NOV 6 Monday.

I drink some tea and let the taste roll around my mouth for a moment before swallowing it. "Hmm, not quite right," I mumble and move on to the next seed as I grow a new Blood Leaf Tea plant.

After my talk with Celestia a week ago and her Enjoying the Juniper flavored tea, I decided to make a variety of flavors. I need to send her another shipment of tea anyway so I've been working on several flavors for both of us to enjoy, so she gave me a few requests.

We talked until she rose the sun to end Nightmare Night. We mostly talked about the normal topics we enjoy and I'm happy to say she seemed to actually enjoy her time, just there a bit. And considering what that castle means to her, is nice to see.

As a small topic, I asked what flavors of tea she'd like and I've been working on those along with some flavors for myself. She requested, mint and lemon, ginger, and strawberry, odd choices but I think one or two of those might be for Cadance. As for myself? I went with apple and raspberry.

Most of the flavors were very easy to make but the mint and lemon are proving to be more challenging as I need to mix two flavors properly. But I'm getting close now and it shouldn't take me all that long to finish it as well. It really is nice to drink more than just the same thing again and again.

Beyond the meeting with Celestia and my regular work I've also been working on enchantments and spells I'd like to add to my new weapons. They should reach me today as I got a very short letter from Metal Quake saying she was sending a courier to deliver them to me directly and to meet them in my apartment building's lobby today at a specific time.

That is soon but I still have time to try a few more seeds from my first attempt at this new flavor of tea. Honestly, I've been thinking about my collection of plants in new ways after getting the ability to change them more accurately. Specifically a small plant I got a very long time ago, Salty Seaweed.

I got it years ago but never had much of a use for it and its properties. It's able to gather a large amount of salt from the water around it and grow it into salt crystals on its stalks that reach up from the seabed. They do this as a form of defense as eating raw salt is unpleasant to many creatures and could injure them when trying to eat the plant.

The plant is valued because it's an easy source of very pure salt, but it's not as easy as that. The plant isn't too common from over-harvesting and because it's rare to gather seeds. It's also almost impossible to farm because the plant doesn't take well to different environments than the one it's used to.

I think I could improve the plant's adaptability and survivability along with its seed count to make it a viable crop. It would make salt cheaper which is always helpful in one way or another. That plant isn't magical so with some work I should be able to make the needed changes.

For now, though I'm just filing away any ideas with my plants like that for another time. I need to focus on the Changeling situation and being ready. So back to my weapons, I've mostly been looking into enchantments commonly used for weapons, but I was disappointed as most of it is nothing new. I should have seen that coming honestly, considering this ponyland.

I already have a great sharpness enchantment from my woodworking that I'll be adding. But I also want to add something to improve the weapon's durability to damage and the ravages of time. But I can get more creative than just that so I've been thinking about elemental spells.

It would be great for dealing with armored opponents as most armor is metal and that is a winning combination for me, pun intended. A lightning spell is easy enough to work with, I just need to be careful with it to not hit myself. I also have been thinking about the sheaths.

I need a good way to attach them to my armor so I've employed the ever-useful sticking spell for a nice and simple enchantment. I also decided to use an intent-based rune for once, mostly because the task I want it to do is simple but needs to be done quickly.

My armor had room for one last small enchantment on the diamond so I added it in after some thought and testing. When it's working my weapons will stick to the side of my armor and when I mentally will it the sticking enchantment will turn off letting me detach the sheath and weapon literally as fast as I can think it.

I can still draw my weapons without needing to do that as the sticking enchantment is attached to the sheath, but it lets me detach the sheath to work as something to deflect blows or act as a weapon if absolutely needed. It also makes taking off my armor easier as with a simple thought I can detach my weapons and disarm myself.

A single moment can make a world of difference in combat so the mental spell is for the best, even if I need to be careful to not activate it by accident. I've been practicing with a fake wooden sheath and sword just to be safe and to get used to moving with a weapon attached to my armor.

I leave my thoughts as Entropy flies down from the kitchen table to her perch with a content chirping sound. "Enjoy yourself?" I ask as she gets comfortable. I fed her a full meal after she finished practicing with her words again. She gives me a soft thrill in response while I stand up as it's around the time for my delivery to arrive. "Good, I'll be right back."

I leave Entropy to rest while leaving my apartment and descending the stairs to the building's lobby. I decided to check my mail quickly to kill some time and saw a letter from Avalon. I smirk a bit at it, after we met a few weeks ago we've met at the library a few times to simply hang out and research things.

I gave him more book recommendations and plenty of advice as he jumped into learning how to make his own spells once again. He's got some talent, it's not immense but it is there and he's making progress. I have high hopes for how far he might be able to go. I open the letter to see neat and simple words.

Hey Shade.

Just wanted to say I'm visiting family for a few weeks and will be back around the new year. Sorry I couldn't tell you face to face but I've been busy with some things. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the holidays, I'll be sure to bring you back something nice.

Avalon.

I chuckle a bit. Despite how shy he can be in person he really shows how excited and energetic he is in his letters. I fold the letter and put it in my saddlebags as a pony walks into the lobby with a package. It's common for ponies to use couriers or have furniture delivered so none of the other ponies around even pay attention to them arriving with a package.

I walk over to the pony and get their attention. The pegasus lifts the heavy box and looks up at me, "Ugh, Mr. Evergreen?" I nod and they pass over a clipboard. "Sign here." I look it over and it's just a waiver saying I am who I say I am. I sign and they smile. "Thank you, and have a good day." They hurry off after passing me the large and heavy package and I quickly make my way back to my apartment.

I close the door behind me and start to remove the thick brown paper that's covering the plain-looking wooden box underneath. I place the heavy wooden box on the floor and open it to see two cloth-wrapped weapons and a letter inside. I go for the letter first as you should always read the instructions first.

This work is some of my absolute best, and worth every bit you paid for, I promise you that. I was able to get all the diamonds you gave me properly embedded and they should work just fine if you have a good enchanter around. Also inside is a card, keep it if you ever visit again and they'll take you right to me, no more fees or waiting.

Don't be a gray rock in the mountains and come back when you need anything forged, ya? And don't you dare take this to another smith if it needs fixing, it'd be a shame to have some amateur mangle this beauty.

I chuckle at the informal and blunt note she sent me. I look at the red card that was with the note and place both to the side for later. It is useful to know a good smith that can work on things when needed so I think I'll be keeping that card close. I reach out a hoof and decide to start with the dagger first.

I remove the cloth covering it and see the greenish metal shine in the sunlight. The sheath is a simple smooth metal with a diamond embedded right next to where the dagger's hilt and the sheath meet. The dark wood handle of the dagger is a simple piece with a slightly pointed pommel.

Right at the cross guard of the dagger's hilt and blade is another embedded diamond that sits near the one on the sheath when they are together. I draw the dagger to see an interesting design. The blade is a bit jagged with an inward curved blade that tapers off to a sharp point.

The front inner edge is almost serrated with how jagged it is and it's clear it's to be used more for cutting and less for stabbing, while the back edge is slightly smoother but still choppy. I asked for this design as my fighting style mostly cuts or parries with the dagger and this will cut deep.

The blade itself comes from the simple cross guard of two lengthy squares and goes from there. The designs engraved into it are very nice and catch my interest. Simple runic matrixes are overlapping and engraved down the blade in small circles seemingly with random designs to form complex chains that travel the blade.

I can tell the matrixes wouldn't actually do anything as the symbols used are fake and the circles cut off when intersecting with each other, they won't do anything even with magic saturating the weapon. Still, it's fitting and I can guess where she got the idea, namely my cutie mark. I note that the dagger has two diamonds in total as it has one embedded on each side of the cross guard, deep enough to not stick and also not deep enough to weaken the blade too much.

This is a magical metal though so even with the design introducing some weaknesses it should hold up just fine. And that's without the enchantments I have planned.

Combined with the dagger’s sheath, they have three half-inch-wide pure diamonds in total. The entire thing is nearly seven inches long and is an impressive piece of work. I sheath the dagger and place it to the side before unwrapping the real prize, the white cloth wrappings around the large blade fall away easily enough as I stand it up to get a good look.

Unlike the dagger, this sheath has engravings of its own. The surface is covered in more fake runic matrixes that nearly cover all the otherwise smooth metal in completely random spots. Metal Quake really earned that bonus and is definitely somepony I'll hire again if I need something, this work is amazing. I smile widely at this beauty.

The entire greatsword is around four feet tall and really is a true beauty. While standing up it came up my chin and was a heavy piece of metal weighing a lot. I see Metal used the same placement for the diamonds on this sheath and blade as well, with the sheath having two diamonds embedded on one side near the point where the sheath and the hilt of the blade meet.

The greatsword has a plain metal handle with the same slightly pointed pommel and a square-inch thick cross guard that has an upwards turn towards the point of the long blade. Embedded in the middle point of the cross guard are two diamonds on each side of the blade for a total of four and six with the sheath included.

The greatsword's blade is covered in runic matrixes that interlink into long chains that flow from the hilt to the tip of the blade getting smaller along the way. It makes an impressive weapon, with the mithril and gems I'll be able to really enchant these to a high degree.

The blade itself is nearly six inches across at its base coming out from the cross guard, but it quickly thins to four inches and keeps that width all the way to the last few inches where it thins to a sharp point. It has an interesting look and the greenish-colored metal shows off the runic engravings more in the light.

I move the box to the side and bring both weapons with me, excited to finally get to work enchanting them so I can test this new toy- Tools, so I can test these new TOOLS out. I move to my workroom with an excited pep in my step and place both weapons on my desk before bringing over a few gems that contain all the notes I'll need in illusionary books.

I start by taking full count of what I have to work with and bring over the dagger. Its sheath has only one gem on one side and is plain on the other, probably to allow it to be equipped to a pony's side which is the most common place to have it. And the dagger has two gems I can work with.

The greatsword's sheath is much the same with two diamonds on one side of the sheath with the other side being blank. And the greatsword has an impressive four diamonds. I make a mental count and start to think up different combinations of spells I could add to all of this.

I used half-inch pure diamonds for my armor as well so I have a good idea of what spells can be powered with one. I could use each gem one or two smaller spells, but these are meant to be my main weapons so it's better if I dedicate the entire magic of a gem to each enchantment for the greatsword.

For the dagger, I'll probably need to mix different spells on a single gem as it has less to work with. I decide to start with the obvious and enchant everything to gather and hold magic before enchanting both sheaths and both weapons to be much more durable. I dedicate a full gem on each item as this is a very important thing.

I also enchant the metal body of each item to be even more durable on top of what the first enchantments provide. It gives me less room to work with but I want these weapons to be able to ride out anything I do to them so it's worth it to me. Sadly that means I can't do much else with the dagger's sheath with both its diamond and body now enchanted.

After that, I enchant both blades with a powerful sharpening enchantment. On the greatsword, I use another full diamond to power the enchantment as it's my main damage dealer. For the dagger though I only used around half of the other diamonds' capacity and used the other half to add a different spell, the same spell used in my old frost dagger.

The dagger is mostly for small opportunity attacks and to parry blows so giving it a magical effect is useful. And unlike the original frost dagger, this spell is improved and has a better magic source, causing the spell to be powerful enough to form frost crystals on the blade just by being active.

I pause for a moment and use the dagger to cut a piece of maple wood I had lying around, the combination of enchantments cut the wood like it's not even there and leaves frost that creaks and cracks as it melts. With that, the dagger is done and I sheath it after making sure the protection enchantment on the sheath is strong enough to fully resist the sharpness enchantment and turning off the frost enchantment.

This is the main reason I used the full capacity of the dagger sheath to make it durable, I don't want my magically enhanced blades to damage their own sheaths. With the dagger done I move on to the greatsword, two of its four diamonds are already used so I think for a moment.

I use the third diamond to enchant the lightning spell I've been working on into the blade. The spell came from the frost dagger and I just modified it for lightning instead of frost. After I'm done I don't activate it to test it, I'll do that somewhere else as I would rather not wreck my workroom by accident.

There is still a diamond free on both the greatsword and its sheath but I already have everything I wanted so I'll leave those free for now. I pick both blades up and practically skip out into the main room before whistling to Entropy. She turns to me attentively. "I need to get to Gaia's Eden," I say and she flies down to take me immediately.

When I arrive inside my shack she watches me curiously as I quickly put on all my armor. After everything is on properly I move the greatsword's sheath to my upper right side, more near my back really, to a certain plate of armor. I will the spell to activate and a moment later the sheath is firmly stuck in place on my side as the sticking spell mentally activates.

I smoothly sheath the greatsword into its place on my side and test the weight of it by walking around a bit. The silence enchantment on my armor spreads to the weapon it's in contact with and as I walk I'm still completely silent. After making sure it's in place I move the daggers sheath right under the larger sheath and it also sticks in place.

I take a few more steps to confirm the diamonds in my armor can handle silencing the extra items and they seem to and the sticking spell. I move outside before breaking into a full run into the snowy field, yet my full run produces no noise except for my soft breathing. I stop running and stand in front of the standing log I often use for practice.

Entropy is now far behind me and lands in the snow before looking up at me. "What do?" She asks and I reach out an armored hoof to scratch her a bit.

"Just watch, and back up a bit." She hops a few feet away and I quickly unsheathe my dagger with some practice and activate the frost enchantment. I stand in front of the log and quickly slash it several times, each time I leave a deep gash in the thick Oak log, and I also see frost start to spread a bit from the cuts.

I tap one of the dagger's diamonds twice and the frost effect quickly fades while I test the dagger a few more times. The Frost and lightning enchantments are mostly passive but I included a way to switch them off because it's not always needed or optimal to have active.

These versions of the spell are also much more powerful than my old frost dagger and as such need to draw magic actively. It doesn't take a large amount of magic but after hitting something with the enchantment enough times the diamonds would use all of their stored magic and stop working.

I sheath the dagger and draw my greatsword while regrowing the damage to the log. I do one quick swing by twisting the handle with my space magic and in a moment the blade cleaves straight through the entire one-foot-thick log, I don't even have any resistance.

I hold up the blade and deliver a few more slashes, each time the log is cut shorter than before with a clean cut. Entropy chirps excitedly, "Shiny! Pretty! Sharp." She says while staying back and I can't help but chuckle at her reaction. I bring the hilt of my greatsword to me and tap a diamond twice to activate the enchantment.

In a moment small currents of electricity start to jolt around the blade at random, arcing a small bit sometimes. I regrow the log fully before taking a swing, the slightly loud sound of the discharge crackles against the wood and I once again cut through the log this time leaving some blackened and smoking wood.

I see streaks of blackened wood near the cut and while the effect doesn't do much to this log it would certainly do a lot more against a living thing. I tap the diamond again before sticking the greatsword's blade into the cold earth to prop it up. Entropy takes the opportunity to fly over and perch on the greatsword's crossguard. "Like?"

I nod with a smile and look over my new weapons again. "like? No. Love? Absolutely. but I'm going to need a lot of practice with these." She moves to my back as I move the greatsword and notice the dirt and snow now on it. "looks like I’ll need cleaning enchantment. Can I fit that? probably." I mumble while whipping off the blade and sheathing it.

I turn to Entropy and pet her. "Up for a visit to the park? Today seems nice." I ask, deciding this could all wait as I need some relaxation. Her excited caw of agreement makes me laugh as I slowly walk back to my shack.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 995

I thought something more slow-paced and less emotional would be nice. And it let me go into detail about the new toys Shade has. With that in mind if anyone wants a better idea of what the weapons look similar to, look up the Abyss Watchers weapons from Dark Souls 3. They are different but that's what I based these weapons off of.

The dagger in this story is meant to be similar except it being less jagged overall and more uniform.

I also liked the idea that Metal Quake would be inspired by Shade's cutie mark for the engravings. I think fits well for him.

Also, two questions for those interested. How do you think Shade should go about changing the look of the weapons normal metal? I'm no expert so I just thought paint but tell me if you got a better idea.

And second question. Names? We have two very fancy death dealers that I'd rather not just call dagger and greatsword. So any suggestions?