The cold brick against a soft coat was never the accommodations that one of royalty would get used to, something that Grace learned as she stirred awake within the confines of a cell. It took a moment or two for the gravity of the situation to finally catch up with her, but when it did, it smacked the mare like a ton of bricks dropped from the ramparts.

“Hello!” she cried out, hoping that in the very least this was all a terrible dream and in a frantic attempt her voice would rouse her slumbering body awake. “Is anyone out there!” Though the more Grace remained still, the faster she realized that everything here was all too real, and she sunk down to her flank in the middle of her chamber.

“So now… you’re awake,” she heard the all too familiar voice of a friend she once knew.

Hearing the drake stand up from the dimly lit room, the mare watched as he came more in to view of the small ether orb that shined its own light from above them on the area. Silvertongue slowly sat down next to the cage, barely even looking at the mare that he had firsthand betrayed after so many years.

Though with the growing silence that beckoned to drag on, Grace knew somethings had to be said, “You did this…” she muttered out under a hushed breath, knowing full well that his attuned ears would still pick it up, “…you helped in every part.”

“Not… every part,” he started to scratch the back of his head, feeling the words sting from her, “I didn’t know she would have gone and tested her gizmos on Serens’ citizens. Nor did I know the effectiveness of all the weapons she would bring.”

“And so that justifies it?!” Grace snapped back at him, watching as the sliver in the scales that gave him his name turned pale white, “how much intel did you feed her on what we were planning and doing? How many died because of what you told her? How many more were put at risk because you let this mare seep her talons in to your scales?!”

“I didn’t play the spy game with her, Grace,” he held his head there for a moment, before raising it up to look at her, “I merely helped to steer the direction of Seren to what she wanted… I have for a while now actually.”

Then and there it dawned on the princess what Silver meant when he told her there was a lot that had gone on behind closed doors, “How long ago did she get to you?”

“Sense before she even went to the DDR or the Gryphons,” he answered calmly. Remembering the short time he met Bronze when she found him out in town. The cloak that she was known for, draped over her body as the mare broke down her plans to the drake, over a few glasses at a tavern.

At first he all thought it was treason to the crown he had served for years, but having been around for a decent amount of time, the drake knew one thing. The circle of going to war over the same thing, only for it to end in another treaty after a few fights, that would eventually be broken after several years. Would keep on going round and round, unless someone put a stop to it.

“You want to know the sad part?” Silver asked rhetorically, “the more she talked, the more it all made sense.”

“What did?” Grace asked, curious to hear what could have turned her friend away from her, “What did she plan on doing in the end.”

“Total war…” the dragon let it slide off his tongue better than he would have hoped, “Give the other nations what they would need to fight against Serens’ vast resources, so in the end, it would fall.”

The mare rolled her eyes, as she held herself up to the bars of the cell staring the drake down, “and what would that have accomplished? The destruction of an entire country!”

“Yes… but sometimes to go further in life, you have to take a step or two back,” he told her as a little life lesson, “with Seren out of the picture, then both nations could have access to whatever they needed without restraint.”

“All while my own country falls away in to the dust…”

“A necessary loss… but that doesn’t mean the residents couldn’t reside elsewhere?” he proposed to her as a little incentive to get the mare to see it from his own eyes, “all the killing that would be saved, by simply using the voice of the nation…” Silver gestured to Grace as he spoke, “as a lever, to bend them down and submit…”

Grace sat there speechless.

Here was a drake that she had looked up to for years, that had helped teach her the ways of the political dog and pony show throughout her time learning, while at the same time helped her own parents when they were still running things. Yet he had just pulled the oldest trick in the book on her, a simple blind side…

While the handle of the knife, still could be felt in her back.

“Don’t seem so down about it…” Silver used a careful claw to raise her head up from the ground and looked in to her cobalt eyes, while they tried to hold back a dam ready to cave, “there will be no harm that will come to you as it all goes down. After all, kind of hard to bend the will of a nation, if you’re already broken.”

“And how can you be so sure they’ll come for me?” she pressed, “I may be a favorite among the citizens, but the council isn’t stup-…” freezing right there, Grace realize what she was about to say. “Okay… so maybe they are a little bit of a dunce sometimes, but they aren’t completely incompetent.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that… they plan on sending troops by tomorrow morning,” Silvertongue narrowed his eyes down on her, while he watched the last shred of hope in the mare fade to nil, “And after a little display is put on of what the Kingdom has at their disposal, with you as a captive… then Seren will bend at their knees to save not only your life, but their own as well.”

Breaking physically was out of the question in his mind. If she were to pass away, then they would have no card to force Serens’ own play. Then again, the mares’ mind was something that wasn’t off limits, and while it pained him more than Grace would know to see her like this. It was something that Silvertongue had hoped to see, in a twisted way…

She was silent, broken, and her will was all but gone.

More questions buzzed around her head than she would have the lifespan to ask, and even more fitting words came to mind of what she wanted to flat out tell the drake across from her. Though no matter what she could go and do, Grace had seen what Bronze had brought to the table, and in the capable talons of the gryphons. Then it was sure to be a massacre the next day when both armies met face to face.

“You’re just as bad as she is…” Grace muttered to herself, finally finding the strength within to raise her own head up and look at those slits that belonged to him. Nearly crying out through the tears in her eyes from her words, “she may have been the puppet of death with what she provided, but you’ve been playing at my own strings to see to it that the show went on…”

“And on it shall go, whether you like it or not,” Getting up from his seat, the drake made his leave, with just one last turn to the mare, “Rest easy now… Grace, it will all be over soon enough.”

Alone now in the quiet of her cell, Grace laid flat against the ground. Curling up to provide some sort of comfort, the mare let her eyes flicker back and forth from awake and rest. She didn’t have much else to do after all, “May whoever’s headed in to harm’s way for my sake, have mercy on them,” finally a single tear fell while muttering that simple wish, to whoever was watching over her, “may their mind be at peace, and their judgment sound.”

“Was this part of your plan?!” Egyes screamed at the top of his lungs to the colt just across from him. While the two grabbed on to whatever they could atop a train car to give them a grip, and some much needed cover.

“Most of it!” Iron shouted back at him, as he took aim with an out stretched hoof at a gryphon that was cranking away on the handle of another gun.

The plan hadn’t completely backfired on them. They had managed to get on a train, after breaching the kingdom and intercepting it on its way to the capital. The same gryphons that were paid off to get them to the DDR, knew the schedules of the others on the rail, so it was an easy bribe to make. That said, the contents of said train was never really discussed between them.

Crawling onboard, the two met face to face with what amounted to several dozen other gryphons. Each one guarding the cargo of weaponry that was being shippped in to the capital for the coming fight the next day. Which in hind sight was probably a bad idea to try and commandeer one of their trains at a time like this, considering now the gryphons have full use of all the toys it carried.

Rounds littered across the top of the train car, as the Gatling gun fired away with blazing speed from the trigger finger of an energetic gryphon. If he wasn’t having so much fun playing with his new knick-knack, then he might have seen the fire ball that was heading straight for him soon enough to get out of its way. But alas he didn’t, and only met the feeling from the flames scorching away at his face as it burned in to his skull.

Dropping the gryphon, Iron perked his head back up at the others that were continuing to crawl out of the various cars along the rails. Each of them armed with some sort of tech that the two could only hope to match with their own will and firepower.

Grasping on to an incoming rocket with an aura from his horn, Iron held it in place long enough for the propellant to die out as he shot it back at the aggressor that tried to get the better of them, and obliterated a few of his pals in the process. Stomping his leg on to the roof of the car, several of the metal plates that dotted it curled upwards. Giving himself and his companion a sense of security from the barrage, as Iron lifted up a hoof and clipped the wings of a gryphon with a well-placed energy bolt in midflight. Only to watch the victim tumble down off the side of the ravine that they traversed.

Egyes lined up his own shots, popping them off one for one with the rounds that came in, as he did his best to give them some sort of breathing room. The gryphon had packed quite a few of his own guns for the trip, though as they started to run dry, he found himself swiping whatever he could get his claws on from those that got a little too close for comfort.

Grabbing the barrel of a rocket launcher that stuck itself out of the car below. The gryphon yanked on its end and pulled the head of the enemy holding it in clear view of himself, and the pistol he held in one claw. Expending a single round through the forehead, Egyes hiked the launcher up on his shoulder from the limp gryphons’ grasp, and with little to no aim let a round loose at the back of the car. Having no real distance to travel, the rocket impacted before those that attacked them even saw it coming. Leaving the end of the railway carriage a smoking shell that crackled away from the burning embers inside.

Reloading for a second go, the male looked at the rest of the train coming in to view from behind as they took a long curve through the mountains on their way. Seizing the opportunity, and ignoring the various shots that sparked away as they hit the metal cover. A second volley found its mark in the heart of several cars down that held quite a few soldiers taking pot shots at the two. With nothing more holding the carriages together, the two halves of the train started to drift apart, while those gryphons that took to the sky found it nearly impossible to keep up with the speeding locomotive.

Letting his companion be for a moment to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Iron trotted along the top of the car to make his way to the actual engine of the train. Thanking his lucky stars that they hadn’t gone through any tunnels sense this gun fight ensued, as they fought for the most part on the roof. Slipping between two of the cars, the colt landed atop a gryphon that readied himself to come up just a tad too late. While under the weight of a full grown colt, along with the armor he carried, the soldier found himself pressed down between the meeting of the cars, and with a quick kick from a hind leg. Iron sent the gryphon to the rails below and a grisly end.

Landing behind him, Egyes loaded up another rocket in to hopper as Iron took note of his company. “Probably a bad idea to use that thing in close quarters…” the colt did as he always had and stated the obvious, as he watched the handle on the side of the launcher slide another round in to the chamber, “I mean explosions are kinda fickle like-”

“Oh hush… this whole trip has been a complete cluster buck anyway,” he said readying the launcher on one shoulder, while his other talon grabbed on to his pistol and held it up to his side, “let’s see how much worse it could get.”

“Now that’s the kinda thinkin’ I like to hear, besides we’re making good time anyway,” Iron said as he mentally went over the map of the kingdom and how far they must have traveled, “By my calculations we’re probably only half an hour from the capital.”

“… What calculations?!”

“Eh… I’m still working on ‘em,” the colt shrugged as he simultaneously whipped a cigarette out from his suits holder, lit it as it was tucked in his lips, and reared up a hind hoof, “ask me again in about thirty minutes if we’re not there yet…” leveling the door to the steam engine car with a swift kick to the frame, and a little help from his enchanted joints. The heavy oaken door snapped halfway off its hinges as both Iron and Egyes piled in to the car.

Looking around the surprisingly spacious compartment, the few of those inside jumped from their stations to take on the new company they found themselves with. While those out on the train may have been soldiers bread for fighting. These gryphons were nothing more than engineers, given the simple task of keeping the train up and running. A few of them grabbed what they could to fight, and Iron quickly found himself holding up a bracer to block the swing from a shovel. Countering the attack with his own sword.

All the while Egyes raised up one talon as one of his own kind closed the gap holding up a short rapier. Not even caring how close they were and if the rounds could ricochet around the room, the gryphon threw caution to the wind and emptied the entire clip of his pistol in to not only the one that tried to attack him, but those around him as well.

Moving from target to target swiftly and efficiently, three shots were placed in his targets. Two in the chest, one in the head, and dropped them quickly. While the final gryphon fell, Iron still held the shovel in the grasp of his horn, as he looked at his companion with a limp cigarette in his lips.

“You really aren’t in the mood are you?”

“… I don’t like getting shot at…”

“Well, right there with ya brother,” Iron proudly slapped him on the back as he trotted up to the controls of the train.

Iron was a colt of many trades, and a master of a couple of them. Ask him to repair a leaky faucet, he’s your colt. Task him with tailoring a tuxedo for a special occasion? Still quite capable of doing it. Heck, give him the challenge of uprooting a third world country… challenge accepted. Though out of all these random hobbies and skills he had, from cooking to sewing, metallurgy to masonry, or even field medic to basic chemist…

Train conductor, was not on his résumé.

“You don’t know how to drive it… do you?” Egyes slapped a heavy claw to his face as he ran it along the side of his beak.

“Well I never said I did… besides,” Iron said as he looked around some of the controls, hoping to find the only one he really cared for, “I don’t need to.”

‘Slow <--- ---> Fast’ he read on a single handle, and with a shrug of his shoulder, slammed the lever forward. The two of them quickly found their footing all but forgotten as the train picked up speed miraculously faster than they were expecting, having skidded across the floor and pushed them in to the back wall at first. Egyes snapped his head to the colt, after seeing the scenery pass by them from the side of the car in a blink of an eye.

“Are you insane?!”

“Never officially diagnosed!” the colt responded proudly as he looked out the window and glared at what he had hoped to find sooner rather than later, “the risk I took was calculated… but boy, am I bad at math…”

Looking out the window, and barely being able to see anything from the wind blinding his vision and ruffling his feathers. Egyes still was able to make out the lights of the gryphon capital coming in to view finally after the long train ride. Though one question burned on the males’ mind as he put not only the speed of the train in to the equation, but also the sanity of his host.

“So…” he looked over to the colt again, watching as the devious smile started to break and show its true colors, “how do we go about stopping?”

“There they are,” a gryphon working the station said to his partner as they eyed the locomotive off in the distance. Having been out here for several hours already as part of work detail, they were looking forward to getting the job done and some much needed shut eye, this being their last load for the day.

“Took ‘em long enough, I was expecting them here half an hour ago…” his companion responded, catching a glimpse of the train himself.

“Nah, Reynolds loves to take his time passing through the mountains,” the gryphon replied, “says he likes to look at the scenery and such.”

Nodding in approval, the male also enjoyed the view during the many times he himself was on the railcars. So for them to be a few minutes late in his book, he couldn’t exactly blame them. Looking down the track though, what once was a spec off in the distance, has grown to a full sized train a mere mile away.

“Ahh… doesn’t that look like it’s-” Another word is never said by the male, having been tackled to the ground off the side of the station by his friend.

With its decent down the mountain range, along with Irons’ meddling. The train picked up enough speed to skip off of the rails and plow itself in to the rest of the station, the soft stop at the end acting like nothing more than a speed bump. Puncturing through the brick walls that made up much of the structure, the locomotive performed flawlessly as a battering ram, and leveled a considerable amount of the building itself. All the while, car after car stacked up from the impact and started to accordion behind the first one.

Though what shook things up wasn’t the derailment of a typical train, but the leaking boiler…

“You alright?” the gryphon asked to his comrade, as they both looked up from the side of the station at the box car hanging off the edge of the station platform.

“Yeah… I think so,” he looked around at the devastation from just a simple crash, wondering how many others that were working the rails that night got out of the way first. Before his thoughts turned to those on the train itself, “oh man… Reynolds is so-”

Being cut off for a second time that night, this time there would be no more words said, as steam from the locomotive tore itself from the riveted boiler, popping it at the seams. Raking through the area and flash frying most of those that were living. The superheated water charged its’ way across feathers and flesh alike, and any of those in the work detail that wore armor quickly found themselves treated like shellfish and steamed alive. All while what fragments of the train were light enough for it to pick up, soon became crude but effective grape shot. Leveling most of what remained of the station.

… all at the hooves, of one colt.

Moments earlier…

“I wished you had told me…” King Rhorkin said as he leaned over the conference table in the room that adjoined his own, as a map of his own country laid spread under his claws.

While he may have hated to bring his work home with him, having the ability to conduct day to day business from what amounted to a private apartment in ones’ castle did have its perks. Most of the fortress that he called home resided in the capitals’ very center and served to be exactly just that, a point for his military to call home as well, where they could be dispatched should the need arise.

Though Rhorkin didn’t like to be far from those that served under him, especially those that took arms up when he asked them to. So under his reign, the fortress itself was extended to give not only those that formed the political side of things a place to work from. But also gave the king his own headquarters to direct his entire nation out of.

The fact that it’s fully loaded to level another country? That’s just a bonus in his book.

Though as of now, all the weapons and soldiers in the world would mean nothing, if the mare before him had jumped the gun and screwed the entire plan. “I just did actually,” Bronze said, as she leaned on the table with half of her flank, as her false wings resided by her, “Besides… I don’t take orders from you.”

“Do you take orders from anyone?”

Giving him a pause, the mare simply shook her head with a grin as the King grumbled, submitted, and did the same. Granted, she may have just stolen one hell of an ace card from Serens’ deck, but unless played right, it could turn out to bite them pretty quickly.

“So you managed to sneak in to the Seren, take the princess, and get back here…” the king ran over in his head, “all while neither nation knew you were even there while it was happening…” after a moment, Rhorkin raised both his talons and started to clap, “Bravo there, Ms. Bolt… bravo…”

“Awe… you flatter me, King,” Bronze held a regal claw poised to her chest as she spoke, “though I would imagine that Seren has likely figured out where she had gone by now…”

“And what makes you say that?”

“Let’s just say… I have friends in high places,” she passed it off with a wink.

Letting the comment roll over him, and never bothering to question it. Rhorkin simply smiled at the mare, as she sat on the table and fiddled with a few strands of her hair in a talon. “So what do you have planned then?” he asked to take his mind off other matters, watching her eyes perk back over to him, “clearly you have something going on in that mechanical head of yours… am I wrong?”

Shrugging her shoulders, the mare couldn’t deny it, “No… I suppose you’re not,” leaping off the side of the table. Bronze trotted up alongside him, paying close care to brush her canvas wings against his natural ones. Ignoring the slight shiver of the male next to her, Bronze took her own talon and ran it across the map.

“Seren will attack quite a few places before they get here, so needless to say, more troops than normal have been sent to bolster your defenses for the coming attack tomorrow.” She revealed to him, “That said, once they see that their leader is in your clutches, then they will bend to your will…”

“… Swift, sweet, and satisfying…” Rhorkin looked over the mare, as he questioned whether he was talking about her plan or not, “… I like it.”

“Good to know,” Bronze gleamed as her eyes danced across the map and of her companion, “plus, many of those that have been sent out are my own soldiers, so yours need not worry.”

“Ever so concerned about the lives of others, are we?” he flicked his tail to her own.

“Not really, just good at balancing the forces of life and death,” she said flatly, as if it was rehearsed in a mirror.

Plodding his claws amongst one another, the matters of business had already been discussed that needed to be. So right now, for her to stay any longer, was just a congenial visit. Though one thing had hankered on the males’ mind for quite some time now, something he had asked a while ago, but never got a straight forward answer.

“So… what of afterwards?” Rhorkin waited for her attention to turn to him, as her face turned to be mere inches from his own, “after the fighting, have you thought more about my offer?” the king asked as he fought some of the blood going to his cheeks and ruffling his feathers.

Little did he know, the offer hadn’t slipped her mind…

“I have… actually…” purring across her tongue and letting the muscle roll with the word, Bronze found herself in the same predicament as the king, though she was far bolder than he could have hoped to be.

Wrapping a single talon around the back of his head, Bronze pulled the king down to her level with the strength that still impressed him even to this day. Though not did he fight it, but accept it willingly, after the last few months flirting with the mare back and forth. Rhorkin figured that it was bound to happen, and with that last thought, muzzle met beak in one of the simplest displays of affection possible.

A kiss.

Welcoming it with open talons, Rhorkin draped his wings against her wounded form, feeling the canvas of her wings splay across his own as he picked the mare up and sat her on the table. Listening to the slight yelp that she let out from the act, probably one of the only feminine things he’s heard her do sense knowing her, the king pressed himself deeper into the mare. Even with the cold clutch of her metal touching against his own warm down hide, the king simply couldn’t resist the caress of the mare with eyes as cold as her touch.

“You… are still a mare of many secrets,” Rhorkin said when they finally broke from the moment, allowing each of them to take a breath.

Permitting only a tinge of pink to caress her cheeks, Bronze looked at him past her horn, “And you’re a king that has some unfinished business now…” she chuckled behind a vale that he couldn’t quite place.

Hopping up from the table to her feet, the mare slowly started to trot off towards one of the doors, while the kings’ eyes grew ever wider and wider at what she was implying. Bronze pushed the door open slightly, revealing the bed inside that he shared with no one else, and looked back at the king with only a single eye over her shoulder. With a simple wink, the mare trotted inside, leaving him galloping in pursuit.