Marching Towards Harmony

by TrackdNTraild

Ch.5: Refitting For The Princess

The concrete path sloped back upwards as Tempest and Mystic reached the end of the tunnel leading back into Canterlot's castle. Mystic used her magic to open the double doors for herself and the army general. They walked through the doors, the floor changing from the dull concrete path to a brilliant marble walkway. Their silence was only broken by the echoes of their hoofsteps across the walls, going all the way up to the hundred meter high ceiling. Mystic chose to follow Tempest down the hall, instead of try to force herself to match the long-legged mare's pace. It gave her extra time to think about what had been said earlier as well.

Mystic had been so used to being a snappy and rude pony, choosing instead to just consider herself introverted and blunt. She knew the truth, but she had chosen to try and be nice to herself about it. In the process, she never did anything about it. Ponies have always told her that she was a bitch, but she figured they just weren't used to what she called her 'honesty.' She was no Applejack that's for sure, she didn't stop to consider the feelings of other ponies before she told the truth. She wasn't the kind of pony who liked to spare feelings, preferring to say things how they were. Or, at least, how she thought they were.

"Mystic," Tempest said, breaking the mare out of her thoughts. Mystic lifted her head, almost running into the open door in front of her.

"Ah-" She blinked, stepping around the door with flushed cheeks. "Sorry."

"You seemed really out of it just now," Tempest said softly, cocking her head to motion Mystic into the room. "Go sit on the bench in the first changing room. Do you need water or something?"

"No," Mystic said as she skirted around the door and through the doorway. "I'm fine. I'm just... thinking, about everything."

Tempest didn't respond, only followed Mystic into the room. They had entered the sleek white corridor that made up the guards quarters, with each side having 16 ebony wood doors. One side of the hallway consisted of the guards' sleeping quarters, and the door between each 'dorm' held a changing room. On the other side of the hallway were the bathrooms, differentiated by the silver doors. The bathrooms also had rooms split between them each, with their doors being ebony wood just like the other side, and beyond those doors were storage rooms. Nothing had changed since the last time Mystic had been here.

The alicorn had memorized the layout of this corridor, despite the very few times she had come to stay in the castle with the other guards. The last time she had visited this place was when she was still training at the guards academy, which was more than 14 years ago. She remembered it only because in her last year of training, she was too busy applying for colleges to leave the castle.

She was thankful she had graduated when she began college. To this day, she still wasn't sure if her training had truly completed, or they didn't want her to juggle college work and guard training because of Tempest's strict scheduling. Well, she chose to believe she was a good soldier at least.

She pushed open the door to the first changing room, being the second door on the first side of the corridor. She slipped through the doorway, immediately becoming aware of how cramped the room was. Up against one wall were various wardrobes embedded within the wall itself. Up against the opposite wall were sets of benches leaning against the stark white. The wardrobes and benches both were made of painted lilac wood, and some of the benches had chipping paint to reveal the light birch underneath.

Mystic pulled herself up onto a bench and sat down, while Tempest opened one of the wardrobes and looked through the armour on the stands inside. She found Mystic's armour, the gold plating still shining bright, and Tempest pulled the full stand out of the wardrobe. As it was pulled out, the fuchsia saddle normally latched onto the plates came loose, and slid onto the floor.

"Shit," Tempest cursed under her breath. "It looks like the straps on your saddle have worn out."

"That's fine," Mystic said. "While the armour's being refitted, they can be repaired, can't they?"

"Yeah, it should be fine," Tempest said with a shake of the head. "Do you think you could carry it? How much have you been using your magic today?"

"Not very much," Mystic said as she hopped off the bench and approached Tempest. "Besides, these stands are pretty light. The doctor said I can't carry more than like... half a ton, so I'll be fine. I haven't been carrying heavy stuff at all today."

"Good," Tempest hummed. "Well, let's get going then. I hate to rush, but those ponies aren't going to wait forever."

"Yeah yeah I get it," Mystic groaned.

The alicorn mare's horn sparkled bright teal, and the armour stand began to glow as she lifted it up. She also lifted the saddle from the ground, choosing to carry it by itself. She slipped the stand and saddle outside of the room before she walked through the doorway, and Tempest followed after her. The deep finn mare cocked her head in one direction, motioning in the way they were meant to go. Mystic silently followed the general as she was lead down the corridor, and back into the hallway. Tempest shut the door behind them once they both were out with the saddle and armour stand.

Tempest broke into a canter, and Mystic chose to run after her. Tempest took the idea from Mystic, and began to run herself. As usual, she was much faster than Mystic, but the alicorn mare managed to keep up the pace now that they were running. Rarity did say earlier that the exercise would be good, Mystic thought. Despite how much she still thought that it was an insult, maybe Rarity was onto something. Maybe if she was a little more fit the pain would be less because the pain wouldn't have very far to spread. She actually considered going along with the idea. Interesting.

Tempest skidded to a stop at a pair of white roman doors, and Mystic stopped with her. Tempest pushed open the doors, holding them for Mystic so she could fit the armour stand through. She slipped in along with the stand into the room, and looked around at the unfamiliar scenery. She had never been to this room, but it looked similar to the room Rarity had made her coronation dress in, just less... fancy.

"Coco Pommel!" Tempest shouted, making Mystic jump.

"Christ-" Mystic coughed. "This room is pretty small, do you really have to yell?"

"Coco Pommel gets... very focused when she's working," Tempest said. "Sometimes you need to get her attention."

As that was said, a bundle of clothing fell over from a stack in the corner, once again startling Mystic. Some gold and silver pins clattered to the floor in front of them, and a pony's head popped out of the stack of clothes, face entirely wrapped up in a striped purple scarf.

"There she is," Tempest laughed.

"Sorry sorry!" The pony said as she struggled to pull the scarf from her face. "I-I got so busy I didn't hear any pony coming in!"

"Yeah, I don't think you could hear anything under all that fabric..." Mystic said, using her magic to unwrap the pony's head. She folded the scarf and set it up on a shelf nearby. "Is this place uhh... normally like this?"

"Oh absolutely!" Coco said as she leapt out of the fabric pile, kicking off a smaller scarf that had wrapped around her hindleg. "I'm always very busy making my own clothing and fixing the royal army's armour... oh speaking of armour, I see you brought some with you! Do you need something done?"

"Mystic wants her armour refitted," Tempest spoke for the mare. "She decided wearing a dress is too 'glamorous', and wants to wear her armour instead while she meets the crowd."

"The crowd..." Coco stopped to think. "W-wait you mean the coronation crowd?! I missed it?!"

"It's not that big of a deal," Mystic mumbled, drawing circles on the floor with her hoof. "It's just a stupid crowning."

"It is too a big deal!" Coco whined, covering her face partially with a hoof. "I've been waiting for this coronation for years, and I wanted to get some in-person pictures so I could draw inspiration for my own clothing line inspired by you, and I completely missed the ceremony! Oh, my outfits will never turn out as good from just a few pictures and videos!"

As Coco's dramatic spiral continued, she fell to the side in the bundle of fabrics, pulling one over her head to hide her face. Clearly she was unhappy about missing the ceremony. It was as though making this clothing line was a life or death situation, and she had just lost her bet. Mystic hadn't seen a pony so distraught over clothing since Rarity's last fashion spiral...

"...She's really taking this to heart," Mystic leaned over to whisper to Tempest.

"She gets like that," Tempest whispered back, before clearing her throat and stomping her hoof. "Pull yourself together, Miss Pommel. We're on a tight schedule; Mystic still needs to leave and meet with her subjects. Empress Twilight isn't going to be able to distract the crowds forever, so we need this done quickly, or Mystic will have to go back with nothing but her crown on."

"Oh yeah don't just leave me with that thing." Mystic fake gagged. "Makes me sick just thinking about it."

"O-okay, I can make this quick!" Coco said, nodding her head vigorously. "Mystic, could I ask you to try the armour on? I'd like to see how tight it is. And don't worry I can adjust it while it's on!"

"Gotcha," Mystic hummed, finally putting down the things she was carrying.

"By the way," Tempest spoke up. "The saddle's busted. The straps have worn out, so she's going to need replacements. It comes with the armour, so I want that fixed too."

"Of course!" Coco clapped her hooves. "Once the armour itself has been fixed, I'll work on new stitching for the saddle, and if it's dire enough, I'll replace the straps completely."

As the ponies talked, Mystic unclasped the armour from the mannequin it was fashioned to, and worked towards clipping it around herself. The plates were very tight against the base of her wings, making it hard to close them, but she eventually managed. Her chest felt tight as she wrapped the underbelly of the armour across her stomach, and clasped it to the other side of the back. She grunted with a light irritation as the clasp came down over her chest fluff.

"How does it feel, Mystic?" Coco asked when Mystic had clasped down the final clip.

"Tight, hot," Mystic complained. "It's kinda hard to breathe. It was almost impossible to put my wings down."

"It definitely does need a refit..." Coco mumbled. "You don't have to move, I won't force you to walk around like that. Let me get some tools and I can get to work. The plates are going to need re-welding."

"Wait, you can do that while I'm wearing it?" Mystic's eyes widened in shock. "Isn't that like... dangerous? Y'know, sparks and fire and stuff?"

"Oh no not at all!" Coco laughed lightly. "Rarity helped us to develop some new technology that helps to bend and warp silver and gold armours easily, without heating up the metal and hurting the pony. It's like advanced unicorn magic, but all contained in this little black box."

As she mentioned it, Coco pushed forward a black metal box. It looked like a box television, but without the screen. She opened the box like a suitcase, and pulled out a small gray rectangular remote with a set of 5 buttons, and a screen on one end. The bottom seemed to have an open tray, like what you would think a CD would be inserted into. She moved to stand in front of Mystic, and pressed a black button on the small remote. The base widened, and she pushed it up against the edges of the armor's breastplate. With a satisfying click, the plate edge was swallowed by the remote base.

Coco hummed, staring down at the screen and lifting a hoof to hover over a white button beside the black button. Every so often, she would press the white button, and move the device just centimeters forward, or centimeters down.

"Can you feel any difference?" Coco asked, looking up at Mystic.

"Kind of," Mystic said. She wasn't really sure what Coco was doing, but whatever it was, it was really working. "I can't quite take deep breaths, but at least I can breathe."

"I'll keep going. I want you to take a real deep breath soon, just keep trying," Coco instructed. "When you can do that, just tell me."

Mystic fell quiet as Coco continued her work. She tried to take deep breaths, despite the difficulty. As Coco moved the device around, her breathing became easier and easier. There was still some tightness from the metal under her stomach, but her chest felt lighter. When she could finally take a deep breath, she sighed in relief.

"That's fine," She said.

"Good!" The pearl lusta mare said happily as she pulled the device away and stepped back. "Well, the chest should be perfectly fitted now. So I should adjust... the underbelly plates. How about the tops, do those feel okay? Any tightness on the uh... hindquarters?"

"N-no, it's fine, just the breathing problem." Mystic hated that she stuttered and blushed, but Coco seemed nervous with the mention too, and it didn't help that they could hear Tempest's light chuckling from the doorway.

"Okay, I'll just move to the underbelly then, I'll try to be careful," Coco said.

She pressed the black button, shrinking the base so it was back to its original size. She pressed the base up to the gold plates, pressing the white button as an experimental test. Mystic was able to hear a click of the metal underneath her. She tried not to let her anxiety get the better of her as Coco Pommel smiled. She hummed, and nodded happily, before she continued her work. She began moving along one side of the underbelly plates, pressing the white button as she moved along them. The device traveled above each individual plate, bending it back or forward. It easily fit her form, and was loose in several places. It comforted her to know that she'd have an easier time putting the armour on next time.

Coco Pommel worked her way around to the other side of the armour, pulling back and forth on the armour with the device. Her look was firm and focused, showcasing her dedication to the task. Mystic did her best to be still, but being so still was never good for her. When she was like this, her body began to itch. It felt like bugs were dancing all over her skin, pricking through her coat and waving her hairs. She shut her eyes tight, clenching her jaw. The tightness and the itching was really getting to her. She was trying not to let it show, but it was hard.

"Feeling better?" Coco asked suddenly with a smile.

Mystic opened her eyes and blinked. She glanced down at her armour, and took a deep breath. She felt her stomach push out against the plates as she breathed in, but it didn't hurt when the metal pressed against her form. She felt nothing but relief now that she could breathe properly.

"Much better," Mystic sighed, managing to offer Coco the smallest smile. "Thanks. I think all that's left is fixing the openings for my wings."

"Yes, let me do that really quickly!" Coco clapped her hooves.

She pressed a yellow button on the device, and the base widened ever so slightly. The open panel filled with what looked to be very small needles, making Mystic slightly nervous. Coco moved to stand closer to the mare, pushing the device's base up against the base of Mystic's wing, and pressing the opening against her armour. Coco began pressing a blue button on the remote, and moving in circles around Mystic's wing, which she would occasionally open to make things easier for the mare. The needles would press out from the base into the gold of her armour, effectively pushing it back and bunching it up around her wing.

Mystic could soon flap her wing when the base had been widened enough. It felt much more comfortable now. She could stretch her wing out and not have it rub uncomfortably against the gold. Coco smiled as she pressed the back of the device against the bunched up edges of the plate. A whirring sound emitted from the device as she rubbed it back and forth on the armour. Mystic wasn't sure what she was doing until she pulled back, and she got to look for herself. Whatever she had done with the device, it had smoothed out the armour. Coco moved to the other side and continued the process. Mystic flapped her wings experimentally when Coco pulled back, and was able to comfortably pull herself into the air to hover for a few seconds. She spun in a brief circle before landing on the ground and humming happily.

"I have to say, that armour looks good on you," Coco laughed. "They made a perfect choice designing it for you."

"Thanks," Mystic said, feeling her face flush. She wasn't used to being complimented like this.

"Now, to complete the look!" Coco Pommel spun on her hooves with a hum. "Just give me a moment and I'll fix these straps on your saddle."

Coco shut down the device in her hoof and set it back into the box she had brought out. As she pushed it to the side to put away later, she lifted up the saddle from the ground, and hopped over one of the fabric piles to a sewing machine in the corner. She set the saddle down on the table nearby and began examining the straps. She was measuring their length, experimentally touching the frayed edges that had snapped off, and testing the strength of the buckles at the very ends.

"She has a point," Tempest said to break their silence. "That armour does look good. I'm almost jealous."

"Jealous?" Mystic turned to Tempest with a laugh. "Why would you be jealous? You've got obsidian armour. I don't know how heavy that stuff is, but it looks like it weighs a lot. I would be hospitalized wearing that clunky thing for ten minutes, and you wear it constantly!"

"Well, that's exactly why," Tempest chuckled. "The armour is heavy, but I'm not a fan of the looks either. I like the colour, sure, but I want something... different. I think I'd look good in silver, don't you?"

"Eh," Mystic shrugged and fluttered her wings. "Maybe if I had the chance to see you in silver armour I'd have an answer, yeah?"

"Maybe I'll find some that fits me some day," Tempest hummed, turning her head to watch Coco work. "Then you'll be able to see for yourself."

"I think I'd look good in silver," Mystic mumbled before she too focused on Coco's work.

Coco had chosen to entirely remove the straps from the saddle, and had just finished cutting them off. She dropped them into a nearby trash can and sifted through her fabric pile. She pulled out a small piece of fuchsia silk fabric, thankfully being just the right colour of the saddle. She cut it into two equal strips, and the machine kicked to life as she sewed them into the underside of the saddle where they should be. The room fell silent again once the machine stopped, and she tested to ensure that the straps wouldn't snap off. She grabbed two of the gold pins that had fallen on the floor earlier, and two fitting buckles to go with. She carefully inserted them through the fabric, and bent them back so that they stuck. She tested to make sure they didn't fall off before she trotted back to Mystic with the saddle in hoof.

"All done!" She sang happily. "This should fit under your cuirass, and lay comfortably on top of the faulds and culet. Do you need help fitting that too?"

"No, I got it," Mystic hummed.

She lifted the saddle with her magic, and pushed up the cuirass on her back. It stood awkwardly up in the air as she threw the saddle onto her back, clasping the silk straps under her stomach with the gold pin and clip. She pushed the cuirass back down, effectively locking down the saddle onto her back. Hopefully this time, even if a strap broke, that gold plate would hold the saddle down by force.

"That fits nicely," Mystic said happily. "Thank you, uhh... Miss Pommel, was it?"

"You can call me Coco," The mare laughed. "But you're welcome! Now you said you're in a hurry, so I tried to be as quick as I could... but you both should be getting back now. If Empress Twilight is getting impatient, you shouldn't keep her waiting forever."

"We'll leave you to your work, Miss Pommel," Tempest said. "But the ceremony should last most of the day. If you want to come relax with some of the attendees, I'm sure you'll have plenty of time."

"Thank you, General Tempest!" Coco dipped her head respectfully. "I'll just... tidy up this room a little before I come out and see everypony. Now go on, don't keep the Empress waiting!"

"Alright alright we get it," Mystic said as she walked to the doorway and slipped outside.

"By the way Coco," Tempest turned to the mare. "Feel free to keep the mannequin for now. I'll come back for it when I'm available. Take care."

"Thank you!" Coco said with sparkling eyes as Tempest left the room.

Mystic shut the door after Tempest had left the room after her. They turned and began walking down the hall, only to jolt and stop as they heard a cry of pain. They turned and looked back at the door, hearing Coco Pommel curse lightly. They looked at eachother and blinked in shock; she never did that. She must've stepped on one of the pins she had dropped earlier. They both simply shrugged their shoulders, and began cantering down the hall. They were already late; they were sure she could handle herself.

Author's Note:

Surprise, Coco Pommel! I wasn't sure of what pony I could bring for the fitting since Rarity was already staying behind, and I didn't want to pick a villain. I hope you guys enjoyed her surprise appearance! I haven't written her before so I hope I did her justice.

EDIT 3/19/23: Updated grammar and run-on sentences, completely revamped the refitting segment, updated dialogues and actions.