"What!?" I shouted in my shock.
"Not like that ya perv!"
"Oh... So, uh, what am I goin to help you make?" I asked trying to dispel the awkward silence I had created.
She gave me the evil eye before answering "The boss ordered some armor platin ta start off simple."
"Plating for what?"
"Doesn't matter, you'll make it and you'll be happy ta do it." she said as she pulled a chunk of ore out of a nearby cart. "Now, what ya do is toss the rock into the top o' the smelter and it gets poured inta the simple mold I got set up front. The mold isn't perfect so I hammer it inta shape and you keep it hot to make it easier. You just need ta learn how hot to keep yer flames for each metal be it titanium or varcalite." Suddenly a strange look passed over face "Here I am jabberin on and I don't know yer name."
I hesitated because my old name would not exactly fit into Equestria "Do you need to know?"
"I'm not askin where ya buried the bits, it's just the polite thing ta do."
"I had the good fortune of becomin a slave and you are talkin to me about being polite?"
"Howd ya think I got down here lad?"
"By walking?"
She face-pawed and let out a frustrated sigh before replying "Ya know nothin bout diamond dogs, do ya?" I silently shook my head and she continued "We females are in the minority so the men like ta keep us locked away from the world. The only reason I'm here is because they thought I was too ornery to be a wife so they found a use for me. I'm as much a slave as you are."
"So we're in the same cage."
"Oh, look, it has a brain after all."
I glared at her and thought for a moment. The world was dead set on calling me a draconequus and all the ones I have ever read about in fanfics have names starting is 'dis'. For all intents and purposes I was nobody and I was useless there. "My name is Disdain." I finally replied.
She threw her arms into the air and shouted "Welcome Disdain, welcome to the Infernal Forges!" The smelter seemed to hear her and let out a cloud of steam before pouring the melted ore into a mold next to the central anvil. Ashy ran over to the mold and tapped the metal with a sapphire causing the metal to quickly solidify.
"How does that work?"
"How does what work?"
"You tap the metal with the sapphire and the metal hardens."
"Oh, that. You'r parents didn't teach ya much of anythin did they?"
"I'm not sure that I had parents. I just wandered around until I ended up here." I said trying to sound sad so that she would not press me any further.
"Sorry kid, I didn't know. This here is not a normal sapphire, it's a frost sapphire." She said with a smile. "Most folks use amethysts because they're easy to enchant, but sapphires hold a more powerful charge. Tha metal cools quick, but it doesn't stop until it's completely solid. That's why I need you ta heat this mithril while I shape it."
It was hard not to snicker at that mention of mythril, but I did as I was told. With a simple yellow flame I was able to keep the mythril soft and Ashy and me made our first armor plate together.
A few hours and 50 plates later my stomach began to rumble. "When do we get fed around here, and for that matter what do we get fed?"
"We're about to be fed. I get a pile a gems. You, I'm guessin, get a bale a hay."
"How do they get bales of hay in this wasteland?"
"You've seen the holdin area. There are a few small farms here and there. Even without the farms this is the Volcanic Wastes, you can get anythin here if ya have tha bits."
"So are these dens like towns? I never asked, but does this one have a name or anything?"
She sighed before replying "Kid, I'm not a teacher, you need ta cut back on tha questions. Yes these are towns, this one is Dodongo's Cavern. It's the second largest in the wasteland."
"Don't tell me the mountain it's in is called Death Mountain."
"How'd ya know?"
I keeled over laughing. 'Mithril is one thing, but now this?!'
"Are you insane lad?!"
I realized how I looked and cleared my throat "Sorry, it's an inside joke."
Ashy mumbled something about "those draconequus" before walking over to the hatch that I had been thrown through and pounded the door with her fist. "You forgettin somethin?" she shouted. The hatch suddenly flew open and two bags were thrown in. Ashy grabbed the first bag and shook it, after she was satisfied with the clinking inside she tossed the second bag to me.
I hesitantly opened the bag and was happy to see that it was full of grass, which up until this point is what I had assumed that I ate. I braced myself for the terrible flavor of grass and took a mouthful. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the grass tasted like lettuce although it was a bit sweet. Glad that I would not have to suffer through every meal here I dug in, but then it happened. CRUNCH! 'Grass doesn't crunch!' I spat the grass out to reveal the sparkling of a diamond in the heap of partially chewed grass.
"Ya okay there?"
"There was a diamond in my bag!" Maybe the diamond had fallen into the bag, maybe old scar-face had decided to try to break all my teeth, or maybe that old dog was more cunning than I took him for. I brushed the grass pulp off of the diamond to find it had fractured and was on the verge of breaking. Either I was one lucky son of a bitch or I had just cracked a diamond with nothing more than my teeth. I picked up the gem and placed it back in my mouth before carefully biting down on it. The diamond broke. I continued to chew on the diamond and found it to taste quite pleasant, the only description I can think of for it is that it tastes like winter.
"Yer just like a black dragon." Ashy said in awe.
"What?"
"They are one o tha few creatures that can eat diamonds and obsidian."
"Weird, tell them I could use some more if they want to save on grass."
"Did ya not know ya could eat them?"
"I don't know about you, but I don't go around tryin to eat things that could break my teeth."
We finished our bags and Ashy showed me a door previously obscured by the forge that led to a small room furnished with nothing more than one tool chest, four beds, and a bookshelf mostly filled with books written in Equestrian with the exception of a book called "Working the Forge". Ashy plopped down in a bed in the corner of the room and I picked the one opposite of her. Soon I drifted into a dreamless sleep.
Work was not hard, I just had to learn how to control my flame and which metal required which flame and Ashy did the rest. We made everything from pickaxes to full suits of armor, and we were treated better than the other slaves because, lets face it, you don't want to piss off the guy that makes your armor. It's always nice to find out the metal is brittle a little too late. At this point most of my food supply has been replaced with diamonds, which the dumb dogs could not find a use for. Ashy and I grew to understand each other, but not much more. It was the kind of understanding that comes from only seeing one person for two weeks. After two weeks of continuing the cycle of forge, eat, sleep, rinse, and repeat I cooked up my hare brained scheme for escaping.