Dominic let out a pent up breath as he carried a large, heavy crate from one of the supply drops to where the blacksmiths were setting up their forge. It had been nothing but back breaking work for the past hour and a half, and the man found that nearly every part of him ached or was close to having a cramp of some kind. In all honesty, it reminded him of a time where he’d barely managed to escape the horde, minus the part where he was surround by flesh eating freaks.

In the process of carrying his cargo he spotted United Front and Gear Grinder working together with a group of the fresh troops to clear a pile of refuse and junk that had accumulated over the centuries. Luna was busy coordinating the guards in the lower levels of the castle..

When he finally reached the site he was quick to set down his crate, Hammered Steel and his compatriots were busy laying brick and mortar, while some were chopping wood into small pieces and chucking it into a large metal drum. Hammered had explained they would be using it to make charcoal for the forge, and that the night would be good and warm because of it. With a groan Dominic started walking back towards the supply drop.

“Dominic!” Shouted Hammered Steel, the man stopped and looked over to the group of working smiths. “Get over here, I’ve got a new job for ya.” The man ran a hand over his head and walked over to the group. Hammered Steel separated from the group, in his possession was a small wooden box. “You want to work with blades, kid?”

“I’d like something to do, I guess…” Dominic trailed off, Hammered Steel handed the box to him. “What’s this?”

“Kind of a tradition we have for the new recruits.” Hammered explained. “In there is all the stuff you’ll need to make a simple knife, aside from the forge and the wood. We’ll take care of that later though.” Dominic went to open the box, but Hammered stopped him with a hoof. “Work on it later, that’s not what I called you over here for. My mind just wanders... “ The stallion shook his head. “Anyway, I need you to go find the bellows. It’s in one of the crates, but some dumbass forgot to mark it.”

“No problem.” Dominic replied, putting the box under his arm. “Lemme just drop this off in my room, okay?” Hammered nodded.

“Take your time, not like these guys are getting anything done.” He gestured to the currently working smiths, who had taken the brief time of conversation to sit down. “Get back to work!” Hammered growled, turned away from Dominic. The man decided that was the best point to take his leave and started walking towards the castle tower that held his, and by proxy Luna’s, room. He passed by a group of guards working on a ballista that would be mounted on the ramparts. The man gave them a nod, the responded with nods of their own.

Dominic trudged up to his room, quickly placing the box on the desk. He ran a hand over his head, sending a spray of sweat into the air. He muttered a quick ‘Fuck.’ before wiping his hand on his pants. The man took off his jacket and tossed it onto the bed, then left the room. He passed by the group of guards, pausing only to pick up a crowbar that sat next to an open crate. The guards didn’t seem to mind, and so he made his way over to the crates.

The first few crates he opened were filled with MREs, cots, and swords in that order. Dominic took a sword from the third crate and gave it a few swings before setting it back in with its brothers. At that time, a guard came up to him. The thestral gave him a salute that Dominic returned, as a liaison he had grown accustomed to the salutes and the use of ‘sir’ when he was speaking with regulars, sans a few odd cases.

“Sir, your presence is requested at the gate.” The thestral said, lowering his hoof.

“Thanks for the heads up.” Dominic replied, setting his crowbar next to the crates. “What’s going on…” He observed the guard’s uniform for a sign of rank. “Corporal.”

“No idea, sir.” The corporal replied.

“Alright, dismissed.” The guard nodded and went off to perform some other task. Dominic started walking to the gate, noting that Luna was also walking towards it. She gave him an odd look which he returned with an equally odd look. It as if both of them were non verbally asking ‘Do you know something I don’t?’. It was clear that their paths would eventually become one, and after a minute of walking the two were side by side.

“What doth thou think is going on?” Asked Luna, Dominic shrugged and rolled his sore shoulders.

“Beats the hell out of me.” Was his reply. “Something that should be fixed, sharing information I mean.” Luna nodded, not taking her eyes off the gate. “How’s everything on your end?”

“Good, for the most part.” Luna answered. “Some of the guards in the lower levels believe they hath found Diamond Dog tunnels. Abandoned tunnels, but tunnels nonetheless.” She let out a sigh.

“Something else?” Dominic asked, noting that they were getting closer to the gate.

“Yes, they found bones.” Luna looked at the ground. “Lunar guards from our years past. They hath lain forgotten for far too long…” Dominic was silent for a moment, then patted Luna on the side.

“You gonna bury them properly?” Luna nodded. “You’re going to honor their memory?” Another nod. “Then don’t worry. Let’s just deal with whatever the hell is going on.” The two came up on the main gate, noting that several guards were arguing with someone outside. Standing by the gate on the insider was Major Night Owl, an annoyed scowl on his muzzle. “What’s the story?”

“Possible changeling spies.” Night Owl said sourly. Luna and Dominic looked at each other for a moment, the human’s hand sliding down to his sidearm. “We’ve been stringing them along until you got here, figured you’d know how to tell if they’re legitimate or not.”

“Take us to them.” Luna said, the major nodded and signaled a guard to open the gate. Slowly it screeched upwards, until it was high enough for both Dominic and Luna to walk through. As they exited, the gate fell behind them with a massive thud. The noise, however, didn’t seem to faze the ponies who were arguing. Two thestrals and what appeared to be Twilight Sparkle and Rarity.

“ … I am a PRINCESS of Equestria! How many times must I say that for you to listen and let me in!?” Shouted ‘Twilight’ while ‘Rarity’ simply stared down at the ground with an embarrassed expression.

“Ma’am, I do not have the authority to allow you access. Until I have written authorization from the base commander you don’t get in!” Retorted one of the guards, the other was having a similar reaction to Rarity’s. He nervously looked at his sword, twirling it a few times in his hoof.

“Twilight, it’s okay. We can find another gem field.” Said Rarity.

“NO! We came all this way for your gem and to have a nice relaxing day!” Twilight bellowed, again not noticing that Luna and Dominic were standing by the gate. The man sighed and drew the hammer back on his revolver. “NOW, LET US IN OR I WILL-” The raging alicorn was cut off by a loud bang. A bang she was familiar with. The ponies around the gate dove to the ground, covering their ears. The guards readied their weapons, then noticed the smoke trailing from the end of Dominic’s weapon which he’d pointed into the sky.

“Shut! The fuck! Up!” Dominic yelled, lowering his weapon and glaring at ‘Rarity’ and ‘Twilight’. Both of whom stared at him in complete shock. “Now, I don’t know what the fuck kind of bullshit is going on here, but I do know that NOTHING is getting fucking done!” He looked over at Luna. “If you would kindly tell me if I should shoot these two?”

“SHOOT US!?” Luna ignored them, her horn glowing brightly for a moment. There was a loud pop and a sphere of energy expanded outwards around the alicorn. Seemingly nothing happened.

“They are who they claim to be.” Luna said to Dominic, the man nodded and slipped his sidearm back into its holster.

“Of course we are!” Twilight shouted.

“Really, Twilight? Cause you’re not ACTING like you.” Dominic said, looking the mare up and down.

“Excuse me if I’m a little on edge! I just found out one of my best friends is LITERALLY a couple hour’s walk from my house and he told me nothing about it!” Twilight shot back, Dominic sighed and held a hand up.

“Forget it.” He said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s stop ourselves, okay? Talk civil?”

“Yes, that would be wise.” Luna added, nodding to the guards by the gate. It began to rise again, screeching just as loud as it had the first time. “Please, come in.” Rarity couldn’t get inside fast enough while Twilight and Luna entered after her. Dominic entered last, nodding to the guards on the outside before the gate slammed down once more. He quickly caught up to the group, taking steps to try and avoid angering Twilight further. She had every right to be pissed, he probably could have told her he was at least close to Ponyville without compromising the secrecy of the castle.

“What are you doing out here?” Twilight asked, still sounding somewhat angry. Rarity and Luna had started their own conversation that Dominic decided to tune out for that moment.

“Refitting the castle to act as a sort of military headquarters.” Dominic replied, ignoring some of the stares he and the others were getting from the working personnel. “At least, that’s the official story. Unofficially… Well you know why that is.” He rubbed the back of his head and cleared his throat, noting that the group seemed to be heading towards the mess hall. “What about you? What brings you out to this part of the woods?”

“One of Rarity’s clients needs a special gem that forms in limestone, the castle sits on one of the largest deposits in the area.” Twilight explained, eying some of the guards that were busy working on the castle.

“Ah, so people don’t know we’re here. Good…” Dominic stated, he ran a hand over his head and wiped the resulting sweat on his pants once again. “Speaking of people, how is it on the outside?”

“There’s strong opposition to modernizing and industrializing the Equestrian military, Twin Island is still a hot topic, and there’s questions about what happened to Blueblood…” Twilight trailed off, looking up at Dominic. “On the bright side you’re starting to be in less and less of the papers.” The two arrived at the entrance to the mess tent, Luna and Rarity having stopped to wait for the two of them to catch up. The group entered the mess, leaving many of the guards outside confused. Nonetheless, they went back to their tasks, some noted that the clouds in the area were beginning to roll in.

[♦]

Salty mist blew over the sandy shores of Twin Island, the once pristine shoreline had become a network of entrenchments and defenses. One side’s defenses were more bulky, larger and cruder, more like mimics of their counterparts which had a certain finesse to them. Within the smaller, more thought out trenches, the mohawks of numerous zebras could be seen peeking up over the dirt. This did not go unnoticed by the minotaurs that called the eastern side of the island theirs. Despite the movement, all seemed calm. Silence reigned over the field, not even the sound of a sharpening weapon seemed to penetrate the land between the two factions.

One zebra, a young recruit if his uniform was anything to go by, peaked his eyes up to look at the other side. He immediately ducked back into the trench upon seeing that the minotaurs were gathering en masse.

“What are we even doing here?” He asked one of his fellows in a shaking voice.

“No idea, brother…” Replied the other recruit. “We would be better off retreating to the main encampment, there we would survive…” Further down the line, a young officer poked his head up to get a glimpse of the minotaurs. He was rewarded with his own sight of two bulls, each glaring daggers at his position. The tension in the air was palpable, the nearly desert climate of the island only added to the stress on both sides.

The minotaurs, for their part, held their weapons firm. Years of military discipline had trained them to withstand the greatest of tasks, yet even they were beginning to question the point of simply standing around. That uncertainty and anger translated into a young bull picking up a rock, he tossed it in his hand a few times before chucking it out into No Man’s land. Unfortunately, his sizable muscles sent the stone sailing over the field and into the trench of the zebra. It made a loud ping as it bounced off the helmet of a recruit.

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” He immediately shouted, within moments thirty zebras had popped up over the entrenchment and began firing slingshots and bows at the minotaurs. Most of the shots went wide, missing entirely. One arrow, however, flew true.

“CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!” Shouted an officer, but it was too late. Across the field, the zebra’s could hear what sounded like choking, accompanied by cries for doctors and shouts of anger at the Zebras. One of them, a recruit, poked his head up and froze. He could see an arrow lodged in the throat of a rapidly dying minotaur bull, an arrow marked as his. The minotaurs, to their credit, did return fire. Although only one life was lost, the tension of the situation grew ten fold. The soldiers in the trenches prepared for the inevitable, for them, war was figuratively and literally just over the horizon.

Author's Notes:

Here's a chapter for you lovely people.

Rate, fave if you want, and please, please, PLEASE leave a comment.

Oh, and in case I don't see you folks before the 25th... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Now some music to set the mood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU

Ciao!