Author's Note

Finally, Another new chapter, sorry it took so long to get this up, not sure where this fits on the Quill and Blade timeline, I hope that Crystal or Anzel will have some ideas after they see this chapter.

...Not Sure How This Started

Good news, my friends finally arrived, and yes, one of them is looking over my shoulder as I write all of this, she's such a worry wort. Forge Hammer...

We both know who she is Dream Step and I don't think we...I know that look, you want me to describe everyone for occasion this somehow ends up someone's reading material...Fine.

Let's take it from the top a bit, my three friends are here; Forge Hammer is an earth pony, she's bigger than any other earth pony I'm aware of, but I have been told a tall and hefty looking stallion in the Ponyville area might be able to compete with her for size, we'll see for sure if we manage to get them both together in the same place, anyway her coat is dark blue, as for her cutie mark, that's a bit distinct, it's s a metallic jade hammer striking a platinum purple anvil making golden sparks with the strike, her family are all working ponies that have history of working with metal, her father is a blacksmith, and he taught her all the basics, and few intermediate techniques, but she's pretty tight-lipped on the kind of smith she is, we initially met when her family was handling an overflow order by the Royal Guard, she had had recently gotten her mark and gotten lost on the tour that somehow happened on the way to the castle.

Eclipse Touch and Dream Step are a different matter, they're twins with unique magical abilities that don't like being in social settings, and I am frankly surprised they would return here at all, both them could easily haven gotten scholarships to Princess Celestia's School of Magic, but they're so introverted they would actually have frozen up if an assessor had made their way to their small town but didn't that year, the last time that town had seen any ponies involved in the rest of Equestria before they encountered Forge Hammer's family moving into the area had been a good decade or so, now they only see visitors from the outside area every four to five years...I have been informed this is accurate. I won't go into details here, so I'll do my best to summarize as briefly as possible. Eclipse Touch is a unicorn with a black coat, a horn and hooves that have a more night blue coloring to them while her mane and tail seem to be a moon-white, her cutie mark is a moon being eclipsed, and she has the rare ability to shut down magic in a given area or directed at a specific target for a limited time, no clue on just how powerful of magic this can override due to a lack of proper testing; Dream Step is a pony with a night blue coat with her horn and hooves an umbra color, her cutie mark is the image of a crescent moon in what seems to be a dream bubble that has four set of tiny stars making a path to or from the dream bubble.

Now that we have that out of the way, I'm requesting the twins work together in placing new wards on the place, preferably with a bit of Eclipse's power mixed in to shut down any attempts to tamper with them or bypass them...and they're finally not near me as I write anymore thank the heavens. I've asked Forge Hammer to make some adjustments to my inherited armor so that I can properly make use of it when I require its use but she says she'll need to find forge to work from and make some negotiations.

It hasn't even been full day with my friends yet and Princess Luna is back, she sent a letter last night mentioning she didn't realize the intricate nuances of my needs and would be arriving, "sometime soon" with the replacements and some extra materials, and now she's talking shop my friends, well two of them, Dream's feeling awkward around the Princess but won't explain why when prompted. She's making comments about recruiting the twins into her night guard, but they keep politely declining the offer every time the comment comes up. Princess Luna is discussing with Forge Hammer about using the forges at the castle, she's also making comments about expanding their connection and employing Forge as her personal smith but I don't know how long the negotiations will last.

How all this even start happening, I think that...

Do you mind, Princess? I'm trying to write some personal stuff in my diary

We'll just leave it all here for now.