Forged of Gold

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     The only noise that echoed in Gold's mind was the incessant beeping of some machine and his own breathing.  But despite the noise, or lack thereof, it gave him some time to think.  What went wrong? He thought to himself, I did everything exactly how the spellbook described it, so how come it ended up like this?  He worked over the scenario hundreds of times over in his head, it didn't make sense.  He followed the steps down to the last bit of detail, so what went wrong?  No solution.  There was no reason that it should have failed like that.  I don't get it... but it doesn't matter... I think I'm dead anyways...

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Wait... that beeping... either that's just some noise that's supposed to torment my failure in the afterlife... or that's a heart monitor...  With a little effort, Gold opened his eyes to see the blank walls of a hospital.  He blinked a couple times and mumbled, "Definitely heart monitor..." as he cast his gaze around the room.  "Yup... I'm in a hospital... and I'm as stiff as cold steel..."  A quick stretch proved two things to Gold, one, his body was stiff from being bedridden, two, whatever he did, it really hurt.

     The door opened and a stallion in a lab coat entered the room.  "Patient 2317, Heart Gold.  Cause for admittance, severe magic burns and minor lacerations to the torso. And on top of that, a concussion. Boy, I don't know how you survived that much punishment, but it's pretty darn impressive you did."

     Gold turned to the pony, "You the doc?"

     The stallion grinned and nodded, "Indeed, I'm Doctor Harvard, glad to see you're finally awake Mr. Gold. How're you feeling?"

     "I feel like I got hit by a train... but other than that... pretty good I guess... What happened anyways?"

     The doc pulled up a chair and sat, examining the clipboard he held. "Well according to the ponies who brought you in, you were laying unconscious in the middle of the Everfree next to two thieves that have been evading the authorities lately."

     Gold's brow furrowed, "I was unconscious?"

     "Yes, you've been out for a day or two, you've had a visitor come by every day so far.  A mare, she seemed pretty worried, said her name was Twilight Sparkle.  You friends with her?"

     "U-uhh..." He felt his face light up, "Y-yeah... we're friends..."

     "Ah, alright," Harvard responded coolly while writing his notes. "Okay, Mr. Gold, due to your rate of recovery you should be able to leave within the next couple days."  He said as he stood and headed to the door.  "Just stay in bed, don't move too much, and you'll be out in no time, alright?"

     "Okay doc..."

    Harvard then exited Gold's room, leaving him to rest.  But Gold had other ideas.  "Ugh... Rest is the last thing on my mind..."  He attempted to get up, but that backfired instantaneously as his body rejected the idea of moving and sent a shockwave of pain rippling through him.  "MOTHER OF CELESTIA!"  was the only response made before he laid back down on the hospital bed.

__________

     Gold laid in bed for what seemed like an eternity for him, and by eternity he means six hours of nothing.  "At least I was asleep most of the time... I wouldn't be able to take two days of nothing to do..."  If anything was a surefire way to annoy Gold, it would be locking him in a room without anything to do.  "Ugh... why... why me..."

     He glanced at the clock, 7 PM.  Normally he'd be at the forge, working on a project or "cleaning" up his workspace.  So laying in bed, staring at the clock was pure torture.

Knock knock knock

     "Hello? Gold? Are you awake...?"

Finally a visitor... Gold thought to himself.  He cleared his throat and responded, "Yeah, I'm up.  Who's there?"

     The door opened slightly and Twilight poked her head in, "It's Twilight... can I come in...?"

     Gold felt another blush coming on, so he looked over to the window, "Y-yeah... y-you're already h-half way in..."

     "O-oh..." Twilight nodded and walked in quietly, "I'm not disturbing you... am I?"

     "N-not a-at all... U-uhh... W-what's up?"  Make the conversation short and simple,  she probably came to see if I was okay or not, is what he was thinking, but life is funny in the way things don't always turn out like you planned it.

     "Well... I figured you'd be a little lonely here in the hospital by yourself and I wanted to check and see how you were doing... So I figured I'd make a visit."  She said as she took a seat in a chair by the bed.  "So! How are you?"

     Kind of a stupid question, if she was the one who brought him into the hospital, then she should already know this.  "W-well... u-uhh... I'm fine... j-just a little sore t-that's all..."

     "That's good," Twilight said with a worried tone. Suddenly her expression turned grim for a second, "You really weren't kidding when you said your results with magic are explosive... you could've died you know?"  Died? I really could have died?  The thought floated around in his head for a second before she broke the silence, "But don't worry, with a little practice, we can get you whipped straight into magical shape!"

     Did she read his mind?  Nah.  The thought of dying left a sour look on his face, which Twilight read easily.

     "O-oh... w-well... sorry..."  Gold mumbled.

     "Don't worry about it. As long as you don't go and do it again we should be okay."  She said with a smile.  Gold felt something churn in his heart, something was tugging at it, something he couldn't quite place.  With a simple nod of agreement he shook the feeling off.

     "D-did you... w-work out a... u-uhh... plan? F-for the forge...?"

     "Why yes we did, actually.  There's this older stallion who offered to get one set up right outside my house.  'Shapestone' was his name I think..."  Shapestone, That name sounded familiar to Gold, He just couldn't quite place it.  "Anyways, he said the forge will be ready for use in a couple days, he's quite the fast worker."

     Gold couldn't help but grin.  A forge, how he missed the warmth of the fire and the smells of molten metals.  "T-that's great... I-I can't wait to s-start..."

     "Great!  Oh!  Uhh... I have a question..." Twilight said quietly.

     "U-uhh... wh-what is it...?" Gold said while looking over at her.

     "Would you mind if, uhh... I read to you?  Cause you're looking pretty bored, and I've always thought a good book would help brighten up someponies' day, or night in this case." She ended the sentence with a giggle.

Read to me? She wants to read to me? I guess it's alright... He thought to himself, coming up with an answer moment later.  "S-sure..."

     Twilight's face lit up as he said yes, she then proceeded to quickly retrieve a book from her saddlebag.  "Epics of Equestria" The title stated.

     "I hope you don't mind, I've already started to read this one, it's got all sorts of ancient legends and tales that have survived history!" She said enthusiastically.  To Gold, it didn't matter much, he had always enjoyed reading about ancient heroes fighting off evil creatures and sending them to Tartarus.  He was a little excited himself to be honest.

     "N-no no... I-It's alright... g-go ahead"

     Twilight simply smiled and began to read the story of how an ancient hero defeated an evil ruler who tried to use terrifying contraption made of magic to absorb the magic from other unicorns.  Gold grinned slightly as she continued with her tale, but eventually, his expression dropped and turned into one of peace as he slowly fell asleep.  Just a quick nap He thought as he dozed, Then I can get to work at the new forge.  Gold could've sworn he saw Twilight looking right at him just as he fell asleep, but who was he kidding, he barely knows her, and she barely knows him.