Prism fussed about in her bed, tossing and turning. Looking up toward the stars, she remembered something similar in her youth. A smile came upon her face as her thoughts went toward the story that her pa had told her that night…
* * * * *
Hammer continued packing his bags, already towering things, with anything that he could think to bring and then some. His old friend, Storm Front, was impatiently waiting on a cloud he’d dragged down. Frustrated with Hammer’s need for preparation, Storm groaned “Hammer, I think you have half your shop in that bag. We’ll be fine.”
Hammer scoffed at his friend’s eagerness, “We’re about to go trekking up a mountain, trying to enchant this armor, and you think I should go in without whatever I need?”
Storm slowly raised an eyebrow, before flitting his wings up to the top of the bag, drawing out a kitchen sink. As if his face didn’t say it all, he spoke flatly “Really?” Shrugging off his friend’s criticisms, Hammer insisted he put it back. After all, they wouldn’t know what they need for the enchantment until it’s started. This elicited another groan from Storm, who began physically shoving the much larger stallion out the door. “Hey, it’s your call if you’re the one carrying it.” Storm joked, managing to get at least a light laugh from Hammer.
The two set forth on the trail, winding and working its way slowly up the mountain. Some way outside of the town, Hammer stopped, causing Storm to run into the towering bag in the middle of a backstroke. Agitated, Storm landed to tell Hammer off, “What was that about?”
Hammer had a long stare about him, and showed his trepidation on his face, “I don’t travel much, Storm. You know that. This’ll be the furthest from home I’ve ever been.”
Nodding in affirmation, Storm patted his buddy on the shoulder, “Yeah, I thought this might happen.” He continued, trying to snap his friend out of it, “The problem is, that sorcerer said we needed to bring the mountain’s roots to its head to get magic to take hold.” Seeing that this was doing nothing, Storm got a sly smile as he thought of how to egg his friend on. “Of course, if some cardio is enough to stop your betrothal gift-”
His taunting was interrupted by a suddenly running Hammer, in spite of the great pack on his back. Smiling at his friend, Hammer teased him back, “C’mon Stormie, I thought you were fast.” The two encouraging and pushing each other, they managed to reach the icy peak while the last rays of light were still upon them. Exhausted, Storm collapsed into the snow before darting up into the air at the cold. Hammer laughed at his friend’s antics, barely winded as he started to set up camp. Unpacking from his bags, the two stallions built up their camp. Near the fire, on a truss, Hammer put up the armor. A true masterpiece, he looked with pride on its shining plates of beautiful steel.
Settled around the fire, Storm commented on Hammer’s pride, “You know, when I heard you were working on something for thirty weeks, I thought you were daft. I’ve got to say, this was worth it.”
Still proudly grinning, Hammer replied, “Aye, but let’s see about enchanting it.” He pulled a parchment, carefully folded, out of his pocket. Bringing it out to its full size, the wind suddenly picked up, tearing the paper away. Hammer gave a sharp cry as he reached futilely out toward the drifting page, before seeing a dark shape swoop it up.
As Hammer barely managed to get over the near loss of the page, Storm couldn’t help but laugh as he handed it back. “Now what would you do without me?” Whatever he was expecting, it wasn’t the sincere, crushing hug that ensued as his old friend thanked him. More seriously, Storm spoke again after a moment of silence, “She really does mean a lot to you doesn’t she?” Hammer nodded with tears in his eyes as he weighted down the corners of the page on the folding desk he’d brought. Storm flew over to the desk to see the arcane instructions they’d been set to follow. Putting his hoof on Hammer’s shoulder again, he looked him in the eyes, “Then how about we wait until morning so we don’t screw this up.” Hammer barely agreed, and the two had a fitful sleep atop the mountain.
The first day they set to the task of starting the magical matrix. The vessel was certainly satisfactory, an exemplary piece of precision engineering, but the matrix would need to be activated. The caster told them this could be done by giving it exposure to all of the four elements. Since metal like this was brought from the depths of the mountain and forged in a hot furnace, it had seen both of these on the earth. Now, in the sky it would need to meet the air and water combined. The two stallions puzzled over this interpretation for hours, until Hammer looked down from their mountain peak camp and saw thunderstorm in the distance.
While Storm flew to ‘borrow’ a storm cloud, Hammer carefully bent wire into shape to create a lightning rod with a branching base, able to reach the magical focal point of each plate of armor. With a swift kick from Storm, a thunderous crash echoed across the mountainside, and the very power of the lightning strike was funneled into the armor as it arced and leaped through the wires of gold, completing its matrix. Unfortunately, the lightning continued to flow from the dark cloud.
Hammer sensed that something was going wrong, as the matrix was starting to overload. Unable to find anything else, he did the first thing he could think of, grabbing his smithing hammer and striking the lightning rod. The lightning found its alternate route, and began to course through the body of the earth pony. Looking down, Storm saw what was happening and shoved the cloud away, but it seemed to be too late as Hammer collapsed to the ground with scorches along his body. Storm panicked, shaking his friend, before Hammer gave a great groan of pain and opened his eyes. He seemed more concerned with the armor, and Storm had to convince him to call that a day.
As it turned out, the lightning had caused an energy overload, but between Hammer and his hammer, they’d managed to leverage the overload. While this had changed the intended shape of the matrix, their new solution seemed to spread in arcing patterns from node to node of the magical field around the armor, capable of better mitigating impact across the entirety of the armor’s surface.
As the rays of the sun faded, and the moon rose, another light joined them in the sky. The two had heard of the aurora lights before, but never been high and far north enough to see them. Amazed at the spectacle, Hammer knew that he needed to tap into that magic. Bandages from after the lightning strike were too restrictive for him to work yet, so he asked Storm to check for him on how it could be done.
Storm looked to the parchment, seeing that an emotional component would be needed to catch the heavens and bind them. The aurora lights had long been associated with love, so that was the emotion to give, but unfortunately Hammer was someone who kept his emotions fairly personal. This would take a special touch, Storm decided. Speaking to his friend sincerely, “It says we need a song. A song meant for the item’s bearer.”
Hammer’s face scrunched up in doubt and confusion, “Does it really say that?” Storm nodded empathetically. Hammer scoffed, “Magic is magic I suppose. Mind fetching my pipes?” Storm flew around the bags searching, before returning with a large set of bagpipes. Thanking his friend, Hammer began to start a soulful dirge on the pipes. He played a song of struggle, love and loss. The tune brought sweet tears to the eyes of both stallions, and even the aurora lights crept down closer and closer to hear the beautiful music. By the time the song had finished, Hammer took a cloth to dry his eyes, and Storm saw his chance, “You love her, don’t you?”
Looking his friend dead in the eyes as more happy tears streamed down his face, Hammer managed to say what his heart felt, “Of course I do, I love her more than anything in the world. She’s the greatest mare I’ve ever met, and I can only hope I’m good enough for her.” With these words, a confession of love, the Aurora lights touched upon the mountain top. The stallions were in a prismatic stream of light and color, like a river of rainbow light flowing through them. It lasted for just a moment, but when the lights returned to the sky, they had left their gift in the steel of the plate. With wonder, the friends saw the shifting light of the aurora moving within the armor, an image alongside the reflection. The matrix had been filled, and the magic was complete.
Storm and Hammer made their trek back to their small village, and Hammer presented his betrothal gift to Sight Ward. She wept at his gesture, and embraced him closely. She assured him that such an adventure hadn’t been necessary, but he corrected her, insisting it had all been worth it to see her smile. They married that same day, and the rest was living out their happy ever after…
* * * * *
Prism slept as well that night as she did the first time she’d heard that story, all those years ago. Looking to her armor in its resting place, she swore a ribbon of swirling color moved across it just as she faded to sleep.