Moonlit Eternity

Chapter 4

Steel Anvil brought his hammer down onto the curled iron decorative part of the fence he had been making for Filthy Rich. It had been a full month since he had arrived in Ponyville and began work on the complicated order and it was hard, arduous work. Not only did it have to withstand the force of Diamond Dogs and other hoodlums of that nature, it had to look distinguished like the rest of the rich pony’s estate. No doubt that since he was making this fence for Filthy Rich of all Ponies, he could demand a high fee. He soaked the blazing metal in the cool water next to him and placed the now-cooled iron into it’s niche in the fence. It was now nearly complete and Steel stood back to appraise his work. He nodded at the fence in approval as he felt the cool fall air kiss his skin. His satisfaction was interrupted, however, by a happy yelling-

“STEEL! HEY, COME OUT HERE!” The voice was high pitched and uplifting. The unmistakable voice of one Pinkie Pie. He sighed and walked into the sunlight, wincing a bit, and walking around the side of the building to see Pinkie, smiling widely as always, with a picnic basket clenched in her teeth, accompanied by Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Spike and Rainbow Dash. He looked to the cyan mare and smiled before turning his attention back to Pinkie.

“Hey guys. What’s up?” He said.

“Well, we know this is short notice, but we were going to go on a picnic and we wanted to know if you wanted to join us.” Rarity said.

“Well, I still have some work to do…” He said, looking back to the forge for a moment. “Why would you want me to come with you guys?”

“Are you kidding? Last Friday was great! We couldn’t not want you to come anywhere with us!” Twilight interjected. “I didn’t know you could sing like that!”

“I didn’t know Ponyville had a karaoke bar.” Steel said with a chuckle. “Alright, alright. Let me go shut down the forge and lock up.” He went around the side of the building. Rainbow Dash looked after him and let out a small sigh. She looked over to see the sly grin on Applejack’s face. Rainbow frowned at her.

“What?” She said. Applejack chuckled.

“You know what.” The orange mare replied and elbowed the Pegasus in the side. Pinkie giggled. Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Oh, come on.” Rainbow moaned incredulously. She then dropped her voice to just above a whisper. Twilight was in a conversation with Fluttershy, Spike and Rarity and it was just Rainbow, Pinkie and Applejack. “I like him, okay? There I said it. Now how about both of you just leave it alone?” Applejack merely smiled.

“You know that ain’t gonna happen, sugarcube.”

“What’s not gonna happen?” Steel said from behind Rainbow. She nearly jumped out of her skin and pivoted around to face him.

“NOTHING!” She cleared her throat and continued. “Don’t worry about it. You probably wouldn’t care.”

“Ah dunno,” Applejack said, grinning at Rainbow. “It was pretty interesting.” Rainbow blushed and scowled at Applejack. She chuckled.

“Alright, are we all ready to go?” Twilight asked as she, Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike approached.

“Ah’m good and ready.” Applejack said.

“Yep. Same here.” Steel added. He looked over at Rainbow Dash, who was still quite flustered from her conversation with Applejack. He took in her appearance. A sleek, athletic figure with well-toned muscles, gorgeous wings folded against her sides, her brilliant rainbow mane, her beautiful rose irises, her feminine facial features. It wasn’t until the other ponies started moving for the picnic spot that Rainbow caught him staring. She smiled at him and put on her sunglasses, aware of his look. She turned and trotted behind the others. She looked back at him for a split second and smirked. He ran and caught up to her.

_____

The group walked along the path, talking and making jokes, looking for a place to set up the picnic. Everywhere seemed to have some quality about it that made it undesirable for somepony in the group. Whether it was that the grass was too tall, or that there was another pony somewhere nearby. Finally, they settled down under a rather large tree in the shade. Steel plopped down and breathed heavily. He was very tired at this point and it showed. Fluttershy was the first to notice.

“Oh, my gosh! Steel, are you okay?” She asked with genuine concern. “You look pale.”

“I’m…fine…” He said. “Just give me a few seconds…” There they sat, Steel resting at the trunk of the tree, Fluttershy observing him, worried. All at once, Steel seemed to rise up and take another breath, looking refreshed. He sighed in what seemed like relief. “Alright, I feel better now. So, what’s on the menu?” He asked the group, who had already gotten into the basket.

“A bunch of yummy stuff, that’s what!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, licking her lips and pulling out an apple and taking an enormous bite.

“There’s daffodil sandwiches-” Twilight said, taking one out, only to have it quickly taken away by Rainbow Dash.

“Thanks!” Rainbow quickly said. Twilight rolled her eyes and continued.

“There’s hay pieces, apples, apple fritters, apple pie, apples and apple cider. In case you didn’t notice, we had a lot of apples to go with, thanks to Applejack.” The orange earth pony nodded, taking a bite of an apple fritter. They all took what they desired, and began to eat. Each pony enjoying and savoring their food, save for Rainbow Dash, who had already finished her daffodil sandwich and was laying against the tree with her sunglasses on, pretending to be asleep, but really observing Steel from behind her dark shades. He talked with Rarity and Twilight about some hilarious mishap he had at the forge the previous day. Spike walked up to him and tapped him.

"So, Steel, what is Manehattan like?" The baby dragon asked.

"Well, it's a lot different from Ponyville, for sure.The buildings are very tall and made out of brick and cement. There's lights everywhere at night and you can't really sleep unless you find a place that's very, very quiet. It's a very busy city." He explained.

"That's so cool." Spike marveled.

"Yeah, it is...for a while. I moved to Ponyville because I was looking for a nice, quaint place to settle down. And Ponyville definitely fits the bill." Steel said.

“So…Rainbow Dash told me that you’re fast. Very fast.” Applejack said. This got Rainbow up off her back and walking toward the other ponies.

“Oh, did she?” He asked.

“Yep. Said you beat her easily, which is something Ah consider myself capable of as well.” She continued.

“Oh, hardee har HAR.” Rainbow Dash said as she walked up to the group. “She’s just mad because I beat her in The Running of the leaves!” Applejack shook her head and chuckled.

“You wish, Rainbow. Y’all know that Ah beat you!”

“I’m just surprised that Rainbow Dash actually admitted that I beat her in a race.” Steel said, looking at the cyan mare. Pinkie Pie gasped dramatically.

“You beat Rainbow Dash in a race?!” The pink party pony asked.

“Wow! That’s awesome! How’d you do that?” Spike marveled. Rainbow groaned loudly as she removed her sunglasses.

“We were running, okay?” She said, annoyed. “If I was flying, he wouldn’t have a chance!”

“Rainbow, if you were flying, nothing in Equestria would have a chance.” Twilight said, amused at Rainbow’s flustered look at that moment.

“And ya still couldn’t beat me if ya wanted to.” Applejack said, leaning closer to Rainbow.

“Alright fine, farm pony.” Dash said to the orange mare. “You an’ me. A race. Right now, from this tree to that tree across the field.” She gestured to two separate trees on either side of the field they were next to.

“Alrighty, Rainbow. You asked for it.” Applejack said, laughing lightly. Rainbow looked at Steel.

“And you.” She said to him. “I want a rematch.” This seemed to strike a chord in Steel Anvil, as he immediately became nervous.

“Uh…uhm…I don’t think so, Rainbow.” He responded to her.

“Oh, come on. Why not?” She asked him, leaning closer to him. He backed up against the tree trunk. “You scared, or something?”

“No. I just…don’t really feel like it right now.” He said.

“It’s just a friendly competition.” Applejack said to the stallion. “What could it hurt? Plus, if you’re as fast as Rainbow said you were, you shouldn’t have a problem.” Steel looked back and forth, looking for something to say. He stood up slowly and sighed.

“Alright, fine. But just from here to that other tree, okay?” Rainbow and Applejack nodded, getting in a line, preparing for the race. Rainbow looked over at Applejack.

“You’re goin’ down, AJ. I have a special breathing technique that helps me keep all my energy.” Applejack just rolled her eyes and smiled. Steel left the shade of the tree and walked to the line. Rainbow looked over at him, preparing her usual trash talk. But she stopped herself. He was lacking his usual confident look. The look that had stricken her with desire so many times before was absent, replaced with a look of worry and uncertainty.

“Hey.” She said to him. “You okay? Something bothering you?” He looked at her and smiled.

“No, I’m fine. Just thinking.” He responded, and looked forward.

“We gonna do this, or not?” Applejack asked them. Steel nodded at Rainbow who proceeded to count down.

“Three…” The Rainbow maned mare began. Steel gulped.

“Two…”

“One…” Pinkie squealed.

“Oh, the tension! I can’t take it!” She said.

“Pinkie, it’s not really that big of a deal…” Fluttershy commented.

“GO!” As Rainbow Dash uttered this last word, the three of them were off like wildfire, moving down the hill into the field. The three of them were relatively even at this point, Rainbow and Applejack neck-in-neck with Steel lagging slightly behind. Rainbow and Applejack were putting every ounce of their respective abilities into this, pounding forward at breakneck speed. At this point, Steel fell quite far behind.

‘Oh, watch him.’ Rainbow thought to herself. ‘He’s gonna play it up like he usually does, then speed ahead of us.’ She continued to run, preparing herself for this likely occurrence with a burst of speed. Applejack also increased her speed, maintaining her tie with Dash. The Pegasus saw this and put even more power and vigor into her running. She moved ahead of Applejack by a few feet.

“If you two need me to slow down and wait for you, just ask!” She said, looking back at Applejack and Steel. She saw something that completely surprised her. Steel was extremely tired. He had a look of intense strain of his face, obviously struggling just to barely keep up with them. The night of their race, he was so cool and confident, and increased his speed when the time came with ease. He didn’t show a single bit of strain putting Big Macintosh over in their hoof wrestle, and Big Mac was probably the strongest pony in Ponyville. But now, he was breathing very heavily and was looking extremely drained of energy. He seemed to stumble. Rainbow slowed down, letting Applejack get ahead by a little.

“What happened to ya? Ah was just thinkin’ that Ah’d have to use alla my energy!” The farm pony said to Rainbow. But Rainbow wasn’t paying much attention to her rival. Steel stumbled again and lost his footing. He fell and tumbled, hitting the ground heavily. Rainbow stopped immediately.

“Hey, Steel!” She said. “You alright?” By now, Applejack had stopped and started to walk back to them.

“Steel!” She said again. He didn’t move. He didn't say a thing. She started to run over to him. “Steel!” She screamed. He still did not move.

_____

Steel awoke with a heavy gasp. He struggled to catch his breath as he looked around. Nothing but a bunch of blurry colors clouded his vision. He blinked and realized that he could not see very well at that moment.

“Steel?” He faintly heard. “Steel?” He heard it again, his hearing and vision returning to him gradually. The colors slowly turned into the shapes of six mares and a baby dragon. They all had very concerned and worried looks on their faces. The voice was coming from Rainbow Dash. “Steel, answer me. Are you okay?”

“W-where am I?” He asked, feeling that he was on a couch.

“You’re at my boutique. Are you alright?” Rarity said to him.

“Depends on what you mean by ‘Alright’. What the hay happened?” He asked them.

“We were racin’ and you just keeled over. Fell flat on your face. Me‘n Rainbow thought you were dead for a second there.” Applejack said.

“I feel dead right now.” He said, clutching his head.

“What happened out there?” Fluttershy asked him.

“Yeah, what happened?” Pinkie interjected. “We were so worried!” Steel shrugged.

“I really don’t know. I guess I just fainted.” He said. “From exhaustion, I would think.”

“Well you have been working really hard on that order from Filthy Rich, haven't you?” Twilight said. “How much sleep have you had?”

“Not very much, believe me.” He said to them.

“Well, we called the hospital to come pick you up.” Rainbow said to him. “Just safety stuff, y’know?” Steel immediately got up, but stumbled and fell to one of his front knees. Rarity and Fluttershy moved to help him back up. He shook his head.

“No.” He began, a rather stern tone to his voice. “No, thank you. I don’t need to go to the hospital.” He waved them off and began walking toward the door.

“Steel, come on, please stay here and go to the hospital.” Twilight said to him. He looked back at her.

“I said no. But thank you for your thoughtfulness.” He said to the purple unicorn. Twilight smiled at him.

“It wasn’t my idea, it was Rainbow’s.” She said to him, pointing to Rainbow. He looked at her and she smiled at him and blushed a little.

“Well, I didn’t want to take any risks.” She said to him. “I thought that you were a lot worse off than you really were.” She laughed nervously as they heard a knock at the door.

“I’ll get it.” Rarity said. She went and answered it and there stood two ponies with a stretcher.

“We got a call about somepony who needed help.” One of them said. Rarity was about to say something when Steel beat her to the punch.

“I know you did. And, I’m that pony. But, I assure you, I’m absolutely fine. I fainted, and my friends thought it was more serious than it was. So sorry for wasting your time.” They nodded and turned around, taking the stretcher with them. They turned and walked back into the living area.

“Again, I can’t thank you all enough for all of your care.” He said to them.

“Well, what are friends for?” Pinkie said to him. The girls and Spike nodded and agreed. Steel smiled warmly. He felt happy inside. Here he was, with a group of ponies who legitimately cared about him. He sat down on the couch between Rainbow and Twilight.

“Y’know, Steel,” Applejack said. “Ah’ve never seen Rainbow run as fast as she did when she saw that you weren’t moving.” Applejack obviously knew how much this actually got to Rainbow. Steel chuckled and looked at Dash. She was blushing and looking at Applejack indignantly.

"Shut up, Applejack." She said plainly.

“Well, I think that’s pretty awesome.” Steel said to her. Rainbow smiled.

_____

They spent the next few hours relaxing and talking. They hadn‘t realized how late it was until Fluttershy looked at the clock. They all left the boutique to go home for the night.

“Okay, I’ll see you guys later!” Steel said to everypony as they all split up to go home. Rainbow walked next to him. He looked over at her and smirked. She saw this and immediately got a defiant look on her face.

“What?” She said.

“I just find it funny that I keep finding you walking with me after everypony has split up for the night, that’s all.” He responded. Her expression softened.

“Well, I dunno. I guess it’s just because you’re...really cool.” The mare responded. Steel chuckled.

“Thanks Rainbow. You’re cool too.”

“Don’t I know it.” She coyly said. She looked up into the night sky. “It’s a full moon tonight.” Steel regarded Luna’s work as well.

“Yep. Beautiful, really.” They continued walking in silence for a moment before Rainbow piped up.

“Okay, now how could you beat me so easily in that race we had last month, but today, you fall over nearly dead?” She asked him.

“I really don’t know.” He said to her. “Maybe it’s because I haven’t been getting much sleep lately. It could really be a number of things.” Rainbow nodded.

“I was pretty worried when you fell.” She said. “I thought you had tripped. Nothing major. I probably would have made fun of you for it.”

“Good to know.” Steel said. Rainbow giggled and continued.

“But then I saw that you weren’t moving, and I panicked.” She finished.

“Any particular reason you were so absolutely worried about me?” He asked her. They both knew that was a rhetorical question, but for some reason, the stallion loved to make things difficult for her.

“Don’t you dare play stupid.” She said after playfully shoving him as they reached the front door of the forge. “You know exactly why I was so worried.”

“Oh, I’m kinda getting an idea, you might want to tell me explicitly.” He said to the mare.

“Why don't you come closer and I’ll whisper it to you.” She said with her eyes half-lidded, a deep blush gracing her features. The stallion blushed as well, getting closer to her. He leaned down and she put her mouth to his ear.

“I need someone to prank.” She whispered. He immediately became confused.

“You need someone to-” SPLAT! Pinkie Pie, at that moment, dropped an enormous cream pie onto Steel’s head from the front porch roof. The cream flew everywhere and Rainbow and Pinkie howled with laughter and Pinkie fell off of the roof. Steel was just purely and simply surprised.

“Oh!” Rainbow Dash said in between breaths. “Oh, my Goddesses! That was perfect! Nice job, Pinkie!” Pinkie just continued laughing, unable to stop herself. They continued for what seemed like five minutes. Rainbow eventually went and helped Pinkie up.

“Oh, GOSH! That was amazing!” Pinkie nearly screamed.

“I know! The look on his face was priceless!” Rainbow said. They laughed again.

“Thanks for inviting me to do this prank, Dashie! It was perfect. I’m gonna go ahead and go home now. Bye, Steel! No hard feelings!” Pinkie said before she started bouncing off.

“That really was something.” Steel said, wiping cream off his face, a little annoyed.

“Oh, come on, it had to happen eventually.” Rainbow said to him. After a while, she smirked at him. “What exactly did you think I was going to say to you then, Steel?” He huffed.

“Nothing.” He said quickly.

“No, no. You were thinking I was going to say something else, weren’t you?” She said, still giggling.

“Well, obviously.” He responded with a smile.

“What?” She asked.

“I’m pretty sure you know.” He said. Rainbow smiled at him. She took off into the air and did a small loop.

“Bye, Steel.” She said to him. She flitted down closer to him for a moment. “Maybe I really, really wanted to say it.” Steel’s eyes widened and he blushed. She let out a mischievous giggle before taking off into the night sky toward Cloudsdale. He looked after her with fondness.

“Wow.”

_____

Rainbow Dash returned to her cloud home and closed the door behind her. She always expected the door to make a loud slamming noise, but due to the fact that it was a cloud door, it simply molded closed. She ambled to her bedroom to find Tank laying down.

“Today was a good day, Tank.” She said to her pet. He looked up at her slowly. “Steel and me are getting closer, I can feel it.” She settled into her bed and opened her Daring Do novel to read a chapter or two before she went to sleep.

On the ground, however, where everypony was already asleep, one did not sleep. Steel Anvil had just finished cleaning the cream pie off of himself before he settled into his bed. He sat up and waited. His eyes not closing. He couldn’t sleep. He could never sleep.

Obligatory end-of-chapter Author’s Note: Oh! Now why exactly can’t Steel sleep at night? Why can he NEVER sleep at night? I’ve dropped little hints along the way up to this point. But, if you haven’t caught on yet, fear not, it will be revealed in the next chapter. And of course, things are gonna get CRAZY in chapter five. As always, please leave a comment telling me what you think of the story so far. Please be polite with any criticisms. PEACE.