Bronze Tiara

Chapter three

Given how the last few days have been for the mare, to actually wake up in a bed rather than half drowned or up in a tree is a mile stone she can thank her lucky stars to have. With the light of the rising sun peaking its way through the blinds and across her face. Bronze found her eye lids pressing tighter and tighter together to try and stave off the inevitable, and enjoy the accommodations at least for another hour or two. Though the kicking at the base of her bed quickly took that idea and heaved it down a well.

Flopping to the side of her bed, Bronze pushed off the covers reluctantly as she got to her feet… and peg. With a loud yawn and a joint popping stretch, a nerve twanged in the back of her head with a small shot of pain to go with it.

“Never… try sleeping in a tree again,” she muttered and rolled her shoulders, feeling the night a few days ago coming back to haunt her with a vengeance.

The mare walked towards the restroom, ignoring all else in the room as she splashed cool water across her face and glared at herself in the mirror. Stellar had reason to be frightened given how she looked. The injuries from the day’s past did a number on her with discoloration of her coat from the bruises, to the fresh scar tissue that started to form from the many cuts and scrapes she picked up.

A knock at the door made the mare jump as she heard the handle trying to open, “Housekeeping,” a mare called out from the other side.

Acting fast Bronze slid against the door and held it in place, “Ahh sorry miss! Little indecent right now,” she responded.

“Oh! my apologies,” the mare on the other side of the door answered, “Well if you need any fresh towels, I’ll be making my rounds, just let me know ma’am.”

Bronze thanked the mare and waited with an ear pressed against the door as she heard the hoof steps going down the hall. With a sigh of relief, she grabbed her cloak, and swung it over her ready to head out in to the open world once more, a little direction in mind.

The muffled yelp though quickly grabbed her attention, as she looked over towards the one that unwillingly helped her last night. Stellar laid there still half in a daze, but upon seeing her once more the colt snapped out of any and all hangover he might have had and back to the real world. With no way to untie himself from the makeshift bindings made from a few bed sheets, the colt could only tremble and watch as the mare walked up to him with all the grace of a siren going in for the kill.

“Don’t worry there, Stellar,” the tantalizing mare almost hummed to him, and ran her talon against his cheek, “I already got what I needed as it is… you’ll be able to get out once back to your full strength.” If only to add the icing on the cake, and maybe thank him in a sort of way. Bronze planted a solid kiss against his horn.

With a roll of his eyes to meet the back of their sockets, the colt once again went limp and hit the floor. Allowing the mare to look at him in with only a small chuckle to escape her lips, as she made her escape through the room’s door. However, not before putting the do not disturb sign out front.

Leaving the guard to his own devices, Bronze trotted amongst the town goers as much as she could to blend in this time around. With it being significantly busier this morning than it was yesterday, she reasoned getting lost in the crowed would help draw little attention to herself from the guards out roaming around for her creations.

Though for all the tech she had created in the past, the layers upon layers of planning that went in to the orchestra she set up between three nations, and all the conniving ways she might possess. Bronze never put in to the thought of one thing…

“What do I do now?” she asked herself while walking among the crowed.

Her life was dedicated to getting revenge on those that waged a pointless war over crops, ore, and other resources that they could have gone to outsiders for. Instead, those three nations decided to turn on one another like savages, and try to squeeze the life out of the one country she harbored herself in at the moment.

She couldn’t go to the Diamond Dog Republic. Regardless of how she turned her creations against those she once helped. The dogs would tear her limb from limb for simply being a pony. Plus, she was in no shape to try and deal with their harsh terrain. The Gryphon Kingdom was off limits in her book as well, they were probably too busy trying to take care of the automatons just like the DDR were. Though the gryphons had seen her around much more frequently and likely would have pieced together that she needed her head on a pike.

Bronze never thought she would have survived the fall of those nations should her plans had gone completely through without a hitch. Even if they didn’t and she was found out. Bronze thought for sure she would have wound up dead once way or another. Teleportation or not, she hadn’t expected to survive all that long outside the airship. A gryphon talon through her skull, a diamond dog crushing her in its paw, or even one of Serens beheading her on the spot.

Now she found herself in an odd sort of purgatory. The guards seem to be more focused on hunting down her creations and not her for the time being, if they had even been given orders to do so. There aren’t many who would even dream her being alive, except for maybe one colt. While to add to all that, she’s worked herself further and further away from the capital where there are even fewer to try and capture her should it come to that… her future plans were in a fog, but that hadn’t meant she was about to go belly up without a fight.

Moving towards a familiar establishment, Bronze opened the door to the general store once more as the colt there moved a few boxes along his back. “Well good morning there miss,” he said with the tip of his head, “Surprised to see ya here, I figured you would have already been on your way.”

“Oh, I aim to be soon,” Bronze smiled back at him, having learned that being polite draws far less attention to oneself, “Though I am still unfamiliar with these parts of Seren it would seem, and was wondering if you might have a map of the local region?”

Shuffling his beard with a hoof, he thought back to his entire inventory as is displayed itself in his head. In a few moments a hoof shot out from under him, as he pointed to one aisle, “third shelf down on the right. They aren’t the best, but they can get you to where you need.”

Bronze nodded in thanks and went to check them out. Unfolding one carefully with her talon, the stallion was right. They may not have been the most detailed, but they did give her roads, towns, even basic terrains here and there.

“Where are ya headed?” he poked his head around the corner, “If I might ask, perhaps I can save you a bit or two by just pointing ya in the right direction.”

With a gentle shake of her head, Bronze dismissed the offer, still figuring it all out for herself. “While I appreciate it kind sir, I do plan on moving about for quite a bit… I’ve been looking to stretch my legs.” She lied as sweetly as she could to the colt.

“Ahh an adventurer I see,” he chortled there for a moment before heading over to the main counter, “Whelp best get that out of your system while you’re still young there miss.” With a few taps of the register, he turned back to her, “That’ll be two bits, unless there’s anything else you might need for the road.”

Bronze reached in to the pockets on the cloak and pulled out the swiped coin, “No, that’ll be all sir.” She answered with a nod, and a farewell before heading back out in to the street to try and get her bearings before heading out.

Looking over the map one thing was clear. Traveling by water way while unconscious was certainly the way to go if given the chance. ‘I’ve really gone that far?’ she asked herself, using the crude scaling on the map to measure out about twenty miles from the capital. Looking around the map though, she found the nearest town was only several miles more away, and while she may be scraping by for the time being. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t dealt with before.

“Whelp, let’s hit the road,” she said to herself as she tucked the map in the cloak pocket next to her tool.

Clanging metal and shouts snagged her attention as she turned towards the road. Curiosity still drew her towards the sound of the commotion. It wasn’t hard to find, just follow the citizens that were running to their homes, and go the opposite direction. Rounding a corner, Bronze immediately ducked back in to cover as she poked her head around to watch the site that started to erupt in the town’s open marketplace.

A few of her automatons seemed to have made it all the way here, and were giving some of those that patrolled the streets a run for their money. Steel blades met rugged armor as those creations of hers swung their own edge. With little information to go on about how to combat them, her automatons made short work of those that stood before them.

One after the next, guards fell left and right to the blades created by her own mind, and in the back of her mind the body count on her talon started to rise once more. “It’s scary how ruthless I made them,” she smiled at her own craftponyship, feeling all the pride of an artist after finishing a canvas.

Shrugging her shoulders, Bronze once again turned towards the road. It wasn’t her fight, it wasn’t her town, and she had no loyalties to those guards. The only thing she had to keep an eye out on was her own-

“Daddy!” the scream pierced her ears as Bronze whipped around.

There slumped against a cart laid an injured colt, sliced across his leg and unable to get anywhere fast. While curled up to his side a colt shook his dad to get up and away from those attacking, completely unaware of the automaton that made its way closer and closer to finish the father off. A nerve of familiarity switched on in the back of her mind, bringing up a memory all too close to home for her.

‘It’s… not my fight,’ Bronze told herself, as she felt her hooves picking up speed.

It wasn’t.

‘I should walk away,’ she answered in herself while she took a leap.

She should.

‘I’m going to lose my life acting like this,’ she said while bringing back the talon into a fist.

She might, but not before saving one.

Rocketing her clenched fist in to the helmet of the tin soldier. The straps holding it in place snapped like liquorish and left the rest of the body stumbling from the surprise impact. Bronze looked down its hollow neck at the rune imprinted on the metal, with a charged gem in its center to give it life.

Grabbing hold of the gem with her talon, with a quick rip she held the gem in her grasp and drained what little energy was in it to hold her over for the fight. With nothing now to power it, the armor tumbled off to one side and went still.

Looking to the fallen colt and his son, the father shoved his son behind him away from the strange mare. “Please…” he winced from the pain, while pressing a hoof to the open wound, “Don’t… hurt him.”

Cocking one eye brow up, Bronze tilted her head in confusion, “I’m… not going to… I wanted to help.”

The eyes of the mare looked at the colt shuddering behind his father as he looked back up at her in fear, before regarding what seemed to be the fallen creation of hers, and then her own talons. Shared craftsmanship that bore striking resemblance to the scrapped suit of armor.

‘I’m not like them…’ she wondered for a moment.

The clanking of metal though behind her started to grow with every step they took. Turning about Bronze found that while the guards may not have known of their true weak points, they still managed to get a lucky shot in here and there before the last one of Seren fell. All that remained were two more tin soldiers, and with no sign of any guards coming from the streets, they looked to be all hers.

Deflecting a swing of a sword with the peg. The tip of the soft metal cleaved off and left her with a dull point as she grabbed hold of the blade with her talons. Ripping the weapon free from its owners’ grasp. The mare slashed in wide swings to keep them away from the pair behind her, and Bronze steadily backed them up as they avoided her own wild attacks. While one may be disarmed, the other grasped on to its own spear waiting for an opening.

With an over swing on her part, it found it. However, a thrust from its spear ended with it being cleaved in half, and the mare grinned at the strength her limbs gave her. Though even with that loss, the automaton took a play from its creators’ book and still stabbed at her with the pike. Landing a solid strike against her hind leg. Twisting the tip in deeper, Bronze grunted in pain as she bucked against the creation and knocked its grip clean from the shaft.

Using her magic to rip the tip from her, she shot it back at the assailant with the precision of an archer and drove the point deep in to its neck and the glyph on the inside. With one more down and one to go Bronze felt the full weight of her creation as it tackled her to the ground with its heavy form, knocking the blade from her grasp as well.

Punching wildly, the mare was forced to swing her head side to side to avoid the strikes that would likely cave her skull in with one hit. Charging up her horn, a bolt of energy lanced its way from her temple and struck the automaton in its forehead. Not nearly enough to finish it off, but more than enough to take it off guard.

With a daze of confusion forcing its stumble. The creator rammed her makeshift peg leg in to its neck. Dropping the tin soldier for good as she withdrew her crude weapon and steadied herself against the ground.

Trotting of hooves echoing down the street told her only that more guards should be on their way, and she didn’t feel like having to explain how she managed them so easily. With one last look at the stallion struggling to his hooves and leading his son away to safety. Bronze started to back petal to the same road she had planned to leave from not moments ago. As a group of guards came in to view and saw some of her handywork.

They may have been shouting for her to stop, running away from piles of bodies and empty suits of armor did look a tad suspicious after all. However, Bronze didn’t hear them on her tail either, as she beat her limbs against the ground and put some distance between her and the town.