Forging Daylight
Chapter 1
"You’re probably wondering about my wings... well I was born with a certain birth-defect, where my wings have too many joints, rendering them useless to fly... We'll I was only slightly picked on until I found my special talent, blacksmithing! Once I found out that I was good at shaping metal, I made some custom wing braces to hold my wings and stop them from bending oddly. The braces have joints where normal wings would so I can keep them folded. And since I still can't fly, I clipped my feathers to make em' look bucking awesome! Don't hurt my chances with the ladies either!”
“Since I couldn't naturally excel in P.E. or sports in school like other peagusi (no flying), I decided to focus on other things and basically forget about half of my specie’s natural abilities (like flying). I got really interested in Languages, I was terrible with em', but they interested me, but being the thoughtful and AHDH pony I am, I began to wonder about where they came from instead of how we used them. If Fancy, Equine, and Stallionish, are diverged from Latin, where did Latin come from? I started looking... I traced languages, and their predecessors, back through recorded history, and then I got lazy and guessed where the first language was developed... (I guessed Canterlot. Large, Old, successful, civilization... Why not, right?) So now I was stuck... I hit the end of recorded history... I didn't know where to turn to now... So I eventually lost interest in my little project for a couple of years and focused on my blacksmithing job. THEN BOOOM!!!! IT HITS ME!!! Why not ask somepony who was probably there? Namely the Princesses... So I took a little vacation to Canterlot for a week or two, no one would really care cause I ran my own business and had some saved bits, and gave forewarning to my regular clients in Ponyville. And OFF I GO! ADVENTURE!!!
I make it to Canterlot by train, got me a nice cozy room with another traveler. A chestnut stallion, nice enough guy. He knew a lot about languages so we hit it off, then we started talking about the possibility of alien languages and where they evolved from (if they existed). He got off a couple of stops before Canterlot, said he was looking for some wall-eyed blond mare with the key to his out-house or something... sounded kinda like Derpy but he was getting off at Richmared, so it couldn't be her... The very next stop I notice he left something on the train... some fancy looking pen/flashlight/rape whistle thing... it was fairly cool to play with, after a little bit of the loud buzzing and waving it around in boredom, the train car's microwave started sparking along with the lights.. Power surge? I don't know... But eventually I got tired of the noise and decided to keep the thing just in case I ran into the guy... never asked for his name... that's a bad habit of mine . But I didn't need to worry about it for too long cause as soon as I got off the train in Canterlot, I see the same guy! How he made it to Canterlot before the train did, I don't know, but he was just across the station leaning against a phone box engaged in a conversation with some blond, wall-ey- is that Derpy?!!! I quickly trotted over to the mail-mare and the stallion and gave him his Rape-Pen-Whistle-Thing. He was excited to have it back, apparently this was his 17th train stop he checked looking for me. (What kinda transport does this guy have, to be able to get to 17 different stops before I made it 5?) But he thanked me, I said hi/bye to derpy, who thanked me (again) for making her a custom muffin tray, and I left to tour canterlot. I ended up staying at this nice Bed n' Breakfast who had AMAZING waffles, (I really recommend them, the customer service was great!) called 'The Sleeping Ursa'. Then I headed out to schedule a meeting with the princess at canterlot ASAP.
The line was seriously long... well not the line to sign up... but the number I took was #2784, good thing I was staying awhile... Turns out the # tickets are magic, on the reverse side there was an "Estimated Time Untill Turn" and a built-in magical Game-Boy! But since I needed to wait approximately "286" hours for my turn... It wasn't very useful until later... So pocketing the ticket, I headed off to go kill some time for a few days, went to the hot springs (apparently the mountain Canterlot was Built on was a semi-active volcano), took a couple walks, hit a few book-stores, flirted with a few mares, and even headed up to the "Fancy Prissy" section of canterlot to make fun of the so called 'elite'. Usually they were all 'I say! What is that Stallion there up too? That ruffian seems to be mocking us! How absurd!' on a couple of occasions a couple of the ponies there seemed to relax and join me in mocking how fancy and stuck up the 'elite' could be. Nice to see that even in canterlot, some people can loosen up a little and genuinely have a good time. eventually I did waste all 286 (give or take) hours I needed to wait, and my ticket started vibrating and beeping, not too loud, just enough to get your attention. It gave me a 30 minute warning about my appointment coming up and I made it to the court room with 10 minutes to spare. The room was surprisingly empty... even with it being 10:50 PM, I expected some ponies waiting their turn... ohh wait... night court... >.> a lot of ponies were afraid or nervous around princess Luna, which I found a bit unfair considering her situation... being 1000 years out of sync. Isn't easy to get back in the scheme of things with THAT much jet-lag. And since I prefer my forge to be Outside, due to the intense heat and smoke, and the fact that my forge is quite a-ways from town, (due to me being aware of the various loud noises a hammer makes) I don't get much light pollution from Ponyville. So I do get a good view of the night sky every now and then.
Now Celestia's night's can't even COMPARE to Luna's, if you stop too actually look at the differences, Luna's nights are brighter, have more stars, and you can actually see some nebula from the ground without a telescope! Not to mention the fact that- Oh... It's my turn... Uhh...." I stopped recording the newest chapter of my personal audio diary and stood, as the intimidating lunar stallion motioned for me to enter the throne room. As I entered the room and caught glimpse of Luna’s imposing figure, I started to feel a bit hypocritical about defending Luna. “The other ponies did have a valid point.” I thought, as he gulped down his fear, and summoned as much courage as he could muster, then walked into the throne room.
After a few minutes of explaining to the guard that my wing braces were not weapons and that I was, in fact handicapped. The guard finally let me in. As I entered the throne room, the first thing that struck me was the towering marble pillar, and the high dome roof. Next I noticed that banners were bestowed around the room. They were dark blue, almost black, and had an image of the moon imprinted on them. I assumed that they magically shifted to a lighter sky blue and the sun during the day. Looking around the room there were no windows, save for the large one behind the throne. It was aligned perfectly with the sun and moon to be able to see whichever was dominating the sky at the moment, no matter what time of day.
I nervously stepped towards the throne, escorted by the lunar stallion. Their hooves clopped on the polished marble floor until they reached a red carped extending a good 10 feet from the base of the throne’s steps. When I finally reached the base of the throne, I knelt before Luna, Princess of the night.
She was reading a book, or three. One was an ancient tome written by somepony named “Sun Tzu”. Another had a red marker levitating next to it and occasionally making scribbles in what appeared to be an Astrological Physics book. The third book was “The Alicorns Guide to Microwave Ovens”. She continued to read all three at the same time until she found a stopping point in all of them, and then levitated the books into a stack and set them down next to the throne. “Come forth, thy faithful subject” she commanded “And tell us why thou hath waited so long for an audience with your princesses." I hesitated. I had no idea how to ask my question. What if she thought I was insulting her age? That would probably earn me a ticket to the sun. The topic seemed utterly useless as well, and I was probably wasting the princess’s valuable time.
I was about to apologize and leave. But then, something dove into my mind. A faint yet strong tug latched onto my quizzical thoughts and pulled it to the surface of my consciousness, my tongue began to form words effortlessly. “I wish to learn the most ancient of languages under your guide and wisdom.” I spoke, my voice strong and confident. “I have searched for a language worthy to study, and I have concluded that the forgotten Languages may be of worth for a blacksmith to know.” I stated with confidence I never knew I had. It was almost like I had asked that question hundreds of times. But the words were too direct for it to have come from me.
Luna’s eyebrows rose in surprise, taken back by my question. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the confidence shattered, and I started to second guess myself. “I-i-in my personal research, I can’t find anything dating before recorded history.” I admitted quickly.
“Most Ancient of Languages?” she repeated. She seemed to pounder over something for a bit. “We have heard this request before, somewhere… What purpose does this information serve you?” Luna asked, now curious for some reason.
“I just want to know where language came from.” I replied. “I’ve wondered about it since I was a foal in school, kind of an old interest of mine.” Luna pondered this for a moment looking over me with her curious eyes.
“What is thy name, stallion?” she asked.
“Umm... Luke, Luke Forge, your majesty."
“And what is thy special talent, Luke Forge?” she asked with a thoughtful expression.
“Blacksmithing and metal work, your highness.” I replied unsure where the conversation was going.
“Of Course! Those words, they are of old. Before our imprisonment on the moon.” She gracefully rose from the throne, and began to walk out of the room. The statue-like Lunar Stallions standing around the room were surprised by this, as all of them started towards the princess. Well except for one who was sleeping with his eyes open in a standing position. But he’s a ninja that never gets caught so just ignore him in the background.
“But your majesty, what about the rest of the night court?” one of her lunar stallions asked, wondering if his shift just ended early.
Luna hesitated mid stride, and then continued on her way, replying “Tell anypony that arrives looking for the night court, that I have fallen ill." It was a see-through excuse; everypony knew Alicorns never sickened, but the message was clear that whatever she was going on about was important.
Luna had already made it to the exit of the throne room when she looked back, slightly annoyed
“Art thou coming?” she asked.
“Ohhh, Uhh… Yes princess!” I said, running to catch up to Luna.
Written by Luke Forge
Edited and proof read by Flight Path (ElChrisman99)
