My Little Viking: Steel Is Magic

by Laarsgaard

A Trip to Canterlot

We arrived at some odd platform and waited. Below us were some odd long metal strips with odd beams of wood between them every few feet. We waited around for no apparent reason to me at least. Then I saw it. It was a massive metal machine beast that roared along the metal strips and break neck pace. My stomach dropped in fear and I turned and ran.

Twilight snagged me with her magic and brought me back struggling. I yelled my protest but no matter what I said or how I struggled the purple horse held me in the air until we were inside the belly of the odd thing.

As we entered through a door on the side I looked in and saw that colorful benches awaited us inside and not the pink innards I expected. I calmed some and Twilight set me on one of the benches but did not release her hold on me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the benches were padded and comfortable.

No matter the comfort, being inside this monster made me feel uneasy and I began to fidget. Twilight looked out the window at her friends who were waving goodbye. The monster growled and shook. I tried to bolt for one of the openings in the side but to no avail as Twilight only tightened her grip on me.

The beast began to move. I could not believe how terrifying this experience was and yet Twilight just sat there like nothing was happening. We were going to die and she did not appear to care in the slightest that she had let this thing swallow me.

We rode in the stomach of the beast for what felt like an eternity. Twilight spent the time holding me down while looking out the openings in the beast’s side. I struggled every second, not caring how or when I got out. I snarled and cursed at Twilight. It was a good thing she could not understand me or I am assured she would’ve beaten me against the beast’s innards.

Eventually the beast began to slow. Twilight stood from the bench and forced me to my feet. The beast came to a halting stop and Twilight swiftly disembarked with me in tow.

She released her grip on me and I fell face first into the hard gray rock of the platform. I kissed the ground happily vowing to myself to never set foot inside that horrible thing again.

The beast ground away and Twilight poked me with her hoof. I looked up from the ground at her angrily. She used her head to point in the direction she wanted us to go. I reluctantly stood and followed the purple horse.

We entered the city. I had never been in a city before and it was a wondrous thing to behold.

Houses and buildings as far as I could see in every direction, shops and stores with their eye catching wares posted up in the windows. Most of the shops had pictures for signs instead of their odd runes so I could keep up with what most of the places sold, but some of the curios were strange and alien to look upon
.

We walked through my mouth agape. Twilight chuckled at me. I cared not what the horses thought of me, I could have looked at that place for hours. We finally arrived at the royal palace. It was indeed a grand structure, beautiful to behold as the sun reflected off of its high, gold plated walls.

We entered through the main gate and met with a guard whom I could only assume was the horse in charge. To my surprise Twilight embraced the stallion. She turned to me and pointed.

“Shining Armor.” She said smiling.

“Shining Armor?” I repeated confusedly. The two gibbered at each other. The stallion whose name I guessed was supposed to be ‘Shining Armor’ pointed at me. I was too confused to be insulted because his name was idiotic to say the least. Then I thought about the names of these horses and obviously they had been naming themselves, because no man or woman who was sane would ever name a horse Shining Armor, or something as stupid as Rarity or even Twilight for that matter.

I snorted. Both horses looked at me. Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at Twilight questioningly. I made myself a promise that I would hit this one with my axe no matter what the princess threatened.

Twilight finished up her conversation with Shining Armor and we began walking again. We entered the palace proper. The building was rather impressive on the inside, filled with colored pictures of important horses and events was the best I could guess. Standing at the base of an enormous staircase was Celestia. She was talking with some brown colored horse.

I studied the princess. She was much larger than any other horse around her, an obvious indication that she was in charge. But I was confused as to why they showed her such deference. Then it hit me, she was a Gydhja! With this sudden realization I felt my animosity towards her drain.

It felt odd to me that this was the only representation of any faith in this strange place. I watched the princess maybe she was more than just some bumbling fool or greedy black hearted lecher.

The brown horse bowed and left the princess quickly running by me. The princess beckoned to Twilight and me. We walked up. She greeted Twilight and then turned to me.

“And good day to you Ol.” I nodded.

“Good day princess.” I answered back quietly. The princess turned back to Twilight and the two spoke for several moments. They each pointed to me a few times and then Twilight nodded. She turned to me and smiled and said something then turned and went off down a massive hallway. I looked back at the princess.

“Come with me Ol.” She said as she began to ascend the massive staircase. I followed Celestia up the steps and she began to speak.

“I’ve ruled over this land for a few thousand years.” I immediately stopped listening to her. The only beings I knew of that lived that long were the gods and they apparently had no power here, so how could this horse of all things claim to have been alive for as long as a god?

“I would suggest you listen, the assignment I have for you is rather important.” The princess said looking over her shoulder at me disapprovingly. I had been staring off into space the whole time she had been speaking.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“I know that our history may not be of interest to you, but you should at least be aware of some of the dangers you are going to be up against.” She said angrily. The princess turned and continued walking.

We had come up the steps and were in a vast hall filled with more of the multi-colored surfaces that depicted events. I could see one that looked like Twilight surrounded by other colored horses firing something out of their heads at another more menacing horse that was the color of the night sky.

I looked at the princess.

“This is all very nice, but what do you want from me?” I asked her impatiently. The princess turned and looked at me.

“Since you are here and you are now one of my subjects you might as well be of some use to me.” I raise my eyebrow skeptically.

“What does that mean?” I asked her. The princess pulled one of those odd feathers used for writing and a piece of parchment out of thin air. I was getting really tired of this ridiculous magic.

“Firstly, I charge you with the duty of protecting and safeguarding my student Twilight Sparkle and her friends.” I couldn’t believe what she had just said.

“I don’t know if you haven’t noticed but I have one arm and no armor, oh and I’m not a bodyguard!” I fumed.

“That’s why I have this.” She indicated the parchment. “Now tell me what you are going to need to do the job.” She said. Obviously she wasn’t flinching on the guarding Twilight thing.

“Fine,” I said. I would have crossed my arms in indignation, but for the fact that I was missing one. “I need a full suit of plate armor, a claymore and another hand axe.” I told her. Celestia wrote down the small list.

“Take this note to the smith, the way shall be lighted for you.” Celestia said handing me the note.

“In a year’s time you will be back up to top speed and you will have what you need I assure you.” I snorted at her words. This arm was never coming back.

“Can I go now?” I asked incredulously. The princess nodded.

“Yes, you may go, I’ll have Twilight sent to the armory where she will meet you.”

Without another word I turned from the odd room and walked out the massive door.

I looked around for the light she said would guide me to the armory, whatever that meant. I noticed a strip of light on the carpet that ran along the wall and out of sight. I guessed that that was my guide and set off with the note in hand.

It took me about ten minutes to find my way down to the armory. The chamber itself was bisected with one wall gone exposing the room to the elements. Outside the sun shone bright and wonderful down on the practice field that stood next to the armory. I could see guards battling each other with blunted weapons while their commanders shouted at them. I could see Shining Armor in one of the bout rings dealing out punishment to one of his colleagues. I snorted in approval. For how ridiculous his name was he was a skilled fighter.

The center of the chamber was dominated by a massive forge that was vented and led into eight smaller forges arranged in a circle around the larger one. Four horses worked the massive bellows, pumping air into the forge to heat it. I was awed at the impressive display.

As I stepped foot into the chamber I was challenged by a smith. He was a rather large stallion with one over developed foreleg from using the hammer for so long. I had seen such a thing in human smiths who had been at the practice for years. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but I handed him the note. He opened it up and read it. The stallion looked up at me several times while he read the note. He nodded and rolled the scroll up. He said something and indicated me to follow him. I nodded and we began walking.

The smith talked the whole time I just kept silent and nodded politely as he spoke, not knowing a word of what he said.

Eventually we came to the other side of the chamber where several long tables stood covered in various weapons and pieces of armor. Several horses stood around impatiently waiting for smiths to fix dings and dents in their armor. One in particular had a patch over his eye and a massive scar down the side of his skull. He looked mean and formidable. It would’ve been rather interesting to see just how skilled he was.

I looked at the table. I could see a hand axe that was the perfect twin to my own. The smith set a large bag down and began to look me over. He looked at my hand perplexed by my fingers and shrugged. He turned around and picked up a vambrace that was oddly shaped and held it up to my arm. I held out my hand and he slipped it on. It fit well enough, but I was not convinced it would protect me. I tapped the steel against the edge of the table. It thudded resoundingly. I used the edge of the table to pry the brace off and set it down. I plucked my new axe off of the table and slammed it down on the armor. The axe’s progress was halted by the vambrace with a resounding clang. All of the horses surrounding me looked at me indignantly. I just chuckled.

“Good steel.” I told them.

Comments

[PegasusKlondike]

Steel is strong, but flesh... flesh is stronger. For what is a sword compared to the hand that wields it?

[zsewqthewolf]

You know twilight for a pony that say your smart your very supid when it come to seeing how other feel and think, I mean for crying out louad your useing tech that was not made yet let alone use!

[Zwei]

“That’s why I have this.” She indicated the parchment. “Now tell me what you are going to need to do the job.” She said. Obviously she wasn’t flinching on the guarding Twilight thing.
“Fine,”

What the fuck, guy just gives in so easily when he literally just said,

I’m not a bodyguard!

no he did't say it he fumed it, do you Author understand what fume means. If he's so angry about the idea of being some one's body guard what the fuck makes you think he's just gonna give into the idea 2 seconds later. This character is the definition of stupid. I now understand why this story is cancelled. I'm surprised you had the ability to write such a fucking emotionally confused character for 13 chapters, i'm genuinely impressed.