Chapter 1
It was a cold day, snow on the forest ground, it was December, and there was a festive feeling about everywhere one went this time of month. And while everyone was at home, spending time inside with their families and some students who were still at school, there was one young individual outside, exploring the forest with a pickax and shovel in hand. His name was Cobalt Ironsmith, he always had a knack for going out of his way and exploring the unexplored. He was also quite the blacksmith too, a lovely job that paid well. With silver hair, a blue gray tone to his skin, and the tip of his face a rather rusty color to intervene with the main color, he would look like the sort of guy to be down in emotional virtues, though he is actually quite perky and optimistic.
He wore an old, more patchwork that fabric, blue plaid jacket with a built in neck cover design. He loved the jacket, and could never throw it away, even if it did make him seem homeless and held no insulation at ALL, it just had so much sentimental value. He wore a sweater, a second sweater and his shirt beneath it. He wore a pair of heavy blacksmithing gloves, even though they were meant for blacksmithing in high cases of heat, they provided good insulation for the cold as well. So he kept them on him. He had a standard satchel he kept his journal and pencil in, hanging at his side. And last were the signature boots nobody but him would probably wear. His pant legs were loosely tucked into the shin high leather boots that had two distinct buckle straps to keep them on. Soot covered and well worn, they were incredibly comfortable and had to have the sole replaced a few times due to traction issues.
Cobalt was walking through a forest clearance, setting the pickax head on the ground to lean his weight upon to look around, his amber eyes scanning the areas for anything that might look unnatural to the area. Nothing, just snow, trees, and brush. He was about to continue before hearing the sound of a branch being stressed, with its distinct ‘cricking’ noise. He looked around quizzically, not knowing it was just a branch heavy with snow directly above him. It kept drooping, and drooping, until it let go of its snow, having it fall down right onto Cobalt. He didn’t really dislike snow, it was kinda pretty actually. But who likes having snow fall down into their clothes in the dead of winter, really.
Cobalt shivered, dropped the shovel, and froze for a moment as the cold seemed to chill his entire body. A portion of snow stayed on his windswept hair. It only fell off when he let out a scream of large discomfort as he began doing what would appear to someone else as a new dance craze as he tried getting the snow out of his shirt.
“Oh sweet butter biscuits, cold, COLD! Ack!” Cobalt let out, shaking himself as the last of the snow got out of his clothing and off his head. He rubbed his shoulders, warming himself back up before hearing a soft growl. Was that him? He was hungry, but he thought he ate enough to stop the annoying stomach growls. He found out it wasn’t his annoying, buffet eating, stomach after hearing a snap of a stick and the crunch of leaves. He turned around and found out what exactly it was, and really, REALLY, wished he didn’t turn.
It was a Mountain Lion.
And it looked kind of hungry; fancy that, he was too, so much in common.
But that wasn’t what he was thinking after it stared at him and licked its lips.
Cobalt didn’t even care about survival rules, it was crouching, and it was either flight or get viciously mauled to death by a really pretty and well groomed cat. There wasn’t really any choice in this. He left his tools and bolted, his long legs moving quickly through the snow as his breath and heart rate picked up. Was the Mountain Lion still after him? The roar and panting quickly catching up behind him indicated yes, it most definitely was. He began crying, it was starting off so well too, why did he have to go and provoke an animal that has a potential to take down bears? How scary, scary until adrenaline began pumping, he felt numb, but incredibly good. ‘Wow. This is what it feels like when you are in a life and death situation. Awesome. Wait, not awesome, you are about to get mauled by a large cat. Just keep running. Good logic there.’
And that he did, he ran and saw a thick amount of trees coming up, maybe he could find another way around. He felt his back get hit and a tearing sound. Nope, finding a way around was NOT an option, better just book it and hop through using what adrenaline heightened muscular strength he had. He crossed his arms in front of him and felt the branches push into his forearms as he jumped into the trees. Alas, there must have been a landslide earlier in the fall because there was no ground beneath him, just tree roots, though at least the cat stopped chasing him, it must have known. The feline jerk.
Cobalt used his last seconds to look around as he fell and saw that pretty blue sky, miles of trees and Canterlot, where his house and forge was. He graduated last year from Canterlot High School and heard that there was an incident just a few months ago; the school entrance was destroyed by something. Maybe they hired contractors and they destroyed the entrance by accident. Ha, good luck getting out of that, if it was true. He smiled at the thought before seeing the treetops coming up fast. He screamed as he began hitting branches hard, breaking a few branches, his jacket getting torn up as one of the claw marks caught on a branch and was practically torn off him, but it stopped him. And just in time too, he was about to hit the ground, and just thinking about what WOULD have happened was a thought he would rather dismiss.
He slipped out of the sleeves of his jacket and stepped on one of the many thick branches, now only in a tan turtleneck sweater. He frowned as he looked at his jacket, it was still zipped up, but the tear in the back had torn to break the whole thing in half. He sighed and took the jacket off the branch, folding it up and tucking it inside a slot in his satchel. It saved him in the last days of its life. ‘It deserves a proper burial.’ He thought. And it will.
He looked at the ground, there was moss on it. How odd, why was there moss in the winter, let alone on the ground. The trees were split into a nice path. He squatted down and tore it out of the ground, noticing it was growing in the crevice of two unnaturally square stones, they were warm. He looked around and then up. It was not a landslide that was the reason to the cliff apparently. It was mostly rock. And it looked clean slated, so it was probably excavated for the rock. He began following the moss, the rocks might be a path, or a roof to something maybe. He sighed at the fact he left his pickax and shovel behind. But at least there was a reason behind THAT.
After the next several minutes he found an opening in the side of the cliff. It was well hidden, with the shade over it all throughout the day and pitch black, it was fairly hard to see. Cobalt rummaged through his satchel and took out a piece of alcohol soaked cloth and two rocks, breaking a branch off a tree and wrapped the cloth around the thicker end. He laid it up against a rock and began clacking the two rocks together, creating sparks. He kept doing this until the cloth ignited catching fire and creating a torch. He put the rocks away and picked up the torch, walking to the cave entrance, if any creature was in there, at least he had a mean to defend himself. Play with fire, one will surely get burned.
Cobalt took a nervous step forward; the entrance was a bit warm.
“Alright Cobalt, you can do this, you have explored dark places many times before…. Even if they were with dad….” He forgot this was his first time exploring alone, his father always helped him out, like building a torch, what you would need in case you ever lost your supplies, and that nature was your bathroom, okay the last one was disturbing but still SORT of helpful. The old man never taught him how to fend against cougars though. But the tip for torches was nice, and he began walking down deeper into the hallway, if that’s what they should be appropriately called.
He waved the torch around, lighting the walls to see if there was anything he wouldn’t miss. The hall turned to the right and immediately became stairs. He walked down them, listening to the echo of his boots hitting each step, it was unsettling. What a creepy and eerie place. He decided to think of what could possibly be at the end of this place. Everything was underground he realized.
*Several Hours Later*
Cobalt was about fed up with this place, he searched every single nook and cranny and if this last hall didn’t have anything then he had just wasted a day of his life for nothing. He shined his torch toward the last opening, only it wasn’t open, there was a door. A big stone one at that, typical, stone everything must have a stone door. He pushed against it hard, it didn’t budge. He paused for a moment to look around and then at the high ceiling, the light from his torch couldn’t reach it.
Cobalt had packed a flare gun with a few flares to shoot off, may never know when you would need them, and he was constantly reminded the uses of having one, such as seeing how high a ceiling was. And he remembered watching a movie when the hero shot a flare at a vicious beast and caused it to run off. So there was that too. So many uses. He loaded the first flare and looked up, aiming for some reason, and shooting it to see if there was anything there.
There was.
“. . . Oh snap.” He said with a surprised look.
Cobalt once again had screwed up and shot ropes that were keeping something in place, the first caught fire and spread rather quickly, it was quite lovely to look at before he found out what the ropes were being used for, they were keeping the ceiling up, tied tightly around the neighboring stones before slowly sliding out. What terrible architecture.
The first few stones fell out and broke against the floor, Cobalt avoided a few of them until the falling stones finally settled. He was about to let out a sigh of relief but a large stone fell from the ceiling, a few ropes tied around it. The ropes caught it and swung it directly toward him, he reflexively jumped against the wall as it passed by and smashed itself into the supposedly impenetrable stone door. Dust erupted among the two stones crashing and he stared, frozen against the wall. The dust cleared to show the door had been destroyed, well not as much destroyed, merely cracked to pieces, rubble among the floor.
Cobalt poked his head into the room, of course this was his idea to open the door, he planned for this to happen. He stood up straight with a smile, chuckling to himself. He totally wasn’t freaking out, thinking he was going to get crushed by a bunch of measly quarter ton rocks or anything. He was a fearless explorer! A pebble fell on his head and he grabbed for the wall with wide eyes.
After a little bit of fearless time went by, Cobalt decided to explore the room, he picked up his torch, still dimly lit. Waving it in front of him to see if this room held anything that might catch his or someone’s fancy. Dust laid everywhere, that was a good sign, that means no one was ever in this room before. He continued to look around; it was a large circular room, with columns in a circular pattern to make what would seem a hall between the wall and the columns. Each column was connected with a downward arched 2 foot tall wall; apart from them appeared to be benches. Everything was beautifully engraved, save the large cracks that covered a few of the many columns. The room then dipped into a 5 step staircase. And after that, there was just a pedestal.
‘What a cliché of a room’, he thought. He saw these sorts of rooms in movies, and they would always be booby trapped or something like that. He would be careful. Cobalt walked to the center of the room, his boots making a soft echo. There it was, the ominous pedestal. There was something on it, and it shined against the light of his torch. He tilted his head, it was an amulet….No, maybe a medallion. It mainly consisted of a gold ring with a gem in the shape of a fat plus in the middle; it was well polished and grinded. It glowed a soft tint of blue and purple, the light from his torch appearing to be attracted to it.
Cobalt continued to stare at the gem. It was so…. Mesmerizing. He shook his head, regaining his focus and wondered if the pedestal was booby trapped. It most likely was. Maybe a giant boulder would fall from the ceiling, or the whole place would blow up. Maybe twice! The possibilities of demise could be endless! He licked his upper lip, about to take it. Careful. Careful.
He got bored of this and just took it. He looked around to see if anything would try to kill him, waiting. There was nothing, nothing! Maybe the traps needed a little kick-start. Cobalt began pushing and leaning against the pedestal, nope, still nothing. He kicked it and sighed, whatever. He held up the Amulet/Medallion, watching it twirl from its chain, it’s not covered in the probable centuries of dust like the rest of the room. And it continued to glow, it was just so….. Pretty. He placed it around his neck and felt a tickle in his chest, probably from the excitement at finding this well preserved item. He decided he was going to keep it. He began walking, not noticing the traces of an amber color form around the sides of the gem.
Many hours had passed after Cobalt found the Medallion and he broke through the tree line. He was night, a very cold one, but at least he had his sweaters and gloves on. He shook off a few leaves and snow after walking down the streets, following the street lamps. He couldn’t wait to get home and get all cuddled in in his blankets after a nice hot meal. The thought made him shiver in joy.
Cobalt looked up and saw the moon, it always made him smile. It always looked happy, or something like that, and those distinct three stars, they would shine brightest during a certain time of the month for about 3 days, roughly.
The school was coming up; he wondered how things were going there. He smiled and stopped, taking a few steps back to get a good look of the school. The Wondercolts were still amazing, he missed the days when he would try out for the football tryouts and fail miserably since he could never catch a football. He began taking a few steps back, thinking about those days, he remembered a few of the students. There were a few cute girls too, though he was incredibly squeamish around even the thought of asking one on a date.
Cobalt looked back and saw the Canterlot High Statue. He walked over and turned around, about to lean on it, before seeing his newly found medallion beginning to glow a dim amber gold. Weird, he could have sworn it was blue before. He now leaned back to look at it, though was now concerned about why he wasn’t leaning against anything and was about to catch himself before falling through the statue.
It shone brightly as he disappeared within it, leaving nothing but an echo of Cobalt’s 'Woah' that quickly faded in the air.
It did not take long for this swirling vortex of colorful transportation to fling Cobalt out of a mirror, causing him to barrel roll into a few things, crashing and making PLENTY of noise. Cobalt lay on the floor before hearing a few, rather odd footsteps… He tried getting up and fell face first onto the floor. He wondered if his sense of balance was off. He looked at his hands and his heart felt like it hit his stomach, he didn’t have his hands…. They were hooves. He began frantically looking around, looking for a mirror. He found one and drug himself over to it, unable to walk or do anything normal quite at all. He had no clothes, save his medallion. Oh goodness, screw the missing clothing, he was a pony. He was a blue-gray colored pony with his same silver hair-style. He had a muzzle now, that turned to a rusty color. And he still had his vibrant amber gold eyes. He pressed his new hooves to his face, wondering if this was all real, and that was when a guard of what seemed to be made of crystal came in and told him to halt.
Halt? He couldn’t even walk, that’s when he fainted. The guard walked over to this strange intruder and looked around, there was no sign of forced entry. A second guard came in and helped the first carry away Cobalt’s limp, panic induced fainted body.
Author's Note
Honestly, I have pictures for all this, including what Cobalt looks like, the places he has been, and the Medallion. Just hold tight. Though enjoy this first introduction of Cobalt.