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// Supply Issues 
// Story: Norrath, Earth, Equestria. A Construct's Journey 
// by Nimnul 
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	Landshark had fired five shots during her hostile changeling encounter, and it had served to remind her that, even though she had carried quite a bit of ammo on the day of her displacement, she really should make sure that she would be able to replace her spent resources. Dinky seemed to have taken an interest in that particular kind of chemistry as well. Her enthusiasm was, at least, nice to experience.

The construct once thought she had a pretty good idea regarding how to recycle spent cartridges by hand. She had been able to assemble a set of rudimentary tools and set aside part of her work space as a reloading bench. This had not, of course, been completely trivial, and she still had no way to replace lost casings.

It only served to make her feel like a complete idiot when Dinky, listening to an explanation about why smokeless powder was more desirable than black powder, had inquired about the little dented metal cup she had loosened from the end of one of the spent .45 LC cases.

The issue of primers had completely slipped Landshark's mind. Sure, she could explain readily enough what the primer did, and in fact, had explained it weeks prior. The implication hadn't really hit her at the time. But even when she had learned about hand-loading cartridges, all she had learned about primers was that they came by the box in large numbers.

It had been a bit of a reality check, she supposed. She seemed to recall hearing once that people who knew little about a topic tended to grossly overestimate their level of expertise.

She'd learned about the mechanisms of the actual weapons with interest, but forced into being honest with herself, she hadn't often spared thoughts for the cartridges. She'd used up so many of them over the years, she hadn't ever really thought of them as a resource to worry about in the long term. Naturally there was only so much ammunition she could carry, but there'd always be more of it to stock up between deployments. She had been shown the basics of hand-loading, but even then, powder and primers had been bought in bulk and really, nobody had seriously expected it to become particularly relevant. Even when supplies and logistics were otherwise in question, there'd always been enough magazines and belts of ammo to go around.

"You know, I used to have a gun that could fire something like a thousand rounds per minute and here every cartridge is turning into an irreplaceable treasure." She shook her head as she removed the spent primers from the brass casings she had carefully collected whenever she had fired her weapon. "I miss being backed by a supra-national organization, I'll tell you that one for free. We fought the monsters, other people handled supplies."

The fillies and Landshark had examined the spent primers and the little so-called anvil component inside. The unicorns had even managed to smooth out the dimple caused by the firing pin. As a next step, the construct agreed to take one of her handgun cartridges apart. Pulling the bullet from the case hadn't been too difficult with her strong fingers and a touch of unicorn telekinesis and they carefully stored the powder for later. Being unsure of the risk, Landshark carefully worked the live primer out of the case while facing away from the fillies.

Looking at the primer hadn't been particularly educational. Knowing what the thing did told them nothing about the chemical component of the primer, after all.

Dinky was enthusiastic, but despite having read more about chemistry than the construct, still a novice. Pinchy's interest ran more towards mechanisms than chemistry. She was of course always up for learning about Landshark's kit, but had no ambition to help figure out how to make powder and primers.

"Maybe I should just craft myself crossbows. Some big windlass-pulled number with a steel prod and maybe a smaller hand crossbow. At this rate I'll be out of ammo before we figure something out, huh?" Working metal, at least, had been something she had learned back in the Underfoot and could do confidently, and finding out what the best available material for the string would be should pose no difficulties.

"Why don't you ask Princess Twilight for help?" Pinchy inspected the bullet out of its case while talking. "I mean, this isn't magic, but I bet she could get you in touch with ponies that would have the smarts to help better than us two or Bon Bon."

"Far as I can tell, Equestria doesn't have cartridge firearms, and I'd feel really conflicted about involving anyone official and government-backed. I'd rather not be responsible for advancing weapon technology a few decades while stranded in an alien world." Landshark shrugged. She liked her new life, but she still felt she had to make decisions with her old job in mind. "And no offense, girls, but I'd rather not introduce weapons that are easier to use by unicorns than other ponies."

"I guess that makes sense," Ruby Pinch admitted. She didn't get a chance to say more. She was startled by a small bang and a bright spark.

Dinky looked down at the newly spent primer, now on the floor, a thoughtful look on her face. She had her ears flattened to her head, and it wasn't clear whether in anticipation of, or as a reaction to the noise.

"Agent, I thought I taught you better than that." Landshark pinched the bridge of her nose. The fillies knew that things weren't too serious as long as the construct still pretended to be alive. Still, she sounded disappointed. "That was reckless. You didn't know anything about the explosive component, and you weren't wearing your mask. What were you thinking?"

Dinky kept her ears flattened and looked down. "No excuse, Ma'am. I just needed to see and feel it go off. Maybe we don't know for sure what it is, but maybe we can find a replacement! It's just heat and sparks to set off the actual powder load, right?" She had gone from nervous to excited over the course of her explanation.

"I appreciate the thought, Agent, but I could have put that cartridge back together and now I'm down another one. I'm going to have to tell Ditzy about this, you know. Your mothers trust me to play it safe with you around." Landshark started tidying up her work space. "No harm done, but that looked like a serious misjudgement on your part and that's how I'm going to explain it to your mother."

Sure, maybe the primer was relatively harmless, and being a unicorn removed the risk of losing a finger or even getting scorched, but Landshark wasn't going to get careless about any of this. Playing it a little fast and loose with a decent reason could lead to doing it for worse reasons. Still, Landshark was quietly curious whether primers were very sensitive or if perhaps Dinky had been able to put a good punch behind the telekinetic push she used to set it off.

Dinky nodded, looking upset. "Okay Ma'am. I wasn't thinking." She paused and took a deep breath. "I figured I'd be okay aiming it away from me. I'll be more careful from here on out."

Ruby Pinch was understandably quiet, it was always akward to be in the room when two others had a disagreement or another pony was being scolded.

Landshark approached Dinky, reaching out to gently raise her chin until the filly was looking up to her. "I'm not mad, Dinky. But I'm never going to go soft on the topic, and I hope Ditzy won't, either. We just worry, you know? This isn't forbidden dark magic or whatever it is other unicorns worry about, but it still deserves respect and care."

Landshark herself could easily be careless, since she was insensitive to minor damage and her shell would mend itself with less of a mess compared to flesh and blood injuries. Making sure the fillies maintained good habits also helped the construct do the same.

"Okay, Shark." Dinky seemed a little dejected, but being addressed by her real name appeared to have helped. Maybe her mother would make her do extra chores or even ground her, and Dinky probably wasn't looking forward to it. "Can I take some of those old primers home with me? I promise I won't lose them."

"Huh." Landshark tilted her head. The filly probably had some idea cooking, but Landshark couldn't quite imagine what. "Take your mask too. Ask your mom's permission, and don't do anything I would do."

Pinchy finally found a way back into the conversation. "Aren't you supposed to tell us not to do anything you wouldn't do either?" 

Chuckling, the construct reached up to her jaw and broke out one of her teeth. She hadn't done that in a while now, she realized. She flicked the tooth towards Ruby Pinch, who caught it in her magic grip. "Quite a few things I'd do but you shouldn't, right? Anyway, we're done for today. Time you headed home. You never get any homework done at my place, somehow."

Pinchy looked vaguely disappointed. "Aw, okay." Apparently struck by an idea, she suddenly grinned. "But you let me know if you were serious about the crossbow thing. I've never seen one up close!"

"Sure will," Landshark easily agreed. Raising her voice, she called out to her dog. "Admiral! There's work to do."

The fillies were still packing various odds and ends into their saddlebags when the canine in question wandered in, wagging his tail.

"Officer on deck." The construct joked while scratching her companion behind the ears. "Admiral, you walk those fillies home to their mothers and then swing by Fluttershy's place, right?" She counted some bits into one of the pouches attached to the Admiral's harness. "She knows what you like."

Sending her dog to go pick up his own food was probably even stranger than all these talking ponies around her, and it probably only worked because of Fluttershy's special talent. It also wasn't really necessary to have Dinky and Pinchy escorted home, but Fluttershy had explained that dogs required mental stimulation too, not just physical exertion, and dealing with young ponies was nothing if not mentally stimulating, the construct thought.

The dog wagged his tail and vocalized his agreement. Or so Landshark assumed. Getting to know the malamute was another one of those things where her previous knowledge had only scratched the surface. She assumed dogs would bark, and hers had done that occasionally, but mostly, the Admiral made some damnably odd noises, yodels and yips and snorts and odd grumbles that made it seem as if he assumed everyone would understand him as well as Fluttershy had. He wasn't barking much, but he wasn't a quiet dog. Landshark and her friends all thought it was quite endearing.

In a way, it was a fun challenge for the construct to figure out what the Admiral was going on about.   Ponies did say that Fluttershy was great at matching pets to people, so maybe that wasn't a coincidence.

Landshark made eye contact with the dog. "On your best behavior, pal. We wouldn't want to disappoint Fluttershy, right?" It had been easy for her to establish herself as the boss, and with all her other friends being affectionate towards the Admiral, it was trivial for Landshark to remain stern and unyielding when he misbehaved, and to step away from games when the dog tried to turn them too rough. Fluttershy called it 'avoiding dominance tests'. Landshark was the boss and there shouldn't even be the chance for the Admiral to think he could change that. It was all new to the construct, but seemed sensible enough.

Dinky grinned widely despite the earlier scolding. "We'll be fine, Ma'am." She obviously understood that the dog was a responsibility, and both Pinchy and she had been a little nervous about a carnivore they didn't know. Sure, the Admiral liked to play rough, but as it turned out, he just wasn't too physically imposing even to a younger pony with telekinesis. She figured that a human of Dinky's age might have more problems.

Pinchy was almost to the door. They were probably going to have some fun playing with the dog before getting home and seemed eager to get to it. "C'mon then, let's go!"

"Get them home before dark, Admiral. You three have fun now."