Saturday 30 of July - Year 983

It was only two days until school started up again, I did not have time to do a sleepover after coming back from the Griffon Empire, mostly because I got busy with the extended stay at Ponyville and because I spent the other free day practicing enchantment.

I have improved somewhat, at least enough to be able to enchant three runes on a single item, as long as it was large enough to fit the engravings, making tiny engravings for smaller items was... Very tricky, I came to realize, the diamond tipped pen I had was okay, I just needed a different way to do some things.

But there is a way, something much simpler and obvious, something that I use all the time but I don't for some reason, use for writing often, I can easily write with telekinesis, and that means I can engrave with it too.

So that's what I did, practicing unicorn style writing and rune engraving, just by using it a lot during combat and everyday life, my telekinesis is both precise and strong. So it more or less came naturally to me, muscle memory of writing with my paws/hands came naturally and translated surprisingly well to writing with magic, I just had to imagine grabbing the pen with my magic like I would with my hand, while the feedback was of course much less, it works.

But for today, the schedule is different. I was enjoying breakfast with my family, sitting together at the table, I ate slowly, smiling as I watched the twins happily playing with each other, chasing each other around at the foot of the table, seems like Lightning always end up being 'it' during their games of tag, but he already knew how to use his wings to his advantage to move faster and catch up to the filly.

"So, is everyone ready for today's training? We are taking turns, first will be Thunder, she will fight me, of course we will be both wearing armor. I have bought a padded suit for training for both you and Coconut, but Onyx? You'll... Have to just take the hits, sorry son." Mom announced after finishing her breakfast.

I sighed in an overly exaggerated manner, trying to look pitiful. "Just don't be like Thunder and try to hit me on the balls, I don't have any balls, okay?" I ask in a joking tone, shooting the pegasus a playful glare with a smirk.

"You're not letting that go... Even after you kicked my ass and left me crippled? Gosh colt, you are petty." She shoots back, making me chuckle, she smiles and sticks her tongue out. "Not having balls should be now allowed in combat, how is a mare going to stop a stallion easily then? You're just not fair, only 11 and stronger than the biggest earth ponies... You better hold back against me, got it?"

"Fine! And not my fault I ain't got no balls, I mean from what I've learned going to a clinic is that I do in fact have them, it's just that they're inside, like your ovaries, just in a different spot, they're above my junk, and my junk is also, safely stored in its own protected compartment, which is protected by scale armor, I'm proud of my unfair advantage you know? The only way you're getting through my defense is if you're strong enough to break it, or fast enough to target something more vulnerable, like my eyes." I speak in a smug tone, giving her a challenging look.

"Hmph! Well as long as I get to fight with my wing blades, I should have a better chance to win against any of you, only reason you won last time was because my spear skill is lacking." She defended with a softer tone, but she smiled at us genuinely, eager to spar again.

"I've taken it into consideration, and I got us an entire set of training weapons! From spears, to longswords, hammers and even wing blades! It did cost me a few thousand bits, but the training weapons should, in theory, be balanced the same way the real weapons are, and weight exactly the same, so we can get used to their weight and train without a risk of maiming each other's precious bodies, we are all a family and we love each other dearly, isn't that right? Don't hold it so much against Onyx, my dear pegasus, he really did hold back during your battle, I promise." She gave Thunder a pleading look, showing her she meant it.

"Yeah, I know... He could have grabbed me much earlier and mauled me to death in seconds, but... I know he would never do that, he showed genuine concern after realizing how badly he had hurt me." I nodded, I wouldn't have even done that if she had surrendered earlier with the smack to her rear.

"And... I'm sorry for breaking your leg again, I'm not proud of that, I never want to hurt you again, not even a little bit." I spoke softly, then teleported myself directly next to her and hugged her gently, closing my eyes, enjoying her soft belly fur, and the way her hooves held me around the neck, as I was lower than her when she was sitting on the chair.

I really felt like crying again for some reason, it was a sudden and intense emotion, guilt, I can't help it but start crying over it, how could I have been so cruel to her to break her leg just to prove a point? That was... Just too much pain to inflict on someone I care so much about, it was needless, I could have just pinned her down somehow, or even cheat with magic to stun her. "I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have done that, I'm an awful person..."

"Hey hey! Calm down love, it's fiiine, you're a good colt, we are even, remember? No need to cry now... You really felt this guilty over it all this time? I've got an idea, look, if you want to make it up to me, why don't you give me a massage after training? You have those... Paws of yours, very strong but surprisingly gentle when you want to be, give me a massage and we are truly even, okay? Now come here, let me hug you properly like pegasi do." With that, she gets off her chair and stands in front of me, before moving to stand on two legs, I do the same and we hug, her front hooves around my chest under my arms, while her wings move to envelop my head, it brings a comforting and wonderful softness brushing against my head and neck, making me stop crying in seconds, and turning my frown into a slight smile.

"I would never hold a grudge against you for that, sure it hurt, but it's healed, I'm fine and better than before, you got punched too and we were even then, but a massage... It would seal the deal don't you think?" She spoke in a soft whisper to me, and I just nodded.

We stayed there, hugging and nuzzling, she ended up drying my tears with her wings and giving me a small kiss on the forehead, which made me do an purr of happiness.

"Thank you, for being so considerate to my feelings, I... I just feel happy that you joined our family, it was a blessing for both of them and me, and the foals, you are amazing!" I smirked and squeezer her a bit harder, making her let out a squeak of surprise then a chuckle as I let her go.

We stood there looking at each other, I felt better, much better now. Despite everything, I still feel really guilty after hurting those I care about, and with each day, I care about Thunder more, and I see her as truly one of us.

"You two are such an adorable pair! Come on let's take the dishes to the kitchen and let's go train, I can was them later, so... My beautiful pegasus, you ready to go train with me?" Mom asks, her tone playful at first but she had a genuine smile on her face.

"Let me take care of washing the dishes meanwhile, okay everyone? With my magic it will be done quickly." I offered, and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Sure son, so, ready?"

"Yes, let's go! But... Go easy on me okay? Even with the padding, try to not hit too hard, we pegasi aren't exactly earth ponies in terms of resilience."

And with that, they both head up to the third floor, where the training area is set up.

I levitated all the dirty dishes to the kitchen, adding all the food scraps to the organics bin to make into compost for the garden, them I place the plates on the sink, and fill it with water and a dash of soap.

All the while, dad is watching over the foals, and playing with them with a big smile, I can hear them giggling, sometimes running around and messing with him, they're in that age were foals love to play and run around, they sometimes pull at his mane or tail, but quickly stop when dad shows clear signs of not liking that or making a pained sound.

They are empathic little ones, they don't want to hurt their parents at all, or each other, it's surprising really how well they care for each other, often sleeping together snuggled when they aren't on their own cribs.

I didn't take long to wash the dishes and once I was done I decided to go watch the fight, it promised to be interesting.

I walked to the third floor, where sounds of conversation were audible.

The pegasus and the wolf faced eachother, both already wearing heavy padded armor over their entire bodies, and a fencing masks.

"Okay, we will do it this way, try your best to hit me, but try to aim at one of my vital points, if you succeed five times, you win. If you fail... Well you're getting a nice reward either way~" Sylf spoke with a serious tone that shifted to a sultry and suggestive tone by the end.

The young pegasus mare blushed at the tone, but smiled and returned the look she was getting with a confident one of her own. "You're on! There's no way I'm letting you win love, and I'm going to make you squirm underneath me after this is over." Thunder answered in a serious tone, before grabbing the training wing blades from the wall and putting them on her wings. At the same time Sylf grabs her longsword from the wall, the wooden one of course, both the weapons are made of wood, heavy wood, and enchanted to not break as easily, they also have no sharpness at all, and curved edges that don't do more than bruise even on unarmored targets.

However the weapons are still dangerous, if you get bonked by them, that's why there is training armor, heavily padded, and a metal mesh mask that protects the head completely, the shape is sort of like a dog muzzle, but covers the entire head and is made of mesh, it has a hinge to open and take it off, but it's locked by a cloth strap.

They both stood at a few meters apart, while my head poked out from the staircase's edge, I watched with rapt attention as they got into their attack stance, I probably shouldn't be creeping on them like this, so I decide to announce myself. "E-excuse me? Can I watch you two fight, right?" I spoke softly trying not to startle them.

They both turn to me and then back to each other, a small blush forming on their faces as they realized they've been caught. "D-did you just come up? Or have you..." She shakes her head for a second and then smiles. "Of course you can stay and watch us fight son, just keep your distance, don't want to inconvenience your second mom, do you?" Sylf finally said in a friendly tone.

"Yes momma, and yeah I've heard you two flirting, it's cute! Heheh the way you two look at each other, it makes me feel pretty happy to be around you two, now I'll go sit by the corner, while you two do your thing, okay?" I went and sat down on the corner, my ears perked forward like radar dishes, paying close attention to them.

"Okay you heard him dear Thunder, he finds us both cute!" She chuckled and looked at her, both girls gave each other loving looks, I felt my heart would melt.

They're so cute!

"Ready love? Hope you're faster than me if you want a chance of winning."

"Ready, Onyx, you give the signal."

I nodded, watched them both a second, clearly ready. "When I say 'GO' you start okay?" I got a nod from both. "3... 2... 1... Go!" I counted down, and once I said go, they went.

Thunder dodged to the side as Sylf dashed forward, longsword swinging down in a downward vertical slash, the swing was clearly not a serious attack, but it was still brutally quick, after dodging Thunder swing her left wing, aiming at the neck of her mate, but as if predicting this, or merely by instinct, the wolf ducked, bringing her sword up in an arc after the last attack, turning it into another upward strike that blocked the wing blade effortlessly.

Thunder groaned, jumping back and thinking of a window of attack, however the she wolf didn't relent and ran towards her with her longsword pointed forward as a lance, all while using her maw.

Thunder was not taken by surprise, and moved aside while pushing the sword back with her wing, deflecting the powerful strike strike to the side instead of trying to block it. Sylf just moved with the hit, repositioning to the side, before walking back to the center of the room.

The match was even, one would think, if they didn't understand the difference in power. Sylf was faster, sharper reflexes, stronger and more skillful, it was clear the older female was just playing, more so if you saw the wolfish smirk on her snout, she wasn't even winded, while Thunder had a face of pure focus and effort, and her chest was moving quickly with her panting and starting to sweat.

"Well done Thunder, I'm moving back to center so we don't run out space and you or I hit a wall, don't forget that this room isn't that big." The pegasus nodded, taking her time to get near the middle again, catching her breath a few seconds before the fight resumed.

Thunder rushed forward towards her herd mate, bringing her wings to strike at the head, ducking under the longsword's horizontal slash, but Sylf's attack was a feint, it shifted from horizontal to diagonal halfway through, blocking the wingblade with the guard of the sword, and pushing the wing back, the other wing however slashed from the side, hitting the wolf on the neck quick enough that she could not block it. "Hit, you got me good, i gotta say, I'm impressed!"

The fight paused as they repositioned, now mom was taking this more seriously, Thunder had a prideful smile on her face but didn't say anything or gloat, she knew that she was not fighting an opponent that could be underestimated.

"Again!" they both were tensed, ready to strike, then they started again.

This time Thunder threw herself at Sylf with her wings pushing her to much faster speeds, the wolf meanwhile placed her sword in a neutral stance, preparing for any possible attack that she could be hit by. The attack came from below, or that was the idea at least, as Thunder feinted up, before jumping between mom's legs and used her wings to strike at her opponents's chest.

That was the plan anyways, before she could get fully underneath her, the fluffy wolf lifted a leg and brought it down on the mares chest, holding her firmly in place but that allowed her to bring the wing blades to attack the wolf's legs, it however was not a vital point, and the angle she has doesn't allow for a truly strong attack. It would have obviously done serious damage anyways, but from her position, Thunder couldn't reach the vital points, extending her wings all the way and bending them inwards would allow for maybe reaching the chest but at that point, even with the wing blades, it would be a slash and not a stab, not getting through the dense muscle there.

"Buck! Alright I give up, I can't win against you, I barely got one lethal hit in, you're just so big and strong and sexy~ there's no way a little mare like me stands a chance against such a powerful and beautiful wolf like you." Thunder sighs and speaks with a playful tone, but I can tell she means it.

"That was a pretty good fight! But you're right that i'm big and strong, not to mention beautiful~ I could help you train, you know? But I can't exactly use wing blades, they are a weapon that works better for hitting unarmored targets and weak points, right? You should learn something else too, maybe keep improving with the spear, it can be pretty powerful on the right hands, you would even be able to stab through gaps in the armor once you practice enough." Mom sat down right under the pegasus laying prone on her back, putting her long front legs to each side, Thunder blushed slightly, as mom's head was right between her hind legs, but she was wearing padded armor so nothing else happened from that.

"I don't doubt your skill with your preferred weapons even a single bit, but I believe you will be much stronger having your spear skill improve to be in par with the wing blades, don't you think my lovely marefriend?" Thunder has a thoughtful look, thinking for a minute before nodding her head slowly.

"Yes, yes you're right! You think I could maybe learn from you? Or you know someone who knows how to use a spear?"

"I'm afraid not, but I could get you in contact with some of the instructors at the royal guards, maybe they would be willing to teach you, as a favor for me, or I could pay them... Either way I will get you someone who knows how to use a spear very well, I would even recommend you join the guard, but that is a commitment, it will take away most of your time." I certainly hope she doesn't join, but she's free to do whatever she wants.

"No way I'll join the guard, remember I promised to look after the twins, and guard duty even back in Trottingham was a full time job, here I bet it's the same." Thunder thankfully answers, making me let out a sigh or relief.

"I can get you some instructors anyways, good ones, don't worry you will become a professional in no time. Now Onyx dear, you're up!" Sylf calls out to me, I gulp nervously, scratching the back of my head.

Damn it, she won't hold back with me, will she?
I stand up on all fours, walking up to the training weapons racks, and look at the selection. I'm proficient with shortsword and shield, so I pick up both, going to my bipedal stance to hold them easier. "There is no padded armor for me, is there?"

"Nope, you don't need it, you have enough padding as it is, you are getting a bit pudgy from lack of exercise, and you have scales on top of that to absorb impact, so no need for padding big colt, now... Are you ready?" She asks as I stand a few meters apart, my weapons ready.

"Can I use magic to fight?" I give her a pleading look, my eyes glowing sparkling slightly with a spark of magic, done intentionally to make me look more adorable.

"Fine, but just so you can show Thunder what fighting you for real is, at least when you're trying to be gentle, because I know how terrifying you can be when you are fighting to kill." She nods slowly, giving me a encouraging look.

"Trust me, I won't hurt you, I'll just win." I smile confidently and stand prepare a spell mentally.

"Alright, I'll look really carefully, do you two need a count?" Thunder asks, sitting comfortably and relaxing, looking intrigued.

"Just say when we start, no need to count!" I answer, nodding my readiness, the spell ready for release.

"He's right, there's no real point on it." She shrugged and prepared her sword, aiming to slash at me.

"Okay... Then get ready? Aaaand go!" As soon as she said that, mom shot forward like a cannonball, but I just needed an instant, a spark of indigo formed on my maw and a ray of magic shot forward and instantly hit her on the chest.

"Hold." Her charge was stopped mid swing, right as she tried to hit me on the head with the flat of her blade.
Instead she remained motionless, unable to blink or move as the spell hit her, my eyes glowing with magic as I concentrated on holding her in place.

I turned to Thunder and gave her a wink, before turning back to my opponent, removing her mesh helmet and playfully booping her adorable wolf nose, them patted her snout and head, her eyes followed me, but she couldn't blink or do more.

"This is what you do when fighting a superior opponent and you have time to prepare a spell, you hold them still, then you can easily disable their ability to fight, for example you can tie them up further with restraints or you can hurt them, but I won't do that of course, still the spell isn't perfect, it wouldn't work for long and it requires a lot of concentration, I can't do any other magic that requires concentration while doing this, and if I'm hit, the pain is usually a good way to lose focus." I explain while walking around mom, then jumping on top of her and laying comfortably on her back.

"And that is why Equestria is the dominant nation on this world, they have trained unicorn mages that can use magic, and they have an unaging alicorn princess who is strong enough to push back any other nation's magic users or armies by herself most of the time." I explain, nodding towards the castle outside the window.

"S-so... She's really, unable to do anything at all while under this spell? Really? What is it?" Thunder asks, intrigued and curious, approaching Sylf and poking at her snout with her wings, then smirking mischievously.

"Hold, it's like Hold Pony but it works on larger creatures, Hold Pony is a weaker version of this, usually used by the guard to arrest somepony who is far too slippery and quick to simply catch normally, and it can be used by unicorns that have trained enough to learn it. As it's name implies, it holds a creature, while still allowing them to breathe, but the lack of blinking can dry out the eyes, so the spell is best used for a short amount of time, come on now, I'll release the spell, move out of the way or you'll get hit by her sword." I warn her, before releasing the spell and hugging Sylf across the neck.

Thankfully the sword doesn't hold it's momentum, and mom just drops it after a second. "That's not fun, I was unable to even blink... Well as he explained this spell is very good, but it wouldn't work on me if it was cast by someone weaker, for example a regular guardmare or stallion would cast it and it would just fail to hold me, but Onyx is..." She pushed me off her back, making me land on my back and then moved back and brought her sword down on my neck, or at least would have if I didn't bring my sword and shield quickly up to block the hit, I held her attack, my forelegs shaking with effort and my face contorted with effort.

I growled and pushed her sword away from me with a grunt, using my telekinesis to push as well as my physical strength, overpowering her and making her eyes go wide, she was pushed off me, I lifted her and pressed her against the ceiling, where her legs flailed uselessly, letting out a distressed whine she struggled to escape my hold.

"Bad wolfy! You stay there and think about what you did, attacking me while talking and while I'm relaxing? Hmph, not gonna work mom~" I teased her while my eyes glowed bright indigo and she was enveloped in my indigo colored aura.

"This is cheating Onyx! Lower me this instant young dragon, or I'm going to ground you for a month!" Sylf said in a begging tone, I knew she wouldn't do that, so I just laughed.

"Hahaha well you're ceilinged, how about that huh? You're a very bad girl, stay there and I'll go get your husband, maybe he will get pity on you and free you, now Thunder? You gonna take care of the twins right? I have to go study more enchantment." I asked the stunned looking pegasus, who stared at Sylf who was whining up a storm on the ceiling, sounded almost as dramatic as a husky who didn't get what she wanted, but it was more howls than barks and screams.

"Y-yes I'll go, but please lower her, she sounds upset or sad... I don't usually hear her making those noises." Thunder asks in a caring tone, coming over to me and nudging me with her wing.

I shrugged and lowered her to the ground, letting her free from my telekinesis, it was a bad idea because as soon as I did, she ran over to me and bit my tail, a bit hard, I let out a less than manly squeak of shock before glaring at her as I turned back. "You didn't think I would just let you go, huh? After holding me up, now say you're sorry or else." She said with an evil smirk, slowly tugging my tail and lifting my head, its not painful, but its embarrassing, I feel helpless trying to escape her grasp, wiggling to get free as I hanged from my tail, only my front paws were on the ground.

"Please stop that! not my taaail, let it go! Grrrr You know that my tail is an intimate area, right? Specially from the middle to the base of it, jeez are you gonna hold my tail hostage? Fiiine, I'm sorry for talking to you like a pet animal, and for holding you on the roof and teasing you, now... Be a dear and let me go, okay? I have to go get the weapons and armor from the vault and start to practice my enchantments..." I apologize and show her I mean it, she pretends to consider it for a second, tilting her head thoughtfully, then nods and lets me go, I could have simply used a short ranged teleport and escaped her, but then she would have caught me again, and she can bite quite hard.

"Good little dragon, now go and get a shower, then go learn everything you can, I want a new weapon enchanted by you, one that has a much stronger enchantment or more than one, if you can." She demanded, knowing I will do just what she wanted, maybe even a greatsword...

"Do you perhaps want to use a greatsword now? its larger than a longsword, and for how strong you are, it would just give you more range and power behind every strike, you will need to practice with it though." I thought aloud, scratching my chin as I sat there, now that my tail was free.

"I'd love to, that's what my trainer recommended for me to learn, but I wanted to learn a smaller weapon first so I chose the longsword, mostly because I liked the versatility of it, I could swing more freely without worry of it hitting the ground or unintended things." She explained, pulling her real longsword out of the inventory after putting away the training sword.

She held the longsword in her maw, feeling its weight and balance. "This one has served me well, I keep it sharp and well oiled, it holds an amazing edge thanks to your enchantment, but it's about time you make something different, like you said, a greatsword, and maybe it could do with an extra element imbued in it, maybe with one of the elemental gems you have?" That was actually a wonderful idea, it would be much more powerful with an elemental gemstone, instead of a regular one that held a charge, an elemental gem, while usually limited in charge, could be used as a sort of battery, but instead of holding raw mana, it could hold already elemental mana to be focused into a spell by the runes.

If a weapon was added a regular enchantment and used an elemental gem, it could work, with the addition of an extra rune to transform raw mana into the elemental energy the gem has affinity to, causing the sword to be imbued with said element or into a specialized spell or effect. "Yes, yes mom! You're a genius! I will need to do some tests, this way of enchanting is not something I know anything about, maybe it's not as easy this way, I'll need to learn by myself, slowly and with experimentation and practice, so don't expect anything soon, okay?"

"That's fine Onyx, take your time and learn, you are the reason I even work as a royal guard, to make sure you become the best, you study and you learn as much as you can here in Equestria instead of our in the wilderness, your chances here are much better, your future is much brighter, so get to it." She demanded, I knew she was right, all she did was for me, at least at the start, now it's also for her foals and her herd, she now has enough bits and resources to move wherever she wants, but she's staying for me and for the others, so I can get a better education, and the foals can get one too.

"Thank you, I'll start and enchant at my room while you spar here, see you at dinner time!" I greeted them, grabbing my things and walking downstairs to my room, where I set up everything I needed on the floor, ready to experiment.

Time to get working, I decided to take notes this time, making notes of every entry on the experimental process was going to help keep track of it all.

Attempt N°1

I used one of the electric gems I had and replaced the pommel of a shortsword, the job was not perfect, as the gem was held by resin, I have no forge or anything else needed to properly attach it, so I used melted resin, it would probably not hold on in a real fight, but that wasn't the point.

The electric gem looks pretty tasty with its shining beautiful purple color, but I knew it would be painful if I tried eating it, possibly deadly.

I inscribed one rune for focusing the elemental energy on the edge of the sword, specially the lightning element, it was necessary for the elemental gem's energy to flow.

A second rune for toughness of the metal, as usual.

A third rune for transforming raw mana into electrical energy, specifically high voltage and low amp, as well as a very quick frequency, it would be much better for a stun effect, although it would probably not work on everything, since many creatures here were very though and had a lot more body mass than what I was used to back at home.

This third rune was much more complex, having a more elaborate design with three individual values attached to it and requiring more of a special gem paste to draw but also allowing those values to be modified by magic, they could be simply shaped differently over the already made engravings, like the digital display on a clock that had the numbers but they could be lit up in different positions, this gem paste remained solid normally once dried, but it reacted to directed magic from someone who had at least manipulated the sword before, but anyone with enough skill could in theory modify it if they linked their magic to the weapon, everything had a weakness after all, in this case it was possible sabotage of the weapon before the battle, only when the spell was deactivated.

Of course there were ways around this, like hiding the engravings in a difficult to spot location.

The enchantment itself was a success, the use of resin instead of a proper metal support to hold the gemstone was honestly in bad taste, it looked dumb and ugly and like it would break off at the slightest hit against something, yet it didn't fail right away.

Test 1 of First attempt on enchanting: stunning non-lethal shortsword.

I held the shortsword on my claws, then channeled magic into it until the charge was fully, and selected the active rune that would channel the electric current to the edge, then I brought the edge to my other paw, lowering it until it made contact, completing the circuit with the ground.

Failure, I could feel the current but it didn't do anything, it was at most a tingling, of course... I'm not human anymore, who knows how electricity would affect me? I don't even have the same type of skin or muscle, and my nerves and organs were most likely, different.
I'm for all intents and purposes, an alien.

Conclusion: failure to cause any significant effects on self (for reference, I'm a dragon with cold affinity)

Test 2 of non-lethal stunning electrical shortsword.

I decided to tweak the enchantment by increasing the current and switching the frequency for a slower one, that meant I would be getting far more current through me, ten time the amount, the voltage stays the same.

I repeated the process, this time the electrical buzz of the sword was audible as I got it closer, when I touched, it send a very strong current that made my muscles tighten along my foreleg that came into contact with the edge of the sword, as well as a painful sensation going down my leg and into my body, crossing my body and going to my hind leg, it felt like I was burning, but not just that, also my muscles contracting involuntarily near that side of my body in a painful way.

I fought through that pain and managed to turn let go of the sword and then turned off the enchantment. This time it worked, it was painful, but not deadly, I felt my hearts were still working well, beating in an alternating pattern. Good, the shock was not enough to render me immobile but it was enough to stun me a few seconds, and make me unable to use the side of my body that was touching the electric edge.

Conclusion: partial success! The effect is limited in area, but it can pretty effectively shut down an opponent's defense or offense for a few seconds, and that is all it takes in a battle to decide victory or death, a more powerful version would be most likely deadly dangerous for another creature, or even for me if I pushed it.

Test 3 of non-lethal stunning electrical shortsword

I doubled the voltage, the amperage was tripled and the frequency halved, this was probably too much, but I had to find a proper sweet spot, and going overboard is usually the way to do it.

I finished modifying the parameters on the third rune once again, I doubt I will die from this, but... It will certainly hurt, if I die, I'm going to be really upset at myself.

This time I take a more cautious approach, levitating the sword in front of me, knowing that if I get stunned, my magic will cut out as most magic depends on conscious thought.

I touch the sword with the back of my paw, gently approaching until.

It hurt me, made me feel bad pain but worse yet it made my muscles on that leg involuntarily contract, it caused damage to me.

I yelped out in pain, dropping the sword from my magic and recoiling in shock, literally. That didn't do much damage, but it was very painful, it shocked me and made me close my hand forcefully, had I tried grabbing it, I would have gotten pretty hurt.

I guess that was a good enough proof that the sword was now past the non-lethal stage, it was definitively lethal, enough to cause bad pain, damage and possibly death if the target was stabbed with it or in contact with it too long.

I lifted the blade in my magic and turned off the enchantment on it, wincing at the tingling sensation on my left arm, I shake it gently and make a fist, before relaxing it, making the uncomfortable sensation go away.

Conclusion: far too powerful for non-lethal stunning, must decrease back to previous point and increase again by about 20%.

Test 4 of non-lethal stunning electrical shortsword.

A last tweak, the third rune should be set to the correct parameters.

I repeat the test, this time I set the sword and do it the safe way, using my tail instead of my foreleg, my long tail was pretty resilient and it was long enough that the electricity wouldn't have a large effect.

I looked back, lifting up my tail and with the very tip pointed down, I poked the edge, it didn't cause immediate pain but it made the long appendage coil itself without my control, the sensation of numbness spread over my tail and reached closer, all over the rear half of my body.

It works! It makes makes it difficult to walk, as muscles are locked up and I can't relax them, because I'm not grabbing the sword, the effect goes away quickly though, this time there's no damage as well.

Conclusion: complete success! The non-lethal sword is finished, it's actually still lethal, with it being a sword and all, but now if I touch someone with it, it's going to overload their nerves and make their muscles lock up uncomfortably, making them more or less paralyzed, but without actually electrocuting them. Now thinking back on it, using this enchantment on a sword with a sharp edge meant for stabbing and cutting was not the brightest idea I've had, but... Using this spell on a blunt weapon like a baton could be an amazing lol lethal weapon, without real risk of killing if used properly.

The risk was there though, that this intensity was way too much for the average pony, probably even lethal for them as they were a different species, and other factors like age or fat and muscle density, and of course their health and resilience to elemental damage and effects.

Experiment log ends here.

I finish writing everything down, after every test I describe what I do and what it feels like, the last one was the most satisfactory in terms of results, but I was a poor subject to try this on, a pony like an unicorn would be the ideal test subject, as unicorns don't have any resistances and their bodies lack any natural empowerment from their magic, unlike earth ponies and pegasi who have both resistances or simply increased thoughness from just being of that race.

I had just the right pony in mind for the job too, but of course I would have to adjust the power lower so he was not at risk of serious damage.

But for now that experiment was concluded, now... It's time to test another elements and their properties, now that I had a baseline for electricity, lightning, it's going to be interesting to see what element does what.

I was lucky to have so many useless shortswords laying around, so by the time I enchanted all of them, with different spells, I had a much better understanding of the process and my skill had increased a good amount, still I didn't have a way to add gems to weapons that was permanent, the resin trick worked only once because I only had a small amount of it, then I just enchanted weapons without elemental gems, deciding instead to practice my engraving skill to make the runes as tiny as possible on the sword.

The results were interesting. The smaller the engraving and therefore the writing with gem paste, the smaller the magical capacity of the enchantment, meaning that the gem paste couldn't hold much magic if there was too little of it.

This didn't really matter, not if you were able to embed quality gems on the item to work as a battery for the mana to power the enchantment.

By learning this fact, I could deduce that miniaturization of runic matrices could be possible, this much was obvious when I saw the examples I already had, done by far better and more skilled enchanters than myself: the Spirit Gem, and the Robes of the Occult.

This items, both were made with a method I didn't know about, one I could only theorize.

The Spirit Gem was both its own power source, as well as the item that was enchanted and the engravings were somehow made so small that they were mostly invisible to the naked eye, emphasis on mostly, because I could still make out runes and symbols all over the gem, there were hundreds of them, or more... Just how did they make it? Who made it?

I had no idea, someone far far in the past, I was under no assumption that I'd ever be that good at the craft, but understanding it would be at least a good plus.

The Robes were, more or less simpler to explain and rationalize, the material itself or whatever was imbued within were highly magically dense, able to gather and hold enormous quantities of magic, not to mention probably absorb the magic passively from the user to a rate that wouldn't inconvenience them to power the enchantments, reducing the cost of casting by half, it was a rune lost to time, the rune used to make it possible, to reduce the mana cost of spells, maybe I could reverse engineer it from the robes if I observed them more carefully, maybe they were secretly written somewhere within the fabric, or in a layer inside of it, I would definitively need to study this robes a lot more thoroughly.

Onyx has reached the Apprentice level in the Enchanter skill.

Today had definitively been a very very good day!

Author's Note

Thank you for reading!