Chapter 10, My tutor Twilight
Blaze worked his way through the thick stack of papers, slowly but steadily filling out question after question on topics from the creation of Equestria to the internal biology of a manticore. To his left was the original pile, not looking near as formidable as when he'd started. In his right was the pile of work he'd already done, and it was almost on par with the height of the original pile.
He'd been working for at least eight hours now, and outside the sun had sunk low in the sky, setting the far horizon on fire with blood. Blaze huffed and placed another paper on the finished paper on the right pile and pulled another sheet from the left pile that was entitled 'Hiyterial steel and its properties' he groaned, not more chemistry work. Over half of the work he'd done was written by an alchemist pony named Amethyst, and Blaze had spent the best part of the day slogging through thesis papers and experiment notes.
'why did she have to do Hiyterial steel? Of all the magical alloys why did she do Hiyterial steel?' Hiyterial steel was a magical alloy that took several years to forge. First the base elements of the metal, iron and trace amounts of magnesium and potassium, had to be extracted from the blood of a dragon. The process was dangerous, laborious and there was the potential for residue magical energies within the blood to cause it to evaporate, making the whole endeavour of finding and killing a dragon a complete waste of time. Once a sufficient amount of iron was extracted it was melted down and then several other magical elements where added, the list was extensive, and each element added gave the metal a unique ability. Timonium was added to provide additional channelling, Kenturnium to make the metal stronger, Ashternal to reinforce it on a molecular level.
But whilst these where the most fundamental of the ingredients the list included more...unusual choices. There was virgins' blood, crushed unicorn horn, Alicorn hair, pegausi wing bone and all manner of dark combinations. Of course whatever you added to the mix wasn't necessarily chosen, Hiyterial steel is a hard metal to alter, and only two of the ingredients added to the slag of iron where likely to bond with it, in most cases you where lucky if you even got one. Once everything was added the mixture had to be heated over embers of obsidian, which contributed to the dark, smoky colour of the metal, for three days and nights. When the mixing process was done the metal was poured into a mould and hammered into shape, this too being a laborious process, for a soon as Hiyterial steel takes a shape it retains that shape, and can't be changed without supreme effort from the forger.
Ancient legends told stories about heroes from the dawn of Equestria, who fought against the darkness of the evil deity Discord with magical weapons said to have been blessed by the creator herself. Fire, Ice, Storm, Earth, Water, Sky, all where names of great weapons borne into battles by unsung heroes who lived their whole lives in a world that didn't have the light of the sun or moon. After discords defeat the heroes agreed that whilst each weapon had the potential for incredible good, should one of them become corrupt they would be too difficult to stop. So the ancient weapons were taken to the far corners of the earth and hidden away in tombs far beneath the surface of the world. Within each tomb was interned the body of the hero who had borne the weapon in life, and who would guard it in death. The tombs were said to be guarded by entities formed from pure darkness, unholy creatures who's will had been shackled and bound to the duty of protecting the weapons.
In the second millennial cycle of the moon Discord had come again, this time at the head of a demonic host he'd taken from hell, selling whatever remained of his sick and twisted soul to bind the demons to his service. Discords host had swept away all those before it, washing like a tide of corruption over eastern Equestria, ravaging the province and butchering all he found. The assault of Highfort, the battle of Eastpeak, the siege of Ironforge, all where battles in a war that lasted for over a hundred years. Whole generations lived and died during the war, the art of killing becoming all they knew. It was during these dark times the Prince Nova Starflight, Blazes own father, had searched for the missing great weapons of the dawning age. Nova looked far and wide, his search taking him from the Ash fields in the far east to Tornuldal at the peak of the world and even into Nightcavern within the bowels of the world. Finally as he made his way across the red wastes, alone and dying, Nova had chanced upon a small cave in the side of a windswept bluff. Within he'd found an ancient mare, who'd pleaded him for food. Nova had little left, but he'd given it to the mare regardless before drifting into a fitful sleep. When he had awoken the mare had disappeared, and in her place, wrapped within a bundle of cloth, had been a majestic hammer, forged of Hiyterial steel and its head as black as smoke.
With that hammer Nova fought his way across the wastes, crossed the Black peaks, slugged through the festering swamps of Jakinde and finally made his way to Iron forge. Iron forge was an ancient stronghold, a massive wall built within the chain of mountains named the grey barrier. The barrier was nigh impenetrable to any invading army, even Discords, and the only way across was to go through Night wind pass, which was blocked off by the immense wall of Iron forge. When Discords host had fallen upon Iron forge all knew that should the wall fall, Discord would have a straight march to Canterlot and the heart of the realm. Discords force had been huge, filled with legion upon legion of twisted demonic creatures that corrupted the world around them as they marched. There where monstrosities the size of houses that could crush whole battalions of battle hardened warriors in one stroke, not only that but even ponies marched under discords banner, traitors and turn cloaks who had betrayed their kin in exchange for Discords patronage.
Under a sky the colour of Blood the two armies had clashed and Nova defeated Discord in single combat, smashing out one of his teeth with the head of his mighty hammer. The second of Discords defeat the demonic host he'd summoned dissolved away into corrupt ichor and blood, soon after the Traitor legions had turned tail and fled, and they'd never stopped running. There was many a night Blaze had been too scared to sleep after his father had told him stories of the traitors' descendents, who lived in dark caves in the roots of the world and dined on the flesh of new born foals.
Blaze filled out the sheet and laid it on the stack of finished work, and was surprised to find it was the last piece of work he'd had to do. He laid the quill down on the table and leaned back in the chair with a moan "FINISHED!" he shouted "CAN I PLEASE GO NOW MISS SPARKEL?" Twilight stuck her head out from upstairs.
"Finished already Blaze? I thought it would take you longer then that" she said with a smile, at the one moment Blaze could easily have imagined spitting in her food.
"Can i please go now?" he whined, he'd been stuck in this room all day, and the manner of his arrival didn't help either 'she knew, i bet she knew, why else would she just teleport me off like that. I was about to kiss Sweet cream! I was about to kiss her! On the lips! And she came in and ruined everything!' he fumed.
"of course, the doors right over there" miss sparkle smiled, which made Blaze even more angry. When he'd first been deposited within the library he'd immediately made his way to the door, determined to get back to Sweet cream and finish what he'd started. But as soon as he'd touched the door there'd been a flash of light and he'd immediately found himself sitting on the chair back at the desk, miss Sparkle smiling at him. He'd tried to open the door ten times, and every time he'd been teleported back to the desk. "It's a spell I've placed on the door" miss sparkle had explained after his final try "it'll only turn off when you're done" Blaze had never felt so angry.
Blaze got up and made his way to the door, he paused when he reached it. "go on" miss sparkle urged, and he tentatively reached forward and pushed at the door, it had gently swung open. With a sigh of relief he stepped outside into the cool night air, a gentle breeze ruffling the flames in his hair. "don't forget, you've got more work tomorrow" miss sparkle told him, standing in the door way "you've got to study hard if you want to get into the royal academy" Blaze nodded his goodbyes and opened his wings at began to take off, Twilight used a spell to grab at his tail and Blaze yelped and fell to the ground "and one more thing" miss sparkle said, standing over him "don't you let sweet cream distract you, i've spent to long teaching you to watch you fail the entrance exams because of some filly, ok?" and then she turned around and went back inside the library, closing the door silently behind her.
'What the hell just happened?' Blaze asked himself as he lay on the cobbles, a head ache was beginning to pound at the back of his head. He stood up, dusted himself off, and took off into the sky, leaving the library and his apparently psychopathic tutor behind. 'next stop, Sweet creams house' judging by the height of the moon in the sky it was about nine minutes past nine pm, Sweet cream wouldn't be asleep yet. 'i hope she doesn't hate me for what happened' sweet cream was not as shy as her mother, but Blaze knew that she must have had an emotional rush if she wanted to kiss him, and coming down from that so abruptly couldn't do anything good for her. 'please cream' he thought as he spotted her house on the edge of the town 'please don't hate me'