Frostpony: Of Hounds & Horses

By now nearly everything that had even a semblance of significant value had been taken off Riley’s shelves.

Every time the soldiers came in for another bulk purchase, Riley fully charged, even overcharged them for it. They simply threw more cheques at her and left with the goods. Of course she was practically overflowing with Jewels but that was never the point of her post.

It was nice, she’d admit, but she’d never be caught reaching for every loose coin she could like some depressionist era Griffon.

At least she was able to clear up her backlog of stock and get the shelves neat again. Though it also meant she was putting away more than a few select items for safe keeping.

Store policy be damned, she wasn’t about to give away her non-perishables to the military mutts, even if they offered her a literal king’s ransom.

Especially anything Rini might need…

“I hope she’s okay, poor girl’s had it rough lately.”

The sound of the door bell ringing broke Riley from her day dream and she straightened herself up. She was greeted by a short, practically tiny dog in his mid twenties, carrying a huge backpack nearly three times his size, filled with all kinds of rolled up clothing attached to it. Such was its weight that he struggled to even stand, and had to shimmy his way past the shelves lest the bulk knock something over. Riley almost got up to offer him a paw, before he reached the counter.

Setting the pack down he looked ready to fall from exhaustion. Panting like he’d just run a marathon.

“Hi!” He sqeaked, giving her a grin. “So a friend’s leaving town, and he gave me all his clothes to sell. I heard you buy so I thought I’d ask.”

Riley squinted at that, and turned to look over the numerous rolled up articles. Immediately suspicious of their origins she looked back at her customer.

“Rini said the soldiers sometimes dress normally, which likely means…”

His tail wagged vigorously from side to side, enough to give his torso a slight shake and he looked up at her intently. Putting on the biggest set of puppy eyes he could and blinking frequently.

Against Riley’s stone cold stare however, all it took was one slip up.

She only had to wait seven seconds before his elbow twitched.

Riley had to suppress a growl as she looked upon the shorter Diamidian (who was head height with the counter). Her anger from the day prior came back to haunt her, undisturbed by the confusion of the moment. Yet unleashing it here and now was more than unwise.

But that just meant she had to be more subtle.

“I’m gonna wrap this mutt around me like a damn scarf.”

With a quick stretch and a confident posture, she put on a fake smile. “Sure, I can take em. Ten Jewls a set.”

“Ten? Oh come on!” He growled annoyingly, “Sure it’s all pony stuff but there’s like, metal armour and shoulder capes! Twenty-five at least.”

“Yeah about that. What was the name of your friend?” Riley asked, trying to sound casual.

“Uh…” The mutt’s eyes danced around briefly, clenching a paw from the nerve. “Quilted…Kindeyes?”

Riley looked at him unamused.

The brown furred mutt in turn forced a smile.

With a deep breath she let out an almost exaggerated sigh. “Listen here. You can’t just go around taking what you want and selling off what you don’t. I know where those came from and I know what you’re doing, so if you think you can walk away from here with a small fortune with stolen items, you’re dead wrong.”

Riley crossed her arms and frowned at the un-uniformed soldier. Careful not to growl or clench her muzzle.

In response, he shrugged and picked up the weighty backpack again. Riley watched as he nonchalantly shimmied his way towards the door. Likely to look for another place that'd take them if they bothered, but just as he reached to grab the handle, she barked.

“Damn it fine! I can do twenty a set.”

He froze in place and turned back, almost knocking over a set of oil lamps as he grinned. “That’s more like it.”

“I don’t have the change for a big purchase, but I still have something.” Riley ducked down under her counter as he returned to her. She reached for a pair of short, loose floorboards and pulled them open to reveal her floor safe.

It was still very much hidden from prying eyes thanks to the counter, so all the pint sized pooch knew she was messing around a few shelves.

Opening it up, a selection of small items were inside. Her private stash of goodies she didn’t feel comfortable keeping on the shelves. Some more mundane things like a bag of ground coffee, some stacks of paper money and high value jewellery she couldn’t put a price on, while others were more…exotic in nature. A pair of rings with glowing, enchanted gemstones, a bar of magic soap and a roll of tape with several glowing runes.

She wasn’t the type to play around with weird magical items so she kept them there, unsure of their function or purpose. How she’d acquired them had long since been lost to fading memory, but she didn’t dwell on that as she reached for a silver and sapphire necklace.

The silver was genuine, and so was the craftsmuttship that had went into it. A beautiful piece of fashion that she found far too flashy for her tastes, and could only give a ballpark estimate to the full value, though she was confident it would be sufficient.

Experience had taught Riley a few important things, the subjectivity of value being one of them.

To the tiny dog bearing such a heavy burden, it was a steal.

To her however, she hadn’t spent a coin.

As she watched him rush off through the door with his tail threatening to thrash the frame, she smiled as she looked down at all the rolled up costumes. Happy her little plan had worked.

“I don’t do that often, but OH you deserved it!”

There were so many of them, with so many masks, hats, small props and emblems. Curious, she picked up a small chest shield that had been attached to some chain mail, the fiery emblem of a phoenix upon its surface.

“Even if these don’t end up doing much, I’m sure Rini would appreciate me saving them for her. She’s a sucker for this kind of stuff.”

As she put the shield back however, she found something coated across her paw. Speckles of black, hard debris comparable to dandruff.

She gave it a quick sniff before shaking it off, noticing more of it dotting the costumes. It wasn’t coal dust or dirt, she’d have smelled it otherwise, but it did give her pause for thought.

“By Eudora what is this stuff? Bits of old leather?”

Riley shrugged as she pulled the pack into the back of her store, ready to take it home when her shift was up. While she could tell it had been handled quite a bit by others, she was familiar enough with Gale to pick up on his scent.

“I hope Gale’s got a plan. A good tracker could trail him for miles with this alone. Masking his scent would be critical.”

There were ways one could evade even the keenest of Diamidian noses, and of that field Riley was much more knowledgeable of. Her inability to act however meant the most she could do is look towards the storeroom clock with concern, seeing every second tick by.

Maybe they already caught him? Perhaps Gale was sitting inside a cold cell somewhere alongside some others?

Until further developments however, Riley could only wait and watch with the weight of a world on her back.

The evening sun casted a bright twilight across the scrapyard, with Rini once more returning after another five minute warm up break.

By now she’d worked on several trucks, at least two of which were dedicated to the transportation of coal.

Balancing between her “creative adjustments” and actual mechanical upkeep had been a strenuous task, demanding more thought than usual for the gear greased Greyhound. Somehow she’d managed and, as the normal work hours came to a close, she found herself among the few that decided to stay.

The military however had other ideas.

Before she reached the trucks, she took a moment to look towards the main gate and saw an almost comedic sight. That of a soldier in a parka holding up a big sign promising several benefits of overtime. This included, but not limited to, half off lunch items from the food truck, a letter of gratitude from queen Eudora, the addition of an Engineer’s amber gemstone to one's collar, pet insurance and paid toilet breaks…

Just to name a few.

However, the dog holding the sign spun it around in an attempt to make himself more noticeable, but in doing so made it difficult for the benefits to be read and so many just ignored it.

Not wanting any part in it, Rini slinked away towards the new multi-purpose building she’d eyed earlier that day.

By now, not only had it been expanded with a few new rooms, but it had been surrounded by a mess of tents all heated by a crude system of pipes. All of which lead towards a large, imposing tower of steel and brass. A pair of mutts shovelling coal and charcoal into its fiery mouth with many stay around external heaters to stay warm.

The military had erected another Steamhub. This one exclusively meant for the operations at the Scrapyard.

Rini stood stunned at the sight, her jaw slightly ajar in disbelief. “Rini Burrows, you really need to work on your perception.” She scolded herself, “How the dime did you not notice that?”

One look at the giant, loud and very much obscuring multi-story garage on treads answered her question.

“Oh, right.”

Looking back at the Steamhub, she wondered how they’d built such a thing, and was able to pick up on more throughout her second inspection. The growing darkness dimmed the details but many of the pipes lining it looked…misaligned, mismatched and discoloured. Instead of the uniform dark grey bordering on black from the town’s own Steamhub, this one was noticeably smaller in size, and had many more brassy accents and sections.

She almost laughed out loud when it hit her.

“A Diamidian made Steamhub? Oh that’ll end well.”

With that little revelation, she reckoned it best to steer clear of the high pressure super boiler made from scrap and dreams. Seriously, how is it ponies were better at building things out of literal clouds, then they were at building things with metal?

Instead, she avoided the tents as best she could and made way for the centre building.

Still, even such crude replicas required a Steamcore to output power required to heat such a large area. That alone was worth her time but she had her sights set upon that building, and whatever secrets lie within.

Such an idea would’ve been unfathomable to her several hours ago, and she still felt some nerve walking by all the tents even now, but time was a great doctor and her work a good therapist.

She’d already thought this though, knowing most Diamidians were like Brambles…

“Or Rover, he wasn’t very bright either…him and dad both.”

Rini stood near the entrance, guarded by a puffy sheepdog with his eyes unseen from overgrown fur. He didn’t have a rifle but a grip peeked from his pistol holster, and a whistle hung from his neck.

With a deep breath and some carefully prepared (as in, fifteen minutes of thought) words, she approached.