//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18: Gems, flesh, metal and magic (M) 
// Story: Knights of Night - Chosen of the Moon 
// by vadram 
//------------------------------//



Chapter 18: Gems, flesh, metal and magic (M)





Private’s Starry Night military experience has been everything but stellar, and all because a little incided on the first day of camp.

During a day a recruit has a combined total of one and a half hours to eat his, or hers, breakfast, lunch and dinner, one hour of personal time, another one for morning activities and seven hours of sleep. The rest of the day, all thirteen and a half hours is dedicated to training the recruits body.

Starry already had lost two hours of sleep time because of Armor Duty, but the Latrine Duty was the thing that really tired him out. Everyday day a wooden outhouse had to be dismantled, the barrel that held the waste dug out, dragged outside the compound, and shoveled up carts which deliver it to a composting station. It was a tiring, smelly and messy, three, sometimes four hour long, two pony job, but it was not very mentally intensive. And neither was Armor Duty, but the monotony of the process was more tiring to the mind than the most intensive lecture.

And of course, at the end of the day, the privates that took part in any of these activities were expected to perform just as well as the rest, so the drill instructors made sure none of the recruits fell behind on their training.

It had been a few weeks since drill sergeant Lance found the anatomy book in Starry’s bed during a “random” search, and once again the private was busy refilling the armors magical reserves during Armor Duty.

The armory was the only stone building in the entire compound, even the officers quarters were made out of wood. At it’s core it was nothing that a small, windowless room, filled to the brink with weapons and golden suits of armor belonging to every recruit in the camp and also every non-unicorn instructor or officer. There were hundreds enchanted suits of armor, each with a magical gem in the middle of their chestpiece, and all in the need of recharging.

The only ponies allowed to be awake after lights out were the two Fire Watch ponies assigned to each barrack, the ponies that were on Guard Duty, and of course the unicorn in on Armor Duty. Everypony had a job to do, and there was no interaction between them, except in the case of a fire or an intruder, neither had happened not once since Starry started training.

A knock was heard outside the armory’s lock door.

“Who goes there?” Starry asked jumping to his feet and grabbing his trusted sword.

“It’s me,” a female voice whispered through the door.

Starry rushed to the door, removed the lock, grabbed the pony and pulled her in, and quickly closing the door before any of the guards would see her. He placed her ear on the door and listened if anypony was coming towards them, or if anypony sounded the alarm.

A few minutes later, convinced that nopony saw her, let let out a sigh of relief and turned towards the mare.

“Did you bring them?” Starry asked the earth pony mare with a quartz crystal cutie mark by the name of Gem.

“I must say this was by far the most specific order I ever heard in my life.”

“Did you, or did you not bring them?” Starry asked impatiently.

“I have, but it proved to be a lot more difficult than I initially thought.”

“How much?”

“Three,” the mare said with a smile on her face.

“Three? Are you insane!?” Starry yelled outraged by the price.

“Keep your voice down, and three Fire.”

“Three and three!?” he said emphasizing on the second three.

“Yes, take it or leave it.”

“I will give you two and one,” Starry tried negotiating.

“Ha,” she laughed at his offer. “Good luck finding somepony else with my connections. Three and three or I am out of here.”

“Two and two and I won’t tell the the sarge you went AWOL.”

“You wouldn't dare!” she snapped at him. “I did it for you, you ungrateful little piece of...”

“Two and two and one dessert,” Starry interrupted her with his final offer.

“I am so going to get you back for this, Starry,” she said tossing him a small, brown burlap bag.

“Good luck with that,” Starry told her while he was looking inside the bag and smiling. “Thanks Gem.”

“Whatever,” Gem said as she listen at the door for the patrol to pass, before exiting the room and sneaking back in the barracks before anypony noticed she was gone.

Starry locked the door behind the pony and hid the bag deep in the back of the room, under a pile of rusted discarded weapons.

“Just two weeks Kitchen Duty, two weeks Fire Duty, and one week without dessert for these? Totally worth it,” he said to himself as he continued his job of filling the armor’s gems with magic.