OCT 19 Thursday.

I delicately wrap the wounded hindleg with a clean bandage and make sure to keep a steady hoof while I do it.

I also do my best to ignore the mare I'm working on. She's laying on the bed and because of the height and angle, she has a pretty open view of my flank and underside. "There we go, Miss. Make sure not to put pressure on it for a few days and come back if you need the bandages changed." I use my professional tone and pass her a few forms I was given for her to sign.

She smiles a little too much and I move a bit further back pretending to focus on some other task while she deals with the paperwork. "Thank you, will do. So, what's a stallion like you do-" She starts to use some pick-up line and talks to me like a mare before her, but it cuts off as a nurse quickly walks up to me.

"How much magic do you still have?" The mare asks quickly and with some urgency. I've seen the staff here have to act quickly before and they always have that tone when they do so it immediately gets my attention. "We need anypony that knows how to cast the B.L.P spell, you know it right?" They quickly flip through a few pages on a clipboard.

I nod quickly and straighten up. "I have plenty left and yes I can," I answer simply and they nod before motioning for me to follow and quickly walking off. I don't ask anything else and just start to follow them out of the room and down a hallway leaving the mare on her own looking a bit perturbed.

I pass a few other quickly moving ponies and we eventually stop outside a room. "Bracelet and necklace. We have three ponies that just came in bleeding badly and most of our nurses are out of magic." She motions to my jewelry and holds out a hoof.

I'm not comfortable taking them off, but this is hardly the time to let that get in the way. I quickly use my space magic to take both off and pass them to her while making a note of her name on the badge she has. She nods and opens the door to let me in before walking off somewhere else.

The room is quiet with hushed voices talking over three ponies receiving a lot of attention. It's near the end of the day and today has been busier than normal. It's not the busiest day I've seen but a lot of the ponies are probably low on magic at this point even after trying to conserve it.

A stallion wearing a doctor's uniform walks up quickly and notes my badge. "A volunteer? You know the spell? Doesn't matter, quickly that patient over there." They point to a mare with several bleeding bandages on. "The other two are worse off, we need to prioritize." He adds some form of explanation and then quickly moves back to work and I do the same.

I make sure not to disrupt the others but quickly make my way to the pony and cast the spell after joining the nurse bandaging wounds. The wounds are deep and seem very inconsistent, mostly having splinters of wood that look like shrapnel. I have no idea what did this but I make sure the spell is working correctly by checking a few wounds.

The mare nurse working on bandaging them looks over at me. "You have the focus to help too?" She asks while offering a roll of bandages to me. More complex spells like the B.L.P spell can take some mental effort on the part of the caster to power continuously and I need to control it to deactivate parts as she continues to bandage the mare's wounds, but it's barely noticeable to me.

The control I have on my magic and the mental strain from it I can endure is much higher than the vast majority of ponies. Mostly from all my constant improvement and practice with things like space magic where I have to keep several tasks in mind at once.

I take the bandages with my space magic and quickly start working on a few wounds delicately and slowly removing splinters of wood. The splinters aren't hard to remove as they are mostly small and only go a bit in, I leave the larger ones to the nurse. "Yes, tell me if you see any gaps in the spell." It's unlikely but being warned about it might just make all the difference.

The nurse nods and we both work in silence trying our best. I pay more attention to the mare we're working on and I see she's not in good shape, but she's still awake at least. She keeps wincing and twitching each time we do anything to bandage her and seems to be in a lot of pain. "Ah!" she calls out as we flip her over as gently as we can to get to other wounds.

I pause as the mare calls out and I notice something bad, after we flipped her over we can now see the other side of her body. At the top of her side, I notice a small item sticking out of the mare like many others, but it's not wooden splints, it's a tiny piece of metal. "Did anypony scan her insides?" I ask just to be safe and motion to the metal.

The other nurse looks up at me away from her work and up to me. "Just her lungs wh-" She stops after noticing the piece of metal as well. "Buck! Doctor Sick!" The nurse calls out and I quickly step back to let the same stallion doctor from earlier take my place as he rushes over a moment later.

He spots the piece of metal without us saying the things and looks at me. "Drop the spell." I don't question him and do just that before he can even fully turn back. His horn lights up and despite the tired look he has he casts what I presume are some scanning spells.

A moment later he pulls out some paper from his coat and looks at the results, only to look back at me with more concern and urgency. "Cast the spell again." A matrix flashes immediately and I recast the spell. "How long can you hold that?" He asks while looking at the other ponies in the room.

The B.L.P spell isn't that draining and I have plenty of magic left. "A few hours if I'm not casting anything else," I answer honestly, not holding back at all after sensing the urgency of the situation. He copies the papers quickly and clips the copy to a clipboard at the end of the bed.

He looks up surprised but shakes his head a bit. "Don't bandage her anymore and just keep her under the spell as long as you can. Don't give her anything either." He quickly moves back to the other bigger group to help with the other injured ponies. I don't know what he found but he knows better than me so I focus on the spell and keeping the whimpering mare stable.

The mare is mostly keeping her eyes closed and seems to be pretty out of it from the pain. But the mare opens her eyes to glance at me. "Are, they, ok?" She struggles to say and I look to the nurse for an answer, but the nurse just glances at the other injured pony's uncertainty. I have no idea what to say but the nurse seems to find the words first.

"They are being taken care of. Just try to endure a bit longer, you'll all be fine." The nurse uses a calming tone but looks a bit sad with her ears drooping, but the injured mare closes her eyes again and breathes out seemingly satisfied, and now trying to relax and control her labored breathing. I can't do much to help her right now but I do get an idea.

I turn back to the nurse. "I could cast a foal sleep spell?" I suggest uncertainty. "She can at least have some quiet." I offer the only thing that might be able to help with things hoping she knows what spell I'm talking about. The nurse perks up a bit and quickly walks over to a pony I've noticed watching everything happening in the room, head nurse Dr. Mellow Meadows.

She came in but has just stayed to the side and watched, probably here to swap out with a different doctor when they run out of magic. The room regularly lights up with light from spells being cast every minute or so as the doctors work. The nurse probably asked Dr. Meadows instead of any other doctor because they are busy with the patients.

They talk for a moment before Meadows comes over and the nurse goes off to do something else. She glances at me before looking at the clipboard the doctor updated. "That spell still lets's sound out correct?" I nod. "Do it." I quickly cast the spell over the mare and noticed she relaxed a bit more a moment later.

Dr. Meadows moves her hooves into the silenced field and claps them a little to hear the sound before nodding. "Good. Drop it if you aren't relieved in an hour, the other spell is more important." With that, I'm left alone for a moment before a different nurse joins me to watch over the mare.

It takes them nearly forty minutes to finish with one of the other patients and move on to the poor mare. By this point, Dr. Meadows is directly helping and I'm told to cancel my spells before moving back to let them get to work on the mare. After that, I just sit to the side for a few moments and look over at the other two ponies.

They also don't look great but seem ok now, or at least stable. As I sit to the side a very tired pony moves over to the same area and lies down to rest. It's the same stallion doctor From before. His badge has his name on it, Dr. Sick. :I hate pony names:

He looks over at me and gives me a tired nod. "Good job, there was some metal deep in her side. She was probably going to be fine but it helped us prioritize." His tired voice compliments me a bit and he shows a bit of respect in his smile. "You were probably supposed to be off by now, right? Things are fine now, you can go home and get some rest, you earned it." He walks off after that.

I sit there for a moment and look at the injured ponies again before silently leaving the room and making my way outside. The nurse that originally came and got me gave me my bracelet and necklace back and I put them on and retrieved my saddlebags before flying home.

I receive my mail after arriving and by the time I'm finally back in my apartment it's already dark outside. I cast a magic light as Entropy leaves my shadow to stand on my back. I flip the letter I got over as Entropy looks at my head, "Ponies, be ok?" She asks with a slightly somber tone.

I turn back to her with a reassuring smile and pet her. "They will be, they just need rest and time. How about a late lunch?" I ask to distract her from that. I might need to stop her from coming with me, I would rather she not see somepony die, not that I want to either.

She wags her tail and I make both of us lunch while reading over a short-ish letter from Twilight. She has some free time in mid-November so she asked for a good time and place to meet up. The rest of her letter is the normal mix of how she's doing and talking about magic.

I make a mental reminder to send her a letter tomorrow before quickly finishing my food and getting to work on a few things. After finally finishing my new armor I spent some time painting it and making another full suit of armor that was the same as my first suit before I upgraded it.

I still need something to practice with Stone and having a second set that I can quickly upgrade if the first breaks seem like it's worthwhile. I go into my workroom and grab a few things before organizing what I worked on this morning. I finished the second armor set this morning but didn't have time to put it away before leaving.

I take a wooden crate I made and start packing all the armor pieces away to be moved, I don't plan to store this armor set here but at Gaia's Eden just like my first. Much like my staff, I don't like leaving my important things in my apartment in case anything ever happens.

After packing it away I take it with me and find Entropy on her perch. "We're going to Gaia's Eden." She doesn't even question it a moment later we both vanish before reappearing in my small shack. I immediately take notice of Celestia's presence but ignore it for the moment.

Entropy lays on my bed in the shack while I organize my shelves in the only other room. It has several crates filled with smaller boxes that have preservation spells to contain all of my seeds. My staff and my first set of armor are also here, the armor is now painted pitch black thanks to a little help from Daisy.

Last game night a few days ago I asked her about what paint is the blackest she knew of, I didn't ask it like that of course. I also got a few teasing questions from Blaz and even one from Maple, but in the end, I did get an answer. A trip to the market the next day and I had the armor painted by that evening.

The paint she showed me reflects little light and doesn't shine in the dark which is important. The only magical change I've made to the armor is a small spell to change my voice when I speak. It's good for both intimidation and to further obscure my identity.

Beyond replacing the brown bags I would strap to my armor with black bags and extend the silence spell to them there isn't much more I can do with the armor. The small diamond can't really handle much more than one more small spell and nothing as large as the silence spell, so for now this is as good as it will get.

I am thinking of Imbuing the armor at some point but that is still a ways off. I finish organizing things and move my magical light around to find a White Oak seed before leaving my Shack. As I step out onto the snow-covered ground in the cold night I spot Celestia in the distance.

She's just sitting at the edge of the fish pond watching them under the slight glow of the Stardew Blossom Trees. They have lost most of their leaves and flowers from the winter cold, but a few still remain and they are enough to make her able to see without the need of another light.

I think about joining her for a moment, but she looks over at me for a moment before turning back and her face says it all. She looks sad and somber, she also looks like she wants to be left alone for now. I know she likes to be left alone at this time of year so I give her the space she needs.

I suppress the slight pang of sadness and the want to comfort her, instead I focus on the task at hoof. I walk over to an unused area of Gaia's Eden, to the right of the Vita Tree and in between Celestia's house and the river. There is still a lot of empty space in between everything though.

I start by using my space magic to move all the snow out of a twenty-foot circle leaving only dead grass and soil. It takes me nearly ten minutes to clear it all and once I'm done I decompose any plant dead or alive inside the radius. I plant the White Oak seed I brought and start to grow out a structure.

A one-foot thick raised platform raises up, the same size as the circle I made at twenty feet around. It takes me a bit to grow it all even after massively speeding up the process, but when I'm done I take out a single small ruby and start to enchant it with a basic shield spell to keep out any snow or rainfall.

This raised platform will be the place where I assemble my first ritual. The Imbuing ritual is weak enough that as long as I don't put it next to the Vita Tree or any large magical gems it can be near a magically active area without any danger. But that still means I need to keep magically powerful items away from the ritual's immediate vicinity when casting the ritual.

This small ruby is just about the limit of what is safe and if I didn't need it to keep the snow off I wouldn't be using it. I take out my wood carving kit and get ready to begin carving. This is going to take a while, probably days actually. But it's best I carve out channels for the gem dust to rest in, it will help with stability.

I could just use my life magic but this needs high precision so it's best I do it by hoof and regrow any mistakes I inevitably make. Now, all that remains is the work.

POV shift Celestia.

I gently toss another blueberry into the pond and watch a fish gobble it down in the soft white light of the trees around me.

The small sounds of the mostly silent night are soothing to my nerves and calming to my weary mind. Out of all the gifts Shade has ever given me this place has been the biggest blessing in my life. A place where I need not be watchful or worried, a place where I can simply relax.

Who knew I would find such peace in one of the most dangerous locations in Equestria? The depths of a wild and untamed forest. I think that would have some poetic irony to most, but I disagree. Many of my ponies may see such a place as wild and dangerous, and they are not wrong.

But there is peace and beauty in a place without others, a place not controlled by anypony. A place that rules itself and is left to grow untamed. Well, it was at least, until some mad colt decided it would be a nice place to be left alone and take a nice break. I softly giggle leaves my muzzle despite my mood.

She would love this place, to have somewhere to be away from it all. My amusement falls away quickly at that thought and I look up as a light blue, glowing cherry flower falls into the water in front of me. A few fish nibble at it before I gently pick it up to look at it closely.

Yet another marvel of magic made by Shade, another to add to the ever-growing list. I find it odd that he does such marvelous things and could never forget one of his achievements, yet he does. I see it from time to time ever so often when we speak of the things he's made.

He will gloss over some of them or not even mention them at all like he considers them to be nothing but a small helping hoof. He's improved so many lives, but I don't think he can fully see it. As an example, I have lived with a slight fear of running out of food during winter for a long time now.

It is not something I or my ponies experience often now, thank magic for that. But in days long gone it was a constant and very real fear, that's why his frost crops stand out to me so much. To grow food in a wasteland of cold and ice is a feat countless beings have tried and failed to do for millennia.

Yet, he barely even mentions it. He looked a bit surprised when I mentioned the expected progress of its cultivation this year at one of our meetings. He sees solutions to so many problems others can not, yet he fails to truly see the absolute good he does every time he makes something for others.

Neither fame nor gold, nor even simple recognition interests him. So why? Why do so much for seemingly nothing? I believe my ponies are kind, but even they very rarely help out of pure altruism. Unseen or otherwise they normally get something out of it, yet he gets so little.

I pay him a small bit of what he could ask for, but it seems so... Lacking to reward him with only that. Yet I know he will not take anything else, for he doesn't need it. I think back to the worrying answer such questions have sent me to before. Fear, why fear?

Out of all the things that could drive him, why fear? I am a bit ashamed to admit I thought he may fear me at first, but he made it clear that is not the case though. But, then what? What does he fear so much that all of this is reasonable? An appropriate reaction. I don't know, and it makes me worry for my friend.

I place the flower on the water's surface to float slowly. He is kind enough to see my pain, and kind enough to give me space here. Even when I am the one intruding into his space to be alone, I am sure he would just say it's my space as well. That is what it is, isn't it? A home away from home.

I have had so many homes, but this one is so peaceful. I crane my neck up and look past the patches of glowing leaves and flowers to look at the stars and moon.

Yes, I think she will love this place.

Author's Note

Thanks fore reading. :]

I was planning to add a longer then normal part about Shade at the hospital, but it was longer then I liked so I cut Shade's private time a bit with Celestia thoughts.

From what I understand, and I am no expert, metal shrapnel can be a lot worse than wood because it penetrates deeper instead of breaking apart. Again I’m no expert so take that with some salt.

Also, I'm starting to write these faster, and at this point I might be able to make them 4k each. I decided not to, mostly because I feel that is really pushing the limit of an enjoyable read.

And I've already gotten myself to the point of writing 3k in less then three hours, so I don't think I'll reach for 4k yet.

This all has no bearing on the story, I just thought you might find my not so humble brag interesting. See you all next time.

Also last thing I swear. Here, have an updated map of Gaia's Eden.