NOV 15 Sunday.

It's late in the afternoon by the time we walk back out into the snowy field that I've made in this dark forest.

I hear the inches of snow crunch under my hoof as I walk down the stairs of my shack and look around. "So, you had other questions?" I ask while ignoring Celestia's question about the Timberwolves and keeping my smile.

She gives me another deadpan look before going along with my nonsense. "You've told me before that you were learning to fly, but you never did mention you succeeded. So what do you think about it?" She asks curiously.

That was one of the things I explained earlier while explaining how I set this place up. I smile at the memories of flying for the first time not long ago. "I really enjoy it, the wind and the sky is very... freeing I guess. I find myself enjoying the simplicity of it all."

She smiles as I get a little lost in those thoughts. "Mmmm, I also feel like it's a great freedom, just of a different sort, when I first flew I felt as if the sky would go on forever and was endless. Did you have any trouble with heights? I know I did when I first started flying." She chuckles at some long-ago memory.

I'm curious about that second part but answer her first. "Not really, I've never had a problem with heights, although I still feared falling. And if you don't mind me asking, were you born an alicorn? I know that's a little off topic but the thought just struck me." This is yet another thing the show never really said for certain.

She's been open more than most, but this question does open a slightly fresh wound from our last meeting. And I notice the slight shift in her mood a second later and realize I'd fucked up again. "Sorry, bad topic. Let's just move on, I have things to show you." I gently say while staring to walk over to the small crop fields I have.

Celestia's mood mostly perks right back up at my words. "It's fine, and I'm honestly surprised it took you this long to ask, most have it as their first question." She takes my fuckup in stride and reassures me. "And the answer is no. Now, what is all this?" She changes the subject to the plants around us and I follow along.

That answer didn't really answer much, but it's far more than expected to get and I'm happy she was willing to answer at all. I turn to the field and pull out a mostly normal-looking carrot with my field, the only big difference being the dark green differently shaped leaves that they inherited from the Frost Bloom.

I go along with her and change the subject. "This is one of the smaller projects I'm working on." I point to two fields, one of normal crops and one of only frost bloom. "I've been trying to crossbreed normal crops with Frost Bloom to make crops that grow in the snow. It's still too early to tell but some of them have shown some promise."

She smiles widely at that. "That's a fantastic idea, and one I'd ask you to update me about." She seems very pleasantly surprised, and I can understand why. New food production is rarely a bad thing and it can always be used, if not for eating then for selling to other nations.

"Will do. Now onto defenses, I didn't really explain the Razor Vine much did I." I remember mentioning it but mostly in passing. She shakes her head. "Well then, let's go see them." I decided to walk towards the river so we could see the small glade on the opposite river bank at the same time instead of having to backtrack.

As we walk Celestia continues to ask questions. "You also mentioned this place had advantages?"

I smile and nod. "Several, but the best is the life magic density here. I can get a lot more done, especially if I use Mana Mimicry." She raises a brow at the name. "My little name for something I stole from a plant, all things have different flows of life magic in them."

That is one of the few things commonly known about life magic, so I'm not surprised when she nods her agreement. "The book I gave you talked about copying them to speed up plant growth if I remember correctly."

I nod. "Yes it was very useful, but I tried something new. I copied a plant's natural ability and used it for myself, it lets me regenerate magic a lot faster depending on the place I'm in." I smile at the slightly shocked look on her face and slow down my steps while concentrating on my life magic.

Over the past few weeks I've been practicing by using Mana Mimicry and dumping all the new magic I generate into the Golden Oak seed while walking around, and at this point, I can walk slowly while having the ability active. The green light shines around my body and my eyes gain the same glow as the magic starts to form.

She's very curious and studies the magic for several moments before speaking. "This is beyond impressive, and no small achievement! Developing such a technique is no small feat. How much does it increase your magic regeneration?" I'm somewhat bashful at the excited praise she gives me while she inspects the magic.

"Well, develop might be giving me too much credit, I'm just copying nature. And the regeneration depends on the amount of life magic around us, so here it's quite good but everywhere else it doesn't do that much. And I'm still learning to move while holding it all in place." I say as we walk near the Golden Oak tree stump that contains a single seed in a hole at the center.

I drop Mana Mimicry and walk over to the stump. "This is something of an oddity I came across." I pull out the see for a moment letting her get a good look at it before placing it back inside the hole. As I do this I see a small reaction from her, she flinches back very slightly when pulls it out.

"What, was that?" At this point, the seed has absorbed a lot of life magic, so it's not too surprising that somepony like Celestia, who has a lot of experience in magic could somewhat sense even it without a life affinity. After a moment she starts inspecting the stump more thoroughly.

"That's a bit of a story. I visited Ponyville a while back, it's the closest town to the Everfree. Ponyville's library is made from a giant tree, and I grew curious so while I was there I grew a branch and seed to take with me." I watch for any signs that she knows how important Ponyville really is, but if she does she doesn't show it on her face.

"I kept both for a while, and when I made this place I tried to grow the seed, but no matter how much life magic it absorbs the seed doesn't grow. I've been dumping all my extra life magic into it for weeks now, and still nothing. As for that reaction, that's what a large amount of unshielded life magic in a very small object feels like."

"And the stump blocks it?" I nod. "Interesting, I haven't heard of something like this, but life magic is rare even without an affinity so that's not much of a surprise. I've seen that library you mentioned, but never knew it was this special." Her curiosity is now on full display, she is just as much of a researcher as I am.

"Neither do I, no book mentions it and it proves to be a continuous mystery. The stump is grown from the branch I took, the same plant as the seed, oddly enough I recently found out the wood has the ability to block life magic. I've been keeping the seed in there so nothing unwanted can sense it and come looking." I grow a branch off of the trunk without any bark so she could see the golden threads through the woodgrain.

A thought pops into my head while growing the branch and I decide to have a little fun, I haven't made nearly enough jokes at her expense yet. So I grow the wood into a crown that has the same style as her normal one, I make sure to grow leaves and tiny white flowers to decorate it all, and after a minute of her curiously watching I detach it from the branch.

I grow a sphere on the end of the branch and detach it to before I smile at her confused and curious look. I quickly place the crown on her head and pass her the wooden scepter before she can say anything. "A new crown and scepter, ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS OF THE FOREST!" I give a shout at the end while hamming it up as much as possible.

She's a little stunned by my words and then looks a little embarrassed at my loud proclamation. And I can't stop myself after seeing her face. "Hahah." I did not expect to be embarrassed at all, but it's my best victory yet. "Haha, revenge is sweet." I stop when she also smiles, :Ah, fuck: My internal thought it proven right a second later.

But that embarrassment fades as she realizes we're alone, and then she smiles before taking a deep breath. "THEN I SHALL CLAIM THIS LAND IN MY NAME, RULER OF ALL FORESTS!" She says while holding out the wooden scepter with her wing, pointing it at the forest in an exaggerated manner.

I'm surprised as she uses her royal voice to slightly deafen me, and then I double over laughing at her playing along with my stupidity. While she starts laughing a moment later at the absurdity of our words and actions.

It takes us both a moment to calm down again, and when we do Entropy flies over to see what all the noise is about. She sees us laughing and lands on the best spot, on top of Celestia's new crown, which only makes me laugh harder. After I'm finally done I see Celestia take the crown off her head while Entropy sits on it and stares at her curiously.

:By magic, I never thought I'd see Celestia as a proper princess, birds and all: She smiles at the crown and Entropy as I stand up from where I sat, she stares at the wooden crown with all the golden lines going through it in every direction. She turns to me with a smile. "Thank you, my old crown was getting old."

I smile at the slight joke. "Sure, but it's getting late and we still have things to see." I start to walk towards the riverbank again. After a moment Entropy lands on my back while Celestia walks up next to me, with the wooden crown back on her head and the scepter still held under her wing. I raise a brow, "Not going to take it off?"

She smiles again. "Nope. I like them, and they're mine now." She says happily.

I feel like that will bite me in the flank somehow, but that's for later me to deal with and I hate that guy. A few moments later we reach the wall of vines nearest to the riverbank. She spends a moment looking them over the wall and even runs a hoof edge along one of the three-inch long needles.

"Well, this is certainly a way to keep most things out, I know I wouldn't want to try moving through it. I am curious where you found a vine like this though. Something like this couldn't have been easy to track down." I'm a little distracted by the sight of a nature-themed Celestia on a backdrop of throned vines, so it takes me a moment to register her words.

Once I get the damned hormones out of the way I answer. "I made that actually," I admit while trying my best to pull my damned mind away from how she looks.

She smiles with some pride showing once again. "Truly? Well, it seems I really have underestimated your ability with plants." She once again praises my ability, and I once again can't help but smile widely. "How long did it take to grow all this?" She asks while looking down the long wall of vines.

"Two hours, maybe a little more, but this plant is special. I made it by crossbreeding the plants, The Spine Leaf, The Gripping Vine, and The companion Vine. This is the result, Razor Vine, it's hardy and can be hard to break apart or uproot, and grows extremely quickly even without life magic."

"And the needles can stick inside deeply before breaking off, I keep some of the seeds on me as a... well, a defense of sorts." As I explain I see her face go from curious and impressed, to impressed and a little grossed out, probably from the mental image of what happens if I use these things on a living target.

"Let's hope you never have to use them then. Now what was it you said about Timberwolves?" I nod as she changes the subject and motions for her to follow me. It's a quick walk over to the river bank, and we appear just in time to see several whiteish Timberwolves step out of the tree like on the other side of the river.

We are both silent and just watch for a few minutes as they approach the river and start drinking in turns. "I've been observing them for a while now, this pack and a few others come here. And they are very interesting creatures." The shield doesn't block all sound so I keep my voice down.

The Timberwolves seem much more skittish than normal and keep glancing at us, and Celestia notices this right away. "Can they see us?" She asks a little concerned.

"No, but they can sense life magic better than any creatures I know of, and you have a lot of life magic. Most powerful beings do, so they are looking around trying to find whatever they can sense. No sudden movements, otherwise you will scare them." I'm honestly not sure why they haven't run already.

Maybe because she's moving slowly and because she's on the other side of the river? Something to think about later. "Mhhh, why are they white? I've never seen them that color before." I'm a little confused as I expected her to at least know about this.

I smile. "You've seen them before?"

She half nods her head. "A few times, and I've never gotten a good look at them. But I've read reports and seen many drawings." Ah, that explains it.

I nod. "I saw them shedding their bark a few weeks back, much like wolves they shed their coat to better blend in with the snow." As I finish explaining I see another member of the pack walk over with a dead squirrel in its maw, it's not hard to make out as its fresh blood drips onto the white snow.

I see a slight grimace of disgust on Celestia's face, but only slightly, overall she doesn't show much reaction to it. We silently watch as they eat the squirrel and start to clean the blood off of themselves. "They eat meat but also sunbathe, as far as I can tell they really are a mix of plant and animal," I comment and look over to her.

She gives me an odd look, and I raise a brow. "You seem, remarkably ok while watching that, most would turn away or be sick at the sight." Her tone is not one of judgment but simple curiosity.

I chuckle, much to her continued confusion. "Entropy hunts, I've had to clean up a lot of blood stains, and I eat meat a lot. I've long since grown desensitized to the sight of things like that. And it's not like it's some great tragedy, this is just nature being nature." I explain my thoughts as we watch the Timberwolf pack wander back into the tree line and out of sight.

She nods after a moment. "I probably should have guessed as much considering you feed her meat. Still, I think many would disagree on that last part, but I understand and agree, that nature is simply as it is, nothing more and nothing less." I smile as we find yet another thing we have in common.

"But it's getting late and I have duties to attend to." She stares at the sun as it hangs low in the sky, night will need to be here soon and she needs to attend to that. "Thank you for showing me this, it was a nice change of pace, even if it's odd to put it lightly." She says with one of her typical smiles.

"Ya ya, I'm odd, now go lower the big ball of fire. And I should be the one thanking you. Thank you." She chuckles at the horrendous joke. "And remember, if you ever need some time away from the palace you are more than welcome here. Just remember to not touch any unknown plants." That last part is said with a serious tone, I would rather she not get hurt by one of my plants.

She nods. "I will, and I will have to check in on you so I will visit. Have a good night Shade," She says with a smile.

I nod back. "Same to you, and I hope you enjoy the toy crown." I try to verbally jab her a little before she leaves.

She gives me a positively beaming smile before I see an all too familiar mischievous glint in her eyes. :OH shit: "Did you know royal families used to propose with flower crowns?" I feel my face heat up as I start to blush while she laughs and teleports away a moment later.

I'm left blushing up a storm along in a silent grove. "I hate past me, and I really need to get her back soon. Maybe, paint? Or dye?" I distract myself from the embarrassment by trying to think of revenge plans while watching the sun lower below the horizon.

Author's Note

Thank for reading. :^)
Current year is 993

I've started to realize my ability to write more is improving. When I started this story I set the minimum of a chapter to be 2k, but now I'm sometimes having to stop myself at 3k. I'm happy with this progress.

I tried to make this like a date this time, without bringing romance into it. No idea how I did so please tell me what you think.

Also... Mmmmmm, birb.