Aug 21 Wednesday, today is the Grand Galloping Gala and I'm cleaning myself up for the event, I tied back my mane after combing it and made sure to clean myself thoroughly and used some lavender soap to smell decent, and put on my new suit, the suit gray is fairly plain looking but I like it.

After some time, I leave the library not wanting to be late, as I approach the large building the gala is held in, I wait in line for a while, twenty minutes later I'm passing my invite to a greeter and after they look at it, I'm let inside, as I enter the lobby, I see a mass of many different ponies talking with each other some dancing to music being played by ponies on a stage, while some were sitting at tables eating many types of food.

And walking around the room talking with many different ponies is Celestia, I'm not one for parties but I have been to a few larger ones in my past life although I don't really know what to do, so decide to go sit down at one of the tables and enjoy some fruit salad the mix of fruits giving a pleasant taste, "Oh, it's you."

The voice startles me making me jump in my seat, I turn to the voice to see Twilight standing next to me, :I really need better awareness of my surroundings: her hair is tied back much like mine, and wearing a dress, "I remember hello I don't think we ever properly introduced ourselves."

She looks a bit embarrassed "Ya sorry about that my brother had an important meeting to get to, but it's nice to meet you Shade right? I'm Twilight."

I give her a nod "Nice to meet you too Twilight."

For a moment she looked hesitant to ask something before speaking up "If you don't mind can I ask you some questions about the field you explained last time?" she asked, her face looking hopeful.

"Sure, why not? take a seat," She smiles and we spend the next hour or so talking going back and forth on various topics, mostly magic and we end up talking about the history of ritual magic.

Ritual magic is a branch of magic that is almost extinct, ritual magic is the practice of drawing out a spell matrix with a magic conducting powder, mostly gem powder on a flat surface, the biggest historical use of this type of magic is when ancient ponies used it to raise the sun and moon.

Ritual magic works by combining the magic of several individuals into one spell matrix allowing them to cast a much more complex and powerful spell, but the downside is that by combining the magic you reduce control and with that the efficiency of the spell by a massive amount meaning that to cast the spell requires up to ten times as much magic while also making the resulting spell much less stable.

The reason this branch of magic is almost gone is because of the invention of the magical reservoir spell, it was invented around the year 200, and before the invention of this spell there was no widespread way to stockpile magic for later use, so as the spell became part of everyday life for ponies' ritual magic was slowly forgotten.

Our conversation is interrupted by Celestia as she lays down next to us grabbing some cake before greeting us, "Hello, I hope the both of you are enjoying the gala."

I nod to the princess "I am princess, you?"

"Very much so I always like the gala, But beyond greeting you two I wanted to talk to you Mr. Shade," I looked up to her before placing my food down and giving her my full attention.

"Yes princess."

"First I'd like to once again thank you for the gift," I nod to her, "And this time I have a gift for you," Both me and Twilight look curiously at her.

She takes a letter from under her wing seemingly from nowhere "This is for you although I think it best you open it at home and enjoy the gala for now."

I take the plain white letter from her and place it in my suit, "Thank you princess."

"No problem, now did I hear you two talking about ritual magic?"

We spend the next half hour talking about magic, all of us going back and forth and after a while Celestia leaves to attend to other guests, leaving us to talk again as we spend the rest of the gala in conversation, but after another hour she leaves heading home with her family.

Not having anypony to talk to I decide to leave and head home, I make it back to my room take off my suit and place the letter on my desk before showering after drying myself off I sit at my desk and open the letter, as I read the letter my eyebrows rise before my mouth falls open.

The page contained the number to a bank account in my name, along with the plans for the new magic light that's going to be sold by the crown and select merchants with help from various merchants and crafts ponies around Equestria to help in the production and sale of them.

This means that the new magic light is going to be sold all over the country, and as the inventor of the magic light, I'm entitled to two percent of ALL sales to be deposited into a bank account in my name, I'm about to have a lot of bits, knowing Celestia I really should have seen this coming.

Well, if nothing else I won't need to work another day in my life although I'll probably still work at the library to maintain some form of cover, many would question a young colt with no family and background having enough money to not need to work and I feel I would get bored with that much free time.

The good news is that in a few weeks I won't have to worry about affording materials for experiments and research but for now it doesn't change much as they won't even start selling them for several weeks and right now all I want is my bed.

time skip

Aug 30 Friday, I'm eating lunch with Blaz and Daisy like most days and suddenly Daisy asks me "Hey shade I'm going to an auction later and have a second invite you want to come?" I pause not expecting such an odd question.

"You go to auctions?" she nods before holding up a silver bracelet I see on her foreleg sometimes.

"Yup that's where I got this, normally I'd ask Blaz, but he doesn't have enough spare bits to go this time, so I thought I'd ask you," I spent a few moments absorbing her answer.

"Well, what's at these auctions?"

"Lots of things but this time I heard that the auction has mostly parts from magic creatures," That got my attention as most magic creatures have odd and unique properties, right now, I have a good number of bits stockpiled and when the new magic lights are released, I'll have a lot more.

So, after some thought I agreed "Sure I've got nothing better to do today."

"Thanks, these auctions can be so boring it's nice to have company for them."

"No problem, what time is it?"

"It's at seven so how about I come over and get you at six?"

"Sure" I agree, we finish our lunch and go back to work, after work I take a shower and then do some light reading.

I turn my head as I hear a knock on my door and after opening it, I see Daisy, "Hey, are you ready to go?"

"Yup," I grab my bags and we leave the library heading to the upper part of the city we make our way through the market district we come to a large building with several ponies heading in guards checking invitations to the auction, we approach the entrance and Daisy shows them the invite she has, and they let us through.

We move through the entrance and enter the auction house we go to the front desk, and I'm given a paddle with the number 327 on it along with a mask and full body cloak, I turn to Daisy, "Is this really necessary?"

"You'd be surprised how often others try to steal something from others, I've seen it happen three times and all failed but it still happened," I look a bit startled but ponies just like humans have greed and if you're going to do something as stupid as stealing in the capital city where the princess resides you might as well steal something really valuable.

So, I put on the mask and cloak flipping up its hood fully hiding my identity from others, we grab our paddles and make our way deeper into the building entering a large room filled with seats and a stage at the center where we take our seats sitting in the middle rows.

We wait for a while as more and more ponies fill the room until almost all the seats are full, a pony walks on stage his coat is black his mane gray and he's wearing a fine suit with glasses, "Welcome gentle mares and stallions to the silver mane auction house."

"We all know what we are here for so let's begin with the first item for tonight" a mare wheels a glass case with a bag in it.

As the auction started the first few items that were brought out didn't catch my interest most being more trophies than anything, but as the auction continued, I see something that piqued my interest, "Next is something truly unique" the same mare from earlier wheels a glass case with a black egg a little bigger than a chicken egg inside it, "This egg's origins are unknown we don't even know what it is, and we looked, it's been in our collection for several years and hasn't hatched, we'll start the bidding at one hundred bits."

After hearing the auctioneer most don't seem interested in it as most would probably think it's dead having been with the auction for so long, as for me I was very, very interested, my control with my life affinity and my ability to feel life magic isn't that strong having only had my life affinity for a few months but even then, I can feel the life magic radiating from it even with me being so far away I can feel it like I'm standing next to it.

I raise my paddle into the air, placing my bid, "I have one hundred, one hundred going once, one hundred going twice, and sold."

I was surprised nopony even tried to bid against me having gotten the egg with ease, we watched as the auction continued and while there were some things, I would like to buy they were out of my price range, and after another hour the auction finishes, and we move to the lobby again and I am led to another room I pay them and am given my new egg placed in a wooden box.

We talk some as we walk back to the library saying good night to each other before heading to our rooms, as I close my door, I drop my bags and move to my desk excited to see my new egg, I place the egg on my desk and get my first good look at it the egg is black in color so black it seems to absorb a lot of the light around it even when I shine my magic light next to it very little light reflects off the egg.

Instead, I try feeling it with my magic letting my magic wash over the egg trying to feel anything but after a few minutes of nothing I stop, the egg has the densest life magic I've ever felt so dense it's almost hard to look at glowing like a small sun in my magic, I reach out with my magic again trying to poke and prod the egg seeing if I can get any reaction out of it.

After getting no response I try using life magic instead the magic is almost immediately absorbed by the egg seemingly endlessly hungry for more life magic I keep feeding it until I almost run out of magic, I stop and take another look at its life magic its density having increased a small bit I stare at the egg as it seems to absorb even more light now.

I guess I'll take that as a good sign, I place the egg next to my bed stand and move to the kitchen to make myself some food having missed dinner at the library, I grab some squash cut into it, and pulling out the seeds then I cut it into small cubes and throw it into my pan before putting it on the stovetop adding some oil, so it doesn't burn.

I put some salt and pepper on them and cook them until soft with a light crisp, I take them out of the pan and plate them, I take my food and like most nights when I make food I start reading a stupid or silly book, this one about A fillynaping mystery, I finish my food and wash my dishes and move to my bed and convert the last of my magic to life magic and dump it into the black egg after I drain the last of my magic, I lay down and as I fall asleep, I don't notice the egg shake very slightly.

Author's Note

Thanks as always for reading and have a good day.