Of Brothers

by FirestormFIM

Chapter 2

A/N: an * symbol means there is a sidenote, it isn't required to read, it's just more detail that I recommend you do, each sidenote is at the bottom of it's respective scene

---

One week later

Shining Armor stalked through the halls of Canterlot Castle, other guards hurriedly getting out of his way and averting their eyes as he pass. He was not in a good mood, in fact, he hadn’t been in a good mood for quite a while. Not since he found out one of his oldest friends was turning traitor. Firestorm, one of his closest friends since joining the Guard had abandoned them, even with everything that had just happened in the wake of the Changeling invasion. Sure he gave advance warning and had claimed that he wanted to take care of his sister. I have a little sister too, and she’s been involved in literally every crisis in the past two years! Shining Armor fumed to himself, and on top of that, we don’t even know where Chrysalis went after Cadance and I threw her out of Canterlot, and he just leaves! For all we know, she’s planning another attack, and if she is, he knows we couldn’t spare any blacksmiths!

Shining Armor approached the door to the briefing room where the Princesses had requested his presence, the guards on either side of the door snapping to attention and opening the door for him as he passed. The Princesses were waiting when he entered. "Yes, Princesses?" Shining Armor said as he bowed to the Royal Sisters. "Have you made a decision about my request last week?"

"We have." Princess Luna said, uncharacteristically speaking first of the Alicorns.

"While we still maintain that you have to learn to accept Firestorm's resignation from the Guard." Princess Celestia continued. "Luna and I have decided that, for your own peace of mind if nothing else, you will be allowed to go to Ponyville to attempt to persuade him to rejoin."

The Royal Guard captain gave what was the closest thing to a smile he had given to anyone (besides perhaps Princess Cadence) in the past week. "Thank you Princesses. I will bring Firestorm back with me, he'll remember his duty soon enough." With that Shining Armor left the briefing room.

The Princess of the Night sight as the door closed behind Shining Armor. "I'm still not sure if this will work 'Tia. Talking to the smith might just succeed in making him angrier."

"Trust me Luna, I wouldn't insist on sending him if I wasn't sure something good could come out of it, hopefully some of his sister's lessons about friendship will rub off on him." The Solar Princess replied, a look of concern still on her face as she stared at the door her Captain had just left through, despite the confident statement.

"So we're going to rely on Twilight Sparkle yet again" Luna responded. She let a mischievous smirk cross her face as the opportunity to tease her older sister presented itself. "At this rate you're going to forget how to do things for yourself, you'll just have Twilight do it for you."

"I can still do thing for myself thank you very much, and Twilight is a very capable young Unicorn, it'd be insulting to waste her talents." Celestia said, smiling at the friendly prod by her sister.

"Well either way, it looks like it's up to the little sister to save the day." Luna grinned. The sisters of night and day laughed at the obvious implication.

---

Firestorm punched the corner on the red hot metal with a hoof, causing it to bend. He didn't have to worry about burning his hooves when he bucked and later punched and pushed the heated metal into the desired shape because of specially designed horse-shoes he wore that resisted heat, and coincidentally, had proven to be very effective in battle due to their extra weight and the strength of the material used to make them. His fur, however, fared somewhat worse, the sparks that bust from the metal with each blow had left countless tiny black spots on his legs where the fur had been burned, a sensation he was all to accustomed to. The expert smith inspected his work again, looking over the newly shaped plow for any flaws. It was of much higher quality than the one the Apples had been using, even before Firestorms final adjustments and when the old plow was brand-new. This was because of Firestorms' smelting technique* as well as Firestorms personal skill at a forge. Not seeing any unacceptable flaws, Firestorm poured water over the plow to cool it and waited for it to cool enough to take it to Sweet Apple Acres.

*figured out by an old Unicorn smith who proceeded to make it common knowledge among craftsponies who still respected the traditions of the art

---

An hour later, Firestorm pulled the cart containing the newly forged plow over the crest of a hill and the farmhouse came into view. Relieved that there were no more hills of considerable size that he would have to pull the heavy cart up, Firestorm continued down the path. Two minutes later, he detached himself from the cart and knocked on the door of the house. Applejack promptly opened the door with a smile.

"Well hey there Firestorm! What brings you to the farm?" the cow-pony asked in her usual cheery manner.

"I just finished your plow this morning and thought I should bring it up here for you." Firestorm replied politely.

"Well that's great news! Macintosh! Get out here, the new plow's just showed up!" Applejack shouted back into the house, inadvertently calling more ponies than just Big Mac as the Cutie Mark Crusaders burst around the corner and out the door, accidentally tackling Firestorm.

"Hey girls! It's good to see you too but would you mind letting me up so I can at least finish my delivery."

"Oops, sorry Firestorm." The Crusaders replied. "We heard that you were delivering the plow and we wanted to see it."

"It's ok, and of course you can see it, Apple Bloom will be seeing plenty of it in the future anyway."

With that Big Mac emerged behind Applejack and Firestorm led them to where the plow was sitting in the cart. "Are you sure that we can plow with that? It looks a might nice." Macintosh said, face as stoic as ever.

"Nice? I'd say it belongs in a museum as much as it does in a field!" Applejack replied, staring at the plow.

"Thanks but I wouldn't go that far, most ponies don't consider it an art anymore and this one's way to simple to be put in one of the fancy museums." Firestorm responded. "And as for whether or not it works, it should work better and longer than your old one ever did, if not, I'll replace it free of charge."

"There somethin' wrong with my plow?" Macintosh said, glaring at the flame-maned stallion at the perceived slight at the tool he'd used since he was a colt.

"Not other than the ravages of time Big Mac. But I made this using steel almost as high quality as the stuff I used to make armor for the Guard. And I made some improvements over the standard shape that should make it go a little smoother." Firestorm said, surprised by Big Mac's sudden touchiness.

"Firestorm! You haave to teach us how to do that! I just know at least one of us will have a Cutie Mark just like yours!" Scootaloo pleaded. At the mention of his Cutie Mark memories flashed through Firestorm's mind of when he learned to smith and the hammer and anvil had appeared on his flank.

"Of course I'll teach you girls, I don't have any other commissions yet so I can teach you girls this afternoon, I just need to pay a visit to Twilight first.

"YAY! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER BLACKSMITHS YAH!" With that the three fillies ran off to their clubhouse to plan what they'll do once they have their blacksmithing Cutie Marks.

"You sure you want that trouble Firestorm? I'm not sure putting them around fire is such a good idea either." Applejack said, looking concerned over what had just occurred in front of her.

"I know what you mean, that's why I'm going to see Twilight, I'm gonna ask her if there's anything she can do to Cutie Mark Crusader-proof the forge, or lacking that, fireproof it and us." Firestorm said. Applejack laughed at this. "Well I should go take care of that, I'll see you to later." Firestorm said as he turned and walked back to town.

Once Firestorm was out of earshot, Applejack turned to her brother. "Alright spill it, he might not know you well enough to tell when you don't like somepony but I do. What's your problem with him?"

"He left his sister without a family for years." Mac said, voice filled with disgust.

"He was a guardpony, he was helping protect all of Equestria, his sister included."

"He left her with somepony else, now I like Miss Cheerilee as much as the next pony, but it ain't the same as living with your flesh and blood."

"Since when have you been this judgmental?"

"Since he abandoned his family for his own benefit,"

"How many times do Ah have to say it? He was a guardpony, it was hardly a safe line of work!"

"And how do you think little Scootaloo would have taken the loss of her brother? Like I said, it wasn't what was best for his family."

This caused Applejack to hesitate, she hadn't thought of it that way. "I don't know, but I'm sure he had some reason for what he did."

"And I'm sure there ain't a good reason for abandoning your family."

Comments

[Hawkeye]

Hmm... You have an interesting concept. I'll follow it for now and I'll be sure to read it once I'm able to think straight, then I'll let you know what I think of the story so far.