‘Steel Guard, huh’ He thought mulling over his new name. He liked it. Celestia was pleased when she saw his smile. “You know what this calls for?” Pinkie asked them. But without giving them a chance to answer she said, “A Party!!”
Pinkie said that this was a welcometoPonyville/thankyouforhelpingsaveEquestria/welcomebackPrincessLuna party. So the recently named Steel Guard was being introduced to the ponies of Ponyville. Only some of the ponies were wary of him,
they had never seen a human before. Others however were quite inquisitive.
“What do humans eat?” A light blue unicorn had asked him.
“Humans can eat anything, they’re omnivores.” This had shocked the ponies, did that mean that he ate meat?
“What about you, what do you eat?”
“I’m a vegetarian, which means I eat everything except meat. I don’t like the idea of an animal dying so that I can eat.” After a few moments of these nonstop questions he managed to step towards Celestia.
“Is something wrong?” The princess asked him.
“Just wondering where I would live as I helped ponies.” He said as he picked up a piece of parchment and a quill and started to write something down.
“Yes, I am having a house built for you near the edge of the Everfree. But it won’t be completed for a few weeks, so we will have to find a place for you to live until then.”
“He can stay with me.” They turned around to see Fluttershy, who seemed to be hiding behind them.
“Are you sure?” Steel Guard asked, “I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“I’m sure,” the shy pegasus said.
“Thank you Fluttershy.”
“It’s settled then,” Celestia said. “You will stay at Fluttershy’s until your house is-“ She stopped mid-sentence almost frozen in place.
He looked around to see that all of the other ponies seemed to be frozen as well. Pinkie was even stopped in mid-air not moving. That was when he saw the dragon. It was a small dragon only slightly larger than the one known as Spike, and didn’t seem that much older. It was dark blue with neon green streaks along its body, leading to its spade tipped tail. There were two horns slightly above the eyes that curved towards the back of its head, and wings that had a light blue colouring coupled with the same neon streaks that covered its body.
“Are you the human?” The unknown dragon asked him.
“Yes I am Steel Guard, but who are you?” he asked still writing on the parchment.
“My name is Frost Wind and I would be honored if you would train me.”
Now this had caught him off guard (pun intended), the ponies had led him to believe that dragons were rare but he had seen two in less than a day. And it seemed that this one could even control time.
“Why do you want me to train you?”
“Your appearance caused quite a commotion with the creatures in the forest, none of them had ever seen a human before. But they could all sense your power and how you were different than anything that they had ever seen, like me.”
“What do you mean?” Steel Guard asked him.
“I’m an outcast, rejected by the other dragons,” Frost Wind explained. “Unlike other dragons I don’t breathe fire, I breathe
ice. They hated me because I was different, because I wasn’t like them.” He sympathised with this little dragon, he knew all too well what it was like to be different, to have people hate you.
“Okay.”
“What?”
“I’ll train you, but on one condition; you must promise to do to what I say and not talk back.” Steel Guard told the dragon.
“Thank you, sir” Frost Wind said.
“Please call me Steel” He hated it when people were too formal with him.
“Yes, sir Steel” It was a start.
“-built.” Celestia said as time started again.
“EEEEIIIIEEEEE” Fluttershy screamed when she saw the dragon that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She hid behind Celestia and Steel as the rest of the party was alerted to their new guest.
“Calm down” he told the ponies. “Frost Wind will do nothing to harm you, he is a friend.”
“Hi Frost Wind it’s nice to meet you although at first I wasn’t sure about you but since Steely says that you’re okay that means you must be nice.” Pinkie said to the new partier. Soon after that he was swallowed by the party.
Celestia looked at him and said “Care to explain?” So he did, he told her about the time stop and how Frost had asked for his training. Steel told her about how Frost was shunned by the other dragons and how he could relate with the little dragon’s problem. Celestia seemed to approve of his decision to make this dragon his ward. She even had an idea, but she needed to speak with the dragon before she offered it.
“Frost Wind” Steel Guard said to get the dragons attention.
“Yes, sir Steel?”
“The princess would like to speak with you.” Frost turned his attention to the large white alicorn.
“Yes, I would like to know why you want to be trained.” Celestia asked the little dragon.
“So that… So that I wouldn’t have to be alone anymore.” Celestia smiled knowing that this dragon would never be alone again.
“Come here” she told him as her horn started to glow. Frost was enveloped with the same glow and was lifted off the ground. After a few minutes she let him down and said that she was finished and he could rejoin the party.
“What did you do?” Steel asked her as he finally stopped writing.
“Just a small enchantment, don’t worry. He’ll be just fine.”
“That didn’t answer my question.” He said this while raising his eyebrow.
“I know, it wasn’t supposed to.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
With a smirk she said to him “No, but you’ll find out soon enough.” And with that the conversation was done. Celestia had gone back to her cake and was completely ignoring him. So he decided to find Pinkie and ask her a question.
“Hey Pinkie, what kinds of music do you ponies like?”
“What do you mean Steely?”
“Well I wanted to play a song-“
“And you wanted everypony to enjoy it, right?” Pinkie finished for him.
“Precisely” He said.
“Well I know that I like any music as long as it’s happy and doesn’t make me sad. But I'm pretty sure that anything you play will be a big hit.”
“What about this?” Steel asked handing Pinkie the parchment he had been writing on earlier.
“These are good, but can I make a few changes to the words so that the others can understand them?”
“Sure go ahead,” He told the bouncing pink mare. She picked up a quill and started to scratch out words and replace them with ones that the ponies would understand.
“Here you go” Pinkie said as she gave him back the parchment. He studied the revisions that she made and saw that there weren't that many and knew that the song would still work.
“Thank you Pinkie, by the way you wouldn’t happen to know where I can get a hold of a guitar now would you.”
“Lead or bass?” she asked pulling two guitars out of her mane. He had no idea how or why she had those guitars in her mane he decided just to take the lead guitar and say thank you. Although the guitar was built for ponies not humans, he knew that it wouldn’t a problem. He just cast a simple spell on it so that it would fit his hands and he could play it comfortably. He would cancel the spell before he returned it to Pinkie.
When Rainbow saw him with the guitar she immediately flew up to him and asked him what he was going to do.
“Well Rainbow, I was going to use this guitar to play a song for all you ponies.”
“Are you sure that you’re even cool enough to play a guitar?” She asked with her eyebrow half-cocked.
He quickly tuned the guitar, then looked at her with a smirk across his face. The other ponies were looking at him questioning what he was doing. He then proceeded play a solo of mind shatteringly epic proportions, a solo that would put Jimmy Page to shame. The ponies at the party looked at him with awe, Celestia even dropped her cake, before cheering wildly at what he had done. Rainbow on the other hand couldn’t say anything, the sheer awesomeness of what he had played had left her speechless.
He bent down and whispered, “Yes Rainbow, I think I am cool enough,” right in the cyan pony’s ear. Steel waited until their cheering had subsided before he started to play again. It was a slow tune but it was hauntingly
beautiful. It wasn’t long before he began to sing;
“Just a small town mare, livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Just a city colt, born and raised in south Detrot
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere
A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlights ponies, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night.
Working hard to get my fill,
Everypony wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlights ponies, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night.
Don't stop believin'
Hold on to the feelin'
Streetlights ponies
Don't stop believin'
Hold on
Streetlights ponies
Don't stop believin'
Hold on to the feelin'
Streetlights ponies.”
When he finished the song the ponies erupted with another round of cheering. He wasn’t surprised, Journey always had that effect, what did surprise him was to see Frost passed out in the punch bowl alongside Spike. He scooped up his dragon and walked over to Fluttershy to see her talking with Rarity.
“Hello ladies, I hope that I'm not interrupting.”
“Oh, of course not Steel. We were just discussing that wonderful that you were singing.”
“Oh, my, yes, we were also wondering what it was called?”
“Don’t Stop Believing” he told the two mares.
“Ohhhh. He’s so cute when he’s asleep.” Fluttershy said when she saw Frost.
“Yeah, he’s kind of why I wanted to talk to about. I think it would be best if we get him to bed, that’s if your offer still stands. I saw how scared of him you were.”
“Darling, Fluttershy is scared of almost everything, but she’s not scared of anything cute and baby dragons are quite adorable.” Rarity explained.
“Oh, yes, he just startled me that’s all.” She said quite embarrassed.
“So it’s okay for him to stay at your place until my house is built? Because if not, I can find other arrangements for him.”
“Oh, of course it is.”
“Thank you, Fluttershy, and Rarity I'm sorry but it seems that I have to steal her away for a while.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it Steel, I know all about it.” Rarity was quite understanding about his predicament, so he thanked her again before they left for Fluttershy’s cottage.
As they walked away from the party Fluttershy asked him about the black marks that were all over his body.
“They’re names,” He said saddened by the topic. “They belonged to people who were very, very important to me. This is how I make sure they’re never forgotten.”
“I'm sorry” she said as she looked away ashamed.
“Don’t be,” He smiled at her, “You didn’t know.” The rest of their walk passed in relative silence until they reached her cottage and were greeted by an amalgam of different animals. Fluttershy introduced them and explained that they would be staying for a little while until Steel’s house was built. The animals seemed to understand what she said and were happy to find a bed for Frost to sleep in. After he put Frost to bed he told Fluttershy to return to the party without him. He had used too much magic earlier when he healed himself and resizing the guitar hadn’t helped. Now what he needed was to rest.
Fluttershy got him some pillows and a blanket as he got settled on her couch. He thanked her again as he started to drift to sleep. The last thing he saw before he fell asleep was the butter-yellow face and pink mane of a certain shy pegasus.
I would like to thank Apollyon602 for letting me use his OC Frost Wind. I don't know if he uses this site or not but i still want to give credit where credit is due.