The Blacksmith

by BlackMuffin

Maybe our Talent is Smithing!

About a week after moving into my new home in Ponyville, I had already earned enough projects to keep me busy for a while. I was mostly asked to make household items such as lamps, chandeliers, and sometimes utensils. I did miss the liberty of making a good set of armor or maybe even a craftsman decoration falchion, but if anypony caught me making weapons they would probably begin panicking. I could never leave the forge for supplies at night for some reason, as nopony was ever outside at that point or running their shops. I didn’t understand why at first since there weren’t any monsters or aberrations running around at night, and the air was even more comfortable than during the day. My around-the-clock work meant I rarely left my forge, and even when I left I rarely spoke to anypony. I did run into Twilight and Octavia a few times, but Vinyl still eluded me.

This concerned me quite a bit, as I had always taken Vinyl to be the kind of pony who was outgoing, chatty, and really energetic. Then again, being a DJ must have been very difficult for her. Everypony needed their time alone, as I had figured out during my time there. Her time alone, however, seemed to take up forever. I made a mental note that I would have to ask Octavia about it at some point. Vinyl’s case truly did worry me greatly after a week, though. When I started questioning myself as to why, I just shook it off as my newfound emotions causing me to become unsettled by the littlest things. I figured that feeling would leave after a while.

My forge was my true and primary concern for the first few weeks. In fact, for about two weeks I worked around the clock on my orders, never really stopping, as that was what was customary in the Hive.

During that time, I had learned how to use magic. It really wasn’t such a difficult process, actually; my turning into a unicorn had given me an innate magical ability that didn’t seem to be connected to my Changeling abilities at all. I had first only been able to levitate one small object at a time, but I eventually progressed to the point that I could move all of my tools at once. I still preferred to use my hooves, but magic was definitely useful to hold my supplies in place when I was hammering a piece of metal. It reduced the risk of burning my hooves, as tongs were unheard of for some reason in pony society. I always figured I could make some myself, but I never really got around to it.

As time progressed, however, I found that it became more and more difficult to focus on my work. I became overtaken by a need to close my eyes and just stop everything I was doing. I would have no part of it, however, and I simply kept working as hard as I possibly could. I felt that it was my responsibility to provide for my clients.

One night, however, I simply gave in to this strange need for shutting my eyes. I went over to the chair I had nearby my forge, sat down, and simply closed my eyes. After what felt like about ten minutes, I felt a small, round pillow prod me on the shoulder.

Wait, a pillow?

My eyes popped open to find that three fillies were gathered around me. One white unicorn, one orange pegasus with a purple mane, and an off-yellow earth pony with a red mane and a pink bow tied in the back. The yellow one had been poking me, and as I rubbed my eyes I noticed that it was actually daytime. How did that happen?

“’Scuse me mister Blacksmith, but why were y’all sleeping during tha day?” she said in a cute little southern accent. I smiled to myself a little at her speaking tone when realization suddenly slapped me across the face.

What in the hoof was sleeping?

I decided that it didn’t matter at the moment. I’d find out more about it later. All that was really important was that my need to close my eyes was gone and I felt completely concentrated on what I was supposed to do that day, despite a sudden grumpiness. I remembered that I needed some iron, carbonated steel ingots, a new hammer, and—

“Hey, you know Applebloom just asked you a question,” the orange one was giving me a rather annoyed look.

In as calm of a tone as I could muster at the moment, I asked: “Alright, first of all, who are you and why are you all here and not in school?” All three of them gave me funny looks and then laughed.

“We’re not in school because it’s Saturday, silly!” the white one said through chortles, “You must have lost track of time! Anyways, I’m Sweetie Belle!”

“I’m Scootaloo!” the orange one beamed and buzzed her wings.

“And Ah’m Applebloom!” the yellow one jumped up and down, “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We try ta earn our cutie marks any way we can, and Miss Twilight said y’all just moved in!” So Twilight had sent them here? I’d definitely need to have a word with her.

Now, my method of “having a word with” somepony used to involve me yelling at them or maybe even having a fight. That was simply part of our aggressive nature as changelings. Unfortunately, showing any form of aggressivity to mares would easily get your flank kicked out of wherever you happened to be at that point and time. I learned that the hard way when Twilight took me to a bar and I became particularly aggravated at a certain purple mare that had too much to drink. The resulting drunken brawl I had with her coltfriend left me unable to use magic for a few days. Therefore, having a “word” with Twilight would probably involve me trying to tell her not to send small fillies and colts my way, but not finding the words for it and just storming out of her library. It had happened before, and she said herself she found it kind of cute. Being cute was really the last thing on my mind.

I was rather grumpy when I had opened my eyes for some reason, and this whole ordeal did stir me up a bit. I felt irritated and wanted to shoo the three of them off, but at the same time it seemed wrong to let down a few fillies who simply wanted to learn what I did. In the end I just decided to humour them and actually gave them a crash-course on forging.

<--------------------------------------------------->

“Alright, Applebloom, just make sure you hold the metal completely at the end; it could end up burning you if your grip is too close to the heated part. Now use the needle to scratch your design in slowly.” About two hours after Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had given up, Applebloom was still sticking around. She was quite good at it, actually, and she was talking a lot about how she’d get her cutie mark in no time at this pace.

“Hey, Blacksmith, have ya ever met mah sister Applejack?” she asked suddenly.

“Who now?”

“Mah sister, Applejack,” she repeated, “She works down at Sweet Apple Acres with mah brother, Big Macintosh. I think she’d like ya, with yer being hardworking and all. Y’all could come down for supper, it’d give ya a nice opportunity to meet some new ponies, too.”

I really did want to go, but I couldn’t stand to leave my forge behind for even one day.

“I don’t think I can, I’ve got a lot of work to do and…”

“Another thing Twilight told us is that yer always workin’,” she cut me short, “Don’t ya think ya need a break every once in a while?” She gave me an adorable little pouting look. My heart exploded twice. I had to concede.

“Alright, alright, I’ll come down. But first let’s finish up what you’re making right now, okay?” Applebloom was making a small bowl with a bunch of carvings on the side, one of them being a large heart shape. I found it really cute, actually. While blacksmiths were usually useful only for war, her small bowl had a cute heart on it. It warmed my heart to know that ponies didn’t have to be exposed to cruelty at an age so you as Changelings had to.

<--------------------------------------------------->

Like I had promised, I went down to Sweet Apple Acres with Applebloom for supper with her family. When I came near the orchard, the first thing that went through my mind was just how in Tartarus were Applejack and her brother were able to take care of all those trees. What confused me more was how the two actually collected the apples.

All they did was buck a tree once and all the apples fell out into baskets. Even though my form was that of a unicorn, I easily matched the strength of most earth ponies, but this was absolutely confounding. I made a mental note to never, ever get on their bad side. I shuddered to think what they could do if I made them angry enough.

When we began to near the house, my nostrils immediately became filled with the smell of apples. What was strange about this particular smell was that it almost seemed to sting me a little. It was as if the apples had some sort of jolting spiciness to them. It confused me, but I decided that it would all be explained at some point.

“Why are you keeping all these dead trees?” I asked as we passed a patch of leafless trees.

“Ah, these trees ain’t dead,” Applebloom began to explain, “They’re Zap Apple trees! They only bloom for six days before they become leafless again, so we have to gather all the apples as fast as we can.”

“Zap Apples? What’s so special about them?” I gave her a quizzical look.

“Are ya kiddin’ me? Didn’t ya smell that weird static-y smell just now?”

“Wow. They must be pretty special! I’m glad I was lucky enough to come here on the day you guys harvested them.” My mouth watered just thinking about it.

“Actually, we harvested ‘em about two days ago, but this is the last day we’re doin’ anythin’ with ‘em before Applejack sells them at her apple stand.”

We arrived at the house then. It looked rather spacious, actually; I thought that a farm house would be smaller than the one they had. Then again, their farm was renowned for its cider, I heard. I really wanted to try some eventually.

An old, pale green mare with a white mane bundled back into a bun was sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch. Next to her was an orange mare who I assumed to be Applejack, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge red stallion pulling a cart into the barn.

“Hiya Applebloom! Who ya got there?” Applejack shared her younger sister’s southern accent, although it didn’t have that same heart-warming effect as Applebloom’s. Applebloom ran up to her sister and they shared a tight embrace. I never really knew my ‘siblings’, and such a display of sisterly affection made me wonder what my earlier years would have been like if I was born a pony.

“This is Blacksmith, he moved in a few weeks ago!”

“Blacksmith, eh? I’m surprised I never met you before, Pinkie usually throws a party every time a new pony comes around.” Applejack cocked her head to the side a little as she looked at me. I could tell she felt something was off about me. I tried to hold back anxiety.

She stepped down from her porch and came up to me. As she stepped closer to me I felt sweat trickle down my neck. When she was right in front of me I felt like I was going to explode. I just wanted to turn and run for the hills, possibly changing back to a changeling so I could fly away.

Please don’t find me out, please don’t find me out… I tried my best to keep a pokerface as I repeated that wish over and over in my head.

“Well then, Blacksmith, welcome ta ponyville! Although Ah doubt that ya really need any kind of introduction to the town.” She stuck her hoof out. I didn’t realize what she was doing at first. Was she pointing at me or something? Then I remembered that ponies usually involved some sort of ‘hoofshake’ when meeting others. I reached my hoof out and we shook.

The sheer relief I felt when I realized she wasn’t going to kill me made me feel like I was going to melt completely. I kind of wanted to ask for a bucket as a joke, but my realization that they hadn’t noticed my anxiety stopped me.

“Yeah, Applebloom told me about you guys. She’s really impressive with the forge, actually. I didn’t expect her to be that good at it.” Applebloom beamed at my compliment and looked at her sister, who seemed just as impressed as I was by Applebloom’s success.

“Wow, sugarcube, Ah bet that y’all get yer cutie mark in anytime now!” she nuzzled her sister’s head a little before turning to me again.

“Why don’t we all go inside and eat now? Dinner’s ready and Big Mac’ll be over any minute now.” Applejack turned and walked up to the door and went inside. I chuckled a little to myself at how well she actually took me. I should have felt thankful for being able to fool everypony thus far, but instead I just thought it was funny that it worked out so well. My sense of humour has always been strange, but even now when I look back I don't see why I found it funny at all.

I looked to my left to see Big Macintosh was arriving from the barn. I waved to him, but he didn’t wave back. Instead, he just stopped and looked at me. I could tell that he thought something was wrong. As I walked inside, I could see him frowning at me out of the corner of my eye.

I would have to watch myself around him.

Comments

[BlackMuffin]

Alright! Chapter 2 everypony! I have to admit I'm not very fond of how it turned out, but hopefully you guys will appreciate it more than I do. There's a plot device that I wanted to fit in this chapter, but the rest was, unfortunately, slightly forced filler.

Chapter 3 will be better, I promise, but unfortunately you'll have to wait a few weeks for that. I'll be gone until around August 10, so don't expect any updates other than this one.
static2.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/i+just+watched+the+one+when+rainbow+dash+does+the+_3be62fa3d10e4cf39714801097d10821.jpg
Trust me though, as soon as I get back I'll work my flank off on it.

[thejayowl]

Damn, Big Macintosh is goona woop his ass if he finds out.

Damn, gotta wait a few weeks? BUT I WANT IT NOW!

[theRedBrony]

I liked it.

You should um... write moar.

[BlackMuffin]

Alright, I am redoing chapter 3. After some kind criticism by two kind gentlemen, I found out that a huge-ass plothole popped up in chapter 3. Therefore, I'll be revising it, so it won't be out for a few more days. Sorry.