Twisted Horns was hard at work beating the hot steel when he saw the door to his workshop fly open, and the angered face of a familiar apprentice came on through the portal.
"Well," the forge master said. "it seems that you found another reason to scowl. What is it this time?"
Ignatius went over to a chair and heavily sat down before saying. "It seems the mess I knew was going to happen has come to pass."
"Might you be a little more detailed?" the blacksmith inquired.
"I . . . uh . . ." the Marine tried to say, but only sighed heavily.
"Come on!" Twisted Horns bade. "Out with it." He was more curious than interrogative.
"Princess Celestia is in a relationship with my brother." the words left a very bad taste in his mouth.
"Oh, and why would that be a problem?"
"Because Princess Celestia hates me." Ignatius professed. "Not only that, but she also is in it with Twilight's blessing! I had broken my brother and her up by the princess' request and then I was just told by Aquinas that Twilight actually brought the two together."
Twisted Horns scratch his chin with hammer and pondered his words before saying, "Forgive my lack of understanding, but I can't grip how this pertains to you."
"It doesn't per say, but . . . it's just wrong!" Ignatius felt his heart clench in his chest. "Celestia betrayed her own student by sending me to break her up with Aquinas so she could get at him, and then with Twilight actually advocating them to be together makes it seem like everything fell right into her lap. She's guilty of betrayal and I can't get her on it!"
"But you said that this was a mess that you made." Twisted Horns stated. "You must have known that this would happen."
"I knew that Celestia would make a move, but I never thought that the one she betrayed would be the one who helped her."
Twisted Horns put down his work and walked over to the young man and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come with me." he bade. "There is something I want to discuss with you." Without a word, Ignatius rose and followed Twisted Horns to the other end of the workshop and watched as a heavy bolted door was opened before him. The room was completely dark, but the forge master still went inside. His apprentice soon followed.
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Twisted Horns led Ignatius down a set of stone steps. The stair case going down into a dark oblivion with no rails or walls on either side. The forge master traveled down them as if every step was as natural as if he was walking on flat land. Ignatius, however, was not fairing well. The only light helping him was what little shined through the door. It soon got to a point that he was almost falling down the steps and having to catch himself with every foot fall. It got to a point to where he could go no further.
"Twisted Horns!" he called out, for he only hear his faint hoof falls in the dark. "I can't see!"
"Neither can I!" Twisted Horns called back. "You just have to trust it."
"Trust it?!" the blacksmith said back. "I can't see anything. I can trust all I want, but how do I know if I'll be able to make it down there all the way?"
"You'll never know until you give it a chance." the horned one said.
Ignatius didn't like this one bit. He knew that one miss step would lead to his doom. So, at first he took it slow. He moved one foot to the outer edge and straddled the face of the step until his foot met firm ground. He did the same thing a couple more times until he started to judge the distances of each step and made his way down a little faster. He couldn't see his own hand in front of his face, but he still felt confident that each step brought him closer to the bottom of the case. It got to a point to where each foot fall gave him some much needed strength and confidence. He couldn't see where he was going, but that didn't matter. He just learned to trust it.
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Ignatius still climbed down the steps in silence, but as he did, he noticed the foot falls of his mentor could no longer be heard. He couldn't hear anything actually. He couldn't see or hear a damn thing. Even his foot falls were silent. It was as if he was nowhere. It took a little bit, but he soon came to a very heavy realization.
He was all alone.
No one was near him and no one, not even he, could hear himself stepping. He called out to Twisted Horns. As he did though, he couldn't even hear his own voice. He played his own voice over in his head, but he still could not produce the sound from his mouth. His words were lost in the darkness.
Ignatius was now halted. Though he was stopped, he might as well be doing a full body exercise because he was sweating and panting. He didn't know where he was or how to get out of the stair case. How far had he gone down? How did he know that he wasn't on a separate flight of stairs? How did he know he would get to the bottom? Was there a bottom? All these questions and more swirled in his head and he didn't know what to do!
He sat down on a higher step and curled up slightly. His breath was labored and the darkness became even darker around him. He was on the verge of panic. But then he heard something. A voice rung in his ears.
"Feel. Don't think. Trust your instincts."
The voice and words were familiar to him. Spitfire had said those words. And she told them to him when she was teaching him how to . . . All the panic seemed to subside as the realization came to him. The Pegasus Blessed man stood up and began formulating a plan. The black feathers of his wings sprang forth from his back and he flapped his wings to lift him from the stairs. He hovered over the step he was on ever so much as to not lose where he was. He felt the wind from his beating wings that came off the case. He would use his wings to move quickly down the steps and use the wind they generated to judge his distance from the stairs themselves. He sped down the step he was on, only to meet stone. His feet felt the firm ground under him. Ignatius stopped flapping for a second and felt the ground with his hands this time. He felt the cold stone all around him until he realized it.
He was at the bottom of the steps.
The blacksmith heard the loud thunder that only a pair of large, clapping hands could make. He found the source of the clapping as a torch came to life and a large tongue of flame danced happily at the end of a stick as it gave the winged man enough illumination to see the smiling face of a familiar mino-satyr.
"You did well, my friend." the goat headed man-beast said. "You just took your first steps down a path that few people can find."
Ignatius was dumbstruck. He had been at the bottom of the stairs this whole time, and as he saw more and more torches come to life, he saw that the case of stairs was no more than forty steps. He thought he had traveled so much longer while he was in the darkness.
"As you can see," Twisted Horns went on. "as you walked down the steps in darkness, the shadows around you took hold. You began to panic and time seemed to have slowed down to a crawl. It was when you didn't even know you were on the last step that you began to feel the full effect of the darkness. You panicked for a time, until you came to a realization. You have a gift. One that only certain people have, and even fewer use."
"Pegasus Blessed people are not rare." Ignatius said dryly. "Gryphons can also fly."
Twisted Horns shook his head and smiled. "You'll learn some day." The forge master turned around and walked away from the winged man and as he did more torches came to life. Revealing what could only be described as a blacksmith's dream. An entire hall with at least three levels of smithing stations was shown in the light of the flames. Unfortunately, the only available light came from the torches. For the forges themselves seemed to be cold, and even from a distance, showed signs of neglect.
Ignatius let his wings back into him, and dashed up to his master. "What is this place?"
"This is the Canterlot forge works. Otherwise known as Metal Ringing. It was because of the constant pounding of hammers against steel that gave the place its name. These forges used to be the powerhouse of Equestrian arms making. However, after the rise of the upper class to its current state two hundred years ago, these forges grew cold, for there was no need to make more armor when there was a set number of guards that could be standing at any giving time. The upper crust obviously didn't want to be left with nothing to stand on when facing a sun goddess with a growing army. So, they sanctioned for a law to be passed. Celestia didn't find anything wrong with it at the time. What use was a large guard force when the country was in a state of peace? Thus, the forges grew cold, and the blacksmiths that used to work them spread out over the rest of the country in search of work. Since then, dust collected on the anvils, and the handles on the hammers began to dry rot. Now all that's left is unburned coal and the stones that make the forge."
Ignatius looked upon all this in both amazement and sadness. So many forges and anvils being unused, and for no better reason than because the rich feared what they did not initially control. "So, why are you showing me this?"
"I know that you and your brother are trying to get Equestria back on track, and I'm showing you one of the tools you can use."
Ignatius cocked his head at that. "Wait, how did you know that we-"
"But of course," Twisted Horns said without skipping a beat. "to gain a reason to use all of this is the challenge you will have."
Ignatius' thoughts slipped from the previous comment to the latest one. He looked around and saw that there had to be dozens of forges. Each row specializing in one field of arms and armor making. He pondered what would make a good reason to use these forges again.
Then he remembered.
"Most of the middle class are out of work after the mining industry started to cut back on workers. I believe that because of that some blacksmiths might have to pay more for ore and that might have put them into some financial trouble. Though, I doubt we will be able to find as many blacksmiths as it would take to fill all these forges. And even if we did find a substantial amount, we would only end up with one blacksmith at each station at best, and most of them look like they need at least two. The smelters over on that side need workers and I have no idea who will sell us the ore to make the amount of ingots we need." All these problems piling up in his head made it hard for him think of a solution.
Twisted Horns put a large hand on his shoulder. "Do not focus on the minor problems like this one. Focus on the bigger ones. You still need to mend some knots that had accumulated before the time you had gone into your coma."
"Yeah, you're right." Ignatius admitted. "Where should I go next?"
"A large rat told me that a certain female Wonderbolt was in some hot water. I believe that your expertise could be put to good use." Twisted Horns gave Ignatius the creepiest wink that anyone could see. It wasn't naughty or suggestive. It's just really unsettling to see a goat wink. He dwelled on it for a moment, but eventually, Ignatius found enough concentration to plan his next move. Though, just the thought of facing the winged firebrand was just as uncomfortable a thought as Twisted Horns' winking.