Crafty Sprocket has had a strange day.
At the start of it, he was running his tool shop on a slow buisness day, then he was hiding away with his family from the Caribou raid, and then he watched as strange creatures similar to ponies ride in on metal chariots into the town, along with those he had seen captured by the raiders. Then, he was approached by one of the uniformed creatures, which he learned was called a human, and was asked if he wished to help with rebuilding the town using his tools and expertise. Obviously, seeing as he had the tools, he obliged before grabbing said tools and setting to work. Not like he had anypony coming to his shop anyway.
Now he was cheerfully humming a happy tune along with his pony workmates as they helped hold a beam in place for one of the human workers currently hammering it in. The human was one of the volunteer workers, and he believed that his name was Marco, though his strange prench-like language made it hard to determine, though he did also speak pony language surprisingly well, so it was easy for Crafty and his pals to work with them.
"I am almost done up here with ze hammering, my copains!"
"That's good to hear, but what the heck does 'copains' mean?"
"It means 'friends' in French!"
"You mean Prench?"
"Sacre bleu, non, is called French!" Marco said with a hint of exhaustion said before hammering in the final nail as he climbed down the ladder and smiled at his work, blowing a little kiss at the construction. "That is ze final nail, the support structure for zis building is now parfait!"
"That's good to hear Marco, that Pierre feller oughta be pleased." Speak of Tirek, here he came, walking over with a smile on his face and a clipboard and pen in hand as he politefully nodded towards the workers.
"And pleased I am indeed. I see you have done well in setting up the new support structures for the town, and by my current time estimates, this town will be fully repaired in about a week at this rate. You have all done very well, and you may go ahead and take a well deserved break while I lay out further plans for construction. We habe much work ahead of us, my friends." He said shaking Crafty's hand before walking off, as Crafty waved goodbye to both his human and pony workmates as they all went back to their homes.
Soon enough, he arrived at his store and saw his wife Nifty Knitter standing in the doorway, as he walked and hugged her deeply as he relaxed when he heard her calm voice. "Have a good day of hard work dear?"
"Yes, I did actually. Feels good to work for the town again, especially now that's needed now more than ever. Those humans certainly know how to work hard." He said as he took off his tool belt and set it on the shop counter before turning to kiss his wife on the cheek. "Love you dear."
"Love you too." As the two smiled warmly at each other, a knock on the door disturbed them, as Crafty walked over to open it and see two of the uniformed soldier standing outside, with one of them holding a clipboard as they breathed in before speaking.
"Greetings mister..." The soldier speaking quickly checked the notes on the clipboard the other soldier was holding before looking back. "Crafty Sprocket, we have come to requisition tools to be utilized in both the reconstruction of the town's housing and infrastructure, as well fortifying the perimeter of the town to defend and deter against hostile retaliation. If you wish, you may decline this request and refuse any form of material requisitioning. If you accept, the tools will be returned once they have been fully utilized, and should they be damaged, you will be entitled to compensation." The soldier said as he read the list on his clipboard.
"Well, I suppose you can have them, seeing as I don't really make many sales anyway. What do you guys need?"
"Oh, we will not be taking any ourselves, we will be notifying a truck to come here and retrieve the tools at noon tomorrow, if that fits into your schedule."
"Sure it does, pleasure doin' buisness with ya." He said as he shook the soldiers hand and they walked down the street. "What a bunch of strange ponies..." He said to himself before closing the shop door and locking it for the day.
Things were changing around town, and quick.
The sound of motor engines, shouting in both English and German, and boots marching through churned mud could be heard, as Krieger walked alongside Sergeant Franz and Fritz, trudging through the muddy terrain of the recently set up military camp, moving out of the way for trucks carrying either troops to their positions, tools to the fortification line, or supplies to stockpiles as Krieger turned to Fritz who was currently holding clipboard with a series of papers, including the Supply Manifest.
"How do our supplies currently look, Franz?"
"Well, not counting the supplies that the locals have graciously granted to us, we have around one months worth of rations, ten crates of ammunition and explosives, around twenty cans of gasoline, and a couple boxes of radios as well as spare parts for our equipment."
"Excellent, though we will likely need to preserve our fuel until we can find any potential sources. When we reach under ten cans, order all of our civilian cars to be siphoned of their fuel."
"Verstanden, Kommandant. We also have begun handing out recruitment flyers to the local population, requesting that they join the currently developing Volksstrum of the town to assist with defense and fortifcation. Already around a dozen or so ponies have signed up, and they are currently undergoing training now." Franz said as he gestured to his right, as Krieger looked to see a large field with both humans and ponies doing training exercises in their uniforms, performing jumping jacks and marching in formation.
Or at least the humans were, the ponies lacked any real type of discipline, and as such were... Clumsy, with one of them tripping over and falling down face first in the mud, as the drill sergeant proceeded to yell in their face before helping them up and coaching them. Krieger believed that inside every man and woman, there was a soldier, and all it took to awaken that soldier was a call to action. And with the threat of the raiders returning on the horizon...
That call would come soon...