In Pursuit of...

Chapter 13: Igniting the Fire

“Slam!”

Mecha toiled over the forge with Nimbus’s new weapons, sweat beading on his face. Beside him was one of Nimbus’s old blades, split open in an attempt to reverse-engineer it, and make adjustments.

“Slam!”

He worked with a passion, pouring all his expertise into his craft, shaping the metal as if it were some delicate ornament, shaped in the hooves of a carpenter, or perhaps an elegant vase, crafted by a master potter.

“Slam!”

He did this for a brother soldier, one who he felt he could now call a friend, and he would not let up until the task was finished.

“Slam!”

Hammer-beat after hammer-beat he kept up the work. The shape was already coming together nicely. Soon, it would be complete, and then-

“Click!”

“What the?” Mecha exclaimed, looking at his hammer. The last time he’d checked, his hammer most certainly did not go “click.”

“Click!”

Mecha reeled back, temporarily blinded by a sudden flash. This was definitely not his hammer’s doing. As his eyes adjusted, he made out a group of ponies standing in front of him, cameras and mics aimed in his direction. It took him a while before he realized what was going on.

“Pinkie’s documentary crew,” he thought to himself, “I almost forgot about them. They must have caught up.”

He groaned, smacking himself in the face with his hoof. There was no way he’d be able to concentrate with all of this going on.

“… Mecha is understandably a hard pony to track down,” a blue pony said, talking into a camera, “but we’ve managed to catch a glimpse of him here, hard at work in the forge. A little-known fact: Mecha was once voted Miss Equestria due to his forced entry into a beauty conte-“

“Okay, that’s enough!” Mecha roared, twirling the forge hammer. “I’m giving all of you lowlifes twenty seconds to pack up your stuff and hit the road! There’s no place for you here!”

The blue pony who’d been speaking to the camera gulped. The look in Mecha’s eyes told it all- he wasn’t joking.

“I think we can wait a bit,” he said to the others. “Come on, let’s go film some… trees. Yeah, trees.”

…

Nimbus and Rainbow Dash touched down next to the forge. They’d followed the smoke trail there, and both were surprised to see what appeared to be an entire documentary crew filing out. Like Mecha, it took a while for both to register what was happening. Then, for the first time in a while, Nimbus laughed.

“The documentary crew-“ he said, “-the ones hired by Pinkie. That must be them!”

“I wonder how Mecha got them to clear out so fast,” Rainbow Dash asked, hearing the sound of Mecha’s hammer.

“Beats me,” said Nimbus, “but it seems like they’re definitely in a hurry.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, flexing her wings and tossing her mane for a bold cameraman, who raised his camera in her direction. He nodded in appreciation, and seconds later narrowly dodged a hot coal flying in his direction. Shortly afterwards, Mecha stepped out from the forge.

“I can’t stand those ponies,” he growled, “way too distracting.” He looked to Nimbus. “Would you mind following me in here?” he asked, “I’ve got something for you.”

Nimbus nodded, then turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash,” he said, “I can’t thank you enough for going up there with me today.”

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Always glad to help. I’ll be back with the rest of the girls. We should probably head out soon.”

“Right,” said Nimbus, giving his head a quick shake, “we need to be on the move.”

“Bye then,” Rainbow Dash said, walking away.

“I’ll see you later,” Nimbus called, following Mecha into the forge.

“So how’d the flight go?” Mecha asked, opening the forge’s door and beckoning Nimbus in.

“It was good for me,” Nimbus admitted. “I got a lot of things off my chest. I’m ready to go on now.”

“Well that’s great, if not entirely true,” said Mecha, bending down behind a workbench to grab something.

“Not entirely true?” Nimbus asked, “what do you mean?”

“I mean,” Mecha said, smiling and bringing up something covered in a silver cloth, “you can’t go anywhere without these.”

He whipped off the cloth’s cover, and Nimbus almost broke down then and there. In front of him was the most generous gift he’d ever received. On the cloth were two gleaming, silver sheathes, much like his old ones, but shinier. These, however, featured form-fitting contours- much more aerodynamic- and shiny, black straps instead of his old, fading brown ones. The icing on the cake was still to come, however. Looking closer, Nimbus saw something etched faintly into the metal near the hoof: the symbol of the Unifier- his family crest.

“Wow,” said Nimbus, “these are incredible! Mecha, you really shouldn’t have-”

“Put a horseshoe in it,” Mecha laughed, “like I said back in Canterlot, anything to help a fellow soldier. Try ‘em on!”

Nimbus slipped the gauntlet/sheathes on. These were much lighter than his old ones too, it seemed. He started hovering, kicking up dust in the forge. Mecha blinked, and spat the stuff out of his mouth. He wasn’t exactly having the time of his life experiencing the full wingwash of a hovering Pegasus, but seeing his friend’s glee more than made up for it.

“How do I open them?” Nimbus asked, looking at the blades in confusion.

“It’s different now,” Mecha explained. “There’s a switch on each sheath. Just slide it forward with your opposite hoof to extend the blade, and slide it back to retract it.

Nimbus did so, and a shiny, sharp blade snapped out, faster than he could blink. It was fast enough, in fact, that it startled Nimbus, almost forcing him to fall out of the air. He slid the switch back, and the blades retracted just as quickly. With a grin on his face, he landed.

“So,” said Mecha, “what do you think?”

The smile immediately left Nimbus’s face. “Meh, it’s not exactly standard-issue-“

Mecha hung his head. No one had ever been dissatisfied with his-

“It’s better than that!” Nimbus cried out, slapping Mecha on the back. “Thank you so much!”

Mecha smiled, relieved. “No problem. Now that you have the blades, though, there’s something I think we need to do.”

“Oh?” Nimbus asked, raising an eyebrow, “what’s that?”

“Well, I was talking to your parents last night, and they agree with me- you and I might be ready for combat, but I want to make sure the others are, as well.”

“Ah, I see. Are you suggesting sparring?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” said Mecha, “with these!”

He pulled up a bag of weapons, which included several swords of varying lengths, daggers, battleaxes, and two pairs of sheathes like Nimbus’s.

“Who are the other extendable blades for?” Nimbus asked.

“Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, of course,” Mecha said.

“So we’re sparring with real weapons?” Nimbus asked, “isn’t that… you know… dangerous?”

“Nah,” said Mecha, “I do it all the time.”

“All the time? How?”

“Come with me,” Mecha said, leading Nimbus out of the forge, “you’ll find out soon enough. It’s best we get on our way now.”

Nimbus agreed. As Mecha led him around the corner of the house, he saw his parents standing with the rest of the ponies.

“Nimbus,” his father said, “your mother and I know what you have to do. Just promise us you’ll stay safe.”

“I will,” said Nimbus, embracing each of his parents in turn, “this is what I’ve trained for all of my life.”

He turned to his friends. “Mecha’s brought something to my attention. If we’re going up against somepony as powerful as Eclipse, you’re going to need to learn to fight, and not just with hooves-“ Mecha opened up the bag of weapons beside him, “-with these.”

Fluttershy nearly fainted then and there. Nimbus turned to his parents

.

“You used to talk about a place where you went to train when you were young- any chance it still exists?”

“Yes,” his mother said. “In fact, it’s just north of here. Look for a deep ravine.”

“Deep ravine- got it.”

“And be careful,” his father added. “You’re the only son we have.”

“Trust me,” said Nimbus, “I’ll come out of this alive.”

“Then may Celestia bless your trip,” his parents said. Nimbus nodded, embraced them both again, and turned around.

“You heard my parents,” he said, “we’re going north.”

And with his words, the group set out once more, into the unknown.

…

They walked on for a long time. “North,” it seemed, involved going through trees. Lots of trees.

“Remind me why we’re doing this instead of looking at the scroll,” Twilight Sparkle said, untangling herself from a low-lying vine.

“So we’re prepared for whatever Eclipse throws our way,” said Nimbus. “Sometimes nonlethal stuff just won’t cut it.”

Twilight nodded. “Still, we’re wasting an awful lot of time here. Is this ravine close?”

Nimbus shrugged. “From here, I have no clue.” He turned to Rainbow Dash. “Can you fly up and have a look?”

“Back in a jiff,” Rainbow Dash responded, rocketing out of the trees. Nimbus watched her scan the area around them for a moment.

“You guys aren’t going to believe this,” Rainbow Dash called, “but it looks like we’ve been traveling along the ravine for the past twenty minutes.”

Rarity groaned. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“How are we supposed to train with all of these trees around?” Applejack asked.

“I have no idea,” Nimbus replied. “I guess almost all of my parents’ training was done in the air. We really need a big, flat field for a swordfight.”

“A field, you say?” Mecha asked, holding up a red bag with a skull and crossbones very clearly marked on it, “I just may have one handy.”

Nimbus eyeballed the dangerous-looking bag with distrust. “What do you expect to do with that?”

Mecha winked. “Get about a quarter of a mile away, and I’ll show you.”

Nimbus looked at the others, including Rainbow Dash, who had just landed.

“I say we do it!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Right,” said Applejack, “I’m with Pinkie on this one. If this is another one of Mecha’s plans, then I think it’s best if we all hightail it out of here lickety-split.” She took off running.

“Right behind you,” said Twilight. The others left as well, leaving Nimbus standing alone. He took another look at Mecha, who was spreading some sort of glowing green powder on the ground. He then shifted the components of his mechanical leg to create what looked like a striker. He bent down towards the green powder, then took another look at Nimbus.

“I’d move soon if I were you.”

“I’m curious,” said Nimbus. “I’ll stay for as long as you do.”

“Suit yourself,” said Mecha. “I guess I’d better explain what I’m doing, then. This powder is molten Hydra scale. The interesting thing about it is that in its molten form, Hydra scale forms beads, covered by a protective layer which doesn’t conduct heat. That’s why it looks like a powder. It’s really quite grainy. Here’s the kicker, though- the stuff is volatile, and I mean really volatile in its molten state. Remember the fruit stand back in Canterlot?”

Nimbus nodded.

“That was powdered Hydra scale. Much more stable. If you want something gone fast, though, this is what you want.”

He bent down again, and clicked the striker once, emitting a spark. Immediately, the Hydra scale ignited.

“Oh yeah,” said Mecha, “I forgot to ask- I normally hate flying, but can I get a lift?”

“What?” Nimbus asked, “you pick now of all times to ask me that?”

“Can we talk about this later?” Mecha asked, “I’d really rather not be around when this stuff goes up.”

“Which is when?”

“10, 9, 8-“

Nimbus grabbed his friend’s forelegs and took off, racing through the trees.

“You’re insane!” he yelled.

“Thanks, I get that a lot.”

Nimbus finally stopped when he ran into the others, and turned around, just in time to witness just how volatile molten Hydra scale could be. There was a bright flash, followed by a deafening rumble and a massive rush of hot air. Nimbus dug into the ground to keep from getting blown away. To his left, Pinkie Pie was adjusting a massive pair of sunglasses, seemingly not affected at all. Nimbus sighed. Some ponies just had it lucky.

When the light finally died down, Nimbus squinted ahead. There was no way what he was seeing was real. Ten feet ahead was forest. Anything behind it was completely barren and smoking.

“Cutting it a bit close there, aren’t we?” Rainbow Dash asked, shaking.

Mecha grinned. “And that’s how you make a clearing!”