MAY 13 Saturday.

I take a deep breath and focus my senses on the world around me.

I move my body quickly and just barely dodge out of the way of a weak fireball spell launched at me as I'm pushed back from Shining's onslaught. I sense another spell hidden right behind the fireball and again just barely move out of the way in time also to deflect a third spell with my greatsword.

This time we decided to switch up our sparring a bit, he can only use spells while I can't use any at all, first to fall down loses and we start far apart. Which means I get practice dealing with spell fire and dodging. I move forward quickly and try to close the distance, but while advancing I take two firebolts to parts of my armor and nearly trip over an ice spike.

As I close in and swing my dagger I'm not all that surprised to have my blow deflected by a magical shield shimmering into existence. Shining is annoyingly adept at them and even at full strength I can't break through them with my wooden weapons alone, which is why he's only allowed to use it three times per match, and he just used his last one.

He tries to cast another spell to stave me off but I respond by pulling back and hitting him in the leg while he's focused on dodging my weapons. His spell discharges and slams into my chest pushing me back a few feet and I'm barely able to keep standing, he's knocked off balance and drops to the floor from me hitting another leg with my dagger. "Match!" An excited and far too entertained voice calls out as we both stop.

I take a few deep breaths and reach out with a hoof to help Shining up. "What was that last spell?" I ask while removing my helmet and chest piece, the thickest part of my armor now has some slight damage. "That last spell nearly sent me flying, I want it." I smile a bit and cast a pair of spells on him to help heal bruises and muscle damage.

He nods his thanks and gets up testing his leg a bit, it seems fine. "Not as hard as you hit, just don't hit too low, I want foals someday." He jokes and I roll my eyes, if only he knew. "And I don't know? Maybe I shouldn't tell you, you're already a monster as it is." He takes off his helmet as well as we walk over to Cadance and sit down with her.

Cadance nods a bit as I start to take off the rest of my now-damaged armor, at least the Fire Blossom bark protected me against the fire spells, it's not even singed. "That I can agree on, he's just not fair, but you tried honey." She consoles her stallion. "I do wonder what makes you push so hard?" She asks me and smiles as Shining does the same.

"Maybe this fine young stallion is trying to impress a mare, or two?" I blush a bit and give him an unimpressed look in return. "What? You literally can not convince me there isn't a mare after you." He laughs as I blush more, but stops a moment after and gives me a more level look. "Just try not to break my sister's heart again, ya?" He jokes more at my expense and I just sigh.

Cadance looks almost proud about Shining as she laughs and I glare at both of them. "I can have us spend a bit more time working on the rune? It is rather important after all?" That shuts her up before I drop the joking tone and turn to Shining. "Is that something I should worry about? Because I literally don't know how to deal with that if it happens, or how to avoid it actually." I ask more seriously.

He keeps his smile and looks at Cadance for guidance, she just shrugs. "Well, maybe? I can tell you she's doing much better, and is excited to see you. But... I don't know, be nice? I'm no expert. Sweety?" He again looks to Cadance as he seems a little lost about a good answer

She gives me an unimpressed look before sighing and smirking at me. "You'll be fine, just keep clear boundaries and be your blunt self. And for the love of magic try and actually pay more attention this time." She lifts the slightly awkward mood with another attempt to tease me. I groan a little as those two make one deadly team.

I stand up with my bag full of armor before giving them a wave. "And that's my cue to get out of this wolf's den. You two are relentless." I mumble and turn to Entropy as they laugh" Have a good day you two, don't keep the guards up." Before they can say anything I feel the sweet embrace of the Void and enjoy the nothingness.

When I reappear inside my apartment I turn to Entropy and pet her. "Thank you Girl, great timing, and sorry you couldn't see Philomena." I console her and she chirps softly in response. "Here, go nuts." She perks up as I give her the magical ball toy she's come to love. "I'll be back later so make sure to be good, and don't break anything." I remind her before dropping my bag of armor in my workroom and going into the bathroom for a well-deserved shower.

I let the warm water flow down me and clean myself as my thoughts wander. The short time since I gave Fluttershy the crow has been much more relaxing than before, I never really noticed how much I had to check on and go out of my way to take care of that crow, yet another reason to be thankful I have Entropy.

Beyond not needing to deal with that, I've spent more time looking into a few things and working with Cadance more. It turns out that quitting my job made it much easier to schedule a meeting with her and today we got another thirty attempts filed away, still no new rune though.

There is something interesting I learned while trying to look into rune creation. It was a study paper that found that using more commonly used words increases your chances, but it wasn't very conclusive so it's hard to say how much it actually helps. Honestly, runes are a complete mess that gives me a headache.

Runes just don't make sense, they are a seemingly random thing and it all just feels arbitrary in a way. I guess I don't do as well with magic that is so... Random, or maybe just the randomness I can't explain. But we are making progress, if only from process of elimination.

Beyond the rune and dealing with Cadance I spent a nice meeting with Celestia at the royal gardens a few days ago, it was just a simple meeting and actually had to be cut short by her in the end, it's nice to catch up, and talk with her. She might be my favorite pony to spend time with... Hmm, that thought is going into a dark corner of my mind.

I dry myself with a quickly casted spell and take a moment to trim up my mane and chin fluff. I stop for a moment and look at it, what would happen if I grew it out? I've seen other stallions grow it out and it seems to grow similar to a goat's beard, on second thought maybe I don't want to look like that.

I trim it down and make my way out into the main room to feed Entropy before leaving her in my apartment. I could take her with me but she seems more interested in playing and sleeping at the moment, unlike in the past I'm far more willing to walk around without worry of changelings or being attacked.

My senses and ability to defend myself may have taken a long time and a lot of effort, but it was all worth it. Something would have to try really hard to get the drop on me and even if it did I'm not going down without one hell of a fight, and I'm not even adding in the new combat spells I'm still learning.

I move away from those thoughts as the Canterlot Library comes into view. It's noon right now but I don't know when Twilight will be here so I might have some time before this finally happens. It's certainly been a long wait, but I'm glad we both had time to process things, well more her than me really.

I look around for a while and after not finding her I start to look through a few shelves to pick out some more advanced healing texts, and maybe a more advanced healing spell, what few there are at least. The Canterlot library has a massive amount of spells, but more and more I find that many of those spells are beginner-level.

Journeypony spells can be found, things like the lung scanning spells I learned, but sometimes they are incomplete or really hard to find. As for advanced spells? I might be able to find a few here or there, but not many, and the majority are incomplete in some way, and master spells are just nonexistent, which leaves my future path of progress a little uncertain.

I could always ask Celestia to access the royal library, but I feel as if I shouldn't yet. It's something I struggle with, I often don't like looking to others for help. But maybe I should? Or I should when I actually get to the point of needing such knowledge. Right now everything I need is at the city library and the truly advanced spells are still out of reach for me and will be for a while yet.

After picking out some books I get comfortable at a table in sight of the library entrance. As I read I try to look for hints on a specific type of healing spell, something to help heal or speed up the healing of bones. I can deal with bleeding and I'm not ready for any major organs so the bones and muscles are a good place to continue my learning.

But before I can really dig into the books I spot a pair of recognizable ponies along with a small purple dragon. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see Velvet and Spike as well, I hope she doesn't lecture me though, that would be awkward as hell.

I wave them over with a small smile and Twilight runs right up leaving her dam behind. "Hello, Twilight. It's good to see you again." I give her a slightly awkward greeting and I put my book down as she sits across from me. She already has books with her in a pair of red saddlebags.

She smiles, it's neither large nor small, but she looks much better than the last time we met and seems genuinely happy to see me. "Shade. It's good to see you too, have you been doing well? With, your work?" It's clear things will be awkward with us but I try to ignore that and get us on a topic to cut through the awkwardness.

I shrug a little and watch her place a notebook down along with a few books she seems to have brought with her. "Life's been as it is. But I actually don't work at the library anymore." She looks shocked and a little appalled at that. I chuckle a bit causing her to look concerned for some reason.

"Did you get fired!?" She asks concerned and I just laugh as she widely guesses. "H-Hey! I. I was being serious!" She complains and looks annoyed as I continue to laugh at her reaction. She huffs a little, "I didn't know you were this rude." She complains, but her tone betrays just how little she means that.

I shake my head and notice she's acting a little more confident than before, good for her, and she can certainly break through the tension with her wild guesses. "I can be, a few of my friends are rather sure I can be mean as well, ah, but what do they know?" I return a joking tone and try to break the tension more. She gives me a small giggle but she still looks curious, because of course she is.

"I had an apprenticeship that ended when I turned fifteen. I could have stayed, but... Well, I have, other aspirations." I answer and she tilts her head a bit before looking me up and down. She blushes a bit but I don't begrudge her that, she's still in the same boat as me after all.

It's at this point that Velvet catches up with us. "Oh? I hope you aren't breaking her little heart again, I'd be having words with you if you did." I knew she was approaching, but it seems she saw Twilight staring and her blush, and it turns out Twilight Velvet can be pretty good at teasing Twilight.

Twilight goes really red and looks at her dam. "DAM! W-Why?! We w-were just, talking! You--" She looks thoroughly embarrassed about her mother's words and stutters. Her dam just looks amused as her daughter glares at her a little.

I hold in my laughter as Velvet giggles a little "Velvet, nice to see you." I'm not blind enough to realize she's giving me a real warning and not just joking, it will do us no good to ignore our last meeting. I give them both a more serious look, "My feelings are the same, and I have no intention of leading anypony on." I keep my tone serious and turn to Twilight. "Sorry if that's very... Blunt. But, ya." I trail off.

Twilight takes a moment to stop glaring at her dam and calm down a little. "I know." Her tone is softer and her ears tilt back a little. "And, I talked a lot with my dam and Cada- Casi. They helped me a lot." I almost laugh at her slip but keep the serious tone. "Thanks for being, honest with me. So... Friends?" She asks, a bit nervous and hopeful.

I know there is more to all of this, but for now, I nod with a smile. "Friends, and I'm glad to know you're doing well with all of that." We all lapse into an awkward silence and I nearly speak before I'm interrupted.

"Twie, up!" A slightly squeaky and utterly adorable voice calls out from Velvet's back. A little Spike stands on his four limbs and looks at Twilight demandingly. I can't hold it in and the serious mood is utterly ruined as I laugh and smile widely.

"He's certainly grown, he even speaks now." I shift to be a little closer and look him over. He's not as large as I feel he should be in the show, as that's still five years from now, he's bigger though. He has more strength and seems to be able to move under his own weight, he's also completely adorable with his large green eyes and innocence.

Velvet nods. "He's more active every day, I never did thank you for those recipes. He always loves them, and so do I it turns out. But I need to get Spike some lunch, and I think you two don't need me meddling anymore." She jokes and Twilight just looks defeated. "I'll be back later, stay safe you two." She smiles and I nod as she takes a now fussy Spike and walks off.

I chuckle a bit and turn back to Twilight. "I always knew I liked your dam, even if we haven't met much." I joke and Twilight just gives me a slight glare without any real heat. "Anyway, how was your trip? I loved New Trotten when I went, the beach is so nice." I move us away from the earlier topic. For the moment.

Her embarrassment and her blush fade after a few moments as she takes a deep breath and calms down, I can sympathize with the teasing. "You've been there?" I nod. "Hmm, well you're right, it's absolutely amazing. Did you go to the library? I did, there were so many interesting books!" She starts to come out of her shell more while talking. "I even found books on Griffon history! Although my dam didn't let me read all of them, and a few were hard to read." Disappointment is laced in her tone.

I smile and nod again, some of those books are violent for most ponies. "I did, turns out learning to read Griffon was worth it, I'm guessing you did as well to get that invested in them? Actually, funnily enough, I remember you mentioned you visited a bell tower, and I remembered I made this when I was there." I passed her a page of paper I cut out of one of my sketchbooks.

She smiles but looks bashful as her left ear tilts. "Kind of? I learned it... Just not, all of it." She admits and I just chuckle in response. "Hey! I tried! Learning a language is hard and you... Also just said you, learned it..." She trails off and takes the piece of paper I chuckle as she again looks a bit embarrassed.

I'm having far more fun than I thought, it almost feels like nothing changed. Well, actually something has. In the past, I came to realize she would get embarrassed about things because she liked me, now? She gets embarrassed for the same reasons I do, ponies teasing us. The fact I get to tease her and she doesn't know how to deal with it is just a bonus.

But I decided to lighten up on the teasing to keep the peace, I think I've pushed her enough. "You made this?" She looks curious and smirks at the half-decent drawing. I nod, "It's great, but you do need to draw out your, slow spells, so I suppose you'd need to be good at drawing to speed things up." I see her smirk more as her tone is laced with some teasing intent. But it falters as her weak attempt at teasing me utterly fails.

Something Twilight doesn't know is I've fully stepped into being an advanced Journeypony Runic Caster, which means I don't need to draw spells unless I want to, I don't even need to draw them before learning to cast a totally new spell. But in the past, I'd still draw spell matrixes out when with Twilight while saying I was still a beginner Journeypony.

I just smirk back and cast a spell to make her book lock in mid-air as she moves it from a spot on the table. She looks confused and tries to move it, but I put a decent amount of magic into that spell. "Actually, I don't even need to draw any spells anymore." I use a smug tone.

She blinks a few times before her expression flips between excitement and a glare. "Don't cast spells on my books." Her eyes narrowed a bit and for a moment I remember that day Twilight Velvet stared me down, it seems the apple didn't fall far from the apple tree.

I cancel the spell and she pulls the book back before switching to an excited smile, "You did! Do you know how few make it to being an advanced Journeypony Runic Caster! ... Oh right! Congratulations!" Her words almost trip over themselves as she says all that in a single breath.

I hold in another chuckle. "Well I'm glad you're excited, and thank you, I worked hard to get this far." I spend a moment moving a book to the side and opening another medical text. "I am curious though, how advanced is the princess's personal student?" I ask and glance at a few of the books she's looking at, most are about light spells.

She smiles with some pride instead of her normal embarrassment and seems to be truly relaxed. "Well, the princess said I shouldn't brag, but... I'm also an advanced Journeypony Caster." She holds a slightly bragging tone despite her words, I can't say I'm too surprised. "The princess even said I can try some more advanced spells when I turn fifteen! I can't wait! ... Please don't tell anypony I said that." She pleads a little after realizing she got carried away.

I smile mischievously at that as I'm definitely telling Celestia, but that's certainly not what I'm going to tell her. "Ok." She sighs in relief. But."She tenses again." Only if you tell me when your birthday is." I demand happily and she blinks a few times.

"Uhh, December thirty-first?" I raise a brow at that and she chuckles nervously a little. "Yes really. Actually, my dam said it was at midnight so it could also have been the first of January, I don't actually know why they chose the former." She explains and I nearly get lost in thought. I'm starting to think all alicorns have odd birthdays.

Cadance's birthday is Hearts and Hooves Day, Celestia's birthday is actually unknown but she decided it was the longest day of the year, and now Twilight has a really specific birthday. I push all that to the side for the time being, "April fifth." She looks confused before smiling more. "I know, not quite as unique as yours, but it's mine all the same."

She waves her hoof a little and glances at my books. "Maybe, but you're the one learning healing, even though I don't do that. Well, actually I know a few spells, but that's it." I realize for a moment that she's not stuttered as much, she really has grown, maybe some good came from this after all.

Instead of teasing her on that I just nod as she focuses on reading while glancing up to me every few moments. "Yes, healing is a time drain if nothing else. But I like to think my casting is my true strong suit." She raises a brow at the odd saying. "A Griffon saying that I picked up in Feather Falls on my vacation," I explain before an idea pops into my head. "Hey?"

She looks up from reading her book and taking a note. "You said you weren't the best at reading Griffon, right?" She looks a slight bit bashful but nods. "Well, if you can finish all that up in time, you want to learn more? I'm fluent in both written and spoken, and I don't have enough books to pass the time for my liking." I smile encouragingly.

I see her eyes light up a bit. "Really?" I nod. "Yes!" She nearly shouts before stopping by a librarian staring at her sharply. "Sorry." She turns back to me. "Are you sure? I can be, well, I stopped for a reason." She asks again and seems to tamper with her expectations.

I smile wider seeing her reaction. "Why not? I've certainly got the time now. As for you? ... The worst that can happen is I prank you in retaliation. But I really doubt that will be needed. How bad can it be?" I ask.

Thank you, Shade, for this. “This is, nice." She smiles happily but then looks away a little embarrassed. "And ya, how bad can it be?"

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 995

There we go, finally got this done. God that last arc dragged on too long. Anyway, I hope you all liked it.

Also, slight clarification in advance. Twilight knew Shade spoke Griffon but not how well or if he could read it, she also knew he was a Journeypony Runic Caster but not how good he was at that. This was Shade opening up a bit more then normal to try and get Twilight to relax.

PS. 600k YAY!! :)