The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life

by Rhino

Chapter 47: Midnight Magic

***Monday, Day 30, night***

Ugh, where am I?

My eyes peer into the darkness to find the pleasant surprise of familiar surroundings. The familiarity takes the edge off the slight panic of not knowing when I fell asleep. I let my eyes wander around as I piece together what happened.

Last thing I remember… I was with Fluttershy. We talked, she was worried about me, we hugged for a while… It’s a little fuzzy after that… Hydro? Yeah Hydro and Applejack showed up…Oh, I see… the fatigue finally caught up to me. Well, I don’t think I did anything too bad during that little bout of insanity. What time is it anyway?

I focus a miniscule amount of magic in my horn to produce enough light to read my clock by.

Ten o-clock… and I’m wide awake…Hmm, what to do, what to do…

I feel a shift of weight against my chest and look down to see Specter curled up against me. My gaze then focuses on the shard of glass I had set on a shelf the morning before we left for Canterlot. Thoughts of the runes on Atom’s sword hilt follow soon after.

It has been a while since I’ve done a little experimenting. Things have just been so crazy I haven’t had time. Perhaps it’s time I get back to old habits.

I slowly ease myself out of bed without waking the small squirrel and make my way over to the closet. From inside, I pull out the one box I had yet to unpack, a box that I labeled simply: Magic. I set the box at the foot of my bed and wrap my magic around the contents inside. A moment later, a number of quills, different colored inks, pencils, many different loose papers, some used and some not, and finally, two books. I set everything but the two books on my desk in the corner and simply let the tomes float before me. The sight of the two tomes brings many memories flooding through my mind as I slowly open the first one for old time’s sake.

This initial tome is a blue book, its cover simply adorned with a green empty circle. I idly flip through its pages, revealing each to contain arcane circles I had experimented with over the years drawn on them. Their designs, let alone their runes, varies greatly from simple circles, to multilayered ones, to even ones with bars overlaying them, and even circles with other shapes within circles. I reach about halfway through and the pages go blank, showing there is still space for future projects. As I flip back through the book, the first two circles catch my eye, and I smile at the sight of the circles I have used so often: Blink and Res.

I chuckle to myself as I close my book of finalized designs, and turn my attention to the other book. This book is green and its cover is occupied solely by one of the first runes I discovered: Focus. Like the other book, I idly flip this one open, but instead of circles, inside are runes with words beneath them. My own personal Runic Dictionary, made by me over the years as I have discovered more and more runes and their uses. I have found runes in many places, most are from old or obscure books since runes are hardly used nowadays, but occasionally I will find them in pictures of ruins or on enchanted items which are the only application of runes in modern Equestria. Only some of these are official names for runes, as most of them I find in conjunction with others and thus I name them myself. Much like the other book, this one is half full, but I still see some of the interesting ones I’ve seen over the years: the basics of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind, the forming ones like Sharpen and Flatten, and even some odd ones like Condense and Disperse.

It has been truly far too long.

A smile appears on my face as I set both my books on the desk next to my other supplies.

Now then, first things first. Let’s see what Atom is up to.

I quietly Blink down to the first floor in front of Atom’s door. A quick magical sensing and I ‘see’ that he is in bed. I Blink inside the room to avoid any squeaking door hinges and spot his hilt on the bedside table. I smile and a few minutes later I Blink back into the room and set the hilt back down, having taken it and recorded all the runes on it upstairs on some paper. Another Blink and I’m back upstairs with some a brand new sequence of runes to analyze.

An hour later and I am in a very good mood. After examining and classifying the runes I was able to discern all of their uses and am able to add a brand new rune to my dictionary. Most of the runes are based around shaping and containing the energy that passes through the sword, while another few are the converter runes meant to lightly crystallize the specific element of the magic used. The new rune however, which I believe I shall call Wing, is a type of rune I haven’t seen before. Instead of focusing on drawing in generic magic, it appears to base itself around Pegasus magic.

Interesting, though I do not actually have a use for this at the moment, there’s always the possibility I’ll think of something in the future. Hmmm, still some time before I should get more sleep. I wonder…It has been a while since I’ve had a personal project…

A triumvirate of images flash through my head in a cycle: the assassin and his knives, the glass shard on my shelf, and Atom’s sword. Theories race through my head as I bring the shard over to me and then look back at my notes from Atom’s hilt. A smile slowly builds across my face as a quiet chuckle escapes my lips.

I think I know where I want to go with this… as far as I know, I’ve never heard of anypony doing something with precisely this method before… Hmm, should probably do concept testing for a few days before I start constructing the final version… Alright, it’s settled! A bit of concept testing and I should have just enough time to work out that spell Hydro asked me for last week.

I bring the materials I need to get started towards me and begin working on the prototype concept circles.

Hehehe, oh this is gonna be fun. Look out world, Rhino is back.

***The next morning***

I awaken after the few more hours of sleep I had grabbed to start myself back on a normal sleep cycle. Breakfast is more of a ‘make it yourself’ affair this morning, and before long all 5 of us, myself, Hydro, Atom, Iroh, and Specter, are gathered in the living room grabbing our essentials for the day.

I stop for a moment as I remember what I need to tell Hydro before he gets going, “Oh, Hydro, before I forget again: I designed that spell you asked about. You know, the one to separate water molecules?”

He seems to perk up quite a bit at the news, “Sweet, think you can meet me at the dam once you’re done at work? I want to get it implemented ASAP.”

I nod affirmatively, “Sure.” I glance at Atom and Iroh and ask curiously, “What are you two gonna do with yourselves all day? Since you’re new in town and all. Oh also, Atom, I took a look at your sword last night and got what I needed from it, so you don’t need to worry about lending it to me.”

Atom blinks, surprised at my confession, “Oh, well, no harm done I suppose, just ask next time. I was going to head over to town hall to go ahead and register myself as a P.I. for the town. I have to start getting my name out there if I want any cases.”

The nimbat nods his head approvingly at the pegasus’ plan before he turns to me, “An excellent idea. Personally, I think I’ll be heading over to check on my dear friend’s student. I’m interested in meeting her after all I’ve been told.”

I nod my head in acknowledgement of their plans and soon we are all headed out to our respective destinations.

***

Sometime later and I find myself leisurely Resing my way towards the dam, my latest shift being one of my thoughts.

Ahh, feels good to be back to the normal day around here. Helping out animals, purposely being vague but still revealing a little of what happened over the weekend to Mane and Manila, having them blowing off me missing work yesterday due to Fluttershy coming in and letting them know that I had passed out just before my shift, and even a surprise lunch with my favorite pegasus to top it all off.

The sound of flapping wings behind me causes my ears to swivel around.

Flaps are too heavy to be Fluttershy’s, Rainbow doesn’t strike me as the type to be subtle, and Atom is likely not done at town hall this early so chances are it’s Blue.

“Hey Rhino.” The voice that hails me confirms its owner as the blond-maned pegasus stallion.

Point for me.

I turn to the pegasus keeping pace by flying beside me, “Hey Blue.”

My blue friend picks up the conversation ball, “So, what are you up to?”

I answer honestly, “Heading over to the dam to cast a spell for Hydro. Not sure why he wants it, but it should be interesting. Why, bored?”

He nods, allowing his boredom to show on his face, “Yeah, Dash assigned partly cloudy skies today so there’s not really much to do.”

I adopt a look of slight concern, “How did she end up taking all the stuff we got up to?”

Blue’s eyes look up and to the side as he recalls what happened, “Well, she liked when I was telling her about the action parts. It did seem as if she was going to chew me out for the danger, but all her attention went straight to the fact that we did a part of the mission with Spitfire when I told her about it. Heh, she did a fan-girl squee and everything. She went off to train after that.”

I smile, amused, “Well, at least you didn’t get into trouble.”

We reach the dam without any incident, and soon Blue and I find ourselves in a small elevator with Hydro heading down inside the dam. The door dings and opens to reveal what looks like a workshop of sorts. Piles of scrap and machines lay all around the room along with a fair number of racks of tools. What draws our eyes more than anything though, is the construction in the center of the room.

It’s not in one piece by any stretch of the imagination, but the various parts are either lying on the floor or suspended in the air by wires and hooks from the ceiling. Among the hanging parts are what look like giant shovels one might see on construction equipment, even a pickaxe or two. The floor is littered with gears, pipes, and all other manner of internal workings of machinery. Off to the side there are a few seats next to an cluster of levers and buttons arranged in what looks like a control panel that has yet to be attached to anything. Finally there is the center piece of the arrangement of parts: a veritable next of pipes all flowing into and around a central tank with a small empty space within it, just waiting for something to be added to make it look complete. Blue and I gape with open mouths while Hydro heads over to a pile and shuffles it around.

I speak to my earth pony friend, my voiced laced with awe, “This is your current project then.”

Blue turns to me with an alarmed face, “Current?! He does this a lot?!”

Hydro grins at our astounded faces, “Hey, if Rhino’s a wizard, then I’m a mechanic.” He pulls out a gem from his bag, a perfectly spherical pink one with no markings on it. He sets it on a table at the edge of the workspace, “This is what I need you to cast the spell on, Rhino.”

I give the gem a look, “I take it this is one of those special gems that I don’t know about then.”

He nods and pats the gem, “Uh-huh, this is a Ditto Diamond. It’s what I spent that reward money on. It can replicate any spell that is used on it, so I’m going to use it as a power source to split water into its gaseous components and run the machine on the force of the directed gas. I’ll only need to refill the water every other day or so.”

I marvel at the invention in the center of the room, “Wow. Well, glad to be of help then.” I pull out the paper in my bag with the circle for the spell and set it on the table next to the gem. I let the magic flow to my horn as I scribe the circle in the air in front of the target jewel, then provide the power once it is complete. A brief flash and a small consistent glow from the pink orb are the only indications afterward that anything had happened. “Alright, that should do it.”

Hydro grabs the gem at holds it up to the light, “Nice, thanks!”

Blue and I watch the engineer work his technological gift, but it soon becomes apparent that he’s not going to be assembling the final product just yet. With that in mind we excuse ourselves and start heading up the elevator.

The pegasus remarks to me as we head up, “So when did you have time to figure out that spell anyway?”

I shrug, “Just had a bit of time last night and did that spell, among other things. I also did some looking into the runes on Atom’s sword, fascinating new rune on it. Apparently, it’s designed to work for pegasi and their weather magic. Any number of possibilities could be conceived from it.”

Blue looks down in thought for a moment before looking back up at me, “So… you could do some pegasi equipment with this new rune?”

I nod.

The stallion looks away slightly, “So, do you think maybe you could create something for me?”

I raise an intrigued eyebrow, “That depends on what you have in mind.”

He smiles, “I want to repeat something a little dangerous.”

Comments

[(I*R) Surge]

A chapter dedicated to crafting? How interesting.

[RLYoshi]

Heh, Blue doesn't realize that in this world, "a little dangerous" means "likely to blow up half of Ponyville and burn down the other half".

[Fragment12]

I love runes even though I can only read alchemic ones...in latin then translate it to english later its still tons of fun and very interesting ahh now I feel like doing some alchemy

[Atomic Vortex]

“I want to repeat something a little dangerous.”

repeat

Anything we've done before that's dangerous is FUCKING DANGEROUS. Ugh, I've said this thousands of times before, but I doubt this will end well.

[Desert Storm]

Blue, gettin dangerous i see

[Rhino]

1769350 Heh, glad to hear it. Look at my latest blog if you want to know a bit of what I'm working on now.

[Rhino]

1788556 Remind me what TFS stands for and I'll tell you. Also, in response to your filler question, sort of, the actual answer is far too long to write out in a comment so suffice to say it's a cycle that I find works very well.

[Rhino]

1792520 Right. A lot of abbreviations to keep track of. Well, if I remember correctly... yeah I think I put a few of those in there at some point.

[Rhino]

1793610 Believe it or not, that one is actually a coincidence.