Arctus awoke that morning to sun rise through his still open balcony doors and jumped up, reminded quickly of the pain that spiked up his ribs.

But he still went about the room, putting clothing on and equipment after equipment. The Scout still had things to do and Savus likely had things to do as well.

A knock banged hard on his wood door, "Master Scout Arctus!" A formal addressing.

"I was hoping you'd be awake," Savus strided in, wearing simple leathers, "you have a smith you'd recommend?"

A unicorn trotted in to his quarters, "Master Arctus!" Silver Spike paid him a visit as well.

"Everyone needs you the moment you get home, I'd hate to be a Scout," Savus chuckled.

Arctus put on his cape, sliding his spear and greatsword into position before he picked up his damaged armors, "then both of you will be accompanying me this morning to the industrial row."

"Savus is the Sacred Star General of Aeternia, he's been displaced here along with me. Savus, this is Scout Silver Spike, I trained him," Arctus left his room with the two of them in tow.

"Oh, you trained a Scout? I'm shocked you had the patience for it, everyone always discussed how you would stay home for a single day before going on another assignment you took yourself or of your own accord," Savus laughed, "I'm curious how well you taught him and how he made it past the line."

"Sacred Star General? That sounds like a very prestigious title," Silver Spike commented, "you were the head of the entire army? Sounds like Shining Armor."

Arctus laughed hard, "he is much more skilled and commanded many more people than ponies that Shining Armor does."

"So, a dragon slashed you, Master Arctus?" Silver shifted their topic as they exited the castle.

"Claw ripped through my scalemail, my leathers, my linens. I didn't even notice the injury until the battle was over," they left through the gates and steps, moving through the streets of Canterlot.

"We could see some flames through our telescopes here, I could only imagine what the battle was like," Silver continued speaking, "Princess Celestia dispatched me to the South in your absence, I brought Strong Stitch along with me, we did some early reconnaissance. She's still there, monitoring the situation to see if it changes."

"Was there anything of note?" It was getting noisier as they drew closer to the industrial row, Arctus raised his voice louder.

"They're large, the archtectiture is far different from ours, and they regularly deploy transport and military in and out. It looks as though they are in active conflict so we still have time before we're forced to confront them."

"Thank you for relaying the information to me, I'll find your full written report later. Strong Stitch is still just a trainee and while having somepony there to warn us, I'd like to pull her back and test her skill now that I am back. Once we get your weapon forged, you're going to go back and collect her."

"Is this all scouts talk about?" Savus interrupted, "it's boring. Tell me about this smith."

"He crafted my greatsword, the same one we performed the Star Launch with. I left a challenge to all the smiths and some uptook it, but their greatswords were not to my specification, the one that met it was brittle."

"Then he showed up with this greatsword and it performed exactly how I wished it and I almost broke Shining Armor's hoff when I tested it."

"It did slash through dragon hide well enough," Savus smiled, "do you know his name?"

Arctus stopped in front of the shop, hearing the forge already fired and the craftspony was already busy.

"I...I've never asked," he went past the heavy fabric curtain and into the shop, "young smith!"

"My forge, Arctus!" The Master Scout followed his voice and went deeper into the shop, "I see you've brought friends."

"Savus is a good friend of mine, his armor needs minor repair along with all of mine," he sets his damaged gear into the table near the forge, next to a pile of tools, Savus laid his there as well, "you can send a bill to the castle when you've finished repairs, but I'd need them at the latest in a week and a half."

The simplest of introductions, "Savus, feel free to look around the city. I need to depart yet again shortly so make yourself at home."

"With pleasure, I'd like to have my pick of retirement cities," Savus smiled, "not that I'm giving up fighting, I can be there should Equestria need me or if you feel the need to spar," he walked toward the front of the shop, "see you some time later, Arctus."

"Depart again shortly? So you came back after slaying dragons, how did the blade hold up?" Plated Shell pointed with his hammer to the sword on Arctus' back.

He drew it and held it in front of the smith, "dear Celestia, I had crafted that thing to outlast my entire shop and you somehow managed to dull it this much, I can't imagine what you were doing. Leave it here, it needs some maintenance," the confident smith stopped his current project, taking the blade from him and heading to a different section in his shop, sitting at a grinding wheel while he observed the sword from the sunlight that bled from a nearby window.

"Going to take me an hour or so," Plated Shell never gave Arctus the respect everypony else was compelled to, "you'll be quite a challenging customer to satisfy."

"Please send any bill up to the castle addressed to me. Before you busy yourself, there's something Scout Silver Spike needs to mention," at Arctus' words, Plated Shell looked to the unicorn.

"W-what? I-," Silver was caught off guard for a moment, "right. Princess Celestia had hired a geologist to find a volcano or usable magma stream in Equestria. They were successful and I'd like to hire you to forge my weapon as a Scout."

Plated Shell set down Arctus' greatsword next to the grinding wheel, "I see, what are the methods that go into a scout weapon?"

Arctus smiled, "I'm glad you asked, there are only a handful of smiths in all of Aeternia's wide borders that could accomplish forging a weapon like this," his spear left his back and presented in front of the young smith, "I don't know if Equestria can imbue special properties into weapons like Aeternian volcanoes, but this is more of ceremony."

"I-I," Plated Shell lost his confidence, "you want me to make a weapon using molten earth?!"

Plated Shell coughed and cleared his throat, going about his shop and putting his forge out, collecting supplies, tools, and materials all in a saddlebag that he then slung over himself, "did you intend to leave now?"

"What about Princess Celestia?" Silver Spike looked to him, "she always looks forward to you spending a day at least at home before heading back out."

"We'll only be gone for two days," Plated Shell spoke up, "I'll work hard on it as long as you two do. I could use someone to carry some coal."

Arctus put his spear away and went to a corner near the forge, heaving two bags of black dusted burlap up, "have you been to the location, Silver Spike?"

Silver Spike straightened himself and lead them out of Shell's workshop, out of the industrial row, and when things were quiet as they headed down the mountain footpath of Canterlot, "a shortsword?" Plated Shell spoke up.

"Some say the longsword is versatile, but I've always found the shortsword more practical in situations I find myself in," Arctus looked to the spatha he still carried, "and far more precise for the kinds of strikes I demand."

"Just...it's so simple," the smith commented as they entered the caverns in the footpath at a constant descent, "I was expecting a demanding order from a Scout."

Arctus lightly laughed, "I imagine Strong Stitch will have quite a challenge for you. That mare bent a mace. Metal. Mace. When she swung it at me and almost shattered a shield not to mention come close to fracturing my forearm. She'll be an excellent Scout."

"I could use a hoof like that in my shop," Shell laughed, "where are we going, Silver Spike?"

"I don't know if we'll get Aeternian magic in your shortsword, but I can beseech the Eight Heroes to sanctify the magma."

"How does that work?" Plated Shell asked, "we don't have any divine...anything in Equestria really. At least not comparable to yours."

"It's daytime, you can't see them, but the stars are always there and watching. They'll hear me, but it's up to them if they wish to act and they always let it be known when they do interfere, as fickle as they may be."

"So they are Gods?" Silver Spike was trying to wrap his head around it as they exited the tunnels, still descending the Canterlot mountain path to the nearby river.

"Silver Spike is right, sounds like a God to me. Though we can at least see Discord in the castle gardens as a physical God."

"That's still odd for me to think about. Celestia arranges the stars in the sky," Silver voiced.

A small thought crossed the Master Scout's mind, one of change. Celestia didn't arrange them, she kept them there and likely hid them during the day. He had met the painter of night canvases.

"So, what are their names?" Plated Shell asked as they left rock and dirt and made their way closer to the river, tall grasses overgrown along the forgotten trail.

"Gær, Yetrema, Kamna, Lun, Ezith, Atti, Reba, and Bakta. Each of them were capable of incredible feats as mortals."

"Tireless fighting, moving through any physical material, magic beyond anything you've seen, that I've seen," Arctus spoke with wonder, re-telling the tales his people passed down.

"I can, you've not observed me perform them. An Aeternian can attune themselves with one of the eight heroes, it requires many weeks, dedication, and action to prove you can embody their greatness. The presence of the particular star in the sky is needed."

"So, I could never learn one then?" Scout Silver pressed his questions while they crossed an old log bridge acros the river following him.

"We're getting a little close," Silver Spike announced, approaching a new cavern at the side of the close Foal Mountain.

Plated Shell began laughing and stamping his hooves in a prance as they traveled, "I...this is going to be the best project I've worked on!"

"Good, Silver Spike, Master Arctus, please go and fetch me some wood and leave the coal here," the young smith instructed as he went into the cavern.

Arctus dropped the coal bags at the entrance, "you still bring a hatchet and knife everywhere you go, right?"

"Good, let's get to work so you can have a weapon meant for a Scout." Arctus headed for small trees in the area while Silver took a different route.

In only thirty minutes, the two of them reconvened with Plated Shell at the end of the tunnel where he had already set up a spot to forge with minimal tools. The mark of a good smith was never all the equipment used, but what a smith could do with the basics.

At the behest of the young smith, Arctus quickly lit the small amount of dried leaves he got, transfering flame from that to sticks to the proper firewood the Scouts gathered.

"We had some holes made in the top of the cavern at the magma flow for that reason," Silver Spike explained, "the mage who did it was very talented, Princess Celestia spent a sum to do this."

"Now to begin my work, I'll be awake for a long period of time doing this, so if either of you wish to sleep, go outside the cavern, it will be loud."

Coals were added to the fire, an entire bag. Slowly at first and then rapidly as the flames roared tall and the cavern started to get even hotter than with just the red magma flow present just four feet away from the small anvil Plated Shell brought.

Plated Shell had shoved a steel beam into the coals directly until it began to glow just like the lava in the cavern. Arctus and Silver Spike watched on in awe as he gripped the end with his glove and held it to the anvil.

The hammering resounded as he pounded the blade before his voice heaved with every bit of air in his lungs.

"WATER!" Silver Spike galloped out of the cavern with a large wooden bin to the river.

"When it comes time for final tempering, you must be here. This is a tradition of your people and I do not want to make a mistake."

Arctus grunted with a nod and walked to the magma flow, drawing his knife as he poured sweat, the hunting knife with his single intial on it was pressed to his forearm and his made a deep cut, flexing his muscles before cleaning the knife and pocketing it back.

Red drips landed on the magma, sizzling immediately until the flow from his flesh picked up, the blood began to change properties after mere seconds.

And instead of sizzling away, it flowed deeper into the magma and the lava itself began to change color from a bright orange to a deep red, the rocks still present in the stream melted.

And it was all liquid, not a single mineral remained unmelted in the flow that was beginning to rage and move faster.

Plated Shell gave the magma a glance before giving it a smile. This was the blood of an Aeternian, tied so closely to volcanic activity that it could change it, no wonder only an Aeternian could use the magics they could, they were nothing short of an extraordinary human.

Silver Spike returned with a bin filled with water and Plated Shell stopped hammering to fetch a wood tankard from his saddlebag and scooped the water, drinking greedily before he secured a tall rectangular metal box, holding it in place with rocks from the cavern. He continued hammering.

Arctus chose to monitor the magma to ensure he didn't add too much of his blood to cause it to rage. Silver Spike was stuck between going outside to avoid passing out and coming inside to monitor progress. The two even went hunting together and foraged for food, properly boiling water before Plated Shell took another deep guzzle.

That morning, they could still faintly hear the pounding of metal from the cave and they foraged off even more food from the bountiful lands of Equestria, giving fresh edible fruits and plants to the smith as well.

"Arctus!" A very familiar voice, although now booming but not in anger, in worry.

"FINAL TEMPERING. COUPLE HOURS," Plated Shell shouted over his own hammering and the loud fire near him.

The Master Scout left the cavern to see Celestia, the alicorn unaccompaned by any guard.

"Firstly, allow me to lecture you on staying home for a while before heading out of Canterlot when you just return," she sighed, nudging her cheek to his, "secondly, we have important business," she raised a gold laced blackened javelin and a letter still tied to the shaft of it.

"Savus would never...and he's not got the means to smith this under our noses," Arctus reached for the weapon and Celestia gently placed it in his hands with her magic.

For the eyes of Princess Celestia and Master Scout Arctus

It was there written in black charcoal, "they've been watching us...they know that I am a Master now."

"Before I read, you must understand something about this, Celly," Arctus' voice turned grave, "the javelin with a note attached is how Aeternia declares a formal war. Sometimes it is sent before, sometimes after, a Scout's arrival. It's a promise of death, destruction, and ruin."

Princess Celestia
Master Scout Arctus

I've seen Equestria grow into a great nation whose resources and power may rival my own. Arctus has established an order of Scouts and brought peace to all of the nation, as expected of the Starborn. However, he, you Arctus; differ from every other Aeternian in the compassion you have shown this species where as I have become the shadow ruler of an entire different nation with military force. Princess Celestia, you have sent a scout in to investigate me. Keep the javelin, do not return it.

Do not travel to my nation again, this is my one warning, Princess Celestia.

I will be seeing to Arctus myself eventually, pray to whatever Gods you hold dear that he kills me in my endeavor or you'll find yourself at the mercy of a more true-to-home Aeternian.

Arctus' eyes stared at the page for a while longer before handing it to Celestia and letting his lover read over it.

Celestia's expression did not waver, but after reading through the letter she exhaled slowly before inhaling and taking on a smile, "I knew there was something special about you, even of your own kind."

Arctus didn't meet her eyes, keeping them locked to the javelin, the smallest display of embarassment, "they...Hazth is coming for me one day. We don't know when, but he will eventually come to Equestria and to go to his lands is to accept his challenge of open warfare."

"Then you're not going, simple enough. I'll keep you home," her wings folded around him, "Strong Stitch and Silver Spike can take turns keeping watch and observing from the Southern lands. I'll ensure a way for quick communication should the need to alert use arise."

"I know what you're capable of and some I still don't. Another Master Scout has threatened you...the potential for you to die is a real scenario," the words dripped with the imagination of funereal doom.

"You understand that if he comes, I won't run," Arctus tried to plant his stance firmly.

"Someone would need to stop him from trampling every pony he can," he smiled up at her, taking soft fur to his chest and tangling his fingers in her coat.

Celestia lent herself to the warm hug, "this is a situation only you and I should handle, no word of this to anyone."

"I imagined so," Arctus answered, "I'll be ready, don't worry. Hazth was a reknowned Master Scout who had a legal document made with the Savus and the head of the Temple to conclude that only he was allowed to attack one of our two largest neighbors. He spent nine years in the terrirtoy of Gurdalk, a nation that was half the size of Aeternia, but one we knew would make us suffer heavy losses if we went to war with."

"He killed every single Gurdalk, the scouting party sent when he returned home reported no one was left alive and everything was a ghost town. Fortresses, castles, towns, and cities all destroyed. Corpses everywhere, left rotting. He used every tactic a Scout would dare to."

"Bloody. Strung bodies, guts plastered on buildings, people burnt alive, poisons and toxins, Hazth even had the nerve to use natural predators and parasites, purposefully tainting water and people's foods. I saw traces of the same disease spell I can use," Arctus sighed, "he has no restraint on his tactics, quite like myself. I only saw him when he had returned and on two occassions that night."

"Let me handle that problem," Arctus smiled, "I've got two Scouts under me, I can put them and assign them right where they need to be. I can also work with Shining Armor to make patrols efficient for this new situation."

"Not now, he's going to wait until something forces him to or for the best opportunity. That means I'm not leaving to a far out land again. He won't have that opportunity."

"Hard to say, he likely doesn't know everything. I know some of what he can do. He uses a jeddart axe and I've seen him send some a Scout flying with it...I watched him fight three fully trained and experienced Scouts to a stale mate in a duel on the Salt Flats."

"That's frightening. I hope, I really hope you'll come out victorious when the time comes."

"On the wispy blade of Kamna, I will," he swore to the first Hero who favored him. Celestia straightened herself, dropping off the grim atmosphere at a whim.

"Now, mind telling me why you aren't resting in your quarters after such a daunting assignment?" Almost like a chiding caretaker. But she was the only pony, only being who ever took the task of caring for him, excluding those who fed him as a child.

"That hammering, is Silver Spike's weapon being made?" Celestia released her official courter, looking at the cavern entrance.

"I warn you, it's incredibly hot in there. Silver Spike and I have been taking turns to fetch water to prevent Plated Shell from passing out."

"Oh, I'll be fine," Celestia lit her horn and a yellow shield bubbled around her while she merrily trotted into the cavern, "I want to see this tradition you hold so close to heart."

Arctus shook his head at the full grown mare, she was as studious as Twilight was according to her mentions of the student.

After a few minutes of walking through the tunnel, they reached the young smith who peeked at the movement in the corner of his eye, refusing to acknowledge Celestia.

At Shell's shout, Arctus rushed over to his side, guiding him to the magma strem and roughly grabbing the whole front leg of Silver Spike. The MAster's hunting knife drew a long cut diagonally across it and watched the blood stream out before dripping fast onto the red hot glow of the blade.

Arctus pointed to the long rectangle box of quenching oil and Plated Shell dipped it for two seconds before pulling it back out. Arctus open the wound on his forearm again and added more blood to the magama flow, watching it return to the deep shade of red when he first tested the possibility.

Plated Shell dipped the weapon's tip into the magma, but Arctus forced the entirety of the solid steel piece in, watching the magma flow further down.

And the shortsword appeared again, floating to the surface of the lava, the Master Scout forcefully took the tongs of Plated Shell and retrieved it, setting it atop his anvil. The young smith went back over, fetching his hammer while Arctus grabbed Silver Spike's hoof again and forced more blood to drip onto the almost finished blade. The Aeternian made the gesture to hammer and temper and Shell did so, the sound reverberating loud, then louder, and it shook loose pebbles free from the top of the cavern.

A deep blue and lavender sheen glazed over the weapon before it turned from a shiny steel to a dark black, holding the light lavender color along what would become the sharpened edges of the weapon.

The blade was somehow already cooled and the weapon's handle was soon wrapped, providing grip. There were no other adjustments made, it was a simple a weapon as any other, but it held secrets.

Plated Shell began to rapidly pack his unused materials and tools up, Arctus assisted him while Silver Spike picked the new sword up, staring at it with his jaw open.

"Mine is tied to volcanic activity, like every Aeternian. The lava here responded the same. The blood was to signify the Scout that the weapon was being made for, which is why I cut Silver Spike open so thoroughly."

"I've bandaged it while you two were working," he answered with a big grin, "Master Arctus, could you help me test it?"

"I can, but with those two colors, I can imagine the Hero that recognized you as a scout, he might have put a lot of energy into that shortsword of yours," he drew his spear and the two of them traveled a little away from Celestia and Shell.

"When I wish to use the innate ability of my spear, I let my mana flow into it," he points his weapon skyward and a blue flame shoots many meters higher from the tip of it, "so, first try that."

"Try a simple levitation spell on it, just while you hold it, but don't follow with the intent to actually move the object," Princess Celestia advised after, in terms the unicorn might understand.

A stretch of lavender and deep blue was sent as silent wave, extending the slash of the weapon far into the air. Atonishment was found all around at the new destructive capable of the shortsword held in Silver's hoof.

An Aeternian's Conviction

by The Real Darkness

The Notice and Recognition