Author's Note

I know it's been a while since this story updated, I just couldn't think of what the next chapter would address before now. Feel free to PM suggestions on what gets rambled about in future chapters. And I also noticed the Quill and Blade setting hasn't had some updates in quite a while, maybe something here will give someone some ideas of what sort of story could happen next in the setting.

Is it Such a Good Thing?

Good news; I've finally managed to get through the intermediate sewing exercises my mother suggested to me with the sewing practice materials she gave me, which are the same ones I got tangled in a few months ago. I still can't believe someone bought that shoddy fish pillow I made, they even paid extra as tip, just what in the name of the princesses was that about?

Note to self, never advertise anything in the papers, or with the town crier, ever. It's a good thing I never did that to begin with, but at least now I know my decision to only advertise with flyers was the right choice; some new advertisement in the papers has ponies in the city going absolutely nuts, and not in any of the ways I would call good. Also, for some reason, I got a coupon for a new romance novel with my most recent paper, some sort of advertising ploy, I'm guessing. I hope this coupon isn't the cause of the insanity; if it gets any worse, it will be like they're trying to free Discord from the Canterlot Gardens. Personally, I'm not much of romance reader, I much prefer Historical Fiction mystery-type stories, I like to challenge my mind.

For the love of... Forge Hammer sent me a letter; she's such a lovely and caring mare, and it looks like she won't be able to visit for a bit longer than she thought before; something about the local ruling noble family having an internal squabble and not letting crafting ponies outside their territory, even if the ponies were just visiting. I was really looking forward to her visit; she's one of the few ponies I implicitly trust, and her talent for smithing is needed to run maintenance on my dad's old armor. The silly griffin passed down that unique piece of armor to me almost as soon as I said I was moving out to work on my talent as profession. Thankfully, the princesses haven't seen it yet. I'm still annoyed they managed to circumvent my magical defenses, both of them, and Eclipse is still being held up with whatever it is that keeps her from coming to visit so that we can work on the wards. But I guess that's okay, seeing as I'm sure Princess. "Oh, for the love of, no, you get out of here now, I don't have any..." there was stray cat that somehow managed to wander in here, black fur with a crescent moon on its head and right paw, no idea what that was about. It almost seemed to be curious about my personal journal, almost as if it could sense something about what I'm writing.

And once again, I am bored out of my skull; not even my little night flights are helping me out. That said, Princess Luna went a bit overboard with her sponsorship of this establishment; her insignia is now stamped on my sign and door, and she made sure to have the highest quality versions of the materials I said I was low on, she even sent me an entire crate of heating crystals half my size, one the size of my head would have been more than enough, and they're kind that are known to do their job well, even if they have a bit of a shorter life than the kind I prefer to purchase for fiscal reasons. Also, there's this note that came with everything about displaying the accomplishments of establishments she is now patronizing. Since this is an art and literature reconstruction business, I sent a note in one of the provided contact envelopes explaining how that plan of hers doesn't quite work for displaying my particular brand of art, not without showing everyone what the prior condition was like as a comparison to what I've accomplished, not to mention I prefer to be out of the spotlight, I want just enough income to get buy and maybe have some extra income for a few bonus expenses that aren't emergencies, which I barely manage to pull of each year already, so a little more traffic my way would be nice, but I don't think I could handle every mover and shaker in Canterlot visiting me every few days for their latest status symbol vanity project. The princess has yet to get back to me.

The papers are talking about getting involved in a conflict, an actual war now, and I am so glad I stay away from that stuff. Mom seems to have found work as a maid working for Princess Luna now, I'm happy for her, she seems to be doing well enough. That said...who thought it would be a good idea to send me a giant multicolored statue of a fluffing gumball as a project to work my magic on. There's something under the gumball, my magic is at least telling me that much, but I'm still not sure what that is. I need a hammer and chisel to get at all that, and the ones I had in storage are dull, worn down, and on the verge of breaking, and I always made sure to make sure they were well-maintained at least once a week, but I guess even regularly maintenance can wear down your equipment. I haven't told anyone yet, and I'm just now working on writing a work order, but before that, I'm going to have to look through a few of the latest issues of crafting tool catalogs to find suitable replacements, assuming a new set doesn't appear on my doorstep in the foreseeable future.