Iron brought up the final plate of metal to the suit in front of him as he stood there with his work apron on. Held up by a mannequin, the colt uses the support to place the individual plates of metal together, holding it ever so slightly in his aura. The colt took out a hammer in his teeth, holding it next to the piece as he twisted his head around and slammed it in to the sheet bending it slightly to the curve on the mannequin. With each swing that he took, Iron puts the curve in the plate needed in order to get it to bend around the edging while maintaining its strength.

Along with the rattle in his neck that he personally has missed. ‘It really has been a while sense I worked on my own,’ Iron thought as he brought the hammer back once more, before hitting the sheet on the mark made by his trained eye, ‘though now I have the time…’ he glanced off to the side of his work station.

It was a fairly simple set up he had going on. A cabinet of tools on the wall all at the princess’s expense, a pony mannequin in the center to build off of, workbench and anvil off to the side that would make the one back home jealous, with a furnace set in one corner so he could keep the metal pliable and strong as he worked it. All with a bin at the entrance that a worker would come by towards the end of the work day and bring the finished suits to storage, so they could be used when need. Though off in the corner just next to the work bench, laid the bag with his own armor. Every so often Iron caught himself glancing at it, wanting, almost yearning, for him to work on it again.

“No, not right now…” he focused on the suit before him instead of his own.

Looking over the final plate, and satisfied with the curvature, the colt slipped a grease pen out from the back of his ear as he put the dots along the leather straps underneath which would hold it together. Bringing the plate over to the work bench, he picked out the proper sized punch for the rivets to use, and hovered the punch over the sheet with his magic as he lined them up with the marks.

For this a hammer simply wouldn’t be strong enough to go through the thick sheet. That’s where his gift came in to play. Driving the punch through the sheet with relative ease from the force of his magic, Iron held it up to the light checking to see they were cleanly made.

“That’s all fine and good,” he looks through each one, checking to see if there are any burrs that would cut in to the leather.

Placing the sheet back down, Iron went back over to the suit. Reaching in to the aprons’ pockets, he pulled out a few rivets and forced them through the leather with his gift, before he levitated the sheet over and slid it overtop the rivets. With hammer back in mouth and the speed and repetition of a machine, Iron flattened out the rivets’ heads, securing it permanently to the rest of the suit.

Dropping the hammer in to his pocket, the colt did a once over of the suit, ensuring that all the individual pieces stayed together as he worked it and everything was just as tight as when he first put it together. With a satisfied nod of approval to himself, Iron lifted the suit up and off the support, and carefully laid out the suit in the bin atop the others just as a worker was coming in to get them. The zebra popped their head in to see if he was finished or not before making their way to the bin, and when they did he almost talked normal… almost.

“Oh my, these will certainly keep the enemy at bay,” the worker looked over the almost over flowing bin in awe, “just how many did you finish, today?”

Iron thought back to the last nine hours or so that he spent in this room alone, not even taking a lunch break as he worked through that and he remained in his element, “I’d have to say about… fourteen or so.”

“Fourteen suits in a nine-hour time frame, it’s probably the highest I’ve seen, and on that I’d bet my mane,” he said to Iron, who only gave an appreciative nod, “I know the thought put in to these suits isn’t a ton, but it usually takes a skilled artisan an hour, to only make one.”

“And I can do that about twenty percent faster,” Iron said took the hammer from his pocket and twirled it in his hoof, not even bothering to check his math.

Shrugging his shoulders, the worker set about and removed the bin from the colts’ work place. As the whistle blew across the factory, and signaled to every creature the work day was done. Iron popped his head out in to the hall, looking around to see if Free was here or not. Though as he tried to find his friend, Iron instead found the multitude of different citizens all doing the same thing he is.

Dwarf drakes cracked their knuckles and cleared their throats after annealing the soft metal to make it hard once more, a few gryphons walked amongst the crowd while wiping sweat from their brow that built up beneath their feathers, as he even saw the zebra that came and got his suits mouthing some sort of chant to them as if for protection.

“All of these creatures, here for one purpose…” Iron even had to admit, when the princess needed it, called on her nation to get her back, “she certainly got it.”

“Are you talking to yourself again?” he heard a familiar face call him out from over the sounds of those leaving for the day.

“Yes, yes I am,” Iron admitted as Freefall walked up next to him.

“I’d expect nothing less of you,” his friend said, before following Iron in to the work space, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah just give me a moment…” Iron trailed off as he picked up a broom in his magic, and gave the area a quick sweep.

Scooping all the trash up, the colt dumped it in the can under the work bench. Grabbing his satchel from the hook inside, Iron caught up to his friend, “okay, now I’m ready.” Nodding to him, Free lead the way as they left the production floor.

As it would seem, the area around the castle hasn’t changed much in terms of appearance to the unicorn colt. Most of the same shops were still in business from when he first came here and when he left, as well as a large majority of the hangout spots that were frequented by the castle guards and other troops. The two colts made their way through the streets, and even though it had been a few years sense he got out, Iron already knew exactly where they were going.

“Elixirs and Edibles is still open I take it,” Iron asked Free as they walked.

“Well your memory’s still sharp as ever…” his friend commented, “yep it’s still in business, hasn’t gotten any bigger, but still good enough for a couple of colts who just want a drink.”

“Amen to that…” Iron said as they walked up to the large oak doors of the quaint tavern in the back street of Boralus.

Opening it up for Free, the colt followed close behind him as they walked in and Iron saw everything almost exactly where it was when he left. ‘Let’s see here…’ Iron said mentally to himself, as he listed off the things that remained from his last visit.

The wall behind the bar counter were still lined with dozens upon dozens of liquor bottles, some of which he never even heard of until he got here. The lights inside were at a dim level, just like before he left, mostly to keep the light from hurting the eyes of a hangover victim Free concluded. While over against the wall was the small raised up stage that Iron swore still has the same elderly gryphon sitting there on a stool, strumming a guitar as he used his talons as a pick.

‘Hmm…’ he mused, ‘all that’s missing is-’

“We’ll hi-ya there!” he heard the sound of the backwoods earth mare calling to them from across the bar, “good evenin’ there Free, how ya been?”

“Well we’re doing just fine, Able,” Free said to her politely as he and Iron sat down at the bar with only a few other patrons in sight. Motioning over to the colt next to him, he tapped Iron on the side, “You remember Iron Knight? Used to be a guard?”

Putting a hoof to her chin, the mocha coated mares’ face began to smile the more she recalled of the two across from her. “Oh yea, I remember ya,” the beamed to the unicorn, “you had qui-i-ite the blow out before you moved…” shaking her head to get her mind straight, and not go on a long story about the distant memory. The mare whipped out a couple of empty mugs from underneath the counter, “before I go get ahead of myself, what can I get y’all to drink.”

“I’ll have a glass of Angry balls,” Iron said, “and can you make that a triple shot?” he asked the mare, waiting for her to nod.

“Sure can,” she grinned.

“Able, do you still have any of the that rum,” Freefall waited a moment to give him time to think of the name, “The Siren, I believe it was called?”

“Oh yes we do,” she pulled it off the shelf and filled his glass half way on the spot, before topping it off with some root beer. Free simply picked up the glass in hoof and nodded to her in appreciation for knowing his preference, “I’ll go and make ya that glass now.”

Once she was out of earshot on the other end of the bar, Iron turned back to Free, “that really is the same mare who served us last time I was here?”

“Yes she is, though now she not only serves, she owns the joint too.”

“We’ll I’ll be…” Iron said as he peered over the counter, taking in the full view of the mares’ curved posterior, as she arched it while making his drink, “…She look that good back then? I can’t remember.”

“Oh you don’t remember a lot from that night…” Able called back over to him as she walked back with the glass, before passing the colt a wink.

“I don’t know what that is supposed to mean…” Iron rubbed the end of his hoof to his chest, “though I can neither confirm nor deny knowledge of any of my actions that night.”

Softly the mare giggled at him, “my lips are sealed if yours are Hun.”

With that final word in, Able left the two colts to tend to her manager duties. Meanwhile, the two colts sat there steadily gulping their drinks as they went back and forth with one another on what’s new. Not that there’s much to say, though the time apart does deserve some catching up.

“Well it sounds like your students love ya,” Free replied as Iron finished telling a class room story and he finished his glass, while Able was right there ready to refill it.

“Oh I certainly hope so by now,” Iron said to himself more than any other present, while he calmly scratched the back of his neck, “considering I wouldn’t be here at the capital if it wasn’t for them.”

Recalling her majesties previous words, Free had been meaning to bring that up, “By the way, what did she say to get you to come here?”

“Well…” Iron started off bitterly, though quickly started playing a different tone as he relaxed from the alcohol entering his system, “it went along the lines of… if a draft is put in place, any able bodied citizens will be asked to serve, which would include most of my class.”

“…Harsh…” Free simply said.

“Understatement… anyways I got the image of seeing fewer and fewer desks filled every day as they went off to whatever fight it would be, while I was still safe in my class room,” he spat out at himself, finishing the half the glass in one last gulp, “that didn’t sit well with me… at least here I will know I can help my students by possibly giving them a suit I know will keep them safe.” He thanked Able for topping him off, as Free thought about this and what he told Princess Grace about his friend.

“Well I did tell her that you were a loyal sort…”

“Yep… I know, she told me that when we first met,” Iron rolled his eyes as he settled his vision on his glass once more, and took a sip.

“Well that’s one mare that has been a mild nuisance for you in your life,” Free tried to think of any others that might count, “How’s Amber been? She keeping you sane?”

“If by sane you mean delightfully inebriated, then yes,” Iron said proudly, “What about you? Any special mare in your life yet that I should know about?”

Freefall sat there for a moment to think of those around the castle and out in the city that have caught his eye. Though unless he’s around one that he knows already, Free himself is of the shy sort. “We’ll there was one mare in the hospital that I started talking to, just as friends though,” he fed his friend the story, “interesting girl, very sweet, smart too… though there was a down side.”

“Let me guess,” Iron sat back as best he could in the stool, “Filly-fooler?”

“Eeyup…”

Raising his glass to his friends, Iron toasted with Free while the guard remained oblivious to what they were even celebrating, but only for a moment, “Here’s to a couple of good colts, who have met nothing but the curb when it comes to finding a mare…”

“Well I’m a good colt… Not so sure about you,” Free scratched his jaw for a second, slowly turning his head to see the glare on Irons’ face, “I kid I kid!” he jested, before they both pounded back and finished yet another glass of their respective drinks.

As the night carried on in the capital of Boralus, the street lights slowly came on one by one, while the sun started to set to make way for its lunar counterpart. All the while, many of the citizens turned in for the night and left the streets for the comfort of their own homes with the ones they loved, as they settled down for the evening and relaxed to unwind a bit. However, for those who don’t have loved ones to see at a calm night like this, most of them of age settle for the comfort of a bottle.

Iron and Free finish their final glass for the night, already seeing stars dancing around them. While the latter plopped his head down on the counter of the bar, to take the edge off so he can clear his mind enough to get back to his rack and pass out before work tomorrow.

“Oh I missed this…” Free said while he slowly raised his head up, “Seriously, do you have any idea how long it’s been sense I drank this much?”

“Ahh… I’d guess sense last week?”

Free thought there for a second, looking through his memory in his drunken haze, “Sounds about right…”

Able walked calmly over to the pair as she placed the two bills in front of them, “Ah I’m closin’ up shop ‘ere fellas,” she yawned after the long day of being up on her hooves, “it’s ‘bout time I got sum shut ‘ye.”

“If ya insist…” Iron said reaching in to satchel as he pulled out a hoof full of bits and dropped them on the counter, as Free reached under his wing to the small bag he had to do the same.

“Thank ya kindly gentlecolt’s,” Able winked at them as she scooped up the bits and dropped them in the register. Looking up at the clock the mare clenched her tongue, as she realized how late it really was, “well y’all have stuck around here the longest it seems…” she gestured to them as Able looked around at the empty tavern.

Free looked back up at the clock, “Shit… Dude, it’s midnight,” Iron glanced back at him, “We’ve been here for almost eight hours straight, of just nonstop drinking…”

“And we both have to be at work in about six hours or so,” Iron said happily, as he hopped off the stool and on all fours with the elegance of a sober preacher, as Free followed his lead, “Whelp, this is going to be fun.”

“Not the first time we’ve worked while still drunk,” Freefall commented while he and his friend walked towards to the door, “Have a good night Able,” he called back to the mare as she waved them on, and they stepped outside.

Walking in to Boralus in the middle of the night and making it to bed while under the influence wasn’t something that was new to either of them. After all they both were stationed here together for a good while, and each of the colts had their fair share of experiences when it came to the drink.

“So same time tomorrow?” Iron asked the colt next to him with all the enthusiasm of a foal in the toy store.

“Ahh…” he rubbed his temple with a wing, “sure… why not.”

Nodding to his friend the two walked along the outside of the wall of the stronghold, between the homes that dotted the area, as they chatted amongst themselves about whatever came to mind. “So you’ve managed to transfer the density and strength from one metal, to another…” Free calculates, “but you still are having issues with the weight.”

“It would seem so,” Iron muttered as they both stumbled their way along the path, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s strong as hell… though it weighs a little more than the original suit that we were given.”

“Doesn’t help that you threw in your own additions to it,” Free said as he looked over the suit in the past, and saw all that the unicorn did to make it a little more personalized.

“Hey… whatever can help in a fight, right?” Iron shrugged his shoulders, “I’d rather have them and not need them, than need them and not-”

The dull thud of chunk of a stone hitting the ground in front of them caused both the colts to stop in their tracks as they looked up from where it fell, “Old castle aint it?” Iron said out loud as he looked around, “It’s just falling apart, brick by brick…”

“Yeah… although,” Free pointed up past his friend, “I don’t think that one was just waiting to fall.”

Looking to where his friends’ hoof leaded, Iron made out the outline of some figure shimmying their way over top of the wall as they grappled on to the side and pushed against some of the bricks. Slowly but surely clambering its way down along the wall to the ground below it, and in front of them.

Feeling the hard ground beneath its legs, the figure shook a bit as a draft kicked up its cloak and it felt the cool breeze across its body. Bundling up more, it tightened the hood around its head, and finally managed to look up.

“Whelp… you know there are easier ways to get in, right?” Iron asked the figure sarcastically.

“I think it’s safe to say that they wouldn’t be allowed to walk through the front door,” Free said as he and Iron stepped forward to the figure while it backed up, “after all, no pony just sneaks around a castle without-”

A solid kick with both hind hooves to the face, silence the guard as he doubles back on to the ground and laid there for a few moments looking up to the stars above. Iron and the figure looked at one another, and in a split second a decision is made by both of them. The figure took off down the streets, and the colt galloped off hot on their trail.

“You’re making me run for this!” The colt called out to the cloaked figure as he tries to gain on them, “I. hate. Cardio!”

Sneaking around the castle, Iron may have let them slide with, considering he could really just didn’t care for the crown… though now with him fighting to take every breath, and gasping from the air running past his scorched throat. The figure was on his shit list for sure. Kicking rocks, Iron charged forth, and got within a heads length of the assailants’ tail. Though before he can close the final gap between them, the horn atop it’s head lights up, and in an instant. The solid mason road beneath his hooves was glassed over with a sheet of ice.

Fighting to gain traction on the slippery smooth surface, Iron fumbled as he fell flat on his face, sliding across the ground in to a nearby trashcan set out for pick up the next morning.

‘Okay…’ he mumbled to himself while a banana peel laid across his face, ‘So we’re dealing with a unicorn.’ He concluded.

As the colt gazed up from his position, he could only see the figure, standing proudly atop a barrel as it avoided its own defense. The glint of a snicker peaked out from under the hood, while Iron slowly raised up from his position, “Who the hell are you smiling’ at?” Iron shot his own grin back.

Slamming his hoof down to the ice, Iron ignited his horn with all the fury coursing through his body… or it was just the alcohol giving his magic additional strength, as he latched on to the figure with a simple telekinesis spell.

“You’re not the only one who can use magic there sweetheart…” Iron whipped his head back, bringing them up to his side as he took aim and bowled the attacker down the alley to an opening. Skidding across the ice until they finally reached solid ground, and after several skips, came to rest at the base of a large tree after a loud thud.

“Well you didn’t get a strike, the tree’s still standing,” Iron looked back across from him to see Free hovering just above the ice, with a slow but steady stream of blood trickling from his nose.

“Nice to see you too…” Iron replied while he scurried across the ice and in a controlled shuffle, as both he and Free made their way to the still lip form.

“Says the colt that left me there after getting kicked in the face…”

“I took off after your attacker!” Iron pleaded with him, as both of them didn’t even notice their assailant getting back up, “besides… yes I left you, but did you die?”

“No…” Free paused for a moment to check his nose, gathering up some blood on his hoof, “though I think the alcohol in my system has thinned my blood enough…”

“Don’t worry you won’t bleed out,” Iron shrugged, “Trust me, I have First Aid merit badge.”

“Oh will you two just shut up…” they finally noticed that the figure there was standing on all fours, sizing them up from their own vantage point several paces from its assailants in the middle of a market setting that laid vacant, “I simply wanted to get in and out, with no creature seeing me…”

“How’d that work out for you darlin’?” Iron asked to the distinctively sounding female voice.

“Well… not as well as expected,” the figure answered back to him as fast as they charged up their horn again.

A surge of magic pent up in the tip burst forth, and sent a bolt of cobalt lightning across the air. Hitting the ground before him, Iron shielded himself with a hoof as the heat caused the moisture in the ground to flash to steam and expand in a violent outburst of power. Wiping the debris off, the colt caught only the freeze frame image of the attacker closing in on him, though just as they appeared they were gone.

“I got your back!” Free called out to his friend as he wrestled with the figure on the ground after tackling them, sending both of them in to a vegetable cart while old goods went every which way in the scuffle. With nothing more than the pure desire to be rid of these two already, the intruder cocked back a fore hoof and collided it with the Pegasus’s rib.

Feeling the weight of a cast iron barbell hit the side of him, Frees’ lungs gave out just as fast as he tackled the figure, and once again it was free. But now it had to deal with the colts’ friend. Feeling the static in the air grow, the attacker braced themselves as a green lightning bolt struck the attackers hoof, grounding it in place for a second while she turned to see the colt of the same hue grinning back at her.

Realizing that she likely had two service members upon her, given their combat techniques. The figure took a different position on the matter, ‘Killing them would be easy… but it would be far more noticeable.’ She pondered while the same spell was brought up, just as the Iron did the same.

Blue met green in a stunning display of both sound and color as they melded in to one for a split second, while both magic wielders looked on and almost admired each other for their prowess. Then finally the pocket of air that was created collapsed, causing the shockwave that erupted to knock both back as their hooves skidded across the brick. Eyeing one another with simply respect, and distaste in their glare. Iron and the figure paced around in a wide circle, waiting for the other to make the next move, until Iron got to his friend as he finally managed to get enough air in his system to breath.

“You alright?”

“Yea…” Free wheezed past what felt like a bruised rib, “she’s got a mean hoof on her…”

“So I’ve noticed,” Iron winked at his counterpart, silently passing a message to him.

Just as the next bolt struck, the unicorn brought up a shield around both him and Free. Protecting them from the concentrated pulse of energy, whoever their attacker was, they were holding their magic steady without falter.

‘This… Mare,’ Irons’ eyes narrowed down on to the distinct pony tail just peaking past the cloaks’ end, ‘Hell she’s almost beating me at this,’ Through the emerald aura he brought up to protect them both, the colt could see the pony bearing teeth at him as she grinded them together.

While the mare focused on her male counterpart, Free made his move. Leaping up and over the barrier that Iron created, he dashed head long to their attacker and the castles’ intruder. Looking past the glare he got from the spells counteracting one another, the Pegasus swore that he could see the mare grinning as she focused on everything but him…
It would seem.

As his hooves stretched out to envelop the mare and put her on the ground once more, where the guard hoped that her expenditure of magic would weaken her. The colt instead found himself being grasped by a claw that dug in to his neck, slowly crunching his windpipe. Looking down at her, Free saw just the limb grasping him in a cold ensnarement, as a few gems along it glistened in the moon light. With a psychotic smirk, the mares’ eyes rolled to the guard.

“You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?” with that, Free was tossed like a rag roll, just as she canceled her own spell.
Iron broke contact with his magic, allowing the aura to fall in front of him, just in time to see the apologetic look of his friend getting closer and closer to him. With a single smack, the two colts tumbled through the air like a pair of siblings in a scuffle. Eventually finding a resting spot in the back of a hay cart, with neither ending up in a better position than the other.

“Iron…”

“Yea Free?”

“Please tell me that isn’t your muzzle…”

Both colts pushed out the tinge of pain that managed to get passed their liquid courage as they opened their eyes, only to find that Free laid atop his friend with both of them face to face and muzzle to muzzle. Slowly but surely a grin started to stretch on the unicorns’ face, as he lowered his eyes to his counterpart.

“Don’t… say… a word,” Free pleaded with him.

“Oh come on, it’s not the worst thing you could have landed on,” the unicorn joked in only the way best friends could, as the words fell off his tongue with as much lust as a mare in heat, “I mean it’s a perfect setting… the night sky is over us, we’ve both just happened to land on top of one another, and this hay is very comfortable…”

“Damn it man…”

“You say No, but your eyes say Yes…”

“Get your drunk ass up!” Free shouted, breaking Iron from his little torment, “We still have a mad mare here that’s attacking us!”

Instantly Iron shot up to his feet, almost knocking Free off of his own as the pair of them hopped out of the cart and stared down the assailant. The mare calmly paced backwards while both colts stood their ground, ready and waiting for her to make a move, “Normally I don’t do this sort of thing… leaving like this and all,” with a flutter of her cloak a pair of wings extended from the sides of her frame, causing both colts for a moment to freeze, “Though it’s been fun you too…” the mare said with a quick kick of her hind hooves, and took off in to the sky.

Staying low to the buildings to avoid any other on lookers, in the night the assailant disappeared without a trace. While on the ground the two colts continued to stand there in complete bewilderment, and allowed the crisp clean air to pass by them for a few minutes longer to clear some of their senses.

“I think I just sobered up there for a second…” Iron said calmly while he continued to look up in to the sky of where the figure disappeared from.

“What? From you flirting with me? Or what we just saw?”

Standing there for a moment longer, the colt just shrugged his shoulders, “Meh… I haven’t decided yet,” both of them checked themselves over to make sure all limbs and feathers were accounted for before. Without even a second glance to the puddles that remained of the little ice trick the mare pulled, they continued on with their original plan of getting back to the castle. “Though you know that flirty bit was all in good fun… even if it was ill timed.”

“Yes… I know, you have a knack for that,” Free pressed his hoof to his temple, trying to push Irons’ words out from his memory, “though whoever that mare was she wasn’t here for a good time…” he said while feeling the bruises on his neck already starting to show up.

“Think we should tell somepony?” Iron asked rhetorically.

Picking up on his sarcasm instantly, Free countered it with the pest defense he could have, “Oh of course we have to tell somepony,” he took the stance of a guard at first, before delivering his own, “there should be no problem with them believing two record making drunks, just encountered a unicorn… Pegasus… talon wielding gryphon sorta thing, in the middle of the night, trying to sneak out from the castle.”

Pondering it for probably a second or two shorter than needed, Iron simply replied, “So let’s take that information her royal assness!” he pointed triumphantly to the castle walls, still in his drunken haze.

“She doesn’t really like you that much,” Free tried to remind Iron once again, though his friend simply trotted past him, “… Remember?”

“You’re right…” Iron called back, “but she like’s you…”