Chapters The wind howled outside as Steel Shaper made his attempt at sleep. Sleep didn’t come easy to him anymore, not since the accident. Groggily, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“Curse it, it’s been days since I’ve slept…” sighed Steel. Blinking a few times to clear his exhausted eyes, he looked around the room. Blank walls staring back at him, except for one which contained a picture. The picture of himself and his beloved, his black mane spiked at the front, halfway covering his left eye. His blood red eyes looking at his beloved Mystshade, a Pegasus, her light blue eyes seemed to gleam, even in the still frame, as they had so long ago. Her blue-black mane flowing down the sides of her face vibrantly standing out in contrast to her flawless white coat. The unrestrained smile on her face hurt him to look at. Wincing at the pain he felt in his heart, steel knew how great the love they shared was. Tears threatened to pour down his cheeks, almost losing the struggle to maintain his composure of breaking down again. Taking a deep breath he regained his composure, as much as there was to regain.
“Myst,” he began, “I’m not sure how much more I can take without you, I can feel myself falling apart, piece by piece. I still love you, and think about you constantly. I feel lost without you… I’m sorry… I wasn’t fast enough to save you…”
And he wept for an hour before managing to get his hoofing and sulked off to bed. Sleep came and so did the dreams…
The Dream
Blankets of rain fell from the sky, soaking the coats of the curious onlookers.
Steel shaper woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily, he rolled to look out the window. The sky was starting to fade from the dark of night, to the warm golden color of early morning.
"I love you too, MystShade, and you alone." Still shivering from the nightmare that came to him, every time he managed to sleep. Getting out of bed caused a cascade of cracks and pops throughout his body. This was nothing new to him, but was getting progressively worse with each passing dream.
Judging by the amount of light in the sky, he estimated he had about an hour until sunrise, maybe an hour and a half.
"It came to me again, last night. You did.. but, it wasn't you, but the memory of you. Clear as water, I'm not sure why its always the same, unrelenting, dream. i don't know how long I will be able to keep it together, it is distracting me from my work, Causing flaws, I cant have flaws in my work..." Followed by a long time of silence.
As the sun crests over the rolling hills Steel Shaper slowly makes his way to the smithy. down the dirt roads kicking up small puffs of dust as he walks forward, his head held down. As usual, the trip is uneventful, however today, something in the air puts him off.. Pushing these thoughts into the back of his mind, there was no time for them now, for what he saw at the door to his shop, was not normal.
Standing in front of his shop was the captain of the Canterlot Royal guard, Shining Armor. Steel Shaper took a quick breath and cleared his mind, business was to be done, so he thought. cautiously, but with confidence, he approached Sir Shining.
"Good morning sir shining. What brings you all the way to my shop?" Steel said and made a quick bow.
Upon the sight of shining Armor vanishing on the other side of a hill, Steel felt that sensation of something wrong again. this time, worse than before. No matter how much he tried, this time, he could not push it back into the recesses of his mind. A cold wind started to blow, chilling him to the bones..