Their next destination was a small shop slash home hybrid only a stone’s throw away. A large blacksmith sign hung over the entrance. Without even looking, Dawn entered the building, leaving Lux to awkwardly follow her. Inside the were greeted by a small counter with walls on either side, blocking the view deeper into the building. The only sound audible, was the ringing from steel on steel, coming from a staircase somewhere in the back of the shop. Lux waited as Dawn approached the counter and walked right past it.

“I’m back,” she called, causing the ringing to pause. Hoofsteps sounded from downstairs and a moment later a mare stuck her head out from the hallways and smiled at Dawn. She was a white unicorn with a short blond mane that was held back by a black and golden hairband. A red ribbon adorned her neck and on her flank she had the image of a large, black and red shield.

“Welcome back,” the mare greeted, but instead of answering her, Dawn simply ignored the mare and pushed past her to get downstairs.

Lux watched the event play out in front of him, unsure of what to do. Luckily for him, the white mare noticed him and after a moment of thought gestured for him to follow, as she went after Dawn down the stairs.

“Hello, my name is Aegis. Aegis Shield,” she said and smiled at Lux once he had caught up with her. “I'd assume you're a friend of my sister, Dawning?”

“Dawning?” Lux asked surprised, causing the mare to frown. However just a moment later, realization hushed over face.

“Ah, yes. She usually only goes by Dawn, doesn’t she?” She shook her head and sighed. “No, her full name is Dawning Steel. We are running this shop together.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that” Lux said and rubbed his chin, then he shook his head. “Anyway it’s nice to meet you.”

Before anyone could say anything else, they reached the bottom of the staircase and immediately a hot wave of air collided with Lux, nearly causing him to gasp in surprise. The air down here was incredible hot, just being there made him sweat bullets. The reason as to why that was the case, was revealed to him, as he noticed a giant forge, cut straight from the rock surrounding it, across from him. It dominated the room, dwarfing everything else by its sheer size. To either side of the enormous forge, an anvil was placed, right in front of row and rows of shelves and containers that contained a large variety of ores, woods and other smithing tools, as well as all kinds of weapons and armor, that reached as far as the eye could reach. And it was in front of one of those shelves that Dawn was standing, quietly mumbling something he couldn’t understand. Not that he was trying to anyway.

No, as impressive as the room was, something else had drawn his attention, something he couldn’t believe was true. Right above the forge, created with the finest blacksmithing he had ever seen, someone had placed a seal, a seal he recognized, a seal that every unicorn would have recognized in a heartbeat.

“By Tartarus, you're a Steelhoof.” He spun around to face Dawn, who, at the mention of the name, had paused in whatever it was she was doing.

“No,” Dawn said in an oddly low tone, and shook her head without turning around, so that her face wasn’t visible from Lux position. “She is.” She pointed at Aegis, still without turning around. “I’m not.”

“What do you mean” Lux asked confused, but Dawn kept silent. He tried again, but still the mare didn’t say anything. Finally, after trying for a third time, Lux turned to Aegis who let out a deep sigh.

“I take it you know about our family?” she said. It was more of an statement than a question, but Lux still felt like answering.

“Yes,” he nodded, while glancing at Dawn. “Ever unicorn does, at least as far as i’m aware. The Steelhooves line is a family with unparalleled talent in blacksmithing. It is said that they could control any type of metal and manipulate it like it was clay. Over the centuries they created many incredible constructs due to their skills and even lend their talents in wars to turn the tide in battles, since against them any type of weapon or armor was useless. Some even go so far to say that the unicorn kingdom might have never become as powerful as it is today if it hadn’t been for the Steelhooves. Unfortunately the last one of them fell in battle a few centuries ago, crippling the kingdom significantly. Although,” he added and glanced at the seal above him “I have the feeling this might not be entirely correct.”

“You are correct in your assumption,” Aegis nodded. “Not about everything of course, - it seems that the legacy of our family has become a little overblown over time - but for the most part you are correct.”

She turned around and grabbed a small piece of ore from one the shelves. “The Steelhooves family has always been, exceptionally skilled when it comes to working with metal. It’s a skill our magic simply lends itself too.” To prove her point, she began to twist and turn the lump of ore in her magic, until it looked like a small crude statue of Aegis herself.

“Incredible,” Lux said and studied the statue carefully. It looked indeed like a copy of aegis except for her accessories which were missing.

“Hardly. At least compared to what our ancestors could do,” Aegis said and placed the ore back into the shelf. “Now, to answer your question,” she gave a small glance towards Dawn who was still refusing to look at them, “my sister is a bit … lacking, when it comes to our family's gift. She is unable to do most of the things I can do naturally, and those she can do, she isn’t particularly good at.”

“Then why don’t you just teach her” Lux asked, causing Aegis to let out another sigh.

”Because I can’t.”

“But you just said….”

“I said that I can do these things naturally,” Aegis interrupted him and shook her head. “Luckily for me, I have a high affinity for our gift, so I can do most of these things without any real training, but I don’t know how to teach it to others.”

“Then how about someone else?” Lux asked, still unable to understand the problem. “How about your parents for example?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had made a mistake. Suddenly, despite the searing hot forge behind him, the air seem to grow colder and just like her sister, Aegis became strangely silent.

“They are dead,” Dawn finally said after a moment, breaking the silence. “You are right, maybe they could have taught me, but we will never know. They took all the family’s secrets and tricks with them when they died. Uncle Hadwin is the only parent we have left and as good as he is, he can’t teach us a lot about magic.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can it,” Dawn said and finally turned to face him. “I have everything I need.”

Before Lux could say anything else, Dawn grabbed something from the shelves and threw it in front of him. It was a set of light leather armor, that, as far as he could tell, fit his size perfectly. Using his magic to pick it up from the ground, he lifted it up and stared at it, his eyes widening in disbelief.

“Put that on,” Dawn said and already turned back. “Once you're done we’ll join the others, so hurry up.”

It took Lux a while to follow her order, not only because he wasn’t very familiar with armor, so he didn’t know how to put it on, but also because it was a piece of armor created by the Steelhooves family. Every single person back home, from the poorest worker, to the richest kings, would kill to get his hooves on one. And here he was calling one of them his own. He barely could believe it.

Fifteen minutes later and he finally had managed to put it on. Testing it, he twisted to one side, then to the another and finally he jumped a few times into the air. He was surprised to notice that the armor wasn’t hindering him in any way. Each move he did was as easy and precise as it was without it, and for the most part, he didn’t even notice that he was wearing it at all.

A smile crept on his face and he stood as tall as he could. With this armor protecting him, he finally he felt confident and secure, as if he could do anything.

Author's Note

Well, that's that I guess.

Next week there won't be a new chapter, since i got sidetracked by another story I'm currently working on. It fairly short, but once i'm done there i will come back to this story. until then this story is on hiatsu for a while.

See you next time