A Change Of Heart: Luna’s Gaze

by The Royal Equestrian

Chapter 11 Hail The New Night Guard

The last week had been rather tiring for Douny. Between working on the design of his armor, filling out the paperwork for him to join the Lunar Guard, and trying to work out a budget for his new gear, it was rather stressful. He had thought that the Equestrian guard forces would just provide him gear, but that seemed to not be the case, he along with every other member were expected to buy any unique or extra gear themselves, and considering almost all of his kit would be unique to him, it would cost him some money.

He and the sisters worked out a decent payment plan that his first paychecks would go straight to the smithy making his armor shield and sword. Douny chose to just take a standard pony-sized spear to not have to pay any more than he already would have to. He also chose to make his own light club for policing, something light enough that it wouldn't cause permanent or life altering damage but heavy enough to knock someone out or put them to the ground.

Douny's plan to get to know the sisters who took him in also didn't go anywhere. Between both of their work and him drawing up his armor and kit, it left them all with little to no time to talk. It had gotten to the point where Douny had just chosen to get his gear today and then prepare for basic. He would have time enough to talk to them at some point but sitting around doing nothing wasn't an option either for him and getting his gear would be a good excuse to meet the blacksmith who was making his armor. Getting up from his chair he put his now cleaned tweed jacket, great coat, and flat cap on, the coat was gray and thick and the hat matched the color of his brown tweed jacket.

He made his way over to the smithy with little interruption and now found himself at a large door made of wood with bars of metal reinforcing it, and was about 14x5 feet. Which Douny found odd until he remembered the size of his bed. With some apprehension, the man pushed the door open and looked inside.

The room was plain looking, mostly having what Douny assumed in the center was a big forge, and around the edges of the room were tables with all kinds of tools, most of which the human didn't know the use of. Above those tables were poles holding all manner of things from fittings for barrels, to unfinished guard armor, and even some chains to what Douny could only assume were made for pulling something heavy.

In front of all of that was a towering minotaur who had to be at least 12 feet. He had short spiky horns and a deep brown coat though his face and hands seemed to have a more fleshy look like Douny's own hand. Still, the minotaur had far more calluses. The minotaur also had a golden nose ring and seemed to only have pants with his chest being bare showing a body that would make pro bodybuilders on Earth jealous.

"I'm assuming you are the new creature Luna has told us about." The bull spoke, turning around to face the human, his voice deep and gravelly.

"Yes, my name is Douny." Douny said, feeling slightly nervous about the minotaur that made him feel like a dwarf.

"I must say, when she spoke of you, I thought you would be taller. But I see that you are no bigger than a calf, no offense." The minotaur said honestly."My name is Steel Horn." He then finished holding out his hand.

Douny looked at the minotaur's hand wearily, and after a few seconds of hesitation, he shook it. Unsurprisingly his grip was very firm, almost to the point of being painful. Looking over to the right he could see the majority of his finished gear on it.

It was mostly chainmail, but there were some solid pieces of protection, namely the shins and front thighs with sadly no kneecap plate though that was more for budget cutting reasons on his end. He also had a royal blue brigandine (essentially an advanced coat of plates) for his chest protection, which had a nice separate cloth loop that went over it which held a white moon where the front of the chest would be. His headgear was where he really put his budget into however, he didn't know how advanced the armor could be made so he went with a Saxon style nasal helm that went on top of a mail coif which had a mouth and nose wrap looking similar to a balaclava. Under all of this outer armor the armor in the middle was all chainmail and under that padding, the mail provided added piercing protection and the padding to protect against some kinetic blows, and to anchor parts of the armor to his body.

Next to the armor was his sword and shield, Douny opted for a falchion, he always did prefer a cutting sword over something more balanced, and he assumed it fit his personality. The sword itself was nothing fancy; the spine of the single-edged blade was about 1.2mm thick tapering to an edge that was little less than a single millimeter; it had a pointed tip but that was more for an optional jab to take his opponent off guard, he also liked the razor thin blade profile; from what he remembered back on Earth this is how men at arms used to have theirs. The guard was just a simple straight bar cross guard that had the same silvery finish as the blade. Though the most decorated part of the sword was the pummel at the bottom, it was a circular pummel which held Luna's marking on her flank.

The shield was even more simple: it was a tall kite shield with a blue cloth covering, it was all wood, say for the straps for his arms and a sling to put it on his back if needed, and on the face of the shield was the same moon that would be on the chest of his armor. The overall height and width of it being 6.2x2 feet.

"I see that my armor is ready, though I'm curious as to how you were able to get the mail done with hands as big as yours?" Douny asked looking over to the minotaur, only for a Griffin to come out from a door behind him, his feathers were brownish red, and his head fur was an odd white color, his beak was similar to that of a crow in shape but had a yellow color to it, his wings were only slightly bigger than a normal pegasus, though that may have had to do with his height, he was at least a half a foot taller than the average pony but Douny was still had good two feet on him.

"Oh this must be that creature the princesses told us about, names Jackal, I'm the one who does the smaller details that muscles over here can't do." The Griffin announced, answering the now confused human who just stared blankly at the Griffin.

"You doing alright kid, you look like you've seen a ghost?" Steel Horn asked, looking down at the human with a cocked brow.

"Yeah, I guess I just need more time to adjust to all of this. Anyway, thank you both for making this for me." Douny said, slightly embarrassed that he didn't read up on this world when he had downtime. "Also why are you calling me kid, I'm already in my late 30s?"

"Mostly due to your size, if I'm being honest, anyway you can go to the quartermaster, he should have the rest of your gear." Steel Horn said, giving a low chuckle to himself.

Douny did so, making his way to the quartermaster, if he remembered right all he needed to do was grab a spear, some bags, and paperwork for his training to start. As he made there he wondered how his new life in the guard was going to go.

🌙

A day later he had his answer, this training was hell. He falsely thought that his height would give him an advantage when it came to movement, but that wasn't the case; they were the same when it came to how fast they could move. He had originally thought it was the armor making him slower but a quick test proved that wasn't the case. Still, he was doing alright,

His trainer was very strict which he found he liked. Her name was Captain Iron Heart, her armor was pretty different from the rest of the lunar knights, though it was mostly just in color, which were in the standard blue but held silver accents around the edges of the plates.

She was as thestral much like his fellow trainees, her coat was gray with her mane being whitish grey, and her eyes were abnormal at least to what Douny knew. All the other thestrals had either amber, green, or blue eyes, but hers were a steely grey that almost matched her coat.

She originally questioned him when he arrived asking why he didn't have blued metal armor but when he explained it was budget limitations she seemed to understand.

"Alright you shitty excuses for guards listen up! Today's going to be a true test of your combat skills. I'm going to be splitting you up into teams of two! Five of you are going to defend this flag, the other five will be attacking it. This will go on for four matches and whoever loses goes to bed hungry tonight!" Captain Iron Heart barked, she picked up the flag and led the group of ten trainees to what Douny could only call a war game.

The simulated battlefield wasn't anything special from what Douny could see. It was a mockup of a small town with woods surrounding it, Douny also noted the buildings looked similar to that of Ponyville's, holding that familiar medieval aesthetic. The Iron Heart gave a gesture for them to halt and she walked away to put the flag in a random location, leaving the recruits some time to talk amongst themselves.

"You must be the one those stuck-up nobles are making a big deal over." One of the recruits said, walking over to the human with an earnest smile on his face.

"Yeah I am, I honestly didn't know that they knew about me yet. My name's Douny. Nice to meet you." Douny said offering the thestral a handshake, which the pony took in their hoof and gave him a handshake back.

"Nice to finally meet you then, names Moonlit Streak." The bat pony said, giving him a toothy grin and showing Douny their fangs which he noticed one was broken off on the right side.

"If you don't mind me asking what happened to your fang?" Douny asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Oh that, it was an injury I got a year ago, I was playing buck ball and I took a book straight to the jaw." Moonlit said, giving a light chuckle at the tale.

"I can't say I know what buck ball is, do you mind explaining it?" Douny said, raising an eyebrow.

Just as Moonlit was going to explain the sport to the human, the recruits spotted Iron Heart trotting back to them.

"Guess you're going to have to tell me what buck ball is some other time." Douny replied, getting back in line.

"Alright, split yourselves into two teams, and come meet me up ahead, there are training weapons for this training session so leave your weapons here!" Iron Heart explained, before looking them over and walking down the dirt road and into an open space similar to a town hall of sorts.

"I guess we should get ready, you want to join me and my other friends, we'll have just enough to make up a full team then?" Moonlit Streak asked with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

"I don't see why not, just let me put my stuff up and we can get going." Douny said, grabbing his short spear and falchion and putting it into a bucket with everyone else's weapons.

After everyone put their weapons up, they all went down the street that Captain Iron Heart had gone down. The whole group formed up into two lines making it clear who was on which team.

"Alright listen up because I'm only going to say this once!" Iron Heart demanded looking between both groups to make sure everyone was focused and not mucking about. "Team one is going to defend the flag, the only rule is that you cannot move the flag or make the flag harder to spot. Team two will be attacking team one's position and try to capture the flag with two rules, you can't go out of bounds, and you can't get back up once you're down, that rule also applies to team one any questions?" Iron Heart explained, looking around to see if anyone didn't understand the rules, when she saw no one confused she smiled slightly and waved team one to follow her which they did without a word making their way to a relatively small building that looked pretty easy to defend all things considered.

The inside of the building looked pretty normal though it was still pretty small for Douny but not small enough where he couldn't fight. Though he realized that it may have been a mistake taking his shield into the building with him, it seemed to only make things harder for the man so he chose to use his shield as a barricade for the door. He pulled out his practice sword which was shorter than what he liked but perfect for this environment.

His teammates were preparing in their own ways as well. Moonlit Streak in particular was doing something Douny found ingenious using his practice spear as a rampart so when the attackers would come through they would be downed if they rushed in, and if they didn't rush would make it harder to get around. Douny did the same with his spear and the door was properly protected.

It wasn't long after Moonli Streak, Douny, and the others prepared their position that the other team went on the offensive with four of them trying to bash down the door. Once they knew that was a bust due to Douny's shield reinforcing it, they chose to try the windows only to be met with spears and swords slashing and jabbing at them pushing them away. The only thing that wasn't defended was a back door that none of the defenders had noticed, which the final member of the attackers snuck in through, catching one of the defenders off guard, and downing them quickly which Douny noticed a bit too late to react.

Once Douny left the window he was defending thinking it was clear one of the other defenders popped out of it almost downing Douny, not taking any chances on letting the attacker in he rushed them with his sword downing them in the process. Unfortunately this gave the other attacker behind him time to go for another one of his teammates to which the man was a bit too slow to defend them before the other member of his team was taken out. Taking out the attacker Douny had given his teammates a bit more breathing room, though that wasn't the case for long as the opposing team pressed them harder hoping to break through, it had almost worked until Douny ran to grab his spear from the doorway, once he had it in his hands he grabbed one of the ponies defending the window and gestured for them to move back some as he readied his spear for a throw, and just as one of the ponies attacking the window made his way to the windows seal he let the spear fly knocking the attacker out.

With only two more attackers left Douny took the advantage and grabbed his shield and went outside. Both ponies who were attacking the windows turned to face him. Moonlit Streak taking notice ran for his spear to support Douny, Douny however charged the first pony and hit them in the head with the edge of his kite shield dazing the pony and making him stager. Just as Douny was about to take the opening and go for an attack he was forced back by the attacker's friend. Now having to face a two-on-one, Douny went into a defensive stance putting his sword in wrath guard (wrestling his sword at the top of his back behind his neck) doing so to get a powerful blow for whoever was going to strike first. The pony who went for his friend's aid was the one to take the bait as he went and tried to attack the human assuming he wouldn't be able to counter where his sword was resting, only to be proven wrong when Douny pushed forward with his shield knocking the spear out of the pony's mouth, followed by a crushing strike from his sword coming downwards knocking the pony out cold.

With only one more attacker left Douny stalked forward with his sword now in fools guard (where the sword is resting near the thigh and the point of the blade is pointing behind the wielder) being ready for another attack. Only for the man to be shocked as a spear crashed into the side of Douny's foe.

"And that's how you win a war game, buck yeah." Moonlit Streak said, pumping his hoof into the air.

"I've gotta say Moonlit, I didn't expect you to throw a spear at him," Douny said, still shocked by the action, mostly because he thought he couldn't throw a spear due to him not having a horn to levitate objects.

"Well I had to help you somehow, it wouldn't be much fun if I let you do all the work." Moonlit Streak teased, walking up to the human.

"You're going to have to tell me how you did that unless you somehow used your hoof to do it, that's impossible." Douny stated, narrowing his eyes at the bat pony, to which Moonlit only chuckled.

"That's exactly what I did, all ponies have telekinetic abilities with their hooves though it isn't as powerful as unicorn telekinesis," Moonlit explained.

"I'm not even going to ask how that's possible, let's just meet up with Iron Heart, I just want this to be over so I can sleep." Douny stated in a dry tone, slumping his shoulders as he did so.

The rest of the matches went similarly with Douny and Moonlit's team winning two out of four times making it a draw. The day ended with the group lining up in front of the Captain to which they heard the words they had wanted to hear since they started this.

"It has been a long few weeks, I honestly didn't think some of you shit stains would make it to this point!" Iron Heart stated as she looked over the group with some pride. "But I'm happy to tell you that your training as guards is done and you are now a stallion at arms in the Lunar guard. I'm sure your families would be proud to see you all now." She finished as she stomped as she finished her pacing in front of the line.

"Tomorrow will be your official ceremony to bring you into the fold. But until then you should all rest, divines know you've earned it!" She finished as she led the group back to the barracks.

Douny was happy that this had been over and was more than pleased to sleep after that fight, he only wondered what this new chapter in his life would bring.

Author's Note:

Thank you all for reading this new chapter, this one may be a little rushed so if you can leave a comment showing any errors I may have made or tell me your thoughts so far.
For anyone who's curious as to what Douny's amor and gear looks like its like this.

With that I'll see you all next time

SPOILERS
Chapter 12 Who Hides In The Shadows

Comments

[AgentKorpsman]

What images/game are the armor from?

And is he possible going to teach them new tactics?

[The Royal Equestrian]

11557063
I do plan on it the third image is just one IRL the other two are from Mordhau I do plan on him helping the Equestrian military but I don't want to say how it would be a bit spoilery

[AgentKorpsman]

11557068
Yeah was asking for the game name. But god I hope he teaches them some modern tactics or at least to use guns.

I’m surprised he hasn’t run into any canterlot nobles especially a certain blue balls pony and the rest like him.

[f0st3r21]

With opponents generally half his size, I’d think a kite shield would be shaped poorly to be effective as it would leave his feet noticeably vulnerable to attack.