A Quiet Rune Scribe

APR 5 Saturday. I place the last book in the cart on the bookshelf, I move the now empty cart back to the sorting room, I check the time and see that my shift is over so I return the cart and leave heading home.

I leave the library and make my way home, when I get home and enter my apartment Entropy flies over to me, I quickly make her some food and grab my saddlebags, I want to read some today but Entropy will try following me so I have to leave before she finishes eating.

I make it out of the apartment building without her following me, I walk back into the library and start looking through books, after a while I find a few books about what I need.

Today I'm going to spend some time reading about a few subjects, first anything I can find about the ambient magic in an environment, second combat magic, ever since the bear incident I've wanted something to defend myself, the library doesn't have many combat spells but there are a few.

Most of the combat spells you can find are weak or slow which makes sense, I don't think anypony want's powerful combat spells in a public library, the third subject is the shield protecting my house, it's not the best for several reasons, first and most importantly I need a way to let others inside by turning it off and on.

I've never had guests but I will at some point, the problem is I need someway to link the shield to myself or a way to control it remotely, I have an idea but I'll need a specific rune for it a rune and I don't have it, so I'm looking for it as I research other things.

I spend the next three hours reading through a few books, I add anything I find interesting into my notebook, as I make my way through the books I find a few things I could use, one of particular interest is a different type of rune for protection, a rune of citadel.

A citadel is a fortress or castle inside a city, the pony who created used the rune to enchant and reinforce walls, I want to use this in my shield as the runic context will work well, I'll combine this with the protection rune, the magic requirements will increase some but that's fine.

I still need something to turn it off and on, and after all my searching I didn't find any runes that would help, so until I find a rune that will work I'm just going to enchant an activation mechanism to do the same, I'll need to hide it but also keep it close, so I'll have to find a place to put it.

After finding a rune that would work with my shield I start looking through the combat magic books, most only have simple spells that aren't that useful to me but a few I find stand out, first a spell that's literally just a weak fire ball, the spells official name is lesser fire ball.

But from the description it's basically a fire bolt, it's small moves fast and isn't very destructive, but it's a decent spell so I add it to a new book that will have any spells related to combat, the second spell is just a water bolt, the last is a little odd it's not very dangerous but it is interesting.

It's a transmutation spell that turns soil into thick mud, I haven't found any transmutation spells before as they are normally too complex or powerful to be in the library, the spell itself is mostly uninteresting but the matrix is a different story, it has several runes I don't know and some fairly complex math.

Honestly this spell is much more complex than it needs to be, but I added it to my notes to study later, I see the library darkening as the sun sets I guess it's time to head home, I place the books back on their shelves before leaving the library and walking home.

When I enter the apartment I immediately have an annoyed bird cawing at me, I have to spend the next ten minutes bribing her with scratches and berries after that she calm down and spends her time following me, I go into the work room and find the shield.

I grab my large ruby, and start the careful process of removing the shield spell from it, I have to be very careful so I go slow, after half an hour I finish and can then start working on a new shield spell, I start with the protection rune and the citadel rune.

I work my way through the matrix adding and changing things as I go, it takes me a while to finish but when I'm done I have a better shield, the old shield stopped anything besides air me and Entropy, this one is the same but with the addition of the citadel rune the shield will protect the room more.

I'm not sure to what degree the new rune will improve the shield, but even with the spell costing more magic it looks sturdier, the last shield looked like a thin transparent wall this one is a little thicker and slightly less transparent, I'll have to find a way to test it but for now I'm happy with the improvements.

I spend some time enchanting the large ruby again and shaping the shield to cover my apartment, I shape it to hug the walls making sure not to extend it to other apartments, I start on the next step, I take a small piece of wood and start carving it into a small flat piece

It is a half inch by half inch flat wood piece, I enchant it to link into the shield and turn it off when flipped over on one side, I do this by using a rune for up and one for sticking so it doesn't flip by accident, I set the large ruby on my shelf and place the small wood piece on the counter top.

I look around looking for a decent location, I eventually decide to place it inside the Jungle ferns pot, the wood is Iron wood so it shouldn't rot and when it's sitting under the fern leaves it will be very hard to see, but its still nearby enough to flip when needed.

I take another piece of Iron oak wood, its an inch thick and several inches long, I carve down one side into a point and push it into the fern pots soil, I lay the activation piece on top of it and it sticks to it, when I need to turn off the shield I just pull the piece of wood until I overpower the weak sticking effect and flip it.

I test it several times making sure nothing is wrong and that the link is stable, after I'm satisfied that it's stable I move onto the combat spells, I sit down at a desk and open my new book studying the three new spells, I leave the transmutation spell alone for now and focus on the other two.

It will still be some time before I have the skill necessary to create a spell matrix without drawing it, so I want a spell with a decent amount of power and a simple matrix so I can draw it fast so I need to focus on one spell.

The water bolt spell takes longer and has a higher magic cost, but is better as it has a decent amount of force behind it, but it takes more time and magic to cast then the fire bolt, but on the other hoof the fire bolt spell is better at a distraction and if I hit the eyes or some fur it may do a decent amount of damage.

After looking over the spells I decide on the fire bolt spell, my reason for choosing it is its matrix, the fire spell works by gathering air and lighting it on fire then shooting it at something, the water bolt spell works by gathering water from the air and shooting it.

What matters is how simple I can make it, the fire spell uses fewer runes and a smaller matrix, letting me draw it faster, I spend the next hour taking apart and modifying the fire bolt spell, It's not easy as the spell is simple, giving me few things to improve.

When I'm done I have a new fire bolt spell, it costs a little more magic then the original but is faster to cast using a simplistic and small matrix, I'll need a lot of practice with it but I have time if nothing else, I spend a while drawing the matrix, practicing.

I don't have anything to do after this, I think for a moment before deciding to go for a walk, it's night time but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do, I grab my bags and magic light then move to the door, but Entropy doesn't seem willing to let me go without her so I let her sit on my back.

I've heard of a few places that are still lively at night, the first is a place nicknamed lantern street it's a small street filled with a night market lit up by many hanging lanterns, I've been curious about it and it's open on weekends, I make my way through the dark streets with my magic light.

Entropy doesn't seem to mind the dark, she blends in so well that even with the light I have with me you can barely see her, I walk down several streets and enter the market district, I see several other ponies walking to a specific street I follow them and see the street I'm looking for.

When I turn a corner I hear and see a fairly busy street, its filled with stalls on both sides with a clear path through the middle, almost all of the ponies I see are batponies then a few unicorns and one pegasus, in between the stalls there is ropes with hanging lanterns made from colored paper.

There is a lantern on each rope, two or three every ten feet or so, there also very bright so I walk into the street and look at a lantern closely, there is a hole in the bottom of the paper shell, inside I'm surprised to see a small gem with a piece of wood lighting up the lantern.

After some staring I see that the gem is locked in place with a metal cage around it linked to the rope above it, I follow the rope and see them tied to the stalls main posts, if somepony tried to steal one they would need to reach up there and cut the metal.

They could probably still be stolen, but unless you steal several they wouldn't be worth the risk for how cheap they are, It's a little odd seeing something I've made being used, after staring for a moment longer I move on exploring the street looking through different stalls and what they are selling.

It's very similar to the regular market, all the normal things are here, many with a night theme, I stop at a food stall selling some type of noodles, I haven't eaten dinner so I sit at the stall and buy some, not long after I have a bowl of hot noodles with some broth.

It reminds me of ramen, it has a piece of carrot and some brown sauce on top, I'm given a fork and spend my time eating a warm meal, when I finish I leave the fork and bowl on the stall, I continue exploring the market, I pass a few stalls and find one that catches my interest.

The stall has different jewelry stones and uncut gems, most are small things but I see something that I like, it's a bracelet much like the one Daisy gave me, It's made from silver and has four sapphires imbedded in its front, I pick it up and get a better look.

They form a cube with lines in between them, each sapphire occupies a corner making a sideways cube with corners pointing up and down, the side corners lead to lines carved to go around the bracelet, I see the price and it's a little expensive but that's fine.

The only problem is that I can't tell if its real silver, it definitely has the weight and color of silver but I can't really tell, after some thought I decide to take the risk and buy it anyway, I spend a moment haggling and after arguing that I had no way to tell if it's real silver we come to an agreement.

I get a decent bit off the price and continue down the street, I almost make it to the other end not finding anything else I'd like, but on the last stall I see a few plants, most look uninteresting but one I recognize, a Moon Glow it's a plant that releases a small pale light at night.

The plant uses this to attract bugs and their predators, so when something like a frog finds the plant it will eat the bugs and often relieve itself next to the plant, the frog gets a free meal and the plant gets fertilized, a symbiotic relationship for both, I'm interested in it as it has a few properties that will be interesting to selectively breed or cross breed.

The plant isn't rare but it is hard to transplant or move so you don't find them often, I buy the plant and make my way to the end of the street, I turn a corner and start walking home with my new things.