APR 9 Sunday.

I adjust my hair tie and make sure all the strands of my deep green mane are out of my eyes.

Today is the final bit of my birthday celebration and I can safely say I plan to enjoy it. The past few days have mostly been me deep cleaning my home and reading more than normal. I'm still getting used to my new free time and don't really have much of an opinion on it yet.

But even with the changes in my life, I've been riding a high mood for the past four days straight after my birthday. I feel a smile stretch across my muzzle as I think about the small party Celestia surprised me with. The entire day was a blast and as a bonus I got gifts.

I've read most of the book she gifted me, even though a lot of it went over my head. I may be smart but I also don't know much about gem cutting or the tools used in the craft. The book she wrote is mostly about the more magical side of gems and doesn't seem to cover a lot of the basics.

Things like tool names, explanations of how tools work, how to actually cut gems at all, and everything else you are already expected to know when reading the book aren't included. But I find it to be well written and informative in a few ways I can understand, a good example is something basic but small that I never thought about.

Different materials can block or limit the flow of different magics, any physical thing can block magic to some extent. Even non-magical things can block magic, but only to a very, very small degree. It's basically nothing, but keeping a gem off of a surface does improve magical gathering efficiency.

This mattered much more when you didn't have enchantments to help gather the magic into a gem, back then you had to place a gem into a magically rich area and wait a long time. Still, it's something I can keep in mind, after all adding a simple levitation spell to my gems is pretty easy and actually brings a spell I once made to mind.

The Stasis spell lets me lock something in midair without it moving or falling down, it would be good to do it more and add it as a standard enchantment to my gems. Although that might be a bit far for such a small increase in efficiency. I abruptly shake my head with a chuckle as I nearly dive head-first down into a mental rant right before I need to leave. I focus on making sure I look decent and leave my bathroom.

Entropy hops over and I pet her for a moment. "Remember to feed them, and make sure not to scare them this time." I chuckle a bit as Entropy accidentally frightened the still-unnamed crow by teleporting next to them a few days ago. I'll be leaving Entropy here both to take care of the crow and because the restaurant won't allow pets inside.

To lessen the blow of being left here I made both of them a nice fish dinner. Entropy bobs her head to me, "Know, will. Love, be happy." She caws out and I pet her a bit more before leaving my apartment with my saddlebags. I quickly make my way through the wet streets of the city in the evening sunlight.

The rainy season is still in full swing and rain is common. I wander several streets and it takes me a while to find the right place, it seems to be a pretty nice place to eat. I wasn't told the name of where we were going beforehoof, I was just given a note from Daisy with an address and a time to meet up.

When I arrive I check the time to see if the sun should be down any minute now, the building is painted a nice blue and seems pretty busy. With Glass windows with an interior lit by magical lights, there are many ponies sitting at tables eating and talking with each other.

A moment after standing outside I see Maple walking out of the doors and over to me alone and raise a brow at her. "Are you the first to arrive then? That's a rarity." I ask with a smile and she huffs a small bit. She looked good as well with her gray coat combed out and her black mane tied back being her.

She shakes her head. "No, everypony is inside, I drew the short straw and had to wait for you." I give her a surprised look as she very rarely gets that unlucky. She just smirks a small bit, "Even I can lose, just not to you. And my luck came right back, I only needed to wait a minute." She jokes a bit and leads me inside to join the others.

The inside is simple but fancy, I hope they didn't go too overboard. I sit down and smile at Daisy and Blaz at a simple round table with a tablecloth, "So, which one of you convinced the rest to go somewhere this fancy? Because I want to know who's going broke after this." I joke and after Maple and Blaz glance at Daisy.

Daisy rolls her eyes and smiles. "Hello to you too Shade, my day is going great thanks for asking." She teases me right back with a sarcastic tone and a chuckle. "And don't worry, this place is new and looks a lot more fancy than it is. Just don't go for the wine." She reassured me a bit.

Blaz nods. "She's right Colt. We may be dirt poor compared to you, but a single dinner is just fine." His tone is just as joking as Daisy's was. "I am getting us some cider though, I want to see how you handle your liquor. I will enjoy watching you get a hangover, though. You'll be miserable afterwards." He laughs a bit and I raise a brow at him.

I smirk a little and shake my head. "Well first, you never asked, and I never said anything about never drinking before." I hint vaguely. I never drank like that in this life, but I know full well I couldn't hold my liquor in the least, in my past life, I was a total lightweight. "And second, I am not drinking like that again, hangovers just aren't worth it," I say honestly agreeing with him on the second point.

I laugh a bit as everypony at the table looks shocked at me, even Maple has her mouth hanging open a little. "Wait? YOU, you broke the rules and decided to get drunk? You? When? How?" Daisy asks while growing even more confused and shocked as Blaz just starts laughing.

I chuckle more and smile at their reactions. "Well, the legal drinking age is different outside of Equestria. For instance, it's thirteen for ponies in Griffonstone." I half lie in my answer. It is true that the drinking age is different in Griffonstone but my last time drinking was a literal lifetime ago.

Blaz recovers from his fit and gives me a proud smile. "What do you know, you can actually do crazy things Colt, instead of your normal endless routine." He makes light of my seemingly boring life, if only it was so boring, wouldn't that be a blessing?

I laugh along with them as we all really settle in. We do stop for a moment to order food before we start talking again giving them a moment to recover. "I can't believe you'd do something so... Irresponsible? No, foolish." Daisy reprimands me lightly but she sounds more amused than anything. "But I'm sure as Celestia not leaving you alone until I hear the full story." She demands with a smirk as Maple nods in agreement.

I think about it for a moment and try to fit the real story into the supposed setting without lying too much. "Sure. But there's not all that much to tell. I was drinking alone, but not really. The Griffons there were nice enough to drink with, and a few drinking games later I was pretty deep in my cups." I remember that night when I turned twenty so long ago as I continued my story.

Blaz chuckles with a smile. "Sounds like when I turned fifteen, ahhh, the good old days. But I'm guessing things went a little less pleasant for you?" He teases me and I give him an unimpressed look.

"Yup, the good old days ya old stallion." I jab back. "Anyway, like I was saying before some fossil interrupted me. I got really drunk, and honestly, I can't remember a lot of that night. What I do remember though, is waking up in my inn bed with a throbbing head, and a bar stool in the bed with me." I finish truthfully as that was what happened if you take out the arm wrestling and the small bar fight.

They all look thoroughly amused as Blaz laughs again and Daisy along with him, while Maple just chuckles quietly. I smile wider, "OH, it gets better. I went to the bar I was drinking at to return the stool the next day, they said they mark their furniture in case it gets stolen, and that the stool I had wasn't one of theirs. I never did find out where I got it." I laugh as Blaz practically doubles over onto the floor as he laughs harder and harder.

He recovers again after a minute. "I was expecting something to do with a mare, but that might actually be better." He laughs more while Daisy and Maple get full control over themselves as a few ponies in the restaurant glance at the commotion we are making.

I'm done with my story and rather not have them dig more into my funny story, so I move the topic away from me. I look at Daisy, "Speaking of special somepony, are we ever going to meet your stallion? Because it's been a long while but I still don't even know their name." I bug her about this topic again both to annoy her a little and because I am actually curious.

She sighs but actually smiles a little to our surprise. "Maybe." That gets our collective attention as she's always just flat-out refused. "Neither of us likes to take things fast, and we mostly just talked and went on dates from time to time." Maple huffs a little and I roll my eyes.

She's already told us a variation of this before so we are expectedly disappointed. "But, things picked up a bit over the past few weeks." We perk up again as she continues. She gives us a more stern look, "That doesn't mean he'll be around soon. But if things keep going you will meet him, eventually." She smirks as we are again disappointed.

Blaz looks annoyed. "Really? Just tell us. Isn't this waiting long enough already?" He demands from her and Daisy retorts, starting yet another argument between them as me and Maple watch on amused. I look around and smile at all of them and can't help but feel silly about the worries I have.

Friends aren't so easily lost.

time skip

APR 13 Thursday.

I launch lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the target while moving around constantly in my full wooden plate armor.

As I do so the target swings around after being hit with each bolt and swings back and forth. I can't really practice on a full moving target, so for my training I tied a piece of thick log to a tall post with an overhang, it's attached with a long rope that lets it swing around with ease and each time I hit the target it moves, making it harder to hit again.

I've made a game of it. Each time I hit the target as it's still swinging I tally a point and keep it up until I miss or stop. I also move around with my armor constantly while practicing, mostly to get a feel for spell casting in the armor while on the move. My current score is twenty two by the way, and this has proven to be good training.

After half an hour I stopped practicing. Breathing hard and with low magic I sit in the grass while removing my armor piece by piece and pack it away in a spare bag I use to store it when not being used. After putting the armor away I start to walk over to my shack.

The last week has been very... Interesting. It's really started to sink in just how much more time I have available to myself now. Beyond the dinner out with my friends, something we agreed to do again at some point, and a game night a few days ago, things have been quiet.

I used to normally spend around nine to ten hours each day on my work, that's if you add in things like getting ready for work, walking there and back every day, and a few other small things. But now all the time is empty, and I find myself doing things I don't normally do.

My training has only increased slightly, so I decided not to push myself and keep to roughly the same amount of training at different times of the day. Past the training, I've found time to engage with hobbies that I normally used to only do every few days or so.

A big one is wood carving, my version of wood carving is different from most others. I still use tools, but only the very specialized ones used for details, the rest I've decided to do with only my life magic. Which is probably blending the lines between training and relaxing hobbies.

My skill in life magic means I can make wooden carvings with ease, but some things in detailed work can still be difficult. I can do a good amount of detail, but really small things are still not possible as it is. Carving like this has been improving my control even more so it might be possible with enough time.

But what is really different from before is the amount of time I've been investing in this hobby. Before I'd spend an hour or two at most every few days unless I was making a gift, but now? I spent five hours yesterday carving an incredibly accurate carving of a crow on a rock and I still only used half the time I had free.

I suddenly find myself with ten hours in a day that I need to fill in some way and my hobbies aren't cutting it. I was tempted to increase the length of my training sessions after realizing this, but I tempered that down quickly. I don't know if I can deal with that much and I don't want to figure that out right now.

With not enough hobbies, and training off the table, I've found myself reading and doing odd tasks much more. As a start, I've been looking for somewhere to send that crow, and I didn't find much in Canterlot sadly, the few places I did find seemed unable to deal with a crow.

Crows are not a common pet and finding somepony to adopt them is hard, at least that's what the places I went to said to me when they declined to take the crow in, it somewhat wasted my time honestly. But there is a slight upside, I decided to keep the crow at Gaia's Eden and have Entropy check on them so the crow could be more comfortable.

I still have to mostly keep them in their cage, but at least they seemed trained to endure that well. And I make sure Entropy plays with them a little, although I don't think Entropy really likes the crow all that much. The crow simply doesn't have the ability to play and communicate with Entropy like she wants it too.

In contrast, Philomena isn't as smart as Entropy but is still more intelligent than most animals, including this crow. For now, though, they are at least healthy and safe. On to the other thing that I've been spending my time on, reading, a lot of reading.

Not just spells, but medical texts, fun stories, histories, and even a few more, explicit books. I may not be growing as much, but puberty is still a bitch and I sometimes need to... Unwind as it were. Thoroughly ignoring that thought though, I've spent a lot more time reading at the library this past week than before.

I have given more thought to looking for something to fill this empty time, and I've narrowed it down to a few things. Mainly, medical training, this one is a little complicated depending on how you want to go about it. You could go to a medical school, a healers guild, or an apprentice at a hospital under a doctor or healer. Or simply volunteer to help at the hospital and take some tests there to prove what you can do, if you prove yourself competent they will let you do more things over time.

All can be done, but your selection is limited depending on the location and circumstances. For me though, my best is either volunteering or a healing guild. Being in a guild limits me in other ways though. To join a healing guild it's not too hard, you take some tests and do some healing jobs, if you do ok you are now a member, fuck up, and suffer the legal consequences.

It's really weird that these guilds even still exist, but some combination of entrenched power and the flexibility they provide seems to keep them around. Joining a guild would let me take jobs at my own pace and I can walk away at any time.

On top of that, I would mostly be doing magical healing as guilds focus on that side of healing and that aligns with my plans. But I would also find problems as I would be taking on jobs and signing contracts, something that is far less appealing to me and my calm life.

So I think volunteering might be better. I'd have to start at the very low end and work my way up until they let me do bigger things, but it's almost as flexible and it helps more ponies than the guild. And starting on the low end doesn't sound all that bad, I do prefer the slow and steady route after all.

I let the thought move around in my head and think it through. I decide to think about it more after a while and leave my shack after putting down my bag of armor and heading outside again. I walk down the path of shorter grass I made so I can move around the field of chest-high grass.

Eventually, I sit down in front of my training area. This part of the field has three things. The first is a single tree stump and tree trunk without a top that I use to practice special magic. The second is the log suspended in the air I use for target practice. I keep both alive so I can easily repair them with life magic.

The final spot is a clearing of short grass and dirt I use to practice my swings. I carefully take out my Life gem and look it over. I'm still testing it, but so far the gem has proven to be amazing, I really need to get Celestia a nice gift for her birthday, maybe a gem of her own?

The Life gem can hold around ten times my total magic capacity after conversion into Life magic, that's enough life magic to grow several dozen Oak trees that are over fifty feet tall. I can also absorb all that magic with some difficulty, this has provided me with a much larger amount of life magic to work with at a single time, but I still have a problem.

Charging the Life gem is difficult. I don't have a spell that can be used to help the Life gem gather life magic so I can't enchant the Life gem right now. Without that enchantment, I can only leave it next to the Gold Oak and let it charge over time, and that has proven to be very slow.

It took three days sitting next to the high-density life magic field of the Gold Oak and that only charged it around one tenth. So to refill my own life magic back to full It needs three full days to recharge, far too slow for my liking. But finding a good rune for life is really hard and it will take me time to find something that will work, I might have to settle for something subpar at this rate.

For now, I've just been using my tea, and Mana Mimicry to charge the gem and practicing taking life magic out and absorbing it back again. I don't have exact percentages, but I lose around a fifth of the magic when I absorb it back into myself, and at least some of that is because I need practice.

I stare at the gem with a smile and start to practice in the afternoon sun. Maybe she'd like a new plant?

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. <3
Current year is 995

Not a massive amount here, just set up for other things and him settling into a new schedule.