Author's Notes:

Here's another one for you guys, hope to be updating a lot more frequently now. Please, feel free to post any thoughts you have in the comments, but try to keep things civil.

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See you all later.

Snores filled Dominic’s room, a lavender alicorn lay tucked under the blankets on his bed while the young man sat in front of the window. The sun was starting to come up over the horizon, casting light on the sleeping city below. The young man was deep in thought, as sleep had eluded him the night before. Today he would be going out into the world for the first time, the world that he was sure thoroughly hated him. He had already taken the newspaper that had been left outside his door and was looking at it with disdain. It called him lazy, hostile, and repugnant.

That was how it had been for the past few months, and how it most likely would be in the future. Contrary to what the papers said, he wasn’t ‘lazing about’. He had actively looked into possible trades and purpose, he was willing to go to school and learn new things, but no school would accept him. No trade suited him. He understood basic mechanics, but that knowledge was old, and of no use to him here. These thoughts were not the source of the scowl on his face, however. No, the cause was the pile of books on the table.

Each of them was a reference for military strategy, ranks, logistics, and pretty much anything else Twilight could get her hooves on. He had never read so many books in a single night, and the new information rattled around in his head like loose nuts and bolts. Dominic wouldn’t normally put himself through such extremes, but his motives were driven by something more than normal. He looked at the alicorn sleeping under blankets on his bed, cuddled up and snoring as adorable as ever. She was his friend, and friends were a rare thing in his experience. They were worth sacrificing sleep over.

There had been rough patches, especially in the beginning. But Twilight was able to push past his hostile exterior. She had given him a shoulder to cry on when he needed it, and he had responded in kind. Dominic smiled silently at her and walked to the bed, she had pushed the covers off of her and was shivering ever so slightly. The man pulled the covers up over her and walked to his dresser. He began to change clothes, pulling on a pair of black cargo pants as well as a slate T-shirt. As usual, he tucked the bottoms of the pant legs into his boots before trying the double knots.

Dominic let out a sigh, stretching and letting his neck pop. He grabbed his jacket and slid it on, noting the different fit with the new muscle. He didn’t care though, he wouldn’t give this jacket up for anything. Even if it was a bit snug now. The young man walked to the table and sifted through the books and notes, searching for something important. His hand brushed against the metal of his revolver and he quickly grabbed the weapon. Silently he brought the weapon into the light, checking the cylinder. It was fully loaded. He nodded to himself and slid the weapon into its proper place.

Dominic looked back at the sleeping mare, she still smiled in her sleep. Out of his peripherals he saw movement, despite his best efforts he still flinched. Sleep deprivation was going to make the day’s activities difficult. He grabbed his utility cap from the table and sat it squarely on his head, the familiar comfort greeted him like an old friend.

“Dominic?” Asked Twilight, the young man turned to face her.

“Morning, Twi.” He said quietly.

“Wha… Why am I in your bed?” She asked, confused. Dominic pointed to the pile of books on the table.

“You fell asleep in your chair, so I moved you to my bed.” He said, picking up one of the books and leafing through it.

“Where did you sleep?” Twilight asked, still confused. Dominic pointed to his ‘thinking chair’ as he had dubbed it. It overlooked the outside, which gave him clarity to think.

“Now, enough about sleep. We have work to do.” Twilight nodded, remembering the discussion she had had the day prior. She was honestly surprised he had decided to ‘Consult’. Perhaps if he did well, the other nations would ask him to consult their militaries. That would give him some sort of purpose. But the media would most likely call him a war monger, not that Dominic cared. “What’s the first thing on the agenda?”

“Well, the armor sets the guards have now are starting to get old. Several months ago, Celestia put out a call for new armor and today we’re going to see the results. After that, we have to evaluate the current armaments of the military.” Twilight explained, rolling out of bed and using her magic to fix her hair. Dominic grabbed his backpack, which had sat empty in the past months, and tossed a few books into it. As well as his helmet, just in case something went wrong.

“Let’s get moving then…” Without further adieu, the pair left the room. The guards stiffened when they saw him, word had traveled fast. “Make sure no one gets in there.” Dominic said, half seriously. The guards nodded, letting the alicorn and the new Military Consultant walk down the hallway.

[♦]

The walk had been relatively silent, Dominic was getting used to a new part of the castle. The part that was frequented by tourists. The part with the doors that lead outside. He shook with excitement at the thought of being outside again, at seeing civilization again. Groups of school children made way for Twilight, bowing respectfully.

“Look, the royal pet is going for a walk…” Commented one of the mares, Dominic’s glare fell on her like a ton of bricks. She shuddered under the almost predatory gaze and didn’t dare make eye contact. The ponies in this part of the castle were spiteful, unlike the ones Dominic had dealt with. Did that scare him? No, they could all burn for all he cared. He and Twilight came to a halt near the main doorway, the guards there saluted without looking at either of them.

“Open the main door!” Commanded the one on the right.

“Sir.” Replied the other guard, a unicorn. He used his magic to push the doors open, immediately a warm breeze blew through the slowly opening passage. Dominic closed his eyes and leaned his head back, letting the outside air run over him. He inhaled deeply, the scent of dirt, grass, trees, and flowers greeted his nostrils. When he opened his eyes, he was blinded by the midday sun light. The warmth it offered him was incredible, as if he had been wrapped in the arms of god.

“Dominic? Are you okay?” asked Twilight, noticing the smile that was slowly spreading across Dominic’s face. He inhaled through his nose again, then took a step out the open doors. The sun’s warmth was even greater outside, warming him to his core. He had to give Sunny credit, it was a beautiful day. “Dominic?”

“Just give me a moment…” He replied to her, taking another step outside. Back home, the ash from the burning cities had blotted the sky with grey clouds. Now, there were no clouds, only the beautiful blue sky above. “I…” He paused and turned to Twilight. “I haven’t seen a sky like this in a long time. Shame we’re gonna have to spend the day in an office.”

“I’m sure we can arrange for the inspection to be moved outside.” Twilight said with a grin, she trotted ahead of him. “Now come on.” He quickly followed after her, taking in the sights of the outside world. They walked down a wide pathway towards the front gates, to their left and right were wide expanses of green grass. It was pocked with blooming cherry trees, the white blossoms fluttered in the breeze. Birds soared above them, singing their songs with great volume. Dominic snapped out of his daze in time to move out of the way of an approaching band of students. Unlike the foals he had seen before, these ponies were most likely adolescents. They were headed by a blue unicorn with a green mane.

“Look at that thing…” He heard one of the students mutter.

“It’s worse than I imagined…”

“Dominic, don’t pay them any attention.” Twilight said, noting that he had gone from smiling to his old stoic mask.

“Not planning on it.” He replied sourly. “Just can’t believe I can’t even go outside without dealing with these pricks… What ever happened to Love and Tolerate?”

“Canterlot never officially embraced that as it’s city motto, so…” Twilight answered, getting a nod in response. As the adolescents passed them, one of them pulled a note pad and a pen from his saddle bag.

“Oh joy, another reporter.” Dominic spat on the ground and glared at the young stallion. As they were about to pass each other, the student opened his mouth. “No comment.”

“Surely you-”

“No comment.”

“Why would-

“No fucking comment.” Dominic hissed, passing the stallion. He turned and extended only his middle finger at him before looking at Twilight. “I can tell already, this is going to be fun.” With that, the exited the palace grounds and were on their way to the research labs where the new armor would be unveiled.

[♦]

Twilight and Dominic sighed as the finally reached their destination, it had been a hellish ten minute walk from the palace to the research facility. Twilight was ashamed of her home city, whose citizens had hurled insult after insult at Dominic along the walk. They weren’t the only thing that had been hurled at him though, Dominic’s helmet had several new scratches from rocks that had been hurled at his head. His arm would most likely be bruised, and he would have to sew a patch onto a new hole that had formed in his jacket. It had taken the combined efforts of Dominic and Twilight to keep his temper from boiling over, but thankfully no shots were fired.

Dominic sighed and removed his helmet, rubbing his temples afterwards. He had gotten his bell rung pretty well by one of the larger rocks, and he could tell he would have a large bump for the next few days. He had quelled his anger for the most part, now he only felt snappy. The pair quickly entered the research facility and closed the doors behind them, the receptionist looked at them wide eyed. She quickly bowed to Twilight, obviously not expecting to see a princess or a human at the same time. The mare pushed a button on her desk and thirty seconds later a stallion in a lab coat burst forth from one of the lobby’s doors. He dropped into a bow as well.

“P-Princess, what an honor it is to meet you!” The stallion said, standing tall again. “I’m sorry, I thought you would be bringing a foreign consultant with you…”

“And I did.” Twilight said, pointing to Dominic. He had placed his utility cap back on his head, opting to hang the helmet from one of his backpack straps. “Doctor Ballista, this is Dominic Occisor. He is the American Military Consultant you were informed of.” The doctor blinked for a moment, Dominic extended his hand. Ballista shook it tentatively.

“Me name, Ballista. You, Dominic.” The doctor said loudly. Dominic scowled.

“If your vernacular is that limited, I believe we will have very few subjects to speak on in the future.” Dominic stated sourly, the doctor blushed with embarrassment. “Let’s cut the formalities and get on with the evaluation, doctor.”

“Uh… yes.” Ballista muttered. “This way.” He lead the pair through the door he had burst from, revealing the inner workings of the building. While the reception area had been nothing of note, the labs were completely different. Ponies wore clean suits and masks as they went about their jobs, some occasionally looked at Dominic and the princess but the others were far too busy to notice or care. “Welcome to Merkwuerdigichliebe Labs.” Dominic paused, he had heard that name somewhere before. “This is where most of the new toys the kids are playing with comes from, from those new arcade machines to subwoofers.”

“Is that so?” asked Dominic. “What pushed you towards building armor then?” Ballista snorted.

“Well… I did.” The unicorn stallion explained. “I proposed we enter a design in the contest to see what armor would replace the current issue.” The three of them came upon a sealed blast door, Ballista ignited his horn and the door unlocked before swinging inwards. “We took some features from the current armor, but it’s mainly new technology.” He started to see the armor on its display stand, when he saw the full picture he brought a hand to his face. Sitting in the center of a bland workshop was one of the worst suits of armor Dominic had ever seen. Even with his poor knowledge of armor, he knew it wouldn’t work.

It was gold, no surprise, the helmet was bulky and needlessly large, the armor on other vital areas was extremely thin, to the point Dominic though he would be able to punch through it, and it only extended down half of the body. Twilight and the Doctor took note of this motion.

“Tell me this is a joke…” Dominic groaned, Ballista’s face fell.

“L-Let me show you how it works!” He said, almost defensively. He hurried over to the armor and picked up a sword from a rack on the wall. He took a swing at the armor and hit it with the flat of his blade. “See!” Dominic scowled and looked at Twilight, even she knew how to properly swing a sword. Twilight ignited her horn and took the sword from the doctor, she passed it on to Dominic.

The young man walked over to the armor and casually made a pass of the blade over the armor, it sliced through the metal as if it was made of paper. Silently he gave the sword back to Ballista and moved on to the helmet, even with his new found strength he found it heavy. Too heavy. He had to set it back down on the stand.

“This is the only armor set you have?” Twilight asked, not amused. The pair had trudged through the hate filled streets of Canterlot for nothing. What was worse, she hadn’t mentioned that the doctor was the only one to submit a design. She had been floored when she heard it, but now she was absolutely horrified. They would have to adopt this ABOMINATION.

“Y-Yes… You like it?”

“It’s so bad, I actually feel I might have to administer human engineering.” Dominic said flatly. “If this is what we’re outfitting the army with, I might not have any choice.” He sighed and looked at Twilight, she shrugged with uncertainty. Thankfully, fate decided to intervene. From the open door behind them, an intern stuck her head in.

“Um, doctor Ballista, I hope it’s not too late to submit a design…?” She started, when she saw Dominic and the Princess she drooped a bit. “Oh, you’re already here… Nevermind…” The mare, an earth pony with white mane and peach fur started to leave.

“No, stay for a moment.” Dominic said, walking towards her. “Do you have a model?” She sighed and shook her head. “How long would it take you to make one?” She shrugged.

“Um, well, I made based it off of existing materials, maybe three or four hours… maybe five… Something like that.” Dominic and Twilight looked at each other and then at the mare. In unison they spoke.

“We’ll wait.”

[♦]

They had learned her name was Logical Thought, and it showed. Doctor Ballista’s armor had no positive qualities, but Logical Thought’s was different. The mare had been working feverishly since she had met them, and so far it was looking good.

It was based on chain mail, with metal plates magically welded to critical points of the body. The chest plate was angled outwards slightly, and the mail ran from the back of the body all the way to the head. It was tight, so that it would hug the wearers body and give them better range of motion. It had a helmet similar to Dominic’s, which made sense. He had seen them in the show, so they were probably common. The actual build had taken under an hour, the other time had been spent collecting the parts from all over the facility.

When Logical finished, she turned and looked nervously at Dominic and Twilight. The armor looked professional and intimidating.

“I like this, but what is it going to cost to get these to all of our soldiers?” Twilight asked, slipping into Princess mode. Dominic found it interesting to watch her in princess mode, she always seemed to have a calm air to her even if he could tell she was stressed.

“A single set would most likely cost two thousand bits.” Logical replied. “I tried to use existing material, but I had to infuse the plates with gold for the magical dampening, and the chain mail wasn’t cheap…” Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof, two thousand bits was far less than she expected. Normal guard armor was coated in gold, that brought the price up to four thousand a set. With the extra money, they could give the soldiers a pay raise or better weaponry. That would lead to a boost in morale, as well as recruitment.

“I don’t know…” Twilight said with false indecision. She wanted to get Dominic’s opinion. “Dominic? What do you think?” The young man walked over and looked at the armor, it would need to be painted a matte color, and some rank symbols wouldn’t hurt. “What would we do with all the old armor?” Dominic hummed.

“Surplus auction, sell it to collectors and reenactors, maybe keep some for ceremonial purposes.” He said. “But this armor, this looks like something America would come up with if it needed medieval armor. I like it. But, perhaps make it out of steel instead of iron. Steel is stronger.”

“That would bring the price up to twenty five hundred…” Logical commented from the side.

“I’d wear it, if I had to.” Dominic said, inspecting it closer. “But maybe we put it through some tests before we make any decisions. I’d definitely say to keep an eye on it.”

“Alright. Then that’s what we’ll do.” Twilight said, turning to Logical Thought. “Do you think you could have a set made with steel by the end of the month?”

“Yes, Princess.”

“Excellent! We’ll schedule the tests whenever you’re ready. I’ll personally see to it you are paid for your service.” Twilight said, smiling. She shook whooves with Logical, the mare smiled as the weight of what was happening settled on her. Dominic nodded to her and shot a look at the clock on the wall.

“Didn’t we have to see the armaments?” He asked, Twilight shook her head.

“While we were waiting I sent them a letter, we can just head back to the palace now.” She said, then looked at Logical. “We’ll be in touch.” The mare nodded and watched as both Twilight and Dominic left the workshop. The labs were empty now, most of the workers had gone home for the night. When the pair reached the front doors, they could tell the sun had set.

“Oh joy, we get to go out into a big city at night.” Dominic muttered, pulling the door open and holding it for Twilight.

“Don’t worry Dominic, I’m sure the streets are clear by now.” Twilight said reassuringly, Dominic grumbled a few choice words at that statement.

“Tomorrow we should have guards with us.” Dominic said flatly, his boots clicking on the sidewalk as they walked down the street towards the large castle in the distance.

“Don’t. Worry.” Twilight said again. “Besides, I have my big strong human friend with me, I’m sure we’ll be okay.” Dominic didn’t laugh at the joke, like Twilight hoped.

“May god have mercy upon my enemy, because I sure as hell won’t.” The two of them walked in silence for the next few minutes, Dominic would jump whenever he heard a nosie from an alley or the roofs. He began to move with as much stealth as possible, and his hand was constantly on the handle of his revolver. Twilight watched him closely, he was acting on instinct now.

“Calm down, Dominic. It’s nothing to worry about.” She soothingly spoke, putting a wing on his shoulder. He relaxed at the familiar comforting gesture, but his eyes still darted around. “We’re only a few minutes away, nothing’s going to-”

“THAT’S IT!” Shouted a voice from a house to her left, Dominic had his revolver drawn in seconds. The voice laughed loudly. “Do it again! You tell the story the best!”

“Calm down, Dominic. It’s just someone laughing, nothing to be afraid of.” Dominic nodded and took several deep breaths, before sliding his revolver back into it’s proper location. The rest of the trip passed without incident, Dominic and Twilight went their separate ways at the main door. The young man entered his room silently and began to undress until he was down to his boxers and his T-shirt. He was so tired he didn’t notice that Luna was watching him from the corner.

“Hello, Dominic.” She said, the young man reached for his revolver again. “We are sorry to have startled thou, we just wanted to check in on how your new… job… is going.” Dominic placed the weapon down and turned to face Luna. She noticed the bump forming on his head as well as several bruises that had formed on his chest and arms. “By our mother…” She quickly trotted over to him. “Dominic, who did this to thee.”

“Your loving subjects…” Dominic replied, wincing as the lunar princess examined the bump on his head. “Rocks really fucking hurt, you know that?”

“Dominic, we may not be a medical expert, but we fear a bump of this size may lead to a concussion. We must insist thou remain awake tonight.” She said, ignoring his comment about the rocks.

“Look, I just want to go to bed, I’ve had worse head injuries than this.” Dominic insisted, trying to go to his bed. Luna wouldn’t let him. “Damn it, Luna. I haven’t slept since last night, let me sleep in peace now.”

“No, Dominic. we’re sorry, but we worry for thou.” Luna said sternly. “Now sit, we will have coffee brought to us and we will make sure thou art okay.” Dominic sighed and walked over to his thinking chair, slipping his socks and pants back on as he did. “We will also make sure that our citizens are made aware of how we feel about this incident.” The young man grunted and watched the stars, Luna went and put in the order for coffee, and thus began another sleepless night.