The Forgemaster quickly ran down the path to Zecora's hut. He had no idea what the 2nd dose of Poison Joke would do to him, but he felt that getting to Zecora's would help him fix anything that might go wrong. He found himself at Zecora's hut shortly. He knocked on the door and waited for her to greet him. Moments later, she did. She looked at him, and then looked around, satisfied that nopony was near, and she invited him inside.

"I was so happy to find you at my door, for I have found the herb I was looking for!"

"Good, good. Zecora, I have a question: if somepony currently suffering from Poison Joke were to get another dose of Poison Joke, what would happen?"

She waved him off with a hoof, and indicated the bath he was supposed to get into. He got into the bath and started to lather the soapy mixture all over his body. After a few minutes, the mixture started to work, unfortunately.

With the most blinding and agonizing pain imaginable, he began the long 2 hour process of becoming a human again. All of his fur fell off, his bones all realigned, and his hooves basically melted into fingers again. This all came with the felling of being dipped in acid whilst on fire while simultaneously having all of your bones dislocated and then popped back into place multiple times. Needless to say, it was a fairly uncomfortable experience. He blacked out after the first hour of torture.

He awoke the next day on the floor of Zecora's hut, fully human. Then he realized something important: he was naked again!

'What is it with this place and making me naked?' he thought.

He attempted to stand up, but couldn't get his balance. Being a quadruped for a few days really messed with his motor functions. That, and there was an uncomfortable weight on his back that he couldn't place. He spent the next several minutes on the floor of the hut trying, and succeeding, to get his motor controls under control. After being used to the pony body, his human body would take some getting used to, too. He'll probably be fully adapted in a matter of hours; this was, after all, his normal form.

After several more minutes, he stood successfully this time. He reached back to discover what was on his back and was surprised at what he found.

He had wings.

They were just like his pony wings only proportioned to his body. That meant that they were huge!

'One upside to blinding pain and evil plants: wings' he thought.

Zecora, who had been absent, chose this exact moment to walk into the hut. The Forgemaster remembered that he was naked and covered himself.

"Thanks Zecora, but I should go. Bye!" he said, running out the door.

As soon as he remembered that he could use magic again, he turned himself invisible. He continued down the path to Ponyville, anxious to get into clothes. As he walked, he thought about the previous few days. The ponies would probably be wondering where, exactly, Crimson Hammer went. But, they didn't have to know that he was Crimson Hammer, it might make things… awkward between him and Rainbow Dash. Then, he would have to explain his wings and probably why they look exactly like Crimson hammer's wings.

'Ugh, even Twilight Sparkle is intelligent enough to put 2 and 2 together.' He thought, 'But then again, sometimes she gets 22 instead.'

He chuckled at the thought. It was true; Twilight did have an unfortunately long track record of spontaneous insanity and over-reacting.

He then became depressed at what lay ahead of him: hours and hours of talking with Twilight, explaining where he was, why he went there, how, what, who... Twilight Sparkle wouldn't leave him alone until either he or her was dead.

He returned to his home in seemingly record time. He found most of his home the same way he left it, although he noticed that it was disturbed even more than from when he was here last time. Apparently, Twilight had been there once more after he had returned the things she had stolen.

He found his clothing inside the armory, the one place she hadn't disturbed. That was where he had put his clothing after Twilight had stolen them the 2nd time. She would have taken them because that was the one place she would be sure to find his runes. He quickly dressed. He couldn't fit his shirt or overcoat on because of his wings. He would have to go to Rarity to get them all fixed.

He walked out his back door to the enclosed forge area. While he would've enjoyed forging at the moment, he was far more interested in flying with his human-sized wings. After a few trial runs, he found that he could fly just as well as he could when he was a pony. As he was satisfied with his results, he went back to his house. He went into his armory and retrieved his sword and his clawed gauntlets. Weapons in hand, and on hands, he flew out to the Everfree forest and got to work on exterminating the manticore species.

He managed to kill 14 before he couldn't find any more in this section of the forest. So he went home, feeling satisfied that the manticore menace was going to be killed, by him.

wWwWwWw

The entire town of Ponyville awoke to a sound that they hadn't heard in several days: the sound of metal on metal. The loud noise reverberated throughout the entire town, waking those ponies that were not already awake. It's not like he was hammering metal at 6 am, it was actually Saturday and the ponies were sleeping in.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends, however, weren't as upset at the rude awakening because the noise meant that their human guardian has returned! The 6 quickly gathered at the large structure that served as The Forgemaster's residence and workshop. As they did so, the ringing from his forge stopped. They waited not 12 seconds before he stepped out of home to greet them.

"Twilight Sparkle, stop stealing my things." He said, without preamble.

The ponies were too stunned to respond. They were staring at him and his new-found appearance. When he had left, he didn't have wings. He found the staring to be fairly rude. They hadn't spoken to him yet and didn't seem to be able to any time soon, so he just went back inside. He went through his home and back outdoors, to his forge and the rapidly cooling metal sitting near it. He picked it up with his tongs and began to heat it once more. He had been making a small gift for Rainbow Dash, something in exchange for the poster she had given him, even though she had given it to a now false character.

He had just picked up his hammer and was about to beat the metal into the shape he wanted when he realized that the group was right behind him, they had finally gotten over their shock and had followed him. Twilight was unfortunate enough to speak first.

"Forgemaster, where were you these last few days?" she asked.

"Twilight Sparkle, in light of all your recent thievery, I will not tell you." He said, over the hammering noise.

"What?" asked Twilight.

"Ever since I arrived here you have been nothing but a thief and annoying to me. If you hadn't asked and merely had some patience, I would have told you in time. 7 days, 4 hours, 58 minutes, and 28 seconds."

She didn't have a response to that, so The Forgemaster spoke to the others.

"Rarity, I seem to have grown wings. You wouldn't mind terribly if I asked you to alter my clothing to fit them?" he asked.

"Not at all, dearie. Just bring them by my boutique later on and I'll fix them for you." She replied.

He turned to Rainbow dash, "Rainbow Dash, I've heard from my friend Crimson Hammer that you 2 are close. Would you care to comment on that?"

She immediately blushed, but said, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Fine, if you don't wish to comment on the status of your love life in front of your friends, I won't judge you. By the way, he left Ponyville for some reason or other, and won't be back anytime soon."

When he said that he had left, she didn't believe him.

"What! There's no way he could have left town. He's probably just visiting a friend, he'll be back soon." She said, sticking up for her 'friend'.

The Forgemaster felt badly about putting Rainbow Dash through this, but there was no way she would like the truth any more. In fact, she might just try to kill him.

So he said, "Rainbow Dash, Crimson Hammer's sister had been stricken with a terminal disease, he went to be by her side during her last few months amongst the living."

A horrible lie, but it was better than anything else he could think of. It worked anyways, she quickly stopped talking.

He turned to the rest of the ponies, sorrow over his lie evident on all of their faces.

He said, "If any of you see a beautiful, blue flower in the Everfree forest, don't go near it, stay away from it, and for the love of the gods; don't touch it! It will hurt you. It is evil."

Applejack spoke up, "So how did yah get them wings, anyway?"

He took time to look directly at Twilight and smile at her, before looking back to Applejack and saying, "The flower I told you about is called Poison Joke, and it gave me these wings, and it was the single most painful experience of my life."

"WHY!" asked a very… exuberant Pinkie Pie.

"Well, Pinkie Pie. Have you ever broken a bone?"

"YEAH! There was this one time at the rock farm when I was picking up rocks then a rock rolled down the hill and I was like 'OH no a rock slide!' and my family was like 'Move Pinkie!' and I was like 'Huh?' and then I got hit by a rock and I broke my leg and I couldn't walk for 2 weeks!"

"Do you remember how bad breaking that bone felt?" she nodded, "Well, now imagine that every bone in your body broke, then healed, then re-broke repeatedly for 2 hours. Then imagine that bones started to grow through the skin on your back, tearing through the skin like a sharp knife, which then started to grow feathers. And that's the story of how I got my wings!"

The ponies all looked disgusted by the way he described it, but in reality it was much, much worse.

"Who wants to go play in some Poison Joke?" he asked, raising his hand.

Nopony raised their hoof to join his in the air.

"Then there may be hope for you yet." He said.

The 6 left soon after that. He kept working at his forge, making the gift for Rainbow Dash.

It was a necklace of Rainbow Dash's and 'Crimson Hammer's' cutie-marks intertwined. It came on a finely crafted golden chain and was enchanted with runes.

He waited until nightfall, when everypony was asleep. He took off from his home, taking the gift with him. He made his way to Rainbow Dash's house and looked through her bedroom window. He saw her lying underneath the covers, fast asleep.

He went in and placed the necklace on her sleeping chest and then flew back to his house.