"You don't understand how happy I was when you agreed to come and speak to the class."

"I was observing the Sabbath today anyway, so I didn't have anything else to do." He explained to Ms. Cheerilee.

She smiled warmly at him, and then asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what's the Sabbath?"

"The Sabbath is a day in the week, either Saturday or Sunday that you are supposed to not do any work. I wasn't exactly sure what day to have it on; Equestria doesn't have a Saturday or a Sunday. So, I just chose this day out of the week to compensate. The Sabbath is part of the law." He dutifully explained to the teacher pony.

She chuckled, "You mean to say that Humans actually set a law up to force your people to relax?" She said, jumping to the wrong conclusions.

"It's not like that at all, Miss Cheerilee. It was part of the way a group of people worshiped their god. I discovered that I enjoyed having a day off during the week, so I adapted it into my weekly routine. It's actually kind of complicated."

She nodded, "OK, I won't say I understood that, but I won't ask." She glanced at the clock, "The students should be arriving shortly, do you have anything specific that you are going to talk about? Or are you just going to answer their questions and then leave?"

"They'll probably ask a few questions that will lead to stories, Miss Cheerilee."

She nodded again, and then looked about the room before turning to The Forgemaster with a sheepish grin, "I'm so-so sorry, but there doesn't appear to be any chairs that will fit you."

"It'll be fine, Miss Cheerilee. I'm too tall to stand properly anyways, "He indicated his current hunched over form, "so I think I'll just sit on the floor."

The Forgemaster then found a nice place on the floor to sit down at; his wings were brushing against the ceiling.

"Alright, and please just call me Cheerilee, I feel old whenever anypony else besides the students calls me that."

"You are far from old; you are a young mare, as far as I can tell. Besides, old is just a feeling. I've seen eighty year olds with more youth and energy in them than forty year olds. It isn't about how old you are, Miss Cheerilee: it's about how old you act."

Cheerilee opened her mouth to respond, but her words were cut-off as a large *BOOM* rocked the schoolhouse. Moments later, 3 familiar fillies walked through the door of the school house, with much of their fur blackened.

"Hi, Miss Cheerilee!" they said in unison.

She sighed, and greeted them tonelessly, "Hello Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Please take your seats."

All of the other students arrived quickly and filled up the classroom. The room was abuzz with gossip, whispers, and intense discussion over what exactly The Forgemaster was doing there. Miss Cheerilee greeted every filly and colt by name and with a striking grin on her face. It was plain to see that she enjoyed teaching very much. Cheerilee quieted the class and stood from her desk to stand in front of the class.

"Hello students! We all have a special treat for us today! The Forgemaster is here to speak with you all! Let's have a round of applause for Ponyville's resident human!"

The young ponies dutifully obliged their teacher. The students clopped their hooves together as The Forgemaster waved at them and bowed as properly as he could.

"Thank you for that warm introduction, Miss Cheerilee." He turned to the students, "And, I thank you for that wonderful applause."

He quickly got down to business.

"Now then, students, I want you all to realize that you are not in the presence of any normal human. So please don't get any pre-conceived notions of my kind, as I am as far from a regular human as there can possibly be."

One of the fillies, a Diamond Tiara, raised her hoof and then spoke when he called on her, "So what makes you so special?" she asked in a condescending tone, clearly trying to insult The Forgemaster, though he took no heed of it.

"A great many things, but I'm sure you all don't want to hear about me and my qualities. Oh, wait. That's exactly why you're all here!" he started to laugh, after a few moments, he spoke up again, "I assume you would like a demonstration?"

She nodded.

"I can name each and every one of you, and tell you the order in which you came into the classroom. I've not but heard most of your names once, so I think that ought to be a good test."

He then named each and every pony that was currently in the classroom, starting from the last and working his way up to the first arrivals.

"…and finally, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, who all arrived at the same time, on the cusp of that explosion."

The young ponies were shocked, their jaws almost hitting their desks. To their minds; he was definitely a special individual. An everyday pony couldn't do that, so how could he?

Applebloom had the right idea when she asked, "How'd yah do that?"

"Well, I can't forget anything. It is a definite boon, a very good things for those amongst you who are vocabularily challenged. But it's also a curse, never being able to forget. It's always useful, but sometimes a body just needs to forget. For instance, I memorized all of your names even though I didn't exactly want to, no offense."

Scootaloo spoke up next, "Can you do anything cool?"

"It depends on your definition of cool… Wait a moment, you and your friends, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, are members of that 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' group aren't you?" After a pause, he said, "Would you all like to hear a story of my own crusades?"

About half of the ponies groaned, and the other half nodded eagerly.

"Very well then. I shall now regale the tale of how The Holy Land was lost, retaken, lost again, retaken again, and so on and so on. The tale of the Kings and Queens of Europe going to the Holy Land to take it back from the Muslim invaders."

He talked to the young ponies for almost 3 hours just on that one subject. In addition to battles and events that he was personally involved in, he gave detailed descriptions of every other major character. From Saladin to King Richard, The Forgemaster covered almost every single player in the wars. Of course, The Forgemaster made his tale appropriate for the youngsters; no need to send them crying back to their mothers and have nightmares for the rest of their lives. However, the climax of his story was the part he played in the siege of Jerusalem. The story of how he and 1000 of his knight brethren and the local militia held out against Saladin's army for more than a month, and were then let go after Saladin had defeated him.

"Now let me tell you of my personal favorite. This battle was called 'The Siege of Jerusalem' by both sides participating. Saladin had come out of the desert to the west with over 100000 warriors in his army. The man came like a sandstorm; difficult to see from a distance, and literally impossible to stop! At first he tried to storm the walls and the gates and crush us under sheer numbers. That plan quickly failed, as no matter how many numbers an army has, they can only have so many in the fight at once. This particular fight was similar to 'Thermopylae', but that's a tale for another day. That particular tactic of his lasted for almost a week; a week of almost constant fighting. But, then he pulled his men back, and he then unleashed his trebuchet on us. I swear, half of that city must have been aflame. We held firm however, some of the knights turned to God, others turned to their brother-in-arms for support, but we all stayed; no matter the cost. We stayed, not because we cared about the city, for we didn't. We stayed so that the civilians living inside of the city could escape. What better a diversion than an army of knights? After that, he tried to starve us out. He put the entire city under siege, nothing went in or out. We lasted for 2 1/2 weeks on half rations. The equivalent would be one hay-burger a day per one pony. Saladin was confident that we would surrender, and when we didn't, he came to the city in person to find out why."

The younglings had been listening with rapt attention.

"Once there, he was every so surprised to find me there. For you see, we were both legends in both our homelands and in the other's homelands. He was famous for being a true gentleman, a scholar and always willing to show mercy. I, on the other hand, was notorious for my innovative tactics and untouchable battle prowess. I wasn't like Saladin; he was a frontline general, which is infinitely better than one who stays back at his castle and 'plans', but I fought on the frontlines directly with my battle-brothers. Shedding blood, tears, and sweat, mostly theirs, right alongside them. Saladin gave me a way out; all of us would leave, and none of us would be hurt. I quickly took the bargain; I traded a broken shell of a city for the lives of all of my men. By far, the easiest choice I've ever made in combat. My brothers and I rounded up the civilians and escorted them back to Europe, where we were greeted with open arms by most, and insulting words of cowardice from others. They actually insulted me; told me I should have stayed and fought for no effect. I didn't appreciate what they said, so I went back to The Holy Land as a civilian. I toured around and saw the beautiful land without the calculating eyes of a tactician, but with the warm, wide eyes of a tourist. I even got a chance to meet Saladin! The man truly lived up to his reputation as a gentleman. After that, believe it or not, Saladin and I became fast friends. He actually invited me to his daughter's wedding!" The Forgemaster smiled at the memory.

"So, there's a lesson in this kiddies: friends can come from the most unlikely of places!"

He started to laugh uproariously; he had just told a story of war and loss to a bunch of children and then ended with a beautiful sentiment! He knew that some of the things he had said were probably not suitable for pony ears, but the lesson was still important nonetheless.

After a few moments, his laughing went down and was replaced with the sounds of many ponies clopping theirs hooves for him. He looked up and saw that many more ponies had shown up! He had been so engrossed in his story telling that he hadn't noticed the other show up. He looked at the bell and smiled once more; it was far past the time for the children to go home! He had kept them at school for more than 2 more hours longer than he should have and their family had come looking for them! In his defense, he had been very detailed. Eidetic memory can do that to someone.

Cheerilee stood up from her desk and said, "I would first like to apologize for keeping the students so late, but, in my defense: The Forgemaster was telling a really great story!"

Cheerilee broke into a smile and the other ponies agreed whole heartedly with her. Most of them arrived in the story about half-way through anyway and could attest to the story's positive attributes.

"I would also like to thank The Forgemaster for the excellent story and taking time out of his day to speak with the children!"

The ponies began to clop for him once more.

He waved them down, "That wasn't a story worth cheering. The way I told it would be like a teacher explaining calculus: extremely boring. You should have heard the bards back home tell stories of my exploits. If you liked the way I told it, you would have dropped to the ground crying tears of joy from the way they spoke."

Some of the ponies gasped, one of them spoke up, "You mean that was a true story?"

Apparently they hadn't realized how he had referenced himself almost every sentence.

"Yes, every word. Who would make up a story about themselves?" he asked, completely innocent.

"We thought you were makin' up a story on the fly!" a stallion suggested.

"Nope, I'm not that creative."

The adult ponies started to clop again for him and started yelling out things like, 'You're a hero.' Or, 'You're amazing!'

He waved off the compliments and clapping, but they persisted. He stood as best as he was able and made his way to the door. The ponies were parting at his passing.

Before he could leave, Applebloom asked him a question over the noise, "Will yah come and tell us another story?"

He turned back and said, "Someday."

The youngsters all squealed in delight.

The adults may have squealed even more.