OCT 1 Sunday.

I gently salt the fish as it fries in the pan while I use my space magic to cut up some other seasonings to the side to add them in.

Another week passes with little to no change in my life. I spent my time working on the improved anti-scanning spell, it didn't take all that long though. The spell itself mostly makes use of a few interesting runes, mostly centered around protection and scanning.

It was a pretty basic spell overall and because I was only improving the spell it didn't take long to finish. I sent off a letter with the improved spell and a few other bits of information off to Celestia right before I started cooking a late lunch. Now I'm just waiting for a response.

Beyond the spell work, I've spent a lot of time reading more into rituals, both for the Imbuing ritual and for my own personal project. My frankly insane idea to raise the sun, by magic is this ambitious. It's also proven to be a pretty hard thing to really learn how to do in the first place.

Rituals have been out of use for hundreds of years and are simply not used all that much anymore, it's a fairly dead branch of magic by this point. I scoured a lot of the library and only found a few good books, the main problem there being the fact there is no section in the library for ritual magic.

So I need to search slowly through different books all around the library and try to find books that are actually helpful. The list of books Celestia recommended to me was a massive help for this reason and has given me a good opportunity to continue my learning and research into rituals.

The books she gave me on top of that helped even more than the library books. My project, which I've nicknamed Project Peaceful Dream, because I'm defying Nightmare Moon with my actions. It's been very slow going and I've made barely any progress, that's not to say I've made none though.

Currently, I have a few obstacles but a big problem is that I need the ritual to pull from gems, which I've learned is not so simple to do. It requires adding more complexity to the Ritual Matrix and that is already looking to be a very large project to just create it.

I haven't found any good information on the original rituals used to raise the sun, but I have found references to runes used in it and that led me on a long search. I've been slowly tracking down different runes that could be added to make the ritual work without exploding.

Runes for the Sun with Runic Context about it rising and falling. But another problem I have is that I need to make a ritual, not just modify one but make one from parts of others and my own original work. It is both similar and different from normal spell crafting in several big ways.

Here's a good example. When creating or casting a spell your location doesn't really matter, unless you're drowning or freezing I guess. But a ritual of this scale needs a proper location with strict conditions to not disrupt the process. I need access to the sky and preferably someplace high up.

A few of the key runes I'll be using have that in their Runic Context. As I mentioned before a ritual can deviate from things like Runic Context, but that does make them a bit less stable. And considering the amount of magic I'll be throwing around I'm not willing to risk it so I'll need to be as accurate as I can be.

I also can't have it be anywhere near a location with a high amount of any magic that could destabilize things. Large amounts of uncontrolled magic or particularly volatile affinities could mess with the ritual. A Ritual Matrix is a physical magical structure, a temporary one but still a structure that is more influenceable than a spell matrix.

All this is to say that while I'm making slow progress I am far from achieving my goal. I haven't even done one ritual, let alone studied how to modify and make rituals myself. I take the cooked and seasoned fish out of my pan and plate it to cool while opening a letter I grabbed out of my mailbox in the apartment lobby this morning after doing some shopping.

It's from Twilight and I was sort of expecting this after the letter I sent. I waited another week to see if Twilight would notice the news so I could talk to her about it, but I received nothing so I sent my own letter. I mostly just asked how she was doing and what she was learning.

Then I vented to her and talked a bit about my struggles with ponies and the news being annoying after the Gala, something I was honest about. Basically, I just ripped the band-aid off quickly. I open the letter seal and start to read it with a slight bit of worry.

Dear, Shade.

Hi! Sorry it took me a few days to send you a letter back, I was really busy. Also, WHAT?! You got to dance with THE Princess! I didn't even notice and when I asked my family they laughed! Even Shining, he just said he tried to show me but I was studying. He should have at least been more insistent.

Either way, sorry to hear you've had a hard time with, all that. Funnily enough, I've seen it happen before, Blue Blood danced with her two years ago I think? The newspapers always run wild with it, I do not envy you. Sorry, I just realized that might sound bad!

I mean it's not all bad, very few ponies can say they've danced with the Princess right? It's a great honor. I can promise it will calm down though, it always does. I still can't believe I missed that, I imagine you and her dancing to be funn a sight to see If you haven't improved since last year.

As for me? Sadly nothing so exciting has happened, or maybe I'm lucky for that? I've just been testing for spell proficiency and casting at the Journeypony level, I'm now a few months ahead of the tests! That shows just how amazing the Princess's teachings are.

Don't tell others, but she's the absolute best. The amount of knowledge she has is immense, it seems like she has an answer to every question I have.

I need to get back to some homework so I'll leave it here. We should meet up again sometime, if you are still learning healing spells maybe we can work on that at the library?

Signed Twilight Sparkle.

I smile at the letter and breathe out a sigh of slight relief. I had several ideas on how she may react, but it seems I didn't have too much of a reason to worry. She's probably been to more Gala's than me so she's seen plenty of ponies dance with Celestia, it is a bit different considering I am her friend.

These might just be kind words though, words can hide true emotions all too well. But I'll take the slight joke at my expense as a good sign that she can still joke with me, however rarely she does. She joked slightly when we first met but stopped after the whole talk we had, so ya this might be a good sign. I guess I'll see what she's like the next time we meet, whenever that may be. I put away the letter for now and turn back to see Entropy waiting for me impatiently looking at the fish I've cooked.

I chuckle at her, "Not yet, we still have to wait for our guest. So go sit down and wait, I'll add some dessert if you're good." She fluffs her feathers but bobs her head and flies off to sit on her perch. I take a moment to cast a Heat Retention spell on the food to keep it warm and spend a few minutes tending to my plants.

I go into my workroom and bring out a small bag, inside is a fine gold dust sparkling in the light. I spend a few minutes going to every plant pot and sprinkling a small amount of gold dust in each pot before adding a bit of my life magic. I've found this to be a good method to keep my plants healthy even in the cold of fall.

I also have a large amount of gold dust at my disposal now. With the increased production and the Copper Lily's taking less gold dust to fully grow I've been slowly stockpiling a good amount. By this point, I only use half of each day's production on the Copper Lily before barreling the rest.

I have three and a half barrels inside my shack in Gaia's Eden, with each barrel being two feet tall and a foot wide. I don't have much of a use for it right now but if I ever need to grow a magically intensive plant quickly I can. Speaking of magical plants, I've named my new cherry tree.

Stardew Blossom, is a simple but meaningful name. I also decided to make them look a bit visually different from a normal Cherry Blossom Tree, mostly because I got bored while waiting for night to fall and it fit the new name better. I changed the color of the flowers from reds and pinks to shades of blue and white.

I thought it would fit better and it also gave me an excuse to practice Guided Evolution to modify the three fully grown trees, a nice bonus. I also added something else to the fish pond, a medium sapphire that creates a shield around the pond to keep it warm and prevent the water from freezing.

The pond is too shallow so it will freeze into solid ice and kill my new fish. The warming effect is just a modification of the Warming spell and only covers the pond and its berry bushes, the Water Tree and Stardew Blossom Trees are still going to succumb to the cold. But that did really show me I have a problem, I'm really low on good gems.

I still have a few dozen small gems and four large ones, but I only have one medium gem left. They are increasingly becoming needed as I want better enchantments and I expand Gaia's Eden. I'm already planning to make a trip outside the city to find out if a Diamond Dog Caravan is nearby.

Even if it's a different caravan I don't really care, I just want to buy some gems. As for why I'm not just buying from the city shops? I need bulk amounts of gems that don’t draw the attention of the thieving type, or just attention in general that I rather not have considering ponies are still recognizing me. It's not that big of a deal I suppose but I see no reason to deal with all that when I can just buy from the caravans.

Once I'm finished tending to my plants I put away the bag of gold dust and open a cloth-lined box to take out a small band, Entropy's band to be specific. As I walk out into the main room I turn my head and notice the space bending in an odd way, almost like it is melting as it shifts.

I'm used to such a thing and don't even blink when Philomena teleports into my apartment with a small flash of flames. "Friend!" Entropy caws out and jumps down from her perch to stand on my back next to where Philomena landed. I take the letter in Philomena's beak and bring over a few Juniper berries to give them both.

'Thank you, Philomena, but I'll need you to go shortly." I say knowing she wouldn't really understand me. I turn to Entropy and smile at her before giving her the band. "How about you two go and play at Gaia's Eden? Just make sure to have your dress on when you come back and don't bring Philomena. Don't lose the dress." I stress the last part.

She bobs her head happily before putting on her band. "Thank, love." She says while rubbing against me and caws at Philomena before vanishing. I chuckle and open the letter as Philomena teleports away shortly after that.

Shade.

I have been rather busy with your new inventions and suggestions, your new inventions will almost certainly be taking more time than normal to get into production. Mostly from the need to vet ponies working on it and the need for secrecy.

Work is continuing though and things are falling into place. Things will still be rather slow, but other preparations for a situation like this are being made and I have competent and knowledgeable ponies to help with that.

We've started to probe at Queen Chrysalis for more involved talks, but still no answer though. It may take time to set up a meeting while remaining undetected by Cascadia's forces. I will inform you as soon as we make progress, I would ask that you destroy this letter after reading it, but I suspect you already were going to.

I sadly won't have time to meet you for a few weeks, but I would be grateful if you are willing to spend some more time at Gaia's Eden around the end of this month. Specifically the last day. It may be a good time to do your ritual as well if you can prepare it in time.

Also, I have keyed you into the shields around the castle, just be careful of the west wing of the castle, they are much more heavily shielded and won't let you inside, be careful to not fly into them. I did this to once again ask for a favor, it would mean a lot if you could clean up the garden again. As long as you're still willing, I loved how it looked last year.

I hope you're doing well and enjoying the cold weather.

Signed your friend Celestia, or as you call me, Miss. Solis.

I let out a long sigh and felt a bit more somber at the letter. It is good to know things are actually happening, and like normal Celestia is taking some free time for this month. The castle is a surprise for me, but not an unwelcome one as I'm more than happy to improve the garden again.

I can also guess what is in the west wing, but I have no intention of messing with anything to do with that. I feel a pang of sadness about her being in such a mood again, but I can be there for her when she needs me and that's enough. I move over to a pot and decompose the letter to destroy it completely, even if I'm tempted to keep it I won't risk such a thing.

I move back to the food and hear a knock on the door as my guest arrives, he's a bit early. I flip a switch to deactivate a part of my apartment's shield and open the door without walking over. I can sense it's only a single Griffon with my space magic so there is no reason to check myself. "Come on in. It's nice to see you, Avalon, how have you been?" I ask as he slowly walks inside and places down his satchel.

I've met Avalon a few times over the past few months, mostly at the library, but this is the first time I've seen him since the Gala. He looks around and turns to me with a smile. "Um, pretty good? N-Not much has happened actually." He rubs his neck a bit and moves into the kitchen. "You?"

I shrug a little and move down a bread loaf from my cabinets to slice up. "Somewhat the same, I did have an incident. If you've been keeping an eye on the news." I huff a bit and slice several pieces of bread before adding them to a plate. "But the volunteering has been nice and life goes on." I make some casual small talk and mention the news immediately.

I know he was going to have questions when he saw the news, his curious and slightly nervous expression confirms that. "Y-Ya, about t-that." I just laugh a bit and bring the food over to the table. Some fried fish, boiled Spice Root, and some bread and butter. "S-Sorry if it's personal, o-or anything like that... You-"

He doesn't finish as I wave him over and laugh a bit more. "It's fine, the entire situation is not exactly private. Come on, you must be hungry to make a face like that." I point out as he looks intently at the food, he looks a bit embarrassed but complies and sits down with me. "So, before I tell you my story, do you have any theories?" I ask, ready to hear more craziness.

His eyes focused a bit and he took a plate to pile some food on it. "Umm, w-well... You d-did know how to send her a letter." He says uncertainty. "And you know a lot about spells... Do- Do you w-work for her?" He guesses, sounding very uncertain and curious.

:Well, shit: I blink a few times in confusion not expecting his accurate question. I thought he'd guess something similar to my other friends, but he's getting that close to the truth, which was not what I expected. He sees my confused face and elaborates, "I-I know, it sounds dumb but. Well, I tried to ask about it a-and The Princess rarely responds to letters herself, even wi-with inventions."

He adds before shaking his head. "S-Sorry, it's stupid anyway. Thank you for the food, i-it's great as always." He waves it off and changes the subject while biting into a piece of fish. I stayed silent for a moment and let my thoughts run wild because he got far closer than I expected to the truth.

I know him well enough to guess he probably learned that Celestia apparently doesn't read all her mail herself. Something I apparently missed and is very fucking obvious in hindsight, magic damnit! But no matter how he got to that theory I'm now in a slightly messy situation.

I don't want to just lie to him and say I don't work for her, that could come out later and bite me in the flank. It's not like his suspicion will just vanish if I say that, remaining silent and ignoring it would look suspicious as well. I stay silent for another moment before laughing a bit and smiling despite the situation. "You know, out of all my friends you're the first to put that together," I say with a light tone trying to be relaxed about revealing a secret.

I could lie and pretend he's wrong, but that would break trust and if I am somewhat honest I can at least have him stop digging for more answers, I also would rather not have him learn about the war no matter how unlikely that is. Plus this route lets me control what I tell him. He nearly drops his fork and his eyes widen. "W-What?"

I give him a more level and slightly more serious look while trying to remain relaxed. "You are technically right. I work for the Princess in a... Odd fashion? It both is and isn't an official thing and my work is complicated. I don't even do all that much often, maybe help out every few weeks at best." I stretch the truth but mostly keep things factual.

He looks even more stunned but bounces back quickly. "Y-Your serious?" I nod a bit amused at his reaction. "Oh, OH! D-Did you help me get that meeting? I-" He takes a breath seemingly realizing he's a bit over excited. He goes silent for several moments, "O-Ok, ok, umm, w-what does this, mean?" He sounds a little lost in the situation.

I'm happy he calmed himself down some. "Well, don't tell anyone, ok?" He blinks before rapidly nodding in reply. "And nothing really? I just help with spells occasionally. Kind of like Vail Winter, I help in research and that sort of thing." I use myself as an example to throw suspicion off. "My name doesn't have a reputation like that though." I laugh a bit and make a joke out of it. "But some of the things I work on I can't talk about, so I just don't tell others about it." I shrug a little.

He blinks a bit and nods slowly. "Huh, w-wow. That's amazing, t-to work under HER." He shudders a bit and starts to eat again now calming down after getting a seemingly reasonable explanation. "S-So, you did help get that meeting? W-Wait, s-sorry, I won't ask any more questions! I-I don't want you to get in t-trouble." He quickly corrects himself.

I laugh again, finding some humor in his reaction and relaxing fully knowing he's taking this rather well. I think his theorizing about it helped him react more calmly as he already considered it to be a possibility. I wave my hoof, "Kind of? I told somepony higher up that your work might be worth her attention, apparently, they agreed, cheers to that." I lift my cup a bit. I did tell somepony higher-up, he doesn't need to know that it was Celestia.

He nods and smiles again looking bashful while lifting his cup to bump against mine. "T-Thanks, that means a lot. I- Well, do you- I mean, would you be willing to, t-teach me more? About spell creation I m-mean, I really like it." He asks with a combination of excitement and nervousness.

I smile at my friend seeing that look of determination and nod back happily. "Sure, I have free time and you come up with some good ideas of your own. Now, how about I tell you an amazing story? A story where I had a panic attack and ended up in the news." I change the subject to something else and let the topic rest on that high note.

He smiles much more and his eyes light up before he nods happily. "Sure! Y-You, didn't actually have a panic attack, right?" I just chuckle again at him.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 995

The idea of changing the flowers to be whites and blues along with the name Stardew Blossom was perfect, I love it. Thank you to everyone who made a suggestion, I'll probably keep the names for other plants down the road.

I was thinking of how to have Shade worm his way out of this, but I think this makes more sense considering I think Avalon is the type to keep looking out of curiosity.

I also don't think Avalon will appear too much more with the new arrangement, but you'll see him around as this gave me a good excuse to show him working with Shade more.

And like normal I'm taking the day off, maybe two days we'll see how it shakes out. See you all soon.