The Night is all around us

The next few days were mostly peaceful for Steel Rush. Mostly. The radio kept spewing some ridiculous stories about revolts in the jungles in the south – not the good South of his momma, the wet, steamy South of the mysterious temples down in the east – and no pony worth his bits wanted to have anything to do with that place. It would be a nightmare after all, no place where to push his old truck to the highest speed.

But yeah, mostly peaceful. If one ignored the tension in the background, the tired gazes, the quips from worker to worker, the feeling like he was walking on a tight rope getting thinner and thinner at every step.

The poster got removed. A few ponies got into shouting about it, and the atmosphere of the factory took a turn for the worse, even as if was now approaching completion. They were driving them down like slaves and by night all Steel Rush could do was jump on his truck and try not to think any more. There was something odd about this extreme eagerness his overseers had. Maybe they’d got promised a huge bonus if they finished it in enough time, or maybe they knew something he did not.

Manehattan itself was full of tension these days. He saw a few batponies stroll out in the streets, under the Sun, without a care. Once when he was getting a well-deserved break he saw a group of batponies arguing with a unicorn. Too far to hear what they were talking about, but close enough to notice the sparks flittering out of his horn and the ends of the batpony’s wings stand out in a threat.

Something weird was going on.

And just when the factory work was about to finish, he caught wind of the Princess’ visit.

No, not Celestia.

Not even the purple one, the big smarty pants one.

Luna.

That got him thinking – and he wasn’t made for thinking. He knew the factory, he knew its layout, he knew its hallways and corridors and pulleys and arches and furnaces. This was heavy industry. Mechanics. No plush toys would come out of this building.

Especially not after all those tons of cordite, manganese, coal, steel and wood were amassed in the nearby warehouses.

Now, he was not a clever pony. But even Steel Rush could tell when something was up… and a firearms factory was something mighty strange in this day and age. Especially when usually Celestia just tossed Ms. Lavender Smarts and her friends at every apocalypse.

He did not talk with his coworkers about his doubts – he was not a clever pony but he wasn’t stupid – but his ears did catch some whispers, about maybe an expedition to the northern shores to secure that village on the border of Nova Griffonia, or maybe even military pressure on Stalliongrad…

Better striped than red, his pops used to say, and he did share the sentiment, but he really could not see Celestia take over the region, not by force. She could have stomped the damn Buffalos with a flick of her tail and she did not even do that.

And the Princess of the night was coming to town.

The thought kept him awake and turned him into a restless wreck: the Princess, the Princess. The one who was coming to Manehattan just as the military factory would finish completion… there was something behind this.

He did not know what. But his heart ached to be there. There, at the Princess’ speech.

He might want to look for a ticket.