Chapter twenty-seven

“You look just lovely,” Marble reminded the mare of that fact, for what felt like the hundredth time.

Bronze meanwhile fiddled with some of the plates along her limbs, making sure all scratches were in fact buffed out for the occasion. “You’re just saying that,” she exhaled on one plate and wiped the fog away, “I don’t know who else would be here at dinner, and I’d like to at least not look like I just got out of a scuffle.”

“Oh please,” Marble started chuckling from his seat, “With that on, they’d think you were ready for the Winter Ball…”

The mare looked down to the adornment that he had… gifted too her, after a little tip off from Ashburn at the store. The same diamond cut citrine in the center simmered with her eyes just like the day she first saw it in the mirror. As the blood stones on either side matched the heart, she had gifted to him, and the new life in return she’d been given. It was a small memento from when they’d first crossed paths, and one that his employee was all too willing to tell of the shine she’d taken to the piece.

To others it was an item with a price tag, for the mare, no price could match what it meant to her.

Topaz however, nearly bounced in her seat as she watched some of the landscape pass by during their train ride. Under any normal occasion, the filly would have been hunched over a toilet. This time around though, the young one could barely keep herself still while waiting for the capital to come in to view.

And that it did… silently she exclaimed their arrival and her joy with a pointing of her hoof.

True to her word, both Bronze and Marble looked beyond the window and saw the shimmering spires that the city was known for, getting closer by the minute as their train made its final approach. For a moment, the mare recalled the few times recently she looked upon the beacon to the nation.

Once when she was preparing to reign hell upon it with her airship, and the second when she was darting towards the castle itself to save another.

Bronzes’ eyes trailed past the spire almost lost in space, as a small smile started to grow on her. ‘This time it’s at least for better reasons,’ she sufficed, and as the train pulled in to the station, the mare plucked the package off the bench across from her and Marble.

Once their ride finally came to a stop, all the bustle of creatures from the cars piled off. Leaving the trio to walk upon the station as part of the group. Crowded or not, one in particular had their eyes out for the likes of them. A talon tapped upon the shoulder of the mare, and for a second Bronze whipped around as if expecting an attack. Instead, she saw one from her past, though she couldn’t set where.

“Miss Bolt,” the gryphon nodded too her, ignoring her questioning gaze before turning his eyes towards those she had in tow, “and I’m assuming this is Mister Marble, and his daughter Topaz?”

“You would assume correct,” the colt held out his hoof to the burly avian, “are you here to escort us?”

Another nod from the gryphon answered that question, “That I am, call me Egyes.”

There is where it finally clicked to the mare, and her eyes shot open, “Wait… you’re the one that was with Iron in the kingdom!” steadily she watched as his grin grew, and with a beckoning of his lead, they started to follow him towards the castle.

“How right you are, and now I’m the assistant to her majesty,” his eyes turned from the mare onwards to the road, “You know, after her old assistant bit the dust.”

Bronze chomped on the lower part of her lip. Bookworm and assistant or not, a dragon was still a dragon, and there really was only one thing in the kingdom at the time that would have done him in. ‘Add another tally to the chart,’ she scorned herself, before considering that Silvertongue did completely betray the princess and her trust. Him being killed by her automatons was likely a better outcome than being on the run constantly from Seren, “Hmm… where had I heard that mindset before?” she kicked herself for a moment.

The calm walk through the streets of the city on towards their destination let one’s mind wander, and the mare couldn’t help but let the various images of how tonight could play out go through her mind. Invited to the castle or not, pardoned by the crown itself, and even now walking freer than a prisoner out on a technicality.

The twang of guilt still resonated in her chest for all she had done, no matter what she’d tried to correct. As many times as it was reminded to her over the last several days, even by the one wearing the crown itself. To Bronze, it wouldn’t take more than a bad morning and Grace to say nay and have her in a cell… or the gallows.

‘Breathe… it’s in the past now,’ Bronze told herself, repeating all the reassurances from the princess she’d gotten, and that she was doing better, ‘And…’ her eyes rolled across those that joined her on the ride here, as the father tried to keep his kin from skipping off through the streets of the city, ‘as undeserving as it is, I have everything I could have hoped for.’

“Well now that’s a big old smile,” Topaz finally got under enough self-control to settle down and join back with them as they went, noticing the expression about the mare, “Whatcha thinkin’?”

Bronze shook her head to get back to the real world, but kept the same face, “Oh, nothing… just of the roads I’ve been and paths I’ve walked,” Topaz might have let that vague answer fall on flat ears, but the colt by her side took note of it. Pulling her in ever so slightly closer with a tug of his horn.

“Roads… that lead you back here,” he gave her a peck on the cheek, making the receiving mare giggle like a filly, and the filly herself teasingly gag at the affection.

“Ugh…” Topaz spat her tongue out at the two, “I thought you two would have gotten enough of that last night.”

Just as the pair stopped themselves from the fillies’ remark, they heard the hearty chuckle of another at the lead. Egyes stifled the end of his beak with a wing, but try as he might, it still managed to reach the stricken pair, “Wasn’t expecting that one,” he pounded his chest to let the last of the laugh out, “though, we’ve arrived.”

Marble looked up to the building in front of them, not the castle like he would have expected, still the place wafted that sense of pristine and glamour off it. As Egyes held the door for them, Bronze noticed that most of the dining area was clear, save for the few waiters and waitresses still walking about.

“Hmm popular place, wouldn’t you say?” Bronze snickered to herself.

“Actually, it is,” Freefall showed up from past the corner, “her majesty just knows the owner, and had them open up a tad earlier than intended.”

“Stop calling me that,” Bronze heard the voice of a familiar Pegasus say, as her party rounded the corner and in to view, “you’re not even in uniform, and I don’t have any of my regalia on.”

Princess Grace snorted with a grin at the broken Pegasus for his remark, as she took a few coltish swigs of wine from her glass. There at the head of the table, Bronze counted the remaining seven-seater, and took note of the empty row of three next to Grace.

“Princess Grace!” Topaz called, before stopping and giving her best bow.

“And you most certainly don’t have to do that,” Grace giggled at the gesture, “though it’s appreciated.”

With some pep in her step, the filly found her seat right next to the princess, before being levitated to the middle. Sat now between Bronze and Marble, Topaz crossed her hooves in a tuff, letting the older mare take her place by the head. Sliding the package under her seat. Though, one thing stuck out to Bronze finally as she did another count.

“Wait a second…” she looked around the table again, as Egyes joined across from them next to Free, leaving one seat left, “is he-”

“Here?”

The mutter in her ear almost shot the mare out of the chair and in to the ceiling. Only a pair of hooves kept her from running except for in place, as they pushed her back down to her rump. There to the side of her, in the shimmering light she saw something she knew quite well show up. Irons’ hoof tapped the chest gem, and with that the cloaking spell withered away to revile his place, and even make the other two Bronze had brought jump a bit.

“Surprised to see me?” the emerald colt sneered, before a wing smacked the side of his armor making him wince.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to do that?” Grace pressed him with, and all the colt could do was shrug.

“I wanted a little fun here, went through the whole trouble of putting this thing on just for that moment,” Iron proclaimed as he rounded about Grace and took the seat next to his mare. Happily giving her a kiss as he took the helmet off with his hooves and set it next to the legs.

The princess turned back to the mare that still hadn’t quite found her words just yet, “You’ll have to forgive him, I didn’t expect him to be wearing the armor at dinner.”

With a shake of her head, Bronze got back to her, “I completely understand,” her eyes turned towards the colt that had remained a thorn in her side, still not having quite let that hatchet bury, “after all, he did need it to take me on last time.”

Iron just had to grin back at her, “Awe didn’t expect you to be so sour about your wings, after I plucked them off,” his eyes took note of the new set along her back.

“Oh, these new ones are just fine, though tell me…” her expression matched his own, and then some, “how’s your horn?”

A waiter stood there with their notepad and quill in the grasp of their own horn, stricken at the comment having seen what had happened to the colt when he first entered of the nub that remained. Just as he stood still, so too had those others at the table. All of them, looking at one another with only half glances, as they waited for one of the aggressors to make a move against the others jugular.

Instead, they got a laugh.

“Alright, I’ll give ya that,” Iron held up a glass in his hoof, toasting it to the mare as they both threw their heads back.

Bronze, after breathing a sigh of relief, clinked hers against it, “I’ve had a lot of time to think of that one, trust me,” she looked over his suit, still just as rugged as when she’d last saw it on the bridge of her craft, “Though how did mine fair when attached to you? Work well enough? Could you control them?”

“You’re not thinking of any new designs are ya?” Iron cocked his eye, “I heard about some of those other creations you’d dealt with, and I’d hate to see them sprout up again like weeds.”

Sheepishly, Grace kept her mouth shut as she munched on a bread roll, careful to keep her eyes adverted from the mare in question, “Oh no, absolutely not…” Bronze waited for the colts’ eyes to wane, “made that mistake once, and I have something good for me right now.”

Iron let his vision go from her, to the ones she’d brought along, and with that confirmation his eyes softened. “Little rugged at first, responsive sure, but that energy in them drained mighty quick.”

“You didn’t have means to control it properly,” Bronze recounted his horn, “Plus, you couldn’t so much guide the energy and reuse it like I could.”

“Though pray tell, why the curiosity?”

Grace, after letting the roll settle, found it her time to pipe up, “That would be because of me…” she noted the package her fellow mare had brought along, ushering Bronze with a wing, “Are they done?”

“Just need to be attached, won’t be a pretty process,” Bronze looked over to the covered stumps of the broken Pegasus, “but certainly is a step in the right direction, and whenever he’s ready… I’ll be around.”

Free looked to both the mares, finally watching the package from the plated mare float up with a whisk of her horn. Getting up from her seat, Bronze trotted to the side of the table. As the tape fell, the box soon joined it, and there in her aura stood the work of several hours in to the night by the pair working in tandem.

Brass veins stretched underneath the sunset stained canvas, perfectly matching his coat. At the joints, steel rivets held together all the parts to ensure its user would get a long life out of them, before any maintenance would even need to be considered. Though, what really drew the attention of the colt, were the emeralds scattered across its frame in their own cut out pockets.

Each of them had that glowed just spelling out they were ready for business, and as Free ran his hoof over the craftwork, he had yet to find even so much as a syllable to voice what he felt. So in its place, he showed it. With the pair still held in Bronzes’ aura, Free wrapped his hooves around the mares’ shoulder. Pulling her in tight, and taking the wind from her lungs.

“Thank you…” he whispered, trying to hold back the flow that demanded to press forth from his eyes, “Just… Thank you so damned much,” Free managed to sniffle out, as Bronze just tried to hold her own waterworks in.

“It’s the least I could do, actually,” she fondly looked at her cocreator, “the least both of us could do.”

With Free now holding on to a set of wings, Bronze got back to her seat as the waiters came out and did their duties. Topping off the rolls, and filling their waters up, they took the numerus drinks down for those attending. Some a little harder than others, as both Iron and Grace opted for the harder selection in celebration of their mutual friends’ gift.

“I would have made them,” Iron said, again.

“I know you would have,” Grace snickered, also, again, “and as Free said, he just wanted simple ones, no bells and whistles.”

“I can do simple… kinda.”

“Oh, don’t kid yourself,” the princess rolled her eyes to her colt, having already become fluent in that motion over time. Though now that was done, she turned to the two that made it happen, “Thank you again, for doing that… I know it couldn’t have been easy to get those together on short notice.”

Both those that had their hooves, and talons, in the project just shrugged their shoulders in tandem. “I did already have the designs,” Bronze pointed out.

“And I had the supplies,” Marble followed suit.

“And I had a handsome assistant,” the mare added as she fluttered her eyes, watching said assistant clam up for a moment, “plus, a lot of coffee works wonders.”

As a few appetizers were brought out to wet their pallets. Egyes and Iron now looked over the new additions to their friend in greater details, as Topaz dug in to the stuffed mushrooms. Leaving Grace to give credit where it was very well due, “And you’ll be receiving payment in the mail here soon,” Bronzes’ ears splayed back not wanting to make sure she heard all that, but before she could say anything, the hoof of a princess silenced her, “and doing better as you might be trying, this was still a tall order, and you pulled through… that deserves just pay.”

Bronze just crossed her talons, “Okay, fair enough.”

“Though that does beg the question, what will you do now?” Grace proposed the same question Bronze had been asked by the king.

Said mare looked to the colt across from her, and then to his kin that joined them. Both of their beaming faces, even as the father wiped his daughters’ face of cheese, gave her more than enough reason to not take that cliff dive again. Sure, helping him in any endeavors would be worthwhile, especially if it still got her talons dirty. Even if it all started with her helping around the house.

Though will that be enough to satisfy her?

“It’s hard to imagine, really…” she started to consider all the possibilities, given her talents, “I could work on new designs, if the crown would be interested,” Bronze watched as Irons’ ears perked along with his mares’. “Although weapons might be my forte… I don’t know if I want to do that all the time.”

Grace just started to nod, taking a sip of her scotch, “That I can understand, and given your skills, I might know a few creatures who would benefit… in much the same way Free there did,” together they looked at the colt, and the sheer happiness he wore while holding those of which he’d lost. “If you’re interested, of course.”

Bronze let the idea mull over in her head, and with Marble looking to her with a steady nod, that process didn’t take that long to figure out the only real answer she could give, “let me know their information, and I’ll see what I could do,” from that alone, she saw the joy in Graces’ own face that some of her citizens would once again feel whole.

“Your parents would have been proud,” Bronze heard muttered across from her by a colt, as Iron sipped on his own glass. Though as he did, her eyes grew ever more curious. With a chuckle, and a free hoof, Iron reached in to one of the pouches on his suit, pulling out a piece of paper.

One Bronze had seen before.

There amongst her talons, was the one picture she had left of them. A simple family photo, a Pegasus mother sat against a tree as she cradled her foal, an earth pony mare. All the while, the unicorn, stood nearby and relished in the view of his own little family. Bronze had held back tight while giving Free his wings, though this was too much, to see her parents again.

‘Child of mine, you’re going to do great things in life… you just don’t know it yet,’ the words echoed once again to her, this time with a smile, ‘and I’m on the road, to do just that,’ she held the picture close to her chest, and looked upon the colt that had brought it. No words needed to be said, as all Iron and she did was just nod.

He knew what it meant to her, but what he didn’t know was one thing, “Why’d you leave it though?”

Bronze wiped her nose and eyes clean before answering, much to the anticipation of those others at the table who’d seen the change in the mood. “Do you really think I expected to last long out there?” all those there remained silent, “at least in the end, I wanted somepony to remember me…”

“Oh, I think there’s somepony who won’t forget,” Marble reminded her, forcing a blush from the mare.

Topaz on the other hoof, just threw her hooves up in defeat, “Okay, it was cute when you both wouldn’t admit it, now it’s just not fun anymore!” With a snicker from the rest of the table in response to the filly. Bronze took it upon herself to pull the filly in to an embrace, garnishing a torrent of giggles.

Though without her fathers’ aid, Topaz remained at the mercy of the mare, “You’re just upset because I called a penalty during your little game.”

“I was in bounds!” Topaz tried to squeal out, as the talons of the mare tickled at her sides.

“And I was the ref, I make that call,” Bronze reminded her.

Soon enough, the filly relented, and as she tried to suck in the air once lost. Another at the table remained silently observing the two, before finally throwing in his two cents, “Wow, talk about whiplash,” Iron interjected, drawing the pairs attention. “I mean to go from what I’d experienced of you,” he tapped the end of his horns stump, “to goofing off with a filly.”

“Hmph… Whiplash would be seeing you with a foal of your own,” Bronze threw back.

Before Iron could throw in his rebuttal as being a teacher, another jumped on his case, “Actually, I don’t think we’d talked about that before,” Grace watched her colt stop cold in his tracks, as she mustered the sultriest sneer she could, “so… when’d you like to start on that conversation?” the mare twirled some of her drink in the glass, as she watched the blood leave from the colts’ face.

Try as they might, those at the table couldn’t help but laugh at the stallions’ blunder, leaving Iron on his own little island. Until, he threw out a line, “how about after, our little rematch?” his glare turned to the mare in question, “I saw you upgraded your gems… and now you don’t have my horn to exploit.”

Bronze looked to him, and his suit, wondering just how much work he could put in to it without a horn. Though if he was managing just fine right now, and threating her none the less. Who knows what he’d be capable of? As she turned to those that joined, Grace just covered her face still holding a smile at her colt, Free and Egyes kept looking between the two of them, Topaz about looked ready to go find a boxing bell to ring, and Marble…

Marble just looked at her smirking, “Hmm… I wouldn’t be opposed to staying in Boralus for a few days, call it a mini vacation,” his grin grew a bit, “though let’s eat first.”

That proclamation was all the mare needed, as her eyes locked on the colt across from her, “oh, you are so… on.”

The end

Author's Note

Alas, we've come to the end... To those few of you who actually follow me, and made it this far. Might not have lived up to some of your expectations, but if I got at least one person to enjoy it. Then I did all right. Thank you for at least giving the story a chance.