• Published 22nd Oct 2013
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Bronze Hoof - cowboybird



A cowboy gets sent to Equestria to be some sort of pawn in the schemes of a god, along the way he learns the value of friendship, and the pain of deceit.

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Spirit Inferno

Spirit Inferno

“So there never was any dragon, mate?”

“No, there were dragons, but they left for the migration.”

“They just left her there? I would never leave Tin anywhere”

“She was adopted…”

“Well, it’s logical that the parents would leave the black sheep at home, even if they loved her as much as their own born. Somebody needed to guard the treasure.”

“I wouldn’t say she was guarding it, more like watching.”

Quick, Minnie, Gear, and I were sittin in the bar. I had just told them what had happened in the cave, and we were laughin at the whole thing. We had already had a few rounds and were all around havin a good time. There were other patrons at Lime’s liquor, but for the most part, we were alone.

“Why don’t we just go up there and take the money? She won’t pose much of a threat. And I could use a new porch on my home.” I gave Quick a hard stare.

“We’re not thieves Quick, and she’s too sweet of a girl. You wouldn’t take a baby’s candy would you?” He laughed and shook his head.

“We should go visit her. I’ll bring her some cupcakes. Does she eat regular pony food?” Minnie asked a good question. Did she eat pony food? All I saw up there was the pile of treasure.

“I don’t know. There was only the gems and gold.”

A new round came, so we sat in silence, thinkin it over.

“I would assume she eats grass off the mountain. There’s no way a pony can survive by eatin gems. It would destroy her stomach.” Gear, like always, was probably right. We let the subject drop.

“Well I don’t know about yall, but I’ve had a long day. Gettin the tar kicked out of me, then dealin with Toni ‘the pony’ has taken its toll. I’ll see yall tomorrow.” I stood as I was talking. Minnie gave me a hug and I left, headin home.

The next mornin came with a crow callin out that mornin had come. Yet another dream came that night. This one had somethin to do with Quick. But as I tried to remember it, somethin stole it from my memory. I shrugged it off and headed to work.

The walk to the orchard was somethin I had taken for granted. The way the path shot straight through the trees that flanked either side made you think that the walk would last forever. It was a shame it didn’t. The smell of the peaches, along with the chirps and chitters from birds and critters made the walk more relaxin than I had ever experienced. The dirt road led strait to the ranch house, which was where I was headin, already I could see the blue of the gabled roof on top of the blue plantation style home. Although I was sad the walk was comin to an end, there was work to do.

I walked up to the table and bench where we had our usual group meetins before we started the day. I believe we needed to pick the north orchard that day. As I sat down, waitin for the boys to show up I noticed somethin was off.
Quick was usually here first, since he could fly, travel was a lot easier for him. Also Mr. Peach would be out readying the tools we would need. Where was everybody?

I heard a noise from inside and my instincts went haywire. I could smell the scent of somethin burnin. There was slight movement in one of the windows located in the kitchen. The sound of a shriek was all I needed to barge into the home and tear towards the kitchen.

What I saw inside I didn’t expect.

There on the counter, was a cake. A burnt cake. Next to it, a frightened Peach Fuzz standin next to Peach Flower. Fuzz had a band aid on his leg, and tears in his eyes.

“Sup.” Was all I could say.

Fuzz giggled and went in for a hug. He wrapped himself around my leg, I gave him a pat on the head.

“Sorry Bronze, Fuzz was trying to bake you a cake to say thanks. But he cut himself while trying to cut the cake. When I smelled the smoke and saw the blood on the ground I got scared.” Mrs. Peach explained.

“I’m sure it’ll still taste good though.” Fuzz said.

I laughed as I heard the flap of wings from outside. Quick walked inside and let out a huff.

“You were supposed to be late. Didn’t Gear stop you on your way in?” I didn’t remember sein gear at all on the walk.

“No. Were yall settin up a surprise party for me?” Fuzz giggled on my leg.

“Well now it’s just a party.” He detached himself from me, and grabbed some lemonade.

We went outside and began to eat the cake in the sunshine. Although I don’t suggest eatin burnt sweets first thing in the morning, it was still tastey. Mr. Peach joined us after a few minutes, he was in his study goin over schedules and forgot about the whole thing.

After we had cleaned up, we saw two ponies comin up from down the road. As they got closer we noticed it was Gear and Smoke. Smoke had a cart with him, and as they got closer I saw why.

Inside the cart were some of the coolest things I had ever seen. Smoke must have been doin some intense work last night, because the cart was loaded down with dark weapons and armor. There was a sword made from smaller scales that were stacked on top of one another, givin it a shark tooth look. There was a Battle axe made of two of the larger scales on opposite ends of a dark wood handle. There was also a chest-plate set for me, made of the heavier scales. It looked like Daedric armor form Skyrim (what I used to play video games). There was also a chain-mail like set for Quick that was a bunch of the smaller pieces sown together into a leather chest piece. It had holes for his wings, and seemed to give him enough flexibility as he needed to fly. What was left were scraps of broken scales.

“Holy crap, Smoke! How did you do this in one night? It must have taken a lot of work.” I held to battle axe in one hand, swinging it back and forth. I also grabbed the armor and slid it on. The weight felt good, comfortable even. The axe sliced through the air like butter.

“Well after I grabbed the scales from you, I threw the steel stuff out. I knew that dragon scale would be the only thing for two heroes to use and wear. The only problem I had was breaking the pieces down into usable sizes…”

“That’s where I come in.” Gear started, “When we left the bar last night, after coming up with your surprise party plans, I went over to Smoke’s shop to see if I could bring you your battle axe as a present. He said it was garbage and showed me the plans for the dragon scale. Although nothing he did broke them down. That’s when I had a brilliant idea. I grabbed the thickest scale, the one that acts as your chest-piece, and smashed it into one of the other scales. Since the thicker scale has mo...” Smoke cut him off.

“If you start going on about diameter, and thickness to hardness ratios and what not I’m gonna hit you again.” At this Gear rubbed his head.

“The point is,” Smoke continued, “once the pieces were down to size, I had Mr. Unicorn here help with making them. Turns out having levitation makes metallurgy a lot easier.” Gear beamed with pride.

I glanced at Quick. He had his sword in hand, and was swingin it to test its length. After he was done he donned his armor, and had begun to do backflips. He stopped and looked at me, grinning from ear to ear.

“Me an you are going to be unstoppable, mate.” He punched my arm and laughed.

“don’t forget about me.” Gear said, walkin up with the shards form the cart in his magical grasp.

“What’re you gonna do with them?” Quick asked. Gear smiled, and began hurlin the shards at one of the dead trees we were supposed to take down tomorrow. Not only did they stick, but some of them flew right through. By the time he was done, the tree had a nice hole through the center. He turned to me an Quick, grinning as the pieces levitated back to him, and the tree collapsed.

“Wow.” Was all I got out of my mouth. I had never seen Gear use his magic offensively. He also pulled out a lil helmet that had a hole drilled through it for his horn. The helm was covered in shards of dragon scale, too small to use in the makin of Quick an mines armor an weapons. The thing looked like a football helmet without the mask. I immediately busted out laughin.

“What are you laughing at? The inherent magical properties of the dragon scale permit me to concentrate my magic more clearly through my horn. Allowing me to engender a far superior quantity of magical essence.” He stated, matter-of-factly.
Me an Quick looked at him curiously, when he took notice he sighed.

“It may look silly, but it gives me more magic.” Quick and I did our ‘Ohs’ and left it at that.

We spent the next few hours in a part of the orchard that was due to be taken down. The forest of dead and rottin trees was no match for our new weapons. I cleaved, Quick hacked, and Gear slung. We were done with three days’ work in two hours.
As we walked back to our respective homes, havin spent the majority of the day trainin with our new weapons of death and mayhem.

“I’m gonna see how many melons I can cut through with this baby.” Quick exclaimed, wavin his new sword threw the air. The sword, although havin been put through the ringer, was still incredibly sharp. It sang as it sliced the air, accompanied by a radical laugh from Quick.

“I don’t think this baby will ever get dull.” He began gettin reckless with his new blade, comin within inches of Gears face.

“Hey! Watch where you’re spinning that thing. You could have taken my eye out.” Gear was pretty upset, understandingly so.

“Aw don’t worry mate, I wouldn’t hurt ya.” He laughed and continued, “I’m gonna call ‘em Polar glacies. Polar Ice in the ol’ language. I’m gonna tear through some buggas with this one.” He swung again, but this time the air around the sword sprouted ice from his grip that raced down the blade ‘till the thing was coated with frost. He dropped it and stepped back.

“What the hell was that?” Quick stepped back, as did Gear and I.

We stared at the sword, confused and concerned. What if all our dragon scales randomly froze over? We all must have had the same thought, ‘cause we stripped down quicker than a college chick at the beach.

We sat there dumbfounded for what seemed like hours before Quick decided to break the silence.

“Well I guess Polar Ice is appropriate for ‘em, but it doesn’t look like the scales are gonna randomly freezer burn your feathers.” He put his armor on, and grabbed his sword. True enough the thing didn’t freeze, though it was another ten minutes before Gear and I put our scales on.

After we felt comfortable with our new “protection” we started down the path again.

“Well what’s your axe gonna be named Mate? Bet you can’t beat Polar glacies.” Once again his sword froze over, and found itself in the dirt. Instead of freakin out, like Quick and I, Gear got a look on his face. He would get the look from time to time, but only when he thought he figured something out.

“What is the sword’s name again?” Gear asked Quick.

“Polar Ice.” He said, confused as to where he was goin from here.

“And what is the language you originally used? The old language was it?” He quipped.
“It’s just called the ol’ language. That’s what my mother said. She taught me a few words. She used to be a linguistics professor at a snobby pony school in Manehattan. She passed on a few years ago, which is the whole reason I’m out here in the middle of the jungle.” Quick was about to go off on a tangent, but was stopped by Gear.

“My condolences for your mother Quick, but can you say the swords name in the old language?” Quick complied, and nothin
happened. It sat on the ground, lookin menacing.

“Interesting. Now could you hold the sword?” Quick did as he was asked, although nervously.

“I see,” Gear stated, “now could you say the name again?”

Quick nodded and braced himself.

“Polar glacies”

The sword was once again began to become an icicle. Quick almost dropped it again, but steadied himself. After a minute of lookin like he was gonna shit himself, he said in a quiet voice,

“Can I drop it now?”

“Why? Does it feel cold?” Gear asked, obviously onto somethin.

“Well…no. Actually I don’t feel anything. This is really weird guys.” He looked less freaked, and once again began playin with the swordcicle.

“Wow I’m really gonna be unstoppable with a magic sword.” His excitement poured from his eyes onto the dragon scale blade. Meanwhile, Gear was smilin like an idiot.

“You never answered my question Bronze, what are ya gonna name your lass?” He pointed towards my behemoth battle axe. I didn’t quite know. Although I wanted something cool, like Polar Ice, I wanted it to be original. Somethin from the heart, but conveyed that I mean business. I gave it some thought and donned a stupid grin.

“Spirit Inferno.” I proudly said.

Both my companions looked at me, and laughed.

“Spirit Inferno? Why not Fairy Fire? Or…or Queen Blaze?” Quick choked through breaks in his laugh.

Gear wasn’t as hysterical as Quick, but was still chucklin enough to have to take a minute to ready himself before speakin.

“Now as I do believe that Spirit Inferno is a very compelling name, why not something more robust? Something like Dragon Bane, or perhaps Peacemaker?” He said the two names in a deeper, manlier voice, puffin out his chest and lookin like a hero on a comic book cover.

“I like Spirit Inferno. When I was gettin the tar kicked out of me by that beta, it was Fuzz’s cries for help that got my sorry ass up. It lit a fire in my soul, which allowed me to gather the strength to win. Spirit Inferno will be her name, an y’all can just shutch’er mouths bout it.” I wasn’t mad. I knew they would laugh at first, and hearin my explanation caused them to quiet down.

Gear nodded, and agreed that it was a suitable name for such a fine weapon.

Quick called me a fairy and left it at that.

Once again, for what seemed like the millionth time that day, we started down the trail.


“So Quick, what’s ‘Spirit Inferno’ in the old language if you mind me asking?” Gear started.

“Well, I believe it’s Spiritus Infernalis, why?” Quick adopted a questionin glare and looked over at Gear.

“From what I know about dragon scale, I can tell you that it can hold, or repel massive amounts of magic. Just as it allows me to focus my magic through guidance, I believe it can focus your magic through the scale.” He paused before goin on, “There is a griffin up north, Griffin the griffin, who has been able to use magic, even though he does not have a horn. Some believe he is an alien, while others say he is blessed by the gods. I however believe that he is simply a genius. He was somehow able to concentrate his inherent magical properties into a controlled environment; just as a unicorn would with his horn. I believe we just figured out his special little trick for how he does it.”

He beamed at Quick and I, not understandin that we were barely able to take in his whole dissertation.
Gear sighed and looked at Quick.

“What were you thinking about when you said your sword’s name out loud?” Quick adopted a thinkin face.

“I guess I was thinking about my sword freezing my enemies in battle. Just like the frozen north freezes people.” Gear nodded in understanding, then looked to me.

“Say Spiritus Infernalis while thinking of Fuzz, and other loved ones you fight for.”

I had to pause on the road, and think hard. My face scrunched as I pictured the lil guy runnin up an down the orchard. I pictured Minnie with Tin smilin at me on Tin’s birthday. I saw New Findings for the first time again, on that hill overlookin the valley.

“Spiritus Infernalis”

My axe erupted into a dark orange flame, engulfin the entire thing from hilt to scale. I looked at it amazed, wonderin how somethin that must be so hot, can feel so normal. I looked at Gear and Quick to find them starin at me in shock.

I looked down and realized that my entire body was coated in flame.

“Well that’s interestin.” I stated.

Quick just laughed.

“Maybe I should have named my sword something that would allow me to burst into flames, huh mate?” He went to slap me
on the back, only to snap his claw to his chest. “Damn Bronze, you about damn near burnt my talon off!”

As he was nursin his talon, Gear came over and started scannin me with his magic.

“It would appear as though your body’s exterior temperature is that of 3500 degrees celsius. That’s about as hot as your average bonfire. However, your internal readings show an average 48 degrees, like any healthy minotaur would have.” It wasn’t until this point that I realized that I never told them about my resistance to fire.

“There’s nothin unusual ‘bout that hoss.” They looked at me curiously. “Well I’ve always had a resistance to fire. Hell, I can put my hand in lava.”

Both Gear’s and Quick’s jaws hit the ground in a comedic fashion. Quick was the first to recover.

“Why haven’t ya told us about this before, mate?”

“It hasn’t come up in the past.”

The fire was startin to get a lil annoyin so I dropped the axe. It hit the ground with a whump and sputtered out along with my body.

Gear, now with his jaw back into place, started scannin me again with his magic.

“That’s odd, there’s no spell on you. Not even a hint of magic, except for your inherent abilities.” He started to mumble to
himself about equations an once again we started down the road.

“I still think that being fire proof is something to late your buddies know mate.” Quick sounded a lil hurt, an I couldn’t blame him. If I found out he could produce a sonic rainboom, I would be hurt as well.

“Sorry bud, it hadn’t crossed my mind in quite a while.” I dropped my head in shame.

Quick patted me on the back an said, “Don’t worry, I just wished you would have told me earlier. Do you know how much fun we could have with this?”

As we reached the end of the orchard, and came to the crosswalk where we usually said our ‘see you laters’, Gear nearly jumped out of his coat with excitement.

“We need to run tests! I need to know how much heat you can withstand.” With that he pushed me towards his home with ample force.

Just as the sun was settin we reached his home. I had never been there before, somethin about him not wantin us to meet his mom. The cottage didn’t look anythin out of ordinary, save or the giant laboratory slapped on the side. It looked like somethin out of “Dextor’s Laboratory”. The obvious metal leach dwarfed the house by at least 4 stories. It had a giant telescope that poked from the dome on its roof. Wires ran magical electricity through the complex, somethin I’m sure the
mayor wouldn’t like to hear about.

We went inside with Gear nearly slammin the front door off its hinges.

“Mom I’m home! And I have guests!”


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The moon could just barely be seen from the hole in the dome where the telescope peered through. It had to be 3am judging by its position. I was too tired to notice the class enclosed box around me risin in temperature as I gazed at the magnificent globe in the sky.

“That’s 3000 kelvin.” I heard Gear yell through the glass. The blaze around me was barely noticeable as the air started to burn. It was a good thing the tungsten gas mask was continuously supplyin me air, or instead of burnin, I would suffocate.

“Don’t ya think that’s hot enough, I don’t feel anythin an I want to go to sleep.” I was dead tired, an I still had work in the mornin. Quick had decided he had enough of a night, an went home around midnight.

The blaze died down, and the door opened.

“Well that’s enough for today I guess. But we must do further tests. You said that a young black dragon blew fire on you in close quarters. Dragon flame is about as hot as the surface of the sun! That’s 5778 kelvin! Your ability could let you withstand any fire based magical attack.” Before he started to ramble I cut in with a goodbye, and let myself out.

As I was passin through Gear’s home, I saw his mother for the first time. She was an older mare with a black coat and charcoal mane. Her cutie mark depicted a beaker full of green liquid spillin out into a puddle.

“Oh! Hello there. I’m Test Tube, you must be one of Gear’s friends.” She said, givin me a smile.

“uh, yes ma’am. I was just seein myself out.” I motioned towards the door.

“Oh well I hope you had fun. Gear doesn’t get a lot of friends to come over. He just spends his time in his room, tinkering with his little toys. I wish he would go out and see the world like I did when I was his age.” She drifted off, probably recallin a few good times she had. When she focused back on me, she gave a slight chuckle, “Sorry dear, I’ll let you go. Have a safe trip home.”

She walked back into the livin room, mutterin somethin about energy bills.

With that I left Gear’s house, and headed back to my humble abode. The walk didn’t take too long, given I was carryin my armor an axe.

As I laid my head onto my pillow, I couldn’t help but think things were gonna be ok.

I was wrong.

Author's Note:

I decided to throw another chapter at yall, hope you don't mind. If there's a spelling mistake in here besides the obvious country slang, let me know. Otherwise, hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for the next chapter of Bronze Hoof!