Brother's Lament

Chapter 10: Live and Die by the sword

The next day Warsong and his student ventured into the catacombs of the palace, the royal guard didn’t seem to be present Warsong assumed it must have been because the treasury is well protected by magic, he cringed as he heard singing behind him.

So bye-bye miss Equestrian pie

Pulled my chevy to the levy,

But the levy was dry.

And them good old colts were drinking whisky and rye singin’

This’ll be the day that I die; this’ll be the day that I die

Warsong turned to see Bass singing softly with a big smile on his face he frowned at him “What’s with the happy attitude? And stop singing it’s too early in the day for it, I got enough of it with all the mares breaking into song.” He rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache before Bass spoke up “I’ve just been having good dreams is all” Warsong raised an eyebrow “Still having dreams about Luna eh? Maybe that’s the real Luna for all you know, I've heard she can walk into your dreams”

Bass looked suddenly nervous causing Warsong to chuckle back at his student before he stopped outside of a golden door engraved with symbols of magic Warsong looked it over with a sigh “I hope it still recognises my magic” he discovered a hole big enough for a unicorn horn, pushing it inside he flared his magic within, the loud sounds of clicking as locks came undone broke the quiet of the hallway, removing his horn he watched as gears began to move the surface of the door, distorting it’s pattern until it finally stopped moving to show an engraving of two alicorns one golden the other silver with gem eyes.

The doors slipped open to admit the two unicorns, the hallway lighting up with the sudden golden glow of the treasures within, hillsides and plains of golden bits as far as the eye could see. “I made sure  to grab a fair share before I left for Ponyville “ Warsong smiled seeing Bass’ jaw drop, seeing chests containing more bits and gems sat among the hills of gold, ancient statues of gold stood watch over them by the door along the wall sat a long rack of ornate weapons but further down were eight swords that looked plain but gave off immense power, two more spots were still open for two more blades.

“Say hello to eight of the nine legendary blades of the legendary swordsponies, Mine is the last one” he walked down the line looking each blade over with a smile, finding his sabre he lifted it up with his magic and wound it around his waist “Who are the other eight legendary swordsponies?” asked Bass Rhythm as he looked at each blade “I’m the eighth one my brother is the ninth, his blade is a broadsword made from a meteor from the heavens.” Warsongs gaze passed over the empty spot where his brother’s sword should have been, before he began moving down the line stopping in front of a long sword with ancient symbols running along its surface with a black leather handle and silver blade and handle. “This blade belonged to Lord Bastion, the Ranger king of the earth ponies well before there was even a chancellor. When the Changeling wars were rampant and pony kind was separated the sword was broken before but was remade for the final battle.”

He moved on to show a claymore that belonged to an Earth pony known as Brave heart who freed Earth pony kind from a tyrant unicorn king, showing a short sword that belonged to the Pegasus Sky Flicker, who was a master of the Royal Canterlot voice and the slayer of dragons, until he took an arrow to the knee. He then showed a Gladius blade that belonged to another Earth pony known as Iron Hoof, the pony many believed whose mother was the goddess herself, who submerged him in the river styx in Tartarus when he was a foal to make him undefeatable in combat but his back right hoof was the only vulnerable spot, and in the battle for Trot he was killed by an arrow in his hoof.

He was nearing the last three explaining that the scimitar before them belonged to Commander Hurricane, a legendary swordspony in her own right and one of the fastest flyers to have lived. Warsong then came to the last two, a pair of Rapiers that seemed to reflect the sun and moon in design, the swords seemed to almost be related. “Take a wild guess who these two belong two, who are the most dangerous out of all of us?” Bass Rhythms eyes began to widen as he recognised the designs across the handles, the depictions of the sun and moon being too obvious “You can’t be serious….Celestia and Luna?”

Warsong nodded with a knowing smile “Yes, not even I can stand up to them but I can give any of the other swordsponies a run for their money in a straight up sword fight” seeing Bass’ fascination in the enchanted blades Warsong smiled “Do you want your own enchanted blade?” Bass looked at his teacher, his eyes lighting up “Can I really? I mean can’t I have one of these blades here?” Warsong shook his head “No first off it’ll be an insult to the owners of these swords, and the sword is bound to the family of the original owner, take you for instance, you can wield my blade but try to wield Brave heart’s blade or any of the other swords and they’re magic will reject you and you can be seriously hurt, plus we cannot train with enchanted blades because of the…effects, here take my blade and swing it against one of the blades on the rack”

Warsong looked down at his sheathed sabre as green magic surrounded the handle and it unsheathed, holding it before his eyes Bass swung it against Luna’s rapier, as the blades touched an explosive shockwave emitted like thunder from the blades, striking Bass and sending him flying into a nearby pile of gold, the shockwave passed over Warsong but he didn’t seem to notice “It’s the colliding of two magic’s hitting each other it’ll cause an explosion, you need to know how to fight with a sword before I can teach you how to hold your ground when fighting against an enchanted blade wielder, but we will make you a blade, I recommend speaking to Luna, she can probably help you out there”

Bass unsteadily stood from the pile of bits the sword still in his magical grip but now it glowed orange with heat “Each sword also has a specific ability, I do not know what the others have but mine is that it gains heat as a fight goes on to the point where it’s white hot, my brothers sword creates a shield when he spins it, capable of stopping any projectile including magic.” Warsong took the sword from Bass and sheathed the heated blade, they left the treasury, the doors closing behind them and relocking “Will you be using your sword when we train?” Warsong shook his head “No, enchanted blades cut through any other blade except other enchanted blades.”

“So we will be using regular swords?” Warsong nodded, they stepped out onto the practise field going into an empty practise duel cage, removing his blade from his waist, Warsong replaced it with one of the blunt practise blades, Bass Rhythm followed his lead, having trouble strapping it around his waist before Warsong stepped in to help him. “Alright now we’ll be going through some simple drills to help you get a hang of the weight with your magic then we will switch to hooves and go from there” The teacher and student went through several practise routines of attacking, parrying, defending, counter and kept at it until Bass got it right several times but the time the sun was setting both stallions were soaked with sweat, panting heavily, Warsong seemed more composed than Bass though, as if he could still gallop five miles and fight a battle at the end.

They called the practise session for the day and went back inside the palace Warsong separated from Bass “I’m going to talk to Shining Armour I need his list of royal guard interested in joining the Lunar Guard” with that the teacher left the student. Bass started to make his way to the throne room to meet with Luna and start forging his sword but taking a single sniff of his person, his nose recoiled at the smell of body odour, his path instantly changed to head up to the bedroom he shared with Warsong to take a shower, after his shower he made his way down to the throne room to find Celestia standing alone on the balcony “Your highness may I ask where Luna is?” The mistress of the sun turned to look at the young stallion, a smile coming to her face “She is in her room in the Midnight Wing of the palace.”

Bowing once more and turning to leave he heard the princess’ voice behind him once more “Bass a moment of your time if you please.” The stallion turned with another bow “Of course your highness” the Alicorn moved closer to Bass so she stood in front of him. Celestia lowered her gaze, and her head to be more level with the smaller Stallion “My sister has shown a keen interest in you Bass Rhythm, I’m only telling you to be careful when around her, I do not know if it’s anything more than just interest, I don’t know if it’s love even. But I want you to be careful, I don’t want her heart breaking, not again” Bass frowned up at her and cocked his head “What do you mean ‘again’ your highness?”

Celestia’s eyes seemed to mist over before she sighed “Her heart broke a thousand years ago from jealousy, I believe that it was my fault in not seeing it and doing anything about it.” Bass smiled up at the princess “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault your highness, and if Princess Luna is developing feelings further than friendship…I would gladly accept” Celestia raised an eyebrow with a smile “Oh is that so? I should also care to mention my sister has stepped into your dreams, I didn’t know you had a thing for socks.” Seeing Bass’ face turn from blue to a sudden red made the mistress of the sun chuckle “Relax Bass, Luna feels flattered, though I think you’ll notice her glancing in your direction a bit more often. But in future try to have normal dreams hmm?”

Bass Rhythm bowed once more “As you wish your highness, is that all you wish to speak of?” Celestia nodded her head dismissing the stallion before turning to watch the moon begin to rise. Bass Rhythm left and galloped, wanting to get away for a little bit, his thoughts reeling and his face bright red, filled with embarrassment it wasn’t until Warsong stepped out of the shadows, a small pouch with scrolls inside on his back that Celestia broke out into giggles “I didn’t think it would work that little prank” Warsong smiled at the princess “I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t have confidence in your ability to handle it” Celestia looked back at the ancient warrior “Why did you tell me about Bass’ interest in my sister?” Warsong looked at the horizon.

“Because I could see the same thing in Luna, and it would only be eventual before she used the dream walker spell to look into his dreams. I would rather Bass dream of Luna in a respectable fashion rather than seeing her as another mare to tail chase. So that Luna will see that Bass respects her as a mare which is true, he just can’t control his baser instincts” Celestia nodded but frowned slightly “How do you feel about your student being a bit of a mareiser?” Warsong looked at the princess, a smile dawning on his face

“I would be disappointed if he wasn’t, we lost a lot of stallions during the war and the stallion population has never truly recovered. One stallion to every four mares are not good odds for us, we need to keep at least sixty per cent of the mare population straight or at least bisexual. But if Bass is going to get into a relationship with Luna he will have to commit and I’ll make him commit if I have to.” Celestia nodded in sad agreement “If things look bad for the future of pony kind due to the mares going after each other, I’m going to have to get Luna to manipulate the fertility of some births to lean more to the colt side” Warsong smiled “Well now that we’ve straightened out Bass Rhythm a bit I’m sure Luna will see the fruits of your prank take hold of the young stallion.”

***

“This feels worse than the time my mom found my Play Brony collection…” Bass Rhythm continued to gallop almost blindly, the royal guard who were coming off duty glanced at him as he raced by, before he knew it the light began to darken around him, torches lighting up in the hallway as he ran by, he slowed to a stop looking around him, the torches continued to light up as he walked down the hall by magical means “Where am I?” he wandered out loud regaining his composure he made his way towards the door at the end of the hallway only illuminated slightly by the light of the moon

.

Flanking the door were two narrow spiral stairways leading downstairs, when the last few torches lit  to reveal the white crescent moon symbol on the door, Bass Rhythms heart dropped, he turned to run but the doors slip open with a loud creak, turning to look inside the interior of the room was pitch black except for a large onyx fireplace on the left side of the large room that spanned more than five hooves (Feet) in length and over six hooves in height, a large high backed leather chair, taller than the fire place, was the only thing sitting in front of it, all the other furniture within the room was shrouded in shadow, sitting on that chair was the Mistress of the night herself, Luna. She looked towards the stallion a smile coming across her face, her magic picked up a small tea cup from a small table next to the chair.

Taking a sip she spoke up “Come inside Bass we were expecting you to visit sometime, what can be done for you?” Bass stepped inside carefully as the doors closed behind him almost automatically “I have been meaning to ask your highness, if you can help me create my own enchanted blade?” Luna rose from her seat, placing the cup back on the table “We do hope thee do not intend to use this blade in the duel.” Bass Rhythm quickly shook his head “Of course not your highness, it is so that I can have one as well and maybe…Become a legendary swordspony like you.”

Luna’s eyes widened slightly, looking at the young stallion “How thee knows of our status- Oh wait…Warsong told you. We haven’t been referred to as a legendary swordpony since the war a thousand years ago. We would be happy to assist thee in creating an enchanted blade” Bass Rhythm smiled at her “For material I was thinking of making it from moon rock, is it possible for you to pull one from the moon?” Luna smiled gently and closed her eyes “Of course we can, give us some time.” Bass frowned slightly “What are you doing right now?”

Luna opened her eyes to show a bright white glow emanating from her eyes “We are expanding our senses hundreds of thousands of miles towards the moon, searching for an ideal moon rock that won’t burn up in the atmosphere and is big enough to get material from, which we have just found” Luna grinned as black curtains within the room slid back to reveal that most of the walls were actual windows except for the walls around the door and fireplace, looking to the moon Bass Rhythm noticed a flare in the sky as an object sped towards them, burning blue in the night sky as it approached.

Luna seemed to be struggling when the moon rock approached her room “We are finding it difficult to stop it” Bass Rhythm quickly placed a hoof on her shoulder closing his eyes, adding his strength to hers, his power was not even quarter compared to Luna’s but the little amount of juice was enough to slow the rock down, causing it to plop down heavily onto the balcony outside, smoke rising from its surface however the Alicorn and Unicorn seemed to pause for a bit as their magic entwined, feeling each other’s inner emotions and the length of their power, their magic caressing between them Bass feeling small compared to Luna’s ocean of power, Luna gasped sharply before Bass quickly removed his hoof from her shoulder, a blush coming to his face as he looked away “Thank you your highness”

Bass moved his attention away from the ground where he looked away to and moved it to the rock, slowly making his way over to it, opening the doors to the balcony outside, he didn’t notice the blush that was on Luna’s face before she warned him “Don’t touch it, it’s still hot” Bass nodded, his magic enveloping the rock, slowly lifting it “Wow this isn’t light I’ll tell you that” Luna looked at him, her blush dissipating “Come along We will show you how to forge a blade, and we will enchant it for you, like we have done for your great grandfather and like my sister when she enchanted Warsongs blade for him” she turned and left the room followed closely by Bass Rhythm though walking slowly with the heavy load.

They made their way down towards the royal blacksmith who crafted many of the royal guard weapons, the spears, swords and etcetera the hut where the smithy worked was located in a little corner in the practise yard, even in the night the sound of hammer pounding on steel could be heard “Not having dinner tonight your highness?” asked Bass as they approached the smithy hut, Luna looked back at him with a weak smile “Neither are you if we are correct, if that is the case, would you join us then in our quarters for some late night dinner and tea?”

Bass nodded and smiled “I would be honoured to join you your highness”

When they stepped into the hut they were met with the scene of a glow from  furnace and  wall of tools, a stallion at work at an anvil while a younger colt scurried around as an assistant smithy when they noticed the princess they stopped what they were doing and bowed deeply “Your highness you grace us with your presence” said the black smith, a brown bulky, muscular stallion Earth pony with green eyes and lighter brown mane, a hammer and anvil cutiemark on his flank he wore a brown leather apron and leather working hoof shoes “Rise Blacksmith we require thy services to create a special blade forged from the materials in this moon rock” Bass stepped forward and lowered the rock slowly in-front of the smithy “It may take me two weeks to melt this down and refine it to be forged into a blade”

Luna simply smiled “Excellent see to it, also we will write up a list of further ingredients needed for it, does thee have a quill and scroll?” The colt quickly retrieved an empty scroll and new quill for the mistress of the night, she unfolded the scroll with her magic and began to write “Thank you, we will require that the blade be cooled in the spring water located at the top of this mountain, a barrel of this water will do it is where our moon has touched the water the most. It must be created under the light of the moon as well, so thee must set up thy forge outside, it must also be hammered on the anvil by the legendary Pegasus blacksmith Steel Wing, his hammer and anvil is located in the treasury. Thy forge must also contain the fires of a black phoenix, they are very rare but we know of one who still owes us a favour, also while thee forges the blade we must keep a constant flow of magic into the blade itself, if thee requires royal guard support for the other materials, it will be provided. Oh and the handle must be made from the leather of a Cockatrice ”

The blacksmith seemed a little overwhelmed by this request “It will be done your highness” Bass Rhythm frowned up at the princess “Why the need for all this hard to get stuff?” Luna turned to the younger stallion with a smile “All enchanted blades are forged in a similar fashion, Warsongs blade was forged in the fires of a phoenix and dragon, cooling it in the blood of said dragon, he was big so a barrel of his blood was a paper cut for his finger.”

The other ponies in the hut were taken aback by the casual statement of a blade being cooled in blood “That’s horrible!” the little colt said as his knees shook Luna simply shrugged “It is why Warsongs sword was called Draco sanguis lamina, the Dragon blood blade. You don’t even want to know how Bladesingers sword was forged…You ever hear about the rainbow factory? Or about the Pegasus device?”

Bass thought for a moment “Yes well…I can’t remember what Warsong said but I think I get an idea…” Luna shook her head “Well Bladesingers sword was forged in a way very similar but much worse in our opinion…We should be going, good luck Blacksmith” when the two ponies bowed Luna and Bass left making their way back to her room to spend time eating dinner, drinking tea and having a normal chat.