It was night when I next awoke. I opened my eyes to find a thIn, nearly non-existent beam of moonlight shining in through the windows and directly over my face. I rolled over and tried to return to sleep, but soon determined that that would not be happening. My throat was dry, and my bladder needed some relief, and so I hesitantly sat up to rub my eyes. I reached over and grabbed the remnants of my drink from earlier, quickly finishing it off and setting the empty glass to the side again. It was only a moment later that my feet hit the floor and I made my way over to the door at the side of the room.
As I had expected, it led into a small bathroom - simple, but functional. With no running water that I knew of, bathrooms in Equestria seemed to simply make use of chamber pots with a seat and a bowl of water for washing. I took care of my business and washed my hands before returning to the bedroom.
As I closed the bathroom door behind me, I felt a rush of cold air was over me, sending shivers down my spine. The window on the far side of the bed was wide open, and a strong breeze blowing through, bringing the chill of the autumn night into the room. I shivered once more and made my way over to the window, pushing it shut and latching it. Hopefully that would stop it from opening again. With that thought in mind, I turned to return to my bed.
Except it was already occupied.
My eyes shot wide open as I saw a dark silhouette sat upon my bed, almost exactly where I had been sleeping not five minutes before. Roughly humanoid in shape, the silhouette was nearly entirely obscured by the shadows it hid in, save for the two pinpricks of white that were its eyes and the thin strip of moonlight that revealed a strip of dark grey fur. Towards the top of its head, I could see a single horn jutting out right between its eyes.
It took a great deal of willpower not to scream, but the silhouette must have sensed my fear, for it grinned a toothy grin. “Nice of you to notice me, Chris,” it murmured in a deep, bassy voice.
Now it took all of my willpower not to yell at the intruder. Instead, all I did was shoot it an angry glare. “Damnit, Sombra!” I growled. “A simple hello is a lot better way of showing up unannounced rather than trying to make me piss myself!”
If anything, Sombra’s grin only grew wider. “Ah, but where would the fun in that be?” he retorted, pushing himself to his hooves and walking towards me.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Shh, shh! Keep your voice down!” Sombra hissed, his expression instantly changing to one of worry. His eyes glanced towards the bedroom door. “You’ve got guards outside your room, and if they hear us we’re both dead.”
I too glanced towards the door. For a moment, we both fell silent as we listened, waiting for any indication that we’d been heard. Nothing happened. No sound of movement, no click of the door unlocking, no rattling of the knob, nothing.
Finally, Sombra and I both looked back towards each other. “So what are you doing here?” I whispered. “I thought you were back in the forest with the others. And a better question, how the hell did you even get here?”
“It’s what I’m good at,” Sombra explained. “Moving in the darkness and manipulating shadows. It’s my special talent. That’s how I got here. As for why I’m here, I’m bringing you a status update, as well as checking in. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you’d manage to convince Adamant Will to let you in. How’d you do it? Wait,” he interrupted before I could reply. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter how you did it. All that matters is that you’re in, and that gives us options. Opportunities.”
“I’ll be honest, the situation in camp is even more dire than when you left. Another fishing group was ambushed yesterday, and ten more are dead, with at least five to join them soon. The Minotaurs are catching on to us, and they’re honing in on our camp. We can’t send any more fishing groups out while they’re roaming the forest - our numbers are too few as it is. We’ve cut rations to one meal a day, but even that won’t last us long. I’d guess we have at most two weeks.”
“So we’ve got to end this before then,” I murmured.
“Bingo. We’ll do what we can to help, but at this point you’ll be mostly on your own. We’ve only got two infiltrators left in the city besides myself, and the three of us will be busy gathering intel for our strike. I’ll pop by every night if I can to keep you up to date. Find out what you can, and let us know anything that might be even remotely of interest.”
Sombra turned and flung the window open, allowing the cold autumn air to come rushing into the room once more. A second later, he was perched upon the windowsill, looking out over the city. Suddenly, he spun around on the spot and locked eyes with me again. “And for the love of Faust, Chris, please don’t do anything stupid,” he added. “You’re our last hope. If you fail, we’re done for.” With that, he spread both arms wide open and fell backwards, tumbling away from the windowsill. I rushed over to the window and looked out down towards the ground, only to find that he was already gone.
I stood there at that open window for a while. I don’t know exactly how long, but I do remember that most of the warmth from the room had disappeared by the time I backed away and shut the window. The spot where I had been lying asleep was cold as well as I laid back down, and while my mind was tired and my eyes heavy, it was far harder to fall back asleep than it had been earlier. Still, I did eventually succeed, and sleep took me again.
---
It was still dark when I awoke to the sound of knocking at my door. I cracked one eye open to glare at the offending noise, but made no verbal protest. Instead, I sat up and stretched, letting out a large yawn. My feet hit the floor a moment later as another round of knocks echoed through the room, and I made my way towards the door. I gave a couple of knocks on the door in response. “I’m up. Give me five minutes,” I called out through the door. I received no response, but I knew that I had spoken loud enough to be heard, and so I made my way towards the bathroom.
True to my word, it was only a couple of minutes before I was done in the bathroom. I rummaged through my belongings and made sure I had a few items with me. I grabbed my pouch of scrolls, my knife, and my now-dead phone and backup battery, as well as a pen. I elected to leave my bow and quiver behind - bringing them would do nothing but raise questions, and they would get in my way while I worked. With my stuff all stowed about on my person, I walked back to the door and gave it a couple of quick knocks.
A second later, I heard the lock click, and I stepped backwards as the door swung open. On the other side were three Minotaurs - two standing on either side of the door with their backs to the wall, and another between them facing me. I gave a short nod as I recognized the one facing me. “Thunderhoof.”
Thunderhoof returned the nod and stepped backwards, gesturing with one hand. I stepped past the threshold and past the two guards into the hallway. The guard to the left of the door turned and shut the door behind me, locking it with a key he produced from a chain around his neck.
I felt a firm pat on my back, and took a few steps forward to move past the guard before stepping to the side. Thunderhoof moved past me and continued on, gesturing with his hand for me to follow. I gave a quick glance over my shoulder back at my door and the two Minotaurs guarding it before setting off after him down the corridor.
Just as with my treks through the castle the day before, I noticed the lack of… well, anything going on in the castle. There were no Ponies to be seen, and only an occasional patrol of guards. I tried to take note of various landmarks - staircases, standout paintings, and the like - but in the back of my mind I knew that I’d never remember them on my own. I’d have to come up with a way of tracking my route.
We stopped only once on our journey, briefly, for a quick breakfast. Thunderhoof gestured towards a chair pushed up against a wall to my right, and I sat down in it, right next a painting of three Ponies sitting in a triangle around a circular table. Seconds later, a door just down the hall burst open, and the first Pony that I’d seen that day scurried out - a Unicorn Mare. I noted the ring locked around her horn, as well as the cap on top of her horn that was attached to the ring, as she approached and handed me a covered plate. As soon as I had taken it, she retreated back through the doors and slammed them shut behind her. The plate contained a simply breakfast - eggs, toast, and orange juice - but it was enough to get me going. I ate quickly and stood up, placing the empty plate on the chair behind me. I gave a quick nod to Thunderhoof, and we set off again.
It was only another minute or two of walking before we stopped again, this time beside a set of double doors. Thunderhoof gave a series of knocks on the door, and I heard the sound of wood scraping against wood before the doors were flung inwards. Waiting on the other side was another Minotaur - this one only a bit taller than me, with most of his attire covered by a black apron. He gestured inside, and I followed Thunderhoof through the doors as they were shut and barred behind us.
The room we had stepped into was large - a bit larger than a basketball court, by my estimation. The floor was made up of a black and white tileset arranged in a seemingly random way, drawing lines of black tile of various thickness across the floor. The walls themselves had been painted white, with no other decorations to speak of. At the far end of the room, I could see what appeared to be a forge, along with an anvil and other supplies a blacksmith would use. Much of the rest of the room was taken up by long rows of tables, laid out in lines leading from the door to the forge.
The Minotaur who had let us in looked over his shoulder as he led us between two of these rows of tables. “So yer the Human, hm?” he mused. His voice was neither deep nor high, neither loud nor soft but certainly powerful, with a slight accent - Somewhere between scottish and Irish. “I hope ye got enough sleep last night. We’ve got a long day ahead of us. Dust!”
The Minotaur’s voice echoed through the room as he called out. A moment later, another shape rose from behind one of the workbenches near the forge - Another Minotaur. This one was considerably smaller than the other, maybe even smaller than me - it was hard to tell from this distance. The Minotaur, whose name I assumed was Dust, raised one hand in the air to acknowledge our presence, and approached us as we cleared the tables and moved into the forge area
“I told ye not t’ mess with me equipment,” The first Minotaur sighed. “Whatever. Maybe now ye’ll get something t’ do. Chris, this is Dusthorn, our alchemist. Dusthorn, Chris. And I’m Steelskin, the royal smith. Ye’ll be working with us t’ make this contraption o’ yers. Oh, and as fer ye,” Steelskin added, glancing over my shoulder towards Thunderhoof, “I suppose ye’ll be needing to stick around?” It seemed that Thunderhoof nodded, for Steelskin sighed. “Alright. Jus’... find a chair at one o’ the tables and try t’ keep yerself occupied. Maybe bring a book or something in the future. I’m guessing ye’ll be sitting there fer a while.”
I heard the sound of retreating hoofsteps as Thunderhoof walked away, leaving me with the other two Minotaurs. “Alright,” Steelskin continued as I heard the sound of a wooden chair against tile from behind me. “So. This contrption o’ yers. The King says it’s some kinda… bow? But not a bow… Is it one o’ them fancy crossbows the Griffons got?”
“No, it’s not a crossbow,” I shook my head. “It’s far more powerful than that. Guns, they’re called where I’m from. Using them is pretty basic, and even a novice can pick it up after a few minutes, but making them is going to be… a bit more complicated. I know the basics of how they work, but some of the specifics might be trial and error.”
“Whatever gets us what the King wants,” Dusthorn spoke up for the first time. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor as I instantly recognized Morgan Freeman’s voice coming from this Minotaur. I barely composed myself in time to hear his next words. “So, where do we begin?”
I shook my head to regain my composure. “Well first, I need to know a few things.” I replied. “Firstly, how much do you all know about the laws of physics? Do you have an understanding of the three basic fundamental laws of motion?”
“The uh… the what now?”
“That would be a no…” I murmured. “Alright, brief lesson time. Where I come from, a famous man named Issac Newton discovered the three fundamental laws of motion that essentially started our understanding of the laws of physics, which govern motion and energy. We’ll need to know these in order to understand how these guns work.”
“First law - an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object…”
“... In motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force,” Steelskin interrupted. “We know those, though not by the name you called them. We know them as the Principles of Force.”
“Oh… well then,” I chuckled. “Well that will save us a bit of time. So the next thing we need to do is understand how these guns actually work. Do you have anything to write on?” Steelskin nodded and ducked down behind one of his worktables, emerging a moment later with a sheet of parchment. “Perfect,” I nodded as I took the parchment from him. “Let’s move over here for a minute,” I added as I moved towards one of the rows of tables. I drew up a seat and sat down, placing the parchment in front of me.
“Alright, so the idea behind guns, and all of these ballistic weapons in general, is the use of a controlled explosion to propel a projectile at high speeds towards the target. The easiest one to create that would actually be of any use…” I pulled out my pen, clicked it, and began drawing a crude sketch on the parchment, “... is a cannon. It’s essentially a much larger gun for a large projectile, used to attack enemy ships at sea or during a siege to either break siege equipment or attack the castle walls. You can think of it as a smaller, more powerful version of a siege engine.”
“So firstly, you have the cannon itself, as well as the cannonball that it fires.” I pointed towards the rough sketch of a cannon I had drawn, as well as a cannonball next to it and a stick figure labelled “Chris” for size reference.” That’s what you and I are going to be working on,” I nodded to Steelskin.
“You also need the power of the explosion that is used to fire the weapon. That’s going to be on you, Dusthorn. And don’t worry,” I added as his mouth opened to protest. “I know the ingredients for the most basic of explosive powders that we used for our first guns. It’s not the best, and has since been replaced, but if you all don't have guns or cannons yet then I doubt you have the equipment to produce nitroglycerin or TNT.”
“The explosive we’ll be using is known as gunpowder, and has three ingredient powders that need to be mixed together.” I tore a small strip of parchment off of the sheet and began to write, speaking as I did so. “We’ll need sulfur, some charcoal, and saltpeter. The mixture of these three ingredients is what we used centuries ago as gunpowder for our early cannons and guns. If you can gather these materials, we’ll start working on the actual cannon itself. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Alright.” I took a moment to look around the table at the other two Minotaurs. Both of them were looking at me eagerly. I myself couldn’t help but feel less enthusiastic about our work. I knew some of the absolute basics of guns and cannons, but anything more and I was lost. I found myself reflecting back on my days in the resistance camp - days that felt like an age ago, though it hadn’t even been three days since I’d left - and my time cooking. I’d been half-winging it then. Hopefully my ability to think and work on the fly would carry me through this task as well.
“So... we know what we’re doing,” I forced a grin as I clasped my hands together. “Let’s get to work.”