Dominic opened his eyes and blinked away the sleep, he found himself curled up beside Luna in a compromising position. From the window the early light of dawn could be seen cresting the horizon, chilly morning air made his breath visible even within the room. The door to the balcony had been left ajar, and that had lead to both him and the mare next to him curling close together for warmth in the night. Her wings and the heavy blanket over him gave him an odd sensation, something he’d grown familiar with many years ago.

He could remember one of the many times he and Maria had shared a bed, how every morning he woke up with her arms around him and her head against his shoulder. He couldn’t remember how many time’s he’d thought it a coincidence or something platonic, but thinking back and hearing her final declaration in his head…

Luna felt a warm liquid begin dripping on one of her wings, she felt Dominic pulling it closer to his chest. She shifted her position, still maintain a facade of sleep as she did so. The man was quiet, and just as quickly as it had started she felt the tears subside. Luna saw him wipe his eyes and slowly relinquish his grip on her wing.

“Dominic?” She finally asked, she felt him tense for a moment. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just something in my eye…” Dominic said in a distant tone, he cleared his throat and pushed Luna’s wing off of him. “I’m fine.” The man swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbed his boots, as he began slipping them on he felt Luna sit up behind him. “Really…” With his boots secure, he grabbed his jacket from the floor and pulled it on. “Now, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Well, first we must make the castle safe to work in, best left to the engineers.” Luna said, getting out of the bed and trotting in front of Dominic. The man was fumbling with some of the buttons on his jacket and checking the fresh repairs. “Thou wilst no doubt search for something to do, correct?” Dominic nodded, earning a hum from the lunar princess.

“We recommend speaking with Hammered Steel, he may have something.” She said, smiling slightly. “Thou may be able to pick up a thing or two from him, he will be the chief smith of the installation in the future.”

“Well, I guess I could use all the friends I can get.” Dominic said, he stood up and stretched his arms wide. Several loud pops resonated through the room, they were followed by a relieved sigh. “I don’t know how good I’ll be at blacksmithing, but I’ll give it a shot.” Luna smiled, for more than one reason. One, she was happy to see Dominic branching out and trying new things, and two, she would be able to work without worrying about him sulking and getting depressed. He had a tendency to overthink when he was alone, she just hoped Hammered Steel wouldn’t be bothered by the sudden arrangement.

“We cannot wait to see what thou create.” Luna said, smiling further. “Perhaps one day we may even wield a blade crafted by thine hands.”

“I doubt I’ll ever get that good…” Dominic trailed off, he picked up his revolver and slipped it into the holster on his belt. “You ready?” Luna nodded and stood up, the two of them began walking to the door and then down the steps. The sun rose above the horizon as they exited out into the courtyard, and already the Lunar guards were preparing for the day’s work. Many of them sat in small groups, conversing as they ate a breakfast of MREs. A few of the veterans that had arrived with Dominic were chowing down on Manticore jerky.

“That thing lasted a long fuckin’ time…” Commented the man, he walked up to a crate of supplies and grabbed two MREs. “Let’s see, we have egg shaped paste or burrito shaped paste. Which one do you want, Lu?” He looked at Luna, she was unsure what he meant. “Burrito is probably better.” He handed her the burrito packet and began opening his own. “Hope this day isn’t as bad as this breakfast is going to be.

[♦]

Twilight Sparkle watched as the factory was finally completed, after weeks of work the complex was ready to begin producing at full capacity. The smoke stacks began to chug out smoke and steam, all of which was partially cleaned by spells designed to minimize smog. Loud hammering noises and other sounds began to form a symphony of machinery from within the factory. From her seat atop her home she could see a small crowd outside the gates with signs. They looked almost like ants to her from a distance, but she knew very well that at least one of her friends was among them.

Lately there had been strong opposition to the military’s modernization efforts in Ponyville, that opposition had only grown when numerous ponies had spotted a swarm of black, unmarked, chariots landing in the Everfree forest. With a sigh, Twilight got out of her seat and walked inside. She spotted Spike still asleep in his bed, a smile graced her lips and she made sure to use her magic to tuck him in a bit tighter. Afterwards she made her way down into the kitchen to start breakfast, she decided on pancakes. She would be sure to include gem shards in Spike’s, he explained they were like chocolate chips to him.

While the pan began to heat up, Twilight walked to her front door and pulled it open. Sitting on her doorstep was a newspaper, most likely printed only an hour before. She levitated it up to eyelevel and closed the door behind her. That was as far as she got from the door, as she felt her legs lock up. Written in large letters across the top of the first page, the cause of her distress was one of the few things that Twilight was loathe to read.

WAR LOOMS OVER TWIN ISLAND!

After numerous attempts to resolve the dispute peacefully, and with mediation only prolonging the inevitable, the Zebra Coalition and the Federal Republic of Minotaurs are close engaging in open hostilities over the small Atoll known as Twin Island. Only time will tell if the conflict will spark into a full on war, but experts say the news is grim. When questioned on the subject, Princess Celestia said that she was ‘sad that it had come to this’, but believes that 'after numerous years of arguing, there is likely no alternative’. More on Pg. 7

With a sigh, the mare set the paper down on her couch and entered the kitchen. She took a box of pancake mix from her pantry and began mixing it, at the same time she levitated some smaller emeralds from Spike’s ‘Secret’ hiding space in the fiction portion of the library. Slowly her thoughts turned towards the newspaper, she smiled at the silver lining within it’s title. The war hadn’t started yet, there was still hope for stopping it. Twilight poured the first pancake in the heated pan, being sure to give it a liberal coating of butter before doing so.

“And this is the first time in months the headline isn’t about Dominic, so that’s a plus I guess…” She added under her breath, absentmindedly floating a mallet over the emeralds she’d procured and smashing them to bits. It took her a moment to realize that as she was hammering, someone was knocking on her door. “It’s open!” She called. “and it’s a public library…”

“Twilight? Where are you?” Called the voice of Rarity.

“Kitchen.” Twilight replied, not taking her attention away from her current task. A few moments later Rarity entered the small kitchen with the newspaper floating in her magic.

“Can you believe it?” She asked almost rhetorically. “Zebra and Minotaur going to war with each other over an island.” The mare shook her head, then set the paper down. “Sorry, that’s not why I came to visit.”

“Oh?” Asked Twilight, recieving a nod from her friend. She flipped the first pancake over, then looked over at Rarity.

“I’ve received a rather large order, and I need a bit of help gathering the gems.” Twilight let out an ‘oh’ before nodding.

“I’ll wake up Spike for breakfast, then you two can go.” Rarity shook her head and smiled a bit.

“Well, I was hoping you’d go with me.” She said, Twilight looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Me?”

“Yes, darling.” Rarity replied with a sincere smile. “You’ve been so busy lately, and I don’t have the time to go to the spa with all the new orders, I thought this might be a good chance to spend some time together.” Twilight paused, looking down at the now cooked pancake. She placed it on a waiting plate before answering.

“I’d love to.” The smile on her face was small, but it was genuine. It was growing ever more rare that she and her friends got to spend time together. Even digging in the dirt for gems would be a nice time to get together. “I’ll just finish up here, okay?” Rarity nodded with a smile.

“It’s good to see you not so… tense.” Rarity commented. “I remember a year or two ago you would be tripping over yourself trying to find some sort of special rock or over packing…” Twilight nodded as she began cooking another pancake. “I suppose that would be me too.”

“Hello pot, I’m kettle.” Twilight said with a chuckle, Rarity looked confused. “Sorry, human saying.” It was Rarity’s turn to ‘oh’.

“What’s it mean?” She asked, Twilight looked around. Thankfully there was both a pot and a kettle out in the open of the kitchen.

“Well, the saying is like ‘The pot calling the kettle black’ as an insult.” Twilight explained, flipping the pancake.

“But they’re both black.” Rarity stated, looking at the pot and the kettle.

“That’s the point.” Twilight chirped in a cheery tone. “Dominic had a lot of ways of insulting people without directly doing so…” She trailed off. “I think we spent an entire hour talking about his varying use of the word fuck.” Rarity gasped. “Oh, it’s not like you’ve never heard it before.”

“I’ve never heard it from you, I don’t think.” Rarity replied, sitting down to wait. For a few minutes there was silence before she decided to speak again. “Tell me about them…”

“Well, he said it’s a sort of emotional thing… It can mean different things if it’s said differently. For instance when he’s angry he shouts it furiously. Same goes for sad or happy.” Twilight stopped herself. “I shouldn’t talk about him behind his back…” Rarity nodded in understanding.

“You miss him?” She asked, Twilight nodded with a sad smile.

“He was nice, reminded me a lot of Shining.” The mare took the now cooked pancake and put it on the plate, then poured a third one. Her thoughts began to drift to the days she’d watched in the hospital, the screaming and the crying. With a sigh she wiped her eyes. “I shouldn’t have pushed him to help me…”

“Twilight, where is this coming from?” Rarity asked, standing up and moving to her friend’s side.

“After the riots, after he woke up, he seemed different.” The mare flipped the pancake, then looked over to Rarity. “He was angrier, and before he left, after he’d dealt with Blueblood… I thought I could smell blood on his shoes.” Rarity looked unsure how to respond, nonetheless she gave Twilight a pat on the back.

“It’s not your fault, Twilight. I’m sure he’s told you this himself.” The alabaster mare lifted Twilight’s chin with a hoof. “Buck up, okay? We’re going to have a fun day away from all this… angst.” The alicorn smiled as she put the last pancake on the plate and turned off the stove, with a brief flash of magic she placed a freshness spell on the flapjacks and set them on the table, the put a note next to them for spike.

“He’ll get them when he wakes up, let’s go!” She and Rarity exited the library with smiles on their faces. They trotted through the waking town, occasionally they’d stop to say hello to one of their friends or to look at the changing shops on mainstreet. When they were out of town, they still saw many ponies. They carried picket signs and were too busy parading around in front of the arms factory to notice the national heroes wandering by and staring at them. Among the crowd they could see Mrs. Cake, Cheerilee, and Fluttershy. The latter of the three was also joined by numerous annoyed looking animals.

On the other side of the picket line were numerous stone faced guards in black composite armor, they held familiar looking crystal shields and billy clubs. Within the complex, it was business as usual, and soon the first shipment of the day would be leaving for an armory somewhere in Equestria. Twilight sighed as she watched, but kept on going with Rarity. The sound of the picketers eventually died out, replaced by the sounds of wild animals within the Everfree Forest. For half an hour they walked in silence, Twilight found it actually soothing to hear the sounds of the forest. Still, there was a question on her mind.

“Where are we going?” Asked Twilight, looking around the forest. As an Alicorn, she felt confident she could handle the threats of the trees and darkness. “The gem field? if so we should check if there are diamond dog tracks, you know? Just incase?”

“We’re not going to the gem field, at least not first.” Rarity replied as they came up on a familiar fork in the road. “My client informed me that she wanted a specific gem, one that appears near limestone.”

“The castle of the two sisters is on a limestone deposit…” Twilight said to herself. “Okay, so we’re going to the Castle of Nightmare Moon. Normally not a problem…” The two had turned down the fork in the road and had started to immediately see the familiar path.

“Normally?” Rarity asked. “The castle is abandoned, not a soul will miss what we take.” Twilight coughed awkwardly, but Rarity didn’t seem to notice. The alicorn rationalized that because she was a princess, she could order whatever guards were present to allow her entry. As far as she knew, they were only a security force with a maximum of twenty Lunar Guards at most. Silently they walked on, passing by the trees and being sure to stop to say hello to Lev the water serpent.

When they reached the rope bridge, both became speechless. Not only by the amount of activity in the castle, not only by the sheer number of guards, but the red white and blue flag that was waving in the wind. It was visible over the wall on a pole in the courtyard, and though it was below the Equestrian banner it was bigger and prouder than anything the two mares had ever seen.

“Is that…?” Rarity asked.

“It is…” Twilight replied, she looked at the bridge that crossed the chasm. On the other side were two Lunar guards that were staring at them with blank expressions. “Should we…?”

“We should…” And with that, the two of them began to cross the bridge.

Author's Notes:

Here it is, another chapter lovingly hand crafted by yours truly. The [Insert different job title/hobby here] Boss.

It's getting to that time of year. Even though Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet, it still looms there. I know I've said this a few times, but I can't say it enough. Thank you, all you guys and gals, for all the support and such.

Leave a comment down below telling me what you liked and didn't like, while you're at it leave a rating, and if you're feeling real nice leave a favorite!

Until next time...