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“You’re not wrong,” I admitted, feeling a little defeat. “It would be really bad to get lost and freeze up out there… but I don’t like the idea of some giant stallion I don’t know standing behind me the whole day. Rock is… I trust him.”

She nodded. “An important point of his excellent job performance,” she noted. “So, in lieu of having another guard who you trust, we will need another solution.” She stood up and stretched out, her wings unfolding and flapping as she stood in the center of the room. Her horn glowed a brilliant gold color, and the magical aura surged forth to cover her entire body

When eventually the aura lifted, Celestia was gone and in her place was a pegasus with a white coat and pink mane, though her eyes still had the same luminescent glow, promising the quick wit inside. She was taller than the average mare but not nearly as huge as, say, Seafoam, and instead of the graceful curves of Celestia she had a more built physique. In other words, she was a brick house. She was clad in a set of golden gleaming plate, fancy stuff, too. At a guess, it looked like it had the same regalia that Rock did. “Operative Angel Wings, at your service,” she said. Her voice was a little huskier and a little higher, but still definitely on the lower end of things. She trilled her speech very distractingly.

“Oh,” I said, slipping off the couch and circling around her like inspecting the troops. “That’s… not a bad idea. Except, uh, you don’t have stuff to do?”

“Given that I’m not a total layabout, I’ll need to make some accommodations,” she said, reaching up to boop me. “But it wouldn’t have been nearly as dramatic if I had said ‘wait, let me go take care of some business, and then we can go off to start on your quest for self discovery, hm?”

“Noted,” I said. “Then, uh, lead the way.”

--

In about thirty minutes we were heading down towards the outer walls of the palace, Angel Wings falling in step beside me and looking every bit the dutiful bodyguard. “So, where to, my prince?”

I gave her a scowl, though with a small smile twitching at the edge. “Please don’t call me that. One pony hears me getting called that and it’s all anyone is going to call me.”

“Of course, my prince.” She said, giving me a wink.

I sighed and looked ahead of me. “While you were talking with Raven, I asked where the weather patrol for the castle meets. I haven’t done much weather work before, but I figure I could probably help out with some cloudbusting and learn the ropes a little bit?”

She nodded. “It's not a bad idea… You might find it a bit difficult. The mountain winds bring difficult weather to Canterlot, and we have very high standards around here. You might be able to work as an assistant, if you have some talent for it.”

“Well, it's a start. If this doesn’t work out, you can pick the next choice.”

“Excellent. I was wondering when you would bend to my superior wit.”

I looked over at her, concerned, but I could not for the life of me decide if she was being serious or not.