AUG 8 Saturday.

It's been a week since I talked with Celestia and any remaining tension and worry has mostly faded with time.

Also in the past week, I've kept myself busy, first and foremost I've been looking for a better emotion rune. The one I've been using for the emotional shield spell is decent but I'd like something better to make an emotional magic collection spell... By magic am I terrible at naming things.

Anyway, another thing that I decided to do was ask Celestia for some help in finding a better emotion rune, her help would definitely speed up the search. I know she's busy so I specifically asked her to instruct a pony or two to search for her and send me the results. I also included that basic report about how long the spell will take, it should only take a few weeks after I find the right runes.

And in response, I got a letter back the same day.

Dear Shade.

I'm glad to hear that your idea seems possible, and thank you for the help you've provided with your continued work.

Now, with that out of the way. As you know I've been busy recently and haven't had much time for other things, that includes teaching my student. So I've tasked her with finding the rune you need and any other runes that she thinks could be of use to this project.

She was told it was an assignment from me to help research something for Veil Winter, so she doesn't know you're involved. She also seemed very excited, it seems you have made an impression on her, and you may have a fan.

Also enclosed in this letter are two small packets, one holds a ticket to this year's Gala, I hope to see you there. And in the other is my revenge. Open it, you know you want to.

Celestia

Getting some help with this project so I can focus on more than just this is nice. The idea of Twilight being my fan is terrifying, and a great motivation to never reveal my real identity. And I can just tell from the way Celestia wrote this that she's messing with me.

The Grand Galloping Gala is something I honestly forgot about, but It sounds fun. Last year's gala ended on a bad note, but there should be protections in place this year, and spending some time at a party with Celestia sounds nice. But that means I once again need to get a new suit, being tall can kind of suck.

And then there is the second packet she sent me, her revenge. She's right, I did want to open it, and after resisting for four days I decided to finally give in to my curiosity. The small packet exploded into glitter, fucking glitter, all over my bedroom. It took HOURS to clean it all up.

Do you know how hard it is to clean up glitter? It's hell. I had to get it out from in between my fucking floorboards, and the worst part was Entropy. For some fucked reason she loves the hellish sparkly powder, when it first got everywhere she got covered, and then refused to let me clean it off.

I had to bribe her with treats and promise a fish dinner before she let me wash her off. And while I was doing that she flew around spreading the glitter even more!!! And even after three fucking days of cleaning I still find it everywhere. So to say the least I will get her back for this, but that's for later.

Right now I'm once again sitting in the library while reading through a few books, while Entropy sleeps in my shadow. I'm reading through a book about healing burn wounds when I glance up and see someone I haven't seen in a while, Avalon. He walks through the library and finds several books before spotting me.

I smile and wave as he nods back. It's been a while since I last saw him, it's nice to see that he's still learning about magic. After a few minutes, he sits down with me at the table. "Shade, how have you been? It's been a while now." He seems a little excited and happy to see me.

He speaks Griffin from the start, not that I mind, it's nice to sharpen up my language skills. "It has, And I've been well. I'm happy to see you are still learning, how has your studying gone?" It's been around four months since we last met and I'm curious how far he's progressed.

His smile widens and he passes me a very roughed-up piece of paper, it's seen better days with small tears and several stains. But under it all I can still make out the list I gave him several months ago, I'm surprised it's still holding together, but I'm also pleasantly surprised to see only three books left on the list.

I smile at the list and pass it back. After a moment I watch as he holds out his talons and starts to draw, a dark brown magic line is formed in the air. "Well now, that's definitely something worth celebrating. Have you managed to cast any spells yet?"

He stops drawing and looks a little embarrassed as the magic dissolves. "Well, only the really simple one you gave me, but that spell has saved me a ton of time, thank you for showing it to me." By the end his smile shines through again.

That's not massive progress, but for someone who's never used magic before he's made pretty good progress. "Good job, you are now officially an apprentice rank runic caster." He looks bashful. "Anything I can help with while you're here?"

My research is a slow endeavor so lending a hoof for a while is just fine by me. He gives me a thankful look while taking a notebook out of his satchel, oh good he takes notes. "That would be great thanks. Here, I want to learn this spell but I'm struggling with this part, something about it seems wrong."

I look over the page he opened. It's a relatively simple spell to help dry feathers quickly, a good spell to have if you're flying a lot. I take a moment to copy the spell matrix and runes while I look over it, this is something I wouldn't mind having. After that's done I start looking at the section written to the side of the matrix.

The spell is mostly simple, but this particular section is harder and the math isn't the best. I turn the notebook so he can see what I'm pointing at, "You see this part?" He nods. "It's solved like this, and either you or someone else copied in the wrong number here."

I spotted the defect when copying the spell, so I drew it out with my magic, and I did it without using my hoof to draw. He looks interested at my display of magic and watches as I show him how to properly draw the matrix. He nods and takes a few notes while I keep that matrix in the air and continue reading my book.

For a while we just read silently with a few questions from him about certain things thrown in at random, it may be quiet but I find myself enjoying the simple interaction. I also find his determination and passion for magic commendable and inspiring, I often find ponies take having magic for granted and don't really appreciate it.

Earth ponies do appreciate it more than pegasi and especially unicorns, but I find it to be something of a breath of fresh air to have someone so amazed by magic. Maybe that's the difference, like Avalon I've lived also without magic, while normal ponies seem to be used to magic being everywhere.

As I read I take a moment to look over the books Avalon has taken an interest in. I can see the last three books on the list I gave him, one of which he's reading now. But he seems to have gotten confident enough to start looking through books, not on the list.

I recognize a few but one in particular stands out to me, The Intricacies of Magical Affinities. I remember that this book is the one I found the affinity testing spell in and taught me a lot at that time. But it's not the best book to start with if you want to learn about magical affinities.

"If you want to learn about magical affinities then you should probably start with a different book, that one is not the best as a starting point." I say while grabbing the book to show him.

He looks at the book for a moment and nods with a small smile. "I know, I've already looked into it some, and I thought it was interesting. But the library I was at didn't have more on the subject so I waited until I was back in Canterlot to try and find out more about it." I'm again pleasantly surprised by Avalon.

I nod and go back to my last book, after I'm done I decide to call it a day and head home. But a thought strikes me after a moment, I could easily enchant a small ruby so he can test his affinities. After a little thought, I decided to help Avalon further.

He's more than shown that he has the mind and passion for magic, and it'd be a shame if I didn't encourage that. "I have something to do, I'll be back in a while." I don't elaborate further and he just nods before going back to his book.

At a decent running speed it takes me around half an hour to get home, grab a gem, enchant it and write some instructions before getting back to the library.

I walk back in and see Avalon finishing up with his books, perfect I made it just in time. "Sorry about running off, but I needed to grab something." I apologize while walking over to him.

He smiles. "It's fine, thanks for helping me Shade. You always seem to know so much about this stuff." I know a compliment when I see one.

I smile back. "A lot of reading. Here, this should be useful. It's a gem with the affinities testing spell on it and some instructions. I already found out mine and don't have much of a use for it, so here you go." I hold out the gem offering it to him.

He's surprised, his feather twitching slightly, he just stares at the gem for a few moments. "Are you sure? This couldn't have been cheap and you could resell it." I keep my smile and nod.

"Yes, like I said I don't have a use for it anymore and you have proved that you want to learn magic, this should help with that. However please remember to stay safe and research your affinities thoroughly before trying to use them." Him telling me I could sell it instead of just taking it is a kindness, and kindness should be rewarded.

He stares at the gem before delicately taking it from me. "Once again thank you Shade, I won't forget this." I'm a little surprised at how seriously he says that second part but I ignore it.

"And thank you for showing genuine interest in a craft many forget even exists. Have a good day Avalon, I wish you safe travels." I hold out a hoof for him to shake.

And he happily shakes it. "And I wish you clear skies. See you around Shade." He gives me a uniquely Griffin goodbye before walking off with a smile.

After he leaves I find the books I left behind and put them away before heading home. It feels nice to help others, maybe fate will take it easy on me for a bit if I help others more. Ahh, who am I kidding? Fate has it out for me. I chuckle a little as I and my shadow whistle a tone as I walk home.

Entropy seems to have taken after me yet again and picked up my whistling, good news is she's rather good at it. When I arrive home I spend some time making food and organizing my workroom, all the different things that routinely get out of order when I work on things.

When I'm done cleaning I find small traces of glitter in my workroom. "How the fuck did that even get in this room? The damn door was closed when I opened that fucking package." I can't help but voice my annoyance. "Oh, fuck this." I decided to do something about this menace that's in my home.

I sit at one of my desks and start flipping through a few notebooks for ideas, and after a while, I find something I have forgotten about. The unique property of the purification rune, its seeming ability to destroy matter. The last time I experimented with this rune was a long time ago so it takes me a while to find my old notes on it.

At the time I got busy with other ideas and this sort of just fell to the wayside, but now that I have more skill and experience it seems like a good time to experiment again. And it could solve my current problem with this devil dust. After finding my notes and reading through them I start designing a new spell.

The rune is simple at its base, you tell it what you want to get rid of and it does, while also leaving everything else untouched. But it still destroys matter so being careful is a given, I flip through my collection of runes and try to find a rune that will work well with the purification rune.

After a while, I found a rune I only added to my collection for the sake of documentation, a rune for trash. It's not a well-made rune, but it is helpfully vague with what it considers trash, and that is a double-edged sword. The spell that I create over the next few hours is a simple and odd solution to my problem.

One thing I did note about the purification rune during my last experiments, is that the more matter you destroy the more magic it takes. So targeting something like a pony would be very hard to use the rune on due to the sheer amount of magic required to do anything. But I still added two safeguards.

I added two more runes, a rune for living, and a rune for protection. Both protect different things from the spell's effects, the rune of protection is simple, it keeps the spell from causing harm, if the spell tried it would conflict with itself and the spell would do nothing.

The second rune is more interesting. This rune of living protects all living things from being affected, and the reason behind that should be self-explanatory. I have time, so I make sure nothing could go wrong before attempting to cast the spell.

It's made to target a set area and I make sure to stand outside that area when first casting it, while also leaving a potted juniper berry bush in the affected area. I then add some of the glitter I've collected and leave it in a small pile next to the pot, then I slowly draw out the spell and double-check it before casting the spell.

The spell is more complicated because of the safety measures and the area it covers, and that means it takes more magic than it probably should. But the result seems to work properly, the plant is fine and its soil is still there, while the glitter is gone without a trace.

I walk over after the spell is finished and see that my floor is very clean, it almost looks brand-new with how clean it is. As I'm examining the area I realize something, I will definitely need to do more testing, but this spell can probably be released to the public.

If I remember correctly I found the purification rune in a cleaning spell, and what I've made is basically an improved version of that. I'll definitely need to do a lot more testing just to be safe, but this could be yet another thing for Veil Winter to invent.

As that thought comes to mind I remember Celestia's letter and what she said about a certain filly. And just like that I think it's time for bed, I clean up my workspace before doing my routine and getting some sleep.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D