JUN 18 Sunday.

I nibble on a cookie while looking at my cards as Maple forces me to draw another four cards as our game continues. "So what are you two doing for the celebration? Because I'm going drinking with a few others, and I got Daisy to come with me." Blaz says smugly while Daisy places a plus-two in a quick retaliation.

Maple just shrugs. "Eating out, and sleeping in." She explains simply and we all just nod in unsurprised agreement.

They then turn to me and I just shrug as well. "I have plans with a friend," I answer without any context, which just gets me some curious looks before Blaz chuckles.

"Five bits says the Colt's got a mare." I glare at him a little and that just makes him laugh. "Oh ho! It seems I might not be that far off." He smiles wider and I have to fight off a blush.

While Maple smiles slightly Daisy gives me a demanding look but I interrupt her before she can say anything. "Don't you start, if you can hide things, so can I..." Daisy and Blaz start to laugh and I blush a little. "No! It is not like that!" I insist as my words fumble and even Maple starts laughing as they increase my embarrassment.

time skip

JUN 20 Tuesday.

I slowly move my hooves back and forth to wrap the bandage and dress the stitched wound on a pony's foreleg. The mare nurse keeps a close and observant eye on my progress. "Good, but make sure not to do it too tightly, you don't want to interrupt blood flow." She advises with a professional tone.

I take in the advice and ease up on the tension slightly while keeping it tight enough to keep the bandage in place. I nod in thanks to the nurse I've been shadowing for the day, "Thank you." I thank her more out of politeness than anything else. "And the end? Do I just tie it?" I ask, holding up the other end of the bandage wrapped around the limb.

She takes it from my hooves with her magic and demonstrates it again. "There are several ways, you can just tie it, you can even make a bow like a pony I know. But it's best to tie it around the past few wraps you made with the bandage." She again shows me the proper way to do it and then lets me take a note in a notebook I've kept with me on my volunteering days.

Once she's done she looks to a clock on the wall and smiles. "Well, we're done for the day. Thanks for coming in on the day before Summer Sun." She says while leading me out of the room filled with resting and recovering Patients. "We're always understaffed today and tomorrow, either way, I hope you enjoy the holiday." The nurse makes some polite small talk while leading us into the hallway.

"Not much else to really do, and thanks for teaching me, Mam." I make a small mental note of her appearance and the badge she has with her name on it. The hospital has so many staff members that I gave up trying to learn or ask for names unless they were for really important ponies. With that, we go our separate ways and I quickly make my way outside to head home.

I've officially started to do volunteer work and learn under different staff members now. It's like I expected, doing simple things while being closely supervised. I've mostly been casting cleaning spells or cleaning the old-fashioned way the past few days, but by the end of today a nurse started to teach me how to properly bandage a wound. It's something I learned to do but never actually did, like stitching a wound.

Something I've limited myself in during my time at the hospital is using my field, I still use it and many others have seen it. They cared about me as much as any other pony in Canterlot, but I limited my use of my field so I could learn to do all this healing without it, best to not rely on it in case it failed at some point.

Another concern of mine is more immediate, I'm not allowed to wear my bracelet, and normally I wouldn't be able to wear my necklace as well. But as a volunteer, they didn't care much about it as I'm not doing anything really important. The bracelet can impede my movement or actions and needs to be removed to do things like apply bandages.

It's a bit of a problem, I may have to find another solution or just deal with the possibility. Actually, I wonder if a Changeling would willingly go to a hospital? Either way, I'll need to mentally prepare for that. Beyond that concern, I've been really enjoying my volunteering.

Unlike that one day when I did physical work, I enjoyed this far more. Even if I'm still cleaning a lot, the opportunity to learn and help other ponies with the knowledge I've learned is a good feeling.

I've only learned about simple things so far but getting to watch others work up close and learn that way is also helping in its own way. Beyond the Assistant Program, I've spent the last two weeks relaxing and taking Celestia's grounding to heart by slacking off or at least not overworking.

I leave my thoughts and go through the normal song and dance of going home and cleaning myself up. After doing a few chores and eating some lunch I have Entropy take me to Ponyville once again to pick up what I ordered from Rarity. As I walk out of the forest and onto the dirt road I quickly take to the skies and gain height.

I smile as Entropy flies around me happily while under an illusion. The last time I was here I spent nearly two HOURS discussing details with Rarity and even then she somehow seemed uncertain about what exactly she was making, at least she told me it would be done in time for the Summer Sun Celebration.

When I arrive at Ponyville I can see from the air that the main street is packed with stalls. I circle in the air for a few moments before landing on a mostly quiet side of the small town. With earth firmly beneath me again I head straight to Rarity's boutique.

I let Entropy fly off somewhere else for the time being, it seems Rarity is a bit uncomfortable with Entropy being inside, something I don't begrudge her. When I enter the boutique I see Rarity ringing up another pony at the counter, she spots me and smiles widely while I wait for her to finish.

Something I notice is she uses a Bit Counter to speed up the process of the other pony paying, and I feel a slight pride at the sight. The other pony pays and leaves in short order, "Hello Rarity. Good business today?" I ask with a friendly demeanor while walking up to the counter. I might be a bit uncomfortable with how pleasant she is around me, but it's not the worst thing and I'm a bit used to it after talking with her for a few hours.

She keeps her wide smile and nods enthusiastically. "Shade. It's been fabulous! Many of the stalls this year are designed by yours truly." She expresses before getting a look of longing. "But oh how I miss the celebrations in Canterlot." She says making some mundane small talk.

I try not to look impatient about things and just wait. "But I know you came for your gift, and you must be as busy as me with that face." She jokes a bit and reaches behind the counter and pulls out a bundle of cloth while I try not to look embarrassed about my mood slipping through a little, she's good at spotting things like that it seems.

She just chuckles a little. "It's perfectly understandable, we're all busy today. Anyway, this has proven to be a beautifully simple and yet challenging request, what do you think?" She talks quickly and with clear excitement as she unfurls the cloth and holds it up with her magic.

The large cloth is eight by eight feet and looks perfect. The design uses simple, almost cartoon-like lines and colors. The centerpiece is a large yellow sun with stylized flames along its edges, the background is a mix of pure white, a soft light blue, brown, and green. Around the background of the cloth is a light pink that creates a sideways oval that contains the sun in the center.

The center area has several mountains with a grass plain on the bottom half, and a light blue sky on the top half. Altogether it has the image of a sunrise through some mountains with an overall color scheme that matches Celestia and I pretty closely. The white and pick from her and the brown and green from me. It seems Rarity found a way to add me to the mix.

At least she took my other demands seriously. I heavily stressed to Rarity that I wanted something simple and with simple colors. She argued with me on that pretty hard but in the end, agreed to do it my way. The cloth isn't some masterful design, but it doesn't need to be. And while the image is simple the work is masterfully done.

Not a stitch is out of place and everything is perfectly sized and positioned. It's not a massively fancy gift, but combine it with the other thing I bought for her and it should work well. And that other gift was a much larger pain in the ass, it took me three days to just buy and transport it to Gaia's Eden.

I leave my thoughts with a slight shake of my head and a smile at Rarity. I nod in response, "It's great, thank you Rarity." I walk closer as she folds it up again and smiles wider at my response. I move to open my saddlebags and pull something out.

But before I can she shoves the folded cloth over to me and shakes her head a little. "Absolutely NOT, you aren't paying a bit for this and that's final." Her words turn stern and it's clear she's leaving absolutely no room for argument. I almost protest anyway and she uses her magic to pull open one of the pockets on my saddlebags and stuffs the cloth inside. "Final!"

I open my mouth before closing it and chuckling a little. :The element of generosity indeed: "Ok fine, but next time I am paying." I insist instead and she raises a brow slightly. "I need a suit in a month or two, but for now thank you for the lovely work, and have a good celebration." I decided to cut this a little short as I have other things I want to do.

She sees my blatant attempt to exit the conversation and takes it in stride like she does. "Don't keep yourself waiting on me, and enjoy the celebrations as well." She waves a little and I nod back while walking out the door, I do notice she looks distracted and starts mumbling about suits as I leave the building. Once I'm outside I chuckle again before sighing a little. I have the distinct feeling she won't let me pay her next time, well that's a problem for future me.

A moment after leaving Entropy lands on my back again and I take a moment to look around before picking a random direction to walk in. I didn't need to leave so quickly but I would rather not spend more time with Rarity for the moment, she's nice enough but I prefer something less socially demanding, and dealing with such a friendly mare doesn't help with that.

For now, though, I don't have many plans for the rest of today. My plans for the celebration are pretty simple, I want to stay up all night like many others to watch the sunrise, with a slight twist, but that's for the next dawn and it's still midday. So after a little wandering, I decide to walk over to the town's main street and see how things are being set up.

Everything is still mostly tame, there are a lot of ponies and stalls but the celebrations will only really start after sunset and continue until tomorrow evening. I walk down the street past other ponies and half-assembled stalls in between others already set up to sell their goods.

I take my time looking around and eventually, I find somepony I didn't expect, Pinkie Pie is running a stall of all things. I stare at the boringly colored banner and the mare happily selling cotton candy and party supplies to other ponies. She also sees me and waves excitedly, I stare for a few moments before deciding to do the smart thing and simply wave to her before moving on.

She sees that and waves back again. I'm normally fine talking to Pinkie but I don't want to deal with all the Pinkie-ness right now, I'm in a more mellow mood honestly. Eventually, though I do find a sight that is both interesting and slightly saddening, the Apple Family.

I spot every member except Bright Mac, Applebloom, and Granny Smith. I do see Big Mac, Pear Butter, and Applejack all working on setting up a stall of their own. I keep my distance for a moment, hesitating a little. I've never checked in on them, mostly because I felt I had no real reason to.

I did what I could and partly failed, it's not something I'm very emotional about but a part of me simply doesn't like the idea of looking that failure in the face, of seeing the ponies that got hurt. I think that's a pretty bad way to think about what actually happened. Running won't do anything either, and I feel... Partly responsible in a way to at least know how they are doing.

:I think, I need to do this so it doesn't nag at me: I reason with myself before taking a deep breath and walking over to the half-assembled stall. It doesn't take them long to notice me and I get a myriad of looks, Applejack is curious, Pear is both curious and smiling, while Big Mac nods in recognition.

"You'll have to wait a bit partner, we're still setting up." The slow drawl of Applejack greets me with a polite sternness to her tone.

Big Mac lugs a large crate of apples on his back and stops near us. "He's the one who helped with the cart." He explains with a small smile to me and holds out a hoof to shake. "Shade. Nice to see ya." I take the hoof with a nod while Applejack looks a bit surprised before seeing Entropy and gaining a look of recognition, it seems she's putting it together in her head.

I take notice that I'm still an inch or three shorter than Big Mac. At this point in my life I'm taller than a lot of ponies, the vast majority actually, even most earth pony stallions are an inch or two smaller than me. I shake his hoof and nod back. "Big Mac, been a while. Hope things are going well."

He stills a bit and nods again. "Yup." I somehow don't believe him all that much, he's not really good at hiding things it seems.

Applejack looks me up and down again as Big Mac moves away to continue lugging the crate. "Huh, so you the pony he was yapping about." She looks up as I stand a head taller than her. "Tall one ain't ya?" I just chuckle in good humor. "Either way, we're still closed for an hour or two." She motions with her head to the stall they were still putting up.

I look at it for a moment as Pear sorts things behind the stall counter and listens to us while being out of my sight a little. Something about her is different in my spatial senses but I focus on the conversation. "Well, I have nothing better to do, need an extra hoof?" I offer as I honestly don't have anything better to do and it lets me stick around a little bit more.

She raises a brow for a moment and almost looks like she'll turn me down, but seeing Big Mac moving another heavy crate she nods a little slowly. "Ya, maybe, you look as sturdy as an apple trunk, think'en you can move one of them?" I pretend not to notice her eyes wandering and nod. "We'll throw in some apples for the help’en hoof." She insisted rather than offer after I started to walk over to the cart they brought.

I know for a fact that she wasn't joking and an apple takes their debts seriously, so it's best to just not fight them on it. I've been more relaxed about magic in public, or at least simple magic like my field and wings, so I just use my field to pick up three crates at once and start to move them.

Big Mac raises a brow at the sight and I just shrug with a smile, "It's a trick I've picked up, a bit hard to learn but very convenient." I explain without really lying or giving anyway too much, it's best not to lie while standing near the literal element of honesty. I swiftly move the crates over behind the stall and place them down near Pear before looking at her. "Miss. Pear, it's good to see you again..." I nod in greeting while trying to hide my surprise as I trail off in surprise.

I knew it was possible Pear could have gotten injured in that, but seeing the actual result aches my heart a little and brings up several unpleasant emotions. A large scar runs down from her left shoulder to her mid chest, a familiar pattern of Timberwolves claws. But what really catches my eye is her right foreleg, it's gone.

From the shoulder, there is a scar and a slight stump but everything else is gone. :Fuck, I... : I'm a bit stunned at the sight and even with my effort it shows. I snap out of it and look up to her face, she looks... Ok, I guess. Tired and wary, but she still smiles a bit. "Sorry, didn't mean to, stare." I apologize in a more reserved tone, a little ashamed at my reaction.

She keeps her smile and just waves my concern away with her good foreleg. "No trouble, many ponies do the same." Her tone is happy and more upbeat than I expected. "Under here please, they need to be out of the sun." She motions to some shelves under the stall's counter and I place the boxes inside still feeling a little off about everything.

It certainly doesn't help that I don't really know them and while we're being friendly it's also very polite and less relaxed than I normally like. But there is nothing I can do to fix that beyond talking to them and I only really came here to check on them.

She moves the boxes a little with her good hoof, while I try my best not to feel bad about what my actions indirectly caused. :At least it's better than her being dead, not that it makes me feel too much better: She gives me a sterner look with the same smile, "Oh! My manners again! Sorry. It's nice to see you as well Shade, and you've certainly grown like a sapling. And don't go looking sad for me, I'm just fine." She insists and helps Big Mac guide another box into the shelves.

I try to smile at that and move back to grab the last two boxes out of the cart. "I know, but I can sympathize, in a way." She raises a brow at that. "I have a friend, he's missing a... Well, he's in a similar situation." I nearly come off as too blunt but stop and try to be more tactful about it.

She looks a little surprised but nods. "Anyway, what can I get you? We've got a new harvest not too long ago so it's all as fresh as spring." It's clear she wants to move off the topic, but something comes to mind that makes me reluctant.

I pause for a moment and look her in the eye. "I don't want to, well, dig into your business." She seems to see where this is going and Applejack, who's been listening in, gives me a slight glare at my words. "But, have you all gotten much news from Canterlot recently?" News about new spells can be tricky even being so close to Canterlot, and not many earth ponies keep an eye on things like that.

Whatever they expected me to bring up, it wasn't that. Applejack moves a little closer now looking more curious than annoyed. "News? I mean, we get a good sum but nothing all that big. Why?" She asks as Big Max also moves over to listen in while helping Pear continue to set up the stall slowly.

Pear gives me a tired but curious look while Big Mac seems as passive as ever. I knew bringing up something unwanted was going to be touch and go, but I have their attention and that's good enough to not cause a mess, hopefully. Even if I come off as nosy I think this might help them so it's worth it. "Well, I heard most of this from my friend." I pause for a moment thinking about how best to word this without being rude accidentally.

I scratch the back of my head. "Anyway, he's never had the bits for a prosthetic, you know a new limb?" I think that hits a little too close to home as Pear looks a bit downcast hearing that and I nearly get another glare. "But recently some genius of a pony found a way to make them really cheaply, it's been news for weeks." I try to keep a level tone and not smile when they all perk up a bit.

Seeing a little success I continue talking while they all stop to listen. "I don't know a lot of the details, and I think it's still all new and stuff. But, my friend got his for, eighty-five bits I think?" I quote a cost that mirrors the prices I've seen. I looked at some of the places that make the new prosthetics when shopping a while back and most of them started around there.

The price isn't cheap for poorer ponies, but it's not something impossible either and for regaining a limb it's a small price overall. I give them a smile despite trying to hold it in when I see a hopeful look on Pear's face. "Sorry for... Well, bringing this all up. I just thought I should say something." I confess trying to put the topic to rest now that I've said my peace.

I get a smile from all three and Pear looks even more upbeat than before with a boutique smile. "Bother-shmother, You. Thank you, This..." Applejack is the first to speak up and looks by far the most excited about the information. "Ma, if he's right." She moves over and hugs her dam happily.

Pear lets go of her a moment later while Big Mac smiles at them and gives me a nod in return. Pear speaks up with a more emotional tone. "Thank you, Shade, this. I owe you one again it seems." She says simply and I'm reminded of our first meeting years ago, she remembered that? "I never thought I might be able to... We owe you." She insists more firmly.

I shake my head a little and at least try to turn her down. I feel a little bashful as I didn't do much of anything. "I didn't do anything, you would have heard about it either way." They seem to agree with my logic, but not my argument. I keep my smile but sigh a little seeing her look unconvinced. :Well I tried, and failed: "Fine, how about a recommendation then?"

She raises a brow. "Know any good apple pie recipes? I was planning to make some with the apples I came for." I pull something out of thin air and before I can even fully finish she's shifting through a saddlebag on her side with her muzzle. She brings out some paper and ink and quickly starts to write something down.

A moment later she passed me a page with two recipes on it and had the same thankful smile. "I added another for apple fritters, the best you'll ever find." She brags a bit, and considering her family I'm inclined to believe her. "And, an open invitation to dinner if you're ever near the farm." I see she's also added directions to their farm on the paper.

I accept the list with a smirk. "Well lucky me, not one but two Apple Family recipes." I joke a bit and she chuckles along with me. "Sorry to cut it short though, but I have places to be." A small lie as even after trying to help I'm not entirely happy at the sight I've seen today.

I just need time to think and process my own actions, even if the alternative was worse, that is only of little comfort to me right now. I'm not wrecked, but it still is affecting me and I would like to distance myself a little. I take out a small bag and pass it to her, she looks inside the small bag I gave her and raises a brow at the bits inside. "Four bags of red please, I have some new recipes to try out."

She smiles widely and nods, a few moments later I'm loading several bags of apples into my saddlebags. It's my turn to raise my brow seeing a fifth bag, and Pear just smiles in response. "Thank you again. And this is what we promised for the help." Her tone once again leaves no room for disagreement. "Bye Shade, and don't be a stranger, granny makes the best pies recipes or otherwise." She says with a friendly and welcoming tone.

I just take the bag without complaint and nod to her with an understanding look. "I really didn't do much. And I may just if I'm passing through. Goodbye, and thanks." With that, I start to walk off after another nod from Big Mac and a smile from Applejack. As I'm walking Entropy moves to look at me from my back.

I sigh after a moment and start to make my way somewhere private to get home, I need to do a little thinking. I find an alley and quickly have Entropy take me home. When I do arrive home I take off my saddlebags and they thump down heavily while spilling a few apples. I stare at them for a moment and sigh again.

I wanted to buy more than needed to help them a bit more, but. "What the hell am I going to do with all these?" My mind ponders my thoughts and a pile of apples becomes my new problem for the rest of the day.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :]
Current year 995

So, first and foremost. This will be continued in the next chapter, and the other gift for Celestia was intentionally not mentioned until now to give you all a surprise as well.

Second. I completely forgot about the Apple's, and with me wanting to show off more of Shade working at the hospital and having him get the cloth from Rarity, I thought it fit to add them in here. Even if this is a little repetitive from the last chapter.

And finally three. I'm sorry about not communicating my absence earlier, I was writing the next chapter but some things got in my way and I had to delay it.

I do find it both heart warming and funny, because several of you thought that the only thing that could have stopped me from posting was that something ACTUALLY happened to me.

Witch I'll be honest, just made me laugh my ass off. I am fine by the way.