every suit was named for the intelligence implanted into it."
"Oh, so were you..."
'"A pony? Yes, I guess I was at one point, I volunteered to have my soul transferred into the suit."
"Your soul!?" Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, causing Heart to turn and give her a sarcastic eye roll.
"No, my brain, of course my soul!" Heart exclaimed, continuing to walk forward with Twilight following close behind, "how do you think all the functions on the suit work? It would take at least two ponies to run them all, so the griffon who made the suits decided to put an extra pony in it, with none of the space requirements. I just happened to be the one to volunteer to help run your suit."
"But why?"
"I really couldn't tell you, it just felt... I don't know, right? It was something I could do to help; before this, I had felt like I wasn't able to do anything, so when they came and said they needed volunteers..." Their conversation ended and they each became absorbed in their own thoughts as they walked. Finally after what felt like an hour, Heart stopped and turned to Twilight. "All right, here we are... so let's get to it." Looking around, Twilight watched as training equipment suddenly appeared all around them.
"Let's do it."
"When you're using the armor you can't use magic directly, this is to prevent you from losing control." They had been training for what felt like ages. Twilight could now easily take down all three pony subspecies, zebras, and even knew how to take down a manticore, not that she would need to. Once Heart was certain she could fight, she had summoned a replica of the armor, similarly to how she had spawned the training equipment.
"That seems kind of unnecessary, I mean, I have a pretty good handle on my magic."
"When the armors were made very few unicorns had full control of theirs, so most used their hooves."
"Oh, so how do I use my magic?"
"your magic can be indirectly used through varying apparatus, for example: you can charge your greaves with through the sapphire ley lines inlaid into the armor; or, if range is what's required, you have twin EM-2 magic directors , think of them as handheld magic mortars without so much kick. There was also the EDSM-7 long range director and the EM-6 automatic repeater among others, but let's focus on the EM-2."
"What do 'EM' and 'EDSM' stand for?"
"They stand for 'Equestrian Magic' and 'Equestrian Distance Suppression Magic', and they are gonna be your best friends. Now back on topic, the EM-2 is what the griffon's would call 'semi-automatic', you can fire off spells in pretty quick succession, but not as fast as say an EM-6. Accuracy is pretty good, some spells go a little to the side though, so stay within... Oh, let's say... 30 feet. All your magical gear run your magic through a scrubber to change the frequency to prevent your identity from coming out."
"Vigilante much?"
"Hey, your words not mine. So anyways, the armor you're wearing is the "ESDF Com-skin tier-2, Victoria for short, and comes equipped with a magical shield which is good against up to 20 level 2 unicorns, 19 level 3's, 18 level 4's and so on. The armor can also withstand a small sun going supernova, and a herd of buffalo." Twilight suddenly grabbed Heart by the shoulders and began vigorously shaking her.
"What do you expect me to be doing!? I don't plan on taking on any suns or even a single buffalo!" She shouted, "Who even builds things to take on a small sun exploding!?"
"I don't expect you to ever be in those situations! It's just a precaution made by the griffons." She shouted back, breaking out of Twilight's grip. "Now, you need to practice using the weapons."
"Great... So, you gonna spawn some?"
"Nope, we're going on a field trip."
"but how will I ask you questions?" She suddenly felt the urge to blink, she fought it at first, but it steadily got harder and harder to push off.
As she finally blinked she heard Heart say, "I'm linked to your mind, one of the many things that are going to be different from now on..."
When Twilight opened her eyes she was back in the room with the pod. So, what now Heart? Suddenly a dot appeared on her visor, and what is that?
I turned on your tracker, your weapons' locations can be tracked to within a couple feet with it on. You can also use tracker dots to trace peoples movements. Anything being tracked will appear on your visor as a yellow dot until it's close enough to touch, then the dot turns white. So follow that dot already. Twilight began to move towards the door, but suddenly found herself losing her footing. Scrabbling back to some semblance of a standing position she looked down at herself in confusion, only now noticing how much longer her legs appeared. Oh, you should probably know that your body has been augmented to fit inside the suit, so you are approximately a head higher than you were before. Your muscle groups have also been augmented and trained to compensate with your growth spurt and your training; after all, you cant stop the changelings alone when you're all flabby.
Hey, I wasn't flabby! Slightly pudgy maybe, but I had some muscle, and why didn't you tell me you'd done this before?
Honestly I forgot, but you needed to have the build of a 20 year old athlete, so now you do. Take a few practice laps and when you feel ready, go get your weapons.
This isn't over, I hope you know that. She thought as she began walking around, when she felt satisfied she headed outside into the hall.