Some much needed Free Time.

//

It's like 0:30 where I'm from but it's already four days technically so here you go... ENJOY!!

//

It was a few days after Pinkie Pie's "first time", when Starfall came to the realization that his first winter in Ponyville was about to end. This meant that Winter Wrap Up was going to happen next week, and he didn't expect anything relatively dangerous to happen until then if he was to trust the show...Well... a few things did happen out of order until now, but that was to be expected with "winter wrap up" episode being aired out of the blue before the "Fall weather friends" one...

But as everypony were currently busy with preparations for the winter wrap up and a few different things, it gave him a surprisingly free schedule for the entirety of this following week...

He was of course totally alright with this situation, as while he really loved his girls, he recently slightly neglected his research and training so he wanted to catch up on a number of things.

His hooves soon led him into the secret basement and Into the Artifact Lab, where the Elements of Harmony laid unmoving on the center pedestal and awaited to be needed for the protection of Equestria.

His eyes slowly started to lit up as the amazing magic of the elements revealed itself under his mage sight. He could see tiny strands of the Magic of Harmony spreading from each gemstone and connecting eachother and something outside of the basement. He could guess that the connections led to the Tree of Harmony and the Mane Six but there were also a lot of smaller and weaker wisps of magic that must have had some special effects on the world yet unknown to the Unicorn.

He could see the magic forming runes, hundreds of them, many of them describing the attribute of each element like Loyalty, Kindness and etc, but things like Connection, Friendship, Protection, and other things would occasionally show up, most likely having to do with the nature of the artifacts themselves.

The hard things about "Natural" artifacts is that they are in a sense...alive. They can change their nature and evolve even theoretically being able to form a consciousness just like the Tree of Harmony did sometime after building the school of Friendship.

Artificial Artifacts on the other hand were more like programmed machines that usually wouldn't be able to improve on their own unless they are really...REALLY advanced or are specifically created to have that ability.

Starfall Spend a few hours studying the stones until Phoebe flew into the room carrying a basket of food, and made Starfall realise that he was famished.

She set the basket at the table and landed beside it giving Starfall an unamused look.

"I know, I know. Sorry baby girl. I'll be more mindful of my body." He said while head patting the Phoenix on her forehead and trying to appease her.

He could hear a voice in his head saying in a bit of worry.

'Please take care of yourself more Daddy! Mommy is taking me and Brother to the claw fashionista in Canterlot and we won't be back until tomorrow at the least...' Phoebe said making Starfall sigh.

"I know, don't worry. I'll have Pinkie or Applejack bring me something tasty later so I don't go hungry." He winked at the Fire Bird who just shook her head in exasperation and flew away after saying goodbye.

Starfall smiled after her, and then, looked back at the Elements. He learned a bunch of new things about them and already documented everything in his notes, once again lamenting on the lack of proper computer to upload all the data.

Of course he was already thinking about this problem and was in the middle of figuring out more about magical technology, but the fact that most magical technologies this days were just some simple appliances and sensors based on the old unicorns' knowledge on artifacts and magical runes, he didn't have much to start with...or did he?

His gaze landed on the large book displayed at one of the shelves in the room and he couldn't help but smile at his life work.

That's right, at least the biggest part of the software element had already been covered, and now I just need to figure out the hardware and how to put it all into one beautiful creation...

____________

A few hours of research on the topic of magi-tech with the occasional break for food, ended up only leaving Starfall mildly frustrated...

Yes, he did learn a bunch of things about magi-tech, but other than the fact that it was going to be a lot artifact programming and that gemstones were excellent in channeling magic (which he already knew), most of the things he learned were actually basically what NOT to do...

For example, while Ursa Minor's hair could be used as magic conductors, they were VERY easy to overload and surprisingly explosive once a certain threshold was reached. The same with other things actually... Who knew that if you overload something with an intentless magic, more often than not, that thing was just going to explode. He certainly didn't, despite it being so simple to actually test beforehand which he should have probably done from the beginning instead of having to clean up the scorched table...

*Sigh*

'That's the worst part about trying to power something with magic... How do you take into account an energy current that isn't direct or alternating but actually depends on the intent?!' Thought Starfall as he looked at the blackboard filled with hundreds of calculations that could probably send Twilight into an orgasm the moment she saw them... He smirked at that thought.

He decided to leave the blackboard as it is for now and go into his training room to focus on something else. He would have Twilight help him with his Magi-tech research when she comes back from Canterlot, and for now he wanted to stretch his magic-boosted muscles...

__________

He run through the obstacle course, jumping in between two large hammers that hanged from the ceiling and bobbed from left to right blocking his path, before crashing the second one that was about to block his way with a slam of two powerful hind-legs in a similar manner that Applejack bucked her Apple trees.

The table sized stone hammer crumbled into pieces as Starfall emerged from between the shrapnel covered in a purple translucent shield with a grin, and jumping over a pit of lava without any apparent hesitation.

What followed was a series of dodging, rolling, sliding, spell casting, and magic amplified combat that finally got Starfall through the entire deadly course in only around twenty five minutes.

Starfall was breathing heavily but a smile was present on his face. He didn't resemble someone who just finished a training course capable of killing your regular pony...

"Yes! A new record!" He exclaimed excitedly after checking the clock that he installed in the starting room.

This deadly track was something that he installed in his basement pretty recently...

Thanks to his magic slowly improving his body for many years, Starfall was already strong enough to kick a thousand kilogram boulder over a dozen meters away. It wasn't as strong as Applejack when she looked for the Shovel of Rockhoof in "Shadow Play" and managed to kick a literal bus sized rock over a hundred meters but he was getting there...

//That really happened XD you can look for a video called "Applejack lift and throw boulder" on YouTube.

I went and did a quick calculation and going with the boulder being around 6m wide, relatively circular and the weight of granite being around 2800kg/m3 I ended up with that boulder weighing over 300 tones XDD now let's not forget that Applejack kicked it at least a few dozen meters away if not more. That would require over a milion tones of force from her and oh boy I'm not sure if I should nerf her or not after doing this math XD she's literally approaching hulk level strength haha! //

The reason for why the track had so many dangerous traps was because...well, he wanted a challenge. With his body already greatly empowered thanks to the earth pony magic, and with his instinctual usage of hundreds different spells, he wasn't really worried of hurting himself even if he really did fell into that lava pit.

If he didn't instinctually cast a fire resistance spell he could have just as easily teleported before even reaching the scorching liquid, though teleportation would have meant forfeiting the run.

He honestly wasn't sure what to think after he realised how ridiculous this obstacle course really was and why was he even training on it, but he decided that it must have just been...because he could...

Yes...Since he is now able to do crazy stunts with his body thanks to all this training, he was totally going to enjoy the benefits...and the thrill was just to awesome!

...

'...Damn, it seems like Rainbow Dash infected me with her thrill seeking personality...' He thought with a wry grin as he send one last glance towards the track and saw all the chaos and broken pieces that he needed to repair with magic before the next run...

"...but Chaos huh... Maybe I should pay him a visit soon..." He muttered to himself while walking towards his meditation chamber as his train of thoughts wandered yet again...