It had been a few days since King Thirgaz and his people found themselves stuck in this strange new land.
Prior to the incident, they were getting ready to host a feast for the High King's visit. A real honor in most respects, though the few humans in the hold were forced to relocate for the time period, due to the traditions of the hold. Mainly the one where the feast would only have proper Khazalid voiced in the halls. Since the humans who were in the hold were no priests of the man-god Sigmar, they held no knowledge of how to speak in their "secret tongue". The dwarves cared less about their protests and the men knew better than to get on the dwarves' bad side so they had gone to the nearby human settlement of Vaidertal.

But that was beyond the point.

The dwarves of the hold, mostly consisting of the people from the Hammerhilt and Goldmine clans, had found themselves inside of a mountain when they first appeared. After a quick scan of the area, they began to set up camp before they sent scouts to check their surroundings. Though the cavern's mouth was rather large, suggesting that a dragon or a family of trolls lived there, there were no treasures to speak of in the cave, much to the chagrin of the shortbeards who couldn't keep their gold-lust in check. Before long, the bearded ones had already set up a rather respectable settlement for the 482 dwarves that were in this situation. Despite their uncertain future, the dwarves would not hurry their work. By the time the night had fallen (And the moon, Mannslieb did not have it's companion Morrslieb in the sky either, much to the surprise of the collected dwarf-folk) they were all feasting on some local mushrooms (Dwarves have been known to cultivate fungi for food when meat is scarce, not to mention that surface-dwelling dwarves were frowned upon) that they had found edible and non-poisonous as well as some loaves of stone-bread that they had managed to bake. Not to mention the lovely dwarven ale.

When some of the scouts came back early the following morning, the cave's silence was broken by the sound of hundreds of dwarves laughing at the dozen dwarves who told them the news.

"Ohohhoo... You beardlings sure know how to jest an old dwarf like me. You should have told us that you'd save some of the beer for later!" The king said, slapping his thighs while still sitting at the head of the feast table. His face became serious as quickly as he had begun laughing.

"But I will tell you this. There are no talking horses around this place. The winged horses of the manling Empire are the closest that your horses can relate to. Pegasi, I think they were called. Anyway, you expect us to believe this talk about talking horses that build houses! And these horned ones you speak of sound like something the elves in the forests would have something to do with it. Pft. Damn elves, always getting their noses in business that ain't theirs."
The king's thanes all murmured in agreement. The leader of the scouts, a venerable dwarf by the name of Gorgal Stonewall of the Stonewall clan stepped up, silencing the impromptu court room with the dwarf-steel boots that he wore.

"These dwarves are not jesting, my king. I saw them myself. Their coats were different between each of the creatures, some of them had wings, some had horns, some had none. And they were talking as if they were sentient creatures. And their arses had tattoos, also different between each. Reeks of Chaos, if you ask me. Last but not least, they were more like the mules we used back home. Stunted little buggers." Gorgal said before laying his hands on the table. He spat at the ground, as if mentioning the word 'Chaos' had induced some foul taste in his mouth.
The courtroom fell silent as they weighed the old veteran's words. No honest dwarf would ever lie, that much was certain, not even while drunk. Without further information however, speculating was useless.

"You're certain of this, Stonewall?" The veteran nodded and took a pipe from his beard and began to stuff it with pipe weed.

"Either I'm lying or the High King's mother was a troll." Some of the beardlings chuckled at that, but the glare of royal dwarf shut them up quickly.
King Thirgaz rose from his seat, motioning for his shieldbearers to prepare.

"If what you speak is true, Stonewall, then we must see these horses for ourselves. But we shall not go unprepared. My kin! Prepare to march out! Today this throng marches forward!"

Rainbow Dash was out in the fields with her friends, close to the mountain near Ponyville. The dragon that had threatened to suffocate the town had long gone and it provided a nice bit of scenery. Just the location for a picnic.
As the others began setting down the food, the rainbow pegasus took to flight as she did some stunts in the air, earning a few giggles from her friends. And a Pinkie Pie rolling on the grass laughing as Rainbow did an imitation of Pinkie's hopping movement while jumping enormous distances.

"That's not how I look like at all, Dashie!" Pinkie blurted out before she burst out laughing again. "You look so goofy!"

"You're the one to talk, Pinkie Pie. I'd say that was a perfect imitation of you when you hop around town, darling." Rarity said, moving the punch bowl a bit further from the pink party pony who had come dangerously close to nudging it.
Meanwhile, Dash had stopped her stunts as she noticed something weird near the tip of the mountain. It looked like a huge amount of walking iron statues. But these ones had some sort of body hair around their faces. And they had no hooves! Shaking her head for a second, she looked in the same direction for another moment and they were gone. Shrugging her shoulders, she joined her friends just as Twilight was about to hoof over her sandwich. Whatever she saw was literally out of sight, out of mind.
Meanwhile the dwarves started to surround the equines.

"Keep out of sight. Don't let them notice you. That cyan one was too close already." Thirgaz muttered to one of his shieldbearers, who took extra care to not let any sunlight glint off his armor.

Author's Note

Sorry about the shortness of the chapter (No pun intended).

Future chapters will all be at least 3k words each!