He had never been so excited. He was going to Canterlot! And what was even better, he was going to be an apprentice there! An apprentice engraver and precious metal-worker at the Royal Palace! He was going be apprenticed by the most prestigious and talented engravers in all of Equestria to work on precious metals, doing intricate, flowing designs that would have Royalty and their honored guests marvel. He might even get to see one of the Princesses themselves. He might even have one of his own designs selected to adorn a cartouche in the Palace. Maybe one of the Princesses will even ask him to be her personal engraver! Brass Hammer looked once more at the train ticket and his personal invitation to an apprenticeship in Canterlot. It was a dream come true. He wasn't going to be just another coal miner in his nondescript family living in a nondescript village. He was going to eventually be a venerated master craftspony. In Canterlot!
A purple mare with a blonde mane slid up next to him. “Whe’re ya goin’, ‘andsum?” She said in a deliberate over-exaggeration of her hillpony drawl. Brass smiled and turned to face his promised-to-be fiancée head on, looking deep into her eye’s amethyst-ringed pools. The intensity of his stare caused her to look down and fidget with the gold necklace and pendant around her neck. “Are ya sure ya wanna go an’ give me your promise? Ah know ah’m lit’rally wearin’ every bit ya had.” She looked back up into his eyes. Her face a conflicted mix of joy, worry, and self-doubt. “Ah don’t know if Ah’m worth it.” The pools of her eyes threatened to overflow their banks just like they did on the night when he offered it to her.
“Lilac Seed, if you knew how much you mean to me, if you really knew how special you are, you wouldn't trade your promise to wait for me for this little trinket.” Brass covered her hoof holding the pendant with his own.
Lilac blushed and smiled. “Ah like the way ya soun’ when ya talk, but I love the way ya use words when ya talk to me.” Her face glowed at her admission, and for a time they both just basked in in each other’s presence.
An announcement from the train’s conductor broke their tranquility and caused Lilac’s face to crease with worry. “Hey, Lilac honey, what’s wrong?” Brass lifted her chin with his hoof so he could meet her eyes.
Lilac drew a shuddering breath. “Ah know ya won’t be back for a year at least. Ah know that’s why ya went an’ sold all ya had to buy this for me. But, we both know of fillies who have been left here…” She let her voice trail off, afraid to give voice to her deepest fear. “Nopony comes back to our town, Brass. Never alone, and never to stay.” She fiddled with the pendant on the necklace again. “Just come back to me as soon as ya can, or send me word as soon as ya made up your mind…not to come...” Lilac thumped on his chest with her hoof. “Ya hear me, Brass Hammer! Ya better not leave me here waitin’ forever for ya with your promise hangin’ on my neck to remind me that Ah once held somepony special, but he left me lookin’ like a fool an’ he ain’t never comin’ back!” Some inner dam broke and rivers flowed from her eyes.
Brass hooked his hoof around her head and kissed her passionately. In response she threw herself against him and wrapped him up in a full embrace. “I’ll be the exception, Lilac Seed. I promise. Rest assured that we won’t be parted indefinitely.”
Lilac cried into his chest. “Ah don’t know what that means!”
“It means that I gave you everything I have, because you are worth more to me than any thing.”
Lilac lifted her tear streaked face. “There ya go talkin’ pretty again. It ain’t fair to talk to me like that an’ then leave!” Brass kissed her, and was kissed by her. If the train had left just then, he wouldn’t have cared. They parted for air just as the conductor gave the final boarding call. Brass closed his eyes.
“Ya need to go an’ get on your train. Ah know ya won’t ever be happy here. Even if it was here with me.” Lilac sniffed and pushed away to drop back down on her hooves. “So give me one last peck an’ go.”
Brass reached for her, but she shied away. He stretched his head forward and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. “I’ll keep my promise, Lilac. I will come back.” Then he gave the conductor his ticket, boarded the train, and found a window to watch her as the train pulled away. She didn’t wave to him as the train left, nor did she try to keep pace with his car until the end of the platform. She just stood there with her tears forming puddles at her hooves, like it took every ounce of strength she had to just - stand there - and watch him leave.
Once he could no longer see her, he turned around and sat staring out at the horizon as the train accelerated. Faster and faster the train moved, until the terrain was whipping past the window so fast it became a blur. He looked around the car, but nopony else seemed bothered by the train’s impossible speed. Then a blast of freezing cold whipped through the car, snuffing out lamps and tossing loose items into the air. All the windows went white and then black as the car body buckled and screamed.
“Avalanche!” Somepony yelled over the panicked screams as the car began rolling.
Brass braced himself as best as he could. The car rolled two or three times, bouncing ponies and luggage around the interior until it stopped almost perfectly upright.
“We need to start a fire!” Somepony yelled through chattering teeth.
“Who’s got a match?” Another pony yelled in the darkened car.
Brass picked himself up and went to the coal-burning stove that was the car’s heater. A small glowing ember could be seen in its black ashen belly. “We won’t need a match, if somepony has dry paper to burn.” He said looking around. Everypony stared back at him. He knew he had paper. He reluctantly pulled out his invitation from the Palace and tore it into strips. After a few moments of blowing and tending the tiny ember, he coaxed a fire into being. “Keep feeding it, until I can find some coal.” He directed the other passengers and went to try to get the door open.
The door was stuck. No big surprise after all that had happened. Brass pushed, and kicked, and pried, and tore at the door. He was getting weak, and hot, so incredibly hot! He wiped his brow and swooned. “He’s feverish!” He heard somepony yell. “He needs a doctor!” Brass fell to the floor and everything went black.
Brass woke in a warm soft bed with clean white sheets. “Look who decided to wake up!” a pony dressed in white said as he walked into the room. “How do you feel?”
“Fine.” Brass said, “Where am I?”’
“You are in a hospital. You were taken here after the rescue crews reached your train. You have been very sick for about ten days now. Fever, and then pneumonia.” The pony in white dropped a newspaper in front of brass. “You are being hailed as a hero. There are more than just a few ponies from your car that have been saying that you are the only reason that they are alive today.” The pony in white began taking Brass’ vital signs. “Do you remember anything?”
“I need to get to the Palace!” A heavy foreboding settled on Brass and darkened the room. He sat up and threw aside his bed covers. “How do I get to Canterlot from here?!”
“Right through that door,” The pony in white said, “But I’m afraid you’re going to be too late.”
Brass leapt out of bed and galloped through the door to find himself standing in front of the desk of the Royal Technical University: Canterlot.
“Hello, my name is Brass Hammer.” He introduced himself to the smiling, rotund, green-colored, unicorn mare behind the desk. “I’m here by invitation to accept a position as an apprentice engraver.”
The green unicorn’s smile faded, and her already considerable bulk swelled to twice its size. “You’re too late!” She hissed. “That position has been filled!”
“But my position was guaranteed! I had a personal invitation from Princess Celestia herself!”
The green mare recoiled and hissed, her eyes turned yellow with glowing reptile pupils that stared at him hungrily. “Show me your invitation!”
Brass hung his head. “I lost it in the train wreck almost a month ago.”
The green mare smiled and a forked tongue flicked out of her mouth. “No invitation. No admittance!” A rattling noise came out from under the desk and her fatty folds became the scaly coils of a monstrous viper.
“But it isn’t my fault that I’m late!” Brass argued desperately. He pulled a newspaper out and showed it to her. “There, you see? I’m called a hero for saving pony’s lives and for braving the storm to gather coal that spilled from the locomotive’s tender to keep us all from freezing to death. I later got sick and spent the next ten days in the hospital. After that, I got here as soon as I could. You must give me a position!”
The green unicorn rattled and hissed. “The only thing I must do-” Her head raised up and widened to complete the transformation of pony to viper. “-is get rid of you!” Her mouth opened to reveal sharp viper teeth and fangs that dripped venom. Brass stood paralyzed by what he saw. Then the viper struck!
Brass’ eyes flew open to see that he was in his bedroll in a dark cave and not being eaten by a giant green viper/unicorn in an office in Canterlot. He rubbed a fetlock over his eyes and sighed. His heart was thumping too fast for him to simply roll over and go back to sleep, but he knew that he shouldn’t leave the cave to calm down.
“Who’s there?” came a whispered challenge from inside the cave.
Brass sat up. A faint glow came from Luna’s horn and swirled around the null-orb nearest to her until it disappeared into the blackness like water to the drain of a sink. “It’s, B,” He whispered back, “I just woke up.”
“Oh,” Luna whispered glumly. “We don’t suppose that thou wouldst care to talk?”
Brass stood up in his bed and stepped carefully around the other sleeping forms on the floor. “I thought you couldn’t do magic, but I see that your horn is glowing.” He asked as he knelt down in front of her.
“Illumination is one of the inherent abilities of a unicorn, “Luna explained, “Null orbs of this sort don’t prevent magic, but they do make the magic user work harder. It’s like running uphill instead of walking along a paved path.”
“Oh, I see,” Brass said, genuinely surprised at Luna’s appropriate analogy and her affability, “So what is keeping you awake at this hour?”
Luna’s head and ears turned directly to him. “I am the Princess of the Night. We are always awake at this hour.”
"Oh…right.” Brass felt more than just a little stupid at having actually asked that question. He wondered if he should just go back to bed.
“Where art thou from?”
Brass thought a moment before answering. Her question seemed genuine and innocent enough. “I grew up in a small village in hill country.” He said, believing his answer to be sufficiently vague.
“Thou hast but minimal accent. Didst thou study?”
“I was judged to be intelligent enough to attend a school in another town.”
Luna’s chains clinked as she shifted her position. “Not all of thy family is educated?”
“No, in fact, most of my town can’t read.”
Luna drew a shocked breath. “Indeed?”
“Yes, it’s true,” Brass reaffirmed, “I guess the current policy is to educate the best candidates and have them return to their homes to gradually raise the education level, but the problem with that is-“
“-Most graduates don’t return to their villages, but seek better employment elsewhere leaving their villages further deprived.” Luna finished his statement and shook her head. “A well intentioned policy to do the most with the least, but ultimately, and fatally flawed. That must change.”
Brass said nothing, but let the silence continue to speak.
“Earlier, thou didst argue that thine had all been wronged by the Palace. Willt thou explain thy contention?”
Brass smiled. “That information can be used to find me, Princess. I’m sure you understand why I would prefer to remain anonymous?”
Luna’s mouth turned down. “Yes, of course.” She replied sourly. “We merely wanted conversation. Willt thou tell us anything about what thou hast done in this conspiracy?”
Brass looked down at her chains, the silver of the runes reflected her horn’s indigo glow. They looked perfect! He couldn’t help but brag a little. “I’m the one who engraved the runes on your shackles and inlaid them with silver.”
Luna shook, visibly shocked at the revelation. “Thou, an earth pony, engraved magic runes?” Brass said nothing, but his smile broadened. “Didst thou follow Silver Chalice’s tracings?”
“No, she showed me the runes and their order, but I engraved them on the chains and shackles from the drawings alone.”
“That is most amazing!” Luna nearly spoke aloud, “We have never heard anything so fantastic! Hast thou studied engraving at the Royal Technical University?”
“I really do want to answer that, but-“
“Oh, yes-yes, our excitement did make us forget. But it remains fact; Thy talent is extraordinary!”
Brass’ smile faded. “Thank you, Princess.”
Luna shuffled closer. “I am most serious when I say that thou hast a most unique gift,” She whispered conspiratorially, “If thine and I were to join, together we would be a very powerful force!”
Brass leaned away and looked at Luna, pressing in toward him with her lips curled lustfully. “What…what are you saying?”
“I’m saying, you know that your conspiracy to ransom me is a failure, but if you open your eyes to opportunity, you might become a valuable asset to a new Princess of Equestria!” Brass stood up and stepped back, nearly tripping over an occupied bedroll. “Just think about it, B. You were able to imprison me with the help of an average unicorn magic user. Imagine what you could accomplish with me!”
“I – I don’t…” Brass’ mind swam and he felt a little sick.
“Just think about it, B. Go lie down, and just think about it,” Luna said with her hungry grin still spread wide on her face. “Sleep on this. You can still make this work for you!”
Brass carefully picked his way back to his bed and laid down. He looked back at Luna to see her head and ears still focused on him. The whole thing was as unsettling as his earlier dream. He wondered how he would ever get back to sleep.
He reached over and pulled his blanket up. As he did, and unusual scent filled his nostrils. Intrigued at the source of the mystery fragrance, he pushed his nose into his blanket and flehmened, but the blanket had no trace of the unusual smell. He yawned. Mystery smells were the least of his concerns. He laid his head down and considered his conversation with Luna. After the next few breaths he was snoring.