Equestria 1916

Chapter 3
Sterling's PoV

I'm not feeling too good, though that may just be a natural reaction to waiting for the Captain to chew us out.
"So, let me get this straight?" Blackadder begins, intertwining his fingers on the jury-rigged desk he's claimed, "You enter the town, only to find the inhabitants are like the Lieutenant and Sergeant, correct?"

"Yes Sir," I, Hagen, Weston and Lieutenant Colthurst reply.

"You then proceeded into one of the shops, hoping that the shop keep would react a little more positively than the other inhabitants?" the Captain continued.

"Yes, sir," we chorus.

"You then proceeded to initiate a civil brawl upon discovering that said shop keep was being threatened?"

"Yes, sir."

"Leading to one civilian casualty, whom is removed to hospital and all four of you being interviewed by the local constabulary?" We couldn't have better coordinated that wince if we tried.

"Yes, sir."

"And, upon Sergeant Armure visiting said civilian in hospital, two of my men are subjected to a full medical examination?"

I'm not sure if I should be worried about that, "Yes, sir."

"So, in short. Not only did you introduce yourselves using your fists but two of you are now recorded in two separate institutions, correct?"

Nice knowing you lads, "Yes, sir."

...

...

...

"Well, I suppose you did rather well under the circumstances, you could have gone in shooting," the captain remarked, then started going over Weston's report as if nothing had happened.

"Wait? What?!" I blurt.

"On the one hand your introduction was marred with violence," The captain elaborated, giving us a look, "on the other, you saved two, possibly three, lives today, earning the gratitude of at least two families whom we can approach later to better understand our new situation."

The captain then looked pointedly at me and Colthurst, "if the price of that leverage is you two having a nurse cop a feel, then so be it."

I wish I had the lieutenant's darker fur colour right now.

"First thing tomorrow, Colthurst and Armure will return to the town, your task is to get the lay of the land and see if there are any opportunities to earn some cash. The one thing your little jaunt confirmed is that we are a long way from home, the paper money is worthless and our coinage may well be only scrap value, so we must gain a source of local currency and a potential source of goods, our supplies will not last forever."

"Yes sir," we reply, salute, then head out.

On exiting I take a look around, sixty men can dig a two hundred and fifty yard trench in six hours, two hundred in four and a half is the battalion record (though that may have had to do with the jerry's moving their howitzers at the time), but six hundred can do the best part of a mile in eight.

There aren't any dugouts bar the Captain's just yet, but there's a bowl at the centre of the oval trench lines where we've not only pitched tents but parked the tank and strutter.

I wind my way back to my section's tent and drop into my bunk, I'm out like a light once my head hits the pillow.

The next morning the lieutenant and I entered the town, it was almost like yesterday but there were fewer people staring at us.

We entered the Miss Rarity's shop to find that the damage from the previous day had been repaired.

"Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where everything is Chic, Unique and Magnifique!" a warm, cultured voice called out, "oh! Mr Colthurst."

"Good morning, Miss Rarity," Colthurst greeted the white mare with a smile, "my friend and I were hoping you could help with a problem we have encountered."

"Of course, if there's anything I can do to repay you for your kindness?" the young woman said.

"The lieutenant and I are soldiers for a foreign nation," I explained, not reacting as she jumped as what I said processed, "one minute we were in the middle of a battle then the next we're all lying on a hillside on the edge of the forest outside town."

"There is a lot we don't understand," Colthurst picked up, "until yesterday, myself, Sergeant Armure and numerous others were of the same species as the two others with us yesterday. Why did only some of us change? Why did we appear outside your town?"

"The only things we know for certain are: your people aren't our enemy and we need to start earning money in order to pay for supplies, food and medicine," I explained, noting she no longer looked alarmed and was nodding along, "you and Mr Mcintosh are the only people we have spoken to, thus you're the only source of information to begin solving our problems."

"The men need jobs, we need a stable food supply and we need coin to pay for things we can't otherwise get," Colthurst finished.

"Hey, even if you could just point us at the labour exchange, that'd help," I added.

She looked at both of us carefully, "well, I'm not sure what you mean by a labour exchange, but most ponies in town send notice to the town hall for oddjobs, and with Big Mac in hospital, I dare say Applejack will be needing some assistance until he recovers," she said thoughtfully, "how many of you are there?"

I blinked and looked to the lieutenant, "about... five hundred?"

Miss Rarity's eyes bugged out as the LT shook his head, "six hundred and fifty two."

Miss Rarity coughed, "well... I dare say, the only place such a large number of stallions could find work would be the railway, Only... they've fallen on hard times recently."

"Isn't that Hastings bloke from the ROD?" I asked Colthurst.

"He is," Colthurst confirmed, then turned to Miss Rarity, "do you know what sort of problems they're having?"

"Well, I did hear that most of their newer engines had been, ahem... 'Loaned' from the Baltimare and Manehatten Railway," I tried not to roll my eyes at the dramatics, " for the holiday season, you see. Well, the company demanded them back shortly before they were needed, forcing the local company to use the older engines that were already in dire need of overhaul or replacement. Well, you can understand how that went, between the frequent breakdowns and cancellations the company is losing money, and customers, hoof over fetlock, and thus, cannot afford to hire engineer's to design new engines."

"Do they have a Company Works?" I asked.

Miss Rarity nodded, "yes, just outside of town, it's not large though, not like the Baltimare and Manehatten's."

"Hastings has worked most of the ROD's engines, he may be able to whip something up for them," I mused.

"Why don't you go find him and take him over there?" Colthurst suggested.

"Aye Sir," I acknowledged with a nod and turned to leave.

"This is it?"

I don't blame his skepticism, the works is little more than a rural engine shed beside a goods shed, a pair of workshops and two ash pits on either side of a water tower.

We follow the gravel path round to an office on the side of the workshop, we hear shouting as we approach.

On reaching the door, a black maned Unicorn male walks out with a rather pleased look on his face, he starts on seeing us, he turns his nose up and barges past, he then falls face first into a oily puddle as Hastings and I both draw back our legs.

We enter the office to find a khaki coated male earth pony with his head in his hands, he looks up as we walk in and groans, "what now?"

"Gotta a problem?" I asked.

"Just that the Baltimare and Manehatten has not only reclaimed the engines we loaned but refuse to return the money we paid for their use," the stallion said, "without new engines or that money we won't last the season."

"Of course, they're just doing this to drive us out of business and take over the lines in and out of Canterlot," he muttered.

"And I thought our railways were cutthroat," Hastings whispered to me.

"But, if you could get new engines, that would help right?" I asked.

"Of course, we can even build them here, but we don't have any engine designers or the money to hire one," the stallion replied.

"Well, I can help you there," Hastings said, "Charles Hastings, Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers, British Royal Army."

"British? I've never heard of such a place," the stallion questioned.

"We're a long way from both home and the war we were fighting," I explained, "and soldiers without a war are out of work."

"Armure here was asking around town to see if there were jobs going, he was pointed to you and brought me along," Hastings added, "I was a driver and later an engineer, so I know my way around most of the ROD's engines, I might be able to help you out."

"Are you offering to design an engine for us?" the stallion asked in disbelief.

"I am," Hastings confirmed.

"But we have no means to pay you," the stallion protested.

"If it means pissing off that snob and his mates? I'll do it for free," Hastings replied.

"Thank you," the stallion said, shaking Hastings' hand, "I am Smokestack and I'm responsible for the engines here."

"Let me see what you have so I can start work," Hastings said then turned to me, "I'll catch you later sarge."

"Don't work yourself too hard, ya here?" I said, then turned to leave, my next stop was the Apple family farm.

I walked back into town, Applejack had agreed to let twenty of the lads alternate working on the farm in two shifts until Mac was healed, also Miss Rarity had persuaded both myself and the Lt to model our uniforms for her.

A familiar drone comes over the houses and I look up in time to see the Strutter bank over the town, Flashheart's white silk scarf trailing over the rear fuselage like a flag, I watched as he banked over the houses and started to lose height.

I started walking towards the most likely place he'd land, a large green that was used for a market the day before.

A small crowd is forming as I reach the green, I grin as I note that it's largely females in their teens or early twenties, the engine dies with a splutter and the man himself vaults out of the plane.

I'm about six foot but Flashheart easily has half a foot on me, his build is wiry, almost like a swimmer, his blonde locks frame a roguish face, currently giving that smile that leaves all the nurses hot under the collar, and surprisingly the man is a white Earth pony with a golden mane and tail.

A quick glance around shows the crowd is just as affected by that smile as human females, I snap to attention and salute as he comes up to me, "Captain Flashheart, Sir!"

"No need to be so stiff, Sergeant," Flashheart laughed, "heard about this place from Blacky so I thought I'd come and have a look round myself."

"And Colthurst and I are your chaperones?" I guessed, Flashheart just grinned, I looked to the Heavens, "Is it not enough the Hohenfriedberger haunts my nightmares but you dump this on me too?"

"Well, your luck does take the good as well as the down right awful," a familiar voice answers behind me.

Flashheart laughs and turns to the newly arrived, "good to see you George, I see you've gotten acquainted with the locals already."

I looked over my shoulder to see the LT walking towards us, his tunic and breeches immaculate and his boots and belt shining in the sunlight.

Completing the image is Miss Rarity, wearing a snow white blouse that hugged her full bosom and narrow waist perfectly, a brooch with a purple stone at her throat, her skirt was the same rich purple as her hair, flair out over womanly hips and fell to just below her knees, visible underneath were a kind of black boot laced at the front, her left arm was entwined with the Lt's and her right held a purple parasol, shielding her face from the sun as her long hair flowed like a mountain stream over her shoulders.

I blinked and felt my mouth dry, I bowed respectfully, "Hello Miss Rarity, may I say you look the vision of Beauty."

The young woman blushed prettily, "why thank you, sergeant. Now, I do believe we have business to attend to," she said, pointedly ignoring the stares from the crowd.

"Lead the way, my dear," Flashheart replied.

I put my shirt back on, Rarity was sitting on a couch sketching designs already, she'd had us take various poses in different states of dress and apparently it had inspired her.

Although exactly how half naked soldiers in khaki serge could be inspiring escaped me... exotic uniforms and designs to model I suppose.

As I bent down to roll my puttees I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"What's that round your neck?"

My left hand closed protectively around the end of the chain, I then cupped it and opened my palm to show a gold band, plain apart from a diamond with a pink coloured core but of excellent craftsmanship, that had a silver chain looped through it.

"I don't really know," I told Colthurst uncertainly, "I've had it as long as I remember. It's the only connection I have to my past."

A soft gasp drew us back to the young seamstress, "my goodness, do you know what you hold?"

I shook my head, "That is an Engagement Band, it is a very Old Unicorn Custom, they are made in pairs and the stone always contains the tip of horn of the one giving the Band."

My hand went reflexively to my horn, and sure enough the tip felt like a bit was missing... though I wasn't ready to rule out yesterday's shenanigans with getting my helmet to fit.

Miss rarity lifted it off my hand and inspected it closely, "removing even the tip of one's horn is quite painful, thus the act has always been seen as an act of great commitment between a couple."

"A Promise of eternal love," Flashheart mused.

Miss Rarity nodded, "indeed, if such a couple were to cancel the engagement there would be much scandal, it's almost taboo."

"So somewhere out there is a girl waiting for me," I said thickly, the enormity of the revelation descending on me, for a second I could just see a girl holding a similar ring and chain, staring at the jewel with the tip of my own horn inside.

"Most probably," Miss Rarity released the ring, "It is only the Noble Families that still follow the custom regularly these days, and I recognise the Maker's mark, it is a famous family of jewel smiths from Canterlot that primarily cater to the Nobles, the Princesses and Foreign Dignitaries."

"So either I come from one of those families or my Fiancé does?" I thought aloud.

I'm not sure which would be worse; turning up in my khakis to some Noble Lady's house or for my Family to see me now.

My ears flattened against my head as my imagination ran wild, almost all leading to the same outcome.

"It would seem so," I hear Miss Rarity say.

"Sterling?"

I take a breathe as Colthurst sits down beside me.

"It's just... what will they think?" I ask rhetorically, "I'm a soldier, a sergeant at that, I made my way up from the bottom. If my Family is Nobility then they'll expect me to at least be an officer, and... I don't act like a noble..."

"Neither do I," Colthurst retorted, "otherwise I'd have been as hated as Mallory. Besides, none of us who changed have clear memories from more than five years ago, if what little I remember is true then they'll be happy for us to come back. Family is Family, that was true back Home and we've seen that's true here too."

I look at him, "you think they'll want me back?"

"Of course, darling," Miss Rarity assured me, "Family is everything here."

"See," Colthurst said, "Now come on, we need to start back."

Just as we stood up I felt the floor vibrate, "did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Flashheart asked, then the room shock to a great Roar outside.

We ran to the window as a black shape flew overhead, my jaw dropped, "Is that a Dragon!"

The beast was black and heavily muscled, four legs with it's wings growing out its shoulders, it's scales shimmered as it turned to fly back over the town, but as it came back I saw something wrong, "what's that on it's side?"

"looks like green ooze," Flashheart noted.

We all hit the floor like a machine gun had opened fire as the dragon loosed a stream of flame over a building on the other side of the square that looked to be one giant cake.

"Bloody Hell!"

"Where's Saint George when you need him!" I yelled as I looked up.

"Either of you two know how to use a Lewis?" Flashheart demanded.

"Yeah, I've got two in my section, made sure everyone knew how in case a sniper got the gunners," I replied.

"Get your tunic on and come with me, you're my new gunner!" Flashheart ordered and stood up and was out the door before I could argue.

I lay there for a second, the gravity of the situation sinking in...

"Rats!"