Chapter 3

We are almost done with the barracks when the train comes in with the rest of the assigned guards. On a technical level it is suited for living in, but it's not officially done, and therefore unsafe and our hotel waivers will have run out as of noon today, so streets it is. The universe just loves making me miserable with these things.. maybe it won't be so bad, I mean I'm with others and we are guard units. Not to mention it's a safe town normally.. But I still can't stand staying out at night; it makes me feel vulnerable and defenseless. I pace around the barracks making sure everypony is doing their work efficiently even though I will likely end up working on the structure myself again. My mind races at the thought of being on the streets tonight. Maybe I can find a late night shop to stay in instead. I really need some water to cool down and stay calm right now. As it's technically my break, I trot over and get some refreshing water and some oats. It's strange tasting, I've never had normal oats, they are always seasoned or spiced in Canterlot. I don't think I care for them so plain. But I finish my snack and turn around to find a grey mutant dragon staring me down with a snaggle tooth grin.

Sweet mercy of Harmony, it's real…creatures like this are real! Everypony seems uneasy and distraught and upset, charging at the beast but he just teleports or dances and avoids any of the hits.
He pops up inches from my face and says, "Hello you're one of the new guards, how delightful!"
Oh no he must be targeting officers! I should run, I should move, get away. No, I don't have time, he's so close. I don't know what to do! I panic and shake a little. Should I run? Should I fight? I can't think, can't decide! My world gets fuzzy, and when it becomes clear again, I'm not at the construction site anymore. I must have blacked out.

I look around, find I am at the town hall and am surrounded by several ponies, one of which is Major Sentry, and that thing that brings me back to horrible memories and dreams that I'd thought I'd forgotten. The mayor is here, as well as several unknown ponies, all of which are listening to it with stern faces.
The face of the beast is so scared and apologetic, his ears tucked and his yellow eyes pleading as he puts his claws together and kneels, "I swear! I didn't touch him! I didn't – I don't know what happened, I just wanted to say hi, after all I've been socializing with my dear Fluttershy and our friends so much, I just wanted to introduce myself. Pinkie Pie must be rubbing off on me, she must be contagious." He sneezes and a ball of curly, crazy cotton candy pink hair poofs on his head with a weak and scared smile plastered to his face, "I'm a good guy, honest." A halo forms around his new hairdo which is slightly amusing due to the fact his horns are sticking out of the hair at the same time. This creature, whoever or whatever he was, is not to be feared. I have to do something. After all, I am the one who overreacted.
I get up, shakily, and stand between him and the Major and the mayor and try to speak formally, "Pardon me, sir and ma'am, I am terribly sorry for the misunderstanding. I was only startled and must have passed out from the mixture of surprise and dehydration." Short as it is, I can't think of what else I can do to explain. Truthfully, I am still dehydrated and exhausted.
Major Flash Sentry raises a brow at me and then looks to the thing before returning his gaze to mine, and then once again to it- I mean, him. I stiffen. I am firm on this decision to defend him, even though he terrified me a moment ago. Flash Sentry converses with the mayor for a moment, then turns back, saying,

"Fine, Discord you are free to go. Please, do not do this again, we've told you before the construction site is off limits and you have already caused us to be behind schedule by four days and now you've caused a fifth day!" He snorts as Discord rolls his eyes and promises crossing his claws without making an effort to hide the claws. I can't believe it. This is Discord, the God of Chaos. I feel like an idiot. I've heard stories and I was in the service of the guard when he went around with another monster, Tirek, stealing magic and talents. I never saw him though. My family's magic was never stolen because we had all hid in our family's underground cellar. It wasn't my fault I didn't recognize him. Though I suppose it's still a disgrace not to recognize such a public figure, and not to respect him properly.
Discord squeaks and smiles again in delight, "Oh fine, fine, fine I won't bother you anymore, I really am sorry for the scare."
Flash Sentry snorts again, "Return the planks you stole!"
Discord crosses his arms, "Why I never. How dare you accuse me, I don't have any planks!" Three whole planks of oak suddenly appear in front of the mayor . I don't think anyone else noticed that under his breath he says, "Not anymore, anyway.". Then he laughs and says in a louder voice, "Maybe you should recount the stock, Flashy, and by the way, how is that weapon delivery going?"
Major Flash Sentry's eyes grow wide, "Shit! The Smiths, I'm supposed to meet them in 5 minutes! I'll never make it!" Discord bellows in laughter and disappears as I march over to my forgetful Major,

"For the love of Starswirl! Sir, give me the papers! I'll go." Without waiting for the Major's response I levitate his papers out of his bags, always handy, and gallop away from them, in the direction of the near-finished barracks. Is that legal? I suppose I'll find out when and if I receive a disciplinary notice. I arrive at the back of the construction site and I see an attractive mare analyzing the wood and tools. She's a shining copper color, her eyes like bronze, her silver colored mane tied in various simple braids, one large heavy one, and several smaller.
I don't mean it but I blush and stutter as I clip my hooves together, standing at attention, and introduce myself, "H-hi, I am Sergeant Prestissimo Echo reporting on behalf of Major Flash Sentry to meet with the blacksmiths in regards to the- to the- …uh.." Oh no! I don't know what I'm meeting her for! Is it the amount of inventory, designs of the shields and weapons we want, how much we pay them?
The mare looks at me with a smile and her eyes give me pity. I must seem so pathetic right now, it's sad. She gives a small chuckle before informing me,

"You are here to talk about how much and what kind of equipment you'll be needing in the future. Specifically, weaponry, armor, and training equipment. I'm also here to discuss what kind of thing we the smiths have a hoof in. And I presume that you're not who was originally going to be here." She raises an eyebrow, teasing.

"No ma'am, Major Sentry um..became otherwise occupied." I try to seem as in control of the situation as possible. If I tried hard enough I could probably fake my way out of this. She nods.

"He forgot again, right? Forgery said he'd done that a couple of times this week. Funny, because Forgery and Iron Casting got a bit busy today themselves. The rest of my, uh, crew finally arrived, and as masters of the forge, they felt they needed to show them around and help with their bags." She stops for a moment, shuffling around in her saddlebag that I had not previously noticed. "Anyway, I'm Copper Wind, and I know what we need to talk about."

I lower my head, ashamed, "Well I've introduced myself...and I don't have a clue about what we're supposed to talk about ..but I didn't want to leave you waiting and I..I'm sorry but all I have is the paperwork." She nods again.

"Well, I can work with that, based on my paperwork too. Hand it over." She sticks her free hoof out expectantly. I look to the folder and it doesn't seem to say I can't hand it over. I levitate the folder into her free hoof.

"I am really sorry Miss Copper."

"It's fine." She says as she takes the papers and begins to read through them. "Okay, yeah. It says here you're requesting enough common weaponry for your guard one and a half times over, with about twenty specific pieces thusly. Furthermore, you need strong metal bases for ponyquins for training equipment, about sixty or so of them, specific measurements here," She says, pointing to the paper and showing me. "And beyond even that, there are just a few bits of armor that needs to be specially crafted for specific ponies. WeIl, you'll have to have Major, ah… Flash Sentry, Major Sentry send those specific ponies in for measurements to be taken. You're budget for all this, to be finished by the end of next month, in two weeks' time, is a maximum of three thousand bits. Based on these measurements, excluding the specific ponies' armor, you're well within your budget with an approximate cost of twenty-one hundred bits. We appear to have the supplies for all this request, so we won't have to special order any extra material." She points to correlating graphs showing the numbers, budgetary, etcetera. "Oh, uh, can you remember all that? I can repeat that all if you need me to." She say with an apologetic smile.

I return a grateful smile,

"No , no. I understand, I have quite an ear and if I have the information I won't forget it."

"Well then, let me trade reports with you. Major Sentry should have a copy of your reports, as do we have one of ours. Even if you can't remember, which I now doubt, you'll be able to figure it out with a cross examination of these documents. Now, with our new smiths in town, the first shipment of these items will likely be within the week." She smiles as she hands over her documents but keeping ours.

I take them and return the smile,

"Thank you again and I'm very sorry for the trouble Miss Wind. I-" I'm interrupted as Major Flash Sentry arrives, breathing heavily,

"I'm here ..for...the meeting…" She turns to him, smiling, already holding the documents. He must not be as quick as I, if he left even a minute or two after I did and to be arriving here so late into the meeting.

"Sorry, we just finished, and I do believe Sergeant Echo has this under control. I understand everything too, and need to report this back to the masters of the forge." She turns to go, but stops. "Though I can't make absolute promises, work on your request will probably start tomorrow." And then she keeps going, trotting away. I hand over the documents to the Major. He looks over them, but tucks them away, and nods at me gratefully. We head inside the finished part of the barracks, what is essentially the locker room where all our supplies will be held, and I begin to take off my armor for the day when a group of officers approach me. They start asking me a flurry of questions, none of which I understand fully, but all of which I get are to poke fun at my behavior with Discord earlier. I can't seem to get a straight answer out at any of them before they're interrupting me with more humiliating questions or jokes. I start to get very angry, ready to throw some punches. Luckily for me, the Major ends up getting them to back off but from the look of his eyes I can tell he's more on their side than on mine. I ignore them all and take off my armor in the back of the room and put on my precious scarf. It's nearing sundown and I still don't have anywhere to go. I guess that means I'll have to face night in the open...alone ...in the dark. Cautiously, I keep going, essentially wandering the town. My nerves are running high when I walk by what seems to be a sweets shop, commenting,

"Sugar cube corner? Catchy." Before I know it, a pink pony suddenly stands before me,

"I KNOW RIGHT?" Oh gods! Who is this mare who came out of nowhere!? I stand, stiff with nerves. She just giggles and begins to talks so fast I can barely understand her.

"I was totally thinking it was catchy when I came here, it's all like ponies are the fun balls to play with and the shop is a big huge mit that catches all of them. I'm so glad you noticed it, but it's so weird ya know cause I overheard those stallions asking you mean questions and I was like that's no fun, I'll go make him feel better by taking him to Sugarcube Corner but then I followed you and you came here anyway!"

I try my best to respond to this strange mare without being uncourteous,

"Yes, I suppose I am here, now if you excuse me I need to keep going so I can find a place to sleep tonight." I don't mean to be cross or rude, but the dark is fast approaching, and I really need a place to bunker down. The mare gets wide eyed at me, gasping loudly,

"You don't have a place to sleep? Oh no, why didn't you say so! There's an extra room upstairs, come on!" She trots inside the sweet shop. She looks back to make sure I'm following with an expectant smile. I grimace and pause.

Thinking about it, it probably isn't gentlestallionly to stay with a mare that you just met overnight but anything's better than outside, so I follow. Besides, we aren't doing anything and I will have a separate room. She shows me where it is, and I go up to the room and I'm out like a light after she leaves.