The train screeched to a halt along the tracks, causing several sparks against the ground to fly as the metal ran against metal. While many of the ponies and other creatures that got off the train were already bundled up for the weather that’s expected. One colt alone walked off with only a bag on his back, already being used to the weather.

Iron looked up at the clear sky above before turning his attention to the modest mix of homes, businesses, and apartments reaching up to the clouds that make up the outskirts of the capital of Boralus. Though even with the buildings here that would dwarf those back in his own town, they paled in comparison to the spires of the royal castle off in the distance as they glimmer in the suns’ rays. Iron already knew it’s history for the most part, besides the little part about the forges beneath it that slipped his mind earlier.

It was built by Grace’s great ancestors when the area was first inhabited and maintained in the family ever sense, passing down from ruler to ruler as they would come and go. A sturdy built old style castle, brick laid upon brick with mortar between to hold it all together. Granted though each generation had its own change to the manor. Where it started to crumble, more modern building techniques were thrown in with magic to help the process along, while other areas were simply preserved to keep the place alive.

Regardless of what has been done to the place over the years, it has always shined above the other buildings around for miles, almost enough the make even the Equestrians’ jealous. “And it’s just a major sore in my eye every time I’m blinded by it,” Iron winced while he tries to adjust his vision.

It was at before dawn when he left his home, the morning after the principal gave him the go ahead. With nothing more than a few hygiene item, a note book or two, his personal armor, and a blanket from home. Iron walked out the door, and didn’t look back.

Shifting the bag on his back, the colt looked around to see if the guards as promised by Grace would be there. Never seeing the tell-tale glint of armor in the corner of his eye, Iron continued to look around in all the wrong directions, until a hoof tapped on his shoulder.

“Excuse me… Mr. Knight is it?”

Turning around, Irons’ eyes meet that of a guard he remembered instantly, “Ahh… Argo? Is it?” he asked.

“Ughhh…” the guard wiped his hoof across his muzzle, “her majesty said that I would be picking up another volunteer. She just told me to look for a pony looking around for help, and it would be one I should remember… Princess Grace never said it would be… you.”

“…Shit…” Iron clenched his teeth trying not to crack a joke here, “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“However,” the guard grinned while looking away as if there was perhaps another that needed his guidance as well, “now that you are in her majesties nation, you will follow those rules that you know so much about… whether you’d like to or not,” Argo allowed the smug grin to widen on his mouth. While he closed his eyes and waited for the sigh of defeat to come from the colt.

“Yeah… not gonna happen.”

Snapping his eyes open, Argo watched as the colt started to walk off to the castle in the distance, as he quickly caught up with Iron and matched the colt for speed as they walked almost in step with one another, “I have to be the one to escort you,” the guard narrowed his eyes at him, “Mr. Knight.”

“Two things… One, stop calling me Mister Knight. It makes me feel far older than I care to be,” he snapped back at the colt while keeping the expression on his face as blank as an unused canvas, “and two, I used to serve under the king and queen. I think I know how to get to the castle.”

“But…But… Iron Knight!” the guard tried to plead with him. Though no matter what he said to the ex-guard, Iron was going to do what he wanted to do.

“I know you are trying to do your job and all,” Iron reasoned with him, “but I think I’m all grown up enough to follow a street and go to the really big shiny building out in the distance…”

“It’s not just that…” Argo, pulled out his own set of orders that he had tucked away in the breast plate, “The princess gave me specific instructions, that I was supposed to bring the ‘New volunteer’ to her for assigning…”
I
ron reached out with his magic and snatched the paper out of the pony’s’ grasp, as he read it to himself. ‘Sargent Argo, I write you this as a simple order to bring the new volunteer to the castle so he may see me. You’ll know him when you see him, trust me. I would like to assign him personally. Good luck, Princess Saving Grace…’ Iron went over the message a few more times in his head before hoofing back over to the guard, “She wants to rub the fact that I actually showed up in my face…”

“Our princess is not as cruel as you may think,” Argo shot back while he put the paper back in the plate, narrowing his glare at the colt, “she just has a quick reaction to bullshit such as your own.”

“Oh you just grew a chest hair did you?”

Several quarts of blood shot in to the colts’ eyes while he looked back to Iron grinning back at him, though before he could out right say anything to the colt. The guard simply found a single wing resting easily on his shoulder. Looking up, Argo saw his superior standing there calmly while he smiled back at him and to Iron.

“It’s alright Argo, I’ll take him from here…”

“Staff Sargent Freefall, I didn’t see you there,” Argo stood at attention while addressing his higher up, all the while Iron just stood there silently watching his friend.

“Meh don’t worry about it…” Free brushes off, “when I heard that this poor bastard would be coming in, I wanted to make the trip to get him personally.”

“Whelp I’m glad there’s at least some brain cells that still are functioning in the capital… if you haven’t killed them off already,” Iron shook hooves with the other colt, before that soon developed in to a light embrace, leaving Argo to stand there in mild shock, “You made Staff Sargent? Didn’t tell me that in your last letter.”

“Well it was kinda hastily put on,” he looked down at the new rank insignia on his armor, “besides I figured you would find out when you got here…” he motioned for Argo to carry on, “However, we can catch up while we get you to Grace…” Free said while both he and his old friend continued walking towards the castle.

Grace resided in her castles’ armory, visually inspecting a few of the newest pieces that were added for any signs of damage or possible points of failure in the future. The mare may not be the keenest on the proper techniques of armor and weapon production. Then again it doesn’t take a trained eye to tell you if a swords’ handle is cracked, a suits’ leather straps are dry rotted, or even if a helmet has been made too small.

Just a simple ‘by the eye’ inspection that will give the princess a little piece of mind and help her sleep at night knowing that her troops will at least be armed well with the finest equipment that can be made for their time.

“If I might say so myself…”

“And you know you always may,” Grace answered her old friend as Silvertongue stepped up behind her while she looked over a sword.

“The weapons that have been made are probably the best this nation has seen in a long time,” he replied while carefully removing the blade from her grasp so as not to cut her with its’ razor edge, “Though all that said, you should trust your artisans to do their job.”

“Oh I do trust them, all of them…”

Just then the doors opened wide near them, and in walked a colt that the princess was both dreading and overjoyed to see. Iron walked calmly up to the two while Free stood a few steps back should he be needed from the royalty. The colt simply stood there in awe for a moment, having not seen the armory stocked so well sense he served the country he called home.

‘Well… kind of home,’ he murmured to himself as he brought his eyes away from all the shiny play things of war to the mare who basically summoned him here. “Alrighty then, I’m here…” he presented himself before her in his best impersonation of a Germane aristocrat, even clapping his hooves together and giving himself a stash with a hoof, “Do with what you will of me.”

“Well… almost all of them,” Grace finished her sentence to Silver as the dragon bit his tongue, leaving the colt for a moment bewildered about what they were talking about. Though before he can question it any more the princess turned her eye to him, “Mister Knight, I knew you would show up…” she narrowed her eyes to him while snickering under her breath.

“See I knew you wanted to see me personally just so you could rub it in my face,” he glowered back at her.

“Well considering some of the things you said back at your home…” she recalled the uncouth colt while tapped the edge of her chin with a feather, “I think I deserved a little gratification.”

“Wait…” Freefall jumped in between them, twisting his head to look at the two ponies he considered friends, “What did you say to her at your house?” he asked Iron.

“Nothing that bad…”

“You slammed the door in my face when I first got there, told Sargent Argo to buck off, and… oh how did you put it,” she pondered for a moment as she remembered his exact words, “told me I could ‘bet my sweet ass’ that you were a straight forward colt,” Grace deadpanned to him as Free simply dragged a hoof across his face.

“Don’t forget about the part where you basically twisted my wrist when it came to my loyalty to my students…” he growled back at her.

“…Your majesty, what is he talking about?” Silver asked his friend across her shoulder.

“Oh nothing Silver,” she brushed it off, “I merely gave him some incentive to help the cause, that’s all…” her calm, cobalt eyes gently glared back at the colt who looked like he could combust at any moment, “and it worked, didn’t it?”

“Well I thought my presence should have made that obvious enough,” Iron replied, “Seriously though, if you want I could walk back in to drive the point home.”

“No, no that won’t be necessary,” the princess waved the comment off like a Nat. Calming herself down a bit, the princess brought back some of her regalia if only for a moment, and extended a hoof to the colt, “However, all snide comments aside… I do thank you for coming here to help the cause.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever,” he grasped it, surprised for a second on how strong it really was, “I’m here for my students’ benefit should it come to it, remember that Grace.” He sneered.

“I’ll do my best to…” they both grinned to one another, silently cursing one another while the other two in the room simply looked on at the exchange.

“Did they act like this when they you were at his house?” Freefall whispered over to Silvertongue, as the two in front of them continued to go back and forth.

“Eh I only got the first ass comment really,” he said shrugging his shoulder, “she excused us for a personal chat after that.”

Grace took her hoof back as Iron did the same. Looking over the colt once more, already predicting that she would have reports on him causing trouble with in the week, “Well now that that’s settled,” she turned her attention to her and Irons’ mutual friend, “Free, please escort Mister Knight to the workers’ barracks area and help him get settled in. I believe he will do quite nicely working in the Armor Production Line.”

“Best news I heard all day,” Iron said crossing his forelegs.

“Yes Grace, right away,” Free tried to lead Iron away before any more words were said between the two. Though the princess saw to it that wouldn’t be the case.

“I look forward to working with you, Mister Knight,” she pattered at the colt as he was led out, “It will be nice to go back and forth with one such as yourself.”

“Don’t get used to it, Princess!” Iron cursed over his shoulder, closing the door behind him to make sure he got the last word in.

Freefall simply sighed at his friend as he led him down the myriad of passageways to the bunking area of the workers’. A lower section of the castle that was used in times of siege from days long gone, now turned in to barracks for those that would help the nations’ efforts for the time being.

“Each worker gets their own room,” Free said as he and Iron grabbed him some fresh linin for the rack, “you used to work here so I shouldn’t have to tell you how to get to the galley, coltsroom, or outside for that matter.” He said while the two colts made the bed, tucking in the sheets so that they laid crisp across the surface.

“No I should be good, Free,” Iron said as he dropped his bag from his back on to the ground with a simple thud, not even bothering to unpack much for now.

“Sounds like you have something to keep you busy in there during your down time,” Freefall glanced at the bag after hearing the sound it made.

“Why of course, might as well keep by mind busy.”

“Well the good news is,” he paused for a moment to put the pillow case on, “the production area is relatively deserted after working hours, and the area where you will be working is quite spacious. So there’s no reason I see that you couldn’t try to put a few things together while down there as well.”

“Okay, correction,” Iron held up a hoof, “that is the best news I heard all day.”

“I figured you would enjoy that,” Free answered back before putting the bag in the corner so it was out of the way and the colt wouldn’t trip over it in the morning, “The factory runs on two shifts, you’ll be working tomorrow… same schedule you had while you went cranking down in the galley of the castle, do you recall?”

“Last time I checked, It’s what Tuesday?” Iron figured, “that means I work tomorrow and Thursday, then the weekend off.”

“How right you are,” Free shot back at him while he watched Iron rummage through his bag for one thing, producing a blanket, as he laid it out on the bed, “On the bright side, you may come in at zero six forty-five, but you work till sixteen hundred. Plus, I’m on the same schedule.”

Irons’ eyes lit up at that prospect as he turned back to his friend with a teenage sort of grin about his face, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Normally when you say that it led to something very bad, or some very poor decision making,” Free lowed his head as he shook it, trying his best to hide the smirk on his face, “though if I have to guess you want to drink till we’re seeing smells?”

“Bingo!” the colt hopped up on his bed enthusiastically, before flopping down on his back and rolling about in his blanket from home.

“You’re going to bed already?”

Looking at the clock next to his bed, Iron read that it was only seven at night, ‘where did the hours go?’ he wondered for a second, “no not yet… I’ll sit here for a minute before I get back up and look around at what’s changed.”

“Alrighty then,” Free walked to the door on his way out, “I’ll be heading out then, I’ll catch ya tomorrow night.”

“Night, Free.”

“Goodnight, Iron, I’ll come get you when I’m off,” his friend said as he closed the door for but a moment before popping his head back in, “Don’t set anything on fire, kill somepony, or destroy anything while you’re here… please.” With those last words the colt there by himself for the night.

Laying back against the pillow, Iron could only think of how much he wanted to be rid of this place while he served, and yet somehow he seemed to sink himself right back in to its grasp. “Sly devil…” he cursed the castle as he looked around at the stone walls that both laid the foundation of the building above and for the foreseeable future… would be his prison.