DEC 1 Friday.

I look over the small list of things I've been thinking about for gifts. Hearth's warming isn't too far off and I'll need to start buying the more difficult gifts soon.

I wonder if Blaz will be joining us this year? Probably not, he did last year so he's probably excited to go see his grand foals this year. I think for a bit longer before deciding to work on something to give me a break from this. Honestly, most of my friends are easy enough to buy gifts for, with some glaring exceptions.

I'm getting Avalon a nice satchel, it's a small thing but I think he'll like it. Twilight is getting a few books I have from the small collection I own, none of them are that valuable but a few of the old journals are interesting and unique. My close friends are getting the normal things.

I already have some puzzles for Blaz. A few new sweets for Maple to try that I got while training Entropy's teleportation range. At this point she's able to move me across nearly half of Equestria in one jump, it does exhaust her though. Anyway while on a trip I stopped in a city and found some odd local treats for Maple.

For Daisy I got paints, along with a small spell I found that's supposed to help you clean off paintbrushes. Then I have the ponies that are more difficult to get gifts for, Celestia and Cadance. I do consider Cadance a friend after all the time we spent together, I should find a way to talk to her more now that we're done with our project.

Something to ask Celestia later, maybe we can meet just to talk from time to time? Not as often as me and Celestia, Cadance is also busy but much like Twilight it would be nice to spend time with her every once in a while. As for gifts for these two princesses?

It's not easy. For Celestia, I have an idea that should make a nice addition, but I'm still not sure about that one. I am making her a small bonsai of a Stardew Blossom Tree, I also grew a tiny Companion Vine on it to help it stay alive and look interesting.

Then there is Cadance, I'm kind of clueless here but I did have one idea. Last year I just threw a bunch of money at her but we're closer now and that seems too informal. So I've been looking at it from the angle of magical spells and enchantments I could make her.

In the end, I did have an idea that is pretty small, but they both might appreciate the sticking spell with an intent rune. I've seen the royal regalia that Cadance and Celestia wear and I know for a fact it's not all that enchanted. I asked out of curiosity once and it only has an enchantment to keep them clean and make them durable.

Now I can't add any advanced spells to that, but a simple sticking spell to keep them more firmly in place so they can make quicker movements without them falling off is easy enough and should fit. I added the intent rune so they could just will it and take it off with ease when they want to.

It's a small thing but it can make them both more comfortable while working so it's a decent gift to me. I'm also making her a plant, and it's proven to be a fun little project. It's not ready yet but I've really gotten to test my limitations with the little plant, I made a strawberry tree.

Yup, it's what it sounds like. A tree that fruits strawberries the size of an apple, it's been fun to make and taught me a few small things while doing it. I have no idea where she may want the tree itself but I can just grow it anywhere she wants so she doesn't have to wait for it to grow.

I grab an item off my shelves and glance at the ruby sitting on its own to the side. I haven't gotten around to testing the shadow Imbued gem yet, mostly due to a mix of game night and my decision to focus on learning more scanning spells for my volunteer work. Maybe something for later today?

I leave those thoughts and focus on the diamond that is normally inside my necklace pendant. I've been thinking about anything that could help me at the Changeling meeting when it finally happens, and this is a small but very important thing that I wanted to improve. Basically, I remade the emotional shield on my necklace again over a few days.

I've done this several times now and have slowly improved it as I've improved my own skills over the years. I was giving myself a break after I finished improving it by thinking of gifts, the improvements to the enchantments are mostly small with one exception.

Normally when I wear my necklace it makes Changelings think I have very muted emotions, they can still sense some emotions just not all that much. But showing any emotion at a serious meeting is a vulnerability, so I added a second mode to the enchantments.

If I tap my necklace twice it hides my emotions to a minimal level while still showing them, if I tap three times it blocks all emotions. The idea here is to just make it harder for them to learn anything about me or manipulate me in any way. I finish inspecting the enchantments and making sure it's working before putting the gem back inside and putting the necklace on.

As I slip my necklace back on I notice space bending and melting, I quickly make my way out of my workroom with a smile seeing Philomena on my countertop with Entropy. I scratch Philomena a bit before taking a letter she has in her beak, "Thank you, here." I give both of them some treats before opening the letter and reading it.

Shade.

I apologize if you had plans but things have progressed and your presence is needed. I received word this morning that a meeting has finally been agreed on and we need to speak about preparations for it. The meeting has been set for tonight so we must meet quickly.

Please arrive as soon as you can and make sure to bring anything you think you may need for this event. Also don't have Entropy take you to the mail room, have her take you to my office directly. It's best you aren't seen outside your armor at the palace before this meeting so bring it as well.

Celestia.

I feel my eyes focus and my mind goes a little crazy with thoughts. A few things about this seem... Off, the suddenness of the meeting is the most prominent. But we are trying to hide our meeting from another force so quick action would make it harder to intervene or learn about.

:fuck it, these questions can be answered by Celestia, it's best I get moving: I turn to Entropy and give her a serious look. "I need to get to Gaia's Eden. It's time for the meeting." I've told Entropy about the meeting because she's coming with me, and to tell her the rules of how she needs to act.

She basically can't show herself unless I tell her to, mostly as a hidden way to retreat. She snaps to attention hearing my words and a second later I'm at Gaia's Eden, I grab my armor and weapons quickly and have Entropy take me right back home. I take off my saddlebags and get my armor on before attaching my weapons and going to my workroom.

I fill the small pitch-black bags that I have on my armor with medical supplies and some emergency food. Along with a few small gems just in case I need them. With everything ready I turn to Entropy, who's been following me this entire time. "We need to go to Celestia's office, you remember it?"

My deeper-than-normal voice asks and she bobs her head. "Good, once we arrive, stay in my shadow and don't come out unless I say so." She again bobs her head agreeing without question with my serious and slightly rushed tone. A moment later the Void greets me again and I take a moment to let the silence wash over me.

I can already feel my nerves getting all jumbled and frayed, I suppose that's to be expected after waiting months for this meeting. When I reappear inside Celestia's office I take notice of Celestia and Cadance both in the office, I also notice Entropy immediately slips into my shadow. Such a good girl.

They both turn to see me and I nod to them both. Celestia smiles a bit and opens her mouth to speak, but anything she is about to say is cut off by Cadance. She looks pretty startled at my appearance and sudden arrival, jumping back a bit. "Shade?!! The buck is this?!!" She asks incredulously.

I laugh after hearing her curse, my deep tone seems to throw her off even more. Although I can't really tell what her expression is exactly. At this point, I'm good enough with my space magic to see things like smiles and other more noticeable expressions, but more subtle things are still beyond me.

I straighten up a bit and walk closer. "This is my new armor and weapons." I detach Storm from my side for a moment to show them. "Anyway, what's the situation like? Because this honestly seems like a trap from your letter." I turn to Celestia and ask while ignoring Cadance.

Cadance moves to my side and looks over the armor but turns back to me after I ask Celestia my question. "No, no, NO. You don't get to appear here looking like THAT and not at least explain. And no, this is my new armor Is not an explanation." Cadance says back a bit annoyed. "You look like you stepped out of a storybook." I nearly laugh at the irony there.

Then again I really want details on everything that's happening so I just turn to Cadance. "My new weapons are pure mithril and were made by a master smith before being heavily enchanted by me. And no you can't hold them. The armor is to hide who I am as I'm basically coming along as a guard." I explain quickly and bluntly.

I shake my armor a little to show it's silent. "The armor changes my voice, makes everything completely silent, and is made from a very special type of wood." I dump all that on her in two breaths before turning back to Celestia, who now has a larger smile and probably an amused look. "Now, about the meeting."

Cadance is probably annoyed and glaring at me but sighs and lies on the couch. "Why was I expecting a better answer? I'm also not even going to try and question you any more. You'll just give me a headache for all your, you-ness. At least Aunty will have her strong knight to protect her." She teases me a bit and I'm glad my slight blush is blocked from her sight.

Celestia moves over a few papers to read them while giggling a bit. "I did say I'd have adequate protection, not that it's truly needed." Celestia takes off her glasses and sets them down to address me. "I can't fault you for thinking it's a trap, but it's unfortunately not so simple." She has a less joking tone than me and Cadance.

I nod and stay standing while moving to the side so I'm not blocking Cadance's sight. Celestia looks at me over for a moment with a smile and motions to the weapons. "It seems your new weapons fit you well. May I see them?" I wordlessly disconnect them and pass both over without hesitation.

Cadance snorts while watching me. "Of course you let her see your mighty blade." I look over at her as she's a lot more blunt than she normally is. I look back to Celestia with a head tilt asking a silent question.

She smiles. "She's just worried, this is new for her as well." Celestia holds my blades and unsheathes both to inspect them for a moment. "A master smith indeed, these are very impressive works. Make sure to be careful with them." She passes them back and moves a few things around on her desk while I reconnect Storm and Frost.

I huff but nod respecting her advice. "I think I've had enough practice to not hurt myself with my own weapons. But I'll take your advice all the same. Back to my question though, if this is not a trap then why so suddenly are we meeting?" I ask again and shift in my armor a bit.

She keeps her smile and gives me what I think is a deadpan look, it's hard to tell. "I wasn't referring to you, I still remember that Changelings leg." I pretend not to feel embarrassed as my reckless actions of the past are brought up, she probably knows anyway. "We have time so you may wish to get comfortable, but I presume you are not taking that helmet off?"

I just nod as it's best I don't, keeps me less connected to my real self overall. She nods back, "To begin with, we are doing things so suddenly because they requested it, apparently Queen Chrysalis isn't entirely sure all her own Changelings are on her side." I pause at that.

I'm thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm, that would do it. Spies within a species of spies, I shouldn't be surprised." It does make sense to a degree that this war would have spies on both sides feeding information back and forth. Changelings are particularly good at that, but it also makes them susceptible in a few ways.

It still leaves the possibility of a trap, but it's also not a completely unreasonable explanation. "So both sides of this meeting are timing things to make it look like nothing is happening at all? I presume it's going to be a small overall meeting with them?"

She smiles at me and nods again. "Correct on both accounts. Both sides will only bring six members, no more or less. We'll be meeting an hour outside of Canterlot right after dark and the meeting will have to end before sunrise." She shuffles through more papers.

I still have some distrust with the meeting and I voice it. "That's risky, did we pick the location?" She shakes her head. "I don't like them picking the location either. Although if they probably know you can teleport they would be more hesitant to try and do something like trapping you. They might try to target the other ponies you bring though."

She hums for a moment in thought. "This is a diplomatic meeting, though one in the middle of a war. I suppose it's a possibility, but with how close the location is to Canterlot I can bring us all back easily. That spell does take a few moments though, how far do your senses reach?" I can see where she's going with that line of thought.

I think for a moment. "If I'm going for detail over range? My best would be seventy feet. I'll probably keep it even more limited though to look out for anyone or anything trying to hide. I can definitely buy us enough time for an exit though if we need it. And we have Entropy as a backup." My shadow chirps a bit in agreement.

I pause for a moment as a question comes to mind. "Speaking of me, I know we discussed I'd have some story behind me. What is my actual role going to be here? Who will I be playing the part of in this dance of politics?" I say with some blatant sarcasm.

We discussed a few details of what my cover is going to be in a few letters. It's inevitable that Ponies and Changelings will connect Shade Evergreen with me as I am right now at some point in the future. But what we really need to avoid is them connecting Shade Evergreen to Veil Winter, that would cause a lot more problems and be much more dangerous for me.

As it is they are going to look into me and find an odd earth pony, but it makes sense from an outside perspective. A gifted young earth pony that was taught by a former guard and has unique skills. It's going to draw attention undoubtedly, but not the wrong kind.

They will see me as some elite guard and not an all-important inventor, they will find me and put it together before hopefully not looking all that much after getting answers. And I'm unlikely to be targeted with violence as an elite guard because I'm close enough to Celestia and dangerous enough to not be worth the effort and risk.

Celestia speaks after a moment. "Well, we need somepony that knows about the Love Gatherer enough to explain it in decent detail and we'd look like fools to bring Veil Winter with us to the first meeting. So you will be posing as somepony who's helped him with his work. After all no pony works alone on something so important." She keeps a more level tone despite my attempts to keep things light.

I chuckle a bit. "So I'm officially my own colleague now?" I joke before thinking about it for a moment. "It's still far from perfect, and it makes me a slightly bigger target. But we can say I don't know anything about the rune and everything else in the spells is something they could potentially learn with a lot of effort." I have reason to reassure myself.

She nods and looks a bit guilty I think. "Yes, it is not ideal. But an expert on the magic used is needed for them to take us seriously. We at least have to tell them how it roughly works for them to believe us and demonstrate it. It also gains some trust with them that we'd bring somepony with such knowledge."

She drinks some tea and takes a breath. "We can still have somepony else take up the role, but the more lies we use for this the shakier any future relationship will be." She sounds a little resigned.

I know she doesn't like me being in danger, but it is needed to make things work with as few fuck ups as possible. We can just have some pony lie about working with Veil Winter but that cover might not work as well for them as it would for me. I'm known to have an interest in spellcraft publicly and my life already has many secrets.

We need their trust and to do that we can't just lie about everything. So even if it's only truth adjacent it's better than an outright lie. Especially considering this new relationship is based around an invention, if we lie about the inventor and the work involved it could come out very badly.

The Changelings are a paranoid race from what we know and would start to question all of our intentions if that happened. To simplify everything, it's best we try not to lie, even though we need to lie. This is the best of a shitty compromise and I already feel a slight headache from all this secretive stuff I'm now dealing with.

I nod my agreement after a moment. "I can do that, it won't be too hard to give them a simplified explanation. The plan will have to work, and if worse comes to worst I'll just be fully unmasked." I say whole tapping my helmet. I get a silent answer as my joke falls flat.

Cadance turns from a book she was reading while listening in. "Boo, use more effort." I turn to her and silently use a sticking spell to trap the book she's holding in her hooves. She notices quickly and turns back to me, "Hey! No pranks while you and Aunty are doing something important." She says using a scolding tone.

I smile despite her not seeing it. "Good thing I didn't hear your name in that reasoning." I turn back to Celestia and cancel the sticking spell. I really hope my fake identity stays intact but It's partly out of my hooves now, and I knew that when agreeing to all this. "So, what now?"

Celestia gives me what I think is a reassuring look. "Things will be fine, Shade, and even if they do learn you're Veil Winter I find it unlikely they'd try to anger you by telling that to others. You did invent a new food source for them, in fact, I've gotten no less than five requests from Miss. Cricket to meet Veil Winter." I hear the slightly teasing tone she has despite the mood.

I remember the look Cricket had when we last spoke. "No thank you, I really don't need to meet my... Fans." I slowly say the last word with some fear. I can deal with a lot, but meeting my fans is past my limit by a large degree. My response just gets a giggle from Celestia and a Laugh from Cadance.

Celestia stops giggling quickly and answers me. "As for now? First, we need a fake name for you to use. A code name is probably better as it leans into your disguise." She smiles again. "I vote for Night Sky." I do a double-take and look back at her quickly. "What? It fits, doesn't it?"

Cadance gets over her laughter and pops up with a large smile. "Boo, no puns. And no! The Dark Knight, he is one of your knights after all." Cadance brings another option for the table and I'd give them both glares if they could see it. "And don't you deny it! You're the one in FULL plate armor." She points at me.

I let out a long-suffering sigh and drooped a bit. "Rejected, both of those are far too... Much. Shadow, just Shadow, it's a play on my name and fits the colors. By magic, both of you." I stomp a silent hoof to emphasize my point but it doesn't make a sound much to my annoyance. Celestia just nods and writes it down.

Cadance pauses for a moment and also nods. "You know what? That fits. A knight in the Princess's shadow, it's so... Story like." I can hear the teasing tone and sense that damned smile on her face as she walks over to me. But that smile drops as she levels her head with me. "Keep her safe, she needs protection. Even if she disagrees." Cadance's tone is much more serious and she looks right at me.

Her tone change throws me off but I stand straight and nod. "I promise. Just don't scold me if I come back injured from doing something stupid." I say with equal seriousness.

Celestia looks at us both and sighs a bit. "I'll be fine Cadance. Here, this is everything you'll need." Celestia passes Cadance a stack of papers that probably contain plans for if things go wrong if I had to guess. "Now get going, the meeting won't be long now and we need to focus." Celestia dismisses Cadance.

Cadance gives Celestia a quick hug and takes the papers. "I love you. You better stay safe. Good luck, Shade, and nice seeing you." She nods to me and I nod back as she leaves the office.

I turn back to Celestia. "So, let's get into the details." She smiles a bit in response as I settle back in.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :]
Current year is 995

And so it begins. I have no idea if this plot even makes sense but let's see what trouble I can get myself into. Also thank you again to the lovely person that spotted the massive mistake I nearly made with this plotline.

Anyway, have a good day and eat fruit. Also, a nice and even chapter word count, hmmm.