Bronze Tiara

Chapter eleven

Train rides weren’t something lost on Bronze. She regularly made them to and from the DDR and the Gryphon Kingdom during their dealings. As well as before hoof when she was on her own trying to build up some designs to impress said nations, or finalize her own plans in the shadows.

Just like she had so many times before, the mare looked out the window at the passing terrain as the trees and grassy hillsides of this part of Seren started to finally give way. In their place spouted the dullness and strife the DDR had been known for as they bordered between the two nations. This time though just as the young filly at the house had suggested, Bronze decided to let her coat breath for once and left the cloak at his home. Showing her true form off for the whole country to see.

Meanwhile her companion sat just across from her in the booth; Calmly reading over the paper in his hooves as his legs were crossed in comfort. Periodically Marble would look up from over his coffee cup to watch the mare, silently staring out at the passing land.

Though one can only stay silent for so long. “So, you make this trip often?” Bronze perked up finally, if only to pass the time with some small talk.

“Occasionally,” Marble answered her as he placed the paper down and gave her his full attention, “it is good to show your employees that you care, which can be something as simple as showing face at their place of work,” looking out the window with her, he had traveled this route enough to know from landmarks how long it would take to reach their destination in the end, and with one glance he knew they had still one or two hours to go.

“Just how well have you done in this business?” she asked while they entered a tunnel, casually taking a glance over towards him, as her talon held her head up.

“Ahh… I had always been involved in the family business of mining, even from the deepest end of it,” he thought back to how much his father had groomed him as a replacement over the years. From seeing the work everypony would have do to at the lowest rung of the ladder, all the way to the administration side of the house, “though after the folks passed, I decided to expand… hired a few craft workers, worked on pieces myself, and started making and selling jewelry. I already had my own supply, why not give the next step a go?” he asked while taking another sip of his drink, “this is actually a reserved train car that I have with this line. So, you could say the expansion has been… good, to me.”

Even through his small chuckle, Bronze as she looked at him could see that it wasn’t made in snobbishness or even detest for those of a lower class. The colt had worked though his family business all his life and climbed the ladder, and this was his reward for all those hours that he had clearly spent in his own shop tinkering. A sense of accomplishment she could feel coming off of the colt.

‘I should know that feeling all too well,’ Bronze thought to herself as she recalled the many nights and days spent building up her own creations.

“Regardless though of all those little things that I have managed over the years,” he spoke in a far softer tone, and Bronze started to see the twinkle grow in those miraculous orbs of his, “the best gem I had ever gotten in life was Topaz…”

“A gem you should be very proud of,” Bronze shined at him, knowing what kind of pride a father can have in their kin, and only hoping that she can restore her own in her fathers’ eye where ever he may be, “if I may…” she waited for the ushering gesture of his hoof to keep her going, “if her mother was anything like your kin, then she must have been a wonderous mare in her own right.”

Marble simply smiled at the memory of his late wife, and how little time there was to see their daughter grow, “She was… truly,” he scratched an eye with his hoof, keeping the memory from spilling over too much, “Pommel was probably the only mare I had met who could put up with me at the time. She had her own elegance about her, even in the way she walked, or in her brush strokes.”

“Brush strokes?” Bronze questioned.

“Oh, some… actually most of the paintings you see at the house are hers,” he said, rather proud of her still being around even as he were to walk through the halls, “she had me try my hoof at painting once or twice… but that just ended poorly and with far more of a mess to clean up,” after a short snicker, Marble once again seemed to find himself lost in thought for but a moment, “Still, somehow she found a way to help me with my issues, the same ones you had dealt with when we were younger… rounded me out a lot over the years.”

The mare watched him as he slowly returned to his paper, steadily getting back in to the article as he tried to pass the time once more. Meanwhile, Bronze found herself hard pressed to keep her eyes on anything else, “Yeah…” she muttered under her breath, “I can see that.”

***

Having already stopped at the smaller town that bordered Seren with the DDR. Both Marble and Bronze walked down the path leading out of the town limits. Following his every foot step, the mare didn’t want to get left behind anywhere near this territory, especially if she was without anything to cover herself up.

If any of the dogs had made their way across the border and recognized her out here, they surely would have lunged at the opportunity for a little pay back. Not a situation she wanted to leave the colt in.

“You can buy your own train car, but can’t get a carriage to get to the mine,” Bronze snickered at him while she kept pace.

“Oh, a little exercise never hurt any creature,” Marble returned the gesture as they came across a small hill top and he was able to get his target in site, “Besides, where here.”

Bronze looked over the rocky mountain side that made up what seemed like half of Marbles operation. Dotted with various holes and tunnels dug into it, creatures of all shapes and sizes pulled out ore on carts, and brought them to one of the buildings set up for the mine. Getting closer, the couple were passed by a few fully laden carts as dwarf drakes hauled wagons of raw materials up and along the same path they had just came to town.

Inside the encampment the organized chaos of a full production area was set to high gear. Gryphons shoveled carts of ore in to processing machines as they pounded the materials down and broke apart it in to more manageable chunks. While on the other side of things, unicorns used their talents to fish out the various gems that were trapped away behind dirt and muck as it passed on a conveyor belt to a hopper below waiting to be carried away.

“I figured you’d love the machinery that I had working here alongside everyone,” Marble looked to his companion while her eyes seemed mesmerized by the disorder, “As you probably already know, many unicorns are very adept when it comes to sniffing out gems hidden away in rocks. So, from some of those that grew up around rock farms, I hired them at my mines to sort out the higher quality ones from the rest of the bunch.”

Bronze watched closer as one of the mares picked up what seemed like a solid chunk of dirt, and with a quick twist with her magic, broke it apart to reveal the roughly shaped sapphire inside. ‘Hmm sapphire, best used with frost or even cloaking spells,’ she mentally went over like a textbook. With a shrug though, the mare holding the gem tossed it in to a container behind her that was slowly starting to fill up with gems of similar value.

“What of the rest?” Bronze asked as the raw soil went through the mill.

“Treated further at another one of my sites, after all I have to get the metals from somewhere,” Marble pointed out as they continued through the site, and the mare stared more to the process unfolding before her.

Feeding the entire plant, earth ponies trotted too and from the mouth of the mines pulling their precious cargo as they went. Like a fine-tuned and well lubed machine that almost made her mouth drool. Bronze watched as every creature was where they were supposed to be and somehow in all the running around, things just flowed like hot syrup.

The only thing that seemed to put any sort of halt to their step was when Marble walked past them, and with a smile and a head nod the greetings came forth in droves. “Good morning, sir,” a drake said as he hooked up to a cart.

“Morning there Tapered Anvil,” Marble replied back.

“Mornin’ there sir, an’ ma’am,” a gryphon tipped his cap to both Marble and to Bronze as he saw her, all while passing by them.

“Good morning Tussler,” Marble answered back without missing a beat, “how’s the chicks doing?”

“Getting bigger before my very eyes,” Tussler called back with a grin in his voice as he went back to his duties.

Bronze looked back to the gryphon as he left, and then to the next dozen or so employees of his. As they would pass by they would give their own greetings and warm welcomes to their boss. Yet in each of them, it didn’t seem to have any level of brown nosing. Even those around that didn’t get the chance to say hello, still looked just as happy to see him present as they were with their jobs.

Sure, there was sweat and dirt on damn near all of them, that’s just the nature of what happens when one works underground in the mines all day. However, at the same time none seemed to complain or even give any sign of letting up until the work day was over and done with.

By the time Bronze lost count of how many employees greeted him, she finally had to ask the obvious, “Okay, so have you memorized all of those that work under you?”

“Thank you, Quick Stitch,” Marble said to one of his area managers as they handed him over a clipboard with their processing reports, looking over it quickly he just as fast turned his attention back to his company, “you could say that… it took a while, but out of the several locations I have, whether it be a mine, a processing plant, or a store, many of them stick around for years. You learn their names quick when you keep seeing them.”

“Have a wonderful day Mister Marble,” a unicorn mare called out to him with a wave as she sorted out a few gems.

“To you as well Miss Marigold,” he called back to her as him and Bronze went towards the one of the cleaner looking buildings in the area, “Plus I’ve learned that the closer your employees see you to them, and the kinder you are, the better they will work not for you… but with you.” He answered while they walked in and saw the countless other creatures running the numbers with typewriters at claw, as a few Pegisy put reports in their mail bags.

The sign above reading Field Office already told the mare all she needed to know, “And as you can probably imagine this is the actual paper pushing center of the entire operation,” Marble held out his hooves as he showed the wonderous makeshift office setting to the mare, and promptly watched the dead expression on Bronzes’ face grow with every second, “Yeah it’s not my favorite place either, though as you know it’s still needed to make everything you saw outside flow smoothly.”

“And the better we do with that flow,” Bronze looked over Marbles’ shoulder as a zebra mare sashayed up to him with a few stacks of papers on her back, “the better Mister Marbles day will go.”

“Ahh Miss Saksire,” Marble beamed to her, “I trust the day has been going well so far?”

“So far indeed it has, little time for me to sit still,” with the last line though the stripped equines face turned sour for but a moment, “however, another you should speak with, if you will.”

With a thanks and a little point for direction, Marble and Bronze walked between the few desks that dotted the space and came across a young unicorn colt sitting before a gryphon typing away at his desk. From the tapping of his hoof to the ground, to the sweat dripping down the nape of his neck. Bronze already knew this colt was on not only the seats edge, but the edge of his mind as well.

“Good morning there, Burnbite, Lager,” Marble greeted the gryphon and colt respectively, “what seems to be the problem?”

“Mister Marble,” Burnbite started, “it would seem that Lagers’ wife had just started having contractions for the foals she’s carrying, one of his relatives came here to tell him that she was being taken for the delivery,” he continued to type away furiously at the keys while talking to his boss, “We were just making his request for paid absence so he may be on his way, as per policy.”

“When did this news first arrive?” Marble asked as he glanced up at the clock on the wall.

“About thirty minutes ago.”

“And…” the colts’ vision glowered down upon the gryphon like the setting sun, “why can’t he come back for the request later, or have it brought to his home by one of our couriers?”

For a second the gryphon took a breath, though those words fell before they could even leave his tongue. “I… don’t have an answer on that one sir,” he tried to think of any and all excuse, “Policy dictates that he has it, before he leaves?”

“And I make the policy,” Marble turned his attention to the colt sitting there still shaking his leg as if having a seizure, “Lager, the papers will be delivered to you once they are done, see to your wife.”

Leaping up from his seat, the colt called out a thousand thanks over his shoulder before even reaching the door and rocketing down and out of the site. Meanwhile, Bronze stood there and watched the small event unfold before her, as Marble turned his attention to the gryphon still there typing.

“Burnbite, see to it that those papers make it to his home when you are finished, please,” he nodded to the gryphon.

“Say no more sir.”

With that the pair continued their way down and out of the office area, following the same path as the colt that had left a fire trail behind him as he dashed. Bronze on the other hoof just looked at her tour guide, as he continued his strut through the grounds that he owned. Before long though, the colt took notice of the attention he was getting, and not just from his employees.

“Yes? What is it?” Marble asked.

“Oh… nothing,” Bronze looked over the few events that she saw when they first arrived at his site, “between what I’ve seen with your employees, and how you take care of them… you’re certainly right.”

Passing by him in his tracks, Marble stopped as she did and glared up to her, unsure what she had meant, “Care to explain, Bronze?”

With a light smile towards him, Bronze looked over her shoulder, “You’ve certainly rounded out over the years.”

In only those few words the colt quickly grew the same expression on his own face as he caught up with her. The pair walked in tandem as they approached the mouth to one of the many mines in the side of the mountain. “I’m glad you think so,” Marble said as they took in the workers coming to and from its gape, “that’s some pretty high praise coming from you… considering everything in the past.” with a sheepish smile the overseer of the entire operation stepped up to a gear locker and pulled out a pair of helmets. “Whelp, shall we continue the tour?” Marble asked as he tossed a mining helmet to the mare, and she caught it expertly with her talons.

The mare held the cover for but a second as she pondered his previous words to herself, ‘You’re not the only one with regrets on the past, Marble.’ Slipping it neatly overtop her horn, with it going through a hole cut in to the top. Bronze buckled the strap around her chin as she stood by his side, “by all means, lead the way, Marble.”

***

With a heavy pair of eyes, Bronze rested her head on the window of the train as she watched the now darkened landscape in front of her pass through the night. After going down the opening of the mine, the pair had spent another couple hours rummaging around the various veins that had been dug clean for the workers to pick from. It seemed that almost every fifty feet they were stopping to talk to more of Marbles employees, and with every chance Bronze saw how attentive he was to their wants and needs.

“A happy worker is a happy boss,” he had repeated on several occasions since they went down the shafts.

Even after the shifts had started trickling out for the day, Marble still walked around and looked over his equipment. If only for his own piece of mind that it was being kept up in working order with a quick glance. The lights for helmets he could see if they were all bright enough just with a look, and other items like the fans that brought in air to the deeper under-ground areas all had logs on them to show they were maintained. Something he scrutinized to no end.

It wasn’t the day trip that most mares would have appreciated, but for one like her. Seeing that kind of industry going at full sails was something that could keep her mind a buzz with fascination. Needless to say, by the time they had gotten back to the town and made their way to the train for departure, even with the little sunlight left. Bronze had been tuckered out just from the amount of walking done alone.

“I might need a recharge after today,” she looked over a few of her gems to see how bright they shined, something that was far easier to look after in the dim light of the cabin. With several still shining lustrously in the night, the mare quelled any worries then and there. ‘These new gems are better than I expected, I guess I’m just tired then,’ the clicking of the latch however, turned her eyes towards the door as Marble popped inside.

“That was probably far more than you bargained for today,” he looked over her tired frame, as it leaned against the window frame for support.

“Oh, I’ve walked for days before, but I just don’t know why today was worse,” closing her eyes for a moment, Bronze immediately snapped them open after repeating those words in her head, “No I didn’t mean it like that! I loved seeing how far you’ve gone after taking over, and seeing how well you take care of your-”

A single hoof though from the colt begged her to stop, as Marble just grinned, “Don’t worry, I know what you meant, it was a lot of running about… hence why I put something together,” Marble offered up his hoof for her, with Bronze looking at it skeptically, “We still have a few hours or so till we get back to the station, figured we’d grab something to eat from the meal car… and yes, I already went ahead and let them know to have a table ready.”

With a slight grin of her own, Bronze took his hoof with her talon and he hoisted her up to her hooves, “That sounds wonderful, though I might need a little-”

“Already asked them to bring two cups of coffee,” Marble said as he led the way.

“… You just think of everything don’t you?” Bronze snickered at him.

Stepping in to the meal car, the two looked around at the tables that had been set up and bolted to the floor. All the while even at this time of night, several of the tables still managed to find their own patrons to enjoy a late-night snack. Almost as soon as they stepped in, a gryphon female jumped up from her seat to greet them as they took in the surroundings.

“Mister Marble, wonderful for you to join us,” she took a few menus in claw and tucked them under her wing, “and to you as well Miss. My name is Desiree, please follow me, we have your table ready.”

Taking her lead, they followed her to the table just in front of one of the windows, perfectly placed in the dim lit car to let the moon light cascade over their table as the flames from a candle danced. Placing the menus down for them, and with a tug of her wings, the gryphon pulled the chairs out for her guests as they took a seat. Each with a cup of hot coffee in front of them, just like Marble had said.

Though from the corner of her avian eyes, even in the light of the moon. The glint from the mare grabbed her as she took in the site. “Oh my, those are lovely,” the gryphoness looked over the tireless details that had been put in to the limbs.

Bronze on the other hoof, sat there as her talons started to fidget with the menu and coffee mug in them under her gaze, “Ah… thank you?”

“I don’t mean to intrude,” Desiree held up a talon, “my grandad had a false set of talons on him as well, but his were never as vibrant as what you have, let alone functional,” she observed and watched Bronze hold on to the menu under her own power.

“Oh, it’s taken quite some time to get them the way I wanted,” Bronze commented, looking over her own creations once more.

“Ah an artist, are you?” she fluttered her eye lashes at the mare, still looking at the spectacle on both the stumps to her forelegs, and now the one atop the mares’ head, “one with a medium you should be proud of.”

“… Oh, you’re too kind,” Bronze beamed at her, thankful to have another that sees her appendages and things of amazement above repugnance.

With that final word, the gryphon took out a pen and paper to take any additional drink orders, as they took a few minutes to browse the menus. Yet even with the various food items listed, Marble still found his eyes wandering up to his companions, “You don’t hear that often, do you?” he asked while Bronze quickly passed a glance towards him as well.

“There have been many over the years that have lost limbs to various reasons, some from war, others from accident… yet what they have been given to compensate usually makes them a husk of what they once were,” Bronze held out one talon for him to see as her other grasped the menu. Dancing it around in the light, and flaring out all her digits, the subtle clicking made its way to his ears as the tips of her talons met the frame of the limb, “to see something as unfamiliar as a limb, to which moves on its own, puts a fair number of folks on edge… something I have gotten used to over the years.”

With that Bronze slowly picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip. Letting those words mellow over in her companies’ mind, as she got back to the decisions at claw. While she may be famished from the day of walking, Bronze is more thankful to have a cup of coffee in her talon than anything else. That said, she knows her stomach will wake her once they get home if she doesn’t satisfy it soon. Something that both her and Marble can agree with on their own accord.

“Your scotch on the rocks, sir,” their waitress sat the glass down before Marble, as she plucked the wine glass off her tray, “and the Red Rose Moscato for you madam.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Marble replied with a nod.

From that the gryphon grabbed their orders for the night, and left the two to mellow and chat over a drink. With the coffee finally reaching her system on the empty stomach, Bronzes eyes had managed to hold themselves up once more as herself and Marble both polished off their first glasses for the night.

“I have to ask honestly,” Bronze opened up with after the gryphon brought another refill for her, “of all the things you could have done with your mines, and the materials they bring up… how’d you get in to jewelry?”

Marble leaned back in his chair as he took a more delicate sip from his glass, thinking back to those years ago where he got a hankering for the decorations of one’s body. “Hmm… I’d have to say it was when I fixed a piece that my dad had bought my mom, cheaply crafted, fell apart probably the third time she wore it,” he about gagged at the memory of that piece, hating every little thing about it.

From the stones used, to the design, to even the metals that had been plated to it. The colt couldn’t stand it to be worn by anypony, even if he may not have gotten along with that pony in the best of ways to begin with.

“You saw it, and decided you could make one better,” Bronze pictured the young colt in her head, pounding away at a piece of jewelry, for a mare that could care less of what he had to offer.

“And it earned me something in return,” he looked down at his flank to the gold and silver chain wrapped gems that adorned them, “Dads first question was where I got the materials, and mom thought at I ruined the necklace…” not the things a young colt would have hoped, yet even with the scorning tongue of his folks, it was something that still stood out to him, “but for whatever reason, that trade stuck.”

Bronze recalled the various sets and patterns that she saw when she first walked in to the store, granted it may not have been with the best intentions at the time. Never the less though, she still had to marvel at how intricate some of them were, especially the one the Pegasus had adorned her with at first.

“Though, my turn…” Marble set his glass down on the table and leaned in closer, taking another look at the mare and her creations, “How do you do it?”

“… Come again?”

“Get them to move and such I mean, you had told me some of it all those years ago, sure,” he asked and watched as with every little fidget or subtle move the limbs seemed like they had a mind of their own, yet at the same time that mind was commanded by a greater one bringing them together, “I may not have been the best when it came to magical study in school… that award went to you,” he gestured to her, earning a giggle from the mare, “but what you’ve done here is nothing short of… amazing.”

“Well…” Bronze took another sip of her glass as she mentally went over every single scrap of parchment and literature she learned over the years about the matter, “It’s what some would call a lost art, used mostly by stage magicians to make props move, Imprinting as the name goes,” her memory went back to the first day reading that from a book about magic, already having lost her limbs. It wasn’t much at the time she thought, but in the end, it’s what set her down this path of hers, “I had gotten it from an older book, Magical theory of the ancients, which taught me what I needed to know. Afterwards though, I just needed a charge, and a lot of will power.”

“And as you told me back then, the charge wasn’t much,” Marble smiled at her, remembering swiping a few gems from his dad to help the mare out, “but will power?” he inquired.

Nodding simply to him, Bronze waited as Desiree placed their respective meals down. The mare having opted for the special of broccoli cheddar soup, while Marble went for the sunflower sandwich and hay fries. With the waitress taking any empty glasses from their table and clearing it up a bit, the mare continued while enjoying the meal.

“Especially for one who normally can’t use any bit of magic, it takes a lot of inner strength to pull the energy from a gem and bend it to your command,” she tipped her glass to him and took a spoonful of her soup, “you knew me back then… do you need me to spell out where that will came from?”

Marble just held up a hoof, knowing all the trials and plight that the mare had gone through all those years ago. Some from his own hooves, “I can figure that one out all too well… but it looks like you’ve put that will to some good use.”

“Yeah… good,” Bronze gracelessly leered off to the side, knowing full well that both Rhorkin and Reinhart were cursing her name from Tartarus. With a little wiggle though from having downed a few glasses already, the mare was silently thankful that nature was making a call tonight and getting her out for a moment. “Ahh, will you excuse me for a moment,” Bronze blushed for a second as she got up and made her way to the mares’ room.

Opening the stall inside and sitting down, Bronze let nature take its course as she looked out the smokey window that concealed the room from the outside. Yet even through that haze, she still could see the vague outlines of the terrain flowing from the outside as she finished up her business.

‘What am I doing here,’ Bronze asked herself as she opened the stall and stepped up to the sink, making sure to wash her talons.

Though the blood that stained them could not be cleaned with simple soap and water. No matter how much she may try and scrub, no matter what she may try and do to make up for it. At the end of the day, she still was a mare that had caused the near collapse of nations, all for a vendetta that had no grounds the more she thought of it.

‘He doesn’t even know the truth about me, only this mask I’ve been wearing,’ she scoffed at herself in the mirror, seeing once again a mare that barely registered in her mind of a face she once knew.

A crash from the window all but shattered the mindset of the mare as much of the pane of glass, while shards landed around her. Looking to the open gape created, Bronze only saw the paw of a creature as it reached in and grasped on to her from around her limbs, and dragged her from the car, on to the outside of the blaring winds.

Tossed along the roof of the train car like a partially eaten apple core, Bronze dug her talons in to the roof as best she could to halt her tumble before making it off the edge. Finding purchase in the thin sheeting finally, the mare stood up on her hooves, and even through the wind beating against her face, got a look at her attacker in the moon light.

Plated in full armor, the DDR soldier stood there atop the train car as his hind paws dug in to the roof all the same as her own talons. With a calm and steady stride, it approached and planted its paws on the roof as it made its way towards her. Bronze on the other hoof, could only imagine how it managed to get on to the train in the first place.

‘Did it leap on to the car after we departed the station?’ she thought while dodging a swipe of its heavy paw, knowing full well one good hit and she’d be at the mercy of gravity, ‘We were close to the border, some of them could have seen me from afar.’

With a quick leap of her hind legs, the mare jumped to its shoulder and along the back of her attacker. Across the strapped down gear it held, her talons found the roof below it as it made a wide and hasty swing. Something that threw it off balance, and gave the mare an opening. Using her talons and their sharpness, Bronze dug her a few claws between the plating, and deep in to the tissue of the hind legs as the dog overshot her. Knowing full well that no matter how big and strong a foe might be, if you take out their legs, every creature was on the same level.

Yet, even with her digits dug a few inches in to what should have been soft tissue, the dog still stood and only glared down at the mare unfazed with its visor. An act that spelled one thing out for the confused mare. Even with all the hate that its nation should feel towards Bronze, the mare only saw an emptiness in its soul that she knew all too well, one the same strain as her own creations.

The hollow suit kicked back and launched Bronze once again across the top of the train car, as she skipped across like a stone. With a slam her talon sliced into the roofing, bringing her to a halt, and allowing the mare to see her assailant in the clearing.

‘It’s… it’s one of mine?’ she asked to herself, unsure if she could even bring herself to believe what her eyes had clearly spelled out. Though if her eyes didn’t want to believe that, they would believe the weapon it pulled off its back.

Unseen from when she ran across it, the Gatling gun to which she had crafted in days past now turned its barrels towards her, as the automaton dog grasped on to the handle. Dropping any and all sense of doubt to what she was facing, Bronze dived off the side of the car as she held on to what she could. All the while the ‘dog’, if one could call it that, cranked away at the mare and sent lead chipping in to the car of the train.

She knew those rounds may have been smaller compared to the one she had gifted the chief, but she also knew they would certainly do the job if enough of them hit anything soft. What she needed was an opening, just a few moments to try and attack. Her mind held more knowledge of the weapons than all of the three nations combined, and with that she’d just have to wait.

The clicking of its barrels signaled that opening, and like a firework Bronze swung herself on to the top of the train car and darted down towards her attacker. The automaton with all the chunkiness and heft of a boat pulled out another magazine of ammunition and fed the belt in to the weapon as she approached. Something he was just a tad faster at than the mare could count on.

With a trained crank of the handle, several rounds dotted along the metal surface of the roof, as they raced towards the mare, with little to no time to react Bronze quite metaphorically bit the bullet and took the hit in stride as she barreled towards the creation. Latching on to its’ shoulder with a talon, Bronze tried kicking the weapon away from him as best she could. Though the powerful grip on its handles made that effort for naught.

Out of nowhere a blue spark leeched its way into the suit of armor, forcing it to seize in contractions and jerk about. Bronze looked towards the rear of the car where the hit had come from. Poking his head just over the edge of the car, Marble hung on to the side ladder and looked at the pair.

“Oh bugger,” the colt muttered after realizing it didn’t drop the dog outright, though that little lapse in time gave Bronze a moment to see what was up ahead as she looked over the tin soldier.

Dislodging her talon from the horrid creation, the mare galloped towards her companion as the dog once again grasped on to the handle and started to crank away. In the night sparks could be seen as the rounds skipped across the haul of the train, forcing Marble to keep his head down for but a moment as Bronze approached him and only hoped that her timing could be right.

“Catch!” the mare shouted out as she slid across the top of the car and in the gap where the two cars met. With an outstretched talon, it quickly found its home in Marbles own hoof as he wrapped a fetlock around her appendage and held on to the mare with all his might.

The dog meanwhile continued to fire round after round from where she seemingly went over the edge, never bothering to check behind its back for what was rapidly starting to approach. With a mighty smack, the wall of a tunnel rammed in to the creation with the momentum of the train that once held it, as it quickly found its body caught between the train cars below and the ceiling above.

Scraping against the two like a cheese grader, the plates that made up its body were quickly torn apart as the leather snapped and the gem that gave it life found itself unceremoniously ripped from its frame and scattered to the wind as if it was saw dust against sand paper.

Bronze and Marble both kept their heads low as they heard the gut-wrenching grinding of metal against the rock overhead, and could only hope with any amount of luck that it wouldn’t be getting up once again after that treatment. Yet even with the circumstances, one amongst them still couldn’t help but start chuckling.

“What’s so funny?” Bronze asked the colt, wondering if this is where he would put it together that her being around was bad luck.

“Oh nothing… I’m just wondering,” he said as they got their footing finally and opened the door to the rest of the car, “Do you get in trouble like this often?”

“Eh… depends on the day,” Bronze brushed it off and buried the thoughts of what could still very well be out there, and likely was, deep in to the back of her mind. ‘Now… where are you?’ she wondered to herself. As they made their way down the car and past the other onlookers that saw her rough and tumble appearance.

Opening the door to the food car, Desiree looked to the guests that just stepped in. Quickly having to regain her hold on the tray balanced on her wings as she looked at the mare from head to hoof.

“Ahh…” she mused for a moment, before looking between the two of them and seeing the tired eyes of the pair, “…would you like me to box up the meals for your cabin?”

With Bronze nearly falling on to his shoulders after the short, yet eventful ordeal, Marble looked from the mare on towards the gryphoness and gently nodded. “That would be very much appreciated, Miss Desiree.”