Watching Silver repair the blades was amazing. He pounded on the red hot metal with different tools. Fixed cracks and dents, even forging a new half for the broken blade. This is awesome! Never thought I’d get to see something like this. Me and Misty watched from the side of the shop as Silver worked at the forge. A few times the big stallion that owned the shop would come check on us, but other than that we were left alone. We learned the shop owners name was Heavy Set. I read it on a sign he had in the back. ‘Heavy Set’s Tools’. It looked like an old business sign. “So, how much longer will this take?” Misty asked for the fifth time. She fidgeted beside me as I sighed. Be patient!!
“Caaw!” I shouted at her. I glared as she shrunk a little.
“Ok ok. I’ll be quiet.” She stopped talking......for five seconds. “So, how long does this USUALLY take?” Silver sagged a little as my feathers flashed red.
“Hey!” I looked up to see Heavy standing in the door way. “Do that again.” I looked around and then pointed at myself. “Yes you.” I shrugged and flashed my feathers red again. “How do you do that?”
“Chirp”
“Hmmm. Here, try this.” Heavy handed me a quill and some paper. Uuuuh. How, do I use this. I looked up at him. “Oh right. Here.” He pulled and ink pot from....somewhere. That didn’t help. I decided to bite the bullet and just try it. Levitating the quill, I dipped it in the ink. I started writing on the paper, and the result was surprisingly good. ‘Magic.’ Heavy looked at the paper and then back at me. “I know that ya dumb bird!” He face hoofed. Grumbling, he walked up to me and plucked a feather.
“Caaaw!!” I yelled at him.
“Oh hush ya baby.” Heavy looked closely at my feathers. “Hmmmm, this might work.”
“What?” Misty flew up,to look over his shoulder. “All I see is a magic feather.”
“That right. Magic.” Heavy glared at her. “I’m sure a guard pegasi has heard of enchanted weapons before. Unless the pegasi have lowered their guards standards even more.” Misty glared at him, puffing out steam.
“Why you little!” Misty looked ready to charge at him. I cleared my throat and tapped his shoulder.
“Chirp?” I pointed at the feather.
“Ah, yes.” Heavy turned towards me. “You see, I had tha chance to work with a phoenix feather a long time ago. Very rare, very special. Tha properties it put in the metal were nothing short of amazing. Steel was ten times stonger. It’s cuts burned and the blades never dulled. I was simply thinking about what your feather could do.” He got a contemplative look. “I think-.” He hesitated a moment. “I’ve heard of phoenixes before.” He continued. “But I’ve never heard of a creature like you. And if I got one chance in my life to work with a Phoenix feather, well, I’ll probly never get another chance for one of yours.” He stopped and looked directly at me. “I’d be willing to forge anything you want, if you’d let me have some feathers to work with. I would love to forge some enchanted weaponry again.” He looked longingly at the feather for a moment before his face hardened and he looked back at me. “Well? What do you say?” Anything I want? For some feathers? That sounds like a good deal to me.
“Crrrrrrr.” Ooh, that’s a new one.
“I’ll take that as a yes?” Heavy looked hopefully at me. I nodded my head. “Great! I’ll just get these down to the smeltery!” With that he reached over and yanked a few more feathers from me.
“Caaaw!!” He ran out of the house looking like a kid that just got candy. I’m going to be featherless if this keeps up.
“Sooooo, now you two are business partners?” Misty had an extremely confused look on her face. “It seems like you got a really good deal. And I thought he was just a jerk.” Silver continued to hammer away in the back ground. Until he stopped anyway. Suddenly my wings were extended and a measuring tape held up to them.
“Chirp?” I looked over my shoulder at Silver.
“Keep still.” Silver surprised us by talking. When the mute pony speaks, it must be important. I stood as still as possible until he let my wings down and went back to hammering.
“Chirp?” He didn’t respond to my questioning bird noises. Instead he just kept hammering. I looked over at Misty.
“Do I look like a mind reader? Come on, I wanna see what’s happening at the Smeltery.” With that, Misty flew out the door. Literally.
“Hurry up! Geez!” Misty shouted from the doorway. I gave her an irritated look as I waited for the elderly pony in front of me to move. When they were out of the way I walked up to the Smeltery entrance. “About time.” Misty flew in ahead of me. I walked in just in time to hear Heavy talking to someone in the back.
“Is it ready?” Heavy asked.
“Would you calm down ya youngster. This takes time ya know.” An old mare replied. Me and Misty entered into the back room in time to see an earth pony mare carry a cast iron pot of molten metal over to Heavy. “There. That should work jus fine. Now mah payment? Steel isn’t cheap to make ya know. Especially this pure.”
“Yeah, here ya go Hilda.” Heavy hoofed over a good sized bag of what I’m assuming was bits. “Now, let’s get this started.” Me and Misty watched from the back as Heavy dropped one of my feathers into the red metal. Even Hilda watched with interest. Heavy grabbed a long metal rod from a rack and began to stir the feather in. Once it was completely submerged, a flash of blue light erupted from the pot. “Quick! Grab me those molds!” He pointed at me. I looked around the room until I found an open container full of molds. I flew over and grabbed them with my claws. Carrying them over was a chore, they were very heavy. “Thank you. Now back away please.” He shooed me away. He placed the molds he needed on the floor and began to poor the metal into them. The metal cooled unnaturally quick, and was left a silvery blue color. “Amazing. I can’t wait to see what this stuff does.”
“You don’t know what it does? But you made it? What if it, blows up or something?” Misty asked. Heavy’s happy look was replaced with one of irritation.
“That’s not how this type of enchantment works. One would think that a pegasus would know that. Especially one with a military background like yer’s.” Heavy responded. “I’ll be at the forge if you need me. Trying out this new metal. Maybe make you a REAL pair of wing blades.” Misty’s face turned red with anger at that comment.
“You little!” She flew after him. Only to hit the door when he shut it. “Aaarrrrgh!! I wanna kill him!” She kicked open the door and flew off to the hotel. I looked at the mare still in the room with me.
“You’ve got yer self quite the group yungun. Hehe. Hope you can rein em in.” Hilda chuckled to herself as she walked further into the building. You have no idea. Now, after that ridiculously cool display, I think I’m going to sleep. With that, I flew on to the hotel. Can’t wait to see what that metal does.