My Farrier Lady, Sunspot

Chapters

1. Wistful Opening Title
2. An Unexpected Pleasure
4. Spring Sprung
5. Anniversary
6. Scratching Post
7. The Fire
8. Patterns
9. Courses
10. Summertime
11. Aftermath
12. Carrying the Torch
3. Grounded in Unreality

1. Wistful Opening Title

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Wistful Opening Title

“It’s a sure thing, Nails.”

“Sure, it’s a sure thing.” Silver Nails nodded skeptically while his bright blue eyes kept track of the serving mare on the other side of the bar. “You’ve told me about sure things before. Like betting on Silver Streak at the Wonderbolt Derby.”

“That’s different,” said Golden Hammer with a huff of breath that blew his blonde forelock up, only to have it fall back down over his eyes again. “This is important. We may never get this opportunity again. If Dad sells the shop to another farrier, the contract goes with it, and we’ll be working under somepony for the rest of our lives instead of standing on our own four hooves.”

“Speaking of under…” Nails continued to watch the slim pegasus as she wove her way through the bar clientele, which made him pay Hammer little or no attention at all. The young unicorn was well on his way to his nightly flirtive approach and likewise nightly crash, but after watching Pirouette distribute several beers to her customers and head back to the bartender for another load, Nails turned back to Hammer with a sigh.

“Look, Ham. This is our off time. We missed the Summer Sun Celebration last night, so I think we deserve it. I don’t want to think about work, I don’t want to think about shoes, or bits, or engraving enchantments, or anything other than—” Nails jerked his horned head in the direction of the bar where the young pegasus server was picking beers off the counter.

“Point taken.” Golden Hammer scooped up his beer and took a measured sip to make it last. He always limited himself to a single tankard, or two if the kabobs were over-peppered. “So, did you want to order something to eat before she shoots you down in flames, or after?”

“Very funny.” The two stallions watched the pegasus barmaid weave her way over to a table filled with burly cargo stevedores from the airship docks, who had most certainly not restricted themselves to a single tankard each. Pirouette managed the impressive task of sliding a half-dozen tankards onto the table without spilling a drop while sidestepping three different grasping hooves, then glided over where Hammer and Nails were watching.

“How are you two gentlecolts doing this evening?” she asked. “And before you answer that, Nails, I will not walk by again, or stay to mend your broken heart, or anything having to do with your procreative propensities other than to have Stout over there put a skewer up somewhere you really don’t want skewered if you bug me even in the slightest.”

Hammer held a hoof over his friend’s mouth. “Two kabobs, two more beers, and an apology on behalf of Nails, since if he gets his jaw started, he’s going to wind up eating one of these mugs, I suppose. Rough night, m’lady?”

Giving a frustrated and very unladylike snort, Pirouette tossed her head to get her long yellow mane to lie flat against her neck. “The Summer Sun Celebration last night was epic, and I’m still exhausted. Then we have payday at the docks, too. It’s always a pain in the plot, but none of the off-duty guards from the palace have dropped by yet to balance things out. Still, Stout’s been cooking kabobs like crazy and the tips aren’t too bad tonight.” The young mare gave Hammer a speculative look from under her untrimmed bangs. “You sure you want that second beer, big guy? If things get rough tonight, there’s no guards around, and I’m pretty sure Stout doesn’t want you breaking a few of the patrons.”

A side effect of his being nearly twice average size made everypony think Golden Hammer was violent when drunk, or at least that was their safe assumption. In fact, bar fights tended to get very peaceful when he would saunter over to the combatants and request that they take their discussion outside. Sometimes, the startled stallions would even pick up the broken bits of furniture they had just created and apologize to everypony in the vicinity, even the unconscious ones. And if things at the bar did get nasty, spending nearly every day at the forge since he was a foal had given Hammer enough strength that he was extraordinarily careful about punching or kicking anypony who seemed fragile.

Thankfully, that precision of focus was his talent, although he preferred to use it on shoes.

“It’s a special occasion,” said Hammer, still keeping his large hoof over Nails’ large mouth. “Dad announced his upcoming retirement yesterday, and I’m trying to convince Nails that we should buy him out and be our own bosses. We’ve got the guard contract and Dad’s regular customer base, and we’ve worked there since we could walk, so it should just be a matter of changing the sign.”

Nails shook his head, although his eyes never left the serving mare.

“Okay, maybe a little more complicated,” admitted Hammer. “By the way, how’s the patch we did on your rear hoof doing? Still solid?”

“Yes, indeed.” Pirouette turned around and lifted a delicate hind hoof to place it almost on the table. “Still firm, tight, and hard.”

Hammer applied a little more pressure to the hoof he was holding over Nails’ mouth.

“That’s good to hear. If it gives you any trouble—” Hammer lifted his head to peer over at where the drunken cargo stevedores had gathered around another table “—or if you have to kick too many drunks, just drop by the shop again. Satisfaction guaranteed.”

Pirouette giggled while returning to a four-hooved stance. “I thought that was your partner’s saying.” She flicked her tail at Nails on the way back up to the bartender, and once she was out of earshot, Hammer moved his hoof.

“She’s hot for me,” said Nails.

“In your mind,” said Hammer. “Speaking of small objects…” He nodded in the direction of the drunk, who had made their way over to another table where a young earth pony was engaging them in the same way attractive young mares dealt with drunk males since the dawn of salted alcohol.

“It’s been a long, long day at work,” she snapped in a much fiercer voice than the bubblegum-pink coat and maroon mane made the young mare appear. “All I want to do is drink my beer and put my hooves up for a few minutes. Alone,” she added in a lower voice closer to a feral growl.

“Hey, babe. We can be alone together.” One of the burly ponies slipped into the seat next to hers and put a hoof around her shoulder. “Just me and my mates.”

The pink mare made to leave, only for the heavyset earth pony to push her back down into the seat with a thud.

Hammer stood up.

“Excuse me, gentlecolts,” he announced, taking several long, slow strides in their direction. “I believe the lady said she wanted to be alone.”

“Buzz off,” snarled the seated stevedore without even looking away from the young mare. His buddies did look up, and although most sober ponies might have taken a step back at the sight of Golden Hammer looming over them, sobriety had long since become a vague and blurry memory to them.

“I don’t need your help,” said the young mare. She swatted away a misplaced hoof from one of the affectionate crowd and tried to get up again before the heavyset one reached out and—

Hammer had seen it before, and never wanted to see it again. There would be a struggle. A blow from the young mare. A retaliatory blow by the drunken pony, even if he did not mean to. His mates would jump to his defense, and when Hammer dove into the scrum to keep the young mare from losing a tooth or worse, there would be… trouble.

Instead, Golden Hammer reared up, then dropped both forehooves onto the bar floor in a massive blow that crumpled floorboards and shook the building.

Everything stopped, which was just what he wanted.

“We’ve got a hero here, chums,” growled the heavyset stevedore. “Come to fight for your frill, big guy?”

Hammer nodded, but held up a hoof before his prospective opponent could say anything. “Not in here. Too expensive. Lots of breakables.”

Like all of you.

He turned and nodded at the back door. “The alley.”

“You’re on, fatso.” The drunken stevedores streamed by, bumping into each other and giving high-hoofs in anticipation of the upcoming fight, with Hammer striding along behind them right up to the alley door.

Which he slammed closed, locked, and walked back to his table.

“I swear, Nails, they get dumber every year.”

Silver Nails nodded, but the mare over at the table was staring at the two of them like they had just sprouted extra heads. “What are you DOING?” She stormed over to the table, looking more dangerous than the noisy drunks outside, beating on the bar’s back door. “I had things perfectly under control!”

Hammer looked at the smallish mare, taking in her bright pink coat and narrowed violet eyes before looking to the front of the bar where Stout was locking the front door and flipping over the sign.

“I sent Pirouette to get the guards,” said the heavyset owner. “If those losers stick around the street and make trouble, they’ll get hauled off. Sorry about that, Miss Sunspot. Normally, it’s a little quieter around here this early in the evening.”

“Sunspot?” Silver Nails rose from his seat and bowed. “A beautiful name for a beautiful—”

“Oh, can it, you twit!” snapped the furious mare. “My first night free from work in ages, and you two have to butt into my business! Who do you think you are?”

Hammer touched his chest with one large hoof. “Golden Hammer, ma’am, and this young upstart is my partner at the forge, Silver Nails. I’m sorry if we disturbed you.”

The mare paused with her mouth open to snap at them again, then settled back down on her haunches and glowered, adding a vicious frown when the sound of hooves pounding on the front door echoed through the bar. “They’re going to break something to get in here, you know.”

“This place used to be a city guard station,” countered Hammer. “My grandfather forged the hinges and the door reinforcements, then Nails’ father put the enchantments on them. If they can break in the doors, I’ll eat them.”

“We’ll eat them,” added Nails, who had moved up next to Hammer for moral reinforcement against the mare’s penetrating gaze.

Sunspot took a deep breath and became a little less red around the face. “You could have at least let me bust that one blowhard across the nose,” she grumbled.

He almost responded with a flippant remark, but something made him hold back his words. It may have been Nails’ hoof connecting with his shin, which gave the suave unicorn stallion the opportunity to speak first.

“As much as I am sure you could have handled yourself, Miss Sunspot, I believe my good friend Hammer was simply trying to reduce the potential damage to those shoes of yours, because they seem a little delicate to be breaking over heads. Plus there was the potential damage to our favorite watering hole.”

Stout Flagon choose that moment to draw attention to himself by clearing his throat over where he was examining the earlier broken floorboards. He caught Hammer’s eyes, gave a long, slow shake of his head, then rolled his eyes while calling out to them in his best formal voice. “On that note, gentlecolts, I will overlook the damage you did this time given it was the only injury that occurred. Now while we wait for the guard to show up, can I get anyone anything?”

Nails was quick to respond.

“Another round of beers and some kabobs if you please, Stout. Pirouette never did get us our order before the trouble started. Also Miss Sunspot, if you want to be better prepared to wallop drunks, I suggest dropping by Golden Hammer and I’s farrier shop, the soon to be named Hammer and Nails, and we’ll get you set you up with the finest set of brawling shoes in Equestria, guaranteed not to crack, break, or bend on the hardest heads.”

Hammer nodded. He found it easier to keep his mouth shut when dealing with female customers, which let Nails speak twice as much. There was something about this mare’s eyes, though. Dad had always spoken of ‘violet eyes to die for’ as the mark of a perfect mare, even though he had inherited his mother’s hazel eyeshade. This slight earth pony mare most certainly had that shade of violet, and if Nails kept pushing the way he was, the ‘to die for’ was going to most likely be his friend.

“M’lady,” said Hammer in his most polite rumble. “We’d be honored if you were to sit with us this evening. I’m not much for being beaten on, so if you’re wanting to get rid of your frustrations in that fashion, you could just keep on walking out the door, but I’d rather sit with you and talk.”

“We would like to sit and talk with you this evening,” said Nails, who obviously recognized his partner’s efforts to slow him down as assistance instead of competition. “As long as we don’t talk about shoes.”

“Why not shoes?” asked the mare with a narrowing of her dangerous eyes.

“Well…” Hammer considered the question and jerked his head slightly in the direction of the bar, a motion that Nails picked up on perfectly and moved to assist the barkeep with the kabob delivery. Once the two of them were relatively alone, Hammer lowered his voice and added, “This is Away. It’s away from work, away from problems, and away from all of the frustrations that build up over the day. We don’t stop by here more than once or twice a moon, but if it’s a particularly difficult day with farrier work, particularly if kids who need shoes are dragged into the store, we go here. No kids, no work, no holding a hammer for hours on end. It helps to have some alone time with a few kabobs and just one beer for me. I don’t drink much, because… Well, that’s pretty obvious.”

Hammer put one oversized hoof on the table with a thud, but the mare promptly brought one of her own up and put it next to his. “I’ve seen bigger,” she quipped. “There were some elephants at the palace a few weeks ago. They don’t wear shoes, but they do make problems. Then the ibex last week, and the zebra.” She gave a short chuff of breath and put a second hind hoof up on the table before leaning her chair back. “I don’t know if you can find a topic that doesn’t feed back into my job. Travel coordinator and foreign feather-smoother. Chargé d'affaires for the big lady. I’ve been everywhere and done everything by now.”

“Must be nice,” rumbled Hammer. “Nails and I have been in Canterlot most of our lives. Can’t just pick up and leave for a couple weeks if you expect to have customers when you get back. Our parents took us as far as Vanhoover once, but that’s about it. Canterlot, though, we’ve seen just about every back alley and garden. Some folks just can’t get to us when they crack a hoof or split something, so they send word and we visit.” He shook his big head, allowing his short mane to sway around his ears and a few tiny cinders to settle out onto the tavern floorboards with soft clicks. “The city’s full of nice folk. A mite expensive for some of them, so we don’t collect on all of our little emergency trips but sometimes they bring a blackberry pie or chocolate pecans by afterwards to say thanks. That and the smile they have is nicer than goin’ to all the pretty places you get to see.”

The mare put on a pensive, thoughtful expression that made her violet eyes become soft and very lookable, which Hammer had no problems doing. She took her hooves off the table and scooted over closer to Hammer when Nails returned, bearing several cool beers and a number of hot kabobs on a platter, which he floated down to the center of the table.

“Did I miss anything, Hammer? Other than you making eyes at Lady Sunspot, that is.”

“Don’t call me a lady,” muttered Sunspot. “We have far too many of them at the palace already.” The kabobs did not even touch the table before she scooped one up, and resorted to talking around a mouthful of roasted tomato. “Call me by my name. I’m used to that. At work, I just have to live with all the Ladies and Sirs.”

Nails nipped a bit of dripping pepper off his kabob. “And here, you can feed a steel shoe to—”

“Et,” cautioned Hammer. “You said the word. Next round’s on you.”

“Darnit.” Nails looked over at Sunspot, who had kabob juice dripping down her chin and had nearly finished her first skewer. “Hey, Miss Sunspot, if you’re going to sit with us, you need a buy word too. Otherwise, we’ll go broke feeding you.”

She nodded, but did not speak until she had finished her skewer and was wiping her face on the back of one fetlock with a look of triumph, much like Sunspot had always wanted to make such a mess at the palace but never had gotten up the nerve. “Titles,” she said once her mouth was free. “If I use the name of any living pony in the palace with a title, I’ll buy. And if any of you two call me ‘Miss’ or ‘M’lady’ at this table, you both buy.”

“Sounds fair,” said Hammer, who had just finished his first skewer too. He arranged a second one on his platter and added, “You need a name to use here too. At work, we’re Mister Silver and Mister Golden for the customers. I’ll bet you get awful tired of being called Miss Sunspot, so how about…” Hammer paused with an unstoppable quirk turning up the corners of his lips. “Spot.”

“Spot?” asked Sunspot with a look of consternation.

“Spot it is,” declared Nails. “Just look at that face. That’s a Spot face if there ever is one. The way the tomato juice pools in the frown marks. The way she wrinkles up her nose while chewing.”

“The way she’s going to stick that empty skewer somewhere Celestia’s sun doesn’t shine when she’s done with it,” cautioned Hammer.

“I would never use violence against somepony in response to their words,” said the newly named Spot, “unless he really deserved it. Thanks,” she added when Nails floated the last untouched skewer of roasted veggies over to her.

“Think nothing of it,” said Nails, obviously preparing another pickup line before his friend interrupted.

“As the newest citizen in the country of Away, you get your first kabob for free,” said Hammer. “The second one costs a proper introduction. I’m Golden Hammer—”

“Son of Sledge Hammer,” said Sunspot through a mouthful of roasted onion. “The farrier who won the Royal Guard shoe contract thirty years running and who has been talking about retiring for the last five since his partner’s magic started acting up and he stepped back from the business. Which would make you Tap Brad’s son, Silver Nails, correct?”

Sunspot’s violet eyes tracked over to where Nails was obviously caught speechless by the sudden attention. “Commander Wind Streak says you’ve got a smooth touch with the enchantments, thankfully smoother than your touch with the mares. They’ve had exactly zero shoe enchantment failures since you started assisting Sledge. One less thing out of thousands for me to worry about at work, and I really appreciate it.” She leaned forward, placed a greasy kiss on Nails’ cheek, then sat back down on the bench with a smirk. “And that’s all you’re getting.”

“I can live with that,” admitted Nails, giving the wet patch on his cheek a rub with the back of his fetlock. “So what do you do up at the palace that lets you know all about us? Are you a Royal Guard? Some sort of spy?”

Giving a short snort that splattered a little bit of tomato across the table, Sunspot shook her head. “I’m just a general gofer for the big lady, a specialist in anything that needs specializing. All day long from sunrise to sunset it’s go here, do this, talk to this pony about that. There’s something new every time I open my eyes, which is always tiring but never boring. I might be sent to Neigh York this week, and spend a month in Vanhoover afterward.”

“I bet you have problems keeping houseplants,” said Hammer.

“Oh, it’s not that bad.” Sunspot gestured with the half-depleted skewer. “I like to think of the whole palace grounds as my home, and that I’m just… sharing it with a very large and important roommate. It has more gardens and art galleries than I could explore in a lifetime, a beautiful place, but after spending so long there, tonight I just needed to get… away.”

“And here you are,” said Nails. “Welcome to Away, population us.”

“The beer’s cold, the kabobs are hot, and the company just took an extraordinary step up,” said Hammer.

“Thank you, kind sirs.” Sunspot took a drink from her beer and licked off the resultant foamy mustache.

“No, thank you, young lady,” said Nails. “Away really needs you. Will you be with us for long this evening, once your sparring partners leave?” he added at the thumping from the bar’s front door.

“Well… I really need to get back. I’ve left so much work piled up back at the palace,” said Sunspot with a hint of wistfulness in her voice.

“Sounds like you need to be here instead, eating kabobs with friends,” rumbled Hammer. “A little thing like you getting into the faces of those drunk stevedores? Speaks of a lot of stress in your life, Miss Sunspot.”

“Well… true,” admitted Sunspot.

“And the work will be there tomorrow,” said Hammer. “Won’t it be easier after a night of relaxation rather than nursing your bruises from a fight?”

“Also true,” said Sunspot hesitantly before straightening her thin shoulders, making the weight of years seem to slough off her in a wave of released tension. “I haven’t had a night off in ages.”

“We’re out of kabobs and Hammer just called you ‘Miss,’ so he volunteered to buy the next round,” said Nails. “Barkeep! Another round of kabobs over here for us and Spot, please.”

“Oh, I don’t think I could eat a whole…” Sunspot looked at the two empty skewers next to her plate, then took a sip of her beer. “Well. Maybe just one more. They’re not bad.”

“Best kabobs in… well, several blocks of this place,” admitted Hammer.

“Can you say that about the beer?” asked Sunspot after another sip.

Nails shrugged. “It grows on you.”

And over the next several hours, three friends relaxed in the magical land of Away with kabobs and just enough beers to keep the next morning from being too painful. Embarrassing stories were exchanged, sports teams were criticized, and there was a belching contest, which Hammer won by considerable margin although Spot came in a very respectable second. Time passed, as it tended to do when not watched carefully, and before the three of them realized, it was time to depart. After a little creative requesting from the other departing patrons, Sunspot traveled back to the palace under the protective escort of one of the off-duty guards, leaving Hammer and Nails to return to their own homes alone.

Hammer really never expected to see her again.

Several months later, he was pleasantly surprised. But that is a different story. Or at least a different chapter.

2. An Unexpected Pleasure

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
An Unexpected Pleasure

A farrier’s forge room is a noisy place, hot enough to singe hair and just as precisely arranged as a surgeon’s collection of tools. The electric blower was keeping the coal-fired working surface at just the right temperature, one set of shoes was ‘warming’ for the next customer in the set, and the last shoe in the current order had just been pulled out, all hot and glowing red.

With precise blows, Golden Hammer adjusted the last of four prepped factory-forged shoe blanks, bending and trimming it to the dimensions of the paper hoofprint that Specialist Windy Gears had left as a template. There were a lot of sheets of ink-stained paper to catch up on before the new platoon of Royal Guards could be admitted to their scheduled shoeing next week, and in the next room, Silver Nails was just as hard at work putting the primary enchantments on the finished products. It looked to be a late night but a profitable one for the new business and the two proprietors, which would have filled his father’s heart with glee. Unfortunately, Sledge Hammer could not see all the way to Canterlot from his Pollyneighsian retirement shack, where everypony was barehoof and not a shoe to be seen.

Golden Hammer enjoyed the weekly postcards from his retired parents, particularly the ones that pictured his mother in the native fashions. Somepony had to keep the old geezer from chasing the local mares, after all.

“Hello? I knocked, but nopony said anything.” Hammer did not see the young mare very well because he was still tapping one last corner of the shoe into place, but once he quenched the finished product and tossed it into Windy Gears’ equipment box for Nails to enchant, he turned to address the unauthorized visitor.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’re closed due to— Spot?” Hammer pushed his goggles up on his forehead and blinked away a few flecks of floating ash, taking a good long look at the bright pink mare standing in the open doorway that led inside to the main office.

“Ah, Mister Golden Hammer,” said Sunspot, trying but failing to conceal a pleased smile of her own. “I wouldn't normally bother you while you’re working on a contract, but Celestia’s student is something of a special…”

“Problem?” asked Hammer, wincing when the small earth pony mare cringed.

“She’s not a problem,” said Sunspot fairly rapidly. “She’s… special. Twilight Sparkle, I’d like you to meet Golden Hammer. Gold—” The young mare looked down and to the side, then started to scan around the other room. “She was right here.”

“I really don’t like to shoe foals,” said Hammer. “They’re too much trouble.”

“Twilight certainly fits that definition,” said Sunspot, who had turned around in the doorway and was looking for her young ward. It gave Hammer a look at the other end of the young mare with her flowing magenta tail and her smiling sun cutie mark, which was not that bad at all, and very distracting. He moved away from the forge before he scorched something important and headed to Sunspot, also looking around for the missing student.

“Do you think she went back out into the street?” asked Hammer. “Sometimes, foals get all stressed about visiting the farrier and bolt. It takes forever to track them down, and they scream while getting their hooves trimmed. I mean I’ll do it,” he added at Sunspot’s frustrated glance over her shoulder. “It’s just that I scare them a little since I’m so tall.”

“That’s not going to be a problem with Twilight Sparkle,” said Sunspot as if she were remarking on the inevitability of the sunrise. “You’re more likely to be—”

There was a noise much like somepony talking inside the insulated and locked enchanting room, followed by a stentorian whump of an explosion and the door flinging open with a mighty crash. Smoke billowed out, mostly being sucked up into the vent system that Sledge Hammer had grumbled about being unnecessary, followed by two unicorns stumbling out of the door and into the fresh air.

The larger unicorn was of course Silver Nails, who looked oddly racoon-like with his goggles pushed up onto his forehead and the dark smoke stains over all of his silvery coat except just around his eyes. By default, that left the smaller unicorn, who was dark all over, as the missing student.

“I’m sorry!” she bleated while blinking furiously up at Golden Hammer. “Please don’t tell Princess Celestia! I didn’t mean to make the enchantment blow up, but I wanted to see what he was doing and I was tracing along with the Stemwinder’s Strenuous Stride runes when he moved to the Hawthorne’s Hefty Countercharm and our magics got mixed up and everything— Princess Celestia?”

Those big violet eyes looked up into Golden Hammer’s face as if he were the rising sun and the little unicorn was a starving plant. The awestruck expression only lasted a heartbeat before Twilight Sparkle blinked away the last of the smoke and switched back to her panicked babbling. “I’m sorry, Mister Hammer! I didn’t mean to call you by Princess Celestia’s name but you looked like her for a second and I knew she had a lot of things to take care of back at the palace but I thought she might have slipped out and saw what a mess I made of your partner’s workroom and I might get expelled and sent back to Magic Kindergarten and fined and have to work as a—”

Hammer placed one large hoof gently across the student’s mouth, which cut off her babbling instantly. He turned to look at Sunspot, who seemed to be suppressing a snicker at his expense, then back to the small unicorn. “Young lady, this is a dangerous business, and you could be hurt if you don’t follow the rules. Didn’t you read the sign on the door before you went into Silver’s workroom?”

“Enchanting in process. Stay out.” Twilight cringed inwardly, making her look much like a small slumping scoop of smokey ice cream in the sunshine pouring in through the office windows. “I just wanted to see what he was working on, since I’m going to be Princess Celestia’s student and I don’t know what she’s going to have me study. I have to be prepared for anything. And the locking charm needs to be better if you really want to keep anypony out,” she added in a rush.

“Ask before you assume,” said Hammer, feeling very much like his father at the moment because that same line had been used on Young Golden Hammer many, many times.

The little unicorn’s unshod forehoof shot up and she waved it slightly back and forth as if she were trying to gain attention in her class of one. The sight brought a subject up that Hammer had been wondering about, and he turned to Sunspot with an upraised eyebrow and a question. “What happened to her shoe?”

“Shoes,” clarified Sunspot, whose cheeks had crinkled in an attempt to hide her smile. “She blew them off during testing today. And yes, all of them.”

Nails, who had been mopping the smudges out of his coat with a towel, scoffed quietly. “That happens sometimes to students in Celestia’s school. Dad made sure I had a full set of Silver Band Henweigh and Stickers before I even set hoof in there. Those generic thaumopedic jobs are disasters waiting to happen.”

“Mine were Henweigh and Stickers,” said Twilight quietly. “Gold band.”

“Gold band?” Silver Nails took an involuntary step backward and cast a plaintive look at Hammer.

“That’s why I brought her here,” said Sunspot. “Princess Celestia wants her to have the finest shoes available. Cost is no object.”

“Our job with the Royal Guard has us booked solid,” said Hammer in defense. “Schedule slippage will cost us a penalty.”

“No penalty. Princess Celestia said this is the highest priority,” countered Sunspot, looking very insistent and intimidating despite being somewhat on the small side and very pink.

“Gold band,” repeated Silver Nails under his breath. “Celestia’s shoes are gold band.”

“Your father enchanted them,” said Sunspot firmly before turning her dangerous violet eyes on Golden Hammer. “And your father put them on her hooves.” Ignoring the sucking sound of Twilight inhaling while visions of hero worship filled the young student’s eyes, Sunspot strolled over to the inventory taking up most of a nearby wall, by a collection marked with an ornate script H&S. She traced down the sizes of factory blanks, from 4XL down to F4 until she pulled open a box and evaluated the silver shoes inside. “You even stock the raw Henweigh and Stickers shoes in Twilight’s size.”

“I didn’t say we couldn’t do it,” said Hammer. “Just that it will be difficult.”

“Gold band,” murmured Nails.

“First,” said Hammer, leaning on his words and lowering his eyes to the student, “she will have to be examined and sized properly. My partner Silver Nails will take you into the display room, check your hooves for any damage the—ahem— removal of your last shoes might have caused, and ink out four templates. Then I’ll use those templates to customize the factory-forged blanks to match your needs before Mister Silver enchants them with various unicorn grounding spells and protective runes. Last, we will both install the finished product, test them to make sure they’ll function as designed, and make any last-minute adjustments. Since you’re a student of the princess, we will bend the rules and let you watch the enchanting process, provided you keep your magic to yourself and only ask questions when we say it is time. Do you have any questions?”

In retrospect, it was a dumb question. It would have been easier to ask if there was anything in the world Twilight Sparkle did not have a question about. It took forever before Hammer could get Nails and the new customer discussing enchantments next door in the more formal display and measuring room with various products under glass cases and sizing guides for even the most distinguished customers. Once the forge door was closed, he let out a deep breath and turned to Sunspot, who seemed on the edge of breaking out into laughter.

“Miss Sunspot,” he started, only to be cut off.

“That’s going to cost you a round at the bar,” she said with a smile.

“We’re in my office,” countered Hammer with a sweep of his hoof around the forge room in all of its informal and smokey glory. “Here, you are Miss Sunspot and I am Mister Hammer, or just Golden Hammer if we’re being informal. Besides, I haven’t seen you in the bar in months.”

“It’s been… busy.” The smile faded from Sunspot’s face, then came back with reinforcements in the form of dimples. “You should have seen the way Twilight passed her entrance exam. Hatched the dragon’s egg, actually grew him up through the ceiling, turned her parents into potted plants, and sent the teachers flying through the air. She’s going to be the most powerful student in the school since… well, she’s going to do great things in her life. I just know it.”

Hammer scratched his mane and picked out a loose cinder from the forge. “Nails said he just made a self-sustaining paper rune rhombus for his entrance exam. Dad was a lot tougher on me for my apprenticeship. I had to make a shoe he approved of. If all the students are hatching dragons in Celestia’s school, sounds like we’ll be hip-deep in flaming lizards before long.”

“It was only one dragon,” chided Sunspot. “I’ll tell you all about it at the bar tonight.”

“Can’t.” Hammer waved a hoof at the stack of inked hoof imprints he had not gotten to yet. “Gonna be working until way past dark to meet our deadlines. The graduating Royal Guard cadets get shod in three days, then we have a breather. Generally we try to avoid the bar that night, because that’s where the guards go to drink after their new shoes. They buy us a round or two or twelve, and we lose most of the next day to hangovers. The night after that should be better.”

“It’s a date.” Sunspot promptly blushed a brighter pink and added, “Not really a date, of course. Just a chance to get away. With Celestia’s new student, she’s going to be busier than ever, so my job will get exponentially more difficult.” She looked at Hammer with a wistful smile that went all the way up to the sparkles in her dangerous violet eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Golden Hammer started slightly when a quiet explosion sounded from the fitting room, but with unicorns being fitted for shoes, it was not an unusual occurrence. By the time his eyes returned to the beautiful young mare, she had regained her composure, although most of the smile was still there. “You know, we’ve missed having Spot with us. It just isn’t Away without you.”

“I know.” Sunspot glanced around, then moved up to Hammer’s cheek by standing on her hind hooves and stretching. “I’ve missed you too,” she whispered, her cool breath tickling the hairs inside his ears. “I was a little afraid of getting too close, but I’ve given it some thought, and maybe—” she kissed him gently on the cheek “—I should just take a chance instead of playing it safe all the time. Not too much of a chance,” she added in a rush. “I mean I barely know you, and if you say something like that at the palace it always gets misinterpreted and the rumors get started and before you know it everypony thinks there's some sort of giant orgy going on every night.”

“There’s not?” asked Hammer with a raised eyebrow and a quirk of a sardonic smile at the corner of his lips. “Nails will be terribly disappointed. He’s always wanting to romance a noble lady, and now I know why.”

Sunspot gaped, then snorted in laughter and hit him gently on one shoulder. “Oh, you pill. For two bits, I’d set him up with a noble lady who could make him swear an oath of celibacy.”

“I don’t know.” Hammer scratched his chin. “He may surprise you. Wind up Lord Nails of some distant duchy or barony with a dozen foals. And the Royal Guard would need a new supplier to enchant their shoes.”

“We can’t have that.” Sunspot put on a more serious expression and stood back up. “Look, I need to get back to the palace and get to work on some issues if I’m going to be able to make it to our not-date. Keep Twilight entertained and informed until she’s shod, and I’ll send a guard to escort her back home. And I’ll buy the first round at the bar when you’re done with the Academy graduates’ order. Sound good?”

“It’ll be good if you’ll be there,” said Hammer. “Until later.”

“Later,” said Sunspot, trotting out of the side door of the forge room with a backwards wink before she vanished from sight into the street full of ponies beyond.

- Ω - -

An hour later, it was the calm before the storm, the eye of the hurricane, and before Golden Hammer could get his workspace prepared, Twilight Sparkle returned to wreak terrible vengeance on his orderly forge. Thankfully, she could obey rules, provided they were crafted with great care and without loopholes small enough for mice or small filly horns. Also thankfully, Nails backed him up, standing beside the little unicorn’s shoulder and keeping a constant flow of answers, because with a hammer in his mouth, Golden Hammer would have needed to stop work for every response, and that would have stretched their session past midnight.

In the end, Hammer had chalked four small circles on the floor a safe distance away for Twilight Sparkle to keep her hooves inside while he was hammering away on her red-hot shoes, so her natural drift toward the fire could be damped somewhat. Normally, questions by the clients were stupid-simple, like “Is that the right size?” or “Are you done yet?”

Twilight had different questions, like asking about the specific carbon content of the steel guard shoes or how much nickel went into unicorn shoes to make them thaumatologically conductive to Lightning Rod’s General Grounding spell. Even Nails had the stressed look of a student trying to remember final exam questions by the time the last shoe had been shaped and he headed back to his workroom with Twilight Sparkle close behind.

“Just a moment.” Golden Hammer retrieved a notebook and a pencil from the front office and hoofed them over to Twilight Sparkle. “Something for you to write down your questions while Mister Silver works. He’s going to need his concentration, and for that—” Hammer popped a lollipop into Twilight’s mouth “—you will have to be quiet. Very quiet. You can ask all the questions you want out loud when he’s done, but not while he’s working. Understand?”

Twilight nodded, her short blue-striped mane bobbing a little with her vigor. A brisk toweling with one of the forge cloths had restored most of her purple coloring, although she still looked more like the ruddy dark reddish brown of Hammer after a brisk day’s work at the forge instead of Nails, who actually got his mane cut and styled weekly.

He let himself relax briefly when both unicorns had vanished into the workroom, visible only through the sooty double-thick armored glass window that let customers observe the enchanting process at a distance in relative safety. In hindsight, he would have to clean the window after this was all over. If the window survived..

Silver Nails normally worked fast, even though the job was about quality, not a race. On a good day working the Royal Guard contract, Golden Hammer could have the last set of cooling shoes pushed through the two-way flap between their workrooms, shut down the forge and clean the area, and still not beat Nails to the open doorway that kept the forge room livable during the summer. It was a heavy door, and rolled closed only with such significant effort that it warranted a trip to the bar and at least one beer to recover. For now, with the stack of Royal Guard shoes scheduled to be applied in three days, it was going to be very dark by the time they finished for the evening, and tomorrow night too.

Since he had some time before Twilight Sparkle’s shoes were ready, Hammer dug out two sets of factory blanks and tossed them in the forge to heat, along with a few scoops of coal and a sprinkle of water around the outside ring. The regular blower was not keeping the new coal stoked up, so he got a good grip on the ‘booster’ bellows and gave the fire a few strong strokes to get things started, then puttered around with the inked sheets of parchment so he could move from one shoe to another without stopping. There were a lot of things he did back when his father ran the forge and little Hammer kept the process flowing, which made him wish for an assistant at times. Perhaps a young mare with dangerous violet eyes who would grow frustrated with her exciting life of tending to Princess Celestia’s every whim and want a place where she could settle down with a big lug and raise a dozen young ponies just like them.

It was a nice thought and made the work go faster. Still, he went through shaping all eight shoes without Nails making an appearance. Hammer considered putting another set of blanks in to heat, except that would just about guarantee Twilight Sparkle’s shoes would be done with the enchantment process and ready to apply before he could get a good rhythm on another set of the Guard order. He had just decided to throw the shoes on anyway and darn the consequences when he heard a pleasant male voice calling through the back door to his forge.

“Hello. Mister Hammer, I presume?”

“Ah, Cadet Shining Armor,” said Hammer once he turned around and got a good look at his customer. “You’re early. The shoes for your graduating class won’t be ready for a few days.”

“I’m actually picking up,” said the handsome young unicorn in his formal Royal Guard cadet uniform. “Princess Celestia sent me here to escort her new student back to the dorms. It’s my first Royal Command,” he added a little quieter. “Quite extraordinary.”

“Like her student,” said Hammer. He jerked his head in the direction of the enchanting office on the other side of the wall from the forge. “I understand she blew her shoes off during the school entry test while hatching a dragon’s egg.”

“Whoa.” Shining Armor clucked his tongue in the back of his throat. “Hatched a dragon’s egg? That’s extreme. All I needed to do was show off my shielding spell. So where is the little genius?”

“Supervising Nails. Probably giving him pointers. We’re giving her gold band shoes, and I don’t think Nails has ever tried enchantments that difficult on her size of shoes.”

Shining Armor let out a long whistle. “If she’s going to be Princess Celestia’s student, she’s going to need the best. She’s never taken a student since… well, not for a while now. Uncomfortable subject. Don’t bring it up around her new student, please.”

“All we’re doing is shoeing her. Just another customer.” Golden Hammer gave his words a little thought. “Well, we’ll probably have to re-shoe her a few years from now when she grows. She’s just a little thing, about this high—”

“Shiny!” A purple blur streaked from the forge door over to the smiling cadet, giving him a leaping hug around the neck that smeared black forge soot all over the bright white uniform. The following words moved too fast to be picked out individually, but in groups they made a little more sense. The word ‘Brother’ that he managed to pick out was a good clue to their relationship, although the geeky little unicorn and the tidy Royal Guard cadet bore little physical resemblance to each other.

The entirety of the school testing procedure came pouring out during the shoeing process. It gave little Twilight Sparkle something to do while Hammer worked, tapping and adjusting each shoe with care while she chattered along. The story climaxed at the third hoof with the unexplained burst of color across the sky and the resulting chaos, winding up at the fourth hoof with a detailed breakdown of Nails’ enchantments on the shoes and a refused request to remove the shoe being applied in order to show further specifics. The happy chatter did not slow as the two unicorn siblings began their trip back to the palace, but it did fade in volume until he and Nails found themselves standing beside each other in the resulting silence.

“Well.” Hammer cast a glance over his shoulder. “We’re still behind for the day.”

“I give her a week,” said Nails unexpectedly. “Max.”

“A week what?” Hammer strode back to the forge and added some more coal before giving the bellows a quick pump. “Spot’s going to meet us at the bar four days from now, by the way. We should be all the way done with the guard order by then and have a little free time.”

Nails shook his head and gave Hammer a long look while he was putting another set of shoe blanks into the forge. It bothered Hammer, since his partner was supposed to get back to work, but he continued to get his things set up until Nails cleared his throat.

“You’re whistling.”

“Me?” Hammer poked one of the warming shoe blanks. “You must be hearing things.”

Over the next several days, Nails would give a quiet whistle while walking by, which made them both break out in giggles. When he told Spot at the bar four days later, they all shared a laugh.

4. Spring Sprung

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Spring Sprung

Winter had its own problems. Spring brought new ones. Ponies stopped basking by the fires, frolicking in the snow, and started to move along the paved streets again. Long walks in the fresh flowers, frolicsome gallops through green pastures, and through it all, nails that had been weakened by the constant shock of going from fireplace to snow back to fireplace’s glow worked their way loose, until…

“Good morning, Mister Hammer. We were wondering if you had a moment?”

The voice was not Sunspot, but sounded similar enough for Golden Hammer to look up from his work. And then promptly drop his shoeing hammer on his hoof.

Love stood in the doorway to his shop, pure and unadulterated love in a wave of joyous pink and bouncing curls, with a beatific smile. Although the alicorn was not nearly the size of Princess Celestia, she had the same overwhelming sense of presence that made the whole world seem to revolve around her every move in a dance of joy, not to mention that she was as beautiful as anything Hammer had ever seen before. It took him a few moments of staring before he recognized the violet hue of a small unicorn by her side, who was carrying a book suspended in front of her nose.

Rather than wait for Hammer to find his voice, which he suspected would take some time, the Alicorn of Love swept forward into his dingy and smoke-stained shop as if it were a ballroom filled with the grandest nobles in Canterlot, and spoke directly to his customers. “Oh, Baroness von Pinchpenny. Such a surprise to find you here! Oh, no. Don’t get up. You were here first, after all. And this must be your darling son, Nickelplate.”

Hammer’s current customer had been a royal pain to get situated, as many of his younger ilk had proven before. His mother had determined that ‘Nickel’ needed to have his shoes tightened. Nickel did not want his shoes tightened. He liked the clomp-clomp of a loose shoe. He squirmed. He complained. Hammer had tried not to consider administering just one light tap of the hammer on the back of the kid’s head, just as gentle as he could make it to induce a little calm.

Princess Cadenza’s presence stopped the young colt just as effectively as if Hammer had fallen prey to his temptation with the #4 hammer.

“Just a moment,” Hammer murmured through the handle of his clinching tool. He never would have kept his back turned to a princess before, but his brief experience with Princess Celestia had made him more comfortable with the idea. It helped that the young princess was happily chatting with the baroness, and Twilight Sparkle had just stopped in place with her book still hovering in front of her nose. Plus, he needed to take advantage of the distraction before Nickel started wiggling again.

“There,” he finally declared after getting both young forehooves settled with a couple of new nails and a layer of hoof shellac to protect the clinched metal stubs. “Baroness, if you could please move your colt. I believe Twilight Sparkle is next.”

When nudged, Nickelplate moved to one side, although he continued his slack-jawed admiration of the chatty princess until his mother pushed him out of the forge room and into the street. Twilight proved just as easily manipulated as the awestruck colt, taking her place in the still-warm support frame and making no resistance to Hammer lifting her hooves one at a time to check for slack. It was the only way that Hammer could concentrate, since the Alicorn of Love was in the room, and radiating her warm presence even hotter than the nearby forge.

“Five nails, young lady. And there’s been some arcing around that left rear shoe.”

Twilight Sparkle gave out a grunt and did not move her nose out of the book at all, not even when he used an awl punch to pop out two of the loose nails and re-nailed them into a more solid section of hoof. Obviously attracted by their royal guest, Tap Brad came out of the enchanting shed in order to ‘supervise’ Hammer’s work, which was not too bad because he passed over nails and tools with the casual competence gained over three decades of experience.

“You should be able to just file down that frazzled shoe,” he rumbled over Hammer’s shoulder.

“I was a little worried that it might have broken the enchantments,” admitted Hammer.

“No, they’re fine. M’Lady?” asked Tap Brad, making a motion toward Cadence’s hoof. “See,” he added while holding the delicate pink hoof next to Twilight’s shoe. “My boy’s using the redundant enchant overload runes I figured out when Miss Mi’Amore was shod last time. Somepony had been spreading a little love through the royals at the gala, and overdid it.”

Princess Cadenza blushed, and Hammer could swear he heard traffic far outside the farrier’s shop stumble to a halt.

“Oh, be nice, Tap,” she said with a giggle. “Some of those old ponies just needed a little nudge.”

“And some wouldn’t fall in love if you tossed them off the Canterlot cliff,” continued Tap. “Or at least they’d never admit it.”

Hammer bent to the task of Twilight’s shoes with as much concentration as he could, gently running a steel rasp over the burrs that had been formed from improperly grounded magical overload and trying his best to ignore the playful banter between Nails’ father and the pretty pink princess. He had just reached the end of the process and was getting out the clear hoof shellac when Mi’Amore Cadenza called out, “Oh, I’ll get that, Mister Hammer.”

With four practiced swipes, she expertly applied the sealer to each of Twilight Sparkle’s hooves, then returned the applicator to the container, leaving Hammer to mutter a quiet “Thanks” under his breath.

“Thank you oh so much for squeezing Twilight in on such short notice, Mister Hammer.” There was a brushing of aggressive pink around Hammer’s head, and the faint touch of lips on his cheek before Princess Mi’Amore turned to Tap Brad and repeated her application of what was certainly a mark of appreciation for a job well done. Or at least that was what he was trying to believe, which was made all the more difficult when Mi’Amore flicked her tail while trotting out the door, with Twilight Sparkle trailing along behind.

He could have sworn there was a knowing wink included from those entrancing eyes.

- Ω - -

There had been no pressing need to visit Away this evening. He really couldn’t stay late at work because there was not enough work to catch up on to make it worth the coal. There was a new Amethyst Maresbury mystery novel on his chairside table at home, just waiting to be read. Nails was off with his latest noblemare, enjoying a week with a whole gaggle of snooty unicorns while doing something related to rosebushes in Baltimare. Tap Brad had vanished right after work for his own home. So it was a real mystery to Hammer why he was sitting at the bar in his regular booth, without even a beer.

Well, maybe not that much of a mystery. Miss Maresbury would have solved it in moments. One beer would have led to a second, and a third, until Stout Flagon would have needed to either drag his unconscious bulk back to his house or just throw a blanket over him until morning. The real mystery was why he was there.

While he was just sitting there feeling sorry for himself, there was an emptiness in his heart that he did not want to even consider. His life-long friend could easily vanish for good into high society, submerged into a world of small crackers with even smaller dabs of miscellaneous rare substances on them. Maybe he would drop by the forge occasionally with a small colt or filly trailing behind him, regaling his noble offspring with tales of life with the common pony while they were shod.

Thankfully, his morose musing was replaced by joy when a familiar small earth pony mare abruptly nudged up against his side with a solid thump that would have tipped an ordinary pony over. “Hey, you big lug,” said Sunspot, giving him another firm push. “Isn’t Nails back from the Baltimare Rose Jamboree yet?”

Spot put the two mugs she was carrying down onto the table so gently that not even a drop spilled, then slid the tray with the two sizzling kabobs up next to them. Giving a little hop to get into the booth seat, she rapped Hammer on the fetlock when he reached for one of the kabobs.

“Hey, get your own. I’ve been working on the Winter Wrap-Up aftermath all week. Today, there were three diplomatic receptions where I barely got a few sips of tea. I need fuel.”

Hammer sat nursing his stinging fetlock for a moment, then reached one hoof up and waved at Stout, who proceeded with the process of sending another kabob their way. Actually, two once Pirouette sashayed over to their table and slid another tray alongside the first.

“Thought I’d save time,” she smirked with a wink. “An’ to make sure the big lug gets at least one of those.”

Since Spot was a good portion of her way along the first kabob with her mouth full, she was unable to make the snappy comeback she obviously wanted, so she had to pass it on to Hammer once she swallowed.

“I lived on tea and cucumber sandwiches for the last three days. If I don’t get something solid in me, I’m not going to be able to face the sun tomorrow, and the entire world is going to come to an end.”

“By all means, m’lady,” said Hammer, moving the second tray closer to her. “Eat up. The worst thing that happens if I can’t get going in the morning is a few ponies limp for a day or two.” He sat there and watched her demolish two kabobs, although she stopped with the third crooked in her fetlock.

“Who died?”

“What?” asked Hammer, temporarily shocked out of the darkest of his shadows.

“With that face, either your dog died—”

“I don’t have a dog,” said Hammer. “I was just thinking about… Nails, I suppose. I’m going to lose him. I’ve known him all my life.”

“And the pretty Lady Iolite is going to sweep him away from you,” finished Spot before scrunching up her muzzle and pouting in the most unbelievably cute way. “Oh, fudge. I’m buying.”

“I’m not really hungry,” said Hammer, still lost in his dark thoughts. “Both of our parents had us late in life. We’re both only foals, grew up running back and forth between houses, terrorizing the neighborhood until we got our cutie marks. Together for that too. And… I’m going to start crying if I keep this up. He’s been the only brother I’ve known.”

He looked up just in time to see Spot surreptitiously wipe the back of her fetlock across her eyes, leaving a damp smear. He wanted to say something to keep his depression from spreading to her sparkling violet eyes, but it was too late. She refused to meet his plaintive look, picked up her tankard, and began to drink until there was nothing left in it but dampness.

“I’m sorry,” he managed.

They sat there in the booth for a time, with the remaining kabobs remaining untouched. Each of them made an effort to break the continuing silence, then sagged back into their seat with the words unspoken. It might have lasted all of the remaining night, except for Hammer spotting a familiar flicker of purple peeking in through the front door of the bar.

“Twilight Sparkle,” he nearly whispered.

“No, that’s not it,” said Spot, looking down at the table and drawing a crescent with one hoof in the condensation left behind by her tankard.

“No, I mean I see Twilight Sparkle at the door,” he whispered. With a quick gesture he motioned the little filly to come on in, then gave Stout Flagon a cross look when he moved to intercept her path. Little Twilight was carrying the small sleeping dragon on her back, who rocked back and forth in his slumber as his transportation limped forward.

“Good evening, Twilight Sparkle,” began Hammer in his most polite voice. “Does Princess Celestia know you are out wandering around tonight?”

“No,” she said almost too softly to hear, and mostly into the floorboards of the bar.

“It must be something important if it brings you out of the palace this late at night,” he continued, considering her awkward limp on the way to the table. “Did you finish blowing that shoe off?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled. Her nose twitched, and she looked up with a brief swallow, then a wider-eyed look at Sunspot, who was still sitting silently by his side and hidden from the front doorway. “Miss Sunspot?”

“Oh!” said Sunspot. She was blinking rapidly to clear her eyes of the tears that Hammer had been afraid were going to start just a few moments ago, and seemed to be sliding back into her familiar role as Daytime Very Important Pony Dealer-Wither. To give her a little time to recover, he spoke up again.

“Do you want part of a kabob before we fix that shoe, young miss? You look like you skipped dinner, and I believe we have an extra.”

He scooted the platter over to the other side of the table and held out his forelegs for the sleeping dragon. Spike did not even shift positions when Twilight floated him over, and he tucked the infant dragon into the crook of one foreleg while marveling at how warm he was for being a lizard. Twilight dragged herself up into the seat, looked down at the kabob, and gave it a sniff.

“Onions? Princess Celestia doesn’t let us have onions. They make my breath stinky, and give Spike gas.”

Hammer snorted. “Around here, they’re endangered. You have to eat them before Spot goes for them or you might get bitten.”

“Hey!” At least that shocked Sunspot out of her depression. She gave him a friendly nudge to his side and rolled her eyes, although that welcome smile did not appear as he hoped.

“Eat up,” said Hammer in the encouraging fashion that his mother had used. “You’re not in trouble, Twilight.”

“I’m not?” said Twilight Sparkle at the same time as Spot said, “She’s not?” which made an inadvertent duet.

“You’re worried you’ll get caught.” Hammer gave a low chuckle and retrieved his tankard, taking a first sip as a sense of warm remembrance began to chase away the shadows. “Silver Nails and I used to slip out of the house and sneak down to the Fire Festival every summer. Our fathers were all—” he lowered his voice and huffed “—too dangerous for little colts with all the drinking and dancing and wild young mares. We’d sneak out, and back into our own rooms far too late at night. Then in the morning, Tap Brad and Sledge would drag our sleepy carcases down to the shop where we’d spend the whole morning sweeping up the fireworks casings that had rained down during the night and doing extra chores. We always got caught. They always knew. But I learned something that I’m going to teach you tonight. Do you mind if I teach one of your lessons instead of Princess Celestia?” he added with a conspiratorial wink.

The little unicorn had the most transfixed, fascinated expression, and she quickly nodded.

“I’m not going to tell Princess Celestia you snuck out of the palace to get your shoe fixed,” said Hammer. “Neither is Miss Sunspot. You are.”

“Me?” squeaked Twilight.

“She will find out eventually,” said Hammer in his most reassuring voice. “Right?”

For a moment, it looked as if Twilight Sparkle were about to put forward a long explanation of how such nighttime excursions could be kept secret from the most powerful alicorn in the world, but common sense kept her mouth shut after a few weak attempts.

“So after you get something to eat,” continued Hammer, “Miss Sunspot and I will take you back to the forge, fit the spare enchanted shoe that my partner Nails was wise enough to have prepared, and see you back to the palace all safe and secure. Then before you go to bed again, you will go to your teacher and tell her what you did, and why. She will understand.”

“She’s probably sleeping,” said Twilight far too quickly for Hammer’s taste. “Her bedroom light was off, and I didn’t want to disturb her.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Hammer, giving the kabob platter a brief push to scoot it closer to the young unicorn.

“She’s the Princess, and really important,” tried Twilight again before Hammer interrupted.

“You’re important too. She cares about you far more than you realize,” said Hammer. “When you welded your shoes to the floor back a few months ago, she kept it quiet so other ponies would not see how embarrassed you were, and sent one of her guards privately to get me. I’m sure she had other, important things to do that day, but she stayed with you instead. What would happen if she got up for a late-night snack tonight, and checked in your room on her way back to bed?”

Twilight’s eyes got large, and undoubtedly scenes of Princess panic surged in waves behind them.

“Besides, if you wanted to keep this a secret, you should have considered how many witnesses were here,” continued Hammer with a brief gesture at the other end of the bar where several off-duty guards were engaged in off-duty drinking and storytelling.

“Oh,” said Twilight Sparkle.

Sunspot slipped out of the booth and stretched her neck. “I’ll go tell the lunkheads to keep this quiet for now,” she explained. “Maybe send one back to the palace to clue in the rest of the guards in case of some late-night royal snacking. We wouldn’t want Her Highness to worry, now would we?”

“No, ma’am.”

That was all the words he managed to get out of the normally talkative student until they returned to the forge, and Hammer got all the lights on. Spike continued to snooze during the trip, but the increased light and the clatter of him unpacking Twilight’s reserve horseshoes caused the infant dragon to shift on Hammer’s back and yawn.

“Finally up?” He chuckled as the dragon began to turn around, looking in all directions at the fascinating new place it was in, then winced as it began to sharpen tiny little infant claws on his back. Thankfully, Sunspot picked up the dragon and cuddled it while he got out the spare set of enchanted shoes.

“I really thought that shoe would hold,” he mused while getting out the hoof file. “Even Mister Brad said it would be fine. You must have been throwing a lot of magic around for such a little thing.”

“I am pretty strong for my age.” A little bit of praise had taken the edge off Twilight’s morose grumping, and she wriggled in the shoeing brace. “Do you need me to hold the shoe in place while you nail?”

Several practiced swipes of the file later, Hammer looked at the resulting workspace. “If you can hold it very carefully. I don’t want to put any more holes in your hoof than needed. Too many of them and we’ll have to epoxy and let you run around with a hoof-boot like Princess Celestia for a week or two while it cures. What exactly were you doing to break Nails’ fine work this time?”

When Twilight did not answer, and Sunspot appeared to be too busy entertaining the infant dragon to fill in any details, he continued, “I’ll bet you were rearing back. Nails used to do that when he was trying something beyond his capacity,” explained Hammer before Twilight could ask. “Just because I’m an earth pony doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about magic.”

“I didn’t know that,” said Twilight, still twisted around so she could see what he was doing with her hind hoof. She proved to be a wonderful assistant in that regard, holding the shoe right where he prompted her and keeping it from shifting even in the slightest while he was putting in the nails. The questions even started up again, which showed the young unicorn was feeling more comfortable, so Hammer took his time swaging off the ends of the nails and applying two coats of clear hoof lacquer.

“How strong are you, anyway?” he asked when there was a brief break in her questions. “I mean may I see you lift something so I can look at how the shoes react under magical load? Maybe we can figure out something in the future to keep you from limping over to the bar in the middle of the night.”

“I’m not really that strong,” said Twilight, backtracking on her previous claim. “I mean compared to an adult. Like…”

The anvil that Hammer used to shape the shoes glowed purple in her magic and floated up a few inches off the floor while Twilight Sparkle concentrated on her magic. The light from her horn was a pure glow, with none of the wavering or flickers that Nails had at her age, and she shifted on her hooves while the anvil bobbled slightly. To be honest, Hammer had expected an impressive show of power from the little unicorn, but he could barely budge the anvil and its heavy stone base with all of his own strength, and together with Nails’ magical assistance, they could only move it across the floor a few inches at a time.

Still, it was sitting there bobbing in place like a cork while Twilight continued talking.

“...so many other enchantments that take more power and concentration, but simple levitation is really not that much of a challenge. Transformation spells take far more work. I’m working on—”

“Just a moment,” said Hammer, relying on the instructions he had once heard Tap Brad give to his son. “You’re shifting on your hooves. Get your balance first before you start. That’s right. Stay braced just like that. And don’t say anything,” he added.

He walked slowly around the little unicorn, keeping away from the anvil just in case something else unexpected happened. In his un-expert earth pony opinion, the unicorn was holding up her spell without any signs of strain at all, making him deeply impressed with her skill, and more than a little stunned at her power.

I guess that’s why Princess Celestia picked her as a student to replace the last one.

“Hey, Ham.” Sunspot gestured at him from the doorway into the more formal shoe fitting room. “Can I talk privately with you for a moment. Twilight, honey, just keep that up until we get back.”

The door had a large shatterproof glass panel so customers could watch Hammer work, which sometimes made him feel a little like some sort of sweaty performer for elderly mares in the fitting room who were ‘just shopping.’ Since they both could watch Twilight from the other side, Hammer decided it was not that much of an abandonment by her ersatz teacher, particularly since Sunspot seemed to have shaken off his contagious depression for the most part.

Once they had the door closed, Hammer bent down and asked, “So…?”

“Seeing you talk with Twilight just made me want to tell you how good you are with foals,” said Sunspot, who had the infant dragon in the crook of one foreleg. “And how sad I am that I can’t have any of my own.”

“Oh, well…” Hammer could not raise his voice above a whisper, particularly when Sunspot raised her head to touch noses with him.

“Twilight’s watching or I’d kiss you right here,” she said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t be good friends, it just means you can’t think of me as what I’m afraid you’re starting to think, because I’m thinking that too, and I know it can’t happen.”

“Seems to me we’re thinking too much,” replied Hammer without really thinking about his words. It didn’t help when he brushed his lips against Spot’s for one, long, timeless moment that lasted for entirely too short a time. “I’m sorry for making you sad tonight,” he added once they separated far enough to talk.

“That’s... not making me sad,” she whispered back with just the smallest hint of a giggle. “And it isn’t you, it’s me. I promise, I’ll tell you about it sometime. Not tonight. Some other night. Oh, I don’t want to lose you,” she added with a husky whisper.

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Hammer, “except we need to get back into the forge room before Twilight Sparkle drops that anvil on something important. So as long as you’re not leaving…”

Spot managed a full giggle at that. “Oh, if only you knew. You’re not getting rid of me that easily. I’m starting to need Away more than I ever expected. But for now…”

“Duty calls.” Hammer held the door open for her. “M’lady, I believe it is time for my guests to return to their homes. Twilight Sparkle, if you could please put the anvil down. Carefully,” he added when a low thud shook the forge area, making the old shoes nailed to the wall jingle.

“Please have the bill for our visit sent to the palace as soon as possible, Mister Hammer,” said Spot, stepping carefully back into the dusty forge area with a measured pace and moving up beside Twilight Sparkle.

“I certainly will, Miss Sunspot,” said Hammer, following along behind. “Will you young mares be needing an escort to the palace?”

“I do believe it would only be prudent this evening,” said Sunspot, moving out the back door of the forge and motioning Twilight to follow. “Princess Celestia’s student shall act as our chaperone, so there will not be any rumors of impropriety.”

“Once I lock up, I shall be prepared to depart,” said Hammer. He slid the heavy door closed and locked it, putting the key back into his bit pouch where it belonged and allowing Sunspot to put the snoozing dragon back onto his broad shoulders. Although he did drop his formal posturing enough to whisper to Twilight, “When you are discussing your visit with Princess Celestia this evening—” he took a certain pleasure at seeing Twilight flinch without a frown, but an expression of actual thought into what she was going to say to the Princess “—I would appreciate it if you did not mention Miss Sunspot and myself… engaging in a public display of affection.”

“Eww,” said Twilight while walking alongside them, although after some thought she added, “I thought secrets were bad.”

After a quick glance at Sunspot to see if perhaps she was going to offer any support, Hammer managed to put forward, “Yes. But there’s a difference between secrets and privacy. For example,” he added, turning to Spot. “Do you know about my first visit to the palace for Twilight?”

“Not really,” said Spot with a cute thinking expression. “Princess Celestia put her hoof down and said it was none of our business. That squelched the rumor mill fairly quick.”

“See, Twilight.” Hammer turned back to his small student. “You’d be awfully upset if other ponies started whispering naughty things behind your back, right? What if Princess Celestia had told the other palace staff all about my visit, every single detail?”

“No!” declared Twilight with the cutest wrinkled-up nose. “She’d never do that. And I wouldn’t either!”

“Well,” continued Hammer as they walked, “what if Princess Celestia had some handsome noblepony she liked to slip out at night and visit? Would she be upset if you talked to your friends about it?”

“I would never…” Twilight trailed off and thought, which Hammer considered to be a good sign. Whatever thought she was thinking was sure to get a good mental flogging in the process. “Well, my brother…” she started again, only to come to a halt and think some more. “I probably shouldn’t talk about him, either. For the same reason.”

“And thus ends the second lesson of the evening,” said Hammer. “Privacy. Somewhat of a mixed message, but so is life.”

They walked through the moonlight in unaccustomed silence for a while with only the ringing of steel shoes against the cobblestones. It did make Hammer think of Sunspot’s shoes, and wonder just where she had them repaired, but he did not want to break the mood.

Still, as they drew near the palace, he had to say something, even if it sounded corny.

“The stars are certainly beautiful tonight. It has been a pleasure to share them with two such fascinating young mares.”

“I… really don’t like the stars much,” admitted Sunspot. “I’m so busy in the palace that I never get the opportunity to look at them.”

“But they’re so interesting! I love the stars,” said Twilight Sparkle. “I used to put my telescope in the back yard and my parents would stay up with me all night. We’d do star charts and talk about the constellations and try to make up some of our own. I… didn’t get to see my parents during the day very often, since they had such important jobs.”

“Does being Princess Celestia’s student involve stargazing too?” asked Golden Hammer.

“Not yet, but I hope so.” Twilight Sparkle fairly skipped along the cobblestoned street with her tail swishing behind her. “I mean we’re studying all kinds of spells and history and all kinds of things, so I’m not sure where we could put it.”

“At night, I would hope,” said Sunspot. “I’m certain that if you ask your teacher, she will make room. We should always take time in life for the things we appreciate.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded vigorously, and looked back when Golden Hammer slowed to a halt outside of the torchlight illumination that cast the palace gates into nighttime splendor. It was such a beautiful place that he wanted to stroll on in with his entourage, walk through the hallways illuminated with the light of the moon and Spot’s happy smile… Well, mostly he had a greedy sensation in his heart, which would be more like walking around with the beautiful mare while shouting on the inside, “Look at her! She likes me! Isn’t she wonderful?”

But that would fire up the gossips inside the palace like nothing else.

“I had better see you two off now,” he said instead. “Twilight Sparkle, please take care and remember what you learned tonight. And Spot…”

He hesitated, and Twilight promptly turned her back on the two of them and closed her eyes. “Not listening,” she declared, which made Sunspot laugh.

“Later,” she promised, and gave him a gentle kiss across the lips in the darkness.

His long saunter back home was filled with stars and thoughts about the beauty of the city’s night.

5. Anniversary

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Anniversary

“Weddings always make me cry.” Sunspot leaned a little closer to Golden Hammer in the warm sunshine, causing her frilly sun dress to rustle against his flank. She was a different pony in the daylight, although the broad hat helped shade her face, and her preference for shaded spots in the wedding ‘yard’ kept that difference in check. Hammer had really not expected to be able to escort Spot to the wedding since he had been invited to be Nails’ best stallion, but ‘things’ had gone differently than either of them expected.

‘Things’ was a nicer word than ‘The Bride’s Family’ in any case. Hammer could at least think that, but dared not speak the words anywhere Nails would hear. Lady Iolite’s family had a genealogy tree that forked like a spastic kudzu vine, with interlocking links to other important unicorn families until the groom’s side of the wedding was more like a half-dozen chairs pushed to the far end of the table. The Duke of SomethingOrOther’s fourth son had taken Hammer’s spot, while the Earl of SomeOddPlaceHalfACountryAway was in the next spot over, and the third son of the Viscount of AnotherHardToPronounceCountry, and so on down the line of all ten places in the wedding party. Hammer was seriously thinking Nails’ own parents might not have gotten an invitation if they had not been some third link down a family tree that had some Important Titles hanging from the branches.

Spot was performing her role well as the ‘Plus One’ to Golden Hammer’s position, and he was seriously thinking they were the only two earth ponies at the wedding other than the catering staff. Which reminded him.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Hammer held out a large hoof in front of a young mare in a server’s outfit, which made her come to an almost immediate halt. “Lord… something or other involving a forest, I think. The bloke over there with the plum-colored hat. He wanted me to chastise the chef for the seaweed puffs since he thought I was one of the staff. Personally, I think they’re delicious, and he’s just being a—” Hammer took a quick look around and swallowed his annoyance. “Anyway, tell the chef I said how good they were.”

“Thank you, sir,” said the cute earth pony mare with a bob of her head and a smile.

“And tell the chef,” added Hammer out of some reflexive sense of vengeance aimed at the overstuffed unicorn noble, “that if he brings a tray of them by the Hammer and Nails farrier shop, I’ll do a free fitting and adjustment for his entire catering crew. Standing on your hooves all day is enough of a pain without bad shoes. Oh, and look disappointed, because Lord Grumpy is looking in our direction.”

“Thank you, sir,” said the young mare, looking down at the floor. When the server trotted off to the kitchens with more of a strut to her step than before, Hammer barely noticed because he was getting a kerchief out of his suit pocket and passing it over to Spot.

“Thank you,” she snuffled, and gave a short blow. “Allergies.”

“Allergic to weddings?”

“Weddings, funerals, bat-mitzvahs for the nocturnal pegasi, and all the like. They all want the Big Lady there, and have no idea how much that twists the attention away from the whole reason for the event. I spend so much time discouraging ponies from requesting her time that I swear if they just stopped begging, she’d be done with all of her tasks by sundown and could have a little fun every evening. It makes my eyes water.” Spot blew her nose again. “Maybe I just don’t like to see things change.”

“Well,” started Hammer, “we’ve seen Nails get married, enjoyed the reception, eaten two slices of cake, chatted with the friendly family.” He spared a smile for a pair of unicorns who trotted by without acknowledging their existence in the slightest. “How about we pass along our good wishes to the groom and go Away?”

* * *

Several hours later, just after sunset, Spot slipped into the bar and eased into their usual booth. They had both changed out of their wedding outfits, which was a relief in the warmth of the bar. Hammer had been there for a few minutes already, since he had needed to check in with the farrier shop, and Sunspot had needed to drop by the palace ‘just for a minute to see if anything is on fire.’

“I don’t smell smoke,” said Hammer with a sniff.

“All clear,” said Spot, hefting the beer. “The big lady is in her room tonight, reading. Enough of the crusty crusts are over at Lady Iolite’s party that she can have a few minutes alone, and she deserves it.”

“That’s a relief.” Hammer winced. “Oh, fudge. Did you bring the wedding gift?”

Spot winced too. “No. I thought you had it.”

“He can pick it up at work later,” said Hammer. “Nothing we should worry about while we’re Away.”

They touched the tankards together and leaned back in their respective benches. It was quiet and peaceful, but Hammer found his gaze drawn irresistibly to Spot’s violet eyes, and a hidden bit of pain she was concealing under her smile. And worse, he was fairly convinced his own pain was showing in much the same way.

“Do you want a kabob?” he asked, just to make conversation.

“I… better not,” said Spot. “I ate too many avocado puffs, or whatever those green things were at the reception. Stout wouldn’t appreciate it if I spewed all over his floor.”

“Me neither,” admitted Hammer, and as long as he was on a roll, “I miss Nails already.”

“I do too.” Spot put her tankard back on the table and drew the back of her fetlock across her mouth to wipe off the foam. “The flirtatious flit.”

“Mister Shot-Down-In-Flames they used to call him in school. He made a pass at our sixth-grade teacher once.”

Spot covered her mouth with one hoof to avoid spraying the contents across the table. “He didn’t.”

“He most certainly did.” Hammer stifled a chuckle. “You never saw such an embarrassed old mare. She was at least three times his age, after all. His father made him apologize the next day, and Nails brought flowers, thinking that would help.”

By that point, Spot had a hoof stuffed into her mouth nearly to the ankle to keep from laughing.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” continued Hammer through his own chuckles. “Miss Petunia took it far better than expected. She even had Nails as the ring bearer for her own wedding a few years later.” Hammer put on his most serious face. “He kissed all of the bridlemares.”

Spot was just the most adorable pony when she was laughing. It was like all the pleasure and joy she suppressed during the day finally had a chance to escape. It felt good for himself, too. Hours spent over the hot forge did not leave much time for talking or laughing.

“I may not have had a real brother,” added Hammer once he could breathe, “but Nails has been so good to me. Do you have a sister, Spot?”

The laughter vanished, leaving a terrible, gruesome silence.

Spot could not have looked more in agony if Hammer had kicked her in the belly. She stood up with a jerk, knocking her tankard over and spilling the remaining contents onto the floor.

“I… have to go.”

“I’m sorry,” blurted out Hammer.

Their words spilled out at the same moment, but Hammer was only a heartbeat slower in standing up, and caught the panicking mare before she could get away. When Spot had begun making her visits to Away regular, she had laid down rules, ironclad and inviolate. No asking about any current diplomatic activity in the palace. No stories about Prince Blueblood, no matter how tempting. And no questions about her family.

“I’m sorry,” he insisted again. “I forgot.”

“I can’t forget,” said Spot, who had come to a halt with her face against his chest and a trickle of moisture running down his coat. “I can’t do this.”

She did not move, so Hammer remained still also, feeling the warmth of her breath against the long hairs of his chest, the rapid thumping of her heart from where he had slipped a foreleg across her back without thinking about it, and the faint trembling that slowed the longer he stayed still.

“I can’t stay here,” she mumbled after a time.

“I’ll walk you home,” said Hammer immediately. He walked exceedingly carefully by her side until they were out in the dark streets, then proceeded in short, slow steps down the street. They did not say anything more for several blocks, or at least until the smaller mare gave Hammer a nudge.

The gesture seemed friendly enough, so Hammer nudged back while walking.

Spot nudged back even harder. “I mean turn here, you big lug,” she muttered.

“But the palace is that… Oh.” Hammer turned as directed and walked for a time alongside the silent mare. The shadows around the street only grew stronger and more menacing with every step as if the stars and moon above were sliding behind dark clouds, just as dark as the cloud that had swept over the normally perky and cheerful Spot. If he were a pegasus, he could stomp all the rain out of the miserable mood and bring some sunshine back to her face, but this was an unstompable problem, the kind of fragility of the soul that a farrier was ill-equipped to fix.

“Have,” said Spot so quietly that Hammer nearly missed it.

They walked a ways further, around a corner and past a garden that left the scent of tulips wafting through the cool night air, before Hammer could bear to respond.

“Huh?”

Their path continued along the cobblestone streets, turning here and there until Hammer was hopelessly lost. The city beyond the portion that held his home and business had never made much sense to him in the daytime, and he always needed a map when visiting any of his clients. The moving shadows of trees writhed along the dark buildings and fences like waves in a moonlit sea, in which the two of them were slowly drowning.

It was almost a relief to stroll slowly into one of the myriad of parks that were scattered throughout the city. He almost did not recognize the place in the dark since the fountain had been turned off for the evening, and the ornate stone sculpture looked so dismal and dead without the water rushing through it. The quiet drip, drip of the water in front of them was the only sound, other than the slow breathing of the small mare.

“It’s been a long time.” Sunspot sat down on the ragged patch of grass in front of the fountain and looked up at the various stone figures that normally would be spouting or sprinkling during the day. “I’ve never told anypony, because once I start, I don’t think I can stop.”

Hammer made to say something as thoughtful as he could, only to have Spot hold her hoof over his mouth.

“No. Let me finish. Yes, I have a sister. We… fought. We each said terrible things.”

This time, Hammer kept his mouth shut and just sat there. It took a long while, feeling the evening breeze scatter the occasional droplet of fountain water against his coat, the cold light of the stars shining down, the silent presence of Spot still as a marble statue beside him. Without thinking, he moved a little closer to provide the small mare some body warmth. Spot felt as hot as a tiny furnace, although the low tremor running down her hide slowed with his presence.

“I sent her away.” Each whispered word was like a hammer-blow, swung with extraordinary force against the porcelain vase of a fragile soul. The confession should have shaken the world with its impact and left the trembling mare against his side broken into fragments. However, mere words did not have the physical impact of the hammers he used for his work. The shards of a broken family did not show on the surface of a pony, after all. They lurked beneath flesh and bone in a way that never truly faded with time. The echoes of her whispered words filled the park with a shattered silence, and when he put one heavy foreleg around Spot’s trembling body, he held her for his own sake as much as hers.

It was impossible to say how long they sat there in the gloom. It seemed like days, even though it could only have been an hour at most. Eventually, he gained the courage to speak ever so quietly to the huddled mess of damp pink pressed against his chest.

“Even if I argued with Nails and sent him away, he would come back. I know it. He’s always going to be there for me, no matter how much our lives change. It might take him a while, since he’s pretty stubborn, but he’d eventually come back. We’d yell some more. Call each other names. But everything would be all right in the end. We’re closer than brothers. It would be different, but still… us.”

“I know.” Spot snuffled into his chest hair. “Don’t tell Nails, but my sister… she’s coming back too. Soon. I know it too. I just… I’m afraid. We’ll fight, and tear things up, and one of us will win in the end. We’re like that.”

Hammer nodded. “I can believe it. Oof!”

Tear-streaked violet eyes looked up at him with a fierce frown beneath them, much like an angered mouse. A cute angry mouse. “You’re supposed to take my side, you big lug.”

“Oh, I know better than to take sides when you’re involved.” Hammer nuzzled away a tear. “If she’s anything like you, I don’t want to be caught in the middle. Oof!”

The second elbow in the ribs was just as strong, and Spot giggled in a very liquid way. “Oh, bother. I’m crying again.”

“Got it.” Hammer held his fetlock over Spot’s nose, there was a short, snuffling honk, and he moved to wipe the snot onto the grass to the sound of even more giggling. “I know, I know. A gentlecolt carries a kerchief, even when he’s not in a suit.”

“I know too many gentlecolts already.” Spot leaned into him with renewed pressure, almost pushing Hammer off to one side. “Don’t ever change.”

“Can I start carrying a kerchief all the time anyway?” Hammer stopped trying to wipe off his snotty fetlock and dried it on his side instead so he could put the hoof back on the ground and be braced better.

“Maybe. I mean it, though. Never change.” Spot rubbed up against his side, and he let her snuggle underneath his foreleg regardless of the wet trail she was leaving. “I’ve got so many things in flux right now. Twilight Sparkle. Cadence. Plans that can’t possibly work. Sometimes I think the whole world is spinning right out of control and I’m going with it. I need you. Like an anchor.”

“I think… I need an anchor too. A small anchor.” Hammer nuzzled into the top of Spot’s mane. It smelled… Spot-like. And nice.

“It just… everything is off.” Spot stuck her nose out from under Hammer’s foreleg. “Just when I get used to something, it changes. Ribbing Nails at the bar. Watching you work. Having Twilight Sparkle around the palace. The dynamic has shifted.”

“When good things change, they don’t always become bad things,” said Hammer.

“And sometimes they do.” Spot let out her breath and bit Hammer’s foreleg, not hard enough to cause pain, but just enough to get her teeth fixed into his coat. “Am I just getting myself set up to be hurt even more?” she asked through a mouthful of hair. “Is this a bad thing?”

“I’m sitting in a park with a beautiful mare,” said Hammer. “How could this be a bad thing?”

“I’m sitting in the darkness with a stallion I want in the most serious way,” mumbled Spot into his foreleg. “I want to drag you off somewhere and do things with you I haven’t done in ages, but I know that would change our relationship. I can’t handle that. You’re the only thing in my life right now that I can hold onto, but the harder I hold, the more I can feel you slipping away.”

“I…” Hammer leaned back into Spot. “No matter how much we want things to stay the same, they’re going to change. We can’t stop it. What if I had stopped changing before I met you?”

Spot nipped a little higher on his foreleg, but did not say anything for a time.

“I like this change,” admitted Hammer. “I have no intention of slipping away.”

Spot bit him, which he considered to be agreement, because she did not bite very hard.

“You know,” he began slowly, nuzzling ever so gently into the top of her mane, “this is the third year anniversary since we met. Nails and I normally don’t go out on the night after the Summer Sun Celebration, because we’re exhausted from staying up late and partying. Three years ago, you almost punched me. And now you’re biting me,” he added at the expected nip. “It’s progress. Change. You know—”

The kiss came out of nowhere. Spot just twisted in his loose grasp, lunged upward, and locked her cold lips to his. There was none of her previous timidity or gentleness, only the ravenous hunger of a mare seeking something she could not have, and dared not take. It lasted for far too brief a time before Spot fairly tore herself out of his grasp and curled up on the damp grass.

“No,” she whispered.

He should not have picked her up. He should not have held her. He should not have done many things in his life.

He did not regret this one for a moment.

They sat there together for far too long in the evening chill, keeping warm by their mutual presence. There were no more kisses, no more words, nothing but the two of them pressed against each other in such a cautious embrace that they barely touched, and yet so close their hearts beat as one.

And later, as they walked through the darkness side-by-side back to the palace, in slow, careful steps, he could not tell if this was the last time he would ever see her again, or the first time he had really seen her.

All he knew was that he had done what she needed.

Their relationship had changed, as all things did. No longer just friends, and yet not more. Just different.

The next week, when Sunspot arrived back at the bar to welcome Lord Silver Nails and bring his wedding present, nopony there would have been able to tell the difference between the mare that was and the mare that she had become. And Golden Hammer suspected much the same about himself. The changes they had endured came from within, after all.

And they were good.

6. Scratching Post

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Scratching Post

Their farrier shop catered to the wealthy unicorns of Canterlot, so it was only normal for Hammer and Nails to have royal customers of all kinds, from the very bottom of the scale and up. Today, Hammer was talking with a return customer, one who had not graced his shop in several years, as well as another customer whose visits could skip over centuries.

“I’m afraid these shoes are done for,” said Hammer once he had gotten all of them removed from Twilight’s hooves and stacked in a box. “You’ve outgrown them and worn them out and burned out nearly all the protective runes. Let me get your hooves filed properly first, we’ll get a set of blanks shaped and enchanted, and get you all taken care of today. Has the palace farrier been resetting your shoes on a regular basis?”

Twilight Sparkle nodded vigorously. “They don’t do student shoe enchantments, just a trim and re-nail, then they slap on a layer of colored shellac. It doesn’t seem very proper.”

“Twilight,” chided the very tall and impressive Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia. Hammer had just gotten comfortable enough with her presence due to her silence during the process, but having her speak so close nearly made him drop the file he was using to shape his customer’s small hoof. Well, not so nearly.

“Sorry,” said Hammer, scooping the file back up. He normally would have proceeded to inform his young client about the technical differences between the Royal Farrier Corps and his own job, but Celestia’s looming presence was discouraging. Or at least until she nudged his side to get his attention, then gave him an encouraging nod.

Even so, it took Hammer a few sentences to get into his usual description about how the Royal Farrier Corps was mostly a superficial… well, glamor was the word he settled on, service for the palace. True, they had enchanters to put elegant spells on the delicate silver dancing shoes of the nobility and polite sound-muffling spells on the shoes of the countless servants. The gentle tap-tap-tap of their hammers was easy on tender ears, and small silver nails did as little damage to pampered hooves as their expert wielders could manage.

But when it came time for the Royal Guard, or Princess Celestia herself, that was his job.

Well, except for Celestia recently. Those tough alicorn hooves went decades between shoeing, and her golden hoof-boots protected the steel shoes from wear. Starswirl the Bearded had written the book on the first of her shoes, and generations of enchanters since had added their own postscripts and codicils. It said something that Silver Nails and Tap Brad could make heads or tails out of the whole book when most of the unicorn scholars could only manage sections, although they wrote the most elegant of theses and papers on those parts. Still, there would come a day when Her Highness would put her hooves one at a time into his brace, and it would be his time to do what a thousand years of farriers had done before.

Although this was one task that would not be passed down from father to son, because at this rate, Hammer would never find a mare. Well, one who could have children.

The gentle touch on his shoulder jarred Hammer out of his distracted woolgathering. He was grateful for the restraint she showed, because Princess Celestia was rumored to be able to smash mountains and crush monsters with those restrained hooves. The touch had been gentle, almost loving, and he blushed so hard Hammer was very glad Twilight was out of the room. Thankfully, she had gone with Nails into the enchanting booth to deal with this year’s enchantments for Celestia’s favorite shoe-breaker, leaving Hammer alone with his thoughts and the divine ruler of the country.

“I’m so glad I can trust my precious student into your experienced care,” said Celestia with a radiant half-smile. “Trust is exceedingly rare.”

“And should be spent only when needed,” finished Hammer automatically. “My father told me that. Particularly, when billing the nobility,” he added.

He did not expect a laugh from Her Divine Highness, but her quiet giggle echoed around his humble forge like the tinkling of fairy bells. “Oh, my dear boy. Don’t take this wrong, but you sound just like your great-grandfather.”

“Thank you, Your Highness?” he managed in return, caught somewhere between familial awe and divine deference.

“Take it as the compliment it was intended, Mister Hammer.” She tapped one golden hoof-boot against the stone floor of the forge. “He was the most exacting of all of the farriers I’ve ever met. Had me in this shop for positively hours at a time for three different fittings.”

“Perhaps he enjoyed your presence?” suggested Hammer.

That earned him a second laugh, although he did not dare add that the presence of Her Highness was truly quite interesting to look at, with her impeccably groomed coat and flowing magical mane. Her impressive height was less impressive to Hammer, because he was almost as tall at the shoulder, and considered that he might outweigh her on the appropriate scale. Or maybe not.

“Oh, I wish I could stand around here all afternoon and talk with you, Mister Hammer.” Celestia let out a frustrated huff. “There are always so many things to do back at the palace, and—” she lowered her voice “—my aides keep my schedule so full that sometimes I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”

“Spot says she’s never at a loss for things to do.” It just slipped out despite Hammer’s intent on keeping things formal while Nails and Twilight were in the enchanting booth and out of earshot.

“Spot?” asked Celestia with a puzzled expression that shifted into a subdued smile. “Oh, Autumn Sunspot. Yes, she’s been taking more time off lately, whenever she can get an evening free. It’s been good for her. She smiles more, and I’ve actually heard her humming at times.”

As much as he tried not to show it, the warm glow that started under Hammer’s ribs must have shown on his face, because Celestia looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head slowly. “Before I leave, I have to ask. Do you have anything to do with her newfound happiness, Mister Hammer?”

“I… um… I hope?” he managed, held transfixed by that violet gaze.

Celestia laughed again, a relaxed motion that made the centuries slough off her shoulders and gave her a youthful twinkle in her eyes. She turned to depart in one smooth motion, passing through his sliding door into the backstreet behind the forge before turning back as if she had forgotten something important.

“I shall leave Cadet Periwinkle at your shop to escort my student back to the palace once she has completed her task. And I’ll try to reduce the workload on my staff so your young mare has more time to spend with you, if you wish.”

Unable to say anything, Hammer merely nodded.

And when Celestia turned to leave again, he could have sworn that she flicked her tail at him.

* * *

“You’re being quiet tonight,” said Spot with a nudge to her booth-companion. To be honest, Hammer never spoke much anyway except when Spot was around, so this was more backsliding than an unusual shortage of his words in their traditional table at the bar, maintaining the World of Away.

Thankfully, Nails picked up the conversation, because Hammer was still at a loss for words, even after being prodded. “He’s probably still a little stunned. Little Miss Skybreaker stopped by the shop, and she brought a beautiful mare along with her.”

“Nails!” Hammer scowled, or at least tried. Remembering that last tail-flick made a smile creep onto his face despite his best efforts. “She’s not… She’s our ruler,” he managed in a low whisper, frightened of being overheard despite the bar’s comfortable susurrus of surrounding sound.

“You are smiling,” stated Spot plainly. “Does this mean you’ve found a nice noble mare like Nails managed? Ready to settle down, raise a few foals in the palace, rule over half the country?”

“No,” protested Hammer despite his continuing smile. “Would you two stop, please? I’m just glad to meet Twilight’s teacher again. She’s… nice.”

“Nice?” For a short mare, Spot still managed to look down her nose at him, although Nails did not take the hint.

“Jealous much, Spot?” Nails floated his tankard up in a mock toast. “If you don’t make a move on my buddy soon, you may lose him to the big lady.”

“That’s ridiculous,” scoffed Hammer, putting his nose down in his own tankard.

“No, no. Not at all.” Nails used his magic to brush back a lock of Hammer’s mane that was falling forward into his eyes again. “A handsome lug like you. I can see why you’d be attracted to a goddess instead of plain Spot here.”

“Hey!” Spot straightened up and wiped one greasy forehoof across her mane to get it out of her eyes. “What does she have that I don’t have?”

“Well, she has… terrible breath,” managed Hammer.

“What?” Spot glared at him much like a terrier puppy facing a particularly troublesome squeaky toy, although Hammer promptly sniffed the air.

“Not like you,” he continued. “You always smell a little like roses every night.”

Settling down again, Spot snapped, “There’s this rosebush by the path I use to come here after work. Can’t a girl have a little snack without some stallion making a comment about how rosebuds go straight to her flanks?”

Nails glanced at Spot’s rear with one upraised eyebrow, but did not say anything. Since he was both married now, and within reach of Spot’s sharp elbows, that was understandable. Besides, Hammer preferred a mare with comfortable padding.

“You steal from Celestia’s garden?” he asked instead. “I should turn you in. Maybe there’s a reward.”

“I’m sure she’ll give you a kiss,” said Spot, rising up from her seat and demonstrating by placing one warm damp kiss on his nose, which was a bit of a shock because it had been months since their kiss in front of the fountain.

“Maybe… I better not,” he ventured after the moment of shocked silence had passed.

Thankfully, Spot did not seem to be upset, and merely giggled. “I just thought I’d try to do something to get you thinking about me instead of her.”

“Why would I be thinking about her?” Hammer held his hooves at about size 22W distance apart. “I mean she’s got immense hooves, even bigger than mine.”

Leaning forward, Spot kissed him on the edge of his hoof, despite it being rough and chipped from work. “You have nice hooves. Working hooves, not all polished and buffed until they gleam.” She turned around and leaned up against him. “Scratch, right there between my shoulder… ahhh. Good hooves. Nice and scratchy.”

“It’s a better topic than flanks,” said Hammer flatly, although he did not stop scratching. “There’s no way to talk about a mare’s flanks and stay out of trouble. Dad told me so. Repeatedly. Let me simply state that our beloved ruler has extraordinary bodily dimensions which do not compare to any other mare, present or absent, and leave it at that. Would you like another kabob, Spot?”

The scratch-ee let out a satisfied groan. “Evil seducer.”

“Some evil,” grunted Hammer. “I could be replaced by a rough timber at the right height and a bag of bits.”

Spot shook her head. “Never underestimate the value of a good back scratch. I’ll bet Celestia never has anypony to scratch her back. Or other itches.”

“We are so not going there,” declared Nails.

“Are too.” Spot grunted and shifted her weight to lean more into her scratcher.

“Are not either,” said Hammer. “Or I’ll quit scratching.”

“Spoilsport.” Spot hunched her back and gave a short shudder. “Ooo, a little higher.”

All in all, it was a glorious conversation long overdue between three friends. Nopony knew when they would be able to meet like this again, and it really did not matter, because they were together tonight, and that was all they wanted in the glorious place called Away.

Or at least until far too late in the evening, when the bartender threw them out and locked up.

* * *

The night was pleasant and cool, the kind of evening that he wished could last forever. Once Nails had been escorted to his wife’s respectable townhouse and bid good night, that only left Golden Hammer and Sunspot wending their way home along the starlit streets. It was a time of very few words, because words were not needed. The walk from Away to Home had become a tradition between them, always ending outside of the pool of light that the palace lived inside of like it was being protected by Celestia’s own sun. Hammer knew why they had to part there, and never pressed the issue. Even when visiting his shop for a shoe adjustment, some of the nobility who strutted around were vicious social predators.

But tonight, their path wandered more than normal.

“There are times when the years seem to slip past like falling raindrops, and other times when they don’t seem to be moving at all.” Spot gave him a friendly shoulder-nudge. “When I’m with you, time stops. Every moment seems to be a lifetime, and the hours between our meetings are like days. Your turn.”

“Stars,” said Hammer. “Being with you is like looking at the stars. At first when you come out of the house, you only see a few, but as your eyes adjust to the darkness, there are more and more, until it can be difficult not to see somewhere without one.”

“So I’m stars?” asked Spot with another shoulder-nudge.

“Hey, I’m raindrops, apparently.” They walked in silence for a while, rubbing shoulders, before he added, “And an anchor.”

“I’d rather you be stars,” said Spot. “I don’t like to admit it, but I’ve always been afraid of the darkness. Afraid it will wrap me up and carry me away. I’ve seen it. The stars guide our paths and light our way. They’re beacons of hope in a stormy ocean, shining to reveal a refuge from the deadly gale. Everypony needs hope, particularly when they’re frightened.”

“Then I’ll be a star.” Golden Hammer looked at his dark reddish coat which was almost black in the shadows. “A quiet, anchoring kind of star with a warm hearth that will always be open to you, no matter what.”

A slow shudder passed down through Sunspot’s side, and she pressed herself against him so hard they nearly fell over. They stood in place in the middle of the street for a time, then Spot lifted her head and nuzzled Hammer under the chin.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For just being… you.”

“Likewise,” said Hammer with a slow nuzzle across the top of her head. Once the pressure of her side had eased enough for them to move again, he added, “As much as I would love to walk with you until dawn, we should be getting you home. Which way do we need to go?”

“I have no idea,” said Spot, who had buried her nose into his thick chest coat and stifled a giggle. “I’ve been lost for at least an hour.”

It took some time for the two of them to find their way back to the palace, despite the way it towered over the city. The night was pleasant, the company exquisite, and although the stars guided their path, there were many detours on their trip.

And as Hammer walked back home alone, he never regretted a single step.

7. The Fire

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
The Fire

“He’s late.” Spot leaned back in her seat at the bar and licked the froth off her upper lip. “You’d think that since we have to schedule an appointment with His Royal Highness, Prince Nails, he would at least be on time.”

“The wife has been giving him some… headaches,” admitted Hammer. “I caught him opening the shop early twice now, with the forge blowing at full blast and him hammering away on an order. I think Lady Iolite is trying too hard to advance among her peers, and Nails is caught in the pinch. It’s probably nothing.”

“Nothing you’re going to talk about behind his back,” said Spot. She blew out her breath and leaned a little closer, feeling like a soft furnace against Hammer’s side. “I’ve seen it at work before. The nobility make a petty game out of it at times. Some lowborn marries a noble and everything’s all sweetness and light on the surface, but beneath it, they talk. The whole bunch is nasty as a flock of hungry ravens, all ripping and tearing at their defenseless victim without him even knowing about it.”

The proper term for a flock of ravens was an Unkindness, a fitting term for what Spots was describing and which made the mental image of what Nails was going through only worse. The remains of his kabob no longer looked very appetizing, and Hammer put it down on the greasy plate with a quiet thump. “This talk. Do they ever accept him? I mean do you think Lady Iolite’s family will? From nose to tail, Nails is a good stallion with a huge heart, he just doesn’t complain when things go against him. I mean since you work in the palace and hear things…”

“I try not to.” Spot took a very small sip of her tankard, seeming unusually glum. “Maybe he will. In the end, relationships come down to two ponies. If they care for each other, all the forces in the universe cannot tear them apart.”

Her simple words ripped holes in Hammer’s heart. Some nights it seemed as if the entire world forced itself between them, but he could not imagine a time spent without her. Over the last few years, he had grown so close to a mare that he only saw a few times a week, at best, and yet they were so different in so many ways. Including secrets about her family that hurt too much to share, even with him. In the end, it did not matter, as long as they had each other.

“No matter their differences.” Hammer slipped the onion off his kabob and moved it to Spot’s side of the platter before taking another bite.

“No matter anything,” said Spot before slurping up the loose onion and chewing with an improved demeanor. “Remind me sometime to tell you the tale of Ambassador Gretta from Griffonstone and Lord…” She thought for a long moment before Hammer yielded to her unspoken request and popped the last of his pearl onions into her mouth. “Weighstone,” finished Spot through her chewing.

“Not familiar with that branch,” said Hammer, who had begun to work on the remains of his kabob since his appetite had returned at the same time the sparkle had reappeared in Spot’s eyes. “Nails was looking through about every noble branch down to the twigs. I should remember.”

“It’s been… a few years.” Spot dismissed the discrepancy with a royal wave of her greasy hoof. “Scandals like that get talked about forever. And speaking of scandalous young stallions,” she added as Nails slipped in the front door of the bar, looking quite handsome in his tuxedo.

“Can’t stay for long,” Nails managed once he reached the table and slid into his bench seat. “Managed to get tickets for the opera tonight. I’m actually skipping out on a pre-party with tiny cucumber sandwiches and dry crackers. Ohthatsgood,” he managed after sinking his teeth into the fresh kabob that Stout had brought over.

“I still have trouble seeing you at fancy dinner parties,” mused Hammer. “The last and only one you invited me to had this stallion in the bathroom who holds towels and just looks at you afterward, like you haven’t gotten your hooves washed enough. Just because I always smell a bit like a sweaty forge.”

Spot giggled and gave him a sniff. “It’s not that bad at all. The perfume of the working stallion.”

“That’s part of the reason I was late. Had to shower twice to get that perfume out,” said Nails while tucking a second napkin over his tuxedo cummerbund. “I would have invited you two along to the opera if I had been able to get the tickets. Like a double-date.”

That elicited a giggle and the most diabolical expression of crafty glee from Spot. “You want?”

“Want what?” Nails placed the empty skewer back on the tray and wiped his face with a napkin. “What part of sold out don’t you understand? I’m still going to have to hustle to the ticket counter at the theatre so I can get a good spot in line just to wait an hour for the discounted tickets I bought. At least I won’t starve now. You two lovebirds just sit here and chirp, maybe lift a beer for me. I need to hit the head before I go.”

Stout ran a tight bar with a clean bathroom, or at least it was this early in the night, so there were no drunks standing in line. Silver Nails was back at their table to say his goodbyes in relatively short order. He obviously did not expect to see Hammer and Spot standing up and getting ready to leave, and practically scurried over to see what was wrong.

“Everything’s fine, Nails.” Spot patted the upset stallion on one sleeve and smiled. “You just missed one very special fact.”

“Two,” said Hammer. “You know that egg whisk we got you for a wedding present? That was me. Spot forgot.”

“But you forgot I work at the palace, so I’m getting your slightly delayed wedding present tonight,” continued Spot.

* * *

His father had often said, “It is a poor farrier who wears used shoes.” That sounded far less humorous now. Somehow, the suit Hammer had worn to the wedding was not suitable for listening to a bunch of costumed performers bellow out lines in a language he did not even speak. Spot had vanished from his house while he was showering (twice) and shown back up before he had even gotten toweled dry, holding matching his and hers black silk cravats. She had also tied her mane up in a short bob at the back of her neck, and was wearing a pair of dark-rimmed glasses, which made for an effective disguise from gossipy coworkers at the palace, he presumed. It was a minimalist approach for both of them, which worked far better than trying to find a suitable tuxedo and dress on short notice, and Hammer did not mind one bit.

The Canterlot Opera House was a gleaming monument to all of the things that made the mountain city great, or at least in the eyes of the unicorn nobility. Towering marble pillars, translucent crystal decor, beautiful lighting, billowing silk curtains, gemstone traceries on every surface, carpet so deep that even Hammer sank in up to his oversized ankles, it all should have combined to overwhelm a simple town farrier. Well, Golden Hammer had to admit to being whelmed, at the very least. It would have been hard to pretend ambivalence when he was sneaking peeks upwards at the huge crystal chandelier or smiling genteelly at various important ponies, none of whom recognized him outside of the farrier shop.

To be honest, Golden Hammer could have been just as happy taking Spot to see a movie, if not for seeing how happy Nails had been over their gift.

An usher fully dressed in a tasseled suit and matching flat cap escorted the two of them to their seats, reasonably close to the stage and a position among Nails’ peer group that he would have been very proud of acquiring. Lady Iolite did not come from a very wealthy House, and the allowance that she received from her family went up in flames like dragonfire in dry leaves every month, leaving Nails to scrimp for every tenth-bit he could save. Or whatever Hammer could spare from the shop.

While getting comfortable in his seat, he had to wonder how many of the other well-dressed ponies around them were in similar positions, shaving tenth-bits and eating oat porridge so they could wear silk among their peers. It did explain one difficulty he frequently had at work where supposedly wealthy ponies insisted on paying with post-dated bank drafts or delaying their visits until shoes were worn thin and nails practically rattled in their holes.

He put it all aside. There were far more important things to think about this evening.

“This is nice,” said Spot, leaning in his direction and rubbing up against his neck.

“Nice? I think you deserve a better word than just nice,” he murmured back into her ear, which gave him an exquisitely pleasant thrill to see twitch with every word. “So many fancy ponies in the palace and you want to spend the evening with a smelly horseshoe wrangler, listening to foreign ponies bellow out old songs.”

“The opera is nice,” admitted Spot nuzzling up under his chin. “Having you with me is beyond words.”

They could have been alone, just the two of them in the crushed velvet seats, with the rest of the rich and haughty crowd filtering into the opera house merely a dream. But Hammer’s dreams were never this pleasant. Still, after breathing in Spot’s unmistakable scent for a time, he had to crane his neck to look back and up.

“Did Twilight get settled in the box with M’lord and M’lady?” asked Spot without looking.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nails happier.” Hammer studied what he could see of Lady Iolite and Lord Nails sitting next to each other in the theatre box, with Twilight Sparkle to one side. The student had grown so much over the short time Hammer had known her, from the awkward filly who had welded her shoes to the palace floor so often, to a young bookish mare with an eager approach to life.

She was, of course, taking notes. Some things never change.

“Can’t believe you did that,” murmured Hammer under his breath. Since Spot was snuggled up under his chin with one fuzzy ear tickling his nose, she heard him easily.

“Did what?” She arched her neck and rubbed against him, much like a huge cat. “Celestia’s not attending the opera tonight, so the Royal Box is available for Twilight Sparkle’s education in culture. I just… passed along a few favors so Nails and Lady Iolite could be her escort.” She stuck up one hoof over the back of the seat and waved in the general direction of the Princess’ booth, and to Hammer’s inner joy, he could see Nails discreetly wave back.

Just for the sake of opera etiquette, Hammer rolled his eyes before saying, “No, I mean he’s going to be absolutely insufferable at work for weeks. His Royal Highness, the Prince of Nails.”

There was a certain visceral pleasure to have Spot giggling while tucked under his chin. It made him giggle in response, which made her giggle, and it was only their surroundings that kept Hammer from relishing that feeling with a few gentle tickles of his own to encourage the easily encouraged while they waited for the opera to begin.

“It’s so nice to get to the theatre again. With a date, for a change.” Spot wriggled a little further up so she could whisper directly into his ear. “Want to hear a secret that you can’t tell anypony, particularly not Twilight?”

Hammer’s heart nearly stopped, although a moment’s thought let him breathe again. This did not seem to be any of the secrets that tied her sensitive nerves in knots, but more of an inner delight that she just had to share or burst.

“Shining Armor and Princess Cadence,” she whispered. “They’re dating.”

That was a secret well worth some giggles, and he could see why keeping the news from Twilight Sparkle was so important.

“It must be like watching two lovesick hedgehogs around the palace,” he admitted in a very quiet whisper. “Have they figured out who is pursuing who yet?”

“I don’t know either,” said Spot in nearly a suppressed squeak. “They both cornered me on the same day, one after another, and had the most adorable ‘she loves me, she loves me not’ discussion. Well, they talked, I listened. Young love. It’s going to be epic, that’s for certain.”

It was adorable to think of those two trying to maneuver together, the over-enthusiastic young princess and the over-serious young Royal Guard, each trying their best to guess the other’s moves and winding up in a delightful muddle of embarrassing situations, but it made Hammer cast a curious glance upwards in the direction of the Royal Box. If he had not known better, Hammer could have mistaken the three unicorns sitting together for a family, with an older daughter quietly chatting with her father while the mother looked absently off into the theatre at nothing in particular.

It had been impossible for Hammer to not know about Nails’ marriage issues, because he was the only friend available to provide pressure relief. Money was involved, of course, because being in the nobility was a giant sucking wound in the wallet. Nails was a shrewd money manager, and did the books for the business with a precision that would not have been out of place in a bank, but his wife always had unexpected expenses, either her own or something undetermined involving her family. Twice Nails had caught her writing checks for cash out of the middle of the checkbook or transposing numbers in the ledger to make her expenses seem smaller.

Then there was their own family portion of their arguments. Lady Iolite wanted foals, but ‘not right now’ and ‘after the proper preparations’ was not exactly the pace that Nails had expected, so that frustration had been frequently passed along to his best friend and co-worker. The only bright spot was the additional time allowed Nails to save for the birth, or as much as he could with such a spendthrift wife.

The thought of foals brought another sharp pain to Hammer’s gut, muted almost to insignificance by the glorious warmth of the mare nuzzled up under his chin.

“Even if he was a real prince, that wouldn’t solve his problems, I suppose,” mused Hammer.

“It would just make the problems larger,” said Spot. “Trust me.”

“No, I mean when they eventually have foals.” Spot stiffened under his chin, took a deep breath, and leaned against him again. He could not hold her the way he wanted in the theatre, but he could rest one foreleg protectively over hers and remain still. Her anchor. Her protective shield. Her big-mouthed stallionfriend who had to add, “You want foals eventually, don’t you? Even adopting?”

There was a long, long pause before Spot nodded, almost imperceptibly. It was like the entire theatre was empty except for the two of them. Well, and the faint noises from the orchestra pit down by the stage.

“I don’t see why you… need me so much,” murmured Hammer. “Would think you could go wherever you want with this kind of pull. Pick out one of those handsome young noblecolts and take him for a spin. You could probably sit in Princess Celestia’s box, too.”

“And be talked about every day and night at work for the next hundred years, the same way these ponies are talking about Nails. Who exactly is he? What does he want out of her family? Are they scheming something together?” Spot shifted positions slightly to get the tiniest fraction closer to him, or at least as close as the theatre chairs allowed. “All the tiny whispers and gossip are like sharp blades of grass in a green field. It’s pretty, but after you walk through it you’re all bloody and in pain, with cuts that never seem to heal.” She buried her nose into his chest to take a deep breath, then let it out in a satisfied sigh. “Besides, I’d have to find another stallion I could trust. They’re so far and few between in a world full of false hopes and broken promises. Lady Iolite doesn’t know how lucky she is to find Nails.”

After a microscopic shifting of her head to get more comfortable, Spot let out her breath in a heartfelt sigh. “You’re strong, protective, and stable like a big oak tree, and I’m never more comfortable than when I’m resting in your shade.”

Hammer was quiet for a time, listening to the sound of her breathing mixed in with the quiet conversations of the audience getting settled all around them, as well as the occasional musical noise from the orchestra pit. It was comfortable, as well as a good source of anonymity since all of the ponies headed to their seats gave the underdressed snuggling couple no more than a brief glance and an arrogant sniff.

“Comfortable?” he asked quietly after the scurrying of ponies behind the curtain began to settle down, which probably meant the opera was about to start.

Spot gave him a gentle poke in the ribs. “Like a big pillow.”

“Hmm…” The low noise made Spot’s ear twitch, which only gave Hammer a warmer feeling in his chest. “Thought I was a tree. Or an anchor.”

“Pillow for now,” she murmured. “Just don’t let me go to sleep. Been so long since I’ve attended, I don’t want to miss anything.”

“Me neither,” said Hammer, although for a different reason. Pillow or tree or anchor, he was willing to be whatever Spot needed, because she had become what he had not known he needed.

The opera was terrible.

The night was the most wonderful time ever.

Author's Note

Please, no cracks about the "Royal Box." It's opera, you dirty-minded people. :trollestia:

8. Patterns

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Patterns

There were shoe patterns at work, patterns of schedules as each class of Royal Guard cadets were properly equipped, and patterns of behavior. Hammer had gotten fairly good at dealing with the first two, but the last one still gave him issues, even as long as he had been living it.

Three nights a week, he and Nails would visit Away right after work. Most of the time, Spot would be there, either waiting on them or showing up shortly after their arrival. Nails would be forced to leave shortly afterward, either to go home and deal with his increasingly picky spouse or to join the night reconstruction crew⁽*⁾ at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, his second job.
(*) The School Maintenance and Internal Rebuilding Committee, or SMIRC doubled its workforce when Twilight Sparkle joined the school. The fact that Silver Nails had enchanted the Student’s shoes made them offer him a hiring bonus, plus extra overtime to ‘prep’ classrooms that she was going to be in soon.
—

Even that short period in the refuge of Away seemed to do Nails an immense amount of good. At least the additional income from his second job kept him from coming in to work bleary-eyed and snippish from sleeping on the couch, and Lady Iolite had stopped dropping by the ‘office’ to complain about the obstinate city merchants refusing to give credit.

Spot also had gotten used to her erratic refuge in Away, and Hammer could always expect an extra round of ribbing and teasing after she had to miss one of their meetings, or two during particularly busy weeks at the palace.

On occasion, both Spot and Nails would skip out on him, which broke the accustomed pattern and left Hammer to his own devices for the evening. Rather than remain in the bar all night and mope alone with his thoughts, he would go out into the starlit night for a casual stroll around the city. The peaceful city streets and quiet parks reminded him of Spot and their long, leisurely walks back to her home, with occasional detours. Thankfully, Canterlot was a peaceful place with few other night-dwelling denizens, and the guards who worked the night shift had gotten used to their nocturnal wandering. It probably helped that he had shod many of them.

Once in a while on his solo strolls, he would find the highest spot in the Royal Gardens, where a particularly grotesque statue reigned over the evening breeze and stars. It provided a good view of the Royal Towers, where undoubtedly Spot was still working on some late-night project behind one of the illuminated windows scattered through the structure. Occasional bursts of light or puffs of smoke gave witness that Twilight Sparkle was also likewise engaged in various late-night unicorn educational activities with her royal instructor. At least she had not welded her shoes down to the floor again in the last year or so.

Tonight, Spot seemed unusually uncomfortable sitting on her cushion beside Hammer, even after Nails excused himself for his second job. The bar was only moderately busy, and nothing else in their conversation could possibly be causing her current distress, so as much as he wanted to avoid striking any tender spots, Hammer decided to ask the Forbidden Question.

“So… are things at work being difficult, Miss Sunspot?”

There was no reaction, other than Spot nearly biting a skewer in half while stripping it relentlessly of its vegetable contents.

“Look,” started Hammer, deciding that a second attempt would probably not get him bitten, “if you’re having problems that I can’t help you with, at least you can talk about them.”

“It’s just…” Spot practically flung the empty skewer on the tray and glared down at the table like it had done something unspeakable to her. “I need you. And I need to stay away from you. Both. Now.”

“Did Twilight finally blow off another shoe?” he asked, carefully putting one foreleg around her shoulders. It exposed his chest to her sharp elbows, but if thumping him in the ribs helped her deal with whatever was eating her up, he was willing to take the thumps.

Despite his attempt, Spot pulled away and scooted her cushion to the other end of the bench. “That’s not helping. That’s really not helping.”

It was not what Hammer expected, and he found himself struggling for words. “I thought you were upset about work and I wanted to help you calm down.”

“Work is half of it,” admitted Spot. “Hormones are the rest, and then some. I need to sit on a block of ice for about a week or so. And… Twilight.”

The tide had just come in on the Sea of Confusion that Hammer was swimming in, and he was starting to drown. “Twilight and ice what?”

“Twilight Sparkle just limped in the front door of the bar.”

“Oh.” Hammer turned to see his favorite customer, limping as expected, and with a sleeping dragon draped over her back. They both had grown quite a bit since their last visit to his shop, although the dragon was just as sleepy as ever. At least between their growth and Golden Hammer’s experience, he no longer wanted to scoop them up and find the parent who was searching for their odd lost children.

“Good evening, Twilight Sparkle,” started Hammer once the limping filly had made her way to their table. “Needing some shoe work this evening?”

“I’m really not sure what went wrong,” started the Student of the Sun, “because I had braced myself and I was looking in the spellbook but I was very careful—”

“Say yes, Twilight.” Spot had regained some of her usual perky happiness, as if Twilight had brought along a little sunshine with her appearance.

“Yes, Twilight?” said Twilight Sparkle, looking a little baffled, then insulted when both Hammer and Spot laughed.

“Oh, Twilight. Never change,” managed Spot with a solid nudge to her companion. “Come on, you hefty hunk. You’ve got work to do this evening, and I probably should get back home. The big lady is tied up in some complicated negotiations, and I should look in on her.”

“You won’t be able to,” said Twilight Sparkle, leaning up against their table and shaking one bare hoof as if it were cramping up on her. “I tried, but the doors were locked and none of the guards were about to let me in. Cadence was hidden away in some super-secret meeting this evening too. And Shiny wasn’t in his office, or in his apartment.”

“Probably earning overtime at work,” said Hammer with a perfectly straight face. “I think we can get you worked into our schedule this evening, little lady. Nails still has that spare set of shoes we held back for just this occasion, and… You know, with the way you’ve sprouted up without blowing any shoes off for quite some time, I’m not sure they’ll fit without some resizing. And it would be nice to have somepony around to work the auxiliary bellows,” he added giving Spot a nudge as she came out of their booth.

“Oh, Mistah Hammer, Ah do declare,” said Spot in a simpering voice while holding a forehoof across her chest. “You do take me to the most interesting places on our dates.”

* * *

For a palace servant, Spot had impressive stamina. She worked the bellows on the forge with a steady, reliable rhythm, never slowing or faltering while Hammer rotated the four shoes in the fire. He had never really tried to resize already enchanted shoes, because once the runes were set, they didn’t really like being run through the forge again. To counter that, Twilight Sparkle was keeping her horn glowing like a thaumic forge of her own, holding the enchantments static while Hammer beat the shoes into the new shape they needed.

Twilight Sparkle had suggested they only resize two shoes, but recognized Hammer’s argument that an unbalanced stance would only blow the other shoes off faster, and possibly with more property damage. Since one of the two shoes had nearly twisted apart during the explosive de-shoeing process, it was an easy call.

“That ought to do it.” Hammer flexed his aching fetlock and released the shoe from the duckbill tongs he had been using to hold it against the anvil. Instantly, Twilight’s magic snatched it up and dropped it into the quenching barrel with a hiss of vengeful metal.

Unicorn magic was certainly handy for most of the steps in the process, exemplified by Nails’ lessons to a bright young unicorn couple who had just graduated from Celestia’s school. As a test, they had successfully enchanted a set of shoes for Princess Cadenza, and had both practically burst with pride when Hammer was applying them. The process had been filled to the brim with gooey love and adoration, which only got worse (or better) when Brass Studs had produced a ring at the end, and Coal Scuttle accepted his offer.

Hammer convinced them not to have the wedding right there in the forge, but it had been a close call. Princess Cadenza was stubborn, and impatient.

For their final project, the lovebirds were supposed to see if they could both enchant a new set of shoes for Twilight Sparkle as well as Nails was able. Personally, Hammer wanted to keep one of the mangled shoes to show Studs and Coal on their next visit, but Twilight wanted all four of them to do a differential magical potential analysis and some other large magical words. So rather than argue and lose, he went through the careful process of shoe application, nail swagging, shellac application, final polishing, and boxed up the mangled scrap for Twilight to take back to the palace.

“I really don’t expect those to last you for a year,” said Hammer nearly under his breath. “Let’s schedule a visit six moons from now and see if the two young unicorns Nails has been tutoring can have a usable set of shoes for you then.”

With a flip of her pale purple magic, Twilight Sparkle sorted the shoe measurement parchments and dropped them into her ‘shoebox’ on the wall, one of only a few that was labeled permanently for their owners.

“I’m not sure,” said Twilight, poking her nose into the cardboard box of carnage and fractured shoe pieces. “I’ve gotten used to Silver Nails’ work.”

“And Nails may not be working here for much longer,” said Hammer. “He’s married into a proper noble family, so at any time, they may find him a position being Lord of the Pasture or Baron of the Woods somewhere. Brass Studs and Coal Scuttle may just have graduated, but they’re excellent heavy rune enchanters, and they’ll be moving in next door to start their own farrier shop in a few months. They’re young and have a lot to learn about their craft, much like you, young lady.”

There was no doubt that Twilight took to learning like fire took to paper, and she brightened up at the thought of all that studying and practical experimentation the young unicorns were going to go through, but then she faded slightly and took a glance over her shoulder at where Spike was sleeping in the coal pile.

“Are you going to miss Nails too?” she asked, in a conversational direction that Hammer had not expected. “I mean if Spike were to grow up and leave to be with other dragons, I’d miss him so much. I worry about it at times. Because he’s a dragon, after all, and we know so little about dragons so it might be for the best even though I try so hard to keep him healthy and feed him right but there are times when I’m at my wit’s end about just why he’s acting like he does and moping around the apartment or nibbling on things. I mean I didn’t know I was going to be Princess Celestia’s student until I hatched him during my entrance exam and for a time I thought it was another test to see if I could handle the responsibility and if I couldn’t, I would have to go back to living with my mother and father which isn’t that bad only living in the palace and learning from Princess Celestia is just the greatest thing that ever happened to me and… I worry.”

He considered the earnest young unicorn and her anxious expression before responding, “I worry about Nails too. It’s part of growing up. We meet new ponies, we move away from others. If you had never taken that examination, you never would have met such a wonderful little dragon, or learned magic from a princess. It’s change, and no matter how much we wish things could remain the same…”

“They don’t.” Twilight Sparkle considered the concept before giving out a short and very polite yawn. “I’m sorry,” she continued. “I don’t need to dump my worries on you when it’s so late at night.”

“What are friends for?” Hammer moved forward to help Spot with her cleanup of the forge area, which she had paused in order to listen. “Even Spot is chipping in where she can. We’re friends. You can tell us whatever you need, or drop in at night to get shoes replaced, it’s all good.”

Hammer’s collection of forge and shoeing tools took flight in Twilight’s magic and slotted themselves back into various holders around the shop exactly where they needed to go, a complex feat that always left him quietly amazed. Then Spike floated up in the same magic aura and was fitted down next to the cardboard box on Twilight’s back without even shifting a single snore.

“Thank you, Mister Hammer,” said Twilight as she paused by the door. “For the shoes and the talk.”

“It’s always a pleasure,” said Hammer. “Come by anytime. During the day, preferably. Unless it’s an emergency. Good night, young lady.”

The sound of small steel-clad hooves trit-trotting into the distance faded, and Spot snuck over to the door to take a last look outside. “Thought she might hide behind the door to listen in on us,” Spot said as she put her shoulder to the sliding door and closed it.

“Do you need to talk?” asked Hammer, making one last check of his work area and ensuring the forge had been closed down to cool.

“No. Yes. I need…” Spot rested her head against the sliding door with her sweat-soaked mane hanging down across one eye. She was more beautiful than any of the fancy unicorn maidens at the palace, and Hammer was intensely aware of being alone with her in the forge room. Let the poets wax on about mares on sun-dappled fields, or authors spin their chapters about mythical alicorns rising from the wind-blown surf with the seafoam dripping from their virginal… delicate areas. Hammer held old-fashioned earth pony ideas about the desirability of a mate in how well they could pull a plow, or in his case diligently pump the auxiliary bellows on the forge for an extended period.

“Whatever I have is yours,” he said instead. “We could go back to the bar, but I’m all hot and sweaty, and I think Stout would throw us out.”

“Same here,” said Spot tersely.

There was a long, quiet pause, then Spot turned and placed her lips firmly on his. The salty and sweltering kiss lasted forever, and still was too short a time when she took a step back and looked him right in the eyes. “How big is your… shower?”

“It’s… um… big enough,” he managed through the pounding of his heart that seemed to fill his ears. “Are you sure?”

“I’m not,” admitted Spot. “I need you so much as an anchor, but I’m afraid I’m not giving back as much as I’m taking.”

“Anvils and anchors don’t need to give back. You’re… like my forge,” Hammer admitted. “In winter.”

Spot raised one eyebrow and brushed a lock of sweaty mane back behind her ear.

“Just looking at it doesn’t do anything,” he added in a rush. “It just sits there while you’re freezing your tail off in the room. You have to see what it can do with your help, give it care and coal, light the fire, coax it into its full potential until it glows red-hot, melting away the cold of the world and taking away the chill in your bones. And you have to stay with it, taking care of it, keep the fire burning as long as you are there, let it fill you with its power and heat to do the job you came here to do. The job that needs done, that nopony else can do, and that you can’t do without it. You could be forging a single shoe or a thousand. Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re working together like that.”

Still, Spot did not say anything, but her sparkling eyes convinced Hammer to keep going.

“We are what we are,” he said. “I’ll be your anvil for as long as you desire, until the stars pass from the sky.”

That earned him another infinite kiss, with the not-so-delicate scent of sweaty mare filling his nose and his mind until it was his turn to pull away. “Look,” he managed once he had caught his breath, “Anchor or not, I think we’re getting—”

“In too deep,” said Spot with a pleasant giggle. “You’re worried that I’ll be upset afterward, and I’m worried that I’ll lose you afterward, and we both have this thing about foals, you because you want to see your family continue long after you’re gone, and me because… Well, it isn’t important.”

“You’re important,” said Hammer quickly.

“Far more than you know.” Spot took a deep breath and nuzzled him under the chin, which really did not help Hammer’s thought processes. “Look. I would give anything to sleep with you in this condition, stay with you for the rest of your life, and have as many foals as you want. Right now, that option is just screaming in one ear. But I can’t. Not that I don’t want to, not that I can’t physically have foals, it’s just that I can’t. Nopony else at the palace can do what I do, and the whole country will fall apart if I do what I want instead of what I have to do. Give me some time, let me train a replacement—”

Hammer put a hoof gently across her lips. “I’ve already given you my heart and soul, and you’ve given me a joy that I’ve never had before. I can certainly give you as much time as you need. And a shower. My house is just around the corner.”

“Good.” Spot closed her eyes and gave him a gentle kiss. “I think I need that shower more than I know. Let’s go.”

They eventually did use the shower that evening.

Twice.

9. Courses

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Courses

Away was far too close to the real world for Hammer this evening, like a dog’s wet nose interrupting a pleasant dream. The one thing he did not miss about living with his parents was their slobbery dog, who had no sense of… Well, no sense at all, to be honest. He just never could hate the mangy mutt for various doggy indiscretions, even when it left little ‘presents’ around the house or brought in fleas.

Right now, Golden Hammer hated Lady Iolite, no matter how much he tried not to.

The bar was relatively quiet, with the off-duty guards keeping to their small groups at the other end of the room, and both Stout and Pirouette staying busy by the grill. Thankfully, Golden Hammer was not alone with Nails, because they had grown up really too close to provide the appropriate amount of male support in this situation. After all, Hammer could barely withhold the urge to go do something spectacularly stupid as a futile gesture against the injustice of Nails’ treatment.

The group consoling Nails included the young couple who had been getting enchanting lessons from him, joined by several of Princess Celestia’s school repair group in a loose cluster surrounding Nails and providing compassionate support, as well as the occasional needed box of tissues.

There was something critical that Hammer could provide for his near-brother, and that something had just walked through the front door of the bar with a happy and unaware smile.

He moved quickly to intercept before she reached their table.

“Hang on,” cautioned Hammer, nudging Spot in the direction of a less-populated corner of the bar. “I gotta talk to you before you see Nails. He caught his wife cheating on him.”

“Oh.” Sunspot’s eyes grew large. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes. Worst possible way.” Hammer got Spot behind the bar’s divider to put them out of eyesight of the despondent stallion, although Nails probably would not have seen them whispering together anyway. “One of the older guys from the school rebuilding team had an heirloom crib, hoof-carved, dating back a century or so. Real pretty with chains of carved horseshoes and hammers on it. Their family was done having foals, and none of their children wanted it, so they offered it to Nails for free.”

Spot let out a low whistle. “Something like that could set you back a few thousand bits.”

It was true, but Hammer shrugged anyway. “You know you can’t give Nails anything. He was going to pay them back with shoes and favors until their children had grandchildren. Anyway, he got off work at the forge early to pick it up, took it home—”

“At a time of day when his wife didn’t expect him,” said Spot with growing discomfort. “And the servants were out.”

“They only have a part-time butler, but yes.” Hammer took a pained breath. “He walked in on her with that rat in the bedroom, carrying the crib behind him. I would have busted it over their heads, I think.”

“Did he?” asked Spot tentatively.

“Sat it down and walked out of the house. Didn’t say a word, but she lost it. Neighbors say she went screaming after him, shouting curses and threats. Called him impotent, and he’s never been called that before. Police came by the forge while he was crying on my shoulder. Said there’d been a complaint sworn out, and they would have arrested him, but the neighbors… Well, they knew about what was going on too. Not a one of them stood up for him before, but they were all concerned citizens after. Anyway, we came straight to the bar after that, and a whole string of his other friends have been coming by as they find out.”

“He must be devastated.” Spot took a peek around the divider. “He’s holding up well, though.”

“I think… he may have been reading the signs.” Hammer tried to bite down on the angry words, but they came out anyway. “She was too high class for him. Manual labor. I suppose that should be a lesson for me. Never shoot for the stars. You just fall— Oof!”

For a small mare, Sunspot had an enormous amount of muscle, and a hug that could have crushed a stone pillar to dust. “Don’t say that,” she whispered. “Don’t you ever say that, Golden Hammer.”

It was odd, but being squished nearly to death had a calming effect on Hammer. Maybe it was the lack of air. Or the reassurance. When he got a chance, Hammer added a foreleg to returning some small fraction of that hug, and wiped away a totally coincidental tear against her cheek. They stood there together, alone in the bar as if the rest of the patrons were mere shadows. The fluttering beat of her heart slowed and she began to breathe again, although she did not relax her crushing hug in the slightest for a long, long time. Which he did not mind at all.

“Anvil,” he managed after a time. “Your anvil.”

“Darned right.” Spot sniffed, then wiped her nose on his neck. “My anvil. Now,” she added with a deep breath and straightening up her back, “let’s go get hammered with your friend. We all need it, I suspect. And I’m buying.”

* * *

Very few things in life brighten up a mournful stallion faster than finding out the drinks have been paid for, and the same could be said for all of Nails’ other friends who dropped by the bar also. Things came out, painful things that all of them had experienced at various times in their lives, all except for Spot, who kept mostly to herself. Songs were sung, or at least attempted, much toasting followed, and even Stout Flagon was convinced to join them for a short time before he closed the bar.

He had a remarkable baritone.

Then they were all out in the cool night air, saying good night and heading to their various houses. Hammer took Nails home with him, of course, because he had nowhere else to go. Tomorrow was going to be the start of an enormous amount of work for both of them, picking up the pieces of Nails’ failed marriage and avoiding Lady Iolite’s false criminal charges for starters. The three of them walked slowly out of respect for their mutual booze consumption, and did not say very much during the short trip.

Once Nails had bedded down in the guest room and Hammer tucked a blanket around him, there was time to discuss things with Spot. Since his house was not that terribly large, there turned out to be only one room large enough for the two of them to talk without a chance of being overheard, and it wasn’t until they were inside and the door closed that Hammer realized what he had done.

“Nice bedroom,” admitted Spot while looking around. “Never been in here before.”

Unspoken words formed a nasty clog in Hammer’s throat. Spot had been in his house many, many times before. It had started with a quick stop after leaving the bar on the excuse of using the bathroom, then several occasions where they spent an hour or two inside talking instead of under a rainstorm or wading through snow, and then had become a regular thing when books had become involved. Their growing time together had always been a transitory event, where both parties knew the visit would not last until morning. Excuses had become trite after a while, because they had spent so much time reading mystery novels together or curled up on the couch with different books that Hammer really did not know exactly what books in the house belonged to who anymore. Maybe if Nails had been able to spend more quiet together time with his wife, their marriage may not have come to this terrible end.

“I… didn’t want to pressure you,” managed Hammer, yanked away from his dark thoughts about Lady Iolite again. “You’re under so much pressure at work, after all.”

“If you pressure me,” started Spot slowly, “I’ll tell you. If I’m unhappy with you, I’ll tell you. I’ve just got one thing I’m dying to tell you, but I’m so close, after so long waiting. And you have been patient with me beyond reason. So has Nails. I…”

Spot let out her breath and sat down on her rump. “I don’t want to hate her for what she did. I know she has her reasons. I won’t know if she’s sorry for what she’s done or if she’s willing to make amends until she makes that decision. Punishment for what she has done…”

“My mother always tried to teach me about forgiveness,” started Hammer once he determined the bladed silence was not going to be filled without his assistance. “With Nails… there are things that close friends can do to each other that even relatives can’t forgive, but we did. Growing up starts as stupid children and getting to be stupid adults without killing each other. If I just stored up all the things we did to each other, I’d explode.”

“And if he left, you’d never forgive yourself.” Spot’s voice was very quiet, and she had turned her head to look away, which made it even harder to hear her words. “I’ve worried so much about seeing my sister again that I never thought about… She’s all I have.” With a brief shuffle of hooves, Spot backed up until her cool back was pressed up against his chest. “Even if by some miracle she returns just the way she was, how do I keep this from happening again? To her. To us. To everything.”

“You start,” said Hammer, putting one foreleg around her, “with one day. Then another. Remember the good times instead of dwelling on the bad. Forgive him for using your toothbrush. Twice.” The brief chuckle that transmitted across his leg and chest was a welcome crack in the ice he could feel forming. “I bought a few spares,” he added. “Just in case.”

“I… can’t. Not tonight,” said Spot, although she did not pull away as Hammer feared. “He needs you.”

Hammer leaned forward, holding her as gently and firmly as he could. “Can’t I need you too?”

There was an eternal pause where Spot did nothing but press her back against his chest and breathe in harmony with him. Then she turned around.

“Yes,” she said before kissing him again, softly and briefly. “But he needs you now. I’ll find a lawyer for him. Lady Iolite…” Spot took a short breath and nuzzled against his neck. “She deserves to be hurt like she hurt him, but I’ll find the fairest weasel in the whole mess of them so they both can get an honest deal out of this disaster. Anything less would be a stain on the honor of a good stallion. Two of them.”

“An honest lawyer.” Hammer nuzzled the top of Spot’s sweaty mane and luxuriated in the way she smelled of rosebuds and paper. “Now I’ve heard everything.”

“There are stranger things in the palace,” said Spot, just holding him and breathing into his sweaty neck as if she too were enjoying the scent. “Someday, I’ll show you. I promise. Now I need to leave.” She kissed him for a very long time. “Or I never will.”

Despite everything he wanted, Hammer walked her to their traditional parting spot at the edge of the palace lighting, and watched Spot head off into the vast stone structure. Then he turned back for home.

She was right. Nails needed him.

They had time.

* * *

Over the next few days at work, Hammer could almost forget what had happened. Well, for a few minutes at a time. He did not see Spot for nearly a week, but he could see her influence constantly. A young earth pony lawyer stopped by the forge and had a long, secretive conversation with Nails. An off-duty Royal Guard could be found at any hour of the day or night lounging in the general vicinity of their door no matter where they went. A solicitor from the court came by several times with a stack of papers for Nails to sign, and Hammer to witness. Nails’ father dropped by to pass along a few words of support from the retirement community at Silver Shores and to discreetly inquire about the progress of the divorce.

There was nothing in the newspapers. Absolutely nothing.

The days passed normally, in fact. At least until the day of the divorce hearing, when they both dressed in their best suits and walked to the palace.

Commoners would have attended Lower Court with one of the appointed judges assigned to their case. Since Lady Iolite was lesser nobility, that was not an option, and it was not until Nails stopped right outside the throne room that Hammer realized where their lawyer had been leading them.

“That’s Princess Celestia,” whispered Nails as the room opened up in front of them, with Royal Guards around the periphery of the room, as well as two unicorns opening up the massive doors.

“It doesn’t seem right to see her without my tools,” whispered Hammer back.

“Gentlecolts.” The lawyer glared up at them. Although he was much smaller than even Sunspot, and looked very much like he was about to break out in facial blemishes at any moment, he had a very intense look of seriousness. “This is Her Highness, so please don’t speak unless you are spoken to, and try not to stare.”

“Or ask when she wants to schedule her new shoes,” added Nails in the relaxed way that made Hammer feel so much better about their trip. “It’s getting about that time.”

“I suppose we could make time for a fitting,” mused Hammer under his breath. “Take some measurements, check to see if any nails are loose.”

“Gentlecolts!” hissed the lawyer, which only made their smiles grow. It took a few moments to get serious, which Hammer used to check Nails’ tie and take a few casual looks around the elegant room, but eventually the quiet unicorn clerk called their names. They stepped forward, passing a middle-aged couple who had just finished presenting their appeal to the Crown, then stopped at the base of the throne next to Lady Iolite and her lawyer, who had been brought in by way of a different door.

The resulting conversation between lawyers and Princess Celestia was… interesting. Hammer had seen his share of fights at the bar, most of which had been ‘taken outside’ at his suggestion. However, he had never seen another stallion cut down quite so elegantly at the legal bar without a drop of blood being shed, or a single bruise. True to Spot’s word, the legal battle did not turn into a crushing defeat designed to humiliate Lady Iolite, which would have been both satisfying and regrettable, but Nails retained the title of Lord at the end, and even was assigned a small stipend from Lady Iolite’s family. Very small. Beer money small.

To his surprise, that was not the end. There was more going on with Lady Iolite’s family than Hammer had expected, or even Lady Iolite seemed to know from her astonished expression as things progressed. The small rowhouse the family had ‘gifted’ the happy couple on their wedding was actually being used as collateral in several loans for many times the value it could have brought when sold, and even the furnishings had been encumbered by debt several multiples of their sale price. Without any remaining minor property of their own to split between them, the Princess assigned a clerk to oversee the disposition of the major pieces. That is except for the crib, which was sent to Hammer’s house for safekeeping.

The resulting bankruptcy filing was short, simple, and without any drama. The sole spark of satisfaction that Hammer managed was that the adulterous stallion who had been caught with Lady Iolite was also one of the debt holders. Celestia put him last in line to collect, a position from which he was unlikely to even get a single bit out of the deal.

Then it was over, with the weight of a thousand worlds lifted from Hammer’s shoulders. They were granted permission to depart, and rose for the short walk down the carpet, although Hammer could not help but cast a sideways glance at Lady Iolite, who looked so small and defeated as she plodded back to the fierce glares and unforgiving frowns of her family. Any spark of righteous vengeance he might have felt was crushed by that sunken expression, and he found his hooves taking him on a short detour across the carpet in the direction he least wanted to go.

Until he found himself standing in front of the mare who had hurt his friend so much.

“Lady Iolite,” started Hammer in his most polite voice. For a large stallion, Golden Hammer could move very quietly when he wanted, and from the sudden jolt that traveled up her back, and the wide-eyed expressions on her family, his arrival was as unexpected for them as it was for him. “I just wanted to say… We forgive you for what you’ve done. We’re not angry. I don’t even think Nails can get angry. You made him so happy for a time, and I hope you find somepony special so you both can be that happy again. Thank you for your time.”

Golden Hammer turned around before his nerve failed and quickly strode back over to where Nails and their lawyer were waiting by the other door. Once they were back out into the marble corridors of the palace and away from the court, Nails hazarded one word.

“Thanks.”

“I really don’t know what came over me,” said Hammer. “That could have gone so horribly wrong, so many ways, but Lady Iolite looked… like you did that afternoon, Nails.”

“Worse.” Nails shoulder-brushed him. “I had a friend to back me up. She’s returning to that disaster of a family, and it sounds like she was propping them up just a hair’s breadth from bankruptcy themselves. When that house of cards collapses, a lot of ponies are going to get hurt.”

The short lawyer cleared his throat and looked up at the two of them. “Her Highness has taken a personal interest in this case. It appears there is only one unicorn in Equestria able to keep her student in shoes, after all. If you wish, Lord Nails, I will convey your concerns to Her Highness this afternoon when I deliver my report, and certain elements of the household staff will keep an eye on the young mare to ensure nothing deleterious happens to her. And the family,” he added as an afterthought.

“That would be wonderful, sir.” Nails clapped the lawyer on his shoulder and smiled, an honest smile of relief. “Come on, Hammer. Let’s go tell Spot the good news. Do you know where she is today?”

“Spot?” asked the lawyer with an upraised eyebrow. “I’m unsure who you are talking about.”

“Sunspot. Autumn Sunspot,” clarified Nails. “She’s one of Princess Celestia’s personal assistants.”

“Still unfamiliar,” said the lawyer, although Hammer shook his head and spoke up.

“Nails, you know she doesn’t want to be bothered at work. We’ll tell her all about it at the bar tonight.”

* * *

There probably should have been a party at the bar that night, but it would have been a victory party, and to be honest, Nails and his ex-wife had both lost. The lawyer did show up, and Nails dragged Stout Flagon and Pirouette over to the table for just one toast together.

“My friends. To Star Iolite,” said Nails, holding his tankard carefully. “A wonderful mare at heart, loyal to her family, and caught up in tragic circumstances that caused her to make…” Nails took a slow, shuddering breath, and continued even slower. “She betrayed me and broke my heart, but I can’t hate her for it. She tried so hard to be something she just wasn’t, and was broken in the process. May she use this time to mend, learn what is important in life, and be the better for it.”

“Hear, hear,” pronounced the gathered friends, although Hammer spotted something at the front door of the fairly quiet bar when they were taking a drink.

While the rest of them were proposing other and more eccentric toasts, Hammer slipped out of his chair and peeked out the front door of the bar, looking for the bubblegum-pink coat of Spot. He could have sworn she had been standing in the bar’s doorway and watching them, but there was no sign of her along the street to either side, and there had not been enough time for her to reach an intersection.

A few nights later when Spot showed up at the bar, he wanted to ask about what had happened to send her away so quickly, but he had enough time to think, so he merely cast a specific look at the bar’s front doorway, then turned to her with a questioning expression. She nodded and looked down at the table, but Hammer slipped one hoof under her chin and lifted so he could kiss her on the nose.

“I understand,” he said, and that was the end of it.

The weeks passed, and although the weather outside turned colder, Hammer almost did not notice due to the warm glow in his heart. Living in the same house with Nails was both good and bad, because it made evenings spent there with Spot more than a little awkward. Still, business was good, and Nails bounced back from his occasional fits of depression with only a few tears. They eventually found a small bachelor pad in the neighborhood just to his liking and moved Nails in, although it seemed so starkly plain with the few pieces of furniture he could call his own, and he insisted that Hammer keep the crib. It was supposed to allow Nails the freedom to date again, but Hammer secretly suspected it would take more than a few months for the hidden wounds on his heart to fully heal, and months more before he could trust a mare.

They were both young. They had time.

Their trips to the bar after work were regular, but less frequent as the snow fell. Nails took up wireweaving to create clever unicorn learning toys for foals. Hammer learned how to cook, or at least kept to simple dishes that the three of them could eat while gathered around the fireplace, swapping stories and just talking.

And Spot just… was. She relished every moment she could spend with them, and did not speak about her past again, focusing more on the present. Like a candle burning at both ends, she lived life with an irresistible gusto, the three of them against the world. It was good to see her open up after years bent over her burden in the palace, to see her smile, hear her laugh...

Then one night when Nails left to go back to his apartment, she stayed.

When Golden Hammer awoke to the dawn peeking through his window, she was gone again, leaving behind only a warm impression on the pillow and the scent of jasmine.

10. Summertime

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Summertime

Golden Hammer and Silver Nails had quit going out on the evening of the Summer Sun Festival, because the crowds always made it such a pain. This evening, they were determined to make an exception. The festival was being held in Ponyville, and the heat was draping over Canterlot like a stifling blanket, so they really did not want to stay at home or particularly at the forge.

They were a little drunk. It was excusable. The year had been busy and profitable, Brass Studs and Coal Scuttle had their shop set up next door which seemed to double business again, Nails had paid off his last personal loan, and Stout Flagon was having a sale at the bar in honor of his engagement to his new serving mare. It might have also been the bartender’s attempt to bring in more business since so many ponies were out of town, but that was beside the point.

The beer was cold, the kabobs hot, and the two of them were in a talkative mood.

“If I never see another fleck of popcorn ceiling, I’ll be a happy stallion.” Nails picked one last puffy bit of white fluff out of his mane and examined it. “As long as we’re done remodeling your house. We are done, right?”

“For now.” Hammer took a limited sip of his beer and considered the empty doorway of the bar for the uncounted time this evening.

“I thought you might want to decorate it with foal stuff now that we’re done,” said Nails, sounding ever so coy. “You and Spot are—”

“Not,” said Hammer quickly. “We’re not having foals. She’s not moving in.”

“She’s been a good help with the remodeling,” admitted Nails. “Enthusiastic, if nothing else. I thought it might be nesting. Or she’s been working herself to a frazzle over at the palace lately, and she’s taking it out in plaster. Too bad she wasn’t here tonight to help with the last bits.”

“She’s been gone more lately,” admitted Hammer. “Stress.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought back then about Lady Iolite,” said Nails with a slight hint of ire. “Spot’s been back and forth like an emotional rubber band lately. It worries me. You worry me. You’ve never kept secrets from me before, and I can’t help but think you’re hiding something now. If you’re not going to tell me… No, I’m not going to ask Spot,” he added. “She’s her own mare. I just wish you’d both trust me with whatever’s bothering you. I’ll live with it if you don’t. Just…”

“Yeah,” said Hammer under his breath. “About that. You’re probably right. She’s…” After another long look at the bar’s empty doorway, Hammer lowered his voice. “You gotta keep this a secret, Nails. Probably not for long, but until she admits it, you need to keep it under your hat. Particularly to anypony working on the reconstruction crew at the school, and certainly you can’t admit it to Spot.”

“My lips are sealed,” said Nails, making an X in front of his face with one hoof. “Did you buy her a ring?”

“No, that’s not it. She’s… got a sister. They had a big fight back before she moved here, I think, and they haven’t spoken in years. And by big, I mean it’s been tearing her up inside ever since. I guess she’s been in contact with her by mail, because she’s been so upset lately. And she’s coming for a visit soon.”

“She’s afraid they’ll fight again?” Nails looked terribly serious for his normal casual demeanor, and did not even seem to be ready to crack a joke. “I mean I sure wouldn’t want to get crosswise with Spot, and if her sister is anything like her…”

“I thought… her sister could stay at my place. That way they could work out their differences. Neutral territory and all that.” Hammer drew tiny circles in the mug’s condensation on the bar table. “And if they tore anything of mine up, they wouldn't get in trouble with the palace.”

It took a few moments before Nails took a deep drink out of his beer and placed it to one side. “Never change, Hammer. You see a fight, even one between two mares—danger squared—and you put yourself between them.”

“I don’t want either of them getting hurt.” Hammer squirmed a bit, still drawing circles on the damp table. “Spot loves her sister so much. That bunch she works with at the palace would see it as a weakness and tear into her if they knew, so she had to keep it secret. From everypony.”

“Even herself, it sounds like,” mused Nails.

“Particularly herself,” said Hammer. “Now that she’s coming here, Spot worries about it, which makes me worry about it—”

“So you decided to make me worry about it,” said Nails.

“Well… Yes.” Hammer let out a breath which he had not realized he was holding. “You’re like a brother to me, Nails. You know that. So when Spot told me about her sister… I worried about you.”

After not saying anything for a moment, Nails looked at his empty mug, tapped it with one hoof, and caught the eye of the server over by the bar. The young mare sashayed in their direction, elegantly dodging the groping hooves of several cargo stevedores at the bar, and placed two full mugs in front of Nails and Hammer with a flourish of her magic.

The mare was a far cry from the stuck up unicorn that Hammer had seen far too often at the forge, complaining about money issues. The glitter of gold and sparkle of a tiny diamond from the thin band on Star’s horn was practically a beacon, proclaiming her eternal pairing with Stout Flagon and nopony else. It matched the glow to her cheeks and strut to her steps that fairly radiated joy at her new position, despite or because of its distance from the nobility she had been trying so hard to befriend before.

“You boys are so predictable,” said Star Iolite with a faint smile. “Do I need to get a third for your marefriend, Hammer, or is she skipping out tonight?”

“No, Star.” Hammer had to take a quick look at the doorway anyway. “It’s past her bedtime. Probably exhausted from getting things ready for tonight’s festival down in Ponyville. But thanks, ma’am.”

“I’ll let Stout know,” said Star. “Too bad. Business is running slow tonight, and we stocked up on those little onions she likes so much. Later,” she added, strolling off across the bar’s floor to where several off-duty Royal Guard were signaling.

The two of them watched her trot off before Nails let out a sigh. “Stout’s a lucky stallion. The two of them make a great pair at work, ever since Pirouette took off with the lawyer and left him in the lurch. I’ve never seen Stout happier. Or my ex-wife.” Nails looked at Hammer. “You don’t look happy.”

“You’re not my type,” said Hammer, taking a sip of his beer and wiping off the foam mustache afterward.

“Well, you’re not my type either,” said Nails with the most absolute straight face. “Spot has you tied up, my ex-wife has bagged a barkeep, and I’m left to play the field again. But no more noblemares. Never again.”

The two of them watched Stout Flagon and Star Iolite chat while they were putting some new kabobs in to cook. There was some nuzzling involved, and much smiling between the happy couple, although after some time, Nails broke the silence at their table with a question.

“When do you think they’ll get married?”

“Soon,” said Hammer. “Before Star starts to show.” While Nails stared at him in wide-eyed amazement, Hammer continued, “Before you showed up tonight, Stout told me they already have a crib. Besides, giving them yours for a wedding present would be more than a little awkward.”

“No kidding.”

From the look Nails gave Hammer, he could only be thinking about Spot, and Hammer tried his best to stop it with a simple, “No.”

“Come on,” said Nails. “The two of you go together like carrots and peas. You should see the way she looks at that crib when you’ve got your back turned.”

“I need her,” admitted Hammer as bluntly as he could, “and she needs me. It’s just… not the right time.”

That slowed Nails down to a reluctant nod. “Can’t argue with that. She’s spent her whole life buried in her work. I swear, every evening I see you two bring out something new and special in her personality that she’s kept suppressed all this time. She’s not the same overpressurized mare who threatened to punch a bunch of cargo stevedores in the nose when we first met.”

“She would have done it, too.” Hammer took a drink. “Poor guys.”

Their conversation decayed into inane trivialities for a while, such as speculation as to what all the missing Royal Guard were doing, or just why Princess Celestia wanted to do the Rising of the Sun ceremony in some tiny little no-account town at the bottom of the mountain this year. In fairly short order it became quite late, or somewhat early depending on how one read the clock, and the two of them had just decided to head to their respective homes when an unexpected visitor arrived. Or an expected visitor, terribly late.

It was Spot, heading into the bar by the front door in short, twitchy motions, as if at any moment she was going to turn tail and bolt. Hammer was out of his seat the moment he saw her, but was caught between dashing over to her and scaring her away, or staying put and not being able to reach her when she fled. Thankfully for his nerves, she eventually scampered over to their table, and started talking in a breathless gasping manner that frightened Hammer almost as much as her words.

“...she’s coming and I don’t know what to do and I had to—”

“Calm down,” said Hammer in his most reassuring voice, which did not help a bit. It seemed to drive Spot into even further frazzlement as she practically head-butted him back into his seat.

“I can’t stay here but I had to come here even though I’m putting you in terrible danger because I had to—” Spot took a terrible, desperate gasp for air. “She’s coming back. I sent Twilight to Ponyville and Cadence and Shining Armor away but I couldn’t tell you! I planned for this for so long but I don’t know if she’s going to show up there or here and… You have to leave! She could hurt you!”

“She’s not going to hurt me,” said Hammer as quickly as he could. “I’m sure she loves you as much as you love her, so sit down and—”

Spot lunged forward and kissed him like a frightened, desperate mare with no hope and nothing to hold back. “I gotta go,” she gasped when she tore herself away from him.

With one rapid bound, Spot darted for the front door of the bar, far too fast for Hammer to make more than a token effort at holding her back. A table went flying in her wake, as well as Star Iolite nearly getting trampled in the rush and dumping her tray of kabobs. Their own booth was knocked backward by the frantic mare, and dumped Hammer and Nails onto the floor.

“Whoa,” said Nails, trying to regain his footing.

“I have to go after her,” said Hammer, who likewise had been knocked down and was struggling back up.

The two of them made it to the front of the bar in record time, even with Star cursing the spilled kabobs in their path, but once they got outside into the starlit night, there was not a bit of Spot’s bright pink coat to be seen.

There was also something else missing from the night.

“Th-that’s not right,” stammered Nails, looking up into the bright moonlit sky. “The moon’s different. Hammer, tell me you see what I see.”

There was no response.

“Ham?” Nails cast a quick look around, and spotted where his friend was still kneeling in the street, right in front of the bar. “Look up, you big lug. Somepony’s done something with the moon tonight!”

“It’s her.” Hammer could not bear to speak any more, and remained kneeling while Nails moved cautiously over to him. The center of the road held a hoofprint in a patch of muddy dirt, like some powerful blow had splashed the mud away and left serious gouges in the underlying pavement. But it was not the mere print which held Hammer’s attention, but the sheer size of it, and the golden sheen of ablated hoof-boot glittering from the dense stone’s surface.

There was only one mare in all of Equestria who could leave a print that large, embedded into the stone with such force. It was directly in-line with the bar’s door, and with no other hoofprints around of similar size, indicating the pony who made the print flew away.

Nails settled down beside Hammer and looked at the print alongside him. Such close friends did not need words to communicate at such times. Words actually got in the way. Still, they were faster than just sitting by his age-old friend, so after a while of providing silent support, Nails ventured an extremely quiet, “Did you know?”

“Yes.” There was an exceedingly long pause, ending in a sniff. “No.” Hammer reached out and placed his hoof in the larger print before continuing in a much softer voice. “I refused to believe it. She wouldn’t care about me, of all ponies. It was impossible. I was seeing her reflected in Spot, or the two of them spent so much time together that they were acting the same, or I don’t know. I don’t know anything now. Everything’s changed.”

Hammer sat there for a time with his head down and tears dripping off the end of his nose before he lifted his head, wiped his face on a kerchief, and asked, “Did you know?”

Nails made to answer, then thought better of it. He looked down at the sizable hoofprint and put his own smaller hoof next to Hammer’s. “I thought Princess Celestia was acting a little strange at the divorce. Didn’t want to say anything. It was only the second time I’d ever seen her, after all. Besides, if she wanted to say something, she would have. So I stayed shut up.”

“I couldn’t look at her,” said Hammer. “I couldn’t. I just kept thinking… I’d see Spot looking back at me from her eyes.”

“Yeah.” Nails bit his bottom lip. “Me too.” He took a deep breath and nudged Hammer. “We’ve got something more important right now. I mean I put off Spot’s behavior to working with Princess Celestia for so many years, but…” Nails looked up at the featureless moon, then down at the hoofprint, then back up. “I don’t understand.”

“Do you remember the story my mother used to tell us every time you slept over at our house? Once upon a time there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land.”

“I thought it was just a story.” Nails’ eyes grew wide, and he stared at the moon. “She spent a thousand years separated from her sister? I don’t think we’ve been apart more than a day or two since we were able to walk. No wonder Spot had such frazzled nerves.”

After a moment to rub the bridge of his nose with one hoof, Hammer rolled his eyes. “ I thought you’d say something about Nightmare Moon first.”

“The Candy Princess?” Some of the welcome frivolity had returned to Nails’ face, but he sobered up quickly, and his voice lowered to a whisper. “Yeah, I know. Spot was so terrified of her just now. I can’t imagine Princess Celestia being afraid of anything.”

“I can,” said Hammer without thinking. “She was afraid of being alone. She faced it for so long.”

“And now her sister is back.” Nails paused. “Why didn’t she tell anypony? I mean other than you.”

“She loves her.” Hammer wiped away a tear. “They hurt each other so much last time, and I don’t think she could stand to hurt her again. It’s right down in her heart like a piece of jagged glass, and it cuts with every breath.”

Neither of them said anything for a while, but Nails did move closer and patted Hammer gently on the fetlock. “Look, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Other than worry.”

“Well, there is that,” admitted Nails. “I mean we’re already a little drunk.”

“Not enough,” said Hammer.

“We’re not going to be any help if we’re blotted when… Spot comes back,” said Nails. “I think all we can do is sit here and worry.” He thought for a moment. “What specifically are we worrying about? I mean if she wins… She’s going to need you more than ever.”

“I don’t know.” Hammer absently scratched at the hoofprint. “I mean I know she needed Away too. And me. What if it’s just because of her sister? They’re family. I’m just… me. If they can make peace again like they were once…” Hammer took a pained breath. “She’s never coming back.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Nails. “She’ll be back.”

There was an anchor attached to Hammer’s heart, and it kept dragging him deeper and deeper into darkness. “I can’t be sure of that. I may have lost her, and that makes me worry more than if she loses…”

“She’ll win,” said Nails. The two of them looked up at the unblemished moon for a while, which was only marginally better than staring down at the street. “All night, all the time?” blurted out Nails. “Never happen. She’ll be back. She has to.”

Hammer scooted closer. “Whatever happens, I’m glad I have you. Brother.”

“Me too.” Nails leaned up against him, then added, “No hugging, please.”

Ignoring minor protests, Hammer reached out and grabbed Nails around the shoulders anyway. The occasion was good for a long, rib-creaking hug before Hammer relaxed his grip and just sat there with one foreleg around his best friend’s shoulders, looking up into the night sky.

“Well, okay.” Nails gave him a sideways glance with the hint of a smile. “But no kissing.”

“No worries there,” said Hammer.

They sat together in the dark street as brothers, one large, one smaller, remaining in the darkness for hours until the sun rose up into the sky and brought the dawn.

...and nothing more.

Author's Note

(If I were the evil, cruel (censored) that many of you claim I am, I'd mark the story Completed here. Or On Hiatus. Or maybe just delay posting any chapters for a day or two.)

11. Aftermath

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Aftermath

The bar was both quiet and noisy, as it had been for several nights so far. Most of the noise came from excitement over a new princess in the palace, and everypony had to chatter endlessly about it over a beer and a few kabobs. All except for one table, which remained quiet and somber.

“Hey,” grumbled Stout Flagon, who had taken valuable sales time away from his bar in order to reach their table. “It’s been three nights now. If all you two are going to do is sit there and stare at my beer until closing time, the least you could do is get a table out of the way. You’re depressing the rest of the paying patrons.”

“Sorry,” rumbled Hammer, although he did not stop staring at his stagnant beer.

“We’ll buy another round, if you want,” said Nails. After a brave attempt at taking a drink, he made a face and put the beer back down on the table.

“Naa, I just wanted to check in,” said Stout. “It’s been so busy lately, I haven’t had a chance to have three words with you. Why are you so glum over Princess Luna’s return? Is she going to cut into your business?”

“It’s… complicated,” said Nails since Hammer was obviously not going to say anything more.

“Spot isn’t in trouble, is she?” Stout took a look over his shoulder at the door to the bar. “I mean after she came in here so frazzled… Did you have a fight?”

Although Hammer was right there, he could have been a thousand miles away on the moon for as much as he responded.

“There was a fight,” admitted Nails. “Look, Hammer needs a few days before he’s going to want to talk about it.”

“You got it.” Stout gave the table a quick wipe from his washrag. “We’ll be here for you then, big guy. It’s the least we can do.”

Nails held his tongue while Stout walked back to the busy bar, although not much longer. “He means well, Hammer. And I know we can’t tell him. He’d think we were nuts.”

With a slight flicker of his magic, Nails refolded the newspaper next to them so the article was visible again. “New Princess Discovered!” blared the headline. “Nightmare Moon destroyed” did not show up until deep into the second section. In small print.

“Look,” tried Nails again. “Three nights and no Spot doesn’t mean no Spot ever. She knows where we work. She knows where you live. She has to be busy, what with Princess Luna’s return and all of the rumors to squelch. When things calm down, she’ll have time to… I don’t know either,” he admitted bluntly, “but both of us moping around the bar every night isn’t going to help anything. We’ve got orders to finish, and the kids are trying their best, but you know how Brass Studs overheats the shoes when he gets rushed.”

Although Hammer was not really listening to Nails, he was listening. There was a particular sound to a delicate set of shoes on the entranceway to Stout’s bar, and the faint click-click-click drew his attention like steel to a lodestone.

“She’s here,” he whispered, looking to the bar’s doorway where a bright pink mare hesitated. Ever so slowly, he raised his hoof in a wave, matched to his growing ecstatic delight by a returned wave of her own.

“And she brought a friend,” whispered Nails to his side. It was a larger dark pegasus mare, nearly coal black with a shimmering pale grey mane, who had the wide eyes of the perpetually terrified and the distinct impression of having been subjected to Spot’s subtle ‘encouragement’ nudges on more than one occasion. The two mares cautiously picked their way through the crowd in an erratic fashion, as if Spot’s friend would much rather go straight back out the door, but eventually they wound up at the table.

Hammer had stood up out of reflex, with Nails no more than a moment behind, although he did not step aside and allow Spot into the back of the booth, as was their unspoken tradition. Instead, he stood there and just looked at Spot, trying so hard to make words come out of his mouth, even if they made no sense.

The dark pegasus was first to break the long, awkward silence by nudging the smaller form of Spot with one hip. “You brought us here,” she hissed.

“Oh. Yes. Right.” Spot cleared her throat, looked up at Hammer, and ever so cautiously said in that beautiful voice he thought was lost forever, “Hello.”

“Hello,” said Hammer back, and then nothing.

There was nothing to say. There was only Away, once again.

Both Nails and the dark mare placed one hoof on their respective foreheads, although Nails was first to recover by scooting to one side and patting the bench seat. “Ma’am, if you would like to be seated? Spot, I believe introductions are in order. Ladies?” he added, when neither mare moved.

“Oh, yes.” Spot shifted on her hooves and licked her dry lips. “This is my… sister. Um…”

“Shadow?” prompted Nails.

“Yes,” said Spot rapidly with a great deal of nodding, although ‘Shadow’ looked back and forth between them.

“Pleased to meet you, Shadow,” said Nails. “My name is Silver Nails, and this giant lug is my partner at work, Golden Hammer. Would you ladies like to join us this evening?”

Shadow looked back and forth several more times before cautiously slipping into the offered seat. Nails made certain she was comfortable before seating himself beside her, then giving Hammer a look which he did not respond to until Spot kicked him ever so gently in one ankle.

It was like she had never left, and would never leave again.

“Oh! Sorry.” Hammer moved to one side until Spot was seated, then sat down beside her like he had done hundreds of times before. They were still adjusting themselves when Stout Flagon came over with four beers, which he slid onto the table with practiced grace before picking up the untouched ones from before.

“On the house,” he announced, “since it’s so good to see you back, Miss Sunspot. Good evening, young lady,” he added for Shadow. “Would you ladies like some kabobs? They’re the house specialty.”

“Stout, this is Shadow,” said Nails quickly. “Put four artichoke kabobs for the table on my tab in honor of her visit. We’ll order some more later, but that should hold us for now, Stout, and thank you.”

Spot wrinkled up her cute nose while Stout was on his way back to the bar. “Artichokes? You know I don’t like artichokes.”

“Yes,” chirped Nails with unusual cheerfulness. “It’s the only way the three of us will get any of them.”

“I like artichokes,” murmured Shadow. There was an exceedingly long pause in the conversation where she looked around the table before adding, “So, you know?”

“Know what?” asked Nails with a look of perfect innocence. Neither Hammer nor Spot said anything, since they were sitting pressed together at the moment, side-by-side, and Hammer was unwilling to say anything that might possibly change that.

“About… Celestia,” managed Shadow.

Hammer could feel Spot tense beside him, although Nails spoke up quickly. “Yes, we do. It’s a secret, but we both found out she has—” he lowered his voice “—horribly bad breath.”

“Wha—?” Shadow nearly came out of her seat, and probably would have if she had not been stuck behind the table. Spot merely giggled, a warm and welcome feeling against Hammer’s side.

“And nose-warts,” added Spot. “Remember, I told you about the warts.”

“Oh, of course,” continued Hammer, picking up his cue. “And giant hooves, even bigger than mine.” He thumped the table from beneath while Spot let out a short and welcome laugh.

“Huge hooves, and so clumsy with them,” she said through the giggles. “She must step on a dozen ponies a day by accident.”

“So that was under her hooves when Dad put on her new shoes a decade ago.” Hammer waggled one knowing eyebrow. “Slow-moving guards.”

Shadow giggled despite her best efforts, ending with a baffled expression once she could talk again. “I don’t understand.”

Nails patted her on the shoulder. “Well, you’re new here. Welcome to Away. Have a kabob and we’ll fill you in. Thank you, Star,” he added as Star Iolite swept a tray of sizzling vegetable kabobs onto their table.

Spot and Hammer promptly dug in, while Nails floated one over to Shadow and waited until she got a grip on it with clumsy hooves.

“Ignore them,” he added while picking up his own kabob. “They’re culinary barbarians.”

“Hungry barbarians,” said Hammer between the demise of two roasted cherry tomatoes. Nails quite politely did not begin eating, but occupied his table time by starting an explanation.

“You see, Ham and I come here to get away from work. All day long, it’s shoes, shoes, shoes.”

“And I found this to be a wonderful way to get away from the stresses of my job at the palace,” said Spot. “Hey!” She snatched a pepper off Hammer’s kabob and chewed noisily, wrinkling up her nose at Hammer when he made to object.

“It’s… Away,” said Nails for lack of anything else to say.

Shadow merely looked down at her untouched kabob. “I’ve been away for a long time,” she started in a small voice. “It is not as pleasurable as it seems.”

“But this is away from away,” insisted Nails. “We have good food and good companions to enjoy until we have to go back to not-away. Sure, not-away is a dirty job with complaining ponies and sweat and hard work. But when we’re done…”

“It’s back to shoes,” said Hammer.

“And the palace,” said Spot.

“And etching enchantments,” said Nails, “until the next time we can visit Away and see our friends again. We would be honored to have you with us this evening, and for as many other evenings as you wish to spend in Away. Sometimes, we have Away at Hammer’s house,” he added, “which is more private, but we have to put up with his cooking.”

“Hey,” objected Hammer. “Mister Second Helpings of Everything?”

“Quantity to make up for quality,” countered Nails, taking a small bite off the artichoke at the end of his skewer. “Or need I remind Shadow that you remodeled your spare bedroom so she would have a place to stay, in case you and Spot needed some time to work things out?”

“He’s a big softie,” said Spot, giving her companion an elbow in the ribs, “but I’ve grown to appreciate it.”

Shadow continued her inspection of the kabob, then quietly nipped off the end tomato and chewed with an introspective look.

“They grow on you,” said Nails, obviously anticipating the obvious response. He passed one of the beers over to her and waited while she took a drink. “That grows on you too, after a while.”

“I think… I see,” she said slowly. Shadow nipped one of the onions from her kabob, chewed while Spot watched, then licked her lips. “I like this Away.”

Hammer shifted positions to press closer to Spot. “It’s far better when you have somepony special to share it with.”

“Indeed,” said Spot, and smiled at her sister.

12. Carrying the Torch

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Carrying the Torch

Captain Periwinkle. It had a nice ring to it, but Perry did not have nearly enough time to appreciate his promotion to Captain of the Royal Guard. There was an endless series of tasks that needed his attention, paperwork with unfilled lines, reports on all of the things he was going to be responsible for within the next few months, including one that the outgoing Captain Stone merely referred to as, “You’ll find out.”

Despite an ever-growing mountain of papers awaiting his attention, one thing he could not put off one more day was his new shoes. The old ones practically rattled on their worn nails when he walked, and the last thing Perry wanted was to throw a shoe when he walked up to Their Highnesses during the promotion ceremony, the last official act of the Royal Sisters until they stepped down and Princess Twilight Sparkle became his boss.

He’d probably fall right on his face and die of embarrassment.

“Last hoof, please.” Golden Hammer, the Royal Guard farrier, was a big stallion who always made Perry feel like a young colt again, although all he could see of the pleasant fellow was his slab-like side of rusty red hide with a golden hammer cutie mark. Plus, Hammer let Perry move himself down to the shoeing brace instead of picking him up like a toy, which was nice of him and slightly calming.

“I’m just glad you agreed to stay open late tonight, Mister Hammer,” said Perry while moving. “I’m probably going to be working until past midnight again.”

“You said we were going to have dinner this evening,” came a familiar female voice from the shop’s sliding side door, which was open to let the cool evening breeze in. “We had it planned last month.”

“Bunny?” Perry tried to turn so he could see, but Hammer kept him pinned while pulling out loose nails. “Bun-Bun, honey?”

“Keep him right there, Mister Hammer,” said the fuming pegasus mare as she came around to his limited field of vision. “He can’t duck out on me this way.”

Hammer said nothing, because he was holding a file in his teeth. Lucky stallion.

“Look, Bunny,” started Perry in a forlorn attempt at reason, “you knew when we started to date that there would be times when the job comes first. Like Mister Hammer here. He’s staying open late so I can get my new shoes before I get promoted.”

“Actually, we’re catching up on some backlog while waiting on our marefriends,” said Silver Nails, who had just leisurely sauntered out of the enchantment booth to one side of the forge area. “Hi, Dust Bunny. The girls are shopping for some foals’ things this evening, so when given a choice between working a little late and that...”

“It was an easy choice,” said Hammer, once he had put the file to one side. “Why don’t you two come along with us tonight?”

“I can’t,” said Perry in what was supposed to be a decisive tone, usable for giving orders to his fellow Royal Guard, but which he suspected sounded more like a whine.

“You never can when it’s something I want to do,” said Dust Bunny, sticking her bottom lip out and pouting in the way that always liquefied his heart.

“But it’s important,” he managed. “I’ve got mountains and mountains of paperwork to cover—”

“You have subordinates now,” insisted Bunny. “You don’t have to do everything yourself.”

“Not everything!” said Perry. “Besides, there’s a problem that just came up when I was reviewing the last Captain of the Guard’s files. I was going over the logs for Their Highness’ evening schedules, and there are holes...” Perry slowed to a stop. “Bugger.”

With a low clucking of his tongue, Nails shook his head. “Not even on the job and you’re already leaking secrets. So Their Highnesses sneak out at night sometimes. Who cares. They deserve it.”

“I need to know where they’re at every minute of the day or night. I’m going to be responsible for them,” he hissed, giving Dust Bunny a sideways look of ‘Oh Please Don’t Say Anything Because I’m In Enough Trouble Already.’

“Seems to me princesses are pretty responsible all by themselves,” rumbled Hammer, who had given his hoof several expert strokes of the hoof rasp and was examining the results. “I remember the first order Princess Celestia gave Cadet Periwinkle when little Twilight was here, getting her worn-out shoes replaced. You got to escort her back to the palace.”

“Seems like so long ago,” chimed in Nails. “They grow up so fast.”

“And when she got her first set of shoes as a Princess, you were assigned to stand guard outside the forge,” added Hammer. “That was a lot of responsibility for the both of you.”

“I’ll say,” said Nails. “After what we went through to get her last set of shoes enchanted, I’m starting to think you were protecting the city from her, more than protecting Twilight.”

“Spike stops by the shop whenever he’s in town alone,” said Hammer. “I think he likes our brand of coal. He’s got all kinds of stories about her.”

“Please, don’t go spreading stories about Her Highness,” said Perry, wincing a little when Hammer gave a rough spot on his hoof an extra stroke of the rasp. “Are you about done, Mister Hammer? I still have a lot of work to do.”

Dust Bunny gave off a sharp whinny of frustration and pounded one hoof against the floor of the forge, which did not seem to hurry Hammer’s extensive examination of his last unshod hoof one bit. She might have continued to berate Perry, if not for the welcome arrival of two mares who strode through the side door of the forge room and right up to their respective coltfriends.

“Good evening, you big stud. We found all kinds of gifts around town for Star’s new little one, and dropped them off at the house so we can wrap them later for the foal shower.” Autumn Sunspot, one of the multitudinous clerks and aides at the palace, gave Hammer a quick peck on the nose, then turned to Dust Bunny. “Hello, Dusty. Haven’t seen you in ages. Are you taking Captain Periwinkle out for dinner this evening?”

“He’s busy!” the young mare fairly spat.

“It’s important!” countered Perry. “Mister Hammer, will you please put my last shoe on!”

There was a short but silent pause, and Hammer shook his head. Perry tried to break free and fly back to the palace, but the big stallion just leaned on his shoulder and trapped him in the shoeing brace.

“Hun,” rumbled Hammer. “Think your new Captain of the Guard needs some Away time.”

Perry turned to face the palace servant and found himself eye-to-violet-eye with Sunspot, who had a serious expression of such intensity that he had only seen it once before.

On a much taller mare.

“Sister,” she called out in a calm but affectionate tone of voice. “Please stop kissing Nails and come over here for a moment. I believe Mister Hammer has a point.”

The taller dark pegasus came strolling up from behind Perry’s field of vision, tucking a mussed strand of grey mane back behind one ear. “Yes?” she asked.

After leaning a little more on Perry’s leg in order to suppress any further escape attempts, Hammer cleared his throat. “Your new Captain of the Guard is working too hard. Seems he found out that Their Highnesses skip out some evenings, while he won’t. He’s determined to work overtime until he finds out why and that’s causing issues with his marefriend.”

“A most serious accusation, indeed.” Shadow turned toward Dust Bunny, who appeared confused, but still angry. “Miss Bunny, how many times has Our Captain promised a romantic liaison and failed to deliver?”

“Lots.” Bunny obviously was picking up on the change of tone in the room, and her eyes flickered back and forth between Sunspot and Shadow, as if she were seeing something new about them. “He is awfully busy, though,” she backpedaled. “He’s so dedicated to his job. It’s one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place.”

“Hm…” Sunspot pursed her lips. “A strong, committed fellow. I understand the attraction.”

Shadow added, “Do you think he shall make a good father to your foals?”

Dust Bunny promptly blushed bright pink around the tips of her ears, something that Perry had always found unspeakably adorable. “Yes,” she whispered. “If we can ever get the time.”

Sunspot turned back to Perry and regarded him with a frown that needed no words behind it.

“Once things slow down,” he started, only to be cut off cold.

“You are off-duty tonight,” said Sunspot. “I recall a memo sent to you that ordered it. And even so, you are going to return to work, to do your duty although you are off-duty?”

Despite the difficulty in standing his ground while having one hoof trapped in the shoeing brace, Perry put as much effort into his words as he could. “It would help if the Princesses would stay put!” he snapped. “What am I going to have to do when I become Captain of the Guard, chain them in their rooms at night! This is my duty.”

“Duty.” Sunspot’s voice was calm as a millpond, with a thread of pain under it. “You have no idea what duty entails.”

“Sister,” cautioned Shadow, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

After a long, deep breath, Sunspot continued, “Duty can be a terrible master. It can isolate you, turn you away from everypony who cares until you feel all alone in the world. If Cadence had not shaken me out of my mindless devotion to duty, if Twilight Sparkle had not given me hope, my duty would have blinded me to events, and I never would have regained my sister.”

“I… Uh…” The correct words escaped Perry’s frantic verbal grasp. Autumn Sunspot was staff in the palace, but she was speaking from the same position of authority as—

“It is unbecoming of our Royal Guard to break their word of honor,” announced Shadow. “Your duty doth not apply merely to thy lieges, but to those whom you love.”

There was a long, awkward pause as the puzzle pieces came together. The small pale pink earth pony with the larger dark pegasus at her side. The absences of Their Highnesses during certain evenings. The far too familiar look that he was getting from both of them. The prickle of cold sweat that was starting to trickle down his wingpits.

“Understand yet, Perry?” whispered Hammer.

Perry nodded, because there was still something wrong with his voice. Even Dust Bunny was looking on with wide white eyes and apparently trying to decide between a curtsy or a faint.

“Good.” Hammer stuck the last shoe on Perry’s bare hoof and prepared to begin the nailing process while talking around the handle of his tools. “Because I’m going to give you a piece of advice that a wise stallion once gave me. You let that one go and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

“Agreed,” said Sunspot. “Opportunity is knocking, Captain Periwinkle. If you don’t answer that door, it could get away from you. Take a little time off this evening. Take this young mare to someplace where the two of you can have a few drinks, get something to eat, and relax. Otherwise, you are going to miss something very special.”

“Oh, I’m not that special,” said Bunny just as fast as she could form the words. “You don’t have to do this on account of me.”

“You are too very special,” countered Perry. “You have to be in order to put up with me.”

He hesitated, only to have Shadow lean closer and whisper, “Would it help if We made that apology dinner an order, Captain Periwinkle? I would hate to think We selected the wrong guard for this position.”

Bunny’s big dark eyes got even larger. “Oh!” she squeaked, obviously coming to the same conclusion that Perry just did. His eyes darted around the forge area as the crushing metaphorical weight of his position settled onto his shoulders. Once he had made sure there were no civilians lurking in the shadows, he choked down his intended shout into a forced whisper.

“Your Highnesses! Why was I not told?”

“You did not need to know,” said Sunspot.

“And now you do,” said Shadow. “You need it in the worst possible fashion.”

“You need a break,” said Hammer as he finished swaging off the final nails on his shoe.

“Tonight,” added Nails. “Captain Periwinkle. Miss Dust Bunny. Would you care to accompany us this evening?”

“Sure,” said Bunny, sounding more than a little stunned. “Where are we going?”

“Away,” said Shadow. “Where the beer is good, the food is novel, and the companionship beyond compare.”

“Sometimes, even we need to get out of the castle and let our manes down, Captain Periwinkle,” declared Sunspot. “Or shall I just call you Perry for this evening?”

It deserved an answer that he could not give. Perry looked between the disguised princesses, then over at Bunny’s lovely eyes. She swallowed, nodded once, and gave him the courage to say, “Yes, Your… I mean Miss Sunspot.”

“Please,” said Nails as he helped Perry out of the shoeing brace, “as long as we are Away, you have to call her Spot. She does this little wrinkled-up nose thing if you catch her just right, which is just the cutest ever. Shall we be off?”

“Not all of us quite yet,” said Shadow with a wing-brush along Perry’s flank that made him hop toward the door. “The proprietors need to get a quick shower before they join us, and I believe it is your turn to buy the first round, Spot.”

“No way,” protested Sunspot. “I bought the first round last time.”

Bunny blurted out, “Perry just got promoted. Shouldn’t he buy?”

“Excellent idea,” proclaimed Shadow. “A fitting wit to be paired against our new Captain.”

And Periwinkle allowed himself to be led away into the city and in the direction of tomorrow.

3. Grounded in Unreality

My Farrier Lady, Sunspot
Grounded in Unreality

The sharp nip of winter was filling Canterlot, sweeping down the streets and ruffling the coats of briskly trotting ponies. It made the warmth of the forge get sucked away by the weather at an alarming rate, but the bar was nearby, and the two friends hurried to get one beer before Nails had to depart on his date.

“You should come by my parents’ house sometime when Lady Grassholm is visiting, Ham.” As a unicorn, Nails managed to keep trotting along while running a brush through his short mane and fretting. “You’re my best friend, and she deserves to meet you.”

“I think you need to concentrate on your own good looks and shining personality,” said Hammer. “A couple of dates with this young mare should let you know if she’s finally the one.”

“Gentlecolts?” A Royal Guard in full armor floated down from the sky and landed with a brief skid sideways in an unanticipated gust. “Hammer and Nails, I presume? Sergeant Stalwart Sentry. I’ve got orders to bring one of you back to the palace to help out with an incident involving Princess Celestia’s student.”

“That took a lot longer than I expected,” said Nails before getting a nervous twitch in his bottom lip. “My date’s going to kill me.”

“I’ve got this one, Nails.” Hammer patted his partner on the shoulder and turned to the stern guard. “She blew off another shoe, I presume?”

“Not… um…” The guard’s eyes did not meet Hammer’s curious gaze. “You’re going to have to see this. And bring your tools.”

- Ω - -

A short time later, Golden Hammer found himself escorted into what he vaguely recognized as the residential wing of the palace, which was populated exclusively by visiting ambassadors, honored guests, and the Princess herself. The pristine white tiles of the floor were made out of flawless marble, polished to a gleaming perfection that was only matched by the rest of the elaborate decor. His eyes wandered to and from the colorful tapestries depicting pivotal moments of Equestrian history, ancient maps of distant lands, and one display that appeared to be the family tree of a long-dead line of nobility. There were coats of arms from famous military families, sculptures of famous scholars, memorials to heroes long gone, and one small portion of Hammer’s mind could not help but think of the humble farriers who had shod them all with no credit at all.

It must have been extraordinarily difficult to keep the palace in this beautiful condition. An entire herd of busy servants were bustling to and fro, while the impassive Royal Guards positioned in strategic points watched with what Hammer could discern as small smiles and the occasional fractional nod of recognition. If Canterlot was the heart of Equestria, these ponies were the lifeblood that made it all function, carrying on their tasks at the direction of Princess Celestia and the close advisors in her shadow, like Spot.

The whole place was more than a little overwhelming, since Hammer was not used to any surroundings this fancy, or even meeting nobility who normally had their own custom shoes done in custom stores. A sense of hidden tension continued to grow while the guard escorted him onward, rising to a jittery nervousness when Stalwart Sentry directed Hammer through a wide set of double doors and remained outside.

It was a wing of the palace he never thought he would see, and a meeting with a winged pony he never thought he would meet.

“Ah, Golden Hammer, I presume?”

His father’s favorite story had always been the time he had shod Princess Celestia, whom he had simply described as ‘large and in charge.’ The radiant alicorn who stood a few paces away was indeed large, because Hammer had to look slightly up to meet her beautiful pale violet eyes. And she most certainly was in charge, from the way her presence simply dominated the otherwise empty room. Princess Celestia in all of her restrained glory fairly glided forward to give Hammer a brief nod before pointing him to where several pieces of furniture had been stacked up and a dust throw tossed over the top. It was an odd lump of stuff to find in the large chamber, which looked more like a disused storage room than anything a Princess of Equestria should be found inside. “I believe you know my student, Twilight Sparkle?”

“We’ve met,” came a thready voice from under the dusty cloth.

“Twilight had a little incident,” said Celestia in a throaty, warm contralto that sent a thrill up Hammer’s spine. “She was showing me how much magic she could channel now, and… Well, I’m afraid it is easier to show than to describe.”

The princess’ golden magic surrounded the furniture and the tarp, gently whisking them away to one side. It revealed Twilight Sparkle standing with her head down and her legs splayed out as if she were braced for something powerful, like casting a spell…

Golden Hammer followed the direction of Twilight’s horn to a nearby table with a bowl of oranges on it, only the oranges did not look quite… orange. More like the glistening of gold.

“Transmutation?” he hazarded. At Twilight’s hesitant nod, he added, “You probably should have only started with one orange.”

“I did,” said Twilight Sparkle, “but the replication spell interacted with—”

To be honest, the little unicorn said quite a few more things after that, but he had gotten very familiar with tuning out Silver Nails whenever he went off on an enchanting tangent. Hammer simply nodded in the right places and made the occasional encouraging grunt while reaching into his toolbox and extracting a chisel along with the appropriate-sized mallet. She even did not stop talking while Hammer examined the first frozen forehoof, whose shoe appeared to have melted partially into the marble with little splatters of gold sprayed out in a pretty lace pattern from vaporized sections of the shoe.

He put the chisel away and got out an awl punch. Six gentle taps to drive out the nails later, he lifted up Twilight’s delicate bare hoof and placed it to one side of the shoe still fused to the marble tile, with the stubby nails standing intact like porcupine spines.

“Oh, don’t worry about breaking the tile,” said Celestia very softly, which made Hammer startle a little since he had nearly forgotten about her quiet presence.

“The shoes are blown anyway. I just thought the shoe enchantments and the spell she was doing might have interacted, so it was safer to simply remove the shoes now and have one of the school’s professors deal with the leftovers,” said Golden Hammer in a long string of unbroken words that just flowed out of him when he met Celestia’s beautiful eyes. “She can walk around barehoof for a day or two until Nails can enchant a new set of shoes. He’s out on a date,” added Hammer totally by accident.

One divine eyebrow ascended.

Twilight Sparkle stuck her tongue out.

“Eww,” she declared with all the authority of youth.

Hammer decided he had talked enough for the week and started to remove another one of Twilight’s shoes.

“You’re talking about the nice unicorn who is going to enchant your new shoes,” chastised Celestia, aimed in the direction of her student although Hammer felt a little of the criticism splash onto him by proxy.

“He didn’t do a very good job on these,” countered Twilight while Hammer was gently tapping the nails out of another shoe.

That criticism was a little close for Hammer’s comfort. He finished tapping out the nails until the second hoof came free, then put the mallet and nail punch to one side.

“Princess Celestia, if I may?” He held out his hooves and watched as the Princess of the Sun slipped out of her golden slipper and placed her large hoof practically in his lap. Turning it around gently so Celestia would not tip over, he presented it for Twilight Sparkle’s inspection next to her much smaller shoe with the nails still sticking out of the top. “As a student, can you tell me the difference between these two shoes?”

It took a while for Twilight to get her thaumaturgical spell comparison started, but since her hind hooves were still quite solidly welded in place, Hammer let her talk. And talk. And once he realized that the little unicorn had a near infinite number of things to say, he let Celestia reclaim her hoof and interrupted.

“Her shoes are larger. I don’t know much about enchantments, but I do know that Princess Celestia has a greater surface area to dissipate magical energy than you, so Nails is going to have to make shoes better than hers to keep you from welding yourself down in the middle of another spell.”

Twilight made a little ‘o’ of realization with her mouth, but before she could start up again, Hammer picked up the nail punch and mallet while moving to the next welded hoof. “Silver Nails is the best practical enchanter I know of,” he continued through the handle of the mallet while tapping away. “Graduated in the middle of his class, so you wouldn’t know it by just looking at his papers. He learned most of the trade from his father and the rest from Celestia’s school. He may not be able to make the big, fancy magical displays like some of the school unicorns, or prove some obscure theory of unicorndom from a few centuries ago. All he does is shoes, but he does those far better than any unicorn in Canterlot. Well, he also does these little metal and enchantment puzzle things when there’s nothing going on at the shop.”

Twilight promptly brightened up and tried to turn to face him, only to hop slightly. She almost fell down on the sharp nails of the three removed shoes if Golden Hammer’s quick reactions had not caught her. He held Twilight upright until she got her loose hooves underneath herself, then moved to the last trapped limb. “If you can keep from blowing a set of shoes off for a month, I’ll send one of his toys here for you to play with.”

“Experiment,” insisted Twilight through the tap-tap-tap of the nails being driven out backwards through her hooves. Once freed from her involuntary imprisonment, the little unicorn scurried over to the bowl of golden oranges. “It worked! It worked!”

“Watch this,” whispered Celestia into his ear as Twilight did a clattering barehoof dance of joy in the middle of the storeroom floor. Golden oranges and pages of paper fluttered through the air in pursuit of her until she skidded to a stop by a wicker basket, which was a little incongruous to see in the storeroom.

“Spike!” she called out. “Look at this! See! It worked!” Twilight held out a golden orange, which something from inside the basket reached out and grabbed, then tried to pull it back inside only to get it stuck in the handle. A few futile tugs later, a light purple dragon emerged from the bottom of the basket, blinking his eyes and making little smacking noises before adding a second chubby little hand to the task of pulling the golden orange through the basket handle.

“What in Celestia’s name is that,” murmured Golden Hammer, transfixed by the draconic hands playing tug-of-war with Twilight. Those little fingers had amazing strength for their size, and were able to hold onto the golden orange even when Twilight Sparkle floated it up into the air, leaving the dragon dangling beneath.

“It’s Spike,” said Celestia to Hammer’s side, which made him jump slightly. “He’s an infant dragon Twilight hatched during her entrance examination. A rather unique experience, even in my memory.”

“Mine too, Your Highness.”

- Ω - -

“You should have seen him, Nails.” Hammer hoisted his tankard and swept it around the half-full bar. This visit would put them further behind on the guard shoe order, but Twilight Sparkle’s little accident made them both critically need a little Away time tonight. “A dragon, a real dragon. Just a tiny thing, no bigger than a wine jug. I caught him teething on one of my hammers. Left tooth marks all over it.”

“I’m more concerned about the shoes. Darnit!” Nails let out a sigh and headed for the bar. “You need another beer?”

“If you’re buying, I can do one more,” admitted Hammer. “That better be my limit, though. Yours too, since you’ve got…” He thought for a moment. “The gold-level enchantments obviously didn’t work. What do you call an enchantment above gold?”

“Platinum,” said Nails, who had stopped his movement toward the bar at the question. “Maybe I better pass up on that second beer too. I’ve got to dig out my old Starswirl books and swot up on shoes tonight… and I said it again.”

“Good thing Spot isn’t here or she’d have to stagger home drunk at our expense.” Hammer kicked the empty chair back and gave a wave at it with his empty tankard. “Sit down for a minute, Nails. I think Away is pretty much gone for the night.”

“And Spot won’t be here for a few days,” added Nails, although he settled back down in the chair. “You’ve been getting that look in your eyes every time you talk about her, Ham.”

“Look.” Hammer took a deep breath and ran a hoof through his mane, scattering a few loose cinders from the forge across the table. “You can stick with Lady Grassholm, romance the pretty mare, work your way into high society, and turn into a Duke if you want. That’s fine. But there’s nothing between me and Spot other than being friends. She has her world, I have mine, and they only intersect here.” Hammer emphasized his last words by tapping the table with a hoof.

“And she just walked into the bar,” said Nails.

Golden Hammer nearly flipped the table over when he abruptly shifted position to look at the bar’s front doorway, which was Spotless, then turned back to Nails with a frown that matched his partner’s smile.

“So there’s nothing between you two?” asked Nails with an upraised eyebrow. “Really?”

“There can’t be.” Hammer tapped one large hoof on the table. “She’s half my size. Most mares are half my size, but she’s this fragile tiny thing and I’m… me. Besides, she spends her days with Princesses and nobility, traveling to the far corners of Equestria and dining at the most exquisite places. That’s what you want to do, not me.”

“Well…” Nails looked down at the pitted wooden surface of the table. “That’s my dream. Spot didn’t make it sound like she wanted to do that all of the time, and I’ll admit if Lady Grassholm and I go out on some Equestrian tour for our honeymoon, we’re not going to have foreign notables dictating our actions like we’re the Princess, so we can never really understand what she has to go through. You, on the other hoof, have a fine young mare who makes you laugh, and appreciates who you really are. She deals with upper-class twits all day and likes to have a big smokey-smelling lug to relax with, and you have your nose in the coals all day at work and appreciate her fine sense of wit. Besides,” he added with an eye-roll, “you’re both mystery readers.”

Hammer grunted. “Just because you like to read the back pages first.”

- Ω - -

The next day was substantially different at work, mostly because Nails’ father showed up to work the enchanting bench while his son was buried in research books. Hammer was not much for the intricacies of magical workings, but the idea of a platinum-level enchant on Youth Size K-5 shoes always struck him a little like sticking fifty pounds of explosive oats into a five-pound bag.

Tap Brad was not the conversationalist that Nails was, and seemed a little reluctant about coming back out of retirement for a few days, even if he was just as efficient as his son with standard Royal Guard shoe enchants. It left the forge fairly word-free for the morning, a more efficient process of churning out a long set of shiny shoes without most of the fun he had with tweaking Nails.

Until a visitor broke the monotony.

“Hey, Studly! Got those shoes ready for our little firebrand yet?” Spot’s smiling face appeared in the alley doorway, followed promptly by Twilight Sparkle, who trotted right on into the forge area, paused for a moment, then backed up until she was outside again.

“Mister Hammer, sir?” Twilight Sparkle sounded chastised. “May I come into your forge and watch you work?”

This was a considerably more polite and reserved pony than the Twilight Sparkle from her previous visit, so Hammer gave her a brief nod, followed by a long and well-deserved look at Sunspot. Her bubblegum pink coat was ruffled as if she had been working long, hard hours, and there were a few knots in her tangled magenta mane that he would have done anything to brush out during a long, slow lunch, but none of that mattered. She was a Palace, he was a Forge, and they really could not meet.

Well, other than now.

“It has been far too long since I’ve been looked at that way, Mister Hammer.”

Spot’s mischievous smile shook him out of his extended observation, and made his face feel redder than the close proximity of the glowing coals of the forge could explain. He fumbled with the tongs, putting the shoe he had been working on to one side before returning to his guests and pushing his goggles up on his forehead.

“Sorry about that, Ma’am. We don’t have the enchantments for Miss Sparkle’s shoes quite ready yet. My partner Silver Nails is doing some final adjustments and we should be ready to get them finished by early next week. If you want, Miss Sparkle, we have the blanks shaped to your measurements and we can check them against your hooves today.”

“That would be… nice, I suppose.” Twilight Sparkle was such a little thing when she walked up next to Hammer, as unafraid of him as any adult he had ever had in the shop. She stuck her hooves out without being prompted, following the subtle differences between each shoe as if she were reading a preschool alphabet book, and did not say a word until Hammer had the last shoe against her forehoof and was considering if he wanted to file back a tiny sliver of hoof or put the shoe into the forge for minor resizing.

“May I ask you a question?” Since Hammer’s full attention was on the calipers he was using against her hoof’s edge, he merely grunted, which Twilight Sparkle took as permission to dive straight in.

“Are you in an intimate relationship with Miss Autumn Sunspot?”

He nearly dropped the calipers. Giving his pint-sized inquisitor a sideways glance, he tried to go back to his work while Twilight continued. “I mean I almost never see her around the palace until we’re scheduled to come here, and she was trotting so fast I could just barely keep up, and I thought Cadence was going to bring me this time but she had this sudden appointment pop up. And all the way here, she kept diverting my questions about you. Cadence says that the intimate relationships between mares and proper gentlecolts should be treated with great decision—”

“Discretion.” Sunspot tapped one hoof on the forge floor directly behind Twilight Sparkle, making a staccato tap-tap-tap that turned Twilight’s eager questioning into a more subdued slouch. “Twilight Sparkle, any relationship that I have with Golden Hammer is strictly between us.”

It was both correct and hurt Hammer somewhere right around his ribcage. He got out the file to trim back the little sliver of purple unicorn hoof that looked ragged anyway, although Sunspot was not through.

“Just because he’s a handsome lug who treats us both like princesses, doesn’t mean I want to drag him off to Celestia and get married.”

Hammer dropped his file, and groped around on the floor to find it.

Sunspot giggled, which only made Hammer tuck his tail closer to his rear and his ears practically glow with embarrassment. It only took a few soft swipes to get the rough patch of Twilight Sparkle’s hoof smoothed to the point where it matched the shoe blank, then he sat back and put away his tools, trying not to meet Sunspot’s gaze.

“Well, we’ve taken up enough of this fine stallion’s time,” said Sunspot. “Come along, Twilight. Mister Hammer, please send word to the palace when her shoes are ready.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Although he was trying to keep his eyes to himself, he could not help but look up to catch the last bit of Sunspot’s perky rear vanishing out the door as she chivvied her charge back to the palace. And there was an unmistakable flick to her tail that he was fairly certain had been aimed at the ‘handsome lug’ referenced earlier. It was so distracting that it took him a moment to realize his own rump had lightly brushed up against the forge, which stung him out of his reverie.

“Ow.” Hammer rubbed his flank with one hoof and grumbled, “That mare’s going to be the death of me, I swear.” He placed the resized shoes into Twilight Sparkle’s storage box and had begun putting away the rest of his tools when the clatter of a galloping pony could be heard outside of the forge’s back door.

“I’ll just be a moment,” called back Sunspot over her shoulder as she rounded the doorframe. “Forgot something.”

“What did you forg—” Golden Hammer was totally unprepared for the way Sunspot reared up on her hind legs, took his face in her forehooves, and kissed him once on the nose.

“That’s for being such a sweetie with Twilight.” She then placed a gentle kiss on his lips, a bare touch that could be compared to the landing of a butterfly mixed with sweet breath that smelled of cantaloupe and lily petals. “And that’s to remind you of our appointment later this week. I really need some Away time.”

Then she was gone, with the fading clatter of hooves and Twilight Sparkle’s distant plaintive voice asking just what Sunspot had forgotten in the forge. Golden Hammer stood there speechless for a while, then brushed the back of his fetlock against his lips.

Off to one side, Tap Brad had come out of the enchanting workshop and was standing in the doorway, watching without saying anything. Well, without saying anything out loud. His expression was speaking for him.

“There’s nothing between us,” said Hammer once he could talk.

With a slow shake of his head, Tap Brad walked across the forge floor over next to him, then punched Hammer lightly on the shoulder. “It’s always best when there’s nothing between a mare and a stallion. Too many young ones pile all kinds of things between them.”

“I mean… I don’t think it would work out,” said Hammer, still not quite in control of his sparse words.

“There’s only two ponies who can determine that,” said Tap. “I know better than to talk sense into your head. I can’t even convince Nails that he’s making a bad decision with that stuck-up clothes horse he’s gotten hooked on. And I know better than to tell your parents. If your mother knew a young mare had kissed you at work, she’d grow wings and fly here herself.”

“Yeah.” Hammer gave a quick look into the forge to make sure he had not left a forgotten shoe to warp and distort in the heat, like his ears felt.

“I’m only going to give you one piece of advice,” said Tap as he turned to go back into the enchanting room. “You let that one go and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

* * *

Away was lonely. Nails had only been able to stay for one beer and a kabob without onions (on account of his noble mare of the evening), so Hammer had the responsibility of holding down the table until Spot arrived. It was late enough that he was having serious doubts, and thinking serious thoughts. Mostly about Spot. Some about himself. A few about simply ordering enough tankards that all his thinking would go away.

“Oh, good. You’re here.” Spot did not merely sit down in the opposite bench, but dropped into the wooden seat like a sack of coal. “I need a beer, as many skewers as Stout can carry in one trip, and—” Spot stopped, looked up at Hammer, and licked her lips.

“Here, on the table?” asked Hammer, startled into a glib response. “You’ll frighten the other patrons.”

There were several off-duty Royal Guard in the corner, but they did not seem to notice anything but their own discussion and a few expended tankards. Spot appeared to be set back a step, then burst into joyous laughter. “Oh, Mister Hammer. After dealing with Duchess Calperta all day, I’ve needed this far more than anything. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Spot. And thank you as well. I’ll have one of the garlic and onion skewers, please. Since you’re buying.” Seeing the young pink mare sitting there with her mouth open was the high point to Hammer’s day, mostly because of the growing smile.

“Have I mentioned,” started Spot once she had recovered somewhat, “how much I detest going through the entire day with ponies all around me bowing and simpering to power while behind the scenes, they plot against… well, anypony they can find, I suppose.”

“It can work up an appetite,” said Hammer, feeling the weight of his worry slide from his back at the sight of her happiness. Even better was the way she ambled up to the bar, retrieved a pair of tankards and some kabobs, then undulated her way back to the table without spilling a drop of beer.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Hammer. He took his tankard off the platter that Spot had slid onto the table, and just held it for a time.

Spot looked up from a mouthful of roasted onion. “And?”

He snagged his own kabob and took a slobbery bite. “I’ve determined that thinking is highly overrated.”

“I think you’re right,” said Spot.

And throughout the cold winter, there were many occasions when they would gather in Away for just such togetherness. Sometimes just the two of them, sometimes Nails would join them, but never more than three.

It was a wonderful time.