//------------------------------// // Dream of a wing embrace and Dragotharium // Story: Time never stands still // by Dradavar //------------------------------// Chapter 7 The wind blows through the little gazebo, sending the snowflakes into my face. The warmth of the little colt Anvil, leaning heavy against my back, making it able for me to atleast try to ignore the cold stormy winter day around me. "You heard what they said?" the little Anvil asks, trying to stretch his right wing in it's cast making him whince quietly. "Yes" I answer, pulling the scarf up to my nostrils trying in vain to warm my face. A quite sob behind me makes me turn around, Anvil was sitting there his face buried in his fronthooves as he tries to stop the tears from falling. "I never wanted that" he sobs, "I never wanted to have them anyway!" he folds his left wing in front of his face, biting deep into the muscles, making him whince more and even more tears fall. I walk in front of him. And slap him, making him stop biting down on his wing, his big eyes looking up into my own. I walk to his sight, into his unfolded wing and fold it around myself, embracing myself with the warm down. "Why do you hate them?" I cuddle myself deeper into his coat, enjoying the warmth, "they're sooo cuddly" I even blush a little bit. My eyes are closed so I don't see him blushing. The tears have stopped streaming down his face as he folds his wing closer around me, warming me even more. A warm drop of blood rolls down the side of his wing, dripping down on my nose. A smile appears on my face as I lick the drop of blood off my nose. "So warm" I whisper. I open my eyes again. Embraced by the soft sheets. A single tear streams down my cheek. I wipe it away. My eyes fall on Garnjiel, leaning against the bedpost. The rune on it, my rune, that was emitting a beautiful orange before had changed to a deep crimson. A soft knock comes from the door. I sit up and look at the door. Another knock, a little bit harder this time. I yawn. "Come in" I say loud. The door opens, the maid from the evening before walks in a big bag on her back, she smiles and bows slightly. "Good morning miss" she smiles at me, "princess Celestia sends me. She asks if you want to have brunch with her and her sister Luna" dropping the bag and opening it she pulls out a long, yellow dress. A simple dress, nothing special about it in any way. Just a simple yellow dress. It was perfect. I jump out of the sheets with eager, looking at the dress. 'I had never the chance to actually wear one' my eyes take notice of the simplicity of the dress. The only accent was a small, very small, little sun on each sleeve I didn't notice before. The maid was still wearing the warm smile as she lay the dress down onto my bed, "princess Celestia also asks if you could bring..." she stopps for a second, taking a note out of her pocket, "Garn-.... Garniel?" "Garnjiel" I tell her the right way to pronounce it. "Right. She asks if you could bring Garnjiel with you" she puts the note back into her pocket, looking at me, waiting. "I don't know why I should" looking at the gigantic blade, "but tell her I'm happy to accompany her by the brunch and I will also bring Garnjiel with me." "Thank you very much I will deliver the message right away" with another bow she walks to the door, "Shining Armor will pick you up and escort you to the princess." "Thanks" the maid turns around but I stop her, "wait. What's your name?" She looks back at me, still smiling, "my name is Lovely Smile" she bows again, "if you excuse me now. I have to go back to work." I close the door behind her. With a sigh I turn around, looking at the dress. Squealing like a little filly I walk to try it on. After a minute or two, trying to find a way how to get it on, I'm finally in it. Walking to the mirror I look at myself. May I add, I was standing there mouth agape? The dress seems to be enchanted, I noticed it as my mane was being moved on it's own, flowing up and down and finally resting. My long mane had turned into a cute long ponytail, a magical flower, a violet, appearing on the knot. Too be short, I looked breathtaking. And it was something I never did before. Enjoying something as simple as getting dressed up. It was a strange feeling. And it wasn't a bad one either. With another squeal I turn around and look at the clock over the door, it was almost half-past 10. There was a soft knock on the door. "Coming!" I answer with glee, opening the door. Shining Armor was on the other side, in his best dress, a red vest, with a blue cord and a few medals. I giggle. He avoids looking at me, he looks up to the ceiling, totally shy. After a few seconds he notices his rudeness and looks at me, blushing almost instantly, he bows. "You look astounding" he flatters me. "Right back at you" I answer with a big smile. We both stand there, looking at each other, first a few second, then some more. Suddenly he clears his throat, another blush on his face. "Ready to go?" he asks friendly. "Yes" I say, turning around I haul the giant sword on my back. It's inherent magic notices the dress, sheathing the blade in something what seems to be a sheath made of flowers, roses to be precise. And the harness keeping it on my back was melting through the dress, wrapping itself around my body but under the dress, making it invisible this way. Shining looks at me with big eyes, "is it really necessary that you take it with you?" his sounds almost worried, "we're going to a brunch with the princesses, not into war." "War can always strike" I answer, sticking out my tongue, "and the princess asked me to bring it to her" Shinings eyes widen, but he says nothing just nods. "Well then" he smiles, "let's go." I smile. After a few minutes walking through the castle we're finally in the palace garden. The garden was gigantic, filled with so many flower, I didn't know most of them, they didn't exist back in my time, but it was nonetheless beautiful. The two princesses were already sitting at a white table, silver cutlery and a bottle of wine, together with warm bread and fruits. Just simple things, things you wouldn't expect a princess to eat for brunch. "Siren, Shining" she smiles as she notices us approaching, "good to see you" Luna was nodding into my direction. "Thanks for the invitation" Shining answers with a deep bow. "Yes, thank you for the invitaion" I add, "and thanks for the dress. I never had a chance to actually wear one, so I'm more than a little bit nervous wearing it" I smile. "Oh don't be so shy" Celestia was still smiling, "you look good in it" Luna was, again, simply nodding. "Thank you Celestia" I bow slightly, Lunas eyes widen, something irritated her, opening her mouth she notices Celestias glare and so she closes it again. "It's been a long time since I was simply called Celestia" she smiles again. My stomach growls, I blush. I'm getting even redder than the strawberries on the table. Celestia laughs, "well then, shall we start?" she sits down at the table, pointing at the places on the opposite site of the table. I nod, moving the blade off my back I place it carefully on the grass, the sheath made of roses merging with the grass, the flowers grow, almost covering it completly. Nopony says anything about this strange phenomenon. Shining blushes as he sits next to me, I can't stop myself from doing so too. Celestia laughs again, but doesn't say anything. And so we eat. And talk. Nothing actually happens, besides that one awkward moment when my hoof touched Shinings as we both tried to get the last strawberry, with deep blushes we looked at each other waiting for the other to take it, in the end Luna was the happy pony getting it, using our hesitation. "So" Luna smiles, dabbing her lips with a napkin. "So" Celestia also smiles. Nopony says anything, hesitant to destroy the silence. It got pretty awkward, pretty quickly. "Well, let's get down to business" Celestia simply states after a few moments, "I saw you brought Garnjiel" I nod, "would you be so nice to lay it on the table?" the very moment she said that the table changes, the cutlery and everything else disappearing from it, the table changing colour, from white to grey, the same grey as Garnjiel. My eyes widen as I notice the colour. Shinings eyes were even wider. "That is not some transforming magic" he looks at the table curiously, noticing the runes at the edge of the table. "No it's not" Celestia nods, "the table" she stopps for a second as I lay down Garnjiel on the table, "and also this sword are both made with the same material" Shining looks at Garnjiel, noticing the burning rune on it. "I've never heard of a ore that has inherent magic" he looks at Celestia. "it's not a ore" Celestia closes her eyes, explaining. "It's called Dragotharium, or as the commoner back then may have called it 'Dragon-Ore'" Shining was now looking confused. "But didn't you just say it's not an ore?" he asks quietly, not wanting to doubt his princess. "As I said, the commoner, ponies who didn't know what exactly it is called it that way. Dragotharium is a unbelievably rare material" she looks at me, her expression changes to stern, "you remember why don't you?" I nod. "Dragotharium is a material we ponies developed over 1700 years ago, and something we are no longer able to make" her eyes wander back to Shining, seeing his confusion. "Well you see-" Celestia starts. "Dragotharium is made of dragons" I interrupt her, Shining looks at me, mouth agape, "it's a alloy we made, by burning dragonbones to ash and melting their scales, combine those and you get dragnit, a very shiny but rather weak material, but by combining it with molten steel and more dragonbone ash and cooling it with dragon saliva it gets unbelievable strong, making it almost impossible to work with it" I look at Shining who looks back at me, disbelief in his eyes. "I know that cause we, the Eclipse guard, had to past a special test. The test was a two parter. First, we had to take our favorite weapon and had to defeat the respective trainer. After that, the second test, was to use the very same weapon and hunt down a dragon" I close my eyes, remembering the exam, remembering the scent of burning corpses, the taste of blood on my tongue... "when we started the test we were twelve ponies. The other seven died, burned alive" Shining looks at Celestia, his expression was still one of disbelief, but Celestia simply nodded. "Well, after one week of traveling we were finally in the dragonlands, far to the west" I continue the explanation, "so we went out and hunted down a dragon each. Even though we were ordered to get small one so we could transport them back to Equestria, I went out and killed a big one, I knew if I wanted a claymore I would need more dragnit, means I needed more bones, scales and saliva. So after we diemboweld my dragon we went back with the other dragon corpses and my materials, back to the only pony to that time who knew how to forge dragotharium" I point at Celestia, "King Solaris Sunstrider" even Celestia has a shiver running down her spine by hearing this old name, the name of her father. "He used the materials we brought and forged our weapons, tempering them in dragonblood and whetting them with a diamond grinder. My blade was the last, cause it was the biggest after all. The special about making these weapons, or things like this table, is that they need a 'master' the blood of someone who they would listen too, after all it was magical material. So every Eclipse guard had to use some of their own blood, making a pact with their weapon, giving it a name." I look down at Garnjiel, "Garnjiel was a really pain in the ass" the rune emitting more light, reacting to my speech, "Even King Solaris had many problems wielding and moving the blade while forging it, it was simply to big and heavy, luckily it wasn't already immune to magic in that state." I go on explaining the small things, how I came up with the name, which was in reality simply a made up name, or how the blade got immune to magic, not getting to far into detail, only telling him that unicorn blood and dragon intestines were part of it, I finish the explanation. Shining looked like his brain was ready to ooze out of his ears, luckily it didn't. "So in the end" he speaks slowly and looks at me, "you're a dragon slayer?" Celestia laughs, holding a hoof in front of her mouth and trying to stiffle it. Luna who fell asleep in the sun, somewhere halfway through the explanation, looks up at the sound of hearing Celestia laugh. I giggle too, "yes I am" I nod. Luna lays her head back down on her hooves, slowly dozing off again. Celestia, who was silent through the whole explanation, only interrupting to say a word or two I didn't remember correctly or I explained to vaguely, she stands up, stretching herself, I could here the popping sounds of her back and other joints perfectly, she sits back down, looking at Garnjiel. "So" she starts, and points at Garnjiel, "where did you manage to crack a undestroyable material?" "By my fight with Discord" Celestias eyes widen, "either dragotharium isn't as undestructible as we think or we underestimated the power of Discords chaos-magic, well however, when I charged at him and he blocked the hit with his bare paw, he managed to crack the sword" Celestia nods, hearing my explanation. Suddenly her expression turns into a sorrowfull gaze. "Maybe-" Celestia slowly starts as a sudden chime interrupts her, she looks at the canterlot clocktower. It was already 12. Her eyes widen and she stands up, "it was nice to share some time with you but I have to go now, court won't hold itself" she smiles, but everypony sees that it's a fake smile, but we also knew that she would never smile like that in front of her subjects. Celestia points at the sword, "it would be nice of you if you could bring the sword into my study, I want to have a look at it, maybe I can repair it" she smiles, a real honest smile this time. I stand up, only to bow again, "thank you Celestia" I say smiling. Celestia disappears in a golden flash. Luna was still lying in the warm grass, sleeping quietly. I turn to Shining, seeing him deep in thoughts. "You okay?" I ask him, he looks at me, "you look confused" I smile. "Oh. Oh yes, I am confused but... well it's not my job understanding this stuff anyway" he giggles. I look at him, seeing him giggle. It was a cute giggle, his eyes closed, his head slightly tilted. A impulse tells me to do something. I walk closer and give him a little kiss on the cheek. He stopps giggling and looks at me in shock, in shock and blushing. I shy away, looking back to the castle, I turn back around and give him a wink, turning around I walk slowly back to the castle. "What was that for?" Shining shouts after me, I turn around, sticking out my tongue. "Just for fun" I answer shouting back, I turn back around, walking again. Shining was still sitting at the table, Garnjiel still on it. "Just for fun" I whisper to myself, not sure how to explain the strange feeling in my stomach. "Just for fun" I whisper again, this time with a giggle.