//------------------------------//
// I Like The New Look 
// Story: Metal Ringing 
// by 1000Fights 
//------------------------------//

	Aquinas looked in the mirror with a sense of esteem and pride. He always felt good in new formal attire, and this time was no exception. The royal blue frock coat was complimented by the waist coat that shared the same color. Both were trimmed with gold and the buttons were rather intricate in their design. A white silk ruffling protruded from the middle of the coat. His breeches were bleach-white and tight fitting. His built legs seemed to almost rip out of the thin fabric, but the material to make them was rather strong, even though it was so light. It not only managed to hold its form, but didn't rip when he moved his legs in different positions. Some of which being almost unnatural to any sort of movement that one would expect to be making while wearing such attire. 

"I must say, Charmer." Aquinas said with enthusiasm. "This has got to be one of the best outfits I think I have worn. My dress blues are my favorite thing to wear, but this just might make the list of attire that I will want to wear to every occasion."

Charmer beamed at the statement. "You think so?" he squeaked. "I was afraid that you wouldn't like the style or the color. Though I take all that into consideration when designing clothing. Except yours was actually easier than most."

"Why is that?" Aquinas asked in humble curiosity. 

"Well . . ." Sparkle Charmer's voice trailed off. He found the next words hard to say. "It's just that . . . I usually have designs that fit the princess', or anyone else's . . . cutie mark."

Aquinas chuckled at this. "In case you didn't know, Mister Charmer." he said. "I, along with my brother, are not natives to Equestria. We do not have or get cutie marks. At least as far as I know."

"Oh." Charmer said. "I just didn't want to offend you is all." 

Aquinas chuckled again. "You have done no such thing, my friend." 

Charmer beamed again. "I have made another friend!" he cried out with a crack in his voice. "Oh I can't wait to tell Winter White." 

"Who's Winter White?" Aquinas asked as he creased his collar and fluffed up his jacket while looking in a mirror. "Are they one of your friends in fashion?"

"No." he said with enthusiasm. "She's my wife, silly." 

Aquinas jolted when he heard that. He slowly turned around with an embarrassed expression on his face. "You have a wife?" he asked hesitantly. He failed to hide his tone that gave away his thoughts on the man. 

"Yes." Charmer said without skipping a beat. "What, did you think I was gay?" his innocent smile told Aquinas that he missed the tone completely, or if he did he obviously didn't care. 

Aquinas just laughed heartily. He knew that if he said anything it would land him in hot water, so instead, he just laughed it away. When Sparkle Charmer laughed with him, he knew he was off the hook. The sun was diving down into the horizon. He didn't notice how late it was until now. "Well, Charmer" Aquinas said. "it seems our work here is finished. I will be sure to come around again to see you and your wife." Aquinas outstretched his hand for a shake, but was met with a hug. He returned it in full. 

Aquinas was about to leave when he spotted something near the door. A long black coat. He turned back around to the designer and said, "Hey, Charmer. Does this coat belong to anyone?"

Charmer's face screwed up and he gave a snort of contempt. "That ugly thing?" he cried. "One of the guard officers left that in here and never came back for it. That was about two weeks ago, so I would doubt that he is missing it. If you want, you can take that thing as far away from here as possible." 

Aquinas chuckled slightly and said, "I will, thank you." he grabbed the coat and waved goodbye. 

"Don't be a stranger now!" Charmer called out to him before he left. 

This would be perfect for Ignatius.
______________________________________________________________________________

Twisted Horns continued to beat the hot steel on his anvil as Ignatius worked and sewed the last of the strips into the leather armor. Ignatius had chosen a simple leather cuirass with the same style as ballistic body armor. It had an opening on the side that allowed for easy access into the armor and the shoulders did not extend past his trapezoids. It wasn't elaborate or designed with fashion in mind, but it was functional. After an hour and a half bath in water, the leather had become hard to work, but Twisted Horns had told him that the armor would be as strong as steel. Only a small 1x1x1/16 piece taken from the hide was able to almost stop a knife coming down, point first. Ignatius was rather impressed by this, but when he was about to ask why this was so, he was cut short by the ringing of metal.

The minotaur worked the small piece of steel that Ignatius could see was meant to be a knife. It curved back somewhat and looked like a miniature scimitar. The man with tattooed wings looked upon the hulking man-beast with curiosity. From what he could gather from the rhythm and the precision of the blows, Twisted Horns was very experienced in his craft. From what he had gathered from the many fan-fics he had read in the past, minotaurs were masters at the forge, but that wasn't what was so interesting. He seemed happy. Extremely happy. He could never spot the hybrid being frowning or having a stoic, concentrated expression cross his face. Ignatius looked closer at Twisted Horns, and even though the light from the forge was barely enough to make out, he could see that the forge worker was very, very old. His beard was short, but his horns were large and curled out to twice the size of his head on either horn. This confirmed the Marine's suspicions about him. Yet here he was, lifting a heavy hammer and pounding away at the steel he held in the tongs with the same gusto and someone Ignatius' age.

Twisted Horns caught on to Ignatius' staring and put the flattened metal on the anvil and put the hammer back on the small rack next to the forge. He took a seat on a massive wooden chair and looked at the young man with an eye of understanding, all while still maintaining a genuine smile.

"You have many questions, don't you?" he asked.

Ignatius gave a nod. "I do."

Twisted horns gave a gesture for a seat on the floor. Ignatius took a seat a bit farther than he would sit in front of anyone else on the account of the fact he wouldn't have to strain his neck so much to look up at the towering man-beast. 

"Ask away, young one." He seemed rather nonchalant, or maybe because of his supposed age he just really didn't give a shit. 

"Well" Ignatius began. "I've noticed that you don't seem to share the bovine horns of your kind." 

Horns chuckled at this. "Of course I do." Ignatius cocked his head slightly in confusion. This only brought another chuckle from the horned man. "I have the horns that my kind is supposed to have."

"But you're a minotaur." Ignatius said in a protesting tone.

"Only half minotaur, the other half is satyr. So, my kind is a complicated. The latter species came from my father." he laughed and said. "Oh yes, my father loved big women!" Ignatius joined in on the laughter. He even had a few girlfriends who where a bit on the heavy side. 

After the laughter had subsided, Ignatius spoke again. "I have also noticed that you show a lot of life experience." He didn't want to offend him by calling him old. Then again, only a fool would try to piss off what looked like a humanoid apocalypse.

"Ah yes." Twisted Horns said with a sigh of acceptance. "I do have many years under my belt." 

"Just how old are you?"

"I am about three hundred years of age. In fact, my birth date is in two weeks." he gave another sigh, similar to the one he gave earlier. "Minotaurs only seem to last about two hundred and seventy years, give or take five years, but that's what you get for becoming a blacksmith for a princess. You get treated rather nicely." 

"How long have you been here at this forge?" Ignatius still had one more question after this one.

"Last Wednesday marked my sixtieth year."

Ignatius' last question was the event he had trouble understanding earlier. "What was with the leather? I mean, what was it about the bath that we gave it that made it so strong?" 

Twisted Horns went around his back and produced from a pouch, a small mound of dust in his hand. "Do you know what this is?" he asked. Ignatius shook his head. "It is Canterlot rock salt. It cakes the entire inside of the caves beneath the city. Most people had forgotten such caves exist."

"Well, what does it do?"

"When the leather is heated by the water it expands slightly and opens the pours of the animal skin. The rock salt I put in there sticks inside the pours and stays within them when the leather starts to dry out while in the bath. The some of the heat that is generated from the forge goes through a set of pipes that heats the drying rack up and makes the leather harder because of the loss of moisture. However, the rock salt is what makes the leather almost strong enough to withstand even one of my blades. Steel works just the same, only the salt must be added during the folding process. Otherwise, it doesn't gang with the metal and leaves only a starchy white residue on the piece."

Ignatius just came up with another question as he looked at a blade that was racked over the minotaur's head. "I notice you use forge pattern welding?" He was going to say Damascus steel, but that would just confuse the man-beast.

"Yes." Twisted Horns said with a sense of excitement. "Forge pattern welding, or Heroes' Steel, is all that minotaurs make. It requires the most attention and the most skill to produce, plus it is the strongest metal there is."

"Why do you call it Heroes' Steel?" Ignatius asked.

"Because someone decided that because they wielded a blade of that nature that it should be called such." the monster shrugged his mountain of shoulder muscles. "It is what it is." 

"Do you think that I can learn to make some?" Ignatius said with more than a little enthusiasm in his voice. 

"Sure." Twisted Horns said. "Come back tomorrow, and I will show you how to wield a hammer like a true blacksmith. But first, let's finish this blade for you, shall we?"
______________________________________________________________________________

Aquinas made his way down the hallways and corridors of the majestic castle. It's stained glass windows and beautifully detailed sculptures were a sight to see. Even with the splendor of the artwork, there was one problem . . . he had no idea where he was. He didn't exactly know the palace that well, and the fact that the guards were nowhere to be found, made his quest to find the princess, turn into a sort of maze game. Though this truth was rather apparent, he knew better than to panic. He just kept walking at a leisurely pace until he came to a familiar staircase. He went up it and soon found an adorned wooden door. He opened it and found that it led to another room with a blue staircase going up it. He ascended the steps to find a the same library that he and his brother had found themselves in a day ago. Across the room where a wall of assorted books was carefully stacked. He quietly stepped up and was immediately flanked by a purple, bipedal lizard. 

"How's it going, Spike?" said the naval officer as he gave the baby dragon daps. 

"Not much, Aquinas. Yourself?" the little reptile's voice was rather nonchalant. Almost like Aquinas had been his friend for years. 

"Doing good, I got some new cloths from Sparkle Charmer. He does really nice work." Aquinas wasn't the sort to take part in vanity, but he felt rather important in his new attire.

"Well, I see that Charmer spared no expense in making your wardrobe. He made this for me. I think it looks rather snazzy." the little lizard-person clutched the front of his shirt and puffed out his chest.

"I share the thought, my scaly friend." the officer said with a slight laugh. His smile stayed, but the subject took a serious turn. "There is something I need help with, Spike. Do you think you can assist me?"

"Sure." his green eyes lighting up with enthusiasm. "What do you need?"

Aquinas opened up his mouth to speak, but a loud rumble front his stomach answered faster than his vocal chords did. The militant just chuckled heartily with the bipedal reptile. "I think you can guess that I need some food, yet I know nothing of this castle, and I seemed to have lost my way. Can you help me get to the dining room?"

"Of course, Aquinas." Spike happily piped. "Twilight and I are about to go down there now, why don't you come with us?"

"Because, why would I want to hang around a bookworm and her smelly pet?" Aquinas was careful to change his tone to let the child know he was kidding. 

"Yah." Spike said with a shrug. "I mean, we wouldn't want a mirror lover like you to get a bad rep for slumming it." Again with these points!

Aquinas laughed and said. "Where is Miss Sparkle, by the way?" 

Spike's shoulders drooped and his eyes reluctantly made their way over to his left where a stack of books towered over the man's head. "She's inside her, "fortress of knowledge" over there. She hasn't come out since she went in there."

"When was this?"

"Since before breakfast." 

"Twilight Sparkle!" Aquinas cried. "Get out of there and eat something. You're going to eat yourself alive if you keep doing that. I buried one of my fellow officers because he was so caught up in his work he forgot his most basic need."

A purple headed girl made her way into view from behind the book stack. Her eyes were wide with fear and she was visibly shaking. "D-Do you really mean that?" she said in a timid voice. Twilight looked like she hadn't eaten in a while, and the sudden revelation of death was not something that came across the youth often. She looked at her stick-like arms and her eyes started to tear. "I-I-I don't want to die." her voice shook.

Aquinas stepped over to her and wrapped her in a hug. His new cloths started to become stained with salty, eye water. The Ensign stroked her hair and patted her back. "Oh, I'm sorry, Twilight." he said in a sincere tone. "I didn't mean to scare you, I just was trying to make a point." He put her back a bit and picked up her chin with a hand. "I'm sorry."

She whipped the tears off her face and from her eyes then gave a weak smile. "It's okay. It's just that" she sniffled. "I was reading some books on death and dying, and the sudden shock that I was denying myself something as simple as food would ultimately lead to my doom, kind of got the better of me. All this because I was too busy to notice. I just want to please my teacher so badly, and . . ." 

Aquinas put up a hand to stop her. "Twilight." Aquinas said. "You must understand that Princess Celestia, even though I've only known her for a day, I believe I can safely say that she would be proud to just have someone like you to teach, but you must also understand that she is a very benevolent woman, and wouldn't want her favorite student to starve herself for the sake of learning." 

Twilight gave a stronger smile. "I guess not." she chuckled a bit. Aquinas removed his hand. She continued to stare at him even though his hand had returned to his side. He sparkling orbs were like glistening pools of intense light that the young naval officer would only think to find on someone with just as much wonder lust as a first time adventurer. 

"How 'bout we go get something to eat?" he said with a slightly embarrassed sigh. 

"Sure." she said in a dream struck breathe. "I'll take you the dining room where we can have a proper meal together." This time her voice came with a slight squeal at the end, but not before she turned to her companion and beckoned him to follow. She grabbed Aquinas' hand and led him down the stairs and down a couple of hallways. Her grip on the hand that wasn't holding the coat was only enough to lead him, even though she was squeezing his hand rather tightly. 

It wasn't until about three or so more corridors that Spike spoke up. "Hey." He said while sniffing the air. "What's that smell?" 

Twilight stopped her seemingly endless pace and also sniffed the air. "What smell?" she said, not being able to use her sent as keenly as the dragon infant. 

Aquinas also sniffed the air. He didn't smell anything either, but if the smell was foreign to the child, he figured it would be worth investigating. "Spike." he beckoned. "Where is the smell coming from?" 

Spike sniffed the air again and pointed to a hallway adjacent to the one that led to the dining room. "It's coming from that way." 

The trio walked down the hallway with a bit of pace. As they drew near, Spike wouldn't travel any further. He shook his head and backed up from the direction of the smell's origin. "It's becoming too strong. Whatever it is, there must be a lot of it. I'm not going any further." The purple scaled reptile took more than a few more step back. He had to hold his nose from the irritation of the smell. 

Twilight picked up the scent and crinkled her nose. "I don't know what that smell is, but whatever it is, I don't like it. It smells like . . . metallic. What do you think, Aquinas?" 

The naval officer just stood motionless as he stared down the empty hallway. It looked as if he was replace by a statue. His breath seemed to become imprisoned in his lungs. Twilight looked at him with a quizzical and analyzing way. His eyes became detached and distant. 

Aquinas knew the smell that they were smelling, and it frightened him greatly to smell this scent. Twilight had been right in her statement about it having a metallic character to it, but it also smelled rather peculiar in nature. It was unique. It actually was so unique that Aquinas would and could never forget a smell such as this. For it was the smell that he has had both coming from, and off of him.


Blood. 


The memory of the smell was permanently burned into his mind. So mistaking it for anything else, was next to impossible. After what felt like an eternity and a half, he turned back to Twilight and gave her the most deadpan face that she had ever seen. 

"Twilight." he said with a cold tone. "I want you and Spike to go take a hallway back and stay there, okay?"

"But, why?" she asked. The studious part of her brain working to find a solution to the silence-and-expressionless-face conundrum. "Is something wrong?" 

"Just go." he said. Aquinas' eyes narrowed with intensity. The young girl took a step back and then fully turned to start off down the hall to collect her assistant. 

Aquinas took a breath to steady himself, then put one foot in front of the other to go and investigate where the smell had come from. He made it to the corner where the smell of the  blood was the strongest. He gentley placed the leather coat on the ground as to not make any noise. Aquinas put his back up against the wall and took another breath. 

From the corner he used his elbow to pivot off of and rounded the corner. As he cleared into the hallway, he snapped himself into a fighting stance. What he saw shocked and horrified him. Bodies of royal guards laid dead with wounds ranging from cut open throats to stab wounds into the golden chest plates. The only body on the ground that didn't have any visible wounds was a female guard. Her long hair was stained by the pooling blood on the floor. 

However, there was one sight that brought him some sort of comfort. Standing tall in a leather set of armor covered head to toe in blood and holding a curved dagger, this piece soaking in plasma, was Ignatius. Seeing him standing there with a weapon in his hand gave him a little bit of peace of mind that at least his brother was safe.

Ignatius looked at his brother in a sort of surprised face and, almost without thinking, he said. "Um. I can explain."