The Refining Fire

Forge followed Mokosh.

And he didn’t know what to think or feel.

Here he was, following in the hoofsteps of one of the heroines of a war that they were all too familiar with. She was the first, and as the local legends prescribed: the Trumpet of Justice. Almost everypony knew of her and her story, how brave and courageous she was, how she rendered kindness to a world and a people that offered her none… but now that Forge stood beside her and walked aimlessly with her, it seemed as if all of those noble and valiant qualities were a facade for something much worse.

And he didn’t like that.

“Where are we going?” Forge asked. They had been walking around the interior of the castle for an hour now, winding through passages and backtracking through rooms that they had already visited a number of times. His little legs were getting tired of all the walking, and his patience was growing thin.

“When are you going to stop asking questions?” Mokosh asked.

“Is there a point to this?”

Mokosh shook her head.

“Look, I don’t want to waste your time nor do I want to waste my time!” Forge raised his voice, “So just tell me what we’re doing!”

Forge tripped, falling face first onto the carpeted floor as his jaw started to sore with pain. He blinked momentarily, attempting to piece together what had happened before his furious gaze turned toward Mokosh who simply smiled devilishly back. The colt wanted to yell at how careless and cruel this mare was, but he bit his tongue. His eyes darted around to the several royal guards that mounted their posts, before he realised that all eyes were on him.

“First lesson,” Mokosh detailed, “don’t raise your voice, especially against a power greater than you. Also don’t be the one asking questions, when you’re the one supposed to be answering them.”

“Answering?!” Forge spat, “What questions have you been asking me?”

Mokosh shook her head again.

“Fine!” Forge gave in as he lifted himself back to his hooves, “What do you want to know? My name is Forge, I come from the village that… that’s gone. I was carried back here by heroes. Now the Princesses of Equestria believe that I’m supposed to be one of those heroes, but at the moment I’m struggling with somepony who is taken to make that as difficult as possible!”

“Very good,” Mokosh smiled cruelly, “but I didn’t ask any questions.”

Forge trembled with resentment as he looked up at Mokosh.

“I think this is the part,” Mokosh said, “where you turn your back and walk away, Forge. That’s the better alternative to what could happen, if anything were to happen in the first place.”

“Why?” Forge asked, “And don’t tell me not to ask! Why do you care so much?”

“Because this isn’t the business of a child! You’re meant to be in a school, meant to be out making friends and living a life free from whatever in tartarus that Celestia and Luna believes you’re meant to become!” Mokosh responded with sharp voice, “What do you have to prove? What do you think you need to do?”

“I think I need to be better!” Forge snapped, “I have everything that I need to prove!”

Mokosh stood quietly as she looked down at Forge, before closing her eyes and shaking her head. She then turned to walk away from the little colt who stubbornly continued to walk by her side.

“If that is what you believe,” Mokosh responded flatly, “then you don’t understand the ideals of the ‘Iron Order.’ We aren’t supposed to be better, or prove that we are anything… quite the opposite, despite whatever Celestia and Luna might say. Better assumes we have a greater power over something, when we’re meant to be the ones who offer their shoulders to be stood upon. To prove we are anything, when we are meant to be the ground upon which others tread upon.”

“So then why try to put me down?”

“I’m giving you a better option, aren’t I? I’m fulfilling my commission and the charter of expectations that I didn’t even make for the group! Some ragtag team of do-gooders just managed to catch the eyes of Royalty, who believed they were something more than they needed to be. We didn’t even come up with the name ‘Iron Order,’ that was Celestia’s doing!”

Forge stood defiantly, still challenging the unicorn who stared back down at him.

“So,” Mokosh continued, “I recommend that you start chasing your calling in life, blank flank, and start learning something that’ll help you!”

“What if I’m meant to be stood upon, trampled in, for the good of everypony else?”

“Celestia and Luna!” Mokosh placed her hoof against her face, “Who’d actually want that? Who, Forge?! Don’t say yourself!”

“Myself.” Forge challenged.

“Oh, so you’re the clever one now?” Mokosh laughed sarcastically, “Okay… you’re a tough little colt! I guess we can continue after all!”

“You’ve gone on about how you didn’t even contribute to any of the objectives of this group, so why support any of them at all?” Forge interrupted as Mokosh ceased all movement, sensing her shoulders grow tense and her expression change from a challenging glare to a hurt frown.

“That’s…” Mokosh looked down, “that’s not your business! And why would you care, even if it were?"

"Because you keep bringing it to my attention whenever you want an excuse not to teach me!"

"You're a stubborn little colt," Mokosh sighed, "and that is a lot more annoying than it is charming… but fine, you want me to stop complaining? Then you stop complaining and listen to what I say, got it?"

"Finally!" Forge sighed with relief, "Understood, ma'--"

Forge tripped to the floor again as his patience finally wore thin, swinging back up from off the ground to bare his grating teeth against Mokosh who stood by peacefully with a smile on her face. The royal guards in the room stifled their laughter, leaving Forge terribly alone and angry with the mare who had just promised to not complain and help him.

"Don't call me ma'am, instructor or teacher…" Mokosh explained, "I'm not any of those things. There will be no yes's or no's, unless it is to royalty. And most of all, learn to mind your step, if you keep tripping like that then you'll really start to look foolish."

"You keep on tripping me!" Forge growled.

"And you keep walking over my hooves, so don't just charge ahead, but be thoughtful. Think about doing what's right, rather than grinding those precious teeth, and finally: give up."

If Mokosh was right about one thing, it was that Forge was stubborn.

The colt was doing everything in his power to ensure he wouldn’t give in or feed any ground to the equally stubborn mare who he learned to keep distance from, but not to stay too far away. Forge wanted to make sure he was in her view at every moment, so that she would know that he wasn’t going to give up too easily. Mokosh eventually brought Forge to grand doors that he thought would lead outside, the colt finally satisfying himself with a conclusion that they’re finally going to do something worthwhile.

“Oh, you’re still there?” Mokosh rolled her eyes, “Couldn’t tell, generally whenever you’re around there is a strange stomping on my hooves.”

Forge sighed irritably, choosing to ignore Mokosh’s provocations this time. Mokosh snickered before she pressed open the grand doors that led into what to Forge looked like a library of… sticks? There were shields and spears that lined the walls, and on several mannequins were impressive armour sets. Within the room stood several of the royal guards in what looked like a more informal setting.

The colt blinked, trying to piece together the fact that the guards could do something more than patrol or stand at attention. Forge realised that the sun was poking through a hole in the ceiling that illuminated the sawdust floor with some strange glow and glitter. He looked toward Mokosh, seeing the unicorn collect a wooden pole from off a rack before she challenged his gaze… she was smiling oddly now.

Forge didn’t like that.

Throwing the pole over to Forge, the colt just barely managed to catch the pole with his hoof as he held it unsteadily in his weak grasp before he looked up toward Mokosh with a confused expression. The unicorn already secured another pole as she twirled it effortlessly with the magical aura she produced with her horn. With her free hoof, Mokosh gestured toward the centre of the strange room where the pit of sawdust was. Forge blinked a few times, completely confused as to what he was supposed to do.

“This isn’t high magic, Forge…” Mokosh sighed, “get to the centre of the room!”

“Why?” Forge asked.

“You wanted to be something,” Mokosh tempted, “this is where you’re going to prove me wrong!”

Forge shook his head before he placed the pole in his mouth as he walked toward the centre of the room, standing in the middle of the sawdust before he turned around to look at Mokosh who stood idly on the side. The colt watched as she looked down at him, smiled and then turned toward a few of the guards and started talking with them. Forge was absolutely confused for a moment, before that wonder burned away into rage.

About to call out, Forge felt an impressive force strike and swipe all four of his hooves from underneath him. The colt dropped the pole he brandished as he collapsed into the sawdust, the particles only cushioning his impact slightly. Trying desperately to rub the sawdust from out of his eyes, Forge eventually fixed his attention on the pole that swung around lazily in Mokosh’s magical aura. Tears started to brim at Forge’s eyes from the agitation the sawdust caused, the colt trying to hold them back before he stood up as triumphantly as he could.

“Mo--” Forge tried calling out, before being knocked to the sawdust again.

Forge popped up, slower this time but not any more discouraged than the last. The colt grinded his teeth together before he reached to pick up the pole he once held before a sharp and stunning blow landed atop his head, and for a third time he collapsed into the sawdust. Forge sat there for a while, trying to keep his attention focused on Mokosh and the royal guards, who were now laughing.

He knew they were laughing about him. How he couldn’t keep up.

“Mokosh!” Forge called out as the laughing stopped suddenly. He trembled for a moment before he pushed himself out of the dust, overcome with frustration and anger that he couldn’t control.

Mokosh only smiled devilishly at him.

“Mokosh!” Forge struggled to form any comprehensible thought, “Y-you’re a coward!”

The guards smiles immediately stiffened into blank stares, looking between each other and between the colt and mare that stood against each other. Mokosh’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, her lips curling more before she started laughing at a joke that wasn’t told… but the air was strong with tension. Forge’s senses pricked, trying to rouse him from his anger and present him with a reality he would never accept.

“Forge!” Mokosh strained between laughs, “And you’re a child who shouldn’t be here in the first place! Oh no! You’re being put in your place! It’s like some colt shouldn’t be involved in things like this! If you want to serve your Princesses, how about you grow up and join an academy? Problem solved! You get what you want, and I don’t have to bother with you ever--”

“Because I’m here! Just like you!” Forge nearly yelled.

Mokosh blinked.

“Get out of the sawdust,” Mokosh sighed, “and for Celestia and Luna’s sake, shake yourself off and wait outside!”

“I’m not going anywhere! You’re not taking this seriously at all!”

“Perhaps, you should stop taking yourself too seriously!” Mokosh yelled.

Forge froze and trembled furiously.

“Breath.” Mokosh commanded, “Shake yourself off. And walk. Out.”

Forge stepped out of the arena where he once stood alone, before shaking off the dust he could before beating himself with his own tail. The entire time he kept his eyes glued to the floor, now completely unwilling to look up at the challenger who had bested him without a second thought. Once satisfying himself of being clean of the mess he ultimately made for himself, the little colt stormed towards the door and pushed it open enough for him to leave before stepping through to the other side.

The colt stopped and stood just beyond the door, his brow burning with his untempered rage and anger before his cheeks flushed with a quivering and uncontrollable sensation. He tried everything to hold it back, but despite his best efforts he felt tears brimming and running down his cheeks. Forge drew in a shaky breath and exhaled sharply, trying his best to temper his emotions--

“Breath.”

The instant Forge heard Mokosh’s voice, he immediately stopped trying to control himself. The mare was trying to get him to give up, she was doing everything in her power to try to get him to stop… no, he would never listen to her again! He needed to tell the Princesses how cruel Mokosh was to him, how she had been making it a sport to humiliate him as much as possible!

As soon as he resolved to do this, Forge stood up and started walking away. Behind him he heard the door open at hoofsteps, choosing to ignore them as he continued walking on.

“Forge!” Mokosh called out.

He ignored her.

“Forge, you turn around this instant!”

“Why do you care?! You wanted me to leave!”

Mokosh didn’t respond.