As is Tradition, the Flame and Anvil Kings would abandon or foster out their daughters. The story behind it was that a baby daughter of the first Anvil king was stolen out of her cradle by a giant hawk one night and she eventualy rode to the kingdom's aid on the back of the hawk, her father recognised her and proclaimed that she was a highborn princess, set to own some lands under a banner and name of her choosing. The first Hawkrider, named Isala, chose a white hawk on a blue field, the Thundur motto is 'Strong as The Sky.'
- Kingdom of Flaming Anvils, a History
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"Okay, Your Grace, one last push, thats it," murmured a midwife as a baby Ares tumbled into the world squalling. The queen rested as the child's cord was cut and her birth recorded in the royal book. The King smiled to himself, their first child and so far everything sounded like it was going well through the thick oak door. the door swung inwards and a midwife stuck ther head out,
"Your Grace? You can come in now," she said as he turned to enter the room. Once the King was inside he laid his eyes on his beautiful wife and their baby in her arms. His wife has sweat matted brown hair and milky pale skin, her breasts leaking milk as the infant suckled, a small patch of dark brown hair visible to the king.
The infant continued suckling as the King moved to stand beside his Queen, a pair of forest green eyes stared at the breast in front of the babe as it suckled contentedly
"She has your eyes, Jon, I knew that she would. Do you have a nice home in mind for our little princess Thundur?" asked the Queen, a pang of sadness in her voice, she would never see her baby girl grow up. Jon smiled he had been speaking with the castle staff, asking around for a foster parent in the case if the babe being a girl. Jon was not an unkind man and he could not allow his wife to be denied her first child. The castle stonemason, Loch, had offered to house and raise the child as his own.
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10 years later
"Ares, go and fetch the tools, I'm going to show you something important," instructed Lucas Smith as his granddaughter ran to the back of the smithy shop to fetch a pair of large, heavy tongs, a hammer and a metal punch, Ares piled the tools up on the side of the workbench.
"Right, Ares, I have shown you how to make armour, shields, weapons and chain maile. Now I'm going to show you how to make a Hawksteel sword, okay," said Lucas as he lifted the tongs and grabbed a piece of steel that had been heating in the fire with them, he then grabbed the hammer and began to fold the steel over itself again and again and again, untill eventually he had a long, thin piece of dark grey steel that had a feathering pattern inlaid into the very steel.
"Now Ares we re-heat the steel and get it white hot in order to temper it and add in the fullers, okay?" Lucas had found that she had an odd obsession with learning smithing and masonry, he simply assumed that it was she had been brought up around the jobs and wanted to be of use.
"Oh, Ares fetch me the hilt over on the table over there," said Lucas as he lifted the blade from the water, Ares ran over to the table and grabed the hilt with hawks on it and fetched it over to her grandfather who placed it on the tapering end of the blade and began to hammer it down gently. Once it was on Lucas turned to his grandaughter and asked
"Do you want to get the sheath that you made a few weeks ago?" Ares nodded and ran to the back of the shop where she had a small room to herself and grabbed the blue leather sheath with small white stone hawks studded in the top. When Ares returned she saw that her grand father was talking to someone, all she could see was his thickset shoulders and shoulder length blonde hair. Ares placed the sheath on the side and walked up to the front of the smithy and saw that her grand father was speaking to His Grace King Jon and his wife Queen Mary.
"There's your little girl then," cooed the Queen as Ares walked into view, the almost doting Queen had a habit of communicating with everyone in the court and she almost always stopped by to say hello to Ares.
"Aww, look how much she's grown, Jon!" the Queen cooed as Ares grinned awkwardly at the monarchs, she had seen them frequently and seen others speaking to them, but had never spoken to them before.
"Your Grace is kind to say so," Ares had heard other people adressing them as 'Your Grace' so Ares figured it was important. The Queen smiled down at her and lifted a small box from her cloak as Loch the stonemason walked around the corner, another box tucked under his arm.
"Ares, I'm afraid we haven't been entirely honest to you," started the King as Loch reached the smithy. "you're not a Mason or Smith, but a Thundur, and well, Mary and I are your real parents. You're the only one fit to inherit the Thundur lands since you're the only Thundur left and it seems like you're also going to inherit the crown from me someday. However there is unrest rising in the south, the Forktongues are calling their banners and rebelling against the crown. If war breaks out you will never be safe," King Jon let that last sentance hang there for a bit as Ares digested this information.
Ares went numb when the King told her that he was her real father and that she was a highborn girl, not the stonemason's daughter she thought she was. It couldnt happen to her! she had much and more to learn about smithing and masonry, the King and Queen couldnt just come along and take that away from her! She was not going to become some dainty lady that was going to be married off to some family for some swords!
"You're lying!" she blurted suddenly, the only thought that occured to her was that it could only be a massive joke.
"Ares, please, we're not lying to you, I'm your mother," cried Mary as tears began to form in her eyes.
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Ares sat in the dark cell mutely as tears rolled down her face, the old memory hurt as much as it did now than it hurt her then, she only wished she could have said goodbye to them before the armies had come and swept her true father off the throne. she had tried to defend them but she went too slowly for even her hawksteel sword, Thundur's Might, would have been useless against the soldiers that slaughtered her parents and chained her up, though she had later been moved to the tower cell and unchained. It was not the end of her pain though, daily visits from the new Queen Forktounge had opened up new wounds and re-opened old ones.
"I trust our little prisoner had a nice sleep?" asked an awful, honey sweet voice as Forktoungue walked in.
"Our ley lines are ready and the planets are in the right alignment, time to get shot of you and your dumb animal friends - " Forktoungue walked over to Ares and grabbed her hair " - I would have thought you'd be happier about me banishing you with your little pets, and seeing as how you're just a little kid and I don't know which world you'll go to, I'll be kind and let you have one weapon from the castle," she smiled as realisation dawned in Ares' mind as she let go of her hair.
"C-can I-I have m-my sword, the one you took from me when you took my freedom?" asked Ares who could not believe her luck. my friends and my sword? this is too good. thought Ares as she was led down the spiral staircase from the tower, through some hallways and into the throne room where a white lion was standing, his head dipped to the floor in shame and sadness, in contrast was the horse - sized hawk with it's black and grey steel feathers and it's head held up high proudly.
"Ser Donys, please go to the armoury and get the hawksteel sword that belongs to our young friend here," announced the Queen, looking as regal as she could as a large, broard man walked out of the room, returning a few minuets later with a sword in a blue leather sheath with small white stone hawks studded in the top. The man who Ares supposed was Ser Donys handed the sword which was still in it's sheath hilt first to the queen who grabbed it and gave it to Ares who simply swung it over her shoulder and walked over to her friends.
Queen Forktoungue went and stood at the top of a dias and called to the gods for their power, just as the full moon hit the center of the window and silvery beams of light reflected off of the trio in the center of the throne room. The lion was the first to dissapear with a startled growl, Ares grabbed hold of the giant hawk's neck and held on for dear life as they both vanished in the silver moonbeams.
"Perfect, that little problem will never return now," muttered Queen Forktoungue as she stepped off the dias.
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Ares clung onto her hawk's neck as tightly as she could without choking her as they tumbled through the sky. Ares accedently let go of her bird friend and hit a rock on her way down, followed by another. She felt a faint thump as she landed on the floor, dazed but alive. Ared saw two oddly colored blobs approching her and her hawk landed next to her hissing in warning as the figures snapped into focus, it was two little ponies. one was pink with a purple and white mane, a small tiara on the top of her head, the other had a grey coat and a two tone lighter grey mane, a pair of light blue glasses rested on the tip of her snout.
"Ironwing, calm yourself, I think these are friendly," groned Ares in the Alltoungue, a species wide form of communication that all animals could speak from childhood. The hawk looked at her and stepped back as the two small horses approched with caution.
"Huh, I thought you saw a massive bird with some sort of monkey on it," said the pink one in a high piched, snooty voice. the pair stopped when they noted Ares laying on the floor with Ironwing standing over her, the look of shock was almost comical as they stared at the giant bird.
"Hey, my name's Ares and this is my friend, Ironwing," she introduced herself to the pair who seemed to be recovering from their shock.
"I was wondering if you could tell me where I am? I've just arrived you see and I want to know the way back home - " Ares struggled into a sitting position " - I need to reclaim my throne from the Userper Queen and, well, she's banished me here," the look on the other two ponies faces spoke more than their silence. Ares looked down, hooves sat where hands and feet should have been, a soft tan coat covered her skin and her hair had been turned into a big tangled brown mane. Ared sat and calmly took a deep breath and shrieked at the top of her voice, fear, sadness, confusion and rage all came out then and she began to cry quietly as the two others looked frightened. Ironwing stepped forword and wrapped her friend in a wing as she dipped her head and rubbed her beak against Ares' face.
"Um, Silverspoon, can you go get someone, I think this pony really needs some help," whispered Diamond tiara as she wached the cream colored earth pony crying in the wings of the giant bird. Silverspoon turned and ran off in search of somepony to help the cream pony called Ares, luckily the first pony she came across was their school teacher, Cheerilee. Silverspoon told the magenta teacher everything she knew about the strange filly and asked for her help.
"I thought I heard a scream from this way, never knew this would happen though, where is she?" asked Cheerilee as the grey filly raced in the direction they came from.
When they reached the clearing they saw the bird comforting the filly, who seemed to have stopped crying and was now clutching a blue object that looked like the swords that the old royal guards used to have.
"Hello, I'm Miss Cheerilee, Silverspoon came and found me, Ares was it? she said you needed help finding your way home, and that you fell from the cliff behind you with your bird," Cheerilee spoke as she slowly neared the huge bird, suddenly it rose its head and squawked at her.
"Ironwing is asking why you want to help, when I've just appeared from nowhere," squeaked Ares when the teacher was close enough.
"Huh," asked Cheerilee.
