FEB 7 Sunday.

I pull the blanket off of me and stare at the ceiling for a moment as my mind pulls itself from the quagmire of sleep.

Having a friend lecture you over your mistakes is not fun in the least, but it was needed, because despite my good intentions I was being a dumbass. In the end, I'm just glad I can rely on her to put me in my place when needed while still being willing to listen and understand my actions and reasons.

I really lucked out having her as a friend, didn't I? On the same note, last night was a mess and I'll have to really think about my actions. I don't regret what I did, it was what I thought should be done and it could have saved lives, I just regret not knowing how to do it better.

I sigh before dragging my body out of bed and taking stock of my things as Entropy leaves my shadow to greet me. "Ok?" It's a simple and innocent question, one that makes me smile down at her.

"No, but I will be. Do you want some breakfast? We kind of skipped dinner." I ask back while taking some of the berries I bought last night out of my saddlebags. She stares at the blueberries for a second before ignoring them and focusing on grooming my mane and making small chirps as she tries her best to cheer me up.

I smile and reach out a hoof to scratch her misty feathers, as they now are almost completely shadowy mist now. "Thank you girl, now eat." I pass her a few berries so she can tide herself over until we get a real meal. She happily takes them while I get to work cleaning.

I took a blissful shower last night but didn't take the time to clean my cloak or saddlebags, so I spent a few minutes emptying my saddlebags onto the bed. Then I take them to the bathroom which is way too big and start to use some soap and a cleaning spell to wash out the blood stains.

Entropy hunts every once in a while and she is far from a clean eater, so needless to say this is far from the first time I've had to wash blood out of my clothing. With my practice, it doesn't take too long to finish the saddlebags after I cast a drying spell on them and put them on before grabbing the cloak.

But I stop as someone knocks on the door. "Come in!" I fold the cloak up to move it and turn back as the door opens to see that Cadance is now standing in the doorway looking over my things laid out on the bed with a raised brow. "Cadance, good morning." I greet her evenly and with a decent smile.

She smiles back, but also seems a little tired, that's probably my fault. "Good morning to you too, same to you Entropy, what's all this?" She looks over the various small things I normally keep with me. While Entropy flies over to her and demands scratches from her, and she obliges.

I take my cloak over to the bathroom and keep the door open to see and talk to her as I work on clearing my cloak. "All the things I normally carry with me, excluding a medical kit that I'll need to replace." I give a blunt answer. "I hope you got some sleep, and if not, sorry." I apologize while not being fully awake yet, she waves me off with a hoof.

"I'll accept it, as long as you don't worry Aunty like that again." I hear a little sternness in her tone, but it relaxes a moment later. "Then again, from what I heard Aunty already gave you that lecture, so I'll spare you from it, for now." She smiles at me but falters a little as she sees the blood washing out of my cloak.

I nod. "Thanks then, one is more than enough. Trust me when I say I don't want to get involved in anything like this again." I finish cleaning my cloak and cast another drying spell on it before packing it away in my saddlebags and walking over to the bed to pack everything else up.

"You won't." I pause and raise a brow but she just smiles viciously in return. "Anyway, I'm here to bring you to breakfast, or drag you out of bed if you were still asleep, either way works." She jokes while opening the door. "Now come on, you don't want to keep her waiting, do you?." I ignore the way she says that.

"Sounds good, I haven't eaten in a while. Lead the way Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Such an odd name." I say back with a smile as Entropy dips into my shadow while we leave the room.

She huffs. "Well, at least you haven't lost your sense of humor, too bad that's not worth much." She jabs me right back as we move through the hallway.

I start to both wake-up and relax more as we start our normal rhythm. "You're not the first to tell me that, and you probably won't be the last, but I'm not giving up my horrible jokes, even if the sun asks." I use an old pony saying that has long since gone out of fashion.

She just rolls her eyes at that and has to stifle a groan as two guards pass us and she has to look at least somewhat royal this early in the morning, once they pass us she relaxes again almost like a switch was flicked. I've never really seen her act that formal with me, so it never really occurred to me why she started off that casually when we met.

Well, since she's been so forthcoming, why not just ask? "Why trust me so much?" She turns her head and gives me an odd look. "I mean why be so informal and relaxed? Don't get me wrong, I very much prefer the informal and relaxed way we talk, but I guess I just find it odd." It seems this is yet another failed attempt at the fabled small talk.

She just gives me a large smile. "Let me ask you this, how many friends do you think Aunty has? And I don't mean friends, I mean real friends that aren't ponies she works with." She emphasizes that last part.

I let that bounce around my head for a moment. "Ten? Maybe more? I wouldn't guess it to be high, but she must have some friends other than me." Celestia is obviously a busy mare but she has to have some personal time and ponies to share it with beyond me.

She gives me an odd smile I've seen a few times before. "Four, and I'm one of them." I nearly trip at that and give her a disbelieving look. She just smiles back, "To be blunt, Aunty doesn't have many opportunities to make genuine friends who don't want something from her."

I know that's something that obviously happens, but even then I'd expect more than just four. "That's also why I trust you, she is always happy after your meetings and it shows. It's actually how I learned about you, she was happy and I kept bugging her until she relented." She says with such a proud smile.

I feel a small wave of both happiness and surprise wash over me at hearing that. I never knew, but it does bring a smile to my face. "Well, guess I'll have to keep making her happy as best I can," I say with a happy and serious tone. A moment later we reach a door that I don't recognize, Cadance just walks right in with me following her a moment later.

I really should have expected something like this. I'm greeted by a large lavish dining room, far too big and fancy for me, and seeing the smile on Celestia's face I can't help but think this was intentional. "Nine hours and fifteen minutes." I raise a brow at the stopwatch she has. "Seems I kept my promise." Her tone is kind and sunny, no pun intended.

I can't see anypony else inside the room and the food is already out on the big table. At least I don't have to deal with acting formally around others, so I just try to relax and walk over to the table with a small smile. "I guess you did. Did you get enough sleep though?" I ask a little awkwardly, last night still making things a little odd for me.

She doesn't miss a beat and just smiles as Cadance starts to pile some food on her plate. "Yes, now relax and eat, you'll need it." I do as she asks but notice the second ominous warning I've been given today. But if they have something planned for me I'll take it with a smile, it's the least I deserve for the stunt I pulled.

"Fine, anything good?" I ask as Entropy leaves my shadow looking like she's in heaven. "Hold that thought." I turn to Entropy and grab her with my field before she can fly around like a maniac, I place her on the table and keep her there. "You might want to be quick, she will start teleporting if we take too long." I half-joke while turning back to a thoroughly amused Celestia.

"There's plenty to eat, the staff heard we had a guest and went a little overboard." I raise a brow. :What's a lot then?: She moves a few plates around in a decently impressive display, and a moment later I'm filling a plate and bowl with anything that looks good. I also noticed some fish that I immediately took several pieces of it. She chuckles, "I expected you'd want that."

I raise a brow at that tone before taking a bite of fish, only to stop mid-chew a moment later. I swallow and turn to Celestia with a deadpan stare. "Did you do this?"

She just keeps smiling and laughs a little at my expression. "My staff aren't the best at meat, even the batponies. It's terribly bland." Despite her words, she smiles while eating a piece of fish.

The fish is cooked very well, but the seasonings leave a lot to be desired and are definitely not a good standard for royal meals. "Of course, first you two have something ominous planned and now the fish is bland, what next? Melted ice cream?" I take another bite of the bland fish while pretending to sulk a little.

I do notice that Cadance doesn't seem to like eating the meat she has on her plate. She's heard our topic and sees where I'm looking. "I'm still getting used to it if I ever do." She says flatly while taking another bite slowly. She has only been an alicorn for a while so I suppose it takes time to adjust.

Once Entropy is done devouring her food I have to keep her in place to not overeat. "Free! More!" She demands as she gives me a glare.

I chuckle at her. "No. We'll eat later, but you need to know when to quit." I move her next to me before giving her a few small pieces while keeping an eye on her, I don't notice the amused looks from both mares as they watch me deal with a fussy bird. It doesn't take long for us to finish and when we do I turn to Celestia. "How are they doing?" I ask gently.

Celestia gives me a gentle and reassuring look. "The injured Changelings will recover just fine, and the rest are still being talked to for now. I'd also like to apologize about last night, even if you deserved it." Her tone is genuine but holds some humor to it.

I nod my thanks. "No need, I asked for it and needed it. So, thank you for giving me a good kick in the flank." Cadance chuckles at our bland humor. "Now, enough keeping me in suspense, what do you two have planned for me?" I glance back and forth in between them and give them a comically suspicious look.

They both just smile and Celestia drops a few pages on the table in front of me. "I'm confiscating your vacation for making me worry." She says with a cheery tone. I raise a brow and start reading the papers, it's the form I need to sign to take vacation time from February fourteenth to the twenty-eighth.

I'm not against spending my vacation helping her, she's done so much for me and this is the least I could do, plus a vacation for forgiveness seems like a small price to pay. "Ok." I sign it without even knowing what I'm agreeing to, I'll just have to deal with what comes next.

Celestia was mid-sentence what I agreed and looked a little surprised. "I was going to ask if you had anything planned already in case we needed to reschedule it, and then tell you your pay, but that works too." She smiles and quickly takes the paper back from me. "I can give you more vacation time if you still want to go somewhere?" She offers.

I shake my head. "I didn't even know where I wanted to go, and even if I'll be doing something I should be able to have some free time to do other things, right?" She nods. "Then what did I just agree to? Because I'm going to be disappointed if I'm being sent to a boring place."

Cadance smiles widely. "You've just agreed to be one of my translators for a diplomatic visit to Griffonstone. I hope you've kept in practice." Her smile shows just how fucked she thinks I am.

I turn back to Celestia with a surprised and somewhat deadpan stare. "You're not giving me that page back are you?"

She smiles widely. "Nope. Take this as a lesson to ask questions and read something thoroughly before signing it. And before you worry, you won't be doing that much actual diplomacy." She smiles as I feel my body relax and breathe out a sigh of relief.

"Thank MAGIC! I already don't like talking to others, let alone nobles." They just laugh at my reaction.

Cadance drops her crazy smile. "Good, because me and Aunty don't want a diplomatic incident. But don't think you'll be getting off easy, You'll be doing something far worse." She drinks some tea for a dramatically long moment as I wait and give her a deadpan stare. "You will be translating and copying all documents we need, something that will give more time for the actual diplomats to do their work."

She says that like it's a punishment, I just smile as her face morphs to confusion. "I spent several months translating griffon texts for the library. You think the paperwork is bad? Just wait until you're translating a detailed account about the griffon who wrote that paperwork and why." I say dramatically with a smile.

Griffon's text is much like the language, dry and blunt, the paperwork even more so. Cadance gives me a slightly horrified look, "I know right? So you'll have to try harder on this one." She just shakes and laughs after a moment. I turn back to Celestia, "Well, I wouldn't mind a trip like this and the work should be easy enough."

She nods. "Well, what have you been working on recently?" I raise a brow as she changes the subject a little. "You are always training something interesting." She gives me a knowing look.

I get an idea and smile at her. I grab an apple with my field and start to concentrate on the space around it before carefully manipulating the space by making a piece of imaginary paper and twisting it into a spiral before letting it snapback. I have to slow the Rebound to prevent the apple from exploding.

This lessens the effect to an extent but the result is a messed up-looking apple. They both give curious and slightly alarmed looks as the space visibly bends for a moment before the apple deforms. I let the space settle and cut the deformed apple in half before giving one half to each of them.

"Turns out I can fuse things by manipulating space, not easy but it's interesting and could have its uses," I explain while feeding Entropy a few small berries as a final treat for the meal.

Celestia and Cadance both give me odd looks and inspect the insides of the apples. The inside is now a mix of apple skin, apple flesh, and seeds all blended and wrong. Cadance decides to just take a bite before shrugging and putting it down, while Celestia seems to give it a serious inspection.

"I hope you are being safe, I would rather not give you another lecture so soon. But I must say this is impressive work for how little time you've had." She gives me a serious look before smiling again and praising me.

I nod quickly. "I'm still mostly training my control, and that is actually a lot weaker than it looks. Even if things do go wrong the after-effects would be small." I explain as my ears stand up while I move my mostly empty plate to the side and out of reach of Entropy's grubby claws.

She nods and stands up. "Good to hear, for now, though it's time me and Cadance get to work. You're free to do what you like and I'll make sure to send a schedule soon so you can plan in advance. Have a good day Shade, and thank you for agreeing to help, finding another trusted translator so quickly would have been a pain." She keeps her smile the whole time.

I huff and pick up Entropy off the table as she tries to sneak even more food before placing her on my back. "Fair enough, and it's the least I can do." I turn to Cadance. "Have a good day, enjoy the nobles and paperwork, and make sure to whip something up to really get me." I smile as she sticks her tongue out at me.

She also smiles. "Trust me, I WILL. Have a good day though, and enjoy the... Wait, you don't even have work today do you?" I shake my head. "Uggg, I hope you trip on something then." She jokes before standing up and stretching as I turn back to Celestia.

"Make sure you have some fun today, even if it just involves a few grapes." She just smiles and nods before walking out with a few grapes moved into her mane where nopony can see them.

Cadance walks over next to me before giving me that damned smile. "Did I see your ears perk up when she said it was impressive? Becau-" I don't let her finish.

I can see where this is going and quickly turn to Entropy as she stands on my back. "Retreat!" A moment later I'm gone, leaving only a laughing Cadance left in the dining room.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 994

Thanks to a certain someone that made the suggestion to have Shade accompany Cadance on a trip, turns out it fit rather well and I really liked the idea. So once again, thank you for the suggestion. :D