Metal and Magic

A small “clink” could be heard as the door to a balcony opened. A red-coated, orange-maned stallion stepped out, with brass wings extended out at his sides. He jumped off the balcony and flew straight up, flapping his wings into the night sky, a hiss of steam and more metallic “clinks” with each movement. He reached the layer of clouds just above Ponyville, looked down at the house he flew from, and cleared the clouds above and surrounding it. Just as he was finishing kicking away the last cloud, a blood curdling scream rang through the night, scaring the red pony and almost causing him to deactivate the wings.

   “What in the name of-” the stallion began, before being cut off by another shriek. He pinpointed the area they were coming from. He flew as fast as he could, louder hisses and louder clinks ringing through the air as the wind blew in his face, forcing him to squint his eyes. He flew slower and looked down, seeing nothing but more houses and a couple stores.

Oh Celestia, what if something bad happened? What if somepony died because I couldn’t fly fast enough? Oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no-

   His train of thought was cut off again by yet another shriek. He saw movement down below, and flew straight towards it. What he saw was more or less what he expected to see. A pretty mare backing away from another pony. He couldn’t quite make out who the other pony was, but it was definitely a stallion. He wore a dark, black robe, and had a knife in his mouth.

   “Hey, you there!” the red pony shouted in the deepest, most threatening voice he could manage. “Back away from her!” He shouted again, this time extending the brass wings from his back, their sharpened edges reflecting the moonlight. The hooded stallion turned around and looked at the red pony, before advancing on him with the knife. The mare was scared still, sitting against a closed storefront, trembling and crying.

I’m so going to die right now. I’m so going to die, there’s no way I can beat this guy.

   Before he knew it, the other stallion was close enough to him that he could cut or stab him. His instincts threw him up into the air with his wings, dodging the swipe of the knife. He lunged forward slightly off from the pony, trying to hit him with the edge of his wings. However, they hit something hard on the pony’s forehead.

What? Is he a...? No, he can’t be, silly, unicorns aren’t real. Everypony knows their just myths in books-

    A knife flew mere inches from his face, startling him and sending him stumbling backwards. He was met by a hard kick on his flank, barely missing his stallion parts. The kick sent him stumbling forward onto his face, but he quickly righted himself and flew up, dodging the mysterious attacker’s next attempt at his life. He flew down, this time hitting the back of the stallion. He grunted and stepped backwards. He swiped at the red pony again, still missing.

    “Hey buddy, if you wanna hit me, you’re going to have aim at me, unless you have a thing against air or something!” he shouted to his attacker. He glanced over at the mare he was attacking earlier. She was still trembling, although this time looking at the two fighting instead of nowhere in particular. Another attempted hit was made by the stallion.

Dammit, concentrate! Your life is at stake here! Of course, it’s not like he can hit me anyways.

    “Seriously, are you just trying to scare me off or are you going to hit me already?” he shouted again, mocking him. A low growl could be heard from the stallion, and he dropped the knife from his mouth and picked it up with his hoof. He raised it and charged at the red stallion, throwing his front leg at him and only being met with the sound of metal against metal as the iron knife smacked against the brass wings. The red pony dove forward and hit the stallion of the arm with his wings, making a deep cut. The hooded one stepped back again with a grunt, and switched arms. He was hit again in that arm, and he dropped the knife completely. He looked up at the red pony, who was in a fighting stance, leaning down and snarling at the hooded pony, like a bull. He glanced at his hooves, both with cuts on them, rendering them useless to hold anything without pain. He grabbed the knife in his mouth and ran off around the corner behind the red stallion. A popping noise was heard just before the red pony rounded the corner as well, but was met with nothing.

    “Quick son of a bitch, isn’t he,” he wondered out loud to nopony in particular. He turned around started back to the mare.

    “Hey, hey, it’s alright now, he’s gone now. It’s okay, you can get up,” the red stallion said. She had stopped crying since the fighting started, but she was still scared. Any sane pony would be. She got up on all fours. She looked at him and he instantly recognized that face.

    “Wait a minute, you’re Twilight Sparkle, aren’t you! The one that invented the steam engine!” the red pony said to her. “That’s what the wings on my back use! That’s so cool, I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you!”

    “Uh-huh, uh, ya, that’s me,” she said, nodding. “Those wings on your back, are you a Pegesus who lost his wings or an Earth pony?”

    “I’m an Earth pony. I saw some pictures in the paper taken by a Pegesus when the first camera was invented, and since then I’ve wanted to fly. When I moved out, I opened up a little workshop on the other side of Ponyville. I just make some small gadgets and stuff, repair some things that need repairing. It’s nothing compared to what you’ve accomplished, Miss Sparkle. It’s such a pleasure to meet you, although I would have preferred...better circumstances,” the red pony commented with a big grin. He was meeting one of the most influential ponies in Equestria, not to mention the mare who made his entire dream come true. "I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't be rambling right now."

    “No no, it's alright. You’ve saved my life, there’s no way I can thank you enough for that. And those wings are amazing, by the way, I’ve never seen anything like them.”

    “Well, I don’t mean to brag, but that was pretty awesome what I did back there. And thank you very much, Miss Sparkle. I worked very, very hard for months to make these.”

    “I know the feeling, I was studying, researching, and making blueprints for years before I finally managed to make the steam engine work.”

    “Yeah, and thank Celestia for that. Your work changed the world.”

    “Thank you, uh...”

    “Oh, how rude of me, I never introduced myself. It’s Brass Cloud, Miss Twilight,” he said.

This is definitely going on the front page of Equestria Daily, he thought.

    “Well, thank you very much, Brass Cloud. And please, just call me Twilight. You saved my life, after all.”

    “It was nothing, I was just clearing the clouds above my house so I could stargaze when I heard you scream, that’s all. It could have been anypony else, really.”

    Twilight’s ears perked up when he mentioned stargazing. As far as she knew, nopony else in Ponyville enjoyed looking at the stars.

    “Oooh, you like stargazing? What kind of telescope do you have? Do you have a favorite star?” she asked quickly, suddenly interested.

    “Oh, nothing like that, I don’t even own a telescope. I just look at the stars occasionally, it’s really peaceful, you know? And if I bring a candle out with me, it really helps me concentrate if I’m reading a book, too.”

    Her ears perked up again, this time at the mention of books.

    “You like reading too? What’s your favorite book? Mine’s the Mareian Webster’s Dictionary,” she said, again a little too enthusiastically.

     He eyed her curiously, and then chuckled. “Your favorite book is the dictionary? Really?

     “Of course it is!”

     He laughed again. “Uh, okay...anyways, I read fiction mostly. My favorite book is...uh...”

     “Is what?”

     “Oh, um...nothing. It’s not important,” Brass Cloud answered nervously.

     “Come on, tell me!”

     “Do you really want to know?”

     “Yes, I do.”

     “Alright, it’s uh...um...My Little Human: Chaos is Magic,” he said, with a sigh of defeat added at the end.

     “Isn’t that series for little fillys?” she asked. This time it was her eying him curiously.

     “Hey, your favorite book is the dictionary, and there’s like, five million other stallions and colts who read it too. It’s one of the best children’s book ever written, and the author specifically said that she intended it to be enjoyed by every age group, so parents could read it to their kids and not cringe at how bad it was and stuff, not to mention-” he was cut off by Twilight giggling and waving a hoof.

     “Okay okay, enough with the rant. I guess both our favorite books are a bit embarrassing.”

     “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey, look, we’re here.” Brass said as they arrived at the front door of the library.

     “Yeah, I guess we are. Listen, I can’t thank you enough for what you did tonight. I could have easily been killed by that pony, and-”

     “I know, I know, I heard it the first time,” he said with a wave of his hoof. “And be safe, lock the doors and windows, something seems like he didn’t choose you at random, Twilight.”

     “I know, I will. And if he does get in, I have a Steamdragon in my house, he’ll protect me if anything happens,” she said, although anyone could easily tell she was still nervous.

     “Twilight, I can see you shaking. Nopony can just nearly get murdered and shake it off fifteen minutes later and fall asleep. Is there anything I can do?” he asked. He wanted to protect the inventor of the machine that made his wing mechanism possible in the first place, of course, but there was something else, like he just had to protect her, no matter what. And he couldn’t deny that Twilight was a very good looking mare. He would hate for that to go to waste.

Celestia, what am I thinking? That’s terrible to even think that!

     “Well, I guess you could...um...stay here. It would probably help me feel safer if you were somewhere in the house with me,” Twilight answered with a slight blush on her the cheeks.

Well, this certainly isn't helping at all.

     “Brass? Hello?” He realized she was waving one of her hooves in front of his face. “Are you alright?”

     “Huh? Oh, uh, ya, just fine.”

     “So, um...are you going to, uh, come in?” He noticed she had also opened the door and was standing just inside.

     “Oh, uh, yeah, I’ll be right in.”

Oh Goddesses, this is going to be so awkward. I bet in less than ten minutes flat I’ll want to just sink into the ground and die, that always happens when I’m near a mare.

     “You’ll be sleeping on the couch over there, I guess-” she was interupted by the sound of metal hitting the wood floor. A small metal dragon thumped into the room and looked Brass Cloud right in the eye.

     “Intruder detected. Leave the premises now or you will be exterminated,” it said in a robotic voice that sounded like some sort of mix between a pony and robot that was constantly yelling.

     “Calm down Spike, he’s a friend. He’s not going to hurt anypony,” Twilight said calmy, while gesturing with her hoof at it, like it was a child.

     “Request accepted. Intruder will not be exterminated.”

     “Does it always have to use 'exterminated' like that?”

     “I’m not sure, it just does that. I think it’s funny, like if it’s helping me in the bathroom it says ‘It is time to exfoliate’ and such. I think it’s just programmed into the gem or something. I never bothered checking.”

     “Uh-huh. So, I’ll be sleeping on the couch, then?”

     “Yes, unless there’s...nevermind,” Twilight said, a blush yet again on her cheeks.

     “You know, you’re kinda cute when you blush,” Brass Cloud said with a slight smile,

before it quickly faded into an expression of horror when his brain processed what he just said.

Did I really just say that? Oh Celestia, please, tell me I did not just say that...

     “Oh, haha, um...” Twilight blushed much, much harder at those words. “Um...thanks, I uh...boy, am I tired, I’m going to go bed now bye!” she said quickly, zooming past Brass and up the staircase to her bedroom at speeds that would rival Rainbow Dash.

    “Well...tomorrow is certainly going to be very, very awkward,” he said as he started to the couch. As he lay down, he looked back at the Twilight’s steam dragon. It was staring at him with unwavering glass eyes.

    “Dude, that’s creepy,” he muttered quietly as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.