Chapter 3: Broken Pieces
Nails looked out at the location. It was perfect for his needs. Since he was a blacksmith he would be doing a lot of loud work. The location he had chosen was on top of a cliff overlooking one of the lakes of Ponyville. He had chosen this spot also because he had noticed that there was a large deposit of hematite in the cliff. Thanks to his military training he had already planned on how to extract the hematite. He would first have to get a rope and pulley system made for him so he could lower himself down. He wouldn't do the mining directly below his house since that would have ruined the structural integrity of the cliff and as a result his home. He would do the mining where most of the ore was. On a sharper descent that led directly into the lake so that if any of his systems failed he could have a safe landing in the water. He had also decided that since the Everfree forest was once a city, they would have a large stockpile of charcoal there. He decided that once he had finished his home, he would go and search for some of the fuel before extracting the ore so that he could get to work as soon as he finished the shop which he planned on building after his home was finished.
There was one more reason why he had chosen this location. Not a reason related to his work or the view. He had chosen this location because it was outside of the Ponyville city limits. He had decided that no matter what, he couldn't live in Ponyville. This way, he could avoid the distraction that this would bring. He was still close enough that ponies would probably refer to him as the Ponyville blacksmith. But he technically wasn't a citizen of Ponyville.
Nails finally turned his attention as the sound of carts came towards him. He turned to see the lumber he had bought was almost there. He picked up the money Celestia had given him and walked out to meet them.
"Are you Nails?" asked the stallion at the front.
"Yep, that's me. How much do I owe you?"
"A delivery this size, plus distance comes to about 325 bits."
"I'll give you 350 if you leave me one of those carts."
"Well these are starting to get old and we were going to replace them anyway so why not." said the stallion as he unhitched from his cart. "Take this one right here." he said indicating the cart he had just unhitched from.
"Alright, let me help you get this wood unloaded." Nails began unloading the wood. He had been to the hardware store earlier to pick up some nails. When they had finished unloading the wood Nails paid the stallion and the group began its trek back to where ever they had come from. Nails turned around to face the plot for his land. He picked up the shovel he had gotten from the store and started to dig the first hole.
He had built the building's frame when he felt something hit him in the side of his head. He picked up a small rubber ball and turned in the direction it came from to see three small fillies running towards him. The three stopped short in front of him.
"Well hello there kids, is this your ball?" said Nails holding the ball up in his claw. He instantly decided that this had been the wrong decision. The three fillies screamed at the sight of his claw before running around in random directions. Nails face-hoofed with his left hoof before he heard another voice.
"What the hay is going on here?" said Rainbow Dash who was flying down from the cloud she had been on. "There had better be something really big going on to have woken me up from my nap!" she snapped.
"Rainbow Dash is here! She'll save us!" shouted the orange pegasus filly.
"Save you from what?" Rainbow asked looking around. There wasn't anything odd.
"from that strange ol pony right there." said the yellow filly with a bow in her hair.
"Oh, you mean Nails?" said Rainbow Dash looking back at him. "He's a friend of mine. Don't worry, he's cool!" said Rainbow Dash as she landed right next to Nails.
"He is? He doesn't look that friendly." said the white unicorn filly.
"Heh, Rainbow do you think you could try and introduce me?" asked Nails.
"No problem. Girls, this is Nails. Why don't you introduce yourselves?"
The three fillies looked at each other and nodded. Nails figured that they would finally calm down. He was wrong.
"WE ARE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" shouted all three in unison almost deafening Nails.
"We are on a quest!"
"To get our cutie marks!"
"Ya! And umm, what they said!"
"Cutie marks?"
The three fillies and Rainbow Dash stared at him like he was an idiot. In truth, Nails had no idea what they were talking about.
"What do you mean? Don't you know what a cutie mark is?" asked the orange pegasus.
"Um, I'm not really from Equestria. I lived in a different country for a long time."
"Um, I think you three should go see get some lunch. It's about lunch time don't you think?" said Rainbow Dash.
"Ok, Rainbow Dash!" said the orange pegasus, "Let's go guys!" and with that the three sped off towards town.
As soon as they were out of earshot Rainbow Dash spoke up, "So you don't know what a cutie mark is?"
"No, I don't, could you please tell me why they are so important to those three fillies?"
"Well, it's a mark that a pony gets on their flank when they realize their special talent. Like mine." said Rainbow Dash indicating the cloud and lightning bolt on her flank. "Mine shows how fast I am and my love for racing."
"Huh, is it just ponies that have these cutie marks?"
"Well, from what I know we are the only species. Why?"
"I think I know why I don't have one of those things. It's because I'm part griffon, the griffon part of me keeps me from being completely pony and thus I can't have a cutie mark."
"Well, maybe you just haven't found your special talent."
"I could name a bunch of things that I am really good at like killing, hunting, metal working, medicine." Nails noticed a confused loom on Rainbow's face.
"You can do medicine?" she asked.
"Ya, I'm special forces, not invincible. You have to learn how to take care of your own wounds out there on the battlefield."
"Well, maybe those aren't your special talents."
"Rainbow, about these cutie marks, if a pony has a cutie mark for something is that the only thing that they can be really good at?"
"Well, not really, they can be good at other things but they would be exceptional at that one talent and a few things that come with it."
"Well, I think that means that I will never have a cutie mark."
"What makes you say that?"
"Look at it this way; you said that they would be good at things related to their talent. My talent just so happens to be fighting, yet I'm able to pick up on things that most ponies may not be able to. That may be because I'm part griffon."
"I guess you're right." Rainbow said as she turned to look at the outline of a building. "So this is where you're going to live?"
"Yep, it's got iron ore on the cliff's face along with a safety net should something fail while I extract it, and it is away from the town."
"A little too far away, it's out of the city limits."
"How did you guess?"
"I didn't guess, I knew. As the weather captain for Ponyvile there are several important bits of information that I need to know and the geography of Ponyville is one of them. The city limits ends about 200 yards from here. Why don't you want to live within the city limits?"
"I couldn't tell you. It's just that I don't really uh, like living in a community. I've always been a loner and so I feel more comfortable that way."
"Ok well, I guess that I'm getting a little hungry, I'm going to head over to Sweet Apple Acres." Nails ears perked up, "Do you want to go with me? You look like you've been working all day."
"Uh, I guess I could spare a little time, but I need to try and finish by tomorrow." said Nails as the two set off for Sweet Apple Acres.
"I'll make sure to try and pull a few strings and get you some good working weather for this afternoon and tomorrow."
"Thanks, I could really use it seeing as I still don't have a roof over my head."
"You're not going to sleep there tonight, are you?" asked Rainbow.
"Well ya, I am. I'm used to sleeping outdoors so this would be easy. Especially since the weather's controlled around here. I'm used to sleeping through really hot nights."
"Well, I guess if you wanted to I can't stop you. So do you have any plans on what to do first as Ponyville's blacksmith?"
"Not really, I'll probably have to wait until I get a job from somepony."
"Well that may take a while seeing as there aren't many people around Ponyville that use equipment that you could fix."
"Ya well. Hey I never learned the names of those three fillies."
"Huh, oh ya them. The Yellow earth pony was Applebloom, she's Applejack's sister, the white unicorn was Sweetie Bell, she's Rarity's sister."
"What about that orange pegasus?"
"She was Scootaloo; she's kind of an orphan. That's why she really likes me. She wishes that she had parents like me so she put me in a role model position that I don't think I'm doing a very good job of filling."
"What happened to your parents?" asked Nails, Rainbow Dash stopped dead in her tracks.
"What do you mean?"
"Rainbow, I've seen ponies go insane before. All it takes is one traumatic event, one bad day, and they are at an all-time low. Sometimes, when a pony reaches the bottom, they look for the best way out. The first thing they would look for is someone who experienced the same problem. Scootaloo chose you as a role model because there is something in common with you two and I don't think that being pegasi is the answer to that question. Besides, I can relate to you."
"Oh ya! How! How can you go through the same pain I did!"
"My parents died before I ever knew them."
Rainbow Dash had a stunned look on her face, "Really?"
"I know the story, but I don't think you would want to hear it. I'm interested in what happened to yours."
Rainbow Dash stood silent for a moment, "It was a day like any other. My dad and mom were the captain and co-captain of the Cloudsdale weather station, I was there that day. A storm cloud got left on the static charger too long and it started to reach a critical state. My parents didn't know that and so when they went to move it, it went critical killing my parents and injuring everyone else in the room. Except for me. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't die that day, or at least get hurt."
Nails looked away, he knew exactly why Rainbow Dash had been spared, but now wasn't the time to tell her.
"What happened to your parents?"
Nails was caught off-guard by the question. "Umm, it's a story that I don't like to think about."
"I've seen the way you react when you hear about griffons. It had something to do with them didn't it?"
"Yes."
Rainbow Dash didn't press the grim matter any further. "Hey, Sweet Apple Acres is just around this bend, what do ya say to a race?"
Nails thought for a moment, this would be a good way to get their minds off of the grim matter which they had just discussed. "You're on." he replied. The two didn't stop to take positions as they just began to sprint. The two turned around the bend where Rainbow Dash was stopped cold as she crashed into Applejack. Nails looked back and saw this so he stopped and started walking towards the two ponies.
"What in tarnation Rainbow? What was that for?"
"Oh uh, me and Nails were racing to your farm and I guess I wasn't paying attention."
"I would have won by now two." said Nails as he arrived at the two ponies.
"Why didn't you keep running then if you could have beaten me?"
"It's an old war habit of mine. Unless my objective was to kill that person, I never shot a pony that was down. I would always give them a fighting chance. Come to think of it, a few days before I met you Rainbow I let a pony live because he didn't die after I shot him once. I never did learn how he turned out."
"Well, for a pony with the reputation you had that seemed mighty merciful of you." said Applejack.
"Mercy is when you don't give somepony what they deserve. None of the ponies I let live deserved to die. Respect is what I showed, if they had the fighting spirit to try and fight me while wounded, I respected that, so I would point them in the right direction and give them a second chance. A few of them started becoming my contacts in various towns. Brandy was one example." Applejack just stared at Nails. Rainbow Dash had never known Brandy, but Applejack remembered that mare's kindness towards them. "She had been an assassin for Iron Foot for the longest of time. When I found her she tried to fight me even though I had shot her, but she couldn't. So being respectful of such an attitude, I pointed her towards a medic and low and behold she starts feeding me information. When I tell her about you six, she sends me a message saying that she would look out for you and tell me if anything came up which it did."
Applejack just stared at him. A low rumbling sound, however, broke the silence.
"Uh, yeah. Hey AJ? We're kind of hungry. Do you think you could spare us a few apples?" asked Rainbow Dash who's stomach had made the sound.
"Sure thing sugarcube, I think Granny Smith just finished baking an apple pie that I know she would be willing to share with ya. I got to go do a few things in town but I should be back soon."
"Ok thanks." said Nails who began to walk towards the farm. "Hey Rainbow Dash, are you coming?"
"Uh, ya just one second." with that Rainbow Dash took off after Applejack.
Nails shrugged and started walking towards the farm. As soon as he was done here he would have to get back to work.