As we left Town Hall, I heard Mayor Mare say, “Stop!” Curious as to why the mare waited till we had left the building, I did as she asked.

“Yes, Miss Mare?” I queried as she approached our group. “What is it?”

“I just wanted to give my cousins a farewell hug and some advice,” she said as she hugged both me and Moondancer. “I’m related to Blueblood, which makes us family, Twilight. I'm also Dancer’s cousin through adoption.” She then hugged the pink twins and Applejack before Shifting to reveal a vampony. “I’m also the descendant from the Smith side of Applejack’s family. I was looking through the Apple family records and found that the Pies are an offshoot of the Apples from before the war so Pinkie and Pinka here are both my family too and before you ask how I know about Pinka, she actually came to talk to me when Pinkie first moved in as she is the one who convinced the Cakes to let Pinkie build her basement expansion and needed governmental approval from Town Hall to do so. After the paperwork was done, we talked for a bit.”

“It was one of the few days when my big sis here would let me ‘drive’ as per our agreement at the time,” Pinka explained with a small smile.

Mayor Mare then turned to me, “Give Aunty Luna and Aunty Selene my regards, Twilight. To the rest of you, before you depart from Ponyville, to go to The Armory and pick out whatever you may need. The Everfree is dangerous and it is even moreso at night. Even as immortals you might find much of the weaponry and armor this town has to offer to be useful out there in the depths of that dangerous forest.” With a wink toward Pinkie, she left, heading back inside town hall to keep the gathered villagers calm.

“Wait!” We heard another voice cry. As we turned around once more, we discovered Vinyl, who gratefully hugged me. “Thank Cuz! Both for giving us the freedom to shift in public and for introducing me to Octavia. Please tell Daddy we’ll be living here in Ponyville from now on, ok? Also, May asked me this to give to you.” She handed me an old-fashioned gold key “it’s the armory lab’s key. Your old copy became useless last month when we updated the spell.”

“You're welcome, Lieutenant Scratch, I'll be sure to let Uncle Fancy know so Pip can get packed,” I reassured my cousin. “If we don't come back, keep them safe. Call in the order for S.M.I.L.E’s recall if you have to, but keep them safe. Okay?”

“Just come back. Don't think about failure and failure won't find you. That's S.M.I.L.E's motto,” Vynil said firmly, “You want to hug your Moms right? Then go beat some sense back into them. We’ll be here when you come home.”

“Alright, Scratchy, I'll be back,” I said and then smiled. “Come on girls! If we're going into the Everfree Forest, we will want to be armed. Pinkie, please show me the new door. The last time I was inside I had used the mass teleporter to enter the Labs.”

“Oki Dokie Loki Koty!” Pinkie said with a giggle. “The armory is this way!”

After a few minutes walk through the darkened town we reached the Armory. I slipped my new key in the lock on the side of the building and a steel door appeared. I then placed my hand on the door and spoke the passcode, “Celestia hates tea.” The door glowed a deep purple as it slid open.

When I turned around, I saw three dropped jaws. “What! Just because it’s my passcode doesn’t make it true! Besides, she just likes apple whiskey more. Though I have seen her mix the two after a long day of politics.”

Fluttershy smiled “My mother told me she was the one who got Celestia hooked on the Apple Family’s products in the first place. That was before Luna left after her disagreement with Celestia and Discord’s attack, back when the five leaders would meet every year.”

“Ah guess Ah ought to thank your Ma for that Shy, the castle is our most valued customer after all,” Aj said as we stepped inside the armory labs. “Granny Smith does enjoy making the Zap Apple Whiskey that the Princess orders each harvest.”

Inside the labs were many suits of adamantine armor. They had been my pride and joy, made for the elite Wonderbolts strike team: the Black Lightings. Alongside the armors were blocks of adamantine, which was to be used for repairs and modifications. In the back was my workbench for weapon enhancements and invention.

“Ok girls, pick an armor set that fit and I'll transmute the helmets to fit around your horns,” I told them.

“Why are we going to be wearing armor made out of gold? That stuff will bend at even the slightest hit!” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Sorry to tell you, sugarcube, but Rainbow Dash is right. Gold isn’t a good metal to be used in making armor,” Aj said.

“I can answer that!” Pinkie said, “this stuff may look like gold but it’s actually-”

“Adamantine, the strongest naturally occurring metal on the planet. All of the armor which the Solar guards wear is its heavier cousin, which is a gold titanium alloy, but this-” Pinka said with an evil smirk “ -this stuff is so strong that only Twilight could break it in one strike.”

“I forged it myself along with Moondancer here, to withstand almost anything,” I told the group.

“So this is where it went!” MoonDancer exclaimed, “You could have told me you were making this for the Black Lightings Koty.”

“Wait a sec! These are the armor sets for the legendary Black Lightings?! The black ops Wonderbolt strike team?!” Rainbow Dash squeed “And we are going to use them?! Awesome!”

“What’cha mean transmute, sugarcube? Is it some kind of fancy spell that reworks the metal to fit us?”Aj asked as she and the others slipped on the armor.

“Kinda, Aj, but instead of using magic, transmutation uses advanced scientific knowledge and basic training in the arts of alchemy and chemistry. The reason I mention the alchemical arts is the fact that most transmutation uses a Transmutation circle, but due to a gift from a friend of mine, all I need is the matter the knowledge of its atomic structure and my two hands,” I said as I grabbed a few ingots to get started on my second layer of armor. "I'll demonstrate the concept of transmutation by transmuting my own armor."

I clapped my hands together, which caused a ringing sound to emanate from my hands. After I placed my hands on the adamantane ingots, blue lighting started arcing as the ingots deconstructed into their base atoms and reformed into a form-fitting set of armor that also had a separate helmet with a hole that would fit around my horn after I put it on.

The process left me slightly drained "So what do you think.?" I asked after catching my breath. "Cool right?"

"That was awesome!" Rainbow Dash said "All that lightning and how the bars just vaporized and then reformed into that awesome armor ... so awesome!"

"I noticed that your energy dropped after you made that," Moondancer said, "does that mean you can only do so much before burning out? Like you can do with magic?"

"Well in truth, I haven't transmuted so much material before so it's bound to drain me more than using my magic would," I replied, "but yes, like magic, I have to train and practice to master the alchemical arts."

"We can go without helmets if you want, we don't actually need them, right?" Fluttershy said with trepidation.

The Everfree is home to more than just your friend Harry, Flutters," Applejack said "Mah brother and Ah have had to fight Hydras, Timberwolves, and a bugbear, whenever they entered our property. Trust me when Ah say armor and especially a helmet will help out. After all, alicorns may be biologically immortal and durable as Tartarus, but we can still get hurt and even die from our wounds."

"I know that!" Fluttershy hissed, baring her fangs, "I just don't want my lady to drain herself for our sakes!"

"Fluttershy, transmuting your helmets won't drain me at all," I assured the vampony alicorn. "I just wasn't ready to transmute my armor from scratch. Reworking already made helmets is foal's play compared to that, ok? Don't worry about me, I just want all my friend to be safe."

"Ok my lady," she said with a small smile. "I won't worry too much just my usual amount."

"That's all I ask of you. Oh, except that you stop with the 'my lady' thing. You're my friend and my equal. Please treat me as such and call me either Twilight or Koty, okay?"

"Okay, Twilight."

"Ok, now everypony hand over your helmets so I can add the horn holes. Once that's done I'll transmute your armor so that it'll fit even better."

"Ok!" the whole group said and handed over their helmets and I transmuted the holes into them. Afterward, I transmuted each girl's armor to fit perfectly to their bodies. After that, I asked them what weapons they wanted from the armory. Most replied with the expected swords and crossbows but both Rainbow and Chrysalis asked for long bladed daggers and throwing needles and surprisingly Applejack asked for heavy gauntlets while Fluttershy asked for a stave which I had to transmute from a bo staff I had in the practice area and a short sword.

"Well ladies, now that we're armed and armored we should head into the Everfree Forest," I said. "Anypony need to do or get anything before we leave?"

With replies of no, I left the armory."Alright then, let's go!"

Author's Notes:

Hey, everypony this is as the title says. if you're wondering about the Black Lightnings they're the covert ops division of the Wonderbolts, and the name? That will be explained in the second half where the action begins.