FEB 15 Monday.

I wake to the light of a new day as the sun beams through the train window and the steady movement of the train shakes me fully awake.

Yesterday was nice. I gave Cadance a book with notes to read before just talking with Shining and her about boring stuff. Likes, dislikes, random questions, and a few other things. Not very interesting but it was nice to get to know both of them a little more.

I and Cadance aren't really friends, sure we joke and talk but we're not that close yet, still I enjoy her company. As for Shining? Well, we've spoken less than a dozen times over the past two years, so I honestly don't know him all that well, but so far he seems like a nice enough stallion.

He doesn't joke or tease as much as Cadance and has a more quiet and reserved presence. But he is not like Avalon, he's a calm but sturdy stallion that doesn't spook or scare easily, but it can still happen as yesterday showed. Still, he has the stoicism the guard shows so often down to a tee.

He's also a little quiet, he'll talk when asked things or when he has something to add to the conversation but otherwise seems content to listen more than talk. But this is just a first impression as a pony he doesn't really know, so I expect he's different when around family and friends.

I shake those thoughts out of my head and get out of bed to start my day with my exercises like always. Several stretches and an hour later I'm panting slightly while recovering, I don't have the room to do my full exercises but it's my vacation and I'm going to relax some, even if Stone kicks the shit out of me for it later.

Once I'm done I start on the next part of my morning routine but I'm interrupted by Entropy as she leaves my shadow and looks up at me. "Food?" I smile down at her and dig through my saddlebags. I packed food for her so she could eat in peace and so others didn't find her presence odd.

"Sure, you pretty bird." I smile as her tail wags up and down slightly at my words. I packed several fruit and grain seeds along with a small plant pot. It doesn't take me long to grow her a meal and dice everything before adding it to a small wooden bowl. "Enjoy."

"Happy." She rubs her head against my hoof for a moment before digging into her breakfast as I grow myself a pear to eat. Growing plants and fruit does consume some soil from the pot but that's easy to replace, and beyond that, I can feed her easily with what I brought with me. After I finish my snack I stand up and stretch out my limbs while Entropy also finishes her food.

Once she's done she merges into my shadow as I leave my cabin and start walking down the train. Shining told me about the basic layout of the train and a few other important things, the back cars have supplies and the guard quarters, the mid cars have civilian cabins and a dining car to eat and relax in.

Then the front has Cadance's train car and of course the engine. I'm heading to breakfast and after passing a few ponies in the halls I arrive at a mostly empty dining car. The few cooks that are cooking in the car in front of this one are occasionally bringing plates of fresh food to the tables.

The layout is simple, tables in the middle with plates of food and seating booths to each side with room to walk through in between them. It's early so not many other ponies are here and most of them seem to be off-duty guards eating a meal before they start work.

I just find an empty booth and sit down before getting comfortable and opening my book again. I could eat but I'm curious what else they'll bring out as the serving tables are still mostly empty. So I just settle for some type of black tea and enjoy the view out the window.

The terrain outside has gotten much more mountainous and rugged now. This trip is planned to last two weeks with four days of nothing but traveling. We're heading up the continent before crossing the frozen straight and heading back down and finally reaching Griffonstone.

It's far from the most efficient route, but this train is faster than a normal train and they planned ahead to clear the track from other trains meaning we don't have to stop, and this train is traveling light making us go even faster. This is why our trip is only two days, without all this preparation the train ride would have taken a week, and that's without any delays.

Over time more and more ponies enter the dining car and it becomes quite lively, with many ponies talking and discussing things with others as they eat and wake up more. This trip is diplomatic but many other important ponies took this opportunity to go to Griffonstone for one reason or another.

Some are guild representatives and others are influential merchants, and some are nobles seeking to make new connections or renew old ones. They are all social types and I'm just fine being left alone as I eat a good meal, after I finish my meal I decide to stay and keep reading for a while.

After some time the car is basically full and I'm one of the few sitting alone in a booth, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that somepony would notice. My reading is interrupted as a mare stops next to my booth, "Hello?" I turn to look at her. A middle-aged unicorn mare with a brown coat and mane.

"Yes?" I ask back with a neutral tone.

But before she can ask a griffon walks up next to her and just sits down. "You don't need to ask, he's reading, just let him and sit down already." A female voice with a gruff tone comes from the griffin as she makes herself at home with little care about my opinion.

Honestly, I don't really care about sharing the booth, even with her attitude. "You can if you like." I just turn back to my book and decide to ignore them.

The mare gives me a nod and sits down with the griffin. "Thanks, and sorry for her tone, she's just stressed." She makes a seemingly genuine excuse before turning to the griffin with a mild glare. "Lithl! Even if he's ok with it there's no need to be rude!" She switches to griffon speech and starts chastising what I think is her friend.

Lithl seems to be a young adult griffin with gray head feathers and the normal mix of different drowns making up her body feathers, along with grey eyes. She rolls her eyes and huffs a little. "Fine! It's not like it matters, he's just some noble or merchant's son, a pampered stallion that isn't worth attention."

The mare just sighs. "Maybe, but that's still no excuse for insulting him! Now behave." Honestly I felt nothing at her insult, if something as mild as that can even be called an insult. But I do find it kind of funny that they are talking and don't realize I understand them.

The griffin huffs again before looking annoyed and nodding slowly after a moment. "Ugggg! You just have to be nice don't you Coco? But fine, I'll play nice. Not like it matters, he can't even understand us." She complains while eating a piece of food off of the plate she brought.

The mare just starts to eat at this but has a small smile. I'm pretty unaffected by their words, I've had friends insult me harder and honestly, this seems like another opportunity for some entertainment and chaos. I look over at them and nod much to their confusion.

"Not a bad guess, still incorrect though." I say abruptly while going back to reading my book. I get to see a griffin blush for the first time out of the corner of my eye as both go a little red with embarrassment. I try my best to hold a neutral expression at their looks.

"S-sorry Sir about t-that, she's just... Well..." The mare immediately starts on damage control as the griffin narrows her eyes and her embarrassment turns to annoyance.

She interrupts her friend. "We don't need to apologize! He never even told us, we can't be blamed for that." Lithl stops Coco from apologizing or making excuses. She makes a bad excuse that doesn't really impress me in the slightest, and then she turns to me. "Who are you anyway?" She demands.

She doesn't seem to be taking the embarrassment very well, but I don't rise to her tone and just stay calm. I close my book and give her my full attention. "I apologize if that offended you, and I'm a translation scribe." I keep my level tone and answer her plainly.

My calm tone seems to shift her mood and make her stop for a moment before relaxing a little as she takes a breath. "Whatever, just leave me be." She stops looking at me and instead focuses on eating her food.

Her friend gives me a sympathetic look. "Well, I'll just apologize regardless. Sorry about this, she's stressed over going home." The mare seems to make a genuine attempt to apologize to me and the griffin just ignores it.

Honestly, she seems to be on a short fuse and my antics probably didn't help, I'm not sure about the context but I know what it's like to have a bad day. I decided to just let this go, she may have been rude but it was entertaining for me. "It's fine, we all have bad days." I still keep my words simple and tone level as I brush it off and nod to them both before going back to my book.

It's just a little awkward and silent for a while after that and eventually, they leave after finishing their food. After that, I decided to do the same and return to my cabin, but as I walked down the hallways I see a face I recognized knocking on my cabin door. I walk over to Shining and greet him with a smile, "Hey Shining, need something?"

He doesn't jump and just turns to me with an unimpressed look. "I try to wake you and you're already up, of course. I'm guessing you already ate then?" I just nod. "Well, that offer for questions still open?" He asks gently.

I raise a brow and then remember my offer yesterday. "Sure, but like I said I'm not one to answer. Expect to leave with more questions than you started with." I warn him plainly before I open the door and let him inside. I've laid a few things out on the shelves and the fold-out table has a plant pot on it.

"Make yourself at home." I rummage through my things and lay out a pair of teacups and my well-worn teapot on the table before sitting down. I fill it with my water flask and dump in some tea leaves as he sits down opposite me. "Well, take it away." I try to keep a calm and friendly tone as I feel a little anxious.

I don't expect he'll demand an answer, but a part of me always feels off when being asked personal things by those I don't know well. "Thanks." He takes the tea with a nod. "Well, I guess I'll start with something simple. How did you even get the Princess's attention? Even if you went to day court that's no small feat." His tone even has some respect in it.

It's a blunt question and dives us right into the deep end, but I can work with that. I stay silent for a moment before deciding to actually be honest with this one, I don't see much harm in it and it's a simple answer. "Tea." He just raises a brow. "Have you ever noticed the tea Cadance drinks?"

He looks down and notices that we're drinking the same tea right now. "Kind of? Sure I've noticed it, but it's just tea." I have to smile at his confused face.

"Blood Leaf Tea, to be specific." That doesn't get a reaction out of him. "It's priced at four hundred bits an ounce." He nearly spits out the tea but stops before swallowing instead and looking at it with pure bewilderment.

"How?! It's tea?" I nearly laugh but keep my mouth shut because of last time's threat. He's not as surprised as yesterday but still seems a little shocked.

I give him my best mischievous smile for a moment. "It boosts magical recovery speed." His eyes widen even further and gives his teacup another look. "It's normally a very hard-to-find herb that also can't be grown in large quantities under normal conditions." I stop for a moment before casting a spell around us.

This is a basic modification to the silence spell to cover a larger area. He raises a brow, "Something to keep things private. But back to my point. The herb is rare and valuable, but with life magic, I can grow as much as I like."

He nods after a moment and tries the tea with a new awareness. "So, you are her... Tea dealer? That's certainly an interesting title to have." He jokes a little with me but keeps a normal tone while relaxing from his light shock. "But that doesn't really answer my question." He doesn't sound impatient just bluntly moving things back on track.

I nod. "Right. Well, I thought this tea would be a good thing for the princesses to have, so I sent her twenty pounds during the Summer Sun Celebration." That doesn't get the full shocked look from him, but I can practically see his mind as he starts to calculate.

I decided to beat him to the punch. "One hundred and twenty thousand, give or take some depending on market rates and time of year," I answer simply.

He just gives me an impressed look before a small smile shows on his face. "That would definitely do it. Tea, of all things." He chuckles for a moment before nodding. "Ok, well, what do you actually do for work?" He moves right along again.

I drink some tea. "At the library, I repair and copy books. And for the crown? Well, that's complicated." I pause and drink some tea. "I'll just say I make new plants and grow other plants, and I do a few other things, but I'll leave it at that." I give a very vague answer while hoping he does just leave it at that.

He nods after a moment. "Ok. What do you like to do in your off time? I think you mentioned something about runes a few times?" He really does move on and leaves it be, and that makes me relax a bit more. Even if he doesn't know it, that earned him a little more trust.

I give him a slightly thankful look. "A lot of things. It probably won't surprise you to know I garden in my free time." He gives me a, no shit? Really? Look. I just continue talking. "Wood carving, training in two weapons, and I'm a massive nerd," I answer vaguely and bluntly.

He seems to realize just how little I really talk about myself but still shows that small smile he's held for a while now. "Seems we have a few things in common then. Although, you wouldn't happen to be a book nerd would you?" It's clear that's a trap question.

I'm not sure what he's leading me into, but I'm not falling for it. "Me and a friend verbally spar constantly, you'll have to try harder than that. But I'll humor you, yes." I take all momentum out of his words and he gives me a defeated look for a moment.

He chuckles again. "Seems we also have that in common, I can never pull one over on Cadance." Shining seems like the honest sort, so I'm not the least bit surprised that he fails to outwit Cadance in that aspect. "And now I don't have any good questions, you got any? Or something to do? Because I still have an hour to wait out." I actually can't tell if he's serious about not having more questions, but get an idea regardless.

I smile wider and take out my worn deck of cards. "You ever play twenty-one?" I offer as he shakes his head. "Well, prepare to suffer then. Just remember, you asked for this." I smile evilly and start to draw cards. Little known fact, I loved to play twenty-one in my past life.

Needless to say he never won a single round that day.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 994

The conversation was a little dry but I tried to make it interesting, not much I could do though because it's mostly just him being shocked about the gremlin that is Shade Evergreen.

Also, just to clarify something for you all, nothing important, just interesting. I have an odd writing method, I start by making a new chapter over the course of a day. Then I go to bed and wake up before editing and posting that chapter and starting work on the next chapter that same day.

This means that oftentimes when I'm writing a chapter I'm reading all the comments from the previous one at the same time.

This last part is just something interesting and has no bearing on the current story.

When this story was young, around chapter 20, I had an idea for something completely new to add to the story. I was thinking of ways to explain why this world was so peaceful and came up with the Aversion To Killing rule.

The idea was that all beings had a built in aversion to killing that made them mentally unable to kill another sentient being without extensive specialized training. This was supposed to be a way to further show Shade's human side.

It never really went anywhere and has now been left to the wayside, but I thought you all might find it interesting.