“You saw what?” Rhorkin asked once again as he sat in his private office. It was the night after Bronzes’ little outing, and after finally getting some alone time with the king. The mare made sure to fill him in on what she had saw while back in Boralus on her personal scouting mission.

“Weapons, armor, supplies…” the mare said again, gently tapping taping the stump of a missing claw against his desk, as she leaned against it with her hip, “more than both you and the DDR has combined… though not by much.”

Dragging his own flesh and blood talon across the table, the king swept various pieces of paperwork to the side while be buried his face in his claws. He knew that Graces’ country could always muster up their resources to put up a fight when need be, though the amount that he was being told in such a short time was still staggering. So much so that he’s borderline impressed with the princess’s efforts.

“Blasted princess…” he scowled down at the hard wood before his eyes rose up to meet those that he was becoming more and more familiar with, “the mare will out do us for sure if we let this go unchecked…”

Slowly the king started to get up from his chair, though was caught off guard by a canvas wing that stretched itself across to him by Bronze and held him in place where he half stood. “What are you thinking, Rhorkin?”

Settling himself down, the king grasped either claw, “I was going to send a message off to Chief Reinhart, letting him know of what you found… and that an assault should be made at once.”

“Oh no need for that,” Bronze grinned, “I did that earlier today. He should be hearing the news right about now.”

“You told him before me?” the king questions blindly, “yet you came here first?”

“I still like to stick to the shadows when I can,” the mare reminded him for a second. Hiking one leg up on the desk while her hoof rested over the edge, “after all few of those around here know me by name if at all, and you were surrounded by your advisors all day… meeting after meeting.”

Pondering it for a moment, Rhorkin held his tongue. The mare did have a point, he walked the entire castle at least three times over by lunch finally. Looking around them now, Rhorkin realized that they really were alone. Without a soul in or outside his office, not even the guard after he sent them away for the night.

“So this is a private visit more than anything?” he asked, as a single eye brow raised up in interest, “I’m touched.”

“I’m glad you appreciate it,” Bronze winked at him with the shimmer of metal in her orbs, “So calm down.”

“Did… any of her guards catch sight of you?” the king questioned to her, mostly to get the image of her eyes out of his mind.

“No… well…” she thought more about it, “Kind of, there were two colts that I ran in to as I came back across the wall.”

Narrowing his focus on the mare, Rhorkin attempted to read her once more, “I assume you took care of them?”

“I would have, though that would have drawn a lot of attention,” Bronze placed one iron talon to the side of her neck and cracked it, “though I doubt any pony would have believed them… it was an up close fight at times, and even I could smell the drink on their breath.”

“So the two colts were drunk…” Rhorkin started to gleam, having noticed the missing talon, “And got the better of you?”

“Hardly…” she scoffed, as she grinned back at him, “I let them live to not put this operation in jeopardy. They’re nothing to worry about, just like what Grace and her nation have mustered against us. What I have provided you and the chief is something much greater,” the mare stated as she dug inside of her cloak for a second, and pulled out an old note book, leather bound and all, which looked like it had been through years of use. Flipping through the many pages, Bronze stopped on one in particular, while she pulled from it blue prints.

Tossing the folded up paper on his desk. The king reached out with his claws, taking the greatest care in unfolding it section by section. When it finally reviled to him what it was hiding, the king was still struck with awe in what he saw before him, looking back and forth between the parchment and the mare that designed it.

Barrels bristled along its side, or cannons as they were labeled. Hatches on the bottom would allow troops to depart to the ground below, directly in to combat. While smaller hatches acted as what was written down as Bombay’s, dropping whatever explosives down on the poor souls unlucky enough to catch them. Larger doors on the sides between the cannons illustrated that other machines that she brought to the table would be able to roll out as the entire contraption functioned like its own fortress. Able to move from place to place, and cut a swathe through entire armies in one go.

All of it impressed Rhorkin to no end, as he sat there for what seemed like hours and admired the instrument of death that she hoped to bestow upon his great kingdom. “It’s… miraculous…” he muttered, barely reaching her own ears.

“It’s a force multiplier,” Bronze tacked on to his statement, “That will be what helps to not only win this little fight, but prevent any further ones in the future.”

“Do we even have the kind of supplies for this?” the gryphon asked, looking over all the structure and seeing how much detail was put in to the plans, “It would take months, if not years to build, even if we did.”

“Oh don’t worry… Yes, you have what is needed, and then some,” Bronze assured him while she leaned over the desk further, peaking at her own design, “the DDR has their own plans that they’ve been following, a little bit different that is, and there’s are almost complete. As for your own,” she grabbed his attention with those words as they rolled off her tongue, “It’s finished…”

“You already had one of these built?!” Rhorkin shot up instantly, glaring down at the mare while she remained stoned faced, “On whose authority? The factory managers didn’t question it coming from you at all?”

“Well… no, I went to them early on,” the mare explained while she played with a lock of her mane, “they simply went along with the designs that were submitted to them to build, this was merely one of them.”

“How long did this even take?!”

“About three weeks…”

Staring dumbfounded at her, Rhorkin sunk slowly in to his chair once more. Whatever the mare did to motivate his workers to build this contraption, it certainly worked, he thought it would have taken at least a month for them to figure out how to even put it together.

“That’s unbelievable…” he gasped.

“Still want to get loud at me?” she leaned in a little further, beaming wide while she showed only half of her teeth at him from a few inches from the edge of his beak.

Taking in a deep breath, Rhorkin caught the undeniable scent of a mare on a mission filling his nostrils to the brim, and to him it was about as intoxicating as the gin he had stored. ‘This mare has lost her mind,’ he reminded himself once again, like he’s done many times already, “I like it…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing…” he blinked, setting his mind right, while his cool eyes rested on the mares’ own petite frame from under the cloak, “Nothing at all.”

“Good…” Bronze purred as she slowly reeled back from him, picking up the designs with her metallic talons and folding it neatly as it once was.

The mare felt one of her talons go stiff for a moment, and looked down at it to see a gem missing from the back of its palm. Hiding away the gap quickly from the kings prying eyes, she continued with what she was saying as if nothing was wrong.

Though she wasn’t quite fast enough, “What’s wrong?” the king asks out of concern.

“It’s nothing…” Bronze insisted, focusing more of her energy on the claw, it finally gave in and literally bent to her will.

Creating an even grasp on the parchment as she gripped it neatly, “Just need some repair work, that’s all.” The mare knew she would need another stone later to bring her limb back in to full operation, though that could wait… she was used to being crippled after all, “On that note… instead of a crushing blow to them, I propose a field test.”

The feathers on the back of his neck stood up while Rhorkin cocked his head to its side, “Of that weapon platform you built?”

“Yes,” she answered flatly, stowing the parchment in her cloak pocket, “not on a large military settlement… just something off radar from the princess’s vision. A low priority target that they won’t notice for a bit, just to get a feel for them.”

“I take it you already have a target set in mind…” Rhorkin guessed while he gazed at the ever calculating mare.

“Oh of course, my feathered friend,” she cooed while grazing the bottom of his beak with a cold talon, “a small town on the outskirts of their boarders,” Bronzed answered as if she had rehearsed this bit, “a small standing guard unit there, not too many, with low population. We don’t want too big of a fight that they have to call in back up, now do we?”

“No we don’t,” the king gave in while he melted like butter in her claws, “though do you already have troops lined up for a fight? I don’t want to risk too many of my own on just a field test.”

“That… you need not worry over,” with a light glow of her horn, a small flash was set off.

For a second or two the king sat there, wondering what she had done. Though the sound of metal clopping across the stone floor through the door echoed to his ears, as his eyes looked around the mare and to the entrance. Within a few moments, the doors slowly opened with ease, and in stepped a pony in a full suit of armor. From hoof to muzzle, everything was covered, whether by metal plates, chainmail, or even leather sheets. There was not a single hair on their coat left to stick out.

Bronze turned her head to the figure before her, “Come here.” She commanded, and as if they were her own child, the soldier marched to her voice, stopping just before the desk, “This is who will assist me in my little test, it is also a test of their skill as well, just to see if they’re ready.”

Rhorkin looked the pony over, unable to make out any facial features because of the plates, and unable to see the eyes due to the visor. Though finally the words of the mare broke his trance, “wait, you have more of them?” he watched the mare nod.

“What? Every girl has a hobby… mine are just a little odd,” she shrugged her shoulders, “If they have been trained right, then they will do just fine for me, and your troops need not worry about putting their necks on the line… for the time being.”

Rhorkin finally stopped staring at the figure once its head turned to his own and stared the king down, “Okay… so you have your own private army…” he reasoned as he kept his eyes on the mare, “when were you going to tell me that?”

“And spoil all the fun? That’s not my style…” she brushed off her shoulder, “once they have been tested in fire, then by all means, I can turn them loose with you and your own troops to use… they should be a bit more… durable.” Bronze finished off.

Whipping her hoof out, a familiar contraption came to light after the king has seen it many times already. The gun she built in to her forelimbs was produced and placed right at the chest of the soldier next to her. With a pair of wild eyes staring down the king, the internal trigger was pulled, and the shot rang out through the space. King Rhorkin held his own in his chair, merely grasping on to its edges and clenching his eyes shut, as he just saw her put down one of her own soldiers.

Though as he opened them slowly back up, the gryphon was left in shock while he watched the figure continue to stand beside her, never even flinching an inch from where it stood. Turning his eyes back to her, Bronze simply called her toy back in to her limb as it was put away for the time being. Soon turning her attention to the pony beside her.

“Go and get patched up…” she ordered, and with a simple nod the figure turned and walked off. Looking back at the king, Bronze grinned at him once more, “You were right, I am a mare of many secrets…”

“W-w-what are they?” Rhorkin asked, clenching this throat with his own words.

“They… are my loyal followers.”

Looking at the pictures in his mind of all of her designs that he as seen cross his desk. Rhorkin applauded the mare on her gift she was given when it came to weapons of war, though with what he just saw, the king was pretty sure he’s sitting across from the alicorn of death.

“You have an unnatural gift when it comes to creating instruments of death, Bronze,” he congratulated her once more with his words, “what is your end game with all of this?”

With ice running through her veins, the mares’ tone dropped, “To level Boralus…” she whispered, tasting the blood already on her tongue, “…and then the rest of the country to follow.”

“That’s a great start honestly… one that I admittedly from time to time would have liked to see,” Rhorkin admitted to her while another questions popped up in his mind, “what do you plan on doing when this fight is over, and the vendetta you have against them, for whatever reason, is done with?”

Looking to her own self, the mare hasn’t really thought about it that much. In spite of everything she has one goal with all of this, though afterwards still seems like a haze to her. A walk through a frozen forest, in the middle of the night, without a flame to guide her way.

“Never came to mind, honestly…” she admitted, “Why? What are you offering?”

“Well… seeing as you won’t be returning to a land that homes your own kind,” the king mused while fiddling with his own talons, “you are more than welcome to stay here in the kingdom, if you would be so inclined to do so… I could always use a good advisor such as yourself.”

After a few seconds of thought, a smile started to stretch out across the mares’ features while she danced the idea through her head a few times, “That… I might just consider.”