AUG 27 Sunday.

I take a breath while holding my staff next to me in my outstretched hoof.

The Gala was, a lot, and it actually got a little worse for me but I'll get to that. I haven't heard anything about the Changeling but that probably means things are under control. The dance with Celestia was honestly very, nice, I don't know how that slots into all my thoughts and questions. Still, I can admit I enjoyed the activity with her and would like to do so again if I ever can.

This did come with a downside though, the newspaper was released two days ago, and I even went out of my way to buy one. It's both bad and good news. The bad news is that I did get my picture in the paper, front page and all, it's there and ponies sure as hell will notice.

The good news is that most newspapers very rarely print in color, so the picture doesn't have any color to it, and the angle makes my cutie mark hard to make out in any detail. Overall, I know those who see me often will probably recognize me, but I walked past several ponies reading and discussing that exact page and they didn't recognize me so there is hope there.

I also noticed that the article was mostly talking about Celestia and how kind she is to interact with a pony at the Gala and things like that, it even makes comments about several events like this in the past. There is a part commenting about who I could be and speculation about me, but it's mostly small and not too extreme.

My name is also not even in the newspaper at all, I think Celestia managed to make this a bit better for me by focusing things on herself once again. With the off angle and the way the article is worded, it feels likely she shifted things on purpose.

I'll have to ask about that I guess. This all brings me to another problem that I've been avoiding a bit, my friends. I haven't seen any of them yet but by coincidence, our next game night is later today and I'm mentally preparing for the conversation I know is coming.

So I decided to spend some of my day distracting myself with some experimentation and relaxation. I just opened my box to retrieve my staff and I also gathered several other things I'll need for today, Blueberry and Raspberry seeds, a few pots, and a Birch seed.

I gather everything and head outside of my shack while enjoying the sunny day, Entropy flies off my back to explore a bit and I chuckle as she starts to do some aerial tricks. I pause a bit after passing my herb garden noticing something on the message board.

It's a small note with a photo attached to it. I thought you might like a memento. I smiled a bit and the picture of me and Celestia dancing, this picture is of better quality and is in color. I take it down with a smile and spend a moment putting it in my shack somewhere safe before continuing.

It is nice to have something of the night, even if I have to deal with some ponies recognizing me. I pause a bit as I'm reminded of a certain mare who would definitely see this news and recognize my suit, it seems I'll be avoiding Rarity for a bit longer than planned. I shudder a bit and sit in the pavilion to actually start working.

I set a few soil-filled pots down along with the seeds and my staff, I take a moment to go through my recent notes on my plant breeding. I've continued very slowly breeding the Copper Lily to be smaller and smaller, at this point it's half the starting size and that is speeding things up.

I can grow twice as much as normal and it's going well, if slowly. Beyond that I've had some interesting time trying to crossbreed the Iron Oak and Fire Blossom Tree, I've gotten a few successful results but they have been middling at best, mostly though it is slow going.

The result loses a lot of both of the effects as expected, but on top of that, it's taken a large amount of magic to grow those few good results. I think it's because creating a strong, fire-resistant wood has a slight problem. To put it simply, I think having two strong magical effects is increasing the cost more than normal.

That's my best guess at least, the best result I have gotten has been decent but I think I'll keep crossbreeding in hopes of a better result before selectively breeding it from there. All of this though is not what I actually want to do today, I want to test permanent plant modification.

I tried once in the past but my control and magical reserves were lacking to really get a good result. So now I want to test it again and see if it's actually viable, even if I haven't gotten the opportunity to ask Celestia for the knowledge she may have on the topic, something I will be doing next time we meet.

I expect to have some type of meeting with her soon enough, which is good because I need to schedule a meeting with a Changeling in the next month or so. The love-gathering spell shouldn't take more than a few weeks to smooth out and be ready for testing.

I focus my mind on the task at hoof and place the two different berry seeds in a pot each before growing them into small bushes. I have both of them grow flowers and start to cross-breed them by moving pollen with my space magic from one plant to the other, and then I change things up from how I normally do.

I focus my Will and life magic completely on my thoughts, I try my best to keep my mind and Will focused on my want and start to pull on my life magic to move it into the Blueberry bush. The drain is far higher than normal and I have to really keep my mind and life magic under control the entire time, but something is happening.

It also takes a few moments longer than normal before several Blueberries fruit on the bush. I take a deep breath and notice that the process took nearly ten times more life magic than doing this normally would, it's still only an overall small amount of my total magic but it's a notable jump in cost.

The Blueberries look the same but on the inside the seeds looked different, It definitely did something then. I take a single seed and plant it in another pot, it does nothing so I take another and try again, after several attempts a seed actually sprouts. The result is an odd combination of two plants.

It looks like a normal Blueberry bush with, red Blueberries, Redberries? I eat one and it has an odd taste that feels like a mix of both fruits. Well, it worked I guess, I wanted it to be fully from actual Raspberries but this is a step in the right direction, and one hell of an achievement. I pick a few of these odd berries and decompose the plant before planting some seeds from the berries back in the pot again.

The bush that grows is the exact same, so the modifications I just did are permanent. I take several notes on my success, before going back to the Blueberry bush and picking more modified seeds I started with to plant, some of the seeds spurt and grow into plants, but most don't and the ones that do are always different.

The bush is always a normal Blueberry bush but the fruit is a mix of the Blueberry and the Raspberry, but never a full Raspberry like I envisioned. Some have the same color but the wrong shape, some are weird combinations with patches of both berries, and they all look mutated.

I've decided to name this new branch of life magic Guided Evolution, simple but to the point. As far as I can tell with enough life magic, control, and Will, I can actually directly affect plants and even specific parts of a plant. But the result is still inconsistent much like with crossbreeding.

But, the ability to guide the changes is a big thing for me. I leave the berries alone for now and plant the Birch seed before growing it into a small sapling, I watch as it grows and focus my Will again. I try to Will a change in the bark’s color, from white to as red as I could clearly picture in my mind.

I kept regrowing the bark again and again while keeping the change in mind hoping it would show a change quickly, but after using over half my magic the bark's color had only tinged a tiny bit. There is a very, VERY, slight pink hue to the bark now and I regrow the bark again to see if the color persists, it does.

That took an absurd amount of magic for a normal tree and a small change, but it did work. I think it'd take a long time and a lot of life magic and time to change a plant significantly. I guess it's a trade-off, seeds take less magic but are more random, while direct manipulation takes insane amounts of magic while being very accurate.

I have the modified birch grow some seeds and try to modify those to have red bark. After using more of my magic I decompose the sapling and plant one of its seeds. The resulting Birch tree is more red-colored, a very light red, more than my other attempt though.

I finish up my notes and sigh a bit looking at the pots, I'll need a lot more testing to make sense of all this. I drink some tea to recover my magic and start pulling from the Life Gem, let's see what else I can work out today.

time skip

I look over the large amount of unorganized notes in my illusionary notebook. I tested several other things and I'm starting to work out a few details of Guided Evolution, as I'm now calling it.

There is a scale of how easy or hard it is to modify a plant. Crossbreeding with this method is easiest and the cheapest magic-wise, but also the most random in terms of results. Directly modifying a seed from one singular plant is still relatively easy but costs a large amount of magic, the results are accurate if slow. Directly modifying a grown plant is the hardest and most magically expensive for me. But it lets me actively see the results of my work.

I also quickly learned while testing other plants, that the more magical a plant is the more the cost increases. But inversely, the better I understand the magical flows of a plant the less magic and effort it takes. That only helps to a point but it works so I think I'll be spending time studying the magic flows of the plants I work with in much more detail.

All this has definitely proven very useful, it makes any future plants I could make so much easier. And while the cost has gone up using this method is still faster than simple selective breeding, I won't use the method for my more magical plants like the Copper Lily, at least not until I get a lot more practice and possibly some information from Celestia, presuming she has anything like that.

I pause my thoughts when I hear a knock at my door. I glance over to Entropy, "You remember the rules?" I ask and she bobs her head before activating the band around her left leg. "Good make sure to keep on your disgui-"

She looks at me as her body changes. "Dress. Is, dress." She states and I sigh a little. "Like Friend." She says happily while I shake my head a little.

"Fine, your dress, just keep it on." Over the past few weeks I've had Entropy test the band I gave her several times. The band is passive and lasts forever, so I've let her use it anytime her and I go out on my morning run or when we go out shopping. She also stated saying it was her dress after the Gala, and wouldn't take no for an answer.

I leave my thoughts as there is another knock on my door, I flip the switch to turn off the part of the shield around my front door. I hesitate a little before opening the door, and to no pony's surprise, I see three ponies looking at me with curious and demanding looks. "If any of you shout before you get inside I'm filling your beds with glitter dust." I threaten in a deadpan tone.

"Magic knows I'm already dealing with enough." I sigh a little, "Ok, get in and sit down, apparently I have a story to tell. Because I know you all aren't polite enough to take no for an answer." I try to take a joking tone as Maple moves past me.

"Correct." That's all Maple says to me as she walks past me and looks at Entropy. "Hello, Entropy." She moves over to the table while Blaz walks up with a large smirk.

He pats my shoulder while passing while carrying a few things. "Colt, I have never been more proud of you." I glare at him and he laughs while joining Maple at my small table. "Like you said, we're not taking no for an answer."

Finally, Daisy walks over with a hop in her step and a smile that makes me shiver a slight bit. "Shade? How did you get to the Gala? Because the only way I can think of you going again is..." She trails off leaving the secret she knows unsaid. "Either way, I brought cookies to celebrate you being in the paper." She says far too cheerfully.

They are all more right to the table and I can tell they planned this out before hoof, I hate how good they are at not letting me distract them. I close the door and walk over to the table to join them, Daisy is already feeding Entropy a cookie happily. "Ok, nice to see you all, and ground rules first. No yelling, I don't want others hearing us, and get your completely mad theories out of the way first so I can explain without hearing them." I smile a bit as at least part of this can be entertaining to me.

They look at each other for a moment before Maple beats the other two and goes first. "You know Twilight Sparkle, so she got you an invite and the princess fell for you very suddenly." She explains with a tone that holds some actual excitement, while I fight to not blush at the implications there.

I pour down some tea as Blaz goes next. "Same as Maple, but you impressed her with some obscure skill, probably something to do with magic." Ok that one at least makes slightly more sense, just barely though. "Seriously Colt this is just ridiculous! It's literally Princess Celestia." He laughs while exclaiming that.

Finally, Daisy, who's practically vibrating in her seat, speaks up. "I think, you've been secretly dating her behind the backs of everypony because you met at some point, and this is just you being honest with the world." We all give her odd looks. "What? You can't tell me that doesn't explain how much Shade dislikes attention." I nearly let it show just how close she was to the actual truth, but her silly filly-like tone just makes me laugh instead.

She knows damn well why I don't like attention, but it is a funny theory. I take all the theories with humor as despite the topic it is pretty entertaining. "On that topic, you holding up Colt? We all know you don't like the attention, and you really can't get more attention than this." He laughs at the slightly tired look I show in return.

I sigh slowly. "Not many seem to recognize me too much in the picture, but a few definitely have, or at least think they have. Then there are the ponies trying to find out who I am." I heard several ponies discussing that and coming up with theories. Even with the suboptimal photo somepony will find out about me. "You may see less of me at the library for a few weeks."

I get comforting looks in return and Maple smiles at me. "Change your mane, and maybe wear your cloak more?" She suggests and I tilt my head in thought.

My mane was tied back like normal and cutting it short wouldn't be hard, I also have a cloak so why not use it much more often? It's close enough to Fall and Winter that there is a decent amount of rain so few would question it. "That might actually help some. At least more than nothing at all. Thanks." She nods happily.

Daisy looks at me impatiently. "Now." She takes out a copy of the newspaper from her own saddlebags and slams it into the table, the picture in full view. "Explain." She demands with a large smile and a look that shows she really isn't giving me another choice.

I bring over a cookie and eat it quickly before thinking about how best to ward off this. "So, I have a friend, I'm not saying who. But I got an invite, at a price." I hint that I bought my invite, I do have the bits for it after all. "I even got a nice suit, but things went... Really odd."

I drink a little tea. "Ok, you've all seen me talking with Twilight, the Princesses student, before right?" They all nod again. "We're not all that close, friends, but not close friends, as I've mentioned before." They nod again. "At the Gala, we met up and talked, mostly about magic and spells." Blaz huffs out a chuckle at that. "At some point, The Princess came over to talk to Twilight, and I got dragged into the conversation."

Blaz full-on laughs while Maple rolls her eyes a bit. "Only you have more luck than me, not sure if it's good or bad luck though." Maple makes one of her rare jokes and that gets a chuckle out of all of us. "Let me guess? You kept talking about magic?" I stare blankly as she's completely correct. "Of course." Maple giggles a bit.

"Colt! You met the princess of all ponies, and you talked about, magic? Why? At least talk about something more interesting." He asks a little incredulously while doing his best not to be loud. "She's right, your luck is just broken, in both ways." He laughs again.

I roll my eyes at them while Daisy actually starts to take a few notes. :OH, by MAGIC!! Not another one!!!: "Yes I did, she proved to be very knowledgeable about runic magic, I actually learned a few things." Which was true when we first met at the Gala years ago. "But then Twilight had to leave, and the Princess just... Stayed? And kept talking to me."

They don't even look surprised at that. "Eventually, she made a joke about dancing with me, or I think it was a joke? Honestly? I was too nervous from the ponies watching me to really tell." I lie somewhat and try to stick mostly to warped facts. "So I made a joke back, and she took it a bit seriously."

Blaz nearly falls over laughing and even Maple's holding some laughs in. "Shade? Did you literally charm your way into dancing with a princess? HOW? WHY?" Daisy asks, confused about my actions. "You're the least social pony we know, including Maple, why did you even accept the offer?" She asks, getting into the drama of it all.

I see an opportunity to make things more believable and have some fun. I show a defensive expression, "What was I supposed to do? Say no? It's Princess bucking Celestia, it's not exactly somepony you can just turn down in front of hundreds of ponies." I pretend to defend myself before slumping in my seat. "Ugg, so many ponies are going to try and find me."

That is an actual fear of mine, so on top of Maple's suggestions I was already planning to stay out of public for a month or two, minus friends of course. Maple gives me a slightly pitying look, "Your fault, but I can beat you in a game if it will make you feel better?" She asks with a mix of unhelpful reassurance and teasing.

Blaz nods. "She's right Colt cheer up, gossip like this burns itself out quick enough. I've seen more newsworthy scandals than I can count while living here." That actually does help a bit. "But don't worry, we sure as magic won't forget anytime soon. Now give me those cards, I have a winning streak to break." He happily moves past the topic, with a promise to tease me about it, of course.

Daisy smiles like a star. "I'm going to ignore that curse, not like I can stop you now. They are right though, just keep your head down for a bit, and maybe take Maple's advice. On the plus side, you would look decent with a short mane." I take the continued reassurance with a chuckle. "I am getting details though, even if I have to pry them out of you." Her tone gets jokingly serious.

I look at my friends before just laughing at the madness that is my life, I'd pray to Discord but I'm pretty sure that would make it all worse. "One day, I will have nothing interesting happening in my life, one day," I say deadpan, they just laugh more.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 995

I wanted this to come off as relaxed, but more humorous then anything. I also wanted to show that Celestia wouldn't straight throw Shade into the proverbial deep end, after all what's a little news tampering between friends?

Or at least that's what I think she'd do, it seems right.