Four hooves and two paws landed with a small thud in the grass outside of the large workshed, the olive-drab gryphon grinning widely as she followed the pegasus forwards to the doorway. Dull banging came from inside, past the large closed barn doors, Night Strike pressing her ear to the wood for a moment before knocking on it with her forehoof. “Twintails? Y’here? You’ve got someone new wanting to catch an arty test, if we can arrange it.” A loud clatter came from the other side of the door, Night Strike grimacing as she turned back around to Hispano. The gryphon, for her part, was waiting quietly, albeit not hiding her excitement too particularly well. Night Strike let off a weak chuckle. “Eheh, sorry, he’s always working on something. Just hope he didn’t fall prey to one of his own warheads…”
 
After a moment, and a loud flourish of heavy fabric being pulled over something, the door to the shed creaked open, the golden pegasus inside poking his head out to greet the two visitors. He returned a smile to Night Strike, no small look of surprise coming to his face as he laid eyes on the gryphon she was traveling with, Hispano passing on a light wave. The golden pegasus pushed the large door open the rest of the way, giving a small nod and wearing a grin. “Huh, well, has certainly been a while since I’ve seen a new face around here, nice to meet you. Bit caught up with work for the moment, unfortunately, though, uh, Night Strike, you can just take one of the gravity bombs and drop it from the Stork, maybe. You know where they are, right?”
 
The dark blue pegasus passed on a small roll of the eyes, before spreading her wings and taking flight to the rear of the workshop, Hispano and Twintails both watching her for a moment. The olive-drab gryphon sat down against the dirt floor, looking about the place. “So, you’re the one who makes all the explosives and stuff? I’ll be honest, I was sorta expecting a unicorn, make it easier to handle stuff like fuzes and gunpowder and whatever, yanno. Would think you’d just drop the bombs in on folks rather than going through the trouble of ballistic propulsion, too.” Hispano leaned herself back as her eyes settled on the pegasus, Twintails returning a small smirk. The gryphon’s eyes trailed backwards as she studied the gold-coated pony, eventually settling on… two peculiarities. She blunk a few times, lifting a claw to point towards him. “Also, uh, what’s the deal with the tail situation? Some sorta birth defect, or something?”
 
Twintails leaned himself up against the side of the tarp-covered machine in the corner of the shed, letting off a chuckle. “Yeah, something like that. But, yeah, I’m the discoverer of P-235, inventor of weaponized P-235, and creator of a small handful of ways to deliver P-235 to intended targets in short order. Night Strike’s probably already shown you her Thumper, I myself have been toying around with a few things in heftier calibers. Most recent I’ve tested is a little 105 howitzer, has it’s own special recoil system so it doesn’t have to be moved back to battery after each shot like a normal cannon. Shell’s got a payload of about 20 pounds of P-235, not the highest in the arsenal but good for quick-fire delivery and all. Good enough for keeping Crash Dive and Pressure Cooker in line, anyways…”
 
Hispano nodded along as Twintails spoke, leaning forwards on her talons. “Don’t think she actually did show me whatever that Thumper thing is, but I’m definitely interested about the whole cannon stuff. The gryphon arsenal… ain’t exactly the greatest, after Castle Bravo and all. Lemme know next time you’re testing that little gun, would be neat to see how you managed to keep a four-inch gun from kicking like a mule.” Twintails’ smile widened as he passed on a nod, a small clatter echoing from the back of the workshop. They both looked towards it for a moment, Hispano readjusting herself. “Actually, is one thing I wanna know, Night Strike mentioned something called ‘kilofwhoomps’, you mind explaining what one of those actually is? From what she told me, it has something to do with, uh, balloons?”
 
Twintails let off a small chuckle as he turned back to Hispano, passing on a nod. As he was about to start explaining, though, a wooden stand clattered to the floor beside him, heavy wingflaps beating against the air in the workshop pulling their attention upwards as a very winded Night Strike appeared with a very peculiar weapon in her hooves. With a heavy thud, she set the gun down on the stand, letting off a long huff as she moved back slightly. “Whuff… sorry, just found this thing again. You ever get this one working?”
 
The golden pegasus stepped up to look over the weapon, poking at the drum magazine and checking the near side of it. This gun… hm… oh, right, this was one of the ones he was developing from one of Pressure Cooker’s designs on the Ratte. Why did he shelve this?… The fabric cover fluttered slightly as night Strike sat down beside it, catching his attention. Ah, right, that. “Yeah, I think I did, seems like the drum mag’s still got some ammo in it. Think I wanted to stick it on the Stork, see how that worked out for you, I just couldn’t figure out a good way of letting you fire it. Or, maybe it was something doing with the tiny shell payloads, or something… twenty millimeter is alright for automatic fire, but it ain’t exactly a lotta P-235 per shot.”
 
Night Strike gave a small nod, getting back onto her hooves. Well, might still need a bit of work, then, fun as automatic fire is… though, as she looked back at the gryphon behind her, the slack-beaked expression she wore spoke more than a few words all it’s own. She smirked, turning back to the gun and Twintails. “Say, you think you might be able to give it some sorta hoof-trigger or something? I might have slightly mentioned to Hispano here that you might have some sorta toy for her, and she does seem to be… well…”
 
Twintails blunk a few times, looking past Night Strike and to the gryphon beyond. Her eyes under her flightcap were already wide as they could go, and her beak the same. He thought for a moment - well, it would get them out of here faster so he could get back to work… and not like he was gonna figure out a firing system for mounting on the Stork anytime too quickly, anyways. He passed on a nod, and only a second later, watched as Hispano’s slack-beaked expression turned into the widest of open-mouthed grins he’d ever saw. And probably the largest single pupils he’d ever seen, too.
 
“I’ll do a bit of work to make it a little easier to handle, but… Hispano, I hope you’ll like your new autocannon.”