JAN 10 Sunday.

I feel my blush come back but I'm able to force it down by desperately focusing on the technical aspects of her question. "Red Spicy Root, basically a spicy potato that stains everything red. I just boiled it down and gave some to Cadance, I never did ask how she was going to use it. I thought it would be funnier that way, but you've thoroughly turned that back on me."

I try to keep a bland tone for my own sake. She just keeps that damned smile and nods. "I've had the pleasure of eating them before, but finding them is hard outside of the Plains." The Plains is a colloquial name for the massive savannas most Zebra tribes live in.

I'm happy she's let up on the teasing and is just talking, for now. "Well, if you haven't been turned off by them from the prank I can make some for you. Personally, I enjoy them with fish and bread, sometimes toast too." Entropy decides to make her presence known and flies down from her perch.

"Food? Food." She caws while giving me an expecting look.

It is nearing the end of the day and she does need dinner, so I turn back to Celestia. "Philomena's probably going to want some too, so would you like to join me for dinner?" It takes my mind half a second to realize how that sounds. I see that smile start to show on her face again and cut her off. "Not that way, get your mind out of the muck." I keep a joking tone as I slightly chastise her.

She chuckles. "Fine, but you should word that better next time. I presume we'll be heading to your home then?" She asks back while finishing her tea.

I think about that for a moment before shaking my head. "Actually, no. You two stay here and look around if you like, we'll be right back. Entropy if you don't mind?" I get an idea and a moment later I leave Celestia in the shake before appearing in my apartment. I don't dally and start to gather everything I'll need quickly. Some raw fish, bread, Red Root's, and some seasonings, along with a pan, pot, and a knife.

It only takes me a few minutes to gather everything and have Entropy take me back to Gaia's Eden. When we return I look around and see Celestia isn't inside anymore, I glance out of the window to see her inspecting the Gold Oak while taking a few notes. "Of course," I mutter to myself and can't help but smile at the sight.

I keep all my things with me and walk outside to join her while also grabbing an acorn from a shelf along with the teakettle and teacups. It takes a moment to walk over to Celestia and Philomena, who is in the treetop pecking at the golden leaves. "I've taken to calling it the Gold Oak, and it is just plain weird."

She calmly turns from the notes and smiles as she sees what I'm holding. "A cookout then? Why not? It's been an age since I've had the opportunity. As for the name, it works, I guess." I roll my eyes at that and drop the acorn I grabbed a few feet away before shifting some of my life magic into it.

I control the growth to form minimal amounts of roots and make nothing but a few-foot-long log without bark before decomposing it into sections and letting them tumble to the ground. Celestia glances over to watch something with some interest while still taking notes.

"Well, in my defense I'm absolutely horrible at names. Interesting fact, I'm unable to gather wood from the tree because it seems impervious to my tools, even my enchanted ones. Try if you like." I keep her interest in the tree as I force all the water out of the newly grown wood to dry it out quickly.

She turns back to the tree and I see her golden magic bend a tiny branch much more than I could with my field. She's probably trying to be careful by holding back, but she's still putting a good amount of force behind her magic, and yet the tree doesn't break in the slightest. "Hmm, that is interesting." She notes it down.

I smile, we really are alike in some ways. I take the log sections and decompose them along the grain to form the classic-looking firewood pieces, I do this several times before piling them into an equally classic-looking campfire. But before I can light it Philomena flies right down and sits on top of the firewood.

I'm about to ask her to move or simply pick her up, but before I can I feel some serious heat coming off of her before the firewood starts to smoke and catches fire a moment later. "Huh, that's neat, did you teach her that?" I ask while using the stump of the oak tree to grow a few sticks to hang my pot on before decomposing it away.

She smiles as Philomena goes back into the tree while Entropy follows right behind her. "Somewhat, more an accident than anything. But she learned to do that over time, with a little encouragement with treats. Although, I've lost a good amount of furniture to her."

I chuckle at that and assemble a simple spit roast to hang my pot on before casting a spell to fill it with water. I take my knife and cut the Spicy Red Root's into pieces before dumping them in to boil while setting my pan over the fire with a few more sticks to give it a base to sit on. "Now that sounds like a story, but I'll settle for asking something else. What's something she does that makes you laugh?"

She stops taking notes and fully turns to watch me prepare our food. "Hmm, there are certainly a few things, but if I have to pick. Probably her reaction to a certain small green fruit." I give her an odd smile.

I raise a brow. "Really? I can see it being funny to watch, but having to deal with that seems like a nightmare." I don't have a cutting board so I grow one from a log section that was put to the side and start cutting up the meat into slices while adding a few seasonings to the pan.

"It certainly can be, but I'm not always on the receiving end, and nopony ever suspects a princess to slip grapes to unsuspecting ponies." She chuckles while saying that and turns back to see me cutting the meat up. "You really aren't bothered by meat, are you? I've met hardened guards who can't even be near it." She gives me something of a compliment.

I stare at her blankly for a moment and start full-belly laughing. "You what! That has to be the best thing, you just throw it without anypony noticing and watch the chaos unfold!" I break down laughing for a moment at the madness Celestia can get up to. "I'll answer the meat question, but first I have to know. Did you ever get caught in the act?"

She laughs with me. "If I did, nopony ever said anything about it. Although, once I had a guard captain who definitely knew. She never did say anything though, she'd just smile whenever it happened." I can sense a small amount of sadness with that, but it's interlaced with an odd joy.

I don't ask about that and just chuckle again before moving on to her question. "As for the meat? I don't really know myself, I don't fear it or where it comes from. Honestly, I find it odd to be so offended by somepony else's meal choice, although I can understand not liking certain things."

I place the meat slices in the pan and start to fry them before growing out two rough plates along with two bowls from the cutting board I made. She nods. "A good way to view it, one most wouldn't share. I am curious as to when you first tried it though?" She asks and my mind stops for a moment.

I can't really answer that truthfully, so I add as few lies as possible while still answering her. "Shortly after I started my work at the library. You know me, I get curious, so I read a basic recipe and bought some Bass, it took me a while to get used to the market though. Anyway, it turns out I liked eating meat, so I never stopped." I keep it simple and it's not really a lie, for the most part.

She tilts her head and nods. "That seems about right. Also, what makes you laugh about Entropy?" And we circle right back around to the start, which is fine by me.

I give it a little thought. "Several, first. She refuses to use big sentences, so she comes off as beautifully blunt and simple. But my current favorite involves her and Philomena, they keep fighting over Entropy's toys, and they immediately nap next to each other right after." I chuckle at the memory of this morning.

She laughs with me. "Hehehe, that seems about right, Philomena always liked her toys, she never did care if they weren't actually toys. That's starting to smell nice." She looks at the meat and I smile with a nod.

I check on the Red Root's and see it's done, I take the pot off of the fire and place the pot to the side to keep warm, and place the teakettle to start boiling. The fish is also done so I use my field to fill both our plates with the simple meal along with the two smaller bowls. "Good, because it's done, here." I pass her the larger plate.

She gives me a new mischievous look. "No fork, you want me to eat with my hooves?" She pretends to be offended and I huff at her pretending to be annoyed.

"Fine, if that is what Her Majesty demands." I jab back with a noble tone while growing a fork from her plate and breaking it off by decomposing it before dropping it on the plate with my field. "Now eat, it's better when it's hot." I drop the tone and smile as she pouts a little while taking the fork and using it to stab some fish.

I take a bite of the fish, it's not bad for a campout. "Needs more salt." I sprinkle some more on it and pass her some, which she uses after tasting the fish and nodding in agreement. I enjoy the meal for a few moments and a few moments later I look over to see she's already eaten half her food and seems to be very much enjoying the fish. "I'm glad you like it." I also watch both of the birds dig into their food with vigor, "Same with you two."

Celestia doesn't seem the least bit embarrassed at how quickly she's eating. "It's not often I eat fish, mostly when a Griffin ambassador visits. So it's a nice treat, thank you." She says with a smile.

I stop at that. "Hmmm, Griffin cooking, I should look into that." I voice my thoughts openly again.

She raises a brow. "Then you've done an excellent job if you're working with pony recipes, normally it's just not the same." I smile at the compliment.

"Well, well. That's high praise, I can hang my head high and call myself a half-decent chef." I joke while finishing my meal and dropping my plate right into the fire. Celestia does the same a moment later as she's also done with her meal. She stops as an alarm goes off. "Seems our time is up then." I've heard that before and the day grows late.

She stares at the evening sky for a moment before smiling. "Maybe not, I'd rather we didn't end this quite so soon. You want to see something interesting?" I raise a brow and nod. "Good, because it's your turn to look shocked for once." She smiles and stands up fully as I see her horn start to glow brightly.

I put it together half a second before her horn starts to blind me with its glow, I stop looking at it and turn to watch as the sun starts to lower below the horizon and disappear entirely before the moon rises a few seconds later as her horn dims and the world around us goes dark. "Well, that's another thing off of my bucket list," I say with a stunned expression.

She looks at me with a large smile. "I'd hope so. Unless you know any other princesses?" She jokes with me as I move a fresh pot of tea off of the fire.

"Actually, maybe?" I'm reminded of Silvis, the hippogriff that might be something close to that. Celestia gives me a deadpan stare. "It's a solid maybe, but if they were some form of royalty I never knew for sure, just a decent guess." I elaborate and move a cup of fresh tea over to her.

She sighs. "You really get around for such a quiet pony. Who do you think you met?" She seems amused at least.

I'm not sure I want to reveal everything about that particular event, mostly to not worry her, but it's all long ago now and I can't see much of a reason not to. She's seen me do dumber things so I just trust her to be fair. "Not sure to be honest, but probably somegriff from the Griffonstone royal family." Her brows raise further.

"Now I need to hear this." She sips some tea and shifts to lay on her side as we talk around the campfire, a proper campfire story it is then.

I decided to say fuck it and just be honest about the whole thing. "Well, remember my trip to New Trotten?" She nods. "While I was there I met this old Griffin at a game cafe, the really silent type of Griffin. We played chess and I kept coming back every day to keep playing with him, mostly because we were pretty evenly matched so he was good practice against you."

She definitely noticed that I'm not using names, but doesn't demand them, and smiles at the last part. "Anyway, near the end of my visit, I came into play a game with him at the cafe like normal, but he had a hippogriff with him, probably his grandfilly, and she demanded a visit to the park and so I tagged along to play with him there."

She interrupts me. "For chess? Did you even know them?" Her tone is nothing but curious.

I half-shake my head. "Not really, but he had done nothing bad to me and we were in public the whole time. But this is where things get... Messy, I may have gotten in over my head a little." I'm a little nervous about telling her this, and she's able to see that easily.

"It's in the past now, the worst I can do is ground you." She jokes to break that slight tension in me.

I smile and nod. "I'd like to see you try, actually I really wouldn't, and thanks. In my defense, I think I did some good. You know how paranoid I am, so it didn't take me long to notice someone was following us, two griffons to be specific." Her eyes gain a slight sharpness to them, but her expression is still relaxed and reassuring.

"Now I had no idea what was happening, they could be guards or something less pleasant. So I pretended like nothing was happening and after we reached the park we played for a while and I made a choice. Whatever this was, the filly didn't deserve to be a part of it." I keep a steady tone and watch her face closely.

She nods after a second. "With so little to work off of it's a good choice, do you think it was the right one in the end?" She asks gently.

"I know it was." She still looks a little concerned at that but doesn't interrupt. "I'll skip a bit, but at a certain point I slipped away and was able to listen in on the two following us, they never saw me, but all I learned was that somepony paid them to spy on the Griffin and filly."

I can see her eyes narrow further. "Did anything happen to you?" I hear the concern in her tone and notice the lack of any form of scolding.

I answer quickly, trying to reassure her. "No, I was fine. After hearing that I walked back and finished the chess game like normal, and then I passed him a note before walking off. Nothing happened after that, but right before I left the city that same Griffin found me in the public library."

She relaxes slightly at my answer. "I admire the good intentions, but you know that was a risk right?" I nod with conviction. "Good, I'm not one to judge you, I've done plenty of stupid things myself. Also, for what it's worth, I think you did the right thing." She tries to make me feel better about my choices.

She succeeds in that and I smile again. "Thanks, that means a lot coming from you, and I know it was a risk, but to finish off my story. He asked some rather pointed questions, but never threatened me or anything, after that, he just gave me an elegantly engraved dagger with some type of crest on it and told me it was best I leave the city soon."

To my surprise, she just chuckles at that. "Only you would stumble into something like that and gain the favor of a royal." She really does seem to take it lightly. "You did good." I look a little surprised at her tone shift from understanding to serious praise. "If they gave you something with their symbol then it was serious and helping them was definitely a good thing." Her tone is completely certain and I can even feel some pride in it.

I nod at the compliment. "What exactly does that dagger mean? I know the language and found out it was their crest, but never could really find out what it meant in practical terms." I take the praise with happiness as my choices are vindicated.

She smiles and fully relaxes again. "It means you are under their protection to a degree and you will always be an ally to them. Basically, you gained yourself a stern ally, maybe you should be a politician? You've already had a great start after all." I'm surprised by that joke and blench at the thought.

"By magic no! I don't care how much you pay me, I'm NOT doing that. I can barely handle my friends as is." She laughs at my response and I pout. "Well then, I'm calling the night here, I don't see a reason to give you more leverage on me as it is." I stand up and stretch my legs out.

She just keeps smiling. "It is getting a little late, and I have duties to attend to, as always. Good night Shade, and thank you, this was nice." She also stands and whistles, a second later Philomena lights up the area when she lands on Celestia's back.

I nod and drain the last of my tea. "It was, maybe we should do it again sometime? But for now, good night, and good luck." I start to walk away with Entropy as Celestia gives me an odd stare. I should make less sense more often. It's fun.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :]
Current year is 994

Take your damn Celestia chapter and enjoy it, or else. JK