Chapter 4
Starry Night soared over the quickly dimming sky, the sun struggling to hold its weight against the grip of night. They needed to find a good, defensible place to rest and keep watch, and even with luck find a place to build on. If there was an ambush, there was a chance of heavy casualties, and the princess could be killed. Being ambushed or offering themselves up for one, just simply wasn't an option.
Flying over the crevasse between the two, grassy hills, she could get a better view of the surroundings and give herself a mental situational report. Surprisingly, the gap that someone seemed to have torn in between the two hills widened out and ended almost as soon as she, and the rest of her elite Lunar flying team got up to a faster speed.
Starry thrust her two front hooves out to each side, signalling for the pegasi flying alongside her to branch out widely. Almost immediately, they angled themselves left, and fell away to the left and right. Some of the farther pegasi even disappeared from view from where Starry was in the centre.
Within two minutes, the end of the crevasse had disappeared from sight if the Lunar pegasi were to look behind them, and now, more long grassed hills had come into sight, as far as the eye could see. Star looked for any sign of forest land nearby, but from where she could see, there was none at all.
Eventually, she stuck her hooves out again to the side, drawing attention to herself from the nearest pegasi behind her, and then she snapped her hooves down, facing the ground, and the pegasi fell in, making others further out who hadn't seen Starry signal understand, and fall in. A chain of events, of sorts.
She slowed, with the others slowing with her, and pointed to a nearby hill. With less air resistance around her because of the decreased speeds, the others would be able to hear her again. "That hill over there looks suitable, it's large enough and has a flat space around it for a long distance. And look," she paused, pointing to the left. "there's our building equipment, not too far off from the location!" Starry continued. The dark, grey mares and stallions around her nodded and murmured in approval.
Slowly and carefully, in unison the team touched down on the hill, which was relatively smooth, flat ground until it sloped down steadily, but not steeply. It would be easy for them to climb with their equipment but easy to defend.
"This looks good enough, don't you think? All raise a hoof if you think this is adequate land." Starry Night said democratically. Un-surprisingly, everypony raised a hoof. It was settled, this was where they would build.
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Camo Flash walked quickly over to some planks of wood, with a mare behind him to help him with it, and together, with a huge heave, they crouched and then lifted it up. Struggling it against the back-breaking work, they carried over to where the foundations of the large stone base were being built. To build things with wood, convenient devices had been placed to attach the ponies' chests, like harnesses on the wrong way. They consisted of square flat shovels attached by strong metal beams, eventually touching the ground when a pony crouched, and then could be moved underneath an object. When the pony stood up again, the object would be on the shovel. Again, it was back-breaking, but it was one of the only ways, besides being a unicorn. The pegasi had to take the objects higher, their wings taking the weight. They had the hardest jobs. However, earth ponies could also operate crane systems that were operated by clever leavers.
"Hrrghh-UGH!" Camo grunted, along with the mare as they lifted the wood onto another two similar shaped pieces, holding their breaths and letting it go as the pressure came off of their bodies. "Urgh... thanks."
"No problemo, Camo Flash. You needed someone stronger than you anyway." The mare smirked at him, making him Camo chuckle.
"What's your name, 'strong mare'?" He asked her with a grin on his face.
"Name's Ice Wing. I'm in your squad, remember?" She said with a question mark written over her face.
Something then clicked in Camo's brain as he remembered. "Ohh yeahhh! I picked you first, didn't I? I remember your colours now. Pretty neat!" He complimented her. Her colours were indeed quite 'neat', suiting her name. She had a very light blue coat, like ice, and a white mane, and since she was a pegasus the second part of her name fitted.
Suddenly, Ice Wing punched him, hard. "Hey! What was that for?" Camo exclaimed sharply.
"The compliments. Don't do that." Ice glared at him. Luckily, he hadn't earned hatred here - there was a slightly playful tone to her face.
"Heart of ice huh? That's too ba- HEY! Okay, tough mare. You win." Camo said wittily to her, rewarded with yet another punch to the same place. That would bruise tomorrow, but compared to the various broken bones, wings and black bruises he got in training to be a guard, this was nothing.
"Thank you. Now, let's go get that next piece of wood, okay?" Ice said, turning from him to walk to the pile of wood they had started at.
Grinning, Camo scored a point to himself in his mind. Yep, she was definitely interested.