FEB 25 Sunday.

I keep my eyes closed as I concentrate heavily on the space around me, specifically the Spatial Structure I've been experimenting with.

The past two days have been a mix of me experimenting with space magic and continuing to talk with Larimar. Nothing has changed with her after our small incident, but I doubt anything would have happened to begin with. We've developed an interesting relationship.

It's clear we are both very distrustful beings, that's not to say we have no trust between us but it's small and difficult to build. We trust and respect each other enough to be mostly honest, or at least be more open with our lies, but considering this entire relationship is built off of a business deal it's not bad.

On my end, I've only known her for a few weeks and while I trust her to not attack me or cause me problems without reason, I don't trust her enough to give away any personal secrets unnecessarily. I think she feels something similar, but like I said we are both mistrustful and paranoid.

Still, there is respect between us and I feel like I can say she's a decent acquaintance. I leave my thoughts on Larimar alone and pick up a hoof-sized rock before throwing it at an area with a slight spatial warping, a moment later it appears several feet to the left of me dropping to the floor.

After a lot of testing, I realized I was thinking in the wrong dimensions, no pun intended. I started with a tube, but then I realized that the tube's actual dimensions don't matter, it just needs to make that connection to the other end. So I made a tube with the width of a hair and used that instead.

Compressing the space inside a Spatial Structure turned out to be very easy to do as the area of space is already under my control in a sense. I compressed the space inside the several-foot-long, hair-width tube, and expanded the exit and entrance points to be a foot wide.

The items I throw in one side come out the other side quickly and with zero problems. The whole process has got me thinking about how I'm actually using my space magic, I know magic is based heavily on my will and thoughts and that's really starting to show here.

As an example, all it took to prevent an item from moving out of the walls of the tube was a little more magic and will to guide the item through. Magic doesn't really have many rules, if any, and forcing a change is only a matter of magic and will. It seems that even I can focus a little too much on unnecessarily rigid forms of magic.

It's like Guided Evolution, there isn't really as form of a strategy here, it's just my magic and will. I think I'll be taking that approach more with space magic, as I now have the luxury of having enough magic and control to not really need to be as strict with my magic reserves.

I'm still going to try and use logic and make a technique of some sort to help, but being purposely limited here is not going to get me far. I'm trying to explore and work with spatial dimensions as some random pony, I don't even have the math to explain what I am doing anymore, so for now I'm going to be relying on my will and imagination more.

As an example, I have a slight problem with this form of travel. The hair-width tube can link two points easily enough, but I still need that tube to cover that distance and that means it can encounter solid objects in its path. I let the Spatial Structure I was working on collapse before drinking some tea and trying something new.

I pick two points in space and form another incredibly thin tube by grabbing the space around it and compressing it to form the small tube, building out from one of the points like I'm making a rope. The space inside is enough for a larger object to travel and pass through the tiny passageway, while the compressed space is small enough not to cause much Rebound buildup.

I then contract my spatial senses in an odd way. I control and limit my senses to form a gap where I'm not observing the empty space, just the area to both sides of it. I will the tube to build out more and let my senses follow along through it like an extension of myself as it builds out. Keeping the mental image of the relatively simple action repeating again and again, moving towards the other point I keep in mind.

I visualize it as the tube growing from its starting point like a vine, taking the path of least resistance to the other point in space that I keep firmly in mind as well, but I don't control the tube's path and let it grow by aiming for the second point. A second later the tube forms across the gap in my senses and connects to the second point without issue.

I wanted to see if I need my spatial senses to use space magic but it seems to work just fine without it. I still have to maintain some mental control over the Spatial Structure and feed it magic, but this works just as I hoped. I pick up a rock and throw it in one end, visualizing the rock moving along the tube with space being manipulated to keep it in the center and moving forward.

Doing that takes a tiny bit more magic but a fraction of a second later the several-pound rock drops out the other side, whole and intact. I let it all collapse again and set up another experiment. I make the same conditions, but I also grow a small wall of wood in between the two points blocking the most direct path for the tube.

I limit my senses again so I can't sense the wooden wall and send the tube out again, and while it once again takes a tiny bit more magic, it does connect with the other end after a moment of me building it out. I extended my senses again and see that the tube took the most direct path around the wood without my direct control, I didn't need to sense the object in my path and just needed to will it to avoid the object, but using my senses would have likely worked better.

I let out a long breath and drink some tea while forming Mana Mimicry to recover my lost magic from my experiments. This is a good first step, I prevented any obvious problems like something falling out halfway through and objects that could be in the tube's path.

Because the structure is so small in size it also doesn't take that much magic to form or maintain, the Rebound also builds pretty slowly from how little I'm moving the space. Compressing doesn't cause much Rebound at all and as long as I'm not moving that tube around the Rebound will remain pretty small even if I make a very lengthy tube.

As a positive because the tubes are so small the spatial distortions are nearly invisible and can be easily missed if you're not looking for it. I'm not sure walking through it would do anything to you either, the space is still there it's just smaller, so walking through it is fine as long as you're not inside when it collapses.

I think I'll call this new method Spatial String, it fits and works well enough to keep my notes organized for now. I'll definitely need a lot more practice and experimentation before I'm willing to try and walk through one of these, portals? Gateways? Doorways? I'm not sure what word I should use but doorway will work for the time being.

It's not technically teleportation, I'm just manipulating space to make two points connected by a thin passage, it works though and that's what matters. I'll probably train with it in several ways and test it extensively but I can't see too many more problems popping up.

After resting for a while and slowly reading through a few pages of one of the books I bought from Larimar, it's hard to read due to its age and seems to just be a history book, but it's kept my attention well enough. I stand up once my magic is fully regained and turn to Entropy. "Remember the plan, Girl?" I ask as she preens her wing on my makeshift bed.

She bobs her head and slips into my shadow without a word as I grab my saddlebags and a few of the things I'll need. My plan for today is to take a quick trip to the market and spend some time there to buy anything I want before heading off to talk with Larimar again.

It's technically a little risky because of Obsidian, but I'm not letting some asshole stop me from living my life. I can deal with him if needed, and if not then this is one of the last times I plan to go to the market and I'm unlikely to see him again if he's not waiting for me. Out of all the locations available it's most likely he'll attack me outside the market, it's a place I've gone to often and has plenty of onlookers, it's also a convenient place to wait at and it's easy to spot me there.

After a few mental checks and making sure I'm ready for a fight if it happens, I make my way outside while keeping my senses sharp. While walking to the market nothing happens, but when I crest the last hill it quickly becomes apparent that my thought process was spot on.

Sitting off to the side of the market on a taller hill is Obsidian, looking down watchfully at the market. I sigh after spotting him and start walking down the hill I'm on to get into the market before he spots me. This is partly my fault but I'm still pretty annoyed about having to deal with him.

By the time he spots me, I'm already in the market and I can see him blow out some fire before standing up and staying still. He won't start shit in the market but once I leave he's definitely coming for me, I shake my head a little and just try to enjoy a little shopping before having to deal with him.

I spend nearly an hour just looking through various things, all while Obsidian keeps watching me from the hill he's on, I even spent longer than necessary shopping just to annoy him a little. I ended up finding another old book from a Dragon and was able to buy some living Burn Weed from a Dragon selling spices.

The plant itself looks like a twiggy shrub with many small brownish leaves that are ground down into a spice. After all my shopping is done I find an interesting opportunity in a certain Dragon, Aurora is at the market today selling gems like normal. I walk up to her with a small smile. "Hello, Aurora. Lovely day for some bloodshed isn't it?" I make a somewhat dark joke as she turns to look at me.

She looks me over and glares in the direction of Obsidian on the hill. "You are the strangest Pony I have ever met. You know he's waiting for you, right?" She asks plainly, I can see a lot of Ponies not noticing what's happening here so I take her question seriously and nod. "Got a plan then?" She asks curiously.

I shrug a little and nod. "Yes, to make his little trap useless by springing it first." I don't really give her a detailed answer and just spend a moment taking out some bits. "I need someone to watch my things, one hundred, and you make sure nothing is lost while I deal with him," I say with a serious tone.

I knew this was a possibility so I didn't take anything really important with me, but I like these saddlebags and would rather not lose them to this fucker. She raises a brow and looks me over as I hold out my saddlebags and the bits, "You are actually going to fight him, aren't you?" Her tone becomes more serious. "He's out for blood, you know?" She warns me.

I just give her a flat look. "So am I," I answer, slightly exaggerating my want for violence. I do want to beat this Dragon a little, but I don't need to go too far. "I'm thinking of doing it over there." I motion to a relatively flat area next to the market but outside of it. "You think anyone would intervene?" I ask after a second of thought.

She takes the bits and my saddlebags after a moment of silence. "Sure I'll watch it, and I won't try anything. I don't need more trouble." She reassures me and looks over to the spot I pointed out while taking my saddlebags with her tail. "Should work, you are not the first to do this there." I nod while looking the area over. "Pony?" I look back at her with a raised brow. "Kick his shit in." She growls a little at the end and smiles viciously.

I look at her for a moment and nod silently before turning and walking off. It quickly becomes apparent that the other Dragons here have a decent idea of what's going on, they are good at knowing when a fight is about to start. I keep my steady steps, neither slow nor fast while keeping my senses trained on Obsidian.

I don't want to start off with Spatial Cutting as that seems a bit extreme, but it would be nice to truly test out my elemental spells. As I leave the market and walk into the empty area many Dragons are now watching me, I keep my calm and simply stop walking after a while, sitting in the empty area, waiting.

The area I'm in is mostly flat, probably made that way by Dragons. It's filled with smaller boulders and rocks, the largest are around the size of me along with innumerable smaller rocks. As I sit there I turn to look right at Obsidian, a dead unblinking stare closing the great distance between us, a silent challenge.

My silent challenge seems to piss him off a bit as he jumps off of the small hill he was on and flies to me quickly. He doesn't come right at me and instead lands a hundred or so feet from me by slamming into the ground and sliding to a stop in one quick motion. "Pony!" He yells out, spewing some slightly black fire breath and looking at me with needle-thin eyes.

I don't say anything as he flares out his wings, a gust of wind and dust hitting me as I cast an overpowered Flame Shield spell in preparation and start to plan silently. "You think you can just walk around here?! This is the Dragon Lands!! WE rule here and I'm going to fucking show you that!!!" He roars at me in a rage.

I didn't expect him to be this damn worked up, it seems letting him stew for a few days definitely did something. An angry beast makes mistakes but is also a very dangerous thing to fight. Despite the call out I just stayed silent and simply waited, my body tensed and ready to move quickly.

He bares his fangs more and shows a large slightly crazed smile. "Got nothing to say?! Shaking in you're fucking fur?!! Pathetic! Well, maybe I'll be so nice and let you beg-" That's all he can get out before I grow tired of his shit. I remain calm but am annoyed at his attempt to humiliate me like this.

So I do what every Dragon here would do, I hit him. I reach out with my field and grab a bolder the size of me before throwing it at him as hard as I can. His eyes widen and he's mostly able to move his head out of the way, the large boulder glances his right horn making him jerk his head from the force.

He lets out a small roar before looking back at me with clear rage. "Shut the fuck up! And fight me!" I yell back at him, breaking my silence while grabbing more rocks to throw as it takes less magic than a spell and seems effective enough. The first heavy rock slams into his chest shattering into a cloud of dust.

ROAR He roars full force at me and takes a deep breath. I'm not sure if I'm in range of his fire but I would rather not test my Flame Shield spell like this, so I throw a larger boulder right at his open maw. It comes a moment late as black-tipped fire starts to shoot towards me.

I dash to the right and some of the flame lands near me but misses, the rock I threw hits him right on the nose as he closes his jaw before it can go down his throat. It doesn't disorient him for long as his claws dig in before he pushes with his large legs to move forward despite me continuing to throw rocks at him constantly. His powerful steps quickly start to close the distance between us.

"Fucking Pony!!" He screams at me while moving closer and closer. My best advantage is range so I start to quickly run to the right as hard as I can, he simply adjusts and keeps his body tracked on me. Seeing that he'll outrun me I stop throwing rocks and up the power of my blows.

A deep green spell matrix flashes above his head for a moment and a large lightning bolt slams into his wing from above with a cracking sound. "Ahhh!" This seems to cause a lot more pain as his wing's membrane rips and blood is drawn. The overpowered Lightning Bolt spell seems to have gotten through his scales a bit and caused some actual damage.

The blow isn't enough to stop him though and he keeps closing the distance. He's faster than me and even with me launching three more Lightning Bolts at him he's able to close the distance enough to take action. He contracts his back legs and flaps his wings to bolt forward suddenly and leap at me, claws getting far too close for comfort.

I jump and try to move out of the way, rolling a little while trying to move to the left so the massive Dragon won't slam into me. I didn't expect the leap and I'm now slightly on the defensive, but I'm also far from done. One of his claws grazes my side as he reaches it out to try and grab me, he narrowly misses me and I quickly take stock of the injury.

A gash along my side, five inches long, the pain is sharp but not enough to distract me too much, the wound is not too deep but is bleeding a fair amount. I cast a B.L.P spell on myself before anything else and stopped holding back as much. He digs his claws into the ground and tries to stop his momentum. "Yes, bleed you fucker!!!" He yells out and turns his head on his long neck while I'm now on the left side of his body.

I keep to his side as he moves his head quickly to lunge forward with open jaws as he tries to bite me. I let loose a full-power Lightning Strike spell directly at his exposed neck, the loud crack deafens me a little and I see his head and neck jerk to the side from the strength of the blow.

He stumbles a bit as the powerful lightning rips some scales off of his neck, leaving a spot pouring out fresh blood onto the ground as he recovers. His muscles twitch as the lightning does its job as I redouble my efforts. He barely has time to take stock of his new wound before I hit him again.

He loses his footing a bit as I point-blank let loose with an overpowered Lightning Strike spell into his front left leg. "Shi- Ahh!" His leg gives out as more blood and scales fall to the ground, his leg now kneeling down from the muscle spasms and pain, causing his body to go off balance. The pained scream I cause is ignored by me as I zone into the fight fully, only a second after the bang of the spell hits I cast another spell on him, a Stone Spike spell.

While casting I ran away to gain distance and a second later three stone spikes abruptly jut out of the ground toward the leg that he was kneeling on, aiming for the midsection of his leg. I overpowered the spell more than I really had to, one of the three stone spikes gets lucky and gets through his scales.

It punctures through his leg and pokes out of the other side a bit, blood openly pouring from the new wound, rapidly making a pool. "AHHHH!!" Black flame spews into the air as he roars out in extreme pain. I've nearly gained a good amount of distance but have to dash to the side as his tail closes the distance I made and slams into the ground like a whip, aiming right for me.

The tail barely misses me and I know he can use it to grab me, so in a moment filled with adrenaline and action, I turn to my space magic. In a fraction of a second there is a popping noise and a thud, a five-foot Spatial Plane forms and collapses in a moment, and around half of his tail is cut off instantly as the detached body part falls to the ground with a thud.

Blood pours constantly from the wound like a grim waterfall, drenching me in a large amount of his blood as I stand only a foot or two away from the bloody mess of the cut. "AHHH!!" His roars of pain heightened even more and he started to thrash as his eyes took on a shocked and more fearful look, apparently realizing this was not going to end well for him. "FUCK!" His arrogant tone is gone now and the panic is setting in.

He moves his remaining tail away quickly, drenching me in even more blood from his bleeding stump while doing so. He's able to break his leg free from the stone spike and tries to stand on it, but quickly collapses as the leg can't hold his weight. I see his wings twitch and quickly cast a Sticking spell, sticking his left wing to his body and preventing him from flying away from me. "S-Shit!" He gets even more panicked and tries to get up again.

I send another Lightning Strike spell into a different leg, causing him to fully collapse onto his belly. I then cast an extremely overpowered Sticking spell and stuck his belly onto the ground below him. The pain and entrapment seem to make him desperate enough to attack me again.

He continues to trash on the ground and flap his free wing, trying to break free in some way, but then he whips his head in a quick arc and lets out a small wave of black-tipped fire toward me. With his thrashing I didn't realize his intentions until the fire was already moving toward me, it flowed over the ground and through the air toward me, I didn't have time to dodge.

Realizing this I focused my efforts on recasting a more powerful Flame Shield spell over myself instead of trying to move, I layer the shield over the first Flame Shield spell just as the flames hit me. I cast the spell just in time as I'm enveloped by the flames for a moment, but with nothing to burn it flows over my overpowered flame shield leaving me unharmed.

The wave of heat and fire dissipates quickly though with nothing to latch onto, leaving me among the blackened and smoking patch of ground, seemingly unbothered. Obsidian smiles when the flames hit me but quickly looks shocked again as I stand unmoving and uninjured. Before he can say anything else I cast my most powerful Lightning Strike spell yet.

It hits his side with a boom that leaves my ears ringing as I feel the shockwave of air pressure from the blow, and he once again roars in pain, flailing around with nowhere to run and seemingly no way to attack me. His side now has a patch of smoking and cooked flesh, bleeding slowly. I use a hoof to wipe some blood from my face and look at him, his breathing ragged and quick as Obsidian mostly stops thrashing after seeing his tail bleeding so much.

"Are you done?" I ask in a cold and emotionless tone. He stops struggling completely and looks at me, his eyes darting everywhere with panic and fear. I stand drenched in his blood, standing in a pool of his blood next to his severed tail. "I asked if you are done fighting, or do you want me to continue cutting?" I threatened in the same tone.

He still looks very panicked, but there is slight relief on his face at my words. He rapidly nods his head after a short pause, "Y-Yes! I'm done!" He says back, his tone nothing like the arrogant dragon from before. I keep eye contact for several long moments to add to his fear and uncertainty.

I nod. "Good. Now, listen." I growl out the last word to him as my eyes glow green for a moment and he flinches back a little at my intensity. "You are bleeding pretty badly." I look at his covered tail, still pouring out blood. "So I'm going to give you exactly two options, and you ARE going to pick one," I say without letting him get a word in.

I ignore the pain in my side as I move forward and focus my mind on dealing with this. "I will either heal you enough so you don't bleed out, but I leave your tail a stump, and I will keep this bit," I emphasize each word while stretching my neck and motioning at his severed tail. "Or, you can apologize to me and ask me NICELY, to heal your tail. Pick." I finish without looking away from his red eyes.

There are a few beats of silence as I stare him down, he opens his maw a bit and I interrupt him. "And if you open that mouth of yours to breathe any flame at all, I WILL cut your legs off." I threaten before he can answer to make sure he doesn't try any bullshit.

He looks at me for a moment, baring his teeth in a snarl filled with hesitation and fear. "I- I'm... I'm, sorry. Heal me." He growls out slowly after a moment and I raise a brow. "Please." He says with great reluctance while looking at his severed tail on the ground next to me.

I nod, happy he wasn't a complete idiot. "Move your tail over and stay still." I give him instructions and pick up his severed tail in my field. He growls again but does as demanded and moves the stump of his tail over, the wound is still bleeding heavily and splatters on me as it gets close.

I ignore the blood everywhere and move the severed tail to the wound, lining them up as accurately as I can. "Don't move, this will hurt," I say seriously and focus on my magic. I only have around half of my magic left now and I don't know a spell that can reconnect limbs, but I have a solution.

I've never messed with Biomancy before but today seems like the day, and healing is probably the easiest place to start anyway as I'm just regrowing a little flesh and bone. I press the pieces of his tail together and start to dump life magic into the wound while focusing heavily on my will.

It takes most of the second half of my magic, and I feel a little lightheaded by the end, but the flesh and scales knit together regrow. I cast a scanning spell and while I can't be sure, it seems everything is fine. He moves his tail back and seems to be able to move it well enough for me.

I walk a little away from Obsidian and look at him. "If you ever fuck with me like this again, you're dead. Now fuck off." I demand while canceling the Sticking spells trapping him. I walk towards the market and notice that every Dragon was watching the fight, but I ignore the stares, too tired to care.

I quickly walk over to Aurora and pick up my saddlebags while several Dragons move out of my way, most giving me wary looks. She looks at my blood-covered form with some wariness as well. "Thanks, have a good day Aurora," I say without even stopping my stride.

She nods a little as I pass her. "Same, Shade. You are one badass Pony." She uses my name with a little respect and I don't even respond, I just keep walking. As I slowly make my way back to my cave to recover and heal myself, I notice Larimar sitting on a hill, smiling at me.

I don't know when she arrived or how much she saw but I'm still in pain and don't feel like dealing with that right now. :I have something to talk about with her tomorrow I guess: I chuckle a little at the crazy thought but stop as my side hurts again from the action. :First, some healing though, preferably before Celestia can ground me for the next month:

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 996

This was a long one, but fun to write. I hope it lived up to your expectations. I think I did ok with the way I did the space tube thing in this chapter, I'll have to tinker with it more but I think it's a starting point to go from.

I thought it was important that his space magic is able to do things somewhat by itself, like he's giving it instructions and not doing very precise control. It's kind of needed to make long distance travel possible, at lest as far as I can tell.

Also I decided that Shade will probably mess around with a few forms of teleportation or space magic based travel.