DEC 20 Sunday.

I stand in the empty field that still makes up most of Gaia's Eden and silently concentrate on my surroundings as my magic shifts and moves around me while my mind drifts through thoughts of my recent meeting.

Cadance was fun to talk to and despite the embarrassment, I'm glad to have met her again, even if I'll most likely be embarrassed again. Me and Cadance also made some good progress on the reading material I brought with me, but it will probably take another few meetings for her to learn everything needed and for us to start work on the rune itself. Beyond those thoughts, I'm currently working on a new idea.

Over the past few months, I've focused a lot of my time on training Mana Mimicry to both improve its efficiency and to be able to walk around while using it. I've succeeded in the first and have mostly succeeded with the second, I can now walk at a normal pace and use my hooves freely while keeping Mana Mimicry active.

But at this point, I've hit something of a crossroads in terms of progress. I started with large magical flows and moved onto smaller ones, but I've mismarried all of the small flows so to progress further I'd have to go even smaller which would make progress crawl to a stop and it would take a long time to progress much beyond where I currently am.

So, I can either keep bashing my head into this wall for the little benefit or move on to something else. The choice is easy for me, I may be stubborn but I don't like wasting time if I can help it. With that in mind, I've decided to leave Mana Mimicry alone for now and focus on something else.

As for what ability? Well, while I was working on my new armor I had an idea, but let's start with the armor. Over the past few days I've started to slowly grow and carve pieces of the armor from steel wood, but making that much steel wood takes a good amount of time.

The armor is made from steel wood and that gave me the ability to add a few small enchantments, the main one being many small sticking spells. Each of the sticking spells is linked to a single piece of the armor that I can tap twice to deactivate all of them at once, all of the sticking spells connect and attach each piece of armor together so I don't need to rely on belts or straps.

It's a big convenience and I might send it to Celestia later, although I should probably finish the armor and test it with Stone before doing that. But I've gotten a little off track, my main point is actually about the helmet, specifically the many different types of eye holes used to look outward through it.

Now for most human armor, this was a notable but difficult-to-exploit weak point on all armor. However, it's a larger weakness for ponies, because of magic and the move omnidirectional form of combat ponies use it's a much more easily exploited weak point.

Also, the eye holes in most full armor for ponies have larger holes, so it's a common point to exploit on opponents using heavy armor. So while I was making the helmet I was thinking about ways to lessen this weakness, and I came up with an odd solution, one that finally brings me to what I want to practice right now.

In the past, I tried to use both life magic sensing and space magic sensing at the same time to form a complex and complete view of my surroundings. I tried to sort out the overlapping information and memorize it all, but at the same time, I was also relearning my spells and working on several other things.

I ended up stopping my practice and focusing on those other things, but now I have both the time and a good reason to do so again. If I can learn to sense both types of magic well enough I should be able to walk around without my vision at all, and that means I can just remove this weakness altogether.

That is why I'm going to practice something new entirely. I stop using Mana Mimicry and stand up before moving three items over to me. My armor is not ready yet so I'll have to start without it, I grab both a steel wood greatsword and dagger that I've made before placing a thick blindfold over my eyes.

My new practice will happen in two ways, when I'm with Stone I'll do everything the same but keep a blindfold on, and when alone I'll practice my combat style with a blindfold over uneven terrain. I let both my senses expand and try to also keep my ears open to the sounds around me.

I could try to separate the two new streams of information, but after a moment I just try and absorb it all. Trying to limit what I can gain won't help me, even if it will take me a long time to adapt. I take a deep breath and start to chain a few strikes together, before promptly falling face-first into the grass as my hoof hits an uneven spot.

I readjust my blindfold and stand up again, this will be a real grind, but that hasn't stopped me before and it won't now. I take my stance again and feel the space shift as the world moves while life magic flows through the world around me in great streams.

I can't help but smile at the new challenge in front of me. I might be a bit of a training maniac, but if I am I might as well embrace it.

time skip

I let out a pleasant sigh as the warm water washes down over my sore body, I haven't even dealt with Stone yet and I'm already regretting this. Speaking of Stone, I'm wondering how to ask him about this. Over the years I've built trust with him but we've never been friends.

My affinities are a close secret and I don't want to share, but honestly, I'm overthinking this. I pay him and he trains me, we might be friendly and good acquaintances but it is still business in the end. Even if he doesn't understand how I'm doing it I think he'll just go with it, and if he doesn't I can just train on my own.

With my mind made up I dry myself off and spend a moment combing out my mane, speaking of manes, I've discovered why Cadance showed so much interest in that spell I gave her.

In the papers I gave Cadance I added a small note about how the spell can be used as an enchantment, I used it like that to enchant a comb and test the effects. When on a comb it makes it very easy to comb out your mane and fur, turns out mares do that more often than I thought.

In hindsight I shouldn't be that surprised, it's common for mares to have long manes and it can be a literal pain to comb them out and detangle them, and while there are spells that can help they are too magicly inefficient to be enchanted onto anything but a comb with gems in it. The one I made can be slapped on any metal comb.

It took Cadance one week, ONE, to have some crafts guild start making them, and they sold out instantly, and they continue to do so every time new ones are made. To put this in some perspective, Daisy was complaining about not being able to get one a few days ago despite it being around for less than a week.

I honestly can't see what the big deal is, but after asking Cadance in a letter it turned out to be her fault, and I will blame her next time we meet. I don't often read the newspaper, so I never noticed that Cadance endorsed the comb, turns out Cadance is a pony the fashion industry likes to copy a lot.

With her help we started a small fashion trend around combs of all things, I knew humans did stupid shit like this and I really should have expected it at some point from ponies. In related news, Veil Winter's name also got caught up in all the hype, and my alias is now even more well-known.

I've also gotten a flood of mail recently because of all this, and at this point, I'm just composting all the stupid letters into soil and using it in Gaia's Eden. I keep some of the more personable and kind letters I get, but everything else is now dirt, except the mail I'm being sent that's weird.

The fashion industry is very near another industry I would rather not receive letters from, I opened one without knowing, and now every time I open one I just burn it, my hormone-filled mind does not need more things to think about. I leave my thoughts as I smell the pleasant scent of baking banana bread, it's what I was asked to bring to today's Hearth's Warming party.

It's bound to be fun, or maybe calm if I'm lucky, but I wouldn't count on that. Still, today is something I've looked forward to and plan to enjoy to the fullest. I take the banana bread out of my oven and make sure it's ready by poking a fork into it before leaving it on the countertop to cool down.

I start gathering all the gifts I've wrapped. Three boxes for the wooden jewelry and three more for other gifts, a few puzzles, some sweets, and a few new paints. We kept it more random this year and didn't ask for specific things as none of us could think of much we really wanted.

I read for a while before checking the time and seeing it's almost time to go, but before I leave I turn to Entropy and pass her the last wrapped box, this one contains a very detailed carving I made of Philomena that I'm sending to Celestia as a small personal gift.

Entropy returns a few moments later without the gift and I cast an illusion over her, I was actually asked to bring Entropy this year as Daisy apparently decided she wasn't invited last year and that must be corrected. "Remember girl, nopony can touch you, and no talking." I remind her yet again just to be safe.

She shifts. "Cree. Know." She makes a slightly odd sound but still answers me, that she really is getting the hang of new words. Although all attempts to have her speak in full sentences have failed, so I've just stopped trying and let her talk as she wishes, at least I can understand her.

I leave her alone and grab the gifts along with the banana bread before walking out of my apartment, the hallways are empty and it only takes a moment to walk over to Daisy's door and knock on it. A quick moment later the door opens to reveal Maple looking at me, "Hello Shade, no pie?" She asks bluntly while looking at the things I'm holding.

I can see Daisy doing something in her kitchen behind Maple and waving at her. I turn back and smile at Maple's blunt tone. "Nice to see you too, Maple. Sadly no, but I do have banana bread, and before you blame me Daisy asks for it." Maple walks away from the doorway and stares at Daisy with slight betrayal.

"Hey! Shade, thanks for coming. And I keep telling you Maple, you eat too much pie." Daisy teases Maple slightly while placing some fresh cookies on the counter before turning back to me. "Under the tree, Oh!" She smiles as Entropy lands on the counter and starts looking around Daisy's apartment, "Aren't you just adorable?! Who wants some sweets?" I place the gifts down while Daisy feeds a very happy Entropy a cookie.

"Meanie, no such thing as too much pie." She may have a blunt and slightly tired tone but the small smile shows just how serious she actually is. She steals a cookie and promptly sits down on Daisy's couch in the comfy nook that makes up the far half of Daisy's living room along with the holiday tree.

I chuckle at her words while placing the gifts around the tree. "She is right, you do eat a lot of pie. Maybe it's time you cut back a little?" I join in on the teasing while sitting down and placing my homemade Uno deck on the table. I have to tilt my head down very slightly to meet her eyes.

I'm still growing at this point and I'm already slightly taller than most unicorns, the only reason I'm not the tallest out of us four is because Blaz is a tall Pegasus. Maple tilts her head up slightly and narrows her eyes, "Are you calling me fat?" She asks, trying to tease me.

I smile, I've dealt with Cadance, I can deal with Maple. "Yup, that sounds about right." I turn to Daisy as she sits down in between us with a plate of cookies. "When do you think Blaz will be here? He's already a litt-" I'm cut off as somepony knocks on the door. "Well, that answers my question," I say while jumping up to answer the door as I'm the closest.

As expected Blaz is standing there with several gifts with him. "We've been waiting for you, are you just getting slow in your old age?" I greet him with a smile and a mild insult.

He chuckles at me. "At least I know patience, you can't even give an old stallion some breathing room, shame on you. Now scoot." He also smiles and I move out of the way to return to the couch. "Maple, Daisy, thanks for inviting me, at least two of you have some manners." He jabs back while whipping his hooves and closing the door behind him.

I just keep smiling. "Agreed, we are worse than them." Blaz quickly drops his gifts under the tree and decides to lie down on the plush carpet while facing us.

"We? Who's we? That's all you Colt. Now deal with those cards so I have a proper reason to insult you more." I shrug and join him on the carpet so we're all surrounding the small living room table.

Daisy huffs with a chuckle. "You two will talk until the sun rises, now give me my cards, I'm feeling lucky and Maples hasn't lost a match this month." She joins in on our tomfoolery as I pass out cards, Uno was my best choice yet. "Now that the jokes are out of the way, how has your day been ya'll."

Both Blaz and I stop before looking at Daisy. After a moment I voice what we are both thinking, "Please never use, ya'll, ever again, it feels wrong." My tone is completely serious and focused as I give Maple her cards, cards that will most certainly bring our doom.

She huffs again before turning to Maple. "I think it sounds nice."

Maple gives her an absolutely amazing deadpan stare. "No, it doesn't. Now, draw two." She ends with a small smile as she starts the game with a plus two much to our combined annoyance with three nearly synchronized groans.

I decide to actually answer Daisy now that we've thoroughly messed with her. "I'm doing well, got some practice in and worked a little on my plants." I don't lie, just omit the whole truth. I've started to be more open with them but many things still linger in my shadow.

Speaking of shadow, Entropy decides she wants to watch our game and lands on the floor before snuggling up in between my forelegs. "You never stop do you Colt? I wish I had that kind of drive at your age." Blaz places an arrow to swap the game's direction.

Maple breaks the silence a moment later. "He doesn't, he's already a better spell caster than me, and he doesn't even have a horn." I smile at the complement, Maple's not one to say things without meaning it. "But he is also, completely, crazy." Ahh, a Maple brand joke, truly a rare sight.

I chuckle. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, and it's not my fault you lack determination." I get a dirty look from Daisy as I play a plus four and change the color to blue again. After that, we devolve into some small talk before Maple sweeps the floor with all of us once again and keeps her place as the reigning champion of Uno.

Daisy groans out as Maple wins yet again. "Next time, you'll see! Now, it's gift time!" She moves on quickly and practically jumps off the couch before moving over to the tree to pick out gifts for us to open.

"Those three green ones are supposed to be opened at the same time, and no they can't go first." I stop the smile on her face before she can try and pull something.

"Fine, then they can go last. This one! Ohh, that one! Annndd, this!" She picks one gift for herself and three others at random before passing them out.

Daisy is a very professional pony, except when gifts are involved. She rips into the box and pulls out a set of new brushes and a small jar of green paint, the smile tells us just how much she enjoys her gift. Blaz takes a little more time and rips his gift open to show a new tea mug with the words, best old stallion, on its side.

Maple slowly unwraps her gift while keeping it completely intact, she even undoes the folds to keep the wrapping paper intact, she gets some recipes for other baked goods that aren't pie and sticks her tongue out to Daisy in response. We go back and forth slowly, each going through gifts while enjoying some good old banter.

I get some flower seeds from Maple, a few types of tea from Daisy, and a good variety of seasonings from Blaz, all things I love. After we all go through the gifts there's only three left among the three and this time I'm the one to pass them around to everypony.

"So this is the super secret gift huh?" Blaz asks. "If it's another mug I'm donating it away." He says with a smile.

I just chuckle at his relentless jabs, then I pretend to sigh dramatically. "Just open them already so I can go home and feed my bird." A few moments of ripping paper later all three of them are holding the expertly carved wooden jewelry.

All looked stunned, even Maple's tired and normally stoic face broke to show her surprise. Daisy is the first to speak after smiling widely and putting on her new necklace. "Where did you get this?! Now I feel silly for only getting you some tea." She says while opening the small wooden locket.

Blaz puts on the new cufflink bracelet with a similar smile. "She's right, you've gone and outdone us all on this one Colt." He looks closely at Daisy's necklace and his cufflink bracelet. "Did you have these customs engraved?" That causes all of them to look at their gifts closer.

Maples is the last to speak, and she shows one of the largest smiles I've ever seen on her. "You cheated, no fair."

I smile at all of them. "To answer you before I get any more complaints, I didn't buy them, I made them." That gets me new looks of surprise and an amused smile for me. "What? I told you all I carve wood as a hobby plenty of times, now onto the main gift, put them on and tap them twice." I instruct before they can interrupt me.

They all look curious and do as asked before giving me even odder looks. "They are enchanted to keep you warm, it's not that strong but it should work in most weathers," I explain with a large smile as all three of us look over to Maple. "Does it work? Because it would be very embarrassing if it didn't." I half-joke.

Maple stays silent for a moment before turning to me with a surprisingly emotional look. "It... It works great and it's beautiful... Thank you." Her tone is soft as she adjusts the new bracelet on her free foreleg with a large smile and a renewed awareness.

Daisy joins in. "Agreed! Thanks, Shade! I'll bother you for new jewelry now." She has a happy tone and a massive smile.

"Same, good job Colt, this is yet another impressive thing to hold over us." Blaz isn't one for long thanks, and one to mix jokes into everything.

I smile back at all of them. "I'm glad you like them, now! How about another round before we leave? I got five bits on Maple winning." I lock eyes with Daisy while saying that.

Blaz laughs. "Deal! Now give me those cards, it's time to end her winning streak!" The mood is lifted back into never-ending banter.

I won five bits that night, and I even got bragging rights for the next week. It was a good day.

Author's Note

Thanks as always for reading. :}
Current year is 993

I may have gone a little overboard on this one, I really just kept going. I hope you enjoy it.