Bronze Tiara

Chapter eight

Standing up on her hind legs on top of a stool with her cloak draping over her backside. Bronze used her talons to pry the broken shards of glass from the window she slipped through the night before. While it was an odd offer to be given after such an act, with the alternative likely being turned in to the local guard station, Bronze couldn’t find a single complaint in the back of her mind.

Looking over her shoulder at Marble in the main display room, he took inventory of what sets he had to sell, and what seemed to be going off the shelves faster than others. The mare watched as he put his trust in her, even after all these years, that she wouldn’t slip out the same window and just take off.

‘I probably could make it out of town before he even noticed,’ she thought for a moment, but looking back at him once more, the once tall mare found herself sulking, ‘then again he has been very welcoming… even after attempted robbery.’

With that last thought she went about her business of cleaning up after herself. The store was closed down for the rest of the day as it seemed, and with an assortment of random parts and supplies in the storeroom she had snuck in. Bronze had all day to put the pieces back together, in some ways more literally than figuratively.

With the sharp edge of her talons, Bronze scored a spare piece of glass, and after several passes broke it along its seam. One of the perks of having metal limbs, you never had to worry about wearing gloves, as the mare handled the still sharp metal with ease and slid it in to the cleaned frame of the pane she broke. A few dabs of wood glue later, and it looked like as she stepped down that there hadn’t even been a break in.

A small chuckle escaped her throat as she looked at her work, “From being a war maiden and supplying nations, to fixing windows,” with a shake of her head Bronze turned around, “Oh how the mighty have fallen.”

“What was that?” Marble asked from the doorway after doing his morning task, looking over her work all he could really give was a sincere nod of approval, “Like I said to Topaz, you’re a little bit of everything.”

Bronze just shrugged her shoulders at the simple task, “It was nothing really, I’m not much of a carpenter, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know my way around.”

Following him to the back room, the mare hadn’t realized just how much of a mess they had made in the short scuffle from the previous night. Tools, parts and miscellanies sets of supplies laid scattered around the various work benches and floor. Shelves that had once held gems found them tossed to the ground like common trash, and even a few of the shelves were crooked on the walls.

“We did all this?” she wondered at first.

“Being tossed around like a rag doll will do that to you,” Marble pointed out and used his horn to pick up several gems at once and placed them in their own cubby slot on a still partly intact shelf, “All that said, things in here I normally have in my own set up, so…” he turned his head and looked at her, “I’ll organize, you store?”

A semi sheepish grin grew on her face as she stepped amongst the mess, “I thought this was supposed to be my punishment?”

“Don’t think of it as a punishment, more of… righting a wrong,” Marble pointed out as he set about putting items together in groups for easier storage, and Bronze went to work on the actual storage places.

The shelves themselves weren’t all in a bad state, better than what it seemed at first glance. Bronze looked over the first few next to the one Marble had placed those first batch of gems on and gathered a parts list of what she’d need to set them right, before going back to the same store room she fixed the window in. Returning with a box of parts on her back, mostly consisting of extra nails and braces. The mare went to work, righting a wrong, as her company put it.

Though after several minutes working in silence, it gave little for her mind to do than wander, something she didn’t want to do in the first place. Bronze shook her head for even thinking about darting off minutes before, after being given a helping hoof that she needed, admittingly or not.

‘I couldn’t do that to him,’ she answered, going through the motions of removing a cracked plank and replacing it with a fresh one, ‘I’ve been MIA for years, and he just goes and lets me in to his home to stay… as a handymare at that.’

Picking up the various gems he had piled up, Bronze started lining them along with the first one on the shelf as she went on repairing. Though with her residing at his place for the time being, one thing pressed itself in her mind the more she thought of his family situation, “Ahh Marble?” she asked over her shoulder, and waited for him to turn, “while I do appreciate the offer to stay and help out, far more than you may realize, what will… the misses say?”

Marble for a second locked up his legs and stood there, dropping the bundle of tools he had in an aura with a clank to the ground. Clumsily the stallion started to scratch the back of his head as his limbs finally relaxed, “That… won’t be an issue.”

“Oh! I’m sorry,” Bronze quickly threw in to the conversation, “I mean if you’re separated, I understand it can be a sore subject.” Once more the mares blood flushed to her cheeks, a crowning reason she preferred machines to work with, “I just wasn’t expecting you to have a daughter there this morning, and I didn’t want her mother to get any wrong ideas.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he went back to picking up the tools, keeping his eyes off the mare. Yet from her keen vision, Bronze could see the tear fighting to leave its home, “Pommel Stone… passed away only a few years after she was born… heart problem.”

Quietly the stallion went back to work, about as mechanically as one of her own automatons would go about killing. Bronze felt her legs stiffen, she never really understood the finer points of social interaction, unless it came to manipulating others to better herself. Basic conversation was always boring, and to say the mare had friends would be a blatant lie in its own right.

This however, she understood the pain he held. Here was a stallion who lost one that he loved, something she could relate to, “I’m sorry, Marble…” she spoke softly, and if only as a gesture to convey her sorrow, placed a careful talon on his shoulder as he once again froze, “I know what it’s like to lose someone close, as you know. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”

With a shake of his head, Marble dismissed her, “No need to apologize, I can understand why you asked,” he assured her with a calm smile across his lips, “if anything I should consider myself lucky… she did pass, sadly, but Topaz is still with me, and in a way Pommel lives in her.”

Bronze, satisfied that she quelled that situation, went back to work with her head held a little higher, “and a wonderful daughter she seems, certainly a questioner.” She recalled back to the barrage she had gotten this morning.

“That’s from her mom,” Marble chortled for a moment, “as well as her eyes honestly.” With that a few more moments of silence followed as they went about their work. Though even with all the years that had passed, the colt felt there was something more to say, “I never did apologize for what happened.”

Bronze stopped and gave him an odd glare, knowing there were about several… dozen, instances in the past where he could and should have said Sorry, “you’re going to have to be a little more specific with that.”

“About your parents,” he went right for the head of the nail and watched as Bronze winced as if struck with the very hammer she was using, “Given how I was back then, I wasn’t sure how to even say it, and by the time I heard about your mom you had already disappeared.”

With a heavy heart, Bronze relived the days following her mom’s passing after her graduation. Aurora had always worked herself to the bone to provide for her after dad died, which gave little time for her needs. Though a pony can only push themselves so far, and after knowing Bronze would be out on her hooves, there was nothing else Aurora could teach her.

She passed in the night with a heavy heart of her own, missing her love Anvil.

Holding it back once more, Bronze clenched the tear till it sucked back in to her eye, not wanting to break down here, “It’s alright… it’s in the past. My dad helped me accept what happened to my mom, I had come to terms with her passing faster than his.”

“Never the less,” Marble said as his ears perked up from the bell to the front of the store ringing, knowing who would be dropping by, “from one that has gone through loss himself, I’m sorry.”

With that she watched him trot out to meet their guest, and as he did the mare could only mutter under her breath, “Thank you.” She said as she held back, refusing to relieve her aching ducts.

Using her horn to hold the board in place with a gentle application of magic. Bronze went back to work driving nails home with her hammer clenched tightly in her talon, slowly but surely the shelf was put back together, and with a nod of satisfaction. The mare turned around to put the gems back, and once again leapt a few feet off the ground.

Topaz sat there watching her work, almost admiring the various movements and steady clanking of her metal digits as they handled tools, “Morning again, Miss Bolt,” she beamed and rocked along on her flank.

“Hello little miss,” Bronze smiled back, finally getting her heart rate under control. Looking over the top of the daughter, Marble stood there snickering at the pair, the mare not even realizing they came back in the room.

“So, you made those yourself?” Topaz asked, looking at the different joints and gems still in her talon. Bronze almost felt obligated as she held out the limb for the little one to examine. Every single rivet that she put in it, every gem fragment placed, and every pound of a hammer was an ounce of care she had tried to instill in her project to keep her mobile.

Bronze almost admired the intrigue the filly was showing for her appendage. Normally most would be fearful, one of the main reasons she wore the cloak to keep a low profile. Topaz though looked at it with nothing but wonder, “Yes I did, took me quite a while to do, but every part of that is my work.”

Topazes’ eyes turned to her peg as she looked over it, almost as if it was night and day compared to its counterpart. “Did you have two of them at one point?”

Bronze shook there for a moment, remembering the feeling of having energy forced in to her limb and over loading the gems placed in it. It may have been an appendage with no nerves, but the mare swore she could feel it being taken from her as if it were actual flesh and blood. “I… did,” she lowered her head slightly, not enough for Topaz to see, but certainly another took notice, “I lost it though, and haven’t been able to fix it.”

“Topaz,” Marble called to her, “be a dear and grab a few more supplies for Miss Bolt from storage, will you please?”

“Sure dad!” with a hop, the filly almost bounced out of the room leaving the adults to talk once more.

“Sorry about that,” Marble said to Bronze before young ears returned, as he kicked the floor beneath him, “questioning as she may be, it does leave little for privacy.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Bronze brushed it off, really not being able to fault the little girl, “I was the same way at her age.”

The sound of what seemed like fireworks grabbed the attention of both them as their ears perked up, moving towards the front of the store. The pair saw several citizens running in the streets, as guards and soldiers alike rushed in the opposite direction. With Topaz returning to them, and wiggling her way up between her fathers’ legs, the filly looked out at the commotion.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Marble wondered to himself, “little early in the day to be doing fireworks.”

“Yeah… fireworks,” Bronze repeated, feeling the growing pit in her stomach already getting deeper as they decided to poke their heads outside for a better look.

Further down the street more citizens darted into their homes, businesses, or even just buildings to get out of the open. Bronze however, along with Marble and Topaz, took the opposite approach and stepped outside as they tried to get a better view of what was going on. Along that street there was little to see, but as they rounded the corner the true scene stood before them.

Several soldiers went back and forth with a group of automatons, all pony versions clad in armor and with melee weapons. The mare noticed one thing though, a few of Serens troops had her old tech, as a unicorn floated a pistol and the gryphon soldier with him held a rifle in his own talons.

‘Grace got those issued faster than I was expecting,’ she admired and lost all concentration as she watched her contraptions go to work, well-oiled just as she intended them to be.

“We should probably get back,” Marble said as he levitated Topaz on to his back, “I’ve been hearing stories about these things, and they are dangerous.”

“Awe! Dad I wanna watch,” Topaz pouted, rather enjoying the display of combat, much to Bronzes’ surprise.

Bronze turned around with them, content to let the soldiers fight her old creations. If they were already being issued her weapons. Then the mare doubted with the stagnate numbers of the automatons that they’d be much of a match for the might of this whole country hunting them down as if they were wild prey.

‘Eventually my tidbit about the weak spot will spread, and with enough bullets they-’ a single shot struck her in the talon, as the slug dug deep in to the metal appendage. Bronze reeled around as she first thought Seren was finally targeting her, though much to her amazement and worry, it was one of her own that took the shot.

There up on a roof stood a gryphon in full armor, head to tail, without so much as a feather left uncovered. What made the sweat trickle down her neck though, was the hollowness behind the visor, and the rifle clenched in its talons. An expert pull of the bolt, and a swift reload later, the gryphon took another aim at her.

“Shit…” Bronze muttered as she got tackled in to an alley, missing the shot by a hair.

Marble took a deep breath as he rolled off his old classmate, and Topaz looked down at Bronze as she laid there unsure what happened. “Are you alright?” the colt asked as he helped the mare to her hooves.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” she shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Whether she liked it or not, she had been made a part of this fight, and was the only one that could likely end it soon. “Look I had run in to these things before… traveling, you need to take Topaz and go back to the store.”

“And what will you do?” he asked, ushering his daughter behind him.

‘Right some wrongs,’ Bronze wanted to say aloud, before reason took over her words, “Try and help those guards,” she said with the utmost of conviction.

Poking her head out of the alley, the gryphon that took the shot kept his eye trained on the corner waiting for her, and with another narrow miss. Bronze felt the brick shatter and spray pieces over her face, “Oh it’s going to be like that is it?” she muttered and ran from the alley, zig zagging her way between shots as the gryphon tried to pick her off.

His eyes though weren’t the only ones fixed on her. With a few of the soldiers now dead, other pony automatons turned their attention to the mare as well and charged. With the first one coming close, Bronze leapt up and stomped her hind legs down on its helmet, sending the tin soldier in to the ground. Her main target had to the be the gryphon, if she could take out the ranged fighter, then the melee ones would be child’s play.

A round lodged in to her shoulder and forced the mare to tumble as she lost her footing. Looking off to another part of the street next to a fruit stand she saw another gryphon sliding the bolt on his rifle back. Though a magic pulse quickly caused the enhanced soldier to seize up with its joints locking. Taking the opportunity, Bronze ignored the other pony creations and went after the rifle barer, and with an expert jab of her peg she found her mark before the gryphon could come too.

Grabbing the rifle with her talon, Bronze slid over a counter top and sheltered in a fruit stand as the one on the roof took another shot. “You’re bleeding,” Marble pointed out as he approached, and hid in the stand with her.

“I thought I said to get back to the store?” she almost snapped at him, not wanting to have his death or his daughters on her mind. Looking at his horn though she noticed the smoke coming off it and put a few things together, “Wait, you shot it?”

“Shock spell, same thing I used on you… just charged it a little more,” he winced there as he felt the headache coming on from using more magic in one go than he was used to, “I saw that other one taking aim and couldn’t let him hit ya.”

“Well… I’m flattered…” Bronze smiled through her annoyance, racked the bolt back and slammed it forward, “Though take care of Topaz.” She said and held the rifle along her peg as a support.

Lining the gryphon on the roof up with her sights, the two stared at one another for a second as they both had the other on target. Bronze was just a hair faster, and she knew the gryphon armors weren’t as thick as her pony creations. The powerful round ran along the gryphons’ own rifle and tore itself through the face plating, and down in to the rune inside. Dropping the creation instantly.

Another pony one jumped counter top of the stand and joined the pair, sword already drawn. Immediately slashing out at the mare, Bronze used the frame of her rifle to block its attacks and deflect them as much as possible. With only having one talon to work with, trying to load another round in the chamber proved nigh impossible, and put her in a rather precarious predicament.

Thankfully though, there was another who had her back.

Shocking the pony just as he had the gryphon, Marble took a knee at the expenditure of energy, though the effect it had on the pony was the same as the gryphon. With its joints locked up for a few moments, Bronze swung the stout weapon like a club and struck it in the helmet as if hitting a homerun. Exposing the rune and gem to her vampiric talents, the mare grabbed hold of the engine that drove it and sucked any and all life from her creation just as she had done to the one in the forest.

With a clatter of its armor to the ground, the mare tended to her counterpart. “Are you alright?” she asked, lifting his head up as he shook.

“Yeah…” he lied though his ever-pounding head, “your hammer hurts worse.”

“I imagine so,” Bronze still managed to chuckle even still given the current situation, “but seriously… go back to Topaz, keep her safe, I’ll be okay.”

Not really being able to argue at the moment due to his headache, the stallion relented and got back up to his own hooves. Checking to see if the coast was clear, he opened the side door to the stand and slipped out to get back to his store and daughter. With Marble gone, Bronze racked another round in the chamber and took aim at another pony coming at her makeshift bunker. Trigger pulled, round shot, tin can dropped. The same sort of repetition that the Diamond Dogs trained into their soldiers when the war was brewing. Bronze just had more time to practice with her own toys.

With Serens soldiers turning the tides using her gifts, and likely getting a few lucky shots in with their weapons. The few automatons left dropped faster and faster, as Bronze heard another shot ring out that wasn’t her own or that of Seren. Scanning the area, a third Gryphon hovered above the town taking pot shots with a rifle.

Given the range Bronze did a few calculations and figured she wouldn’t be able to hit a hoof sized target from this far, a wing on the other hoof… lining up the shot, the round tore in to the canvas appendage. Ripping the fragile metal skeleton of the wing apart, the weight of the armor the gryphon had took over and plummeted it to the ground. Even with its lighter construction to allow them to fly, the mass alone of it crunched the rifle under it and bent the barrel.

Though the creation still rose.

Eying the mare in her cover, Bronze smirked and sighted in the clipped bird of prey.

Click.

“Figures…” Bronze groaned and rolled her eyes.

With three of its limbs still working, the gryphon charged at her as she did the same. Meeting it half way, Bronze pivoted and attempted to buck the armor in the chest. Though its nimbler frame slid and avoided the attack all together. Grabbing on to the mare with its own talons, the gryphon wrapped its grip around her peg and lifted her off the ground, slamming her back down in to the ground.

With a snap, the weld from her makeshift leg gave way, and gave the gryphon a good baton. Seeing the sharp end from the break coming down at her, Bronze rolled to avoid the strikes as the gryphon stabbed the ground beneath her. It was a battle of attrition at this point, all it would take is one slip and she’d have a hunk of metal through her skull.

Thinking on her hooves, the mare swiped the leg of the gryphon and dropped it down to her level. Using her own magical grasp, the old limb was ripped from its own and driven straight through the armor of her attacker. Just as it intended to do to her. With its limbs now still, Bronze hoisted herself up to her flank and sat there for a few more seconds as she caught her breath.

A shadow approached from behind her, as she heard the metal clanking getting louder with every step. Clenching the metal rod in her talon, Bronze waited for the target to get closer before she made her move. Kicking up on her hind legs, the mare whipped herself around and brought the rod to her attackers’ head.

Before bringing it to an immediate halt.

Glimmer Knight stood there with his hooves up in defense, “Easy there, Miss Edge.”

Looking past him, she could see that the rest of the automatons were wiped up. Leaving just a dozen or so battered, bruised, and shot up guards left standing. Easing herself down, the mare relaxed as she tried to balance herself on three legs once more. “I take it my advice worked,” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Marvelously,” the soldier remarked with a smile, as he noticed the wound still bleeding from her shoulder, “Wait you’ve been hit,” Gimmer jumped up to her side and gave her some support, “come with me, I’ll get you to our medic.”

“It’s quite alright…” Bronze tried to push away, if only to not complicate matters. Though with the rush of the fight now leaving her, the pain in her shoulder finally started to ring home as she clenched her teeth and stumbled. “Okay, maybe a little painkillers will do.” Letting the colt lead her off, the mare looked back to the fallen gryphon automaton once more.

It was of her own creation, of her own design, and her own will. Yet she wasn’t commanding this one, and they weren’t supposed to have been around still. Only one thing pinged in the back of her mind as she watched the hollowness of the helmet there on the ground, and the lack of the soul she never gave them.

‘Are you out there too?’ she asked only to herself.

***

With a medic bandaging her shoulder, and a few pills working their way in to her system. Bronze laid there in the medics’ tent that had been set up shortly after the attack by the local barracks. Glimmer had left to attend to other matters, which the mare was thankful for, ever glad she didn’t have Marble wondering why she was being called Miss Edge.

Said colt had found her shortly after the fighting stopped, and with Topaz there along her side, the older mare just relaxed and let the professional do their work. “There we are,” the gryphon commented, as he used a pair of forceps to pull the round out from her flesh and deposited it on a tray.

“I appreciate it, sir,” Bronze winced from the site as the round was removed, barely feeling any of the pain from the medication.

“Oh, just doing my job,” he waved off, as he grabbed a few bandages, and went to work patching her up more. With a liberal amount of ointment and gauze, the gryphon started wrapping up and around the upper part of her limb, taking subtle glances at her false one. “That is quite exquisite,” he admired the talon that reflected his own, “who did your work? If I may of course.”

Before Bronze could answer, Topaz jumped in on her behalf, “She did!” the filly said proudly, leaving the mare biting her own lip from the outburst, “Miss Bolt made them all by herself.”

“Really now…” the gryphon took a closer look at the craft work that went in to them, “My that is impressive,” his eyes trailed from the metal to the tattered cloak she wore, “I know I wouldn’t be keeping something like that under a vail, they are remarkable after all, it’d be a shame to hide such works of art.”

“I’ll consider it… maybe,” she answered with a worrisome grin, knowing that she hides them for other reasons. ‘Although, if he isn’t calling for me to be arrested now, or killed,’ she considered while the gryphon continued, ‘perhaps I am in the clear.’

“He does have a point,” Marble said while she threw the idea back and forth in her mind, “They are striking, and it’d be a shame to hide them away.”

“… Maybe if I can get the one repaired,” she held up her stump in longing.

Being handicapped was no stranger to the mare, but to be missing her wings, and one of her legs still was a thorn in her side. The wings she could do without, at some time or another she’d get back to the drawing board and fix those up. Her talon however, that was something she missed more than anything, even if just for the convenience of daily life.

“Hmm… I might be able to help with that one,” Marble pondered as the mare questioned him without a word.

‘What are you planning?’

“Alrighty, all patched up,” the gryphon said proudly as he taped the bandage down and examined it once more, “keep the wound clean and you should be right as rain.”

“Much appreciated again, doctor,” Bronze thanked him again, before getting picked in an aura.

With relative ease Marble levitated the mare up and on to his back as she hung over his sides, but before she could make any sort of protest, she found a hoof held up to her mouth. “You might be fiercely independent. However, I’m not letting you walk all the way back to the house on three legs,” the stallion answered and silenced her, “the shops already closed, and anything more to fix can wait. So, don’t worry.”

“… Fine,” Bronze lightheartedly rolled her eyes at him, as they left the tent and headed back. Topaz with her front row view of the helpless mare looked at her from behind her father, giggling all the way.