Cadance: The Love Arsenal

by IndiBrony

Focus

Cadance sits down to examine her wing. "It's not broken or anything, but it's a bit sore. Guess I'll be scouting on the ground for now" she sighs. "We'll scout Canterlot for now." Equestria's proud home of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna gleams in the daylight, but it appears Cadance's search is in vain. "I didn't expect much from trotting around here. Everypony here is wealthy, in great health, with little to no worries." The Princess clicks on her scouter. It searches for nearby ponies, but each pony it finds reads minuscule power levels that she deems need no tampering with.

The pretty pink alicorn looks up to the royal castle which overlooks the city. "Let's see if Celestia is home." she states, cantering effortlessly to the front gates. Cadance approaches the guard on the gate. "Is Princess Celestia here?"

The guard shakes his head. "Unfortunately not, Princess Cadance. Princess Celestia is on official business in the Griffon Kingdom to discuss international relations."

Cadance smiles. "Not to worry. Thank you." Just as she turns away, her scouter bleeps, grabbing her attention. The guard's power level is 55.

The guard stares at her, pondering her hesitation.

Cadance shifts her attention away from the scouter "What's your name?"

"Uh, Princess?" the guard isn't sure how to respond.

"Your name. What is it?"

The guard stands to attention. "Archer, Your Highness"

"Archer? That's an unusual name for a pony... I like it." Cadance looks the guard up and down "and where are you from, Archer?"

He's nervous, stumbling across his answer. "C-Cloudsdale."

Cadance clicks her scouter with the least amount of subtlety. It reads his heart's desire: he wants to thrive at his work. "Tell me; why did you join the royal guard?"

"To serve and protect, Your Highness."

Cadance shakes her head. "That's not what I meant." she smiles. "You seem nervous."

Archer grows more tense. "No. Not at all, Princess"

The pink alicorn chuckles politely "But you're all tense. Relax a little. I don't bite." she grins at Archer as she glides around him, stroking his armour with her hoof. The two ponies share a silence. For her loyal guard, the silence seems long and awkward, but Cadance seems entirely relaxed. "Have you ever spoken to royalty before?"

Archer shakes his head nervously. "No"

"No...?" Cadance smirks slyly.

"No, Y-Your Highness!" he stutters, correcting himself.

"You're still tense, dear." she looks him deep in the eye. "Relax, Archie." Cadance pulls out a canned beverage. "Here, take this. Drink it, it'll help you loosen up" she floats a blue can in front of him. He takes it from her, cracks it open and takes a sip. Within seconds, his trembling ceases, he lets out a sigh and his posture becomes more at ease. "Better?"

Archer nods "Yes, ma'am."

"You're welcome. You're doing a good job. Keep it up."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Cadance turns her attention to the gate. "May I enter the castle now?"

"Of course." Archer scuttles off and lowers the gate for the Princess.

As she trots inside, she acknowledges her scouter. "Sorry I couldn't talk you through that one very well - it needed my strictest attention. You see, the scouter's information is limited. It can tell me some basic things, but it doesn't tell me everything. Archer's pretty new to the guard... well, new compared to some of the others, anyway. I think my presence took him by surprise. It's not too often Royals trot up to the gate unannounced..." she explains, clopping through the palace toward the throne room.

"...but he just wanted to be sure he was doing his job right. The drink I gave him, I call that the 'Blue Bovine'. It relaxes and focuses the mind. It works almost instantly, and one sip can last weeks. He's going to have that flowing through his system for a long time. By the time its effects wear off, he'll be in the groove of things and it should come more naturally to him."

Cadance arrives at an empty throne room, choosing to gaze at the stained glass windows as she talks. "I suppose you may have been hoping for something more interesting in this instance, but let me tell you that when all you care about is doing a good job, simply being acknowledged for doing so can mean the world. All he needed was a compliment from a pony he holds in high regard; in this case, me."

"Maybe the next pony will be more interesting for you..."

Comments

[IndiBrony]

5623108 I'm literally writing what comes to mind. Each chapter is going to be a bitesized five-minute read based on what ridiculous weaponry I can think of and how I can use it. Hell, if you can think of any interesting weapons, I may incorporate it into a chapter.

It's being written for Equestria Daily's Hearts and Hooves day event. The idea is that they want people to ship ponies for Hearts and Hooves day. I thought 'screw it, why not take this from Cadance's perspective and ship ALL THE PONIES!!"

In the first 6 chapters, I think I ship two couples... that counts, right?

[HB_DS2013]

For a stealthier approach, tranq arrows! (Hooves can't hold pistols, though.)

[IndiBrony]

5623490 Hooves can't hold pistols, but magic can. That was what I was thinking of throughout the riot chapter where she was using the shotguns. She can levitate and fire them with her magic.

Also, it was a complete rip-off/homage to Mami Tomoe from Madoka Magica as she does exactly the same thing.

[HB_DS2013]

5623573 In a L4D crossover fic, RD and Flutters can use a shotgun modified for hooves.