Author's Note

Sometimes going stupid has a bright side.

Chapter 10 Don't be an idiot!

The next day I woke up late at night, having gone to bed so early made me unable to sleep for longer, so I got up from bed, pulling away from the fluffy wolf cuddling me, this time she remained asleep, I enjoyed watching her sleep, peacefully and thought about the things that happened to us, the bad, the good, despite it being not even a month since I came to this world, I had gone through more here than basically all my life, sure I had a fun vacation before starting highschool and I visited another continent to go visit an uncle, and I hiked wonderful wilderness trails, but this was different, the sensations my body had were different, my senses were sharper, and my body was tougher than I was as an almost adult human, and I was not even one year old.

I moved to the side of the bed and jumped down, my paws made soft thuds on the carpet, but we're almost silent, I headed towards the balcony and silent as I could be, I opened the door, it was well oiled and didn't make much noise, and I could stand on my hind legs to reach it, once open I felt a pleasant breeze flow in from outside, and as I entered the balcony itself I took in the view, the moon high in the sky, the stars shining and twinkling, they were nothing like back home, I couldn't recognize them but they had had their own charm, I walked closer to the edge, the railing was at about my neck height, but I wasn't dumb enough to try to put my weight on it, I was fairly afraid of heights, so I kept a good 20 centimeters from the railing, and sat down on my rump, looking over the city below.

The view was magnificent, the lamps were lit and a pleasant warm lighting illuminated all the main streets, a sudden feeling of nostalgia hit me, it reminded me of my early childhood, when there were those yellow lights in my neighborhood, before sodium and led street lights. I gazed at the houses, it was peaceful at this hour, the only ponies I saw outside were guards, only a handful it seems, they walked in groups of 2, going around in a figure eight, following the outer streets, then converging in the middle and then separating again towards the other side, there were only 3 groups in total I could see from my height and angle, on the castle there was a couple of guards in every hallway and door, it seemed, or at least one per corridor and a couple per exit.

I decided since I had nothing better to do, I would...
Oh wait a second, I have that book I found in the dungeon, the introduction to blacksmithing, it would be the perfect time to read now, and with a thought, it appeared on my open hands, it was heavy, but I was strong for my size, and could hold it even in one hand, the problem was my balance was terrible and I would tip over forward if I tried, because I was so small, I decided to set the book on the ground in front of me, and began to read with the light from the moon.

3 hours passed, I had gone through about a quarter of the book, it was very detailed for a introduction, it explained the processes for everything from smithing weapons and tools made from copper, to how to make different alloys with it and other metals, bronze was the one I was interested in the most, it explained what materials i would need to use in the process, it was not only heating the metal, i could add different properties to it by folding it, by adding various chemicals.

I had just finished reading about how to make a forge, and what I needed to get it hot enough to melt iron ore.
I decided to stop reading for now.

'You have advanced your knowledge of blacksmithing, progression in this path will unlock the job of blacksmith upon reaching a certain level of progress.' Oh, this book is really helping, and its an interesting read, i want to be able to forge my own weapons, specially ones for Sylf, i will need to read and memorize this book if i want to make a single dagger, let alone proper plate armor.

I closed the book and stored it back in my inventory, taking out my dagger and unsheathing it, looking as it glowed in the moonlight, it was very beautifully done, would i someday be able to make anything even close to this? I wanted to see how sharp it was, and, as my tail was long enough, I brought it in front of me, and started poking the dagger, at first it felt like trying to stab a stone, nothing happened, but i pushed harder down, testing the limits of how much force i would need to go though my natural armour, I pulled back and then stabbed down with force, and this time it went through, but I should have maybe stopped because now I realized I did feel pain in my tail, and not like... A little pain, but a lot, of course it was not nearly as bad as getting crushed, but it made me let out a gasp, and a soft whimper of pain.

'You have taken taken 5 points of damage. 115/120.
You have been mildly poisoned, you will take 5 damage per minute for 15 minutes.
Warning, the system encourages having healing spells before resorting to self damaging techniques, you are risking your life Onyx, please have a health potion ready if your gets down from the halfway point'

I decided maybe I would keep the dagger with its sheath on for now, and I stored it back in my inventory, ill admit, I didn't expect the dagger to go through, I also... Kinda forgot it had a poisoning effect, now I was glad I had just stabbed my tail, which I am still coming to terms with the concept of having one, I felt my body was shaking slightly, and the pain was increasing slowly coming from my tail up, the poison was starting to take effect, a minute passed.

'You have taken 5 points of damage from poisoning. 110/120'

I could feel that damage, it felt like having needles stabbing from inside, I stayed still, I felt like if I moved my tail would drip blood on the floor and I didn't want the castle staff to wonder or put together what happened here, I simply covered my tail wound with my hand and kept the blood from leaking, wincing at the pain, I was an idiot, why did I do that?

'You have taken 5 points of damage from poisoning. 105/120'

'Your body is developing a resistance to poison, but it will take time, estimated time to develop a 20% resistance: 10 minutes of being poisoned, after this period of time, the damage is reduced by 20% and the time you are poisoned is reduced by 20%' Oh it did something good! Sort of... So this is what Jade meant by... Self damage technique, I can gain resistances to poison by being poisoned, it's slow and 20% isn't a lot, but if I were to get poisoned once in a while, I could eventually become immune to it, would this work for other things? Like fire or electricity? Well now I have more things to experiment, but Jade is right, I need to find a good healing spells to use on myself first, that way I can save myself and mom much faster from damaging attacks and even poison!

Yay, poison is great after all! 'You have taken 5 damage 100/120' Ow, no matter how many times it happens, it feels BAD bad, if mom found out I did this dumbass thing, she would ground me until I was an adult, this is not exactly microdosing poison, it's injecting yourself with cyanide and expect to become immune to it. I remember reading somewhere that humans did microdose to become immune to certain poisons, but someone tried with bullets and it didn't work, so maybe no microdosing fire or anything else until I have my healing spells!

7 minutes later, I was at 65/120 HP, my insides felt like they were falling apart apart, I could taste blood and my body ached and hurt like hell, imagine feeling your internal organs struggling to keep working, each breath and each heartbeat felt painful, but not near as bad as the dungeon incident with the giant spider, thank goodness.
I decided I had enough and grabbed a health potion and downed it in a few gulps, the bottle disappeared into nothing and I recovering 60 HP and back to full.

'You have received minor poison resistance (20%), it will become true resistance at 50%, high resistance at 75% and immunity at 100%.
You take 4 damage from poisoning. 116/120 HP'

I smirked despite the pain, it was milder and now if my calculations were correct, I would only have 2 more minutes.

'You take 4 damage from poisoning. 112/120 HP'

Maybe this would need to be a daily thing, at least until I gain immunity, it would be quite something to not have to worry about some assassin shooting poisoned darts or needles and die in my sleep because of it...

'You take 4 damage from poisoning. 108/120 HP.
Poisoning has ended'

It all worked out in the end, just as I had planned, someday I would obtain all resistances or even immunities! But... What I really want to have is other element affinities, I am specially interested in one in particular, plasma. And for that I need to first be able to learn electricity and fire, a complicated goal to achieve, but I've read from a dragon who had the same mission, what motivates me is that if I can use all the elemental powers, i will become able to fight almost any foe with advantage.

Heading back to bed, I was pleased to see my tail cut had closed fully when I drank the potion, and the poison damage was only internal, not showing on my body, it would probably heal by itself by the time I woke up again.

POV shift Princess Celestia, the day before right after meeting Sylf and Onyx.

Those two are unbelievable, I could feel it when they walked in, the potential they had was unheard of, I could tell they weren't exactly the strongest beings I ever met, not by a long shot, but they had so much room to grow, specially the hatchling, despite being a dragon, not a new species for me, he had a completely different feel, smell and even energy, he was so different I couldn't begin to know where he came from, to start, dragons tend to have bright colors like ponies, and rarely they can be black, but silver or other metallic colors is unheard of, his body was not as pudgy as other baby dragons, but he has the look of a baby of his species, whatever species that is, either a newly discovered subspecies to the dragons, or I'm not sure, the best way I could think of to convince them to stay and grow to view me and Equestria in a positive light, was to offer Sylf a position in the royal guard, along with a house and education for both of them.

This didn't guarantee they would stay and live all their lives here, I knew that, specially young Onyx, he had the spark in his eye of an adventurer, even at such a young age.

I hoped he would play a part on my future plans, but I couldn't tell until he was older if he would be a bearer, maybe I could convince him to help when the time was right, but he was too young still.

What I really wanted was to learn more about them, but that could wait, for now Sylf and Onyx needed a real home, as nice as the castle was, it could be rather lacking in terms of allowing a young foal to develop social skills, I knew from experience, foals who were raised in this level of luxury tended to be rather unpleasant to others as adults.

I will be placing Sylf in the earth pony training, because of course she has no wings or a horn, and she looks physically strong, she will have an earth pony instructor and teachers to teach her to read and write, and any other topics she needed to be a guard, like law and rights in Equestria, I would also need to fill in paperwork to grant them both Equestrian citizenship and for the house, all will come from the crown, I will even give them a salary so they can shop around. I want to make them feel like they earned their money, but with nothing to their name, they'll feel like they can't go out or do anything, this city isn't cheap to live in, that's why so many ponies move away and sell their houses, because if they don't earn enough money they can't afford to pay for their rent or taxes sometimes it's better to sell, and the crown owns most of the houses, as buying property to rent is illegal in Canterlot.

Only the crown can rent out properties, this helps keep the royal coffers full, and to prevent homelessness, those who can't afford it here are relocated to cheaper places to live and put on welfare programs.

POV Sylf

Waking up early once again, the sun was just rising, I looked to my side and Onyx was curled up into a circle, his head resting over his tail, as he slept peacefully, how had he freed himself from my cuddles I wasn't sure of, I shrugged and moved to the other side, getting the covers off and landing on all fours on the ground as I rolled off the bed intentionally, I headed to the bathroom and relieved myself, then I opened the shower on medium, and once the water started to come out I stepped in and started to get soaked, I stood under the water stream and let it wash me, not exactly able to do more without my son, he had very good paws to massage, and help me clean my hair, but I wouldn't wake him for this, I simply grabbed some shampoo with my paw, and rubbed my other leg and my chest with it, once i was more or less clean I turned off the water and shook myself clean.

My son's future is assured here, there are no wild animals or monsters in this city, I'm sure he will grow strong and smart one day, and probably very attractive too, but he needs to grow, he needs a peaceful environment now more than anything and this is why becoming the princess loyal pet wolf, even, would be worth the safety of my son, and also we will get a place to live together in, with a bit more privacy than here, having guards everywhere is good for security but not for when you want to be relaxed.

But I'm starving, and I bet my baby dragon is too...
I should wake him up, seems he had some fun last night, since the balcony is open and I'm sure it was closed before we went to bed last night.

As I thought about what could have happened, and about where I could go find food, a knock was heard at the door, I approached and opened it, looking at a pony dressed in a black and white outfit, and carrying a fancy metal tray with what smelled like delicious food on top, my stomach growled loudly as I smelled the food I shyly looked away.

"Hello miss Sylf, I have brought you and young Onyx your breakfast, Princess Celestia sends her regards, and wishes you two a lovely day, in about an hour she will send a guard to pick both of you up and show you to your new home." I blinked, but smiled at the news, Onyx will be do excited! I let her pass and she left the tray in front of the bed, then left with a polite nod towards me, closing the door behind her.

"Thank you so much! The food looks delicious!" I exclaimed as she nodded with a smile and left us to eat.

'M-mom? Good morning, is that breakfast I smell? Ohhh yes breakfast is exactly what I need right now!'
He exclaimed in my mind, I nodded in agreement.

'Me too, I'm starving, look we have a good variety of fruit and tea with milk, scrambled eggs and buttered sauteed mushrooms and other veggies.'
I licked my lips and drooled a bit as I stared at the food.

'Oh momm can I have some mushrooms with the veggies? Mushrooms are my favorite when well caramelized~ they taste so much like meat and also have a nutty flavor that I love, and goes amazing with both veggies and meats, I would never get tired of butter fried mushroom with chicken or in a sauce... Mmhhrr.' Onyx purred, he then seated and started to eat along with me on the edge of the bed, I sat on my haunches on the ground, it was easier to reach the cart like this than sitting on the bed.

The food didn't last even 15 minutes as we devoured everything, and left the food cart next to the door, then just sat there enjoying our time together.

One hour later, Onyx POV

The guard arrived, knocking the door and entering, he gave a polite nod and explained us he was here to escort us to our new home, we smiled at each other and then followed him out of the castle, I was happy to be out of here, as much as I liked the view, I wanted time to try things and explain to mom a few of the things I had discovered, we walked now down many sets of stairs, it was not too far away, the house was one of the modest ones, not the overly fancy ones, which suited me just fine, and mom seemed to agree as she nodded with an appreciative expression.

The house is halfway between the gates of the city and the castle, it has wooden single door on the first floor, most of the house is brick like stone, with a nice coat of pastel cream color, the second floor has a large rectangular window with wood edges, that used about 3/4 of the wall facing the street, but the window is made in a way that doesn't show what's inside the house, the third floor has a balcony and a greenhouse on the roof, we entered and were very happy with it, it had all the creature comforts expected of a fancy house, like warm water and a fridge.