SEP 18 Friday.

I copy yet another page instantly and close the final book for the day.

I look over and see that Blaz has already left before me, not something he does often but not out of the ordinary either. It's been two weeks now and I've made significant progress in my current project, and now I'm ready to create my new camp, but I still need to get there.

I've spent most of my time creating the illusion spell for the shield and doing some flying practice. I wouldn't call myself an amazing flier, but I can now take off and land without eating dirt, most of the time at least. I also learned and practiced the linking spell I needed.

And finally I enchanted my bracelet with both a slow-falling spell and a strengthened slow-falling spell that should let me get off the ground much easier. I finished cleaning up my desk and practically pranced out of the library before sprinting home in the fall weather.

I'm in a rush because I have a meeting with Celestia in two days and I want to get as much done before then as I can. When I get home I'm greeted by Entropy like always, who demands food and attention. After dealing with the gremlin I start on the last thing I need to do.

I packed everything I'll need and the only thing left is the shield, and that's just what I plan to make. After a lot of thought I've decided to use a total of four gems for this project, I chose four powerful gems just to be safe and decided on a medium diamond and three medium rubies.

After gathering them and arranging them on the floor I practice a little before starting the lengthy process. I need to make absolutely sure I don't fuck anything up while drawing a very large matrix. I start by drawing out the enchanting spell and move on to the shielding spell and illusion spell.

The illusion spell I made for the shield took more work than I expected and needed a copying rune to blend into an environment properly. It's also not the best, it blends in very well but if you're within a few feet it starts to show its flaws.

Basically it's not the most detailed and can be spotted after you get really close to it, but that's fine for where I'm setting it up. After those spells are added to the growing matrix I finally add the last outermost ring with the array linking spell, this whole process takes several minutes.

The result is a massive matrix with eleven rings in total, I can't hold this matrix for too long so I don't waste any time and start looking for any imperfections, I find a few small ones and once those are corrected I finally cast the spell. For a small moment, I feel around half of my magic drain away from me and move into the matrix.

I watch as the matrix settles into the gems as magical lines connect all the gems together with the diamond at the center. After a few moments, all the magic dissipates and the new gem array is finished. I take a few moments to fully inspect all the gems to make sure nothing is wrong with them.

They all seem properly linked and stable. "Thank magic, if this broke I would have screamed," I mutter to myself while gathering the gems together, I'll be leaving them here for now to gather magic while I find a place to set them up.

After that, I grab my saddlebags which are filled with everything I'll need, and call over Entropy. "To the forest girl." She caws softly and a few moments later I'm standing in a sunlit forest as golden brown leaves cover the ground and tree tops, I'm glad I'm able to do this before winter sets in, I'd rather not trudge through the snow.

I get my bearings and start heading to a clear area to take off from. Entropy isn't that tired from our trip, her ability to teleport is still growing and she'll probably need to take two round trips here to tire out, which is good because we're changing the location of where she takes me to be even further away.

I wasn't able to do exact math but I'm fairly sure she'll be able to take me to the Everfree without much trouble.

Once I'm out of the woods I start to plan out my route. The Everfree is a few miles away from Ponyville and I'm on the opposite side of Ponyville, which means I'll need to walk through Ponyville to get there or walk around Ponyville which will make me arrive after dark, and I rather not do that.

I could just fly the whole way, but ponies might notice a pony flying into the Everfree and inform the guards thinking I'm lost, or something along those lines. Plus I wouldn't mind seeing Ponyville again, and it should be easy to avoid Willow, who's probably the only pony that would recognize me.

With my mind made up I start walking down the road and head towards Ponyville while going through a mental checklist. The Everfree is dangerous but as long as I don't mess with anything and set up the shield I should be fine, the few things I would need to look out for are also not very common.

A Cockatrice is one of those things, I wanted to try and research a way to counteract its stare but decided against it after learning a few things about them. Their stare and the petrification that comes with it are not permanent and only lasts a day or two at most.

On top of that, you are surprisingly safe when under its effects, you're not just coated in stone you become a stone statue and that makes you very hard to damage. Even the Cockatrice's can't damage you, that's because it mostly doesn't need to damage or want to kill you, only incapacitate you long enough to get away.

Its stare takes a lot of magic to use so it only ever uses it for self-defense or to defend its nest from larger predators. And as more good news, Cockatrice don't eat ponies or want to harm them much. Most of the time they're an annoying but relatively harmless animal, as long as you give them space and don't bother them.

As I'm walking Entropy decides to enter my shadow before we get close and after a few more minutes I officially enter Ponyville for the second time. It's quiet with only a few ponies walking around and going about their day, I always enjoy the calm feel of small towns.

It's nearing the evening and most seem to be heading home or out to eat right now, I didn't eat a lot at lunch and I have some time so I decided to stop at Sugar Cube Corner. Finding the place is easy this time because I now know what I'm looking for.

When I enter it's the same as last time, and I find myself waiting in line for a while as they seem rather busy right now. When I get to the front of the line I order two cupcakes and a donut, probably too much sugar for me but I want to celebrate a little.

The moment I sit down to enjoy my treats is the same moment things go horribly wrong. As I'm eating my first cupcake I hear Mr. Cake call out to somepony. "Hey Pinkie! How are those new donuts coming? We're almost out of maple and jam-filled." As I hear that my brain short circuits.

:FUUUUCK! WHY?!: The only reason I came to Ponyville was to avoid suspicion and now I have to deal with this! OK calm down, calm down it's not that bad. Pinkie is only making things in the back, and I'm just a normal customer; she should have no reason to notice me right now.

I try to maintain my calm as a bubblegum pink pony practically bounces out of a door with a tray of fresh donuts held in her muzzle. Well, that makes three of the main six I've accidentally run into, does fate just hate me? Because at this point I'm starting to question if fate is real and laughing at me.

Pinkie places the tray down. "Thanks, Pinkie, it's almost the end of your shift so take a break before cleaning up, and eat something, here." MR. Cakes said kindly while passing her a donut.

And for the first time in decades, I hear Pinkie's voice. "Oki Doki Mr. Cake, and thanks again!" By magic, she's high energy. As she takes her donut I turn back to my donut and continue eating while trying my best to not draw attention to myself, but it seems that I'm shit out of luck.

Apparently, I'm interesting enough as it is for Pinkie to lock her light blue eyes on me. :Oh by Celestia, why? What the fuck did I do?: I see her looking at me with a sparkle in her eye but try my best to pretend she's not there. :For the love of all things, NOT ME:

But since when was I lucky? Trick question, I'm not. Which is why she walks right over to my table with a bouncy step and a large smile. "I don't know you! Are you new to Ponyville? OH! What are you eating? Also! I'm Pinkie Pie. Nice to meet you!" I'm immediately bombarded by the questionably sane mare as she sits down across from me.

I'm stunned as she talks and I try to keep up with her. My first thought is how to get out of this, but honestly a part of me is resigned to meet her. After a moment of thought, I decided to just try and stop worrying and go with the flow, I can't avoid it now, and trying to run now would just be counterintuitive.

That and I can't bring myself to run away from a pony this happy and excited to meet me. So I decided to have a little fun of my own. "I don't think so, I'm passing through, maple and jelly-filled. And I'm Shade, nice to meet you too." I answer her question in a deadpan tone while taking another bite of my donut, let's see just how close I can get to her sister's attitude.

Pinkie doesn't seem disheartened in the slightest and her smile grows larger, somehow, and I swear I see that sparkle in her eyes again. I have to remind myself of rule one, it's Pinkie Pie, don't question it and just move on. She devours her donut in seconds, I don't think even Maple can eat that fast.

"Shade? Ohhhh like a shadow, I get it. So where are you heading? Is it somewhere exciting? Or fun?!" I feel like I chugged a pot of coffee just from talking to her, also what did she say about a Shadow?

I have to make myself not ask and remember rule one again. "I'm going camping, and it should be, the forest is always beautiful this time of year. I assume you live in Ponyville, what's it like?" I try to ask something back before she continues her barrage.

"OH oh! I moved here recently, IT'S AMAZING! So many friendly ponies and so many PARTIES to plan!" She's about to continue but we're interrupted by somepony.

"PINKIE! I need a hoof back here." I hear another mare's voice coming from behind the same door Pinkie came out of.

"COMING MS. CAKE! It's nice to meet you!" She grabs my hoof and shakes it for a moment before pulling a quill and notepad from her mane. I don't sense space magic of any kind, but neither of those things should have fit in there. "What's your birthday?!"

"April fifth... why?" I can't stop myself from asking, and in response her smile just grows more.

"For your birthday party silly, bye Shade, bye Shadow!" Before I can let the dread rise in me she quickly moves and leaves me alone once again. I sit there frozen for several moments chanting a single thing in my mind. :rule one, rule one, RULE FUCKING ONE!!:

I decide that it's time to get the fuck out of here, my curiosity is not worth my sanity. I quickly finish my pastries and leave Ponyville as fast as I can without just running out of town. I did enjoy meeting and talking to Pinkie, even if it was for only a few moments, but by magic does the researching part of my brain rage when I see her do something blatantly impossible.

We barely even talked and I already have questions I may never know the answers to, but I know better than to ask, Twilight is enough proof of that. I try to just clear the entire incident from my mind and focus on what I need to do. I only have a little over two hours before it gets dark so I cast a spell and start flying as soon as I get away from Ponyville.

Once I'm fully in the air I watch Entropy leave my shadow and start flying next to me excitedly, she's never flown with me before and she's vocal about that. "GOOD! YOU!" She doesn't use it correctly but my heart melts a little at the excited praise. We continue flying for a few minutes before reaching the edge of the Everfree.

Everfree is an apt name, even from this height I see how untamed the woods are. Another thing I notice is how much of the forest is still green, unlike the rest of the forests which are all golden brown and yellow's. I don't pay too much attention to that for now and focus on going deeper into the Everfree.

I keep my life magic senses sharp to make sure I'll notice anything that gets close to me. And while I don't feel or see anything alive, I feel the life magic coming from below me. Even from up high, I can tell this forest is immensely rich in life magic, more than anywhere else I've been to before.

I want to land but decide to head deeper before investigating. The Everfree is a massive forest that stretches for miles and is mostly unmapped, as I fly deeper I see something sticking above the dense tree canopy, a lone stone building in an endless sea of green.

It's on a hill that is surprisingly clear of trees, the castle of the two sisters. Well, it will take me a while to find a good place to set up camp, and I would rather do it tomorrow instead of at night. That, and my curiosity is killing me right now, so why not spend the night somewhere relatively safe?

I decide after a moment and veer off course and head to the dilapidated castle.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading.

HEY! That's my job, get back in the story.

Opss. BYE!

PS, I decide on Mana Mimicry as I thought it fit best, thank you. :)

PPS, I wanted to change a few things about the Cockatrice because I felt they seemed too aggressive in the show.