MAR 9 Thursday.

I'm awoken by the rhythmic sounds of the rocking train underneath me. After getting up and finding my tea kettle I sit down for some tea.

The last two days have been slow and relaxing like planned. I spent some time in the garden observing Discord but never getting close, and I also stayed out of his line of sight as I'm not sure if he's conscious in that statue form. But honestly even being that close to him put me a little on edge.

Discord presents a threat that can't really be quantified, I simply don't know how strong he really is. At some points, the show presents him as an unstoppable force, but at other points, he's shown as nearly powerless in some situations. On top of that his powers are simply unpredictable in nature.

It fits I suppose, his power is chaos after all. It does make me wonder though what that actually means, what is chaos? Is it some form of magic, an affinity perhaps? Or is it something else altogether? This also brings up the questions of what Discord actually is and how he came about.

Personally, my guess is he's an aberrant member of some race, possibly an extinct race depending on how old Discord is. I have no idea what he may have been once, but I think something changed him into what he is, and the only example I have of a being changing that drastically is an alicorn ascension or an aberration.

Beyond my spiraling thoughts on Discord things have gone to plan. We boarded the train at the end of the day and I spent that evening with Cadance working on the love rune. Progress on that front has been going really well and we're nearing a finished rune that will work wonderfully.

But now comes the most ambiguous part of rune creation. The Runic Context is nearly done and once it's finished we can test it, but it working on the first attempt is unlikely. If it does work then that's great, but if it doesn't then we need to modify the Runic Context a little and try again.

If that doesn't work then? Well, we have to try again, and again, and again, and as many times as it takes. This is the worst part of rune creation as the rune working is out of our hooves to some degree, we can tilt things in our favor but the end result of it actually functioning is not under our control.

The good news is we stand a good chance as our rune is well-made with clear goals in the Runic Context and the thought process. But it also reminds me of another mystery, why the hell are runes like this? I know we're trying to stabilize a concept into magic and invoke it at will, but even then the uncertainty is odd.

All magic is based on some form of logic, maybe that rule is bent in a few places but on the whole, it's a safe bet. It's relatively clear that magic prefers to follow the logic and laws of reality, magic can bend and outright break these laws but magic still works better when following them.

Although I'm basing this off of the magic system ponies use and there are other types of magic out there, even if they are far less common. Still, I can't help but feel that there must be some form of logic or unknown rules that govern rune creation, but I can't think of a way to really test that at the moment.

My thoughts are interrupted as Entropy rubs against my side. "Breakfast?" She asks impatiently and I chuckle down at her. The longest word she's learned so far is about food because of course it is. I nod and cast an illusion over her while deciding to leave my saddlebags in my cabin for now but take a sketchbook and quill, it's still early so when I leave the cabin not many ponies are walking around.

I slowly trot over to the dining car and find a place to sit down on my own after piling some food up on a pair of plates. I'm a little surprised that they are serving some fish, it's just grilled fish and it's probably bland but I take a good portion for myself and Entropy regardless.

I take a bite of the fish and give an unimpressed look, while Entropy also dives for the fish only to look up at me after eating a piece. "Good? Bad? No." She seems to try and speak her thoughts only to not have the right words.

"Bland. It means to have no flavor or to be boring." I use a word and its definition to the best of my memory, although I probably quoted the definition wrong. "I agree, it could use some salt at a minimum." She pauses for a moment and tries to sound out the word a few times with me helping her.

She eventually gets it right and goes back to her food while I finish mine and decide to draw in my sketchbook. I limit my senses a bit as the dining car gets more and more busy, I don't need to track all of them and limit it to ten feet around me for now and focus on my drawing.

It's peaceful for a while and Entropy spends some time napping on the table before someone walking past us abruptly stops. I glance over to see an adult Griffon standing there, around twenty I think, the feathers and body structure look to be female and she's looking at Entropy curiously and intently. "Can I help you, Miss?"

My voice seems to break her out of her surprise and she blinks before staring at me. "My apologies for staring, it's been a long while since I've seen a royal bird." I raise a brow at the odd phrasing she uses and she still doesn't move on. But as she turns to me she pauses for a long moment before speaking. "Would you mind if I join you?" She asks with the same professional and calm tone, but also keeps her a bit friendly.

I look her over for a few moments and take in some details. She's a little smaller than most Griffons and has a more petite body shape. Her feathers are light green with very light green almost white head feathers along with yellow green eyes. She also holds herself in a mix of formal and relaxed.

After a moment I motion to the seat and decide to satisfy my curiosity. "Sure, I am curious though. Why do you call her a royal bird?" I ask levelly and watch as Entropy moves off the table and onto the seat with me. She's not the most friendly to strangers or those who get a bit too close, that second one might be my fault though.

The Griffon spends a moment placing down her food, which includes some fish, and getting comfortable on the opposite bench. "It appears I have forgotten my manners. Viridis Everfalls, a pleasure." She holds a talon across that table and I shake it without much of an expression.

"Shade, likewise." I don't give my last name, something she takes notice of but hides it well, I'm able to see it on her face for a moment though. If being friends with Maple and training with Stone has taught me anything, it's how to see the small changes someone shows.

She takes a bit of fish before answering my questions, really dragging things out. "The founder of Feather Falls was well known to have a pet crow with him often. Many of the rulers, elected and otherwise, have imitated that and can be seen with crows often, it's a status symbol and tradition to many." Her tone is friendly and level like before but it's clear that she's fishing for a reaction.

So I keep a level expression. "Hmm, interesting." Instead of continuing I pick up my sketchbook again and start trying to draw again.

But it seems I've sparked this Griffon's interest as she keeps going regardless. "I am rather curious where you found such a beautiful crow. She's even well-trained, did you have a Griffon from Feather Falls do it? They are well known for their skill." Her tone is controlled and this is starting to get much more of my attention.

I give her a long look before answering with a half-lie. "I got her when she was young and a friend helped me train her." Not a complete lie but it is nowhere near the truth. Her face forms a very slight smile and just looks intrigued by my answer. I decided to be a little blunt as I'm not walking on eggshells for no reason. "May I ask why you are so interested? Thinking of getting a crow of your own?"

She seems like a smooth talker and I know she's set this up to some degree to get a conversation with me, I just don't know why. She smiles a bit more, "No, I personally don't have an interest in pets. But I remember seeing this beauty last year on the trip to Griffonstone and got curious, so I thought I'd ask."

My eyes narrow a bit and I now understand what's going on. During my last trip, many saw me talking to Phelix and tried to make connections with me, and while they aren't allowed to share such knowledge with the public about my life, there is nothing stopping them from trying to talk to me. "I see, and what do you think?" I ask a very open-ended question.

She takes a moment to finish the last bites of her food that she's been going through over our conversation. "Of what? Her? You? I think a great many things, but honestly, I'm just curious." I know she's leaving something out but she also doesn't seem to be lying. "Above all I find it curious that you show up again for another trip to a Griffon city and no one really seems to know you." She hints and speaks a little more bluntly.

I stare at her for a moment judging her. "Well, Miss. Viridis, I'm a translation scribe for documents, same as last year. The pay is rather decent after all and I get to travel." I excuse my motives and close my sketchbook before putting it away. "So, what do you do? Someone of your intellect must have an interesting job." I throw in a small compliment to try and pretend to be nice.

She knows I'm hiding things and I know she's digging for them, but she can't just outright ask as I'd just shut her down, so she keeps this little dance going. "It seems my manners are rather lacking today. I'm the only diplomat to Feather Falls stationed in Equestria, as you'd imagine I'm accompanying you to take a trip home." Equestria has limited relations with Feather Falls so I'm inclined to believe her that she's the only one.

:Well shit, of course she's a head diplomat on this trip: "Interesting, I'd have thought you taking a trip to Griffonstone would take you away from your work. I guess there's not much to really do though." I indulge in more delicate small talk, I will say it's interesting talking to someone like this.

She smirks a bit and hides her expression a bit less. "Correct, I find I have a good amount of free time, so I decided to do a little traveling and make some new connections. Also, you said you were a translation scribe? Any trouble with the spoken language? It can be rather hard to navigate a new land without understanding others." She fishes again and I can see that this seems like an excuse for something and decide to have a little fun while shutting her down.

"No, actually, I find myself rather well-equipped for this visit. But I suppose that's true in many other places, did you know that dragons can make quite interesting conversation partners?" I answer in fluent Griffon while being purposefully vague about the dragon part.

She pauses while moving her empty plate to the side and locks eyes with me, I don't flinch and she blinks first after a long moment. "Well, it seems you are." Her tone is not as level, I think I threw her off with the dragon part as there are only a few ways to talk with a dragon.

I could have met a young dragon in Equestria, which is what I did, but they aren't known to talk much with others from what little I heard some talking to one would stand out, and that's if she presumes that I'm talking about a young dragon. "Either way, I must get going. Thank you for the conversation, maybe we'll talk more at a later date." She stands up and I decide to just nod silently.

She stares for another moment before turning away and walking off down the train car and out of sight. I chuckle for a moment after ending the conversation with an out-of-pocket statement. "Long. Go back?" Entropy crows out quietly and a moment later I stand up and head back to my cabin with her. As I walk I go over what just happened in my mind.

I still feel as if she wanted something from me. She was persistent in learning about me and even when she didn't get much she kept trying, it made me a little worried. I can't see a way that she'd use anything I told her to her advantage, but I'm no diplomat and she very much is.

On top of that, she knows the city we are going to, she has an advantage there. But all of this is more of an inconvenience than anything, she has no idea who she's actually dealing with, and while I'm cautious I trust in myself enough to get out of a bad situation.

If for some reason I do get in over my head I have two very powerful friends at my back, I just hope it doesn't come to that. After getting into my cabin I settled in for a few more hours of waiting.

time skip

I step off of the train as many guards and important ponies disembark with wagons, carriages, and supplies. This is where the train tracks end and also where we get off. This is a medium-sized city mostly focused on trade, but we won't be staying for any time at all as we will set out as soon as we are ready to.

Several others head into town but after a moment I just start helping the guards unload the train's cargo, I do get a few looks but I just shrug and say I'm bored and I'm not the only one who does this. It's ten now and it's been a few hours since breakfast, we plan to set out in an hour from what the guards say.

Our caravan will spend the rest of the day on the road before camping for the night and arriving at the city sometime tomorrow. By the time everything is loaded and ready to move, the important ponies and Griffons load up in carriages but I just start to walk alongside the guards near the middle of our caravan.

After a while, a guard comes over to offer me a place in a carriage but I refuse, I need to at least get some exercise after a two-day train ride and Stone might go easy on me if I at least do this. Who am I kidding? He's going to beat my ass when I return.

Apparently, a pony walking with the guard with a crow on his back draws a few more eyes. But it's something I've become a little more accustomed to over time, it's part of a larger change in me I think. In the past, I'd shy away from standing out in any way shape, or form, but that is not completely the case anymore.

I still try not to stand out too much, but I've seen that many just see it as odd and stop caring as soon as they decide it's unimportant to them. I like the idea of walking that line, standing out enough to do things my way while coming off as different but harmless and unimportant.

Plus all the ponies and Griffons here are important and gossiping about a random earth pony scribe walking instead of riding in a carriage would be seen as far below them. I am after all just a scribe here to sit in the back and translate things, no matter how odd I may act.

The terrain is a little uphill but from what I remember of the maps I've seen we're on a plateau that is mostly flat with some variation. The plants are mostly shrubs and thinly wooded forests, there are also large grassy areas mixed in at random. A few of the plants are interesting and make me stop to pick a few things here and there.

As I walk I go a little faster than the rest and end up near the head of the caravan. I look over a branch I got from a berry bush of some kind. I study the magical flows in the plant while continuing to walk. "So, what brings a scribe out here, studying plants?"

I turn my head to a pair of guards walking alongside a carriage next to me. The mare guard is studying me and because I'm wearing my badge right now it's clear what my job is, the mare guard turns back as her partner taps his shoulder. "Hey, leave the good-looking stallion alone, he's minding his own business." The other mare says before looking over to me. "But what are you doing anyway?" She contradicts herself a moment later.

I can kind of see where this is going and yet again decide to have a little fun with the unknown. "Studying the complex cell chains that make up the structure of this plant's branches." I pull something out of my ass and smile at them as they look confused. "These plants are full of fibers, I might be able to make rope from it." I chuckle a bit at their faces.

Neither of them talks for a moment and I spot another interesting plant a ways ahead so I speed up and leave the mares alone. I choose to face a bush abruptly when I blush after seeing them point at my backside and whisper to each other with my magical senses.

It's something I've started to notice more and more as time passes. Before recently even most unicorns and pegasus could tell I was still not a full adult, but now that I fully look like an adult I've seen more mares staring. It doesn't help that I'm in good shape and am taller than most others.

I sigh and pick a few more herbs before adding them to my saddlebags. I really hope this stops, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I stand up and stretch my neck before continuing the pace. For now, I need to focus on my magical senses and make sure I notice anything getting too close to the caravan.

If nothing else the weather is nice, and so is the view. I stare out across the foreign forest as the sun dips low, I wonder how Celestia is doing?

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 995

Mostly just more information and setup, but we're nearly to the city, and I've only wasted four chapters on a week of the story before we even arrive at the destination. Fuck. 349 Chapters Later indeed.

Need to word build an entire city, so I'm probably taking tomorrow off.