Kriegbats

CHAPTER I: Magnus

Bricks shook under my hooves, deep rumbling booms echoed through stone and metal to reach my ears. Polished armour, a deep, dark, grey, much like that of volcanic stone, clung to my body through insulated padding and mail, enchanted so as to not increase my weight. Over my wings were thick armoured plates, shaped to look like metal feathers, lending them a strange appearance, as if the wings of some giant black bird were draped over that of a pony-sized bat. Across my back, holes cut in them for my wings, were white cloth banners, trimmed in black, decorated with the silhouette of a crescent moon swallowing a four-pointed star, much like a tapestry draped across my withers.

The plate armour kept my whole body sealed to the air, even my tail was clenched down my metal bands that prevented air from seeping in. Atop my head was a metal helmet, a full semicircle tilted back to allow vision, a thick brim and crest gave it shape, complete with a half-faceplate that covered my head down to my muzzle, holes carved in for my eyes, and a beaked mask that covered my muzzle and lower head, giving me the appearance of a pony-sized bird. Underneath this, my coat was a light grey and mane a dark grey, with golden slit-eyes.

The armoury was filled with mares and stallions of an array of colours, all armoured just like myself. In their mouths or with their hooves were a host of weaponry, swords, shields, crossbows, bows, halberds… Spearshafts were strapped to their flanks, spearheads on the opposite flank. One of us was bearing the standard, standing straight in the absence of wind. The walls were made from dark bricks, reinforced with equally dark metal, this same material comprised the floor tiles, and the doors, great stone slabs that moved up and down on chains, enchanted to not let any air pass when closed.

From above a small jewel embedded into the wall glowed with light and released a deep dinging noise like a great bell. One, two three… I thought to myself, waiting as the sound of cogwheels filled the air, there came a rumbling shutter from a large, slanted, door. Four, five, six… The door lifted upward with surprising speed, revealing a snowy landscape… Mountains surrounding an elongated valley, all a stark white, a flurry of wind and snow started filling the armoury. Seven, eight, nine… Below, some great distance, the specific distance unknown to me, was a long, shallow, stone-walled moat, from within beams of striking red fanned out into a horde of ponies on the surface. Ten.

“Now! Cry havoc!” I shouted across the room, blunted by the roaring winds, this shout was matched by nearly every other pony, twenty shouts of ‘Cry havoc’ joining my own. Then with a flick of my wings and a thrust of my hind legs, I fell out into the cold air.

“Is that where brother is!” I peeked over the crenellated railing. It was dark like always, thick dusty clouds rolled overhead, and some strange sparkling formed a bluish purplish blanket over the sky. Up above something had burst a hole in the sky, and through that hole painful light sprayed down around a vaguely bird-like shape, creating a corona of brilliant golds. A flying castle! I thought, as a large, skinny, ship made from brick started to fly overhead, it passed through the sparkling layer with a hissing noise, making the world feel a little bit colder. The ship was covered in tapestries and banners, towers with the barrels of trebuchets poking out just over their crenellated tops were extending from the top and bottom of the hull, with a massive pair of bird-like wings flying out from the sides.

Behind me, from out of the corner of my eye, mom nodded. “He’s flying to the Order’s capital… We’ll be going up there to visit him soon, I promise!”

I was about ready to leap off the railing with excitement. “I hope he can come down here for my birthday!”

“I have no doubt,” She sighed, “But we need to get you to school, it’s the last day of the week, and I don’t think your brother would want to see you if you didn’t do all your work.”

I sighed, a deep, guttural sigh… My brother’s back and it’s only a few days away from my birthday, how is that supposed to be fair. “I’ll go get my bag.”

Without waiting for my mother’s response I trotted into the house. My house, like all others in town, was made from dark stone bricks, with small stained glass windows, mostly oranges, that mutated the cool colours of light flowing in from outside. Running through the common room that held the kitchen and living room, I burst into my room. It was small, only really a closet in the wall with a bed, dresser, and table, but I appreciated the compactness and cosiness of it all.

I retrieved my bag, a small, leather, messenger bag, like those carried by mail ponies… Putting my drawing pad, notebooks, and more charcoal than I would ever need inside, I reached over to my desk. There was a bow, it was only a toy but it looked like a wooden replica of the real thing. A mouth-handle extended from the side of a boxy part in the middle, from the blocky centre the bow shaft extended both up and down, string pulling back on a rod that reached into the boxy apparatus.

I sprinted out and met up with my mother, grabbing a waterskin from the cooler, a metal device that looked like a chest, cooled with magic until the contents inside were on the verge of freezing. I merely waved a wing at her and ran out of the door, with a leap I was atop the crenelations, then free falling as I fell from three stories up, with a quick wave of my wings I landed in the middle of the road.

While other thestrals were the norm, numerous other pony subspecies, as well as a few griffons, were crowding the road. The route to school was a long one from my home, all through flagstone streets, past brick buildings with crenelations and stained-glass windows, usually one or more banner or heraldic shield was hung from their roofs, a method for telling whose house was whose, and the trees were beautiful this time of year… The plants were all a vibrant orange, and for half the year the trees would lose their leaves as the snows crept in. It wouldn’t be too long now until snow-season! Once my brother brought back a plant from a place called Equus, it was all green... But died really quickly when the snow season crawled around.

I passed over a bridge, brick with metal reinforcements, and looked over its side to see the farms on the hills. The city was built around a mountain, buildings built on artificial plateaus and outcroppings, all strung together into a mass of brickwork. From here I could make out the farms in stark detail, there were a few dedicated to potatoes and carrots, magic was used in their growth due to a lack of light… Most were dedicated to chickens.

I came around into another part of town, this was a suburb I knew particularly well… One of my friends, White Rose, came from here. There was a crowd of ponies around a banner that hung in the air. The banner was a dull purple with silver trim, the silver outline of a heraldic shield was surrounding an emblem of a sword, inward facing spikes of silver, almost like the glow of the moon, could be seen around the edges of the shield. Written on the top and bottom of the banner in silver lettering was something in the ancient thestral language “Verteidger der pferde, morder von monstern…” I worked my tongue around the strange words.

The crowd of ponies all had looks of awe on their faces… Wait, no… Not all, a few, had looks of… Was that anger, worry. Something on them instead.

“The Order Argent!”

“They're here?”

“I thought they were just a story!”

“Aren’t they the ones who hunt monsters!”

“I thought they killed criminals?”

More mutters of confusion and excitement came from all around me. In the centre of the herd was a metal cage, within was a pair of ponies, one with pale pink fur and lavender mane, her eyes seemed to give off a little bit of purplish light… The other was a filly visibly younger than me, with a dark bluish-grey coat and a dark pale red mane with brighter red highlights… She didn’t even have her cutie mark yet.

Around the cage were hoofmares with silvery armour and halberds, pilot lights flaring, along with a knight in full armour minus the helmet. The knight was a unicorn and was in an argument with a city guard. “This pony and the filly with her are mutants! She was found drinking the blood of a street cat and sheltering that c-child, how long until she would come for one of you!”

“That does not give you the right to abduct citizenry of the Order Luna, your Order has no jurisdiction here, if she ever does indeed assault somepony, we will deal with it ourselves!”

“No jurisdiction! We were created for this very task!”

“If we had a mutant problem, we would have called you!”

“And you would just let this creature run loose! Even as she murders your foals and breeds more of her kind!”

“I didn’t see her doing anything wrong, that cat you presented as evidence only had minor blood loss, it wasn’t dying… Hell! It doesn’t belong to anyone here! A-And that foal, what evidence do you have that she’s a mutant too!”

The argument grew as the expressions of the ponies around them changed, some started discussing among themselves… If this didn’t stop a fight could break out. Then the hoofmares lowered their halberds in the guard’s direction. The guard flinched but didn’t back away. “Take the mare, but at least have the decency to let the foal go!”

The knight isn’t going to agree to that… I worriedly thought. Upon seeing the foal and listening to the argument, more and more of the ponies in the crowd started agreeing with the guard. I slowly trotted up, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. “S-Sir,” I said, squeaking as one of the hoofmares lowered his halberd in my direction, “P-Please stop, just agree to let the filly go, or something… If you continue, there might be a fight from some of the other ponies here.”

“She’s a smart one,” Grinned the guard.

The knight started to look around, seeing the glares from the other townsfolk, and hear the discussions flaring between the crowd. “Fine,” He spat, “Don’t blame us for what this foal does to you…”

With that, the cage was opened and the foal was released. I darted up to meet her, but she dashed away from the crowd and down an alley before I could get a word in. With that, most of the discussion in the herd had silenced a bit, but the guard and knight were still glaring at each other. Finally, the cage and the pony within were flown away by the hoofmares, the knight trotting off in their direction.

Finally, I came to land in front of the school, ahead, among all the thestrals, were Brick Bastion and White Rose. One was a slender but well-built colt, of dusty brown coat and white and black striped mane. The other was completely white in both mane and tail and a red bow in her mane, she was looking exhausted...

“Bang!” I said, swooping in with my bow drawn, I aimed it at Bastion’s head and let go, a loud snap followed as the bow’s rod hit the inside of the boxy part. White gasped and nearly tripped over herself as she stumbled back, while Bastion turned his head, took one look, and started laughing…

“Wow. Marble! didn’t see you until now!” He walked up to greet me, meanwhile, White snapped out of her brief panic and noticed me. Bastion and I slapped our wings together in greeting, White galloped up and did the same.

“So, what took you so long Merlon...”

“I ran into some trouble down by your neighbourhood… It looked like the Order Argent had placed a banner in the centre of the street.”

“The Argents! They’re here!” Bastion lept up to his wings, “I hope they’re still there once school’s out!” Bastion’s sudden outburst causing Rose to involuntarily jerk back. “I hope they aren’t too busy for me!”

I chuckled, “Bas, I think they got their hooves a bit full already. Last I saw they were dragging away a pony they thought was a mutant…”

“Aww, but they’re monster hunters imagine the awesome stories they could tell! Ooh, I could even help them!”

“They hunt mutants, thestrals who’ve gone all ‘monster’, what if you need to fight your own neighbours!” Rose shuttered.

A frown crossed Bastion’s face, but he steadied himself, puffing out his chest, “I-It doesn’t matter, my dad said that mutant ponies are bad news for us… Bad for the Princess.”

“Well hey, I don’t expect anything to come of it, I think all these ‘Argents’ are just paranoid… We’ll see that mare back by the end of the week, I promise.” I finished.

Bastion giggled, “Plus, a pony in this town coming out of nowhere and trying to eat us will make for one hell of a story!” Bastion trotted behind Rose and with a jump, “Arrgh!” He opened his mouth to draw his fangs and pretend to bite Rose’s withers.

Rose jumped back, yelping and clattering to the ground, landing hard on her saddlebag, throwing the one on the opposite over and scattering its contents across the ground. I jumped to my hooves, “Rose!” I shouted, “Are you alright,” My tone calmed as I lifted her to her hooves.

“Y-Yeah, just shocked me is all…”

I turned my head and scowled at Bastion, “You could have hurt her!”

“S-Sorry, I just…”

“I-It’s ok, just don’t do that again,” she muttered.

A loud donging echoed above as the school bell rung. The school looked like the mountain was trying to bite it, the site had once been a cave, but the school was built halfway inside, and halfway out, a five-metre tall brick wall was built around the structure, connected to the school’s doorway, leaving the cave as a place for younger colts and fillies to enjoy recess, while older students spent the break studying, the cave also was where lunch was held. As it was one of only three schools in all of town, it needed to accommodate ponies of all ages.

We trotted in, there were three classrooms, with three teachers, all connected off the main hall… It resembled a cross with the bottom-most bar removed, and each classroom had a door out into the cave. One classroom was meant for fillies and colts below the ages of ten, the second was for ponies from ten to fifteen, and the last was for ponies fifteen and up. We all headed for classroom 2.

“Brick Bastion… White Rose… Marble Merlon…” The teacher listed off each of our names as we passed in. “Good, it seems everypony is here, at last.” Blue Moon was an older stallion, at the very least older than anypony’s parents, and a kind teacher. We each took our seats, padded cushions on the floor, everyone was free to choose our own seating, but most of us had our favourite spots, I sat in between my two friends. The classroom was the same as most buildings in town, grey brick with metal buttresses, the wall was covered in banners showing the cutie marks of each of the teachers who had served here.

“I hear that the Order Argent has shown its head here… Seems about as good a subject as any to talk about, and something that I suppose you students should learn about. I’m sure you already know the basics about the Knightly Orders, does anypony want to start.”

A filly I hardly knew but was familiar as a classmate raised her hoof, “There are six Orders… Order Luna, Order Polaris, Order Astra, Order Solar, Order Argent, and Order Lupus.”

Another pony, a colt, the oldest in this class, continued, “They were founded by Princess Luna, and the Kingdom of the Moon is divided between the six, each Order having their own territory.”

“Correct, although you are incorrect in saying that there are six Orders… There were six Orders, now only five official Orders remain.”

Rose pressed into the conversation, “Yes, the Order Astra fell apart only a decade after its founding, I think it was because of internal political struggles, now its territories are a nopony’s land… Filled with pirates, mercenaries, and independent settlements, each claiming to be part of the Order Astra.”

“Now, what about our own Order…”

I opened my mouth, “The Order Luna, that’s easy, we’re the Order with the largest consolidated territory, we are led by a governing council of one representative of each settlement who act as advisors to the Order’s Judge, the head of the Order’s military, and together form the Order’s Court, we’ll still take orders from the Princess if necessary, but for the most part we’re allowed to govern ourself.”

One of the students, the colt who spoke earlier, corrected me, “Actually, the advisors discuss political doctrine and the Judge acts as the final arbiter of any decision unless more than seventy percent of the Advisors disagree with the Judge’s choice.”

“Good, now let’s return to the topic at hoof, the Argents…”

Bastion raised his hoof, “Ooh! The Argents! They have the least actual territory of the Orders, I think they own one settlement per colony across all the kingdom. They pride themselves as enforcers of peace and unity, they hunt down escaped criminals, deal with dangerous monsters who threaten our settlements, and hunt down mutants, cults, and terrorists, who threaten our everyday lives.”

“Yes, they are the ponies who keep our kind safe from threats within, there are some criminals too skilled for the police to handle, some pirates which the settlement garrisons can’t handle, and the mutants-” The teacher shuttered.

Rose raised her hoof, “But what makes these ‘mutants’ so dangerous, I’ve not heard much about them except rumours…”

“Good question, we don’t know much about them, other than that through some disease or curse, they have attained a taste for the blood of other ponies… The symptoms appear during a pony’s puberty, starting with an increased aversion to light, even more so than a thestral’s normal distaste for light and heat, and minor insomnia. They may start as regular ponies like you or me, but as they grow older their need for the blood of others grows to the point where they can no longer resist their urges and attack and usually kill others… That’s why it’s important to imprison, or in the worst cases, kill them.”

Lunch had come, students of every age had filtered out into the cave. There were balls lying around the courtyard for ponies to play with, a tree was growing in the centre of the yard with its tallest branches touching the cave ceiling. Cushions were brought out of a shed and placed around tables for students to sit around and eat, some had already finished their food, platters of baked chicken strips, and were now playing buckball with their friends. Deeper into the cave was a metal fence with a wooden door, this led further into the mountain, sometimes teachers would take classes down there for geology or history classes.

I sat on one cave wall, watching the proceedings from far away… With few friends and no intention of being hit with a ball, I simply chewed my food in bliss. Over by the benches and tables, one foal was showing her class her pet timberwolf. Bastion had already mingled with the sportier ponies and was having fun bucking thick leather balls around, I didn’t understand it… Numerous times I had tried convincing the school to remove them, what if a five or six-year-old foal was trotting around and got smacked with a ball bucked by one of the older, stronger, students!

A familiar mass set its weight next to me, “Rose…” I muttered.

“Hey, you looked a bit lonely out here, so I thought I should come by and keep you company…” She replied, and I blushed a bit at the thought.

“You don’t have to do that, what about your own friends.”

“They told me it’s ok…”

An awkward silence followed before I started talking again, “Sorry for Bastion’s actions earlier, before we got to class… He’s not a bad pony, he just doesn’t understand that not everypony is like him, his sense of ‘fun’ is throwing buckball balls at other ponies faces!”

Seemingly on cue, a loud “Whoo!” Echoed from the other side of the cave as Bastion scored a point… This was at least his third game, and his team had all won the previous ones, he clapped his hooves together with one of his teammates, a mare with a purple mane and grey coat, fairly standard colours for a thestral.

“It’s kinda cool watching him play,” She said, staring at Bastion’s flank and thus his cutie mark, a target.

“I still don’t like it, had I had my way, we’d be playing with foam swords and shields and bows!” With a grunt, I flopped over to my side. A moment later I felt a tickling sensation crawl up and down my mane, rose’s hoof was trailing down my fur like I was a little filly in need of comfort! “I’m at least a year older than you, can you stop that…”

With a blush of embarrassment, Rose released my mane, “S-Sorry…”

Dawn unfolded on the next day, I woke up, dressed myself in a simple formal dress, and hooked my saddlebags across my back, that done I mounted my bow to my side, then galloped out the door. Hanging from his tail off the overhang of my roof was Bastion, my mother chased after me, and the four of us began trotting down into town.

While trotting through the street I turned to Bastion, “Have you seen Rose anywhere? It would be a shame for her to miss this…”

“No, I asked around her neighbourhood, but apparently both she and her father have been missing since yesterday… I hope they're alright.”

“They're probably going down to visit family, this wouldn’t be the first time they’ve left town without telling anypony,” My mother chimed in.

“Yeahhh…” I muttered, a mixture of sarcasm and legitimate concern clouding my voice.

My home was about a third up the side of the mountain, the school half-way… The Order’s capital was all the way at the top, a massive fortress… I had only seen it a few times before, it was always filled with carracks and other small shuttles, I had never seen a proper castle ship before, but I remember hearing how the capital could hold up to thirty in school… It was massive, a three-kilometre circle, but it was still only a speck in comparison to the whole of the city, extending from a few kilometres from the bottom of the mountain in all directions, all the way to the fortress at its peak.

Trotting through street after street, the path up to the peak was a long and difficult one, even taking the straightest of paths, “Why can’t we just fly there, it’s not like we’re flying above the clouds and atmospheric sheath…” Of course, I already knew the answer, it expended more energy than walking, the winds on Magnus were powerful and unpredictable, the air was thick and easy to get lost in, etc… But I still wanted to do it.

An hour later and we reached the top, a huge dark wall extended outward in a circle, made from a dark brick that had a faint metallic shine to it. The landed castle-ship was visible over the walls, and several dark buildings cluttered the space around it. Heraldic banners, much like that of the Order Argent’s banner, but white and black rather than purple and silver, were hung up across the walls and buildings. They shared the same pattern, a shield within a border with some words across the tapestry… In this one, the shield had a quartered pattern, black and white, with a white circle outlined in black in the shield’s centre, within was a crescent moon nearly swallowing a four-pointed star… The banner’s words, also written in an ancient thestral language, read, “Verteidiger des Mondes, Verteidiger des Menschen, Verteidiger des Freiheit.”

There at the gate was a pony waiting for us. “Dawn!” I shouted, running up to grab my brother in a wing-hug. Even though his armour was all spiky, like a much darker-coloured version of the Argent knight covered in a black and white surcoat, I still managed it without hurting myself.

“I know it’s a bit early, but happy birthday Merlon,” He had removed his helmet to nuzzle me, his coat was a darker version of mine, with a dark purple mane, and same yellow eye-colour. “And I even got you a few presents, but I’ll save those for later.”

He walked me, my friend, and parent, into the fortress. We trotted over to the castle-ship, passed siege rams, large vehicles that ran on magical engines, shaped like huge slanted rectangles with towers extending from a little in front their centre, inside the tower was a pony-sized weapon, like a bow was merged with a long metal rectangle, then covered in gems and copper fins… An arbalest!

We continued, past numerous warriors, mostly knights and hoofmares, and worker ponies, like technomages, electromancers, geomancers, and alchemists, plenty of griffons among them too. I was entranced by the weaponry, plenty of the warriors carried crossbows, they resembled the weapon on the siege rams but smaller, with a mouth-handle on the side, the bow segments were encrusted with rubies that gave off a magical glow, while the side of the bow, pointing away from the wielder's face, were copper fins built into the main hull, just behind the handle was a slot for crossbow bolts, just above on the sides were ports from which copper cables latched out to the bow segments.

We came to the bow of the castle-ship, there was an old stallion, bearded, in heavy-looking armoured robes, a halberd clenched in is wings, and jewelled crown around his head with an armoured visor. “Grand Master, this is my sister, Marble Merlon, her friend, Brick Bastion, and her mother, Moonshield.”

“Ah, Moon, it’s good to see you again,” He said, turning to face my mother.

“Good to see you too father, it’s been far too long.”

As the two began talking, I ignored them, they would sometimes mention me or gesture to Bastion, but for the most part, the only thing that mattered was seeing my brother. He turned to me and smiled, “Hey, remember those presents I mentioned,” He said, “Happy birthday.”

He passed me a metal construct, a box with a slot in the side, a barrel protruding from the front, and a piston extending from the back, handle at the piston’s end, connected to cables that latched onto curved shafts that were mounted by springy rotors to the boxy apparatus again. “Is… Is this a bow? A real one!”

“Grand Master. Is it ok if I take Marble over to the firing range!” The Grand Master turned to Dawnbreak and nodded, before returning to talking with my mom. With that, I happily trotted after Dawn. We passed a few more buildings over to a row of long corridors with paper targets at their ends, he passed me an arrow, a long brass cylinder with a lead spike at its end. “Now be careful, this is a real bow after all and we don’t want to shoot anypony here.”

I nodded, then gripped the handle in my mouth, using one wing to slot the arrow into the firing piece through the side-slit, and closing the breach. With the other wing, I pulled back on the handle, sliding it until the tension grew and the handle couldn’t slide back anymore, the rotors in the bow-shaft clicking. Then I let go, the rotors sprung forward, mashing the piston home with a loud click-boom! I received a kick to the jaw, a ringing in my ears, and a flash of bright light that faded soon after, leaving only a pain in the back of my neck. “Ow…” I whined.

I slid my wings forward and pulled from the side hatch on the bow, a searing hot brass shell. Looking forward I saw that I had placed a hole in the target, well a hole in the canvas, but the actual target was untouched… “Aww, I missed.”

“No, that was actually really good for your first shot.”

I turned and raised my eyebrow at my brother, he just gave a smile. We trotted back to the drydocks, he had borrowed a few training rounds from the firing range, they were enchanted foam rods that would give off sound and light when struck, but not actually hurt ponies, and they were reusable!

“Steeled Hull… She’s turning fourteen tomorrow, that’s the perfect age.” I heard my mother say.

“Agreed, she’s the same age as her brother when he became a squire. As for Bastion, we’ve already talked with his parents, he’ll be joining us tomorrow… Marble will need to make the choice herself.”

“Make what choice,” I said, finally catching up.

Dawnbreak turned and stared at me, “Oh, yes. Your second present,l if you choose to accept it that is…” He… Almost looked sad, “The ship’s only here for repairs, but we’ll be accepting new squires during that time… I just wish I could spend more time with you.”

“Wait… You want me to become a knight!” I screeched in excitement, “But… Wait… You can’t come with me?”

“No, I’m training to become a Cataphract, I first needed ten years of experience as a Knight, then I need to spend four years training down here. Plus, I’m sure mom would want to spend more time with me after so long.”

The Grand Master, Steeled Hull, my grandfather, turned to me, “Yes, you’ll be spending five years aboard my ship, then you can either choose to become a knight, or simply leave and return home…”

“But, what about my friends, and you,” I gestured to my mom.

Bastion turned and said, “I’ve already decided to join, and we can send letters to all our friends.”

My mom continued, “Plus, I can always take a shuttle and visit next time you’re near Magnus.”

“I-It’s just a shame Rose isn’t here,” I muttered, “I don’t think a letter will be a good enough goodbye.”

“I’ll ask around for her tomorrow…” Bastion replied.

“You’ll need to decide soon, we’ll be departing early tomorrow-” The Grand Master continued.

“I’ll do it, even if I can’t say goodbye to Rose.”

“Ok then.”

I turned, staring at a map that was draped over a table, showing the sun and seven planets. The three closest to the sun including their moons, Stygian, Somnambula, and Meadowbrook were highlighted in red. Equus, the next planet over was greyed out. The next three planets, Magnus, Starswirl, and Mistmane, were highlighted in blue. A group of asteroids that surrounded the entire system, moving in a polar orbit around the sun as opposed to an equatorial orbit, collectively known as the Rockhoof belt, were all greyed out as well, with small points of green, brown, and red. The planets in blue all had small points of colour spotting their surface, some white, some lavender, some violet, some brown, some yellow, some darker blue. The moons of Starswirl, a large gas-giant, were bright green.

Author's Note

Don't forget to leave a comment.
As of right now I have three chapters finished, with a 4th on its way, after that expect a mini-hiatus as I make the next few.
Marble Merlon.