None of the troops were comfortable with the assault plans.
They had to move outside the city by the fields for two hours and half straight, divided in teams, and they still had to go among the mountains during the night in a freezing temperature, wearing heavy leather armor.
It was windy which wasn't helping against the temperatures, but they were trained to endure It and take pride of facing the conditions and carry on.

"Alright, let's rest here a bit." Said Copper.

They entered a small dead end cavern that they found on their way on the mountains. They dropped their gear carefully and sat down, leaning against the rocks. Copper Spear started a bonfire with his flint and steel survival equipment, and his group approached to the comforting flame.

"Stay here, I'm gonna get some wood." He said.

It would be weird for anypony to see an officer doing mundane tasks but their his soldiers, but for them was normal from Copper.
He headed outside the cavern against the wind, and five minutes later returned with his arms full of branches from the few dead trees existent in that treacherous place. Some of his troops added some sticks and the fire gained strength and It's way warmer now.
They started opening food cans, and some even brought marshmallows to share, which they didn't lose time to put them in sticks and cook them.

Half hour later, three characters arrived to the cavern, one freezing even if in warm clothes, and the other two with no problems at all.

"Hey!" Copper greeted with a smile.

"What's up?" Mane replied.

"Open the circle! I'm freezing!" Pinkamena ordered with her teeth shivering, shoving two soldiers to the sides and join them by the fire.

"How did you find us?" Copper asked.

"We saw the bonfire's light from outside." Said Sigil sitting next to him. "You should be careful next time."

"So you preferred to not find us?" Copper giggled.

"No. It's because somepony else but us would see you. Could be one of Don Topaz's thugs."

Mane sat next to Pinkamena and approached his hands to the fire, warming them too. He looked at her, still shivering from the cold even if she was close to a bonfire. He pulled from his pocket a candy bar and offered her, which she accepted with a smile, starting to eat It happily.

"Are those marshmallows?" Mane asked pointed at the soldier's sticks by the fire.

"Yeah." One of them replied.

"I only heard about them. Never tried..."

"You should." Said Copper. "They are edible balls of sugary foam. Very tasty when done right."

A soldier passed Mane a stick with a marshmallow on. He putted It by the flames, and he distracted himself while speaking with them, and they started to give him attention warnings, but when he looked, his marshmallow was now a block of burnt sugar.

"You really don't know how to do It, do you?" Pinkamena asked.

"I never tried these, It's my first time doing this." Mane complained with a sad tone.

"Let me teach you." She passed Mane a stick with another marshmallow, and held his hand with both her hands. "See? You can't put It right between the fire..." Pinkamena started rolling the stick in his hand, and he followed the movements of her fingers, rolling the stick too. "You must let It cook in every side, until It melts and turns slightly brown..."

"I see..." Mane replied to her lesson.

"Okay, take it out." She said, and the marshmallow was perfectly cook and bigger from the boiling sugar.

"Alright... thanks." He replied ready to taste a marshmallow for the first time in his life, but Pinkamena hold her grip to his hands and pushed the stick to her side, and with one bite, she ate the sweet.

The soldiers laughed with the adorable scene, and Mane kept his eyes on her without knowing what to do.

"If you want one, you must do It yourself." She giggled happily with her minor prank.

Mane sighed and stuck another marshmallow in the stick, but the result was again a burnt one. They laughed at him again but supporting his effort.

"Don't worry, you'll get there." Said one of the soldiers.

"Alright, fun times and laughs. But we have things to do..." Sigil stood up, looking at her clock. "It's almost four in the morning. We should keep going. Quill is waiting for us."

"Troops, grab your gear and get ready." Copper ordered standing up as well, looking at the tactical map he designed with his officials. "It should be one mile away. If we don't stop, should take us less than thirty minutes."

The soldiers did what they were ordered and extinguished the fire. They went outside and the wind was gone, making the temperature turn into a comfortable chill night. They kept walking and talking in many topics among themselves, sometimes something funny and share a laugh, and sometimes a story worth listening. Their moral was high now and the allowance of having free spirit instead of a rigid army control was something to be happy about, even if they would die in combat, and It was all thanks to their charismatic captain.

Copper Spear's story in the army was a whole dramatic history, surrounded by his old comrades in a tough army command with constant tiring training schedules and barely any food in their free time. Forced to join the army when he was still fourteen years old to the juvenile rookies by order of the cruel officers from King Sombra, and seeing his friends committing suicide, one after another every month, being the only way to escape the hellish conditions and officers.

In the end of his career, he managed to talk his way out of the war prisoner camp and prove his good heart. And now, he finds himself commanding his own army, even if ironically It was a cult of scholars about King Sombra, he knew when Sigil recruited him there was no bad intentions, besides being a guardian of their place. And from his days in the previous army, if there was something he never wanted would be command his troops like he was when he was younger.

In the distance, a strong white light by the rock passage started to show up, and It was clear they were all close.

"There, stay clear and close of each other..." Said Copper while crouching, and they all did the same. "No noise, stay down all the time, and use the environment in your advantage."

They kept walking slowly checking every corner they could, and they reached a dune of rocks where they sneaked.

"Mane." Sigil called with a whisper. "Give the signal."

His horn lit up with a tiny white light, and looking by the binoculars, Sigil saw a magic green light in the far away distance by a mountain slope. Inked Quill received the message and he was ready with his two battle disciples, next to two military pieces of amazing magic engineering.
Two steel cones where they could fit their horns and with a well crafted magnifying glass to shoot great distances. With gears helping to turn by the help of clicking sounds, according to the orders of where they should fire.

"Alright, Mane and Pinkamena. Are you ready?" Sigil asked.

"I was born ready..." She replied.

"I can't wait to try what Quill taught me..." He replied too.

"Seems you are... go ahead then." The cyan mare ordered.

They stood up and walked to the gate being guarded by two armored thugs, and they pointed the muskets at them when they were closer.

"What are you doing here?" One of them asked.

"Hey goodnight. We would like to see your products." Mane replied in a relaxed way.

"There is nothing to see here, go away!"

"We are here under Don Topaz's notification. We want to buy some guns."

"We didn't receive any notice..."

"Dammit man. Listen, we know your boss and he told us where we could afford them, and this place is like... top secret, and the only way we could know was by him." Mane complained.

"Can we enter, please? it's freezing here..." Pinkamena complained too.

" Ah whatever... you two look like legit bandits... go on, my friends there will guide you."

The guards allowed them in, and in the way, Mane turned to one of their escorts for a cigarette, which he gave one from his pack and putted inside a pocket in his vest.

"Since when you smoke?" Pinkamena asked him shocked.

"Since we make business like this..." Mane replied without caring.

The answer seemed weird, but there was nothing she could say about It giving away she performed cannibalism before, which was way worse than start smoking.

They reached the warehouse door, and inside, a group of guards scattered by the building and patrolling looked at them without indifference.

"Your weapons please..." A guard ordered.

"Why should we give away our weapons, when we are going to buy more weapons?" Pinkamena asked with a chuckle.

"Listen, I don't know what is your problem, but if you don't deliver your weapons, we might have to shoot you..." The guard threatened.

"Why don't you go fu-"

"Diane!" Mane grabbed her by the shoulder. "Give the knifes..."

She took a moment, and groaned while giving up her blades, and Mane as well with his folding knife.
The guard smiled nastily and they proceeded.

The warehouse was just a building of metal walls with some rust, a door and a carriage gate, with It's inside filled with huge shelves to the ceiling with boxes on, under the lights of spotlights in the ceiling. And besides boxes, there was also some transport carriages with barrels on. The cold outside could be felt inside coming from some holes on the walls, and the air was humid obviously,
They crossed the door to the office, where a red unicorn colt greeted, wearing a sports shirt and a golden chain by the neck.

"Goodnight, sir and lady. What are you looking for?"

"Show us what you have..." said Mane with a stare of mischief.

"Right away." He pulled from under his desk some bags with questioning material. "We have cocaine, crystal, heroin which we can provide the syringes... if you want to relax and get into the so said nirvana... we have weed or-" He said those last words It as if he was stoned.

"Stop yapping, we are not here for that." Pinkamena snarled annoyed.

"We are here for the guns..." Mane finished.

"Ohh... alright then. Follow me." The black marketer took them to a different room along with two thugs posing their muskets.

The room was filled with more wooden boxes and some barrel, not so different from the rest of the warehouse. The marketer pulled a musket and showed them.

"Muskets directly from Canterlot, stolen from the army in the Empire's armory." He pulled a pistol. "Pistols for close range combat, finish your opponents with the move of your finger."

"Do you have something... more destructive?" Mane dared to ask nervous of what he would see.

"Going for a war, are we..?" The marketer looked at him in the eyes, and smiled. He turned around and pulled from a small box two iron spheres with the size of a fist and a harden rope popping out of It. "Bombs, or more technically, grenades... just lit the fuse with a match or pyro magic and throw them. Good to expel enemies out of their cover, and kill a large group if well used."

"Do you have something more... you know, with a trigger?" Pinkamena asked impatiently.

"We do." The colt opened a large box and took out a musket with a shorter barrel, but It's end was larger, as if the end of small bell was welded to It. "They call these blunderbuss, a recent creation of the dorks in Canterlot, and shows amazing efficiency in dealing with groups in close range. You pull the trigger, and It fires a handful of iron pellets. If you point at a group they will die for sure, as long you are close of them. The best thing is, you don't need to aim at all, the weapon itself does the service. Though, not suggested for long range combat..."

"That's all amazing... but what about the ammo?" Mane asked checking the weapon.

"We have the required things. Gunpowder there..." He pointed at some barrels in a corner. "And two kinds of bullets. Iron or lead. Iron for normal damage, and lead to leave a metal infection in the enemy's body, but It's not common to use them if you are in a direct confront."

"I see... Seems we have a deal here... right, Diane?" Mane chuckled and bumped her arm with his elbow, while pulling the cigarette out of his pocket.

She looked at him and he winked at her. Pinkamena got It and reached her arm on her back and scratched It as if there was an itch.

"Do you have a light?" Mane asked.

"Sure, dude..." The marketer gave him his lighter, and Mane light up the cigarette in his hand, making the guards chuckle. "You never smoked, did you?"

"Nah... and I never want to."

The marketer looked oddly at him, and by surprise, Mane shoved the lit cigarette in one of the guards eye and pushed him against the wall covering his mouth. And the moment the other guard pointed his gun at Mane, Pinkamena grabbed her hidden blade from her belt in the back and sliced his throat open. The grey stallion finished his target by cracking his neck to the side, and the marketer stumbled on his own hooves without knowing what to do and terrified by the surprise attack.
Mane pointed a finger at his forehead while his horn lit up in red.

"You're gonna load these weapons, and be quick. Or I'll let my partner slice you open..."

"You can't do this!"

"I would keep the volume down..." Pinkamena groaned furiously, putting her knife's end in his neck. "And do what you were told, fucktard..."