Description
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CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Bonbon paused, wiping the sweat from her brow. Her forge's heat filled the lean-to beside her house, even in the cold of night, and the constant swinging of her hammer just added to the exertion. This was easily the most work she had put into one of her creations; it had taken her weeks to get the proper materials, and most of them had been wasted in three failed forging attempts. And, even now, she had spent most of the day and at least half the night in forging this one; her last try.
However, she had a smile on her face.
Everything she had learned in her failures had been transferred into this final attempt, and it was working wonderfully. Her hammer's blows shaped the semi-molten substance, each blow bashing it into it's proper shape. She was certain she had it this time, just had to keep it hot until she was ready.
Speaking of, she set her hammer down and picked up a set of special tongs, transferring the item back into the heat of the forge. One of her rear hooves worked a set of bellows, heating up the coals to the point they glowed nearly white. The coals needed to be as hot as the forge could handle, anything less would leave her creation brittle and cause it to shatter at the first hit of her hammer. Moments later, she moved it back to the anvil and returned to pounding away. She just had a few more blows to finish it.
Just as the glow started to fade, Bonbon dropped her hammer and grabbed her tongs. Moving as fast as she dared, she dunked the glowing material into a vat of equally specialized liquid.
Her grin widened as the liquid bubbled and frothed violently for several moments, and slowly subsided. It was only a passing through that she remembered to grab it out before the bubbling stopped entirely. The final cooling had to be done in the air, too much soaking would also render it far too hard to be of any use. But she had done it, she had finally done it!
She smiled as she looked at the lollipop now resting on her anvil. It would still be about an hour before it was cooled enough to handle, but it was done.
Ponies had often question why a candy-maker would own a forge, even more so when she mentioned it was essential to her shop. But they just couldn't understand; most ponies went with the newer methods of making candy, with simple sugars and the like. And there was nothing wrong with those candies, really; it was just they didn't truly match up to candies made in the old ways.
And she would never make that switch over, none in her family would.