//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: The Right Man in the Wrong Place... // by CORACK //------------------------------// He was an older unicorn, perhaps in his 60s, though I was a terrible judge of pony age. He had a steel grey coat and a short reddish brown mane that almost looked like a patch of rust on his metal colored coat. Though he walked with a slight limp in his left rear leg, it was clear that his years had not yet made him frail. Powerful muscles bulged in his forelegs with each step he took towards me. "You Hail Storm?" he asked, as he slowly made his way across the room. "That would be me," I said. "I'm not quite open for business yet, can I help you?" "I saw your advertisement, you're looking for a metal worker?" he asked. "Oh! Yes, yes I am." He reached me and extended a hoof. I put out my own and we shook hooves, his grip was like a vice, and I tapped my hoof on the floor after he finally let go. "Name's Iron Anvil," he said, glancing around my empty storefront. At the moment it consisted of a few empty display cases built into a counter and some racks that I hoped would eventually hold some weaponry. "I'll guess by the name, you've got some experience with working with metals?" Iron Anvil snorted, his lips turning up into a half grin. "You could say that," he said. "50 years working for the crown at the Solar Forge in Canterlot." "Solar Forge?" I asked. Iron Anvil gave me a puzzled look of confusion. "You know, the same forge Celestia crafted the armor she wore in the when she battled the mighty Dragon Lord, Trogdor the Burninator? Where the Royal Guard armor has been crafted for more than 2000 years?" "Sorry, my knowledge of Equestrian history is... lacking," I said with a shrug. "Sweet Celestia, what do they teach ponies in schools these days," he said, shaking his head. "I have no idea," I said with a chuckle and a shrug. "Well that's... disappointing. Anyway, I've got nearly 50 years as a blacksmith, forging weapons and armor for the Royal Guard. I can do tier four magical casting and forging, though unless you've worked in the business yourself, I don't expect you to know what that means. If it matters, I can even so some simple low-level enchantments." "Yeah, you're right, I don't know what any of that means, sounds pretty impressive though." I said. "So... what do you actually need here, the ad was lacking in detail." "Sorry about that, I've got zero knowledge with any sort of magical metalworking. And, to be direct, I'm looking at manufacturing weapons. I put the add out because I need help producing a specific part. The work requires precision that I can't replicate with my older equipment. I don't have the bits to buy any custom machinery right now and a friend suggested I look for a unicorn with what sounds like your skillset." "I've got more experience with armor, but I'm quite familiar with weapons as well," Iron Anvil said. "Not these weapons," I said. "This is something new, nothing in Equestria like it." "Alright, you've managed to pique this old stallion's interest" he said. "What exactly are you making here?" "Follow me into the back and I'll show you," I said. We headed through the door behind the counter. The back of the building consisted of a bathroom, a small break area, a storage room, and a large open workshop. I caught Iron Anvil looking at the reloading presses with interest, but quickly directed him over to a workbench next to my rifling machine. "Interesting setup you've got here. I'm a little confused, weapons are usually forged by magic or by hoof over open flame, but this looks much more modern than any smithy I've seen," Iron Anvil said, continuing to look around. "There's a reason for that. Can you wait right here, I need to go grab something," I said. "Sure." I galloped over to the storage room and unlocked it, the rest of my guns were back at my house but the lever action was sitting inside. I slung it over my neck and then headed back over to Iron Anvil. "What do you have here?" Iron Anvil said, looking at the gun with interest. "Hold on one moment, let me verify that it's not loaded," I said. I opened the action and did a visual inspection to make sure the chamber had nothing in it. Satisfied, I place the gun down on the table. "I'm looking to build something similar to this. The part that's giving me the most trouble is the barrel," I said pointing at it. "My lathe can't really drill that deep. I've got some ideas on how to work around the problem, but I haven't gotten around to testing them yet. Honestly though, besides the barrel, I could use help in general. I figure two ponies working to produce these things will be faster than one." "May I inspect this... device?" Iron Anvil asked. "Normally, I'd give you a long speech about proper handling, but in the interest of time, let me sum it up quickly," I said. "This is a gun, specifically, it's a lever action rifle..." I quickly ran through the important bits, no touching the trigger, no pointing the rifle at me or anything else. Since all the ammunition on the planet was currently locked up in my house, I wasn't too worried. "So it's a projectile weapon," Iron Anvil said as the rifle floated in his magic field. "Yep, I can show you what it shoots, I don't have any assembled cartridges here, but I've got the component parts. We could even load a few rounds and I could give you a demonstration if you'd like." "I think I would," he said. "The workmanship on this is incredible. How in Equestria did you do it? This wasn't made with magic." "No, it wasn't, how can you tell though?" I asked. "When metal has been worked with magic, you can feel it," he said, still looking the rifle over. He pulled the lever down, causing the hammer to go into a cocked position with a click. "How do I reset this?" he asked, glancing at the now cocked hammer. "First, close the lever until it clicks shut. Then hold the hammer so it can't slam down. Gently pull the trigger, you should feel the hammer try to move, lower it slowly until it's gone back into position," Iron Anvil did as I said, and then set the rifle down on the workbench. "This thing's got quite a bit going on inside," he said. "I can feel it with my magic, but I'd like to get a look, if possible." "Sure, I can run you through disassembly." As I took the rifle apart, I gave a brief talk about the gun, how it worked, and I explained the function of all the components. I did a complete tear down, the bolt came out, along with the trigger assembly, the stock was removed and lastly the barrel from the receiver. "There are some very tight tolerances at work in here, for a mass produced item, made without magic, I am impressed," Iron Anvil said as he floated the parts in front of himself. "You are right, you'd need some fairly expensive machinery to pull this off." "And that's my problem. Do you think you could replicate the barrel?" "This is a pretty hard grade of steel, 0.4% carbon, 0.8% chromium, 0.8% manganese...", Iron Anvil said as he started to list the composition of the barrel. "How can you tell that?" I asked. "Spell," he said. "This falls within the specs of 4140 chromoly steel. I'm guessing this is to deal with the temperatures and pressures you're seeing. Do you have a comparable steel?" "Yeah, I do. I've got a bunch of bar stock in that grade in the back," I nodded over at the storage room. "There's some grooves running on the inside of this thing," he said as the barrel floated in front of him. "That's the rifling you were talking about. I can replicate this, but it will be slow work. Might take me an entire day to produce one barrel. That rifling is going to be the hardest part." "You could do the rifling too?" I asked. I still had no idea how magical forging worked but being able to reproduce that kind of work using no tools at all was damn impressive. "I can," he said. "I didn't actually expect that, I've got a tool I've thrown together to do that work. It's a prototype but I've tested it on some pipes and it seems to do a decent job." "Show me," he said. It's actually right here," I said, stepping to the side so he could get a look at it. I took out the section of pipe that was mounted and hoofed it to him so he could take a look. Then I gave a quick demonstration of how it worked. "Not bad," he said. "Not as precise as what I could do, but faster. If I'm just doing the bore in the barrel and then we cut the rifling, that should be quicker. I suppose you'd want a demonstration." "Um, yeah, like I said though, I've got no idea how this works, do you need anything?" "A piece of steel, also do you have welding goggles?" Iron Anvil asked. "Yeah." "Grab two pairs," he said. I opened a drawer in the work bench and pulled them out. Iron Anvil took one and put it on, and I did the same. I trotted over to the storage room, opened it up and grabbed a steel bar. Upon my return Iron Anvil floated the bar off my back and held it in front of himself. "Can I cut this short? It will take too long to do a full length demonstration." "Sure," I said. "You need a torch?" "Nope." Iron Anvil's horn lit up, the glow grew in intensity until even with the goggles it was hard to look at. When I thought it couldn't get any brighter, an equally brilliant spot appeared on the bar. I watched in awe as Iron Anvil began to slice through the bar using nothing but his own magic. Sparks and bits of metal flew in every direction as the magical focal point moved slowly across the bar, but nothing larger than a speck made it to the concrete floor, most of it was caught in Iron Anvil's magical field and hung in the air. A minute later, he finished cutting a six inch segment off the end of the bar. When the two pieces finally separated, his horn slowly dimmed to a normal level of glow. The longer bar floated over to the workbench as he set it down. "It's quite cool," he said as he noticed me eyeing the end that he had just cut. He turned his attention back to the short bar of steel, and his horn began to brighten again. This time there was no single point of light on the bar, instead, the entire thing began to slowly glow, first a very dull red, then brighter, it went through orange and then finally reached almost orange yellow in color. If my memory was correct, the color the steel was glowing indicated that Iron Anvil had brought the bar up to somewhere around 2200 degrees fahrenheit. I could see movement in the bar, a rippling, as if it was being struck with thousands of tiny hammers. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening due to the intense glow, but the steel was definitely changing shape. Iron Anvil continued to work in silence, I was afraid to say anything as I didn't want to break his concentration and have him drop the bar. The process was slow, when almost half an hour had passed, I heard Iron Anvil let out a sigh and the bar slowly started to cool down. His horn flashed brightly one last time and in an instant the bar cooled down and lost it's glow entirely. Except it wasn't a round bar anymore, it had been hollowed out into a barrel. "Sorry it took so long, I made that as precise as I possibly could," Iron Anvil said, panting slightly. "It's actually has about 1/10th the variance that your barrel has." "You okay?" I asked. "Yeah, that took a lot out of me, I'm not used to having to do everything through magic. Keeping the steel hot for that long uses takes quite a bit of concentration. Usually I'll have a forge to heat the metal for me and a slack tub with water or oil to quench it." "You think you could do this for a 20" barrel?" I asked. "You get me a proper forge, and a few other things, so I don't have to do everything myself and yeah I could. I can work with plain old charcoal, but there are enchanted forges that have far more accurate temperature control, they're not particularly expensive either." "Alright, as far as I'm concerned the job's yours if you want it. All that's left is to discuss pay." I said. As long as Iron Anvil didn't want too much, he had exactly the skills that I was looking for. "Sounds good." Pay turned out to be a non-issue. Iron Anvil wasn't looking for much at all. He had retired from his work at the Solar Forge, but the reason he came looking for a job is that he found retirement boring. He wanted to get back into working but didn't want to move back to Canterlot. His children and grandkids lived on Ponyville and he wanted to stick close by so he could spend time with them. It was more important that I have a flexible schedule for him, which I didn't see as a problem. We settled on a reasonable rate and I threw in free membership at the range once it opened for him and his family. I gave him a demonstration of the loading press and I loaded fifty rounds of .44 magnum. Then I took him out back to the newly constructed range and showed him the rifle. He was impressed and had what seemed like an endless stream of questions about it. This of course eventually lead me to explaining my past and where I had come from when he wanted to know where I got the rifle from. We spent the rest of the afternoon going over what he would need. He was going to set up a small outdoor smithy right behind the main building. We could build what he wanted ourselves and when we went to the hardware store to get the lumber we needed, he placed an order for all the equipment he needed. After Golden Dawn assembled a full team, they got to work, setting up all the machinery that she needed to ramp up production. Her hours were long and I found myself seeing less and less of her during the day. That wasn't to say we didn't have time for each other, in fact nearly every night and weekends we were off on some sort of date. Hiking around Canterlot Mountain, picnics in the park, fancy dinner parties, we did it all. Still though, it was a change from the past where I had spent nearly every day with her by my side. It wasn't a bad thing though, we both had a good deal of work going on in our lives, and f anything it just made me look forward to our time together even more. I didn't take me long to figure I was falling head over hooves for that mare. I had dated a few women before but I had never felt as close to any of them as I did to Golden Dawn. Back at my shop, work was going well. Iron Anvil's help was exactly what I needed to finally be able create all the parts I needed to assemble Equestria's first firearm. It was, more or less, an exact duplicate of the lever action I had based it on. The woodwork was rough, really rough actually, and I didn't bother with any of the polish or fancy engraving, but mechanically, it was identical. More importantly, when I test fired it, it didn't explode and that was a win in my book. The major downside was the amount of time I had put into it. If I tallied up all the time I had spent working on the various pieces, that first gun was a week long project. One of other issues that became apparent was that my woodworking skill was really subpar. I made a note to look into hiring a carpenter pony. Things would be quicker now that I had Iron Anvil to help me out for the entire process, but I really needed to ramp up production. There was no way I could run a business off of producing a gun or two every week. That might have worked back on Earth, where people knew what they were buying, but in Equestria, where guns were completely new, if I was too slow producing them, ponies would lose interest. I had to get my production rates up. I knew that as I got better, I'd be able to work faster but that was going to take time. My solution was to go back to the drawing board and simplify things. If I could decrease the complexity of what I was making, I could build more of them in a shorter period of time. More importantly though, I needed a way to generate interest in my product. I realized, probably too late, that I might be able to build the firearms, but I was completely clueless about marketing. Of all the possible ponies that could help me with the that problem, I hadn't expected it to be Pinkie Pie. "You need to come up with a game," she said as I was discussing the problem with Golden Dawn over an after dinner snack at Sugar Cube Corner. "Huh?" I asked. "Something sort of fun activity to do, then use it to demonstrate your guns. You don't need to sell them, at least not right away. Instead, rent time to use them, that way it doesn't matter if you only have a few of them. You could make it like a carnival game, ponies come up and pay to play." "Hmm, that's not a bad idea, once ponies know what they are, I can start selling them," I said. "And if demand outstrips production, hire more ponies to help you assemble them," Golden Dawn said. I already had the ability to build lever actions. If I built a few more I could set up some paper targets and rent them out but I wanted something that was a bit more unique. Ponies could already go shoot archery targets and I wasn't sure if this would be enough of a draw to pull them in. I had to find something exciting that wasn't just shooting a smaller paper bullseye. Something that couldn't be done with a bow and arrow. The answer hit me when I thought about the plans I had drawn up for a break action shotgun. Unless Equestrian archery was completely different than human archery, I imagined most ponies were just going to be shooting at static or, at best, slow moving targets. As far as I knew there was no archery equivalent to shooting clay pigeons. That would be my draw. I quickly explained the concept to Golden Dawn and Pinkie and thus the game of skeet was born. It wasn't really skeet, I had never played the human version of the game so I didn't know the actual rules, all I knew was it involved shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun. But, when I brought the idea up and started explaining it, Pinkie thought the name was funny and insisted I call it that. She also got me to drop the "pigeon" from clay pigeons because she thought the idea of shooting a bird was horrible. I ended up called them clay disks instead or just clays. For this to work, I had to start making shotguns but that wasn't too bad. I had already come up with a design for that back when I was in Canterlot. In fact, it would give me the chance to test some of the changes I wanted to make that would allow shooting by hoof easier. I went over the design with Iron Anvil, the barrels for the shotguns were even easier to make since they didn't need to be rifled. We got to work the next day and finished the whole thing, from planning to the actual machining and assembly in a day. There were still a number of issues to deal with besides assembly. I didn't have any shotgun shells, shotgun powder, shotgun primers or shot. Because no one made shot I had to make it myself but that ended up being fairly simple. I built a frame that held an angled pan with a burner underneath it. A block of lead went into the pan, which started to melt as the pan heated up. The liquid lead flowed down to the edge of the pan where there were a number of small holes. From there dripped through the holes, the drops fell a few inches and then hit a sharply angled, and polished plate. They rolled off that plate and into a large bucket filled with water. The water cooled the lead drops causing them to harden into tiny balls. They weren't perfectly round, but they were close enough for what I wanted to use them for. I was pretty proud of the thing because I designed the contraption completely on my own and it worked on the first try. The last thing I had to do was design a shell. Modern shotgun shells are all plastic. Ponies did have plastic but I had no idea what kinds of plastic, nor did I have any ability to manufacture plastic shells. Before plastic shells were used, shotguns used both paper shells and brass shells. Paper would be extremely simple but brass shells would be far more durable, and suitable for reloading. I decided to go with brass shells, there was even a modern 12 gauge brass shell that used pistol primers so I copied that design. To make the brass cartridges we employed the use of a hydraulic presses with some custom carbide dies that Iron Anvil helped me create. First the sheets of brass were punched out into what looked like a small thick brass cup. Those brass cups then went through a series of presses. The process, known as deep drawing because the part's depth exceeded its diameter, was repeated three times, each until the cup was pulled out into a thin long tube of brass, sealed off at one end. Between each pressing the brass was heated up, annealing it which softened the brass and allowed it to stretch better during the pressing process. Those brass tubes were then measured by hoof and trimmed if needed to bring them to the proper length. Lastly, they went into one final press that formed both the primer pocket and rim, completing the cartridge. The powder we used was a modified version of the original formulation from Short Fuse. The new powder had a faster burn rate to bring it in line with some of the Earth powders listed in my manuals. On top of the powder sat a cloth wad, then the shot itself and I sealed the rounds with candle wax. Reloading ammunition was a fairly simple process, as long as you followed the directions. It wasn't so different than baking a cake, you look up the cartridge you want to make, follow the recipe, or load data, and put it all together. Except with this kind of cake if you used the wrong brand of flour the cake could explode. Different powders burned at different rates and every single one of them had a minimum and a maximum charge for each different type of cartridge. Put too little powder in and the bullet might get stuck in the barrel, put too much powder in and... boom. In fact since you could load different weights of bullets in the same cartridge you could easily find half a dozen different loads per type of powder per cartridge. Since Short Fuse's powder was not in any of my books, I had to come up with a safe powder charge, or load. That took some experimentation, during which I erred on the side of caution. Precautions were taken in the very real possibility that I used too much powder and had an accident. In fact I did and I went through 3 guns before I found a load that gave the shot sufficient velocity while also not exploding the gun. Thankfully they were my first three and every one I put together was coming out nicer than the last, so I wasn't too concerned with their destruction. I briefly had a moment of panic as I was surveying the skeet range. Unlike the rifle ranges where a pony would be shooting into a backstop, the skeet range involved shooting clays that were up in the air. This wasn't really a problem on Earth, as long as there was nothing immediately beyond the range. Unlike bullets, birdshot doesn't travel very far. However, if a pegasus happened to fly over at an inopportune time, that could result in problems. I talked to Golden Dawn about this and found that that my big worry was already a solved problem. Ponies had a method of designating an area a no fly zone. Clouds were positioned at the corners of my range and magical beacons were placed inside them. Any pegasus, or griffon who got within 500 yards of a beacon would be warned not to enter the area. The last thing I needed were the clay disks. I found a pony with a kiln and paid her to make me a thousand small clay frisbee shaped discs out of her cheapest clay while I was still working on the cartridge design. When I went to pick up my order I found the pony's daughter, a unicorn, playing with what I hoped was an extra. Taking the disk in her magic she threw it high into the air. It lazily sailed before reaching the top of an arc and then spun down towards the ground. Right before it smashed into a million pieces, she caught it and then perfectly repeated the throw. "Lemon Drop! I told you to quit playing with those!" "I'm bored mom!" the young unicorn shouted back. "All my friends are out shopping and I don't have any money." "Then get a job, you're old enough." As she threw one of the disks into the air again, it occurred to me that I didn't have a launcher built. If I was going to have a bunch of ponies come and shoot, it meant having sufficient ammo for them to do so. It wasn't like they could buy it anywhere else. Iron Anvil and I took a break from making guns and spent the week loading thousands of rounds. Then I hired Pinkie Pie to give my store a grand opening party the following Monday. She insisted before she could do that I'd need to give her a demonstration. "Alright, so you remember all the safety rules I went over?" "Yeppers! Let's get this show on the road." Pinkie said, bouncing up and down in place. I double checked that Pinkie was wearing her ear and eye protection. I had talked to Short Fuse to see where she got the amulets and ordered a box of them. The safety goggles came from the local hardware store. "Ready when you are," I said. Pinkie opened the breach and loaded a shell into the chamber. It clicked closed and she pulled the hammer back. "Pull!" she shouted. I was holding the clay plate in my wing, as soon as I heard Pinkie shout pull, my powerful wing muscles contracted like a bear trap, whipping the clay disk into the air. It spun upwards into Pinkie's line of sight, she began to track it and a second later the shotgun went off with a loud bang as roughly 350 tiny pellets each less than a tenth of an inch in diameter exploded out the front of the barrel at close to 1300 feet per second. The clay disk powdered into a satisfying cloud of fragments as was struck dead on by the ever expanding cloud of lead. "Nice shot Pinkie!" I shouted. She gave me an enormous grin and made what sounded like a high pitched squeak of excitement before asking for another go. She kept me throwing those clay disks for two hours. When I complained that she was going to run though all my disks before I even opened she asked how much I was going to charge and plopped a pile of bits down on the table. I still think the only reason I got her to stop was because it was getting dark and was getting hard to see the disks as the sun went down. That Saturday, Storm Munitions, had its grand opening party. To keep me from having to sit there throwing disks all day, my wing was still sore from Pinkie's marathon, I hired Lemon Drop and another young unicorn to throw the disks into the air for the event. About a hundred ponies showed up, not a huge crowd, but after my first demonstration every single one of them wanted to try it out. What I hadn't counted on was Pinkie's knowledge of the towns-ponies. I assumed she'd just put up some banners and ponies would show up because they knew Pinkie was involved. Instead she talked to ponies and described in detail what it was the event was about. More importantly, since she knew everypony in the town so well, she sought out ponies that she knew would be interested. I actually ran out of clays before everypony was done shooting. Fortunately I had prepared for that possibility, and had purchased a bushel of apples from Sweet Apple Acres that hadn't met their quality standards. They didn't fly quite as well as the clay pigeons but they also cost a tenth what the clays cost. I made a note to switch to apples until I could start ordering clays in large enough quantity to bring the price down. That weekend was a big one for Golden Dawn as well. On Sunday her factory put out its first truck. We rode it into town together to pick up our groceries. Ponies do eat a lot, but I think Golden Dawn went a bit overboard just so everypony in the market would see how much we could put in the back of that thing. She was approached by no less than ten ponies asking where she got it. Time, like the pegasus, flew. The days were growing shorter and the air had the slightest hint of a chill in it. Actually it was a fair bit cold, winter was almost upon us, but as a pegasus I barely felt it at all. It had already been a month since the leaves on the trees had turned from green to a vivid array of oranges,yellows and browns. That's when I got introduced to more of the magic of Equestria. Fall didn't kick into gear slowly like it did back on Earth. It was a sudden and quick thing, brought about by the ponies themselves. When summer had run it's course the leaves began to shift colors in record time. Less than a week after the process had begun, the entire town of Ponyville gathered together on a cool autumn morning. Everypony lined up to run a course through White Tail Woods. As we stormed through the forest, the thundering of our hooves started a chain reaction, causing the leaves of the trees we zipped past to start to fall. By the end of the day, every tree in Ponyville and the surrounding area was bare. After that there were no more surprise warm days, Fall was officially started and the pegasi that ran the seasons made sure that the weather followed their schedule. Business was going well for both of us, Golden Dawn in particular. It quickly became apparent that she was going to need to expand production. She was under an incredible strain due to her huge backlog of orders. She had 30 ponies working for her now but they still couldn't keep up. She had plans to hire more but It wasn't going to be long before she hit a wall due to lack of available space. We were headed to Canterlot, Golden Dawn had an appointment at Canterlot Central Bank so she could secure a loan for what would be a full sized factory. I was going with her to look into the possibility of getting a loan myself. I had been talking with Short Fuse and wanted to buy her business so I could bring all aspects of gun manufacturing under my control. Right now I was buying my powder and primers from her while I produced everything else. Golden Dawn wasn't worried about the loan, she had excellent credit and was making bits hoof over wing. I however, was a tad nervous. I had no real credit history in Equestria and although I was making a profit, my volume was fairly low so I wasn't drowning in money. My real problem was production rates. I had also hired some ponies to help me, and we were now putting out nearly ten guns a week. In addition, the range was open 6 days a week and the crowds hadn't really died down despite the cold weather. Still, powder and primers were a fair amount of my costs, especially primers. Short Fuse had finally nailed down the primer compound, lead styphnate, and with some help from Golden Dawn designing a machine to form the primer cup itself, was producing them at a slow but steady pace. The problem was that priming the primers was a fairly manual process. Lead styphnate was just too sensitive and she hadn't figured out a way to automate the process yet. Manual labor kept the costs relatively high. If I owned the method of production though, I could invest my own bits into figuring out how to automate things and hopefully lower those costs. I ended up with a choice, I could expand gun production like Golden Dawn was doing and hope that Short Fuse could keep up with demand, or I could focus on powder and primer production first. I decided to go with the latter and hold off on expanding production until after winter. It was just about lunchtime when we arrived in Canterlot. Our meeting at the bank was in two hours so we decided to stop and get food on the way. "Would you mind if we went to The Griffon's Nest for lunch? I haven't had meat in what seems like ages," I asked Golden Dawn as we trotted through Restaurant Row. She made a bit of a face, but then shook her her head. "I was going to say I'd rather pass but I know how much you like it and I was just going to get a sandwich and their sandwiches are actually pretty good." Restaurant Row was crowded, which was pretty typical for this time of day. Unlike the last time I had gone to The Griffon's Nest, we didn't have to stick to the street. With a few quick flaps we rose above the crowd. I couldn't resist grinning like an idiot as the ponies below us shrank away. The sheer joy of flying was something I was never going to bored with. I let Golden Dawn take the lead since I still wasn't great at navigating the complicated layout of downtown Canterlot from an aerial perspective. We made our way over the rooftops, occasionally passing other pegasi who probably had the same idea we did. I spotted the restaurant just as Golden Dawn started swooping down for a landing. The heavy aroma of cooking meat filled my nostrils as we walked inside. I saw Golden scrunch up her nose for a second, but it was quickly back to normal. I hadn't noticed any sign of discomfort the first time we had come here, but then again, I was much better at reading pony expressions now that I had been, especially hers. I was going to have to make this up to her. A surprise box of chocolates was as good of a way to do that as it was on back on Earth. I made a mental note to swing by Sugar Cube Corner the next time I had a chance. "Hey, Hail Storm, Golden Dawn!" I heard a voice call out to me. I was so engrossed in my thoughts I hadn't looked around the room yet. Sitting at the same table they had been when we first met were Silent Night and Thunderbolt. "Hey you two, fancy meeting you here again," I said as we walked over. "You have excellent timing, we just sat down a few minutes ago. Want to join us?" "Sounds good to me," Golden Dawn said before I could answer. Silent Night moved to the other side of the table, opening up a place for me and Golden Dawn to sit together. "Did you order yet?" Golden Dawn asked. Thunderbolt shook his head no. "Just our drinks." Gus came by and took or orders. I went with the same as last time. It was good enough that I didn't feel compelled to try any of the other items. Golden Dawn and I engaged the two guards with some small talk. After that kind of trailed off, I mentioned that I felt bad about not ever having caught back up with them. "I swung by the barracks a few times but Moonlit Shadow said you two were out on 'guard business.' I would have checked back some more but we moved to Ponyville back in August," I said. "We?" Thunderbolt asked, raising an eyebrow. "As in both of you, together?" "I seem to recall you saying she was not your marefriend," Thunderbolt said thoughtfully. "Oh, well I mean..." I started to sputter. "How do you know we're not just roommates?" Golden Dawn asked. "I think Hail Storm's reaction makes it quite clear," Thunderbolt said with a laugh. "True, he's so cute when he's embarrassed," Golden Dawn said, she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, which only made my face run hotter. "Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, you'll have to tell us how it happened. He seemed so insistent last time that the two of you were not a couple," Silent Night said. "It took me a while to figure things out," I said. "You weren't the first oblivious stallion in Equestria's history, nor will you be the last. Given your background though, I can't really hold it against you," Golden Dawn said as she gently bumped up against me. "Does this have more to do with your mysterious past?" Silent Night asked. "Will we finally learn the origin of the carnivorous adult blank flank?" Thunderbolt asked. Silent Night gave him a bit of a glare at that. At first I was confused but then I remembered Golden Dawn telling me that blank flank was used as an insult for ponies who got their cutie marks later in life. "Sorry, that was a bit rude," Thunderbolt said, as he noticed Silent Night's glare. "If it's any consolation I was the last in my class to get my mark. It must have been tough for you." "Not really," I said with a smile. "I wasn't the only blank flank. In fact, where I come from nopony gets a cutie mark." "Impossible," Silent Night said. "Well no, it's very possible. Mostly because where I come from there are no ponies to get them. I'm not a pony, or rather I wasn't." I launched into my story. First I gave a brief background on humans. From there I moved into driving through the portal and everything that happened to me in Hoofston. I skipped over some bits, I didn't really want to get into my father's death. I didn't want them to think I was a walking tragic backstory looking for pity. Quite the opposite, the last few months had been some of the best in my life. I wouldn't have changed anything, even if I could. Every once in awhile Golden Dawn would confirm something that I had said, or fill in bits from periods of time where I was unconscious. I ended more or less with Golden Dawn and I going on our first date. By the time I was done, both Silent Night and Thunderbolt were staring at me. "You know... It's a crime to lie to a member of the Royal Guard," Silent Night said. "Only if he's under investigation and under oath," Golden Dawn said. "It's perfectly legal to make things up to fool some friends that happen to be in the guard. Though it doesn't really matter, since the whole thing's true." "What do you think Thunderbolt?" Silent Night asked. "My head says no but my gut says yes. The story's too detailed for him to have just made it up, unless he's got quite a bit of practice telling it." "Honestly, I kinda of do," I said with a bit of chuckle. "You're not helping your case," he replied. "Still though, I remember hearing rumors about a strange creature staying in the castle about 6 months back. Also, if you recall, when we first met him, and no offense to you Hail Storm, but he seemed kind of... uncoordinated, which makes sense if he had just gotten dumped into a new body." "None taken, you're right, I had only been a pony for a couple of weeks at that point, and the first ten days I wasn't even awake for." "Anyway, the klutziness, the lack of an aversion to meat, the missing cutie mark. It's a heck of a story but all those things fit if it's true," Thunderbolt said. "I dunno..." Silent Night replied. "Five bits says he's telling the truth," Thunderbolt said. "How do we prove it one way or another to collect?" Silent Night asked. "I figure we'll find out eventually. Pay when we've got confirmation," Thunderbolt said. "Works for me," Silent Night said. I watched as the two ponies shook hooves. Not the outcome I had expected, but an interesting one. The food arrived and we got to eating. Between bites I asked what they had been up to. "Well, I guess it's not so secret anymore, it was in all the Sacramareto newspapers and I expect it to travel across the country now that the story leaked. A few months back a class went missing. They were on a field trip to collect some plant samples from a nearby forest. Anyway twenty colts and fillies, the teacher and two adult chaperones all vanished without a trace. We were out there helping with the investigation," Silent Night said with a sigh. "That's terrible." Golden Dawn said with a frown. "Did you find them?" Thunderbolt's ears folded down and he bowed his head. "Sadly, no. Nor did we find any clues at all. Months of work and not even a hint of a lead." "The investigation was started and botched by the local sheriff, who clearly had no idea what he was doing," Silent Night said, the annoyance clearly visible on his face. "If the Guard had been called out there right away, I'm sure we could have found something. We have unicorns with tracking spells exactly for this sort of thing, but once the locals got their hooves all over the scene it became impossible to sort things out." "I'm really sorry to hear that," I said. I wasn't sure what else to say. "That's alright, not your fault. Let's talk about something else though. Like what are you two doing in Canterlot?" Silent Night asked. Golden Dawn gave a quick summary of her business and how she was looking to expand it. Neither of the two guards had ever seen an automobile, steam or one of Golden's but I think they got the gist of it. When it came to my turn, I brought up Storm Munitions, and what I wanted to do, and both ponies sat up straight. "I've heard of your stuff! I didn't realize it was you!" Thunderbolt said excitedly, Silent Night nodded in agreement. "A friend of mine's buddy visited your range last week, my friend was telling us about it secondhoof two nights ago." "Heh, wow. That's good to hear," I said. "Except for Pinkie Pie's initial advertising, most of my business is from word of mouth. I'm glad news is spreading." "So when can we come down and check it out?" Silent Night asked. "Well the range is open Thursdays, except today since we're here, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but I'll be honest with you guys, it's been packed all week. If you show up, chances are you're going to have a hell of a wait. I'm working on hiring some more ponies so we can start catching up on orders. I'm also going to be expanding the ranges, so I can get more ponies shooting at once, I've got the land for it, just not the headcount right now." "Even at night?" Thunderbolt asked. "No but we usually close up when the sun goes down. Can't shoot if you can't see," I said. "We can see just fine at night, and we're not normally up during the day anyway. You've once again managed to catch us after we covered an early shift," Thunderbolt said. "Hmm, well I wouldn't be able to see and seeing as you've never shot a gun before I'm a little iffy about opening the range at night," I said. "Don't worry about that, the Guard have enchanted amulets that will give a normal pony night-sight. We can borrow one," Silent Night said. Ponies have night vision, I thought to myself. Of course they do. "Well, in that case I think we can arrange something. How about this Saturday night? That gives me time to give Short Fuse a heads up that we will be making a lot of noise after dark," I said. "Bring a second amulet for me," Golden Dawn said. "We're both off this weekend so that works out great," Thunderbolt said. I gave them directions to the range. It was getting kind of late and we had to head out to get to our appointment. We said our goodbyes, paid the bill and took off. Golden Dawn was easily able to secure her loan. It helped that she had hundreds of signed orders for more of her trucks that pretty much proved she had guaranteed income. I wasn't quite as lucky. The most they would loan me was 75% of what I wanted. I wasn't sure if Short Fuse would drop her price so I asked if I could get back to them, which they said was fine. I talked to Short Fuse later that night and she agreed to accept the reduced price, but at a cost. She wanted 33% ownership in Storm Munitions, which I agreed to. We also officially changed the name to Storm & Fuse Munitions. I went back to Canterlot with Short Fuse the next day, secured the loan and then handed the banknote to Short Fuse who deposited it in her account. The sun had just dipped below the trees, creating a weave of shadows cast by the leafless branches that stretched across the back of the range. I was outside, getting things ready Silent Night and Thunderbolt arrived. Golden Dawn was finishing yet another extended shift trying to catch up on her orders, and would be heading over as soon as she could. Since the two Night Guards were more friends than customers, I decided to bring out my personal collection instead of sticking to just the shotguns and lever actions that we were making. My stuff was a bit more polished than the Equestrian made counterparts, though we were getting better everyday. One of my newest hires, a unicorn named Table Saw, had extensive carpentry experience. He almost had a heart attack when he saw some of my earlier works. I had gotten better since my first few attempts, but I was nowhere near the level of quality he could put out and he worked much faster than I did. Presently, we were selling about twice as many shotguns as we were lever actions, and skeet shooting was also where we saw our most range business. I was actually hoping to change that soon by getting some long distance steel shooting up... Working with Golden Dawn, I had made a number of steel targets suitable for both .44 magnum and .30-06, though the latter was restricted to 100 yards or farther. In order to be able to stand up to the bullet from a .30-06, the targets had to be made from a very hard grade of steel. Far harder than what was normally used by ponies. Ponies tested hardness in a similar way humans did. A small steel ball is pressed into a material and the force needed to form an indentation is recorded. Using this method you obtain a number called the Brinell Hardness Number. The lead I used for my cast .44 magnum bullets ran about 18 BHN. Mild steel is around 120 BHN. The steel I was using for my new targets was designed to be abrasion resistant and extremely durable. Ponies used it in mining equipment and other high wear applications. It had a hardness level of 500 BHN which factored into its common name, abrasion resistant 500, or AR500. A 3/8th inch sheet of AR500 can stop a .30-06 round at 100 yards with no surface damage while a 3/4ths inch mild steel plate would be severely cratered or even punched through. Cratering is something you want to avoid on steel targets because the uneven surface increases the chance of a ricochet back at the shooter. "Hey Hail Storm," I heard from behind me. The voice was completely unexpected and I nearly dropped the heavy steel plate I was carrying in my mouth. I set it down on the bench I was standing next to and turned around and caught a glimpse of two thestrals, Silent Night and Thunderbolt landing on the ground. Somehow, even with my enhanced pony hearing, their hooves didn’t make a sound as they landed on the hard dirt. "Holy shit, were you guys trying to sneak up on me?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. "I didn’t know ponies could fly so quietly." "Sorry," Thunderbolt said, looking sheepish. "Habit from working in the Night Guard, we’re trained to keep noise that might give away our position at a minimum. Plus bat ponies are naturally quiet." "So what’s up with the bat pony, thestral thing, is it..." my words hung up mid sentence as I got my first good look at the pair. It was the first time I had seen them out of their armor and their coats were different. Thunderbolt had a dark grey coat, more or less the color of a thundercloud. His mane was cut very short, almost like the ponies version of a buzz cut; it was just a lighter shade of grey. The only reason I knew it was him was because I recognized his voice when I heard him talk. His cutie mark was a white forked bolt of lightning. Silent Night, on the other hoof, sported a cloud with a moon partially hidden behind it. He had a dark greyish purple coat and an electric blue mane that was cut in the same style as Thunderbolts’. The only thing that looked more or less the same as when I had first met them were their dark yellow slitted eyes. "Did you guys like dye your coats or something?" I asked, more than slightly confused. Silent Night gave me a toothy smile. "Nope, Guard armor is enchanted. It changes our physical appearance to give the Guard a look of uniformity. Anyway to answer your question, we’ve had many names over the years, I think in Old Equestrian, when Luna created our race, we were simply called Pegasus Nocturnus. Thestral came about roughly around the same time as Nightmare Moon’s banishment, uh 1000 years ago in case you don’t know our history. Bat pony is a modern term, popular among ponies our age or younger. Older ponies usually use thestral more, younger ones usually use bat pony more, either is acceptable." "Ah, I did not know any of that. Well, I’m glad you could make it. Golden Dawn should be along soon, I’m just about ready setting up here, I just need to fly this target out," I said pointing at the steel plate. "Soon as I’m back, I’ll run you through the rules." "We’ll wait here," Thunderbolt said. My face turned serious for a moment as I nodded at the pile of weapons on the bench. "Oh, and no touching the guns until after I’ve done that, and especially not while I’m down range." "Eeyup," they both said in agreement. I picked up the plate and flew down to stand I had at 100 yards. I hooked the plate into the stand then flew back to the two patiently waiting ponies. As I was running through the range rules, Golden Dawn flew in, landing behind us. After I finished with the rules, I answered a few questions the two ponies had and then Silent Night pulled two small necklaces he was wearing off of his neck. "You may experience a brief moment of discomfort when you put those on," he said. He gave one to me and the other to Golden Dawn. I slipped the necklace around my neck. For a second I felt dizzy and my vision went blurry but, then everything cleared up. The field, all the way back to the berm at the edge of the woods was lit up clear as day. Farther than that, the details began slowly fade out until, maybe 200 yards out, everything looked about normal. It completely blew away the grainy green night vision I had seen in movies and video games. Any qualms I had about shooting at night were quickly laid to rest. "Oh wow, is this how you guys see all the time?" I asked in wonder. "It’s not quite as good as our vision, we get a bit more range, of full light, maybe 500 yards, and even at max range things look a little brighter for us. The downside is we can’t turn it off, which makes working in the day somewhat painful. Our helmets actually have a enchantment built in for day time ops that help tone down the brightness of Celestia’s sun," Thunderbolt said. Since we were already at the rifle range, we started with the rifles and the revolver first. The shotguns would have to wait till we moved over to the skeet range. Everypony put on their eye and ear protection and I gave a quick demonstration, taking two shots at the plate I had hung up at a 100 yards. Both ponies looked fairly impressed and they both wanted to go first, so I set Silent Night up with the lever action and Thunderbolt with the scoped bolt action. Both ponies seemed to acclimate to the guns fairly quickly and it wasn’t long until the sounds of gunfire, followed by the ring of a hit on the steel target, filled the air as they went through shot after shot. After a few minutes they swapped guns. Golden Dawn and I watched on as they each went through about 50 shots each. Thunderbolt in particular seemed to enjoy the bolt action, and he let out a cry of joy as he lined up and hit shot after shot in the scope’s crosshairs. When they had their fill, I gave them a go with my revolver at a plate I had hanging at 25 yards. They were amazed at how small the revolver was, while still being able to shoot the same round as the lever action. Silent Night made a comparison to hoof crossbows vs full sized war crossbows. Hoof crossbows shot a much smaller bolt and couldn’t reliable penetrate Guard Armor except at point blank range. "On that note, you said it wasn’t safe to shoot the plate at 25 yards with the rifles?" Silent Night asked. "Well, the lever action would probably be fine. .44 magnum is a pistol round so even though it picks up some speed in the longer barrel of the rifle, it’s still not going to punch through 3/8ths AR500," I said. "So what exactly is AR500 and... wait, did you say 3/8ths of an inch? Would the .30-06 punch through that?" Thunderbolt asked. "AR500 is just a name for the type of steel we’re using in those targets. It’s hardened all the way through to resist wear and abrasion... Hold up, I’ve got another plate of it here," I said. I reached down into a box that was under the bench and pulled out another sheet. "As for punching through at 25 yards, I’m not sure, but even if it didn’t penetrate, it would likely damage the surface and that makes a ricochet more likely, which is dangerous." I passed Thunderbolt one of the steel targets. "You’re telling me that there’s a chance those tiny little bullets could penetrate this?" He asked, clanking his hoof against the heavy piece of steel. "Well yeah, they may be small but they’re moving pretty fast. .30-06 is throwing a 168 grain bullet at roughly 2800 fps, that packs quite a bit of punch," I said. "Show them what happened to the mild steel target," Golden Dawn said. "Sure, one second." I dug around in the box of targets again, pulling out of one the old pieces of mild steel we had done some tests on. It was half of an inch thick, the surface was pitted with craters and there were a few holes where .30-06 rounds had penetrated all the way through. "This is what happens when you shoot a .30-06 at mild steel," I said. "Celestia have mercy, it looks like swiss cheese," Silent Night said as I brought the plate into view. Both ponies looked rather disturbed. "You two look... not as amused as I would have thought," I said, unsure why they were so upset. "The heaviest Guard Armor, and I mean the stuff worn by the biggest, meanest earth ponies around, these guys are living brick walls, is only 8 gauge steel, less than 3/16th of an inch thick. Sure, it’s enchanted to give almost double that in protection, and it’s case hardened, but even with enchantments, you’re still talking about less than the equivalent of a half inch of steel’s worth of protection, under the best circumstances," Silent Night said. "So?" I asked. "So, you’ve invented a device that just rendered all the armor in the Royal Guard’s possession completely and utterly obsolete," Thunderbolt said. He actually turned a bit pale while saying it. "I.. uh, well I haven’t built one of these yet, this one’s from my homeworld. The .44 magnum doesn’t have the same penetration power... but I can see what you’re getting it. I never really thought about it like that before," I said. "Armor, like the kind you ponies wear, it was outdated centuries before I was born, pretty much by the introduction of guns, though the early ones were way more crude than what we’ve got here." "I think... It’s just the shock of it that surprised us, we heard that you could shoot clay targets in the air with your shotguns, but I never had any idea your weapons would be so powerful. They are weapons right? From your world, I assume they have replaced bows and crossbows at some point and humans just use them for sport as well as their obvious military application. Though I’d imagine you don’t go fighting many wars, not with weapons that deadly." "Uhhhh, yeah I can’t say your last assumption is correct. We don’t really have a lack of wars. I mean I can probably name a dozen off the top of my head, for my country alone." "Since you invented guns? How long ago was that?" "Oh no, I meant since it’s inception, 240 years ago. We invented guns at least 500 or 600 years ago, maybe more, I don't know their exact history." Now all three ponies were staring at me, including Golden Dawn. "A dozen wars in less than 250 years?" Thunderbolt asked. "I don’t want to make it seem like we’re a bunch of jerkwads but yeah, we’ve had our fair share of wars. Some of them for good reasons, others, not so much," I said. "Chrysalis’ attack on the capital, and our subsequent declaration of war on her hive, should we ever locate it, is the only war Equestria has been involved in over 1000 years." Silent Night said. Now it was my turn to look shocked. 1 war in a 1000 years, that was a damn good record. "That's... I mean, I've never been involved in a war myself, but on behalf of humanity, I'm pretty jealous of that record. Humans, well most of them anyway, don't want war and while some of them could probably have been avoided, other times, you just have to fight." "If it hadn't been for the Princesses, I think that Equestria would have fought far more often in its history. Like how the Griffon tribes are constantly involved in some conflict or another," Silent Night said. "This does make me think though. I'm a little unsure at how to take all of this. Back on Earth, I had never used a gun for anything but sporting purposes. That doesn't mean I don't know or understand they are weapons, but... well, nothing I'm making here would have the potential to cause any major power shifts. You guys don't think it's wrong of me make these... do you?" I asked. Thunderbolt and Silent Night looked at the guns, both deep in thought. I tapped my hooves nervously as I waited for a reply. Eventually Silent Night spoke up. "First off, you haven’t broken any laws that I’m aware of. The only legal restrictions I can think of on dangerous items all deal with magical artifacts or spells that could possibly cause destruction on a massive scale. There’s no legal precedent on denying weaponry to citizens. Quite the opposite, when Equestria was first founded, an armed populace, having access to the same equipment as the old Guard, was prefered. Before the Princesses, we did have to defend our borders and an armed civilians are harder to conquer than unarmed ones." "Exactly, my thoughts as well," Thunderbolt said. "What makes this unique is, as far as I am aware, this is the first time I can think of where a civilian designed weapon has so far outstripped what the Guard has available to it. That isn’t to say you are in the wrong here, but we need to make our superiors aware of what you have created. I see no problem with ponies owning guns, but we need to make our superiors aware that the Guard is now using antiquated armaments." "Actually, you know what this reminds me of..." Silent Night said. "Offensive spells, something like the lower level ones warmages use." "Didn't you say spells were restricted?" I asked. "Some are, but you're talking about spells that could level a city. I'm more thinking about the lower level ones. Any unicorn can go out and learn the spell to cast a fireball or a lightning bolt if they really want to. In the wrong hooves they could be far more deadly than a sword or a bow. There's some difference, only a unicorn can learn those spell, and it does take some effort, but even though they are dangerous, there's no restriction on them." "I haven’t sold anything that shoots .30-06. For now I guess I can hold off, until I have a more clear answer of what’s going on," I said. "A shotgun, shooting what is essentially birdshot, isn’t going to be nearly as effective against an armored target. A .44 magnum, well, it would probably still penetrate, but not at the same distance. "Either way, the Guard will have to seriously consider arming itself with these things. The cat’s out of the bag now, you’ve explained to us how these work and it seems relatively straightforward, I doubt it will be long before some smart pony figures out exactly what’s going on here and start producing their own. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s not like ponies will turn into monsters just because they have access to a new form of weapon. However, we of the Guard still need to be prepared. Eventually this technology will leave Equestria and we have real enemies outside of our borders. Luna forbid the Changelings get a hold of this technology before the Guard does," Silent Night said. "Enough of this though. What’s done is done and I’m glad we found out about it now, from you, rather than than later on on the field of battle. Anyway, we came here to have some fun, how about we go try those shotguns out," Thunderbolt said. I nodded, but I was still deep in thought. Guns are weapons, a fact that I’ve never really forgotten. However, on Earth guns weren’t new. On Earth you couldn’t give a few hundred guys rifles and have them suddenly better armed than the military. Even though I hadn’t intended it, my work here had just caused a massive leap forward in Equestrian weapon technology. Shining Armor had once said he was going to visit, he hadn't shown up yet, but if these two were going to write a report on firearms, I suspected I'd be seeing him eventually.