AUG 13 Friday.

I slowly draw out the last lines of the tree in front of me as I sit in the autumn weather of the park.

The last two weeks I've been... Well, I'm not really sure, mostly just feeling a little defeated. It's not like my life is ruined or anything, I'm just feeling down, it is passing fairly quickly at least. But still, that nagging feeling of failure and loss will cling to me for a bit.

In a way I succeeded, I saved a life that was destined to end, but I also can't help but think about what I could have done. If I just did more and tried harder could I have saved both of their lives? And after a lot of thought, I realized I was asking the wrong questions.

Do I regret my actions? And is doing more worth the risk? First things first, no I do not regret doing it and I never will, I saved a life. But I do have a little regret over not doing more, and that's where the second question comes into play. Is doing more worth the risk?

I can safely say the future has changed from what it was, and considering what is coming and what must be done that is... Terrifying. Some things must go as they did before, but I don't think that should stop me from saving lives either, I refused to let my fear stop me last when I gave them that bracelet and I refuse to let it stop me now.

But, acting recklessly and just changing things won't lead to anything good in the long run, so in the end, I think myself into a circle and end up right where I began. I will do my best and change what I think needs to be changed, but there has to be a limit to that change, in the end, I just have to choose what to change when the time comes.

As for the Apple family specifically, I think I did the best I could at the time with what I had, that doesn't take away my feelings but it is a small comfort. Honestly, I'm very lucky they even took the gift and used it at all, it was a long shot to begin with and was pretty unlikely to work.

While I do feel bad about the whole thing it's not really tearing me up too much, mostly because I'm pretty detached from the ponies involved, I never even got to meet Bright Macintosh. The only thing that separates him from all the other ponies I don't know that die every day is my own involvement.

No matter how bad I feel I know his family is in a much worse place and the absolute last thing they need is anything to do with me and my messy life, so I'm not planning on going near them for a while, they need to grieve in peace without my regret or guilt. So, I do what I can to keep moving, and do my best to live my life.

There is also a silver lining for all this, as morbid as it is, Bright's death and Pear's survival prove something that is beyond important. Fate can be changed, I CAN win this fight, I CAN save this world. I can make large changes and shift things, I will have to fight fate to do it but I'm more than willing to fight to the bitter end for this world.

I don't care what enemy is in my path, I WILL win, and they will learn just how much a determined human can endure, and how far we can go to win a doomed battle. That is probably very overly dramatic, but when the cost of losing is the loss of a fucking law of reality and the literal end of a world it's more than reasonable.

I take a deep breath and try to calm my mind for a few moments as I put down my sketchbook and look out over the park. Autumn is here now and the trees are rapidly changing their leaf colors to an endless mix of red and orange, soon winter will be here as well.

As I'm calming my mind, Entropy shifts from laying on my side in the drying grass to looking up at me better. "Ok? Love." She asks with some mimicry of a concerned tone while brushing her head against my hoof in an attempt to cheer me up.

I smile at her lopsidedly and scratch her some. "I'm fine, just too many thoughts, as always," I reassure her and give her more attention for the care she's shown me. Entropy really has been such a blessing in my life and I have no idea where I would be right now without her.

Speaking of Entropy, she's doing as well as always and in fact even a bit better. The new spot we picked for training has already started to expand her teleportation distance, but like I expected the returns are falling off a little. It will still be a few years before we hit a wall but it's a clear sign her ability does have a limit.

Along with her teleportation, something else has started to pop up, she's learning to use tones in her voice. In the past she mostly phrased things as a statement or a question, now she's started to add tones to those statements and questions for verbal context, things like happiness or worry.

It's not very complex right now, but I'm still teaching her and she seems happy to learn, It seems her intelligence is still growing with her age. Another thing is her ability to hide in shadows seems to be improving in an odd way, in the past, she'd only inhabit a shadow or place her shadow on top of mine.

But I've started to notice that when she moves from a shadow it moves slightly, somewhat like a balloon the shadow bends out following her exit before snapping back into place. Neither of us knows what that means, and Entropy seems to have no control over this effect as well.

I also don't really have a way to test it as the shadow still remains completely intangible to anyone but her, for now I'm just going to think about it and have Entropy try new things. A chilly wind passes me and I see some rain start to move in from a distance, time to go then.

I stand up and start walking out of the park as Entropy merges into my shadow to move with me, I cast the Temporise spell at the same time and it's also nearly time I get to my meeting. Over the past few weeks, I got a few pieces of mail, even from Twilight.

It was a rambling letter that could be boiled down to asking me about my week and asking how I was doing, along with explaining her day, overall it was awkward and not too interesting. I just sent a letter back with some small talk and basic questions for her about her time and interests, just friendly words.

I don't expect much to come of it but it's nice having a pen pal. Beyond that I got a letter from both Celestia and Cadance, Celestia had to skip a meeting to organize the Gala and invited me to it again, while Cadance invited me to our next meeting for the love rune, which is today.

The final thing of interest is that Avalon and I had another meeting, we finished the last of the spell work and even started to finalize some designs for the prosthetic. But he also told me he got a large order and will be busy for a while, he couldn't even give me a good date for when he'd be done, so the rest of the work will have to wait a little longer, sadly.

I get home before the rain catches me and just like that all my luck for today is spent, not that I assume I'll have any luck with this meeting today. I didn't have much time before the meeting so I just spent it on something small and simple, I made a small gift for Cadance.

It's nothing fancy, I just made a large Steel wood comb enchanted with the spell I made. As for why I'm making a gift? Well, I have no idea when her birthday is and I feel that after all the meetings we had I consider her something of a friend, and because I have no idea when her birthday is I'll just give her this today.

To be honest I was mostly just bored and needed something to spend a little time on and distract my mind. I finish wrapping the comb and pack it away before finding Entropy again to take me to the palace. It's the same old, same old. I arrive, a guard leads me to a door, and inside is Cadance waiting at a table for me.

What is not normal is the look I get from her when she sees me, it's not the look I normally get before a teasing, this seems more demanding and sinister in some way. I stare at her for several moments before sighing and lowering my head a bit. "I will bribe you to not do whatever you're thinking." I plead a little with her, but her smile doesn't falter for a second.

"Nope! You can't run either, I will tell Aunty! Now sit your flank down." Neither of our tones is really serious, and after a moment we both laugh a little. I could probably run but this is more important than my embarrassment, so I gave in to her demand and sat down across from her.

"Fine, your majesty." I give her as much sarcasm as I can muster. "Before my torture though, when is your birthday?" I ask in a more natural tone while taking out a few things we'll need for our work, along with a comb wrapped in brown paper.

She raises a brow at the sudden shift in topic and tone. "February fourteenth, why do you ask? Planning something special?" She tries to tease me a little as I stop and give her a deadpan stare. That date would mean her birthday is also Hearts and Hooves Day.

I think for a moment before shaking my head. "No, no, just no. I am not buying it, how?" I demand back, it's too much of a coincidence for me to believe.

She looks a little offended, but only in a playful way. "Well, that's not very polite at all, young Colt." I narrow my eyes. "You really should respect your elders when they tell you something." She keeps talking down to me, but that last line gives me an idea and I smile back.

"Does that mean you're ol-!" I do not get to finish my question as a pillow comes speeding at me almost instantly and I have to move my head quickly. I stare at her and no longer feel as smug. "Never mind!" I correct myself just as quickly at the narrowed look she gives me. "Anyway! Here's an early birthday gift, no need to thank me, just open it and forget everything I just said." I backpedal and try to placate the now-annoyed alicorn.

She looks at the gift for a moment and I sense a few more pillows she picked up off a nearby couch move back into place. I breathe a small sigh of relief at that, I don't think she was all that serious, but I also don't want to find out if she stashed a brick in one of those, I know when to back down.

She looks at the gift and I see the mask of annoyance slip and fall a few moments later. "Hmmm, fine. But it better be something nice." She warns a little but there is no heat in her voice and she's back to normal, at least as normal as a princess of love can be.

She rips the paper open with some glee and smiles at the large comb, she tries it immediately as Entropy leaves my shadow to look around before deciding to just lay down next to my flank on the floor and sleep. She runs it through her mane and it seems to work just fine, it seems all the work getting the small wooden bits was worth it.

She smiles wider at the effect and looks back at me. "Ok, you're forgiven. Although, how did you dodge that? Even Shining can't always do that and I pride myself on my aim." She seems to change the subject and I gladly go along with it, I would rather not test my luck again.

I think about it for a few moments before answering her. I'm not sure I want to just reveal my knowledge about space magic, so after a moment I tell the truth while leaving out any specific detail about how I can do anything with my space magic. "I think I mentioned I can sense things with life magic, but not really anything specific right?" That is something she's already aware of.

She nods. "Well, I've been training with my space magic." She rolls her eyes and I ignore her. "Anyway, I can do the same with my space magic now, and after a lot of practice, I combined both of them. At this point, I can sense all living things around me, and all forms of movement around me, it's an... Odd way to look at the world."

She looks at me for a moment and I see a small amount of glow from her horn as she lifts a book from a shelf behind me in the corner of the room. "Book, back left corner. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't throw it at me." I play her game and I feel the book return to its place.

She looks annoyed again, but more playfully annoyed than anything. "That's not fair!" She complains and I raise my brow. "That makes so many pranks harder, how am I supposed to surprise you now?" She asks me, and I just smile at my small victory, even if I know it won't last.

She sulks for a moment but then that magic damned look returns to her eye. "You know, I just realized that that's probably how you noticed me at the library, isn't it?" I don't like where this is going but that look makes it clear I need to answer her.

I nod. "Yes? As I explained in the past, most powerful beings have a lot of life magic, Celestia literally looks like a sun in that way, so it's easy to notice you normally. Honestly, if I wasn't distracted at the time I'd have noticed you when you entered the library." I nearly smile a little at the memory of me having a panic attack from Celestia coming to my apartment a few years ago.

I expected her to look a little annoyed again about me seeing her coming from now on, but instead, she seemed to perk up more and smiled wider. "Distracted huh?" I nearly don't hear her muttering under her breath. "So, you know Twilight? How did you two meet?" She asks after a moment.

I know she's digging into my life, but considering she and Twilight are almost like family I can't see much of a reason to not answer, and from that look, I don't think she'll let me just drop the topic. "Well, if I remember correctly the first time was at the park." It's been a while since then.

She just smiles and looks at me knowingly. "The park, well, it almost sounds romantic." I can tell she's just messing with my hormones again and roll my eyes. "Did you enjoy talking to her? She might be a good friend?" She subjects and I think I see what her angle is here, beyond just messing with me of course.

I decided to just get this over with. "Maybe. Honestly, I think she's fun enough, and we do have a lot in common, but... She is also a fan of Veil Winter, and I don't need that. Overall though it was fine, we even agreed to mail each other." I give a quick rundown and try to add an excuse.

She smiles happily and nods. "Hmm, interesting, I think I'll talk with Twilight then. On a bit of a different topic, what did you give Aunty? She's been smiling a lot about it and she won't tell me. Unless it's that metal flower." I feel a slight blush and a small warm feeling knowing she liked her gift so much. "Oh! So it was from you." I stare at her blankly and just sigh defeatedly after a moment.

I know she won't leave me be and I just want to get to work at this point. "Yes it was from me, no it's not what she's happy about, or at least not the main thing. I won't be specific, but I built her a little getaway from the palace and let her have full reign over it. She's been quite... Enthusiastic about decorating it." I explain quickly and bluntly no longer having the energy to fight this witch.

I see that smile widen to a frightening degree and panic to cut this short. "But, I'm done with this interrogation. We have work to do, so stop smiling and start reading." I demand and move a stack of notes over to her.

She does smile less and glares at the notes as I cut her fun off but keeps the smile while passing me a book. "Fine I'll stop, for now. ... But you still have a few books to read, don't worry, I have more if you finish them." I glare back silently before sighing and taking the damned book from her.

I was right when I first met Cadance, never fight something embodying love, and gods feared love for a reason.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 994

From the way I described it, what do you think would be a good shadow ability for Entropy to develop?