//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Just a blacksmith. // Story: Inner workings - Galsthan's stories // by HyperRandomness //------------------------------// Saturday, August 11th 2012. 7:13 PM. Hoofsteps could be heard all around outside of a nearly-unoccupied blacksmith shop, trotting and galloping this way and that, passersby going about their business as usual with very few of them noticing the store that they were going by. Clang! bellowed his hammer, echoing through the rooms, making known its raw power. Kssshhh! fizzled the water, letting all know of its cooling properties. Wham! shouted the press, bending the metal below under its force. Ding! said the bell situated above the door, announcing the arrival of a customer into the store. Wait, Ding? A thought floated through a lone-no-longer pony’s mind, as his yet unidentified face swung towards the door to answer its chime. "Hello?" his voice rang out, loud and sped, sounding hurried. After a moment or two of waiting, he returned his gaze to his work, paying no mind to what had likely been a stray breeze. Zzzzzzz! rang the saw, cutting and gnawing through rough steel. Vrmmm! echoed the drill, driving its tip through metal frame-workings. Whoosh! bellowed the, well, bellows, as they stoked the fire to heat yet another mysterious piece of metal for whatever reason. Ring! noted the bell, poised on the front desk to alert those within of customers. "Oh?" questioned the voice without particular reason. Turning from the task at hand, a confirmed-to-no-longer-be-alone pony removed the work apron from himself and approached the desk, slightly curious as to who would actually browse his wares at this point in the month. As the tall pony walked to the counter, he gave a glance to a calendar hung by a single nail, noting that there were no upcoming events scheduled for even so much as an entire month from this day. Returning his attention to the front desk, goggled eyes met those of a usual saddle-bag-laden customer, who happened to be a unicorn known as Quick Fix. Looking down from his heightened point of view, "How can I help you?” inquired the lanky anonymous metal-worker, body language slowly becoming slack at the sight of the only customer who visits him for non-event-related purposes. “I need a few parts made, as usual, and I’m here to pick up the ones I ordered on Thursday.” came the bold, tempered voice from the chocolate-colored, white-maned Mare standing opposite to the goggled worker. “Ah, of course. Just a moment.” responded the dark brown Stallion, taking a moment to turn his elongated legs and body around. He needn’t have taken two strides before reaching his storage room, into which he swiftly entered and returned, clamping a small box of numerous, varying parts with his mouth by a handle on the side of the moderately-sized crate. A pair of paces later and the long-legged craftspony reached the desk, with the box in tow. He placed the box on the counter without second thought, with his only next words being, “So, what can I get you this time?” This question was not foreign to either of them, as it was the most frequently asked. Quick Fix was a fairly customary, well, customer, coming in and out every few days to order parts and pick up those that had been made. This may or may not have been all of her intentions, but the single lean ironsmith would have been completely oblivious to it regardless, with all of his work occupying his mind. “Well, it’s funny you should ask. I actually brought a list with me this time.” stated Quick Fix, reaching into her saddlebag and producing a small sheet of paper with several notes on it. She placed it on the front desk and slid it over to the yet unrevealed pony manufacturer, who began to examine it with great detail. Reading the paper behind his shaded eyewear, he looked it over and said, “Ordinarily, parts like these wouldn’t run you much. However, a few of these require custom working, so I’m going to have to charge extra. Based off of what you have described here, it’s safe to say that this’ll cost you…” the slim stallion briefly re-read the page before stating, “Twenty-six bits in total.” “Twenty-six bits?” the rhetorical question responded from Quick Fix, “Well, that’s a mite much, but I can manage, I suppose. Those parts’re for a good cause.” She reached back into her saddlebags, horn aglow, and removed a small pouch of money, placing it on the counter and counting out bits. After reaching the total of twenty-six bits, she pushed them across the counter where the yet unnamed worker produced a small bag from under the counter, and slid the bits into the bag. The still anonymous ironsmith pony said to Quick Fix, “Thank you for your continued patronage. They’ll be ready in about three or four days, but feel free to stop by any other time.” he added a large smile, to which Quick Fix reacted with a blush and small smile of her own. “I’ll see you in a few days, then.” she spoke, turning to leave. “Bye!” she added, turning her head for a quick moment, but swiftly returning her attention to the door. “Good bye.” he responded, watching Quick Fix leave. Ding! reported the bell, balanced above the door, letting the alone-once-more worker know that he was, well, alone again. The innominate craftspony stood at the desk for a long moment before releasing a long, drawn-out sigh. He turned towards his workbench, not so eager to resume his work. Ding! sang the bell perched atop the door, announcing another arrival. The yet-unspecified worker pony turned to greet the customer, seeing that it was, yet again, Quick Fix. Must’ve forgotten something… the unidentified employee thought to himself. “Did you forget something?” he asked kindly, to which Quick Fix answered, “No, there’s just been a question on my mind. One I’ve been meaning to ask you for a long time.” she gazed up at his covered eyes with honesty in hers, but looked up further still, to a point inbetween the yet unnamed laborer’s ears, where a half-sized, bandaged, broken horn stood, only just barely protruding from an untamed mane of dirty blue and disheveled green. The still unknown worker unicorn followed her gaze, and let out a short sigh, glancing down at the floor. “Galsthan, what happened to your horn?” The now-recognized Galsthan bit his lip, his eyes darting around the room from left to right and back again. It was very apparent that he didn’t want to share the tale of his halved horn, as he found it to be a very sensitive topic. His eyes eventually reunited with the pleading look of Quick Fix’s own eyes, to which he couldn’t have responded no. “Alright,” Galsthan spoke up, attempting to become intrigued with the floor, “I’ll tell you how my horn got this way. Just.. don’t go spreading the story, okay?” he redirected his eyes back up to Quick Fix, who nodded in agreement. Galsthan responded with another short sigh, before beginning, “You see, it’s a bit of a long story, and it starts out with me in my shop, as usual…” "It’d been weeks since I’d last had a customer, so I was hard at work on a personal project. You see, ever since I was small, I always knew I’d had problems. My magic didn’t work quite right, my hooves felt unstable on the ground, and I was shorter than a lot of other ponies. Well, in my mind, I thought technology could fix everything. Broken bones, broken houses, broken hearts, you name it. I thought my wonderful machines could repair anything that I set them to do. Well, now I wish I hadn’t tried what I did. I thought that, with these machines, I could fix my problems. I thought I could make my horn work right, and I thought I could make myself sturdier on the ground, and I thought I could change my size, and whatever problems arose after that. Well, things didn’t go as planned. Knowing that changelings had the ability to manipulate their own form, I tried experimenting on one... and on myself. It wasn’t easy finding one, but it wasn’t all too impossible, either, since one or two had conveniently landed just shy of ponyville in the everfree forest. I’d managed to capture one, but to this day, I wish that it’d squirmed out of my net. I hauled it back to my workshop in secrecy and, making sure nobody was around, took it into a hidden back room. In that back room is where I kept most of my experimental inventions, such as a genetic transfer device that I’d been putting time into for months in advance. I placed it into one of two chambers, and started up the machine. I located myself in the other vacant chamber, and started the genetic transfer sequence. I still wish that my machine had shut down, or that there had been a power fault, or that there had been a storm. Anything but what transpired in that room on that day. The machine warmed up, various parts and gizmos buzzing and whirring.” Galsthan choked up for a moment, tears welling up in his eyes, but they could not be seen due to the shaded lenses of his goggles. “Anyway, everything seemed like it was going according to plan, but then a warning siren went off. Several more followed suit. I attempted to free myself of the chamber, but the lock on the chamber door prevented me from doing so. I don’t know if it was fate or maybe a cruel prank by somepony I knew, but I hadn’t remembered activating that lock on the door. To this day, I still wish I knew what had triggered it. As the machine started to hum loudly, a bright light, a booming noise, and a massive shockwave propelled both me and the changelings out of our respective chambers and across the room in opposing directions. When I came to, I was different. My once white coat had been replaced with the murky brown that I now am forced to wear, and my clean green-and-blue mane had been blown completely out of place, hair going this way and that, and no longer of its original colors. My legs were longer than before and so was my body. I was dazed, confused and hungry, and I attempted to light the room with magic, seeing as the lights were destroyed in the explosion. I quickly gave myself a headache, achieving nothing more than causing a couple of sparks. I asked myself, why can’t I light up the room? and quickly reached a hoof up to my horn, only to find that it was no longer a whole. I found it later, behind some scrap metal that had once been my genetic transfer device. I never found the changeling, though, and I haven’t been able to undo my mistake from that point onward." Galsthan looked away, tears clearly streaming down his face. He wiped his face clean of the substance, but they quickly ran down his face again as he stifled himself from completely breaking down and bawling. “Oh… I’m.. I’m so sorry, Galsthan. I didn’t know how sensitive of a topic it was.” spoke the sorrowful voice of Galsthan’s audience, Quick Fix. She walked around the counter to place a hoof on his shoulder and console him, which wasn’t easy as he was so tall. “I am so, so sorry, Galsthan. I didn’t mean to offend.” Quick Fix added, giving a small grin. Galsthan held a hoof up to his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears, but he only succeeded in causing his goggles to fall off his face. An eye shaped like a changeling’s eye, yet with a tall and narrow black pupil surrounded by a green iris, stared at Quick Fix with a sad look. This did not deter her. Tears stopped rolling from Galsthan’s eyes, now feeling comforted by Quick Fix’s presence. “I became nothing more than a monster on that day, and I swore I would never show my face again. I guess that’s one more disappointment to chalk up on the board.” Galsthan stared woefully at the ground, giving an occasional sob. Quick Fix drew close to Galsthan’s side, attempting to reassure him. “It’s alright, Galsthan. You’re not a monster. You’re still the same pony you were before the accident, but you just look a little different. That doesn’t change anything.” she spoke, looking up at Galsthan with kindness across her face. “You…” Galsthan started, stopping with a sniff and a wipe of the face before resuming, “You really think so?” he asked, looking straight at Quick Fix as he did so with a small smile starting on his lips. “I know so.” responded Quick Fix, turning to embrace the broken-spirited Galsthan with a warming hug. Galsthan returned the hug with his own legs, accidentally rubbing off a bit of soot from his hooves onto Quick Fix, and the two stayed in this affectionate squeeze for another several minutes. -------------------------------------------------------------- “Thanks again, and I’ll see you later!” called Galsthan after Quick Fix with a friendly wave of his hoof, as Quick Fix departed from his store yet again. He stood there for a moment, a smile plastered across his face and warmth in his heart, until he realized he needed to return to his work. He glanced down at his hooves, noticing something that was different. Where had once been completely soot-blackened hooves were now recognized as ash-covered gold-colored hooves. The view nearly took him aback, but he quickly stabilized his thoughts as he remembered that they had always been that way, but they’d just been covered in powder ever since his mishap. This fresh wound nearly brought tears to his eyes once more, but he shook the thought as he turned towards his machines to resume his duties. Blam! exclaimed the hammer, eager to resume striking metal into shape. Clink! declared the chisel, chipping away at Galsthan’s thoughts and the metal he worked upon. Foom! roared the furnace, heat burning away at Galsthan’s sorrows and imperfections in the metal. Ring! jingled the bell, advertising the appearance of another pony walking through the door of the shop. Ugh. rang out the thought in Galsthan’s mind, having just gotten over telling a traumatic story put him in a non-talkative mood. He turned towards the door, calling out, “Whoever’s there, I’m a bit busy right now, so if you could p…” he stopped mid-sentence to gawk at who’d just walked through his door. “P… Puh… Princess.. Celestia..!” He finally stuttered out. His eyes rolled up in his head from the shock, and he fell unconscious to the floor.