Sentinel grunted impatiently as Lyra yawned. Lyra had a length of thread and a rather large looking needle sitting on the table. His ear was still trickling blood and there was a large tear near the base that went halfway through his ear.

“Sentinel, this is gonna sting,” Lyra warned as she lifted up a small cup full of strong whiskey. Without further ado, she poured the hard liquor over Sentinel’s ear, which caused him to hiss loudly. “I am so sorry baby!” Lyra whimpered. She began to gnaw on her front hoof from her emotional agony.

Sentinel gritted his teeth and said nothing, sitting there stonily.

“You know, this would be easier somehow if you were crying,” Lyra said after pulling her hoof from her mouth. “At least I could be punished for hurting you… I would know how much you are suffering and it would hurt me… with you being so silent I just don’t know,” she confessed.

Sentinel sighed and felt awful for Lyra. He slumped. He felt two lips press up against his cheek and then he saw the needle being threaded in mid air, surrounded by a golden glow. He felt his pucker tighten and clench violently as he thought about what was about to be done.

Quite by mistake, a whimper escaped his lips and that seemed to send Lyra over the edge as she began to cry. The needle and long length of thread hovered hesitantly in the air.

“I don’t know if I can do this Bonnie,” Lyra whined.

“Lyra, you must,” Bon Bon said. She covered her mouth with her fetlock and yawned. “You are the only pony who can. He’s been oozing blood for a while now. Leaving it be hasn’t made it stop bleeding. It needs stitching. Or do you want somepony to finish removing his ear and then cauterise it?”

“NO!” Lyra cried, her exclamation loud enough to make Harper wake up and start to cry.

“I don’t want my ear cut off and cauterised!” Sentinel begged, finally saying something and breaking his stony stoic silence. “Mama Lyra please just sew it together!”

Bon Bon went to Harper where she lay in the straw and tried to comfort the crying startled foal. She eased herself down into the straw, laying on her belly, and cradled Harper in her forelegs. She hummed to the foal and planted a little kiss on the foal, and Harper continued to wail, kicking her little stubby legs around in the air. Bon Bon winced when she heard Sentinel’s sharp intake of breath.

“There’s little ridges of cartilage… oh this is awful!” Lyra moaned. She wrapped her forelegs around Sentinel, the colt who had seen so much abuse already. He still had a few bare patches on his withers from his burns and there were scars on his skin that would last a lifetime. She pulled the foal close and focused her magic, trying to make the stitches small, neat, and tight. She could feel the resistance against the needle as she had to force it through the cartilage of Sentinel’s ear. She could feel his body tighten and tense.

And then, much to her dismay, she could feel the shuddering of his barrel as her colt began to quietly cry while still trying to hold still.

Lyra hated these isles. They were a barbaric place. She hated what they were doing to Bucky and the rest of her herd. She hated what they were doing to her. She hated the attempt to seize her mind. And more than anything, she hated that she was jamming a large needle through a foal’s ear over and over while causing friction burns with rough thread as she pulled everything tight with no anesthetic.

“I hate everything about these cursed isles!” Lyra sobbed.

Bon Bon nodded but said nothing, still trying to get Harper to settle. Harper could hear her mother crying and it only made her wails intensify. She pressed her snoot against Harper’s tummy and wished that Bucky was here. Bucky had a knack for quieting Harper, and much to Bon Bon’s relief, it didn’t involve using a sleep spell.

“I am not so sure I understand my sister sometimes,” Loch Skimmer said to Sparkler as she watched her sister balancing and standing on her right front hoof, her other three legs and her wings sprawled out in different directions to keep her balance. “She looks funny standing on one front hoof.”

“What amazing balance though,” Sparkler said as she leaned on Loch. Her head hurt, and she had a bump the size of a goose egg just behind her ear. “Sour Mash clipped me because I got a bit cocky,” Sparkler grumbled.

“Well then, don’t get cocky you dunderhead,” Loch teased.

“If you didn’t have a broken leg, I’d be all over you right now,” Sparkler grumbled.

“Like you was all over me the other day when you, me, and Rising Star rolled around in that patch of wildflowers?” Loch replied with a suggestive question.

Sparkler blushed and looked at Loch. “Yeah, maybe,” Sparkler said.

“I still don’t know how I feel about filly on filly contact,” Loch admitted.

“I know,” Sparkler said as she watched Ripple switch over to her left front hoof and raise her right hoof from the ground.

“I don’t mind you touching me, but I feel awkward and out of sorts when I try to return the favour,” Loch Skimmer confessed.

“Well, just let me touch you then. I like that… I like it a great deal and I don’t expect anything in return. I can get it from Rising Star,” Sparkler said in return to Loch Skimmer.

“But I feel bad not returning the favour,” Loch protested.

“Look, you make me feel good in other ways,” Sparkler said reassuringly.

Bucky looked upon the armor pieces spread out over the table. A few more enchantments were needed, but the armor was finished, completed, the last piece forged. It was now time to fine tune the finished work and sort out any problems that might arise.

It was time to test.

“Rising Star, do you think you will be able to lift me into the air with my armor on?” Bucky inquired.

“I think so,” Rising Star replied.

“Good,” Bucky replied.

Bucky ignited his horn and pulled on the helmet, powering it up. The blue-green glow intensified and began to spread over the other armor pieces. They slowly floated into place around his body, linking and locking together with loud clicks and clanks. There was no visible or exposed flesh.

Bucky took his first step. There was a loud metallic clunk as his steel covered hooves clopped onto the stone floor of the smithy. His first movements were jerky and he realised he was thinking too much and concentrating too hard. He tried to focus on walking naturally and made his way towards the door.

The armor was black and dull looking. There was no reflective surface anywhere. It was draconic in appearance, skeletal looking, and terrifying to look at. Light seemed to die upon its surface. It was also covered in eyes, small closed eyes, and when the eyes opened, it would reveal a hidden sunstone that would flood the surrounding area with ultraviolet light. The armor thrummed with power and made everything around it vibrate.

“You look like death,” Lugus remarked.

“I know,” Bucky said in a demonic metallic growl.

“There’s that feeling of pissing myself!” Rising Star whimpered.

Crush the earth pony split once again. The big earth pony didn’t like magic much to begin with and he took off to have a well deserved break at a nice water trough outside.

“I feel so strong,” Bucky announced, his voice now a source of terror. He cleared the door and entered the courtyard. Ponies scattered upon seeing him, and within moments, most of the courtyard had been cleared. He stomped through the courtyard testing his new abilities. He moved so easily now. He could feel new strength. It took no effort to walk, the armor did all of the work for him. All he had to do was remain limp, suspended in a field of magic.

“The walk is a bit mechanical looking,” Rising Star observed as he followed along behind Bucky. “And the tail swings a bit. It does seem be acting as a good counter balancer, just like Crush’s assistant said it would.”

“Rising Star. You are to lift me and throw me against the wall. Hard, but not too hard. We need to test how this takes impacts,” Bucky commanded.

“No! I can’t throw you against the wall! How hard is too hard? All of your wives and my mothers will play hopscotch on my corpse if I hurt you…” Rising Star replied, shying away in terror of all kinds.

“You will do as I ask,” Bucky demanded, his voice now a terror that came from the depths of Tartarus.

Rising Star cringed. He didn’t like this at all. His horn flashed to life and he lifted Bucky into the air. “Oh I hope that Derpy forgives me, I don’t want to be kicked by a pegasus that I love and turned into a fine red mist,” he cried.

Not knowing what else to do, he hurled Bucky into the strong stone wall.

There was a loud metallic clang upon impact, and it sounded like a ringing bell. Bucky bounced from the wall and hit the ground hard. His armor plated form did not move and Rising Star struggled to hold in his urine.

After a few moments, Bucky began to stir.

“I have detected a problem,” Bucky announced. “I will need sound dampeners. I can still hear bells ringing in my ears. Oh the sound!” he said in a voice that sounded as though it was reading off the soiled laundry list for Tartarus. He slowly rose up off of the ground, the armor lifting him up to his hooves in a mechanical fashion. “I didn’t feel a thing!”

The voice was too much and Rising Star took off at a run, heading for a little patch of hedges intended just for the purpose he needed them for, a keening wail escaping his throat as he ran.

“Some ponies,” Bucky growled mechanically, his voice sounding like something reverberating up out of some dark abyssal plane of death and destruction. He took off at a trot, which picked up a bit as he cleared the gatehouse, finally becoming a gallop, and then, Bucky ran. He took off with incredible leaps and bounds, soaring for a good twenty feet through the air before his hooves hit the ground again and propelled him through the air.

Lugus had to take wing to keep up, and even then, Bucky was still getting faster and faster. Lugus straightened out his body, tucked his legs up to his torso, and poured on all of the raw speed he was capable of. The landscape went by in a blur as he flew, and Bucky’s pace continued to pick up once Bucky mastered the new movements to keep himself going.

The armor gave Bucky incredible speed.

Lugus, a flying creature, was having trouble keeping up. Lugus cursed his large form and wished he was a smaller griffon, one of the speedy fliers used as messengers. He gulped in air and pushed himself to go even faster, trying to keep pace with the mechanical monster below that was sprinting at cheetah speeds.

In no time at all, Lugus saw a tower and windmill, and Bucky seemed to be slowing down. Finally, Bucky stopped near the tower. There was also a large stone hall with a pegasus statue up on top.

Lugus circled as Bucky rested.

“I made this tower,” Bucky announced in the terrible mechanical voice he now had. “And the hall too. Over an hour from the castle at walking speed. We just did it in a few minutes. I am not even breathing hard.” Bucky then turned tail and took off once again, bolting back towards the castle, realising that dozens of improvements needed to be made.

Author's Notes:

Typos?