DEC 7 Thursday.

I breathe out slowly while sitting inside my apartment, snuggling with Entropy and drawing the view of an afternoon snowstorm outside my window.

The last week since the meeting has been quiet for me, I spent some time with my friends but have mostly been unwinding. I did end up getting some more details from Celestia the day after along with her insisting I write to talk if I need to. But I'm doing better than I thought I would.

I feel some sadness, but that's mostly due to harming others. I don't regret it though, those Changelings were a threat to my friend and innocents and I do actually know for sure now that they were. The letter sent by Celestia said one of the Changelings admitted they worked for Cascadia.

Apparently, I scared one of them hard enough for them to not need that much convincing to talk, the others have been much more silent. All they knew was that there would be enemy Changelings they needed to ambush at that location, they hadn't said anything about knowing of the meeting.

Beyond that information, I got to look at the contract Celestia and Chrysalis signed at the meeting, and it's about what I expected it to be. I am very glad there was a positive outcome of this meeting, it's made me pretty content actually. I did a good thing, even if I did it in a violent way.

The contract itself basically just agrees that they won't outright kill each other and at least will talk before any hostile action happens. It's far from comprehensive and could be broken by either side without too much effort, but it is in place and it forms a foundation for future relations. That's what Celestia said at least and she's the expert here.

My feelings for most of the meeting are positive, but it's still taking me time to unwind and put the injured screams of those Changelings out of my mind. I really don't enjoy doing that, but I need to harden myself to do things like this, sadly. I never want to take satisfaction in this, but I will need to do it again so it's best I find some form of cooperation with these feelings.

On a more positive note getting all the Hearth's Warming gifts ready has been a nice way to spend my time. Along with repairing my armor. The damage was mostly to the paint and the bark, both things were fixed in an hour along with some extra time making sure it's all fixed up properly.

Let's start with Cadance's gift, the aptly named Strawberry Tree. I finished it and even changed the color of the leaves to reds and pinks to fit the style better. I couldn't think of much beyond that so I'm throwing in a few more different kinds of tea for her to enjoy.

I got a nice satchel for Avalon and already sent it off through the mail. He should get it when he comes back home from his trip. Twilight still gets the books along with a few more books I managed to find at a bookstore. My friend's gifts are all ready and the only one left is Celestia.

I made the small Stardew Blossom bonsai and I'm also going to give an old creation of mine to her. For a long time now I've had a medium ruby floating above a pyramid of Steel Wood inside my workroom. The little illusionary planet that I made years ago.

I honestly forgot about it after all this time, it was sitting at the back of a shelf and wasn't even active. Equestria has globes and knows a decent amount about how the planet looks so revealing this to her is not going to show I know more than I should. I also think it makes a good gift.

I chuckle a little to myself. The me from a few years ago would never take even the tiny risk of giving this to Celestia, but I've changed with time, haven't I? They really have ground down my paranoia. I suppose that's not the worst thing, as long as I don't lose it entirely.

I leave those thoughts for a moment and bring the small ruby I've enchanted into an illusionary book to draw inside close to me. After relaxing for a while I decided to finally test out the shadow-imbued gem that Entropy and I made a few weeks ago, so as a first test, I'm drawing in it.

I don't know if taking the gem into a shadow would mess with the information stored inside the illusion or the enchantments in the gem, so that's where we'll start. I've been drawing a basic sketch of the outside and once I'm done having my fun I turn off the illusion and turn to Entropy as she rests between my forelegs. "You awake Girl?"

She chirps a bit and looks up to me. "Good, we have something to test out, if you're up to it?" I move over the gem for her to see and she tilts her head a bit before moving over to stand up and take a closer look. "Remember that last ritual we did? Try to take this into a shadow and back out again."

I move the gem over to her and she places a talon on it. "Ok, test time!" She says and a moment later slips into my shadow. I chuckle a bit as she comes out of my shadow with the gem. I check and both the drawing and enchantments are completely fine, so next I leave the spells active and nod to her.

"Again." She does the same motions again but this time the magic of the illusion runs a bit wild before disappearing. She brings the gem out and the spells aren't active anymore. I activate it and see that it's working fine, it seems the magic of the illusion was cut off.

It makes sense though, the gem was taken into the shadows, not the magic going outside of the gem. Once I'm sure it didn't break I pass it back to Entropy. "Ok, Girl. I want you to try and leave this in my shadow, just move it inside and don't bring it back when you leave." She tilts her head as if considering it before nodding her head.

A moment later she goes into my shadow with the gem again, I see both her and the gem standing atop my shadow. She looks at the gem and breaks contact before leaving the shadow. She leaves and also turns to look at my shadow, we both stare at the gem as it sits atop my shadow alone. "Well, I'll be damned."

I stand up to walk around and it stays on top of my shadow as I move. I walk into my pitch-black bedroom and out again and it still stays on top of my shadow. I turn back to Entropy and sit down again, "Can you put it inside my shadow?" She goes back inside and the gem on my shadow vanishes inside while she comes back out again. "Take it back out please."

She looks excited about this discovery as well and leaves my shadow with the gem and a soft caw. "Test, fun." I laugh and pet her a little while activating the gem's illusion spells again. Everything is still working as intended and the drawing is completely fine.

I think for a moment and bring over a plant pot before placing it down to cast a shadow. "Place it on top of that shadow," I instruct and she once again does what I ask, she leaves the pot's shadow and the gem is now on top of its shadow. I'm not sure how long this effect could last so for now I'll keep an eye on it and wait to see.

I don't feel like testing it on my shadow long-term so this will have to do until I know the effect at least lasts more than a few days. I activate my bracelet's illusionary notebook to take notes and start asking Entropy questions. "Did that feel like it took more magic than normal? Do you feel anything like a link from the gem?"

She tilts her head and bobs her head. "More? Yes, small." So she is using more magic to do it but it doesn't take much more. "Feel? No." Interesting, normally she can sense shadows but there doesn't seem to be a firm link to her from the gem she added to the shadow.

I nod before a thought strikes me. It's something I don't feel like testing now because we're still uncertain if this effect has some time limit or side effect if it stays inside a shadow too long. But it might be possible for Entropy to store things in her own shadow, like her band.

She might have her own pocket storage, that's certainly something worth testing later at least. Even if we need to Imbue any items she's still able to store things in a shadow and act like a moving storage box. We could even store things in the Shadows of other living beings. I smile and pet Entropy while giving her several treats, "Thanks for the help, Girl. Enjoy."

She happily takes the treats and I move over to my workroom to organize these new notes and work a bit more on my theories. Entropy never ceases to amaze me, and she might actually have more overpowered abilities than me. I may control life and space, but she is part of the abyss.

Darkness is everywhere and trying to run from it is a fool's errand. I suppose she lives up to her name, both with the human meaning of the word and the Dragon meaning as well. She is an empty shadow, entropy, a lack of everything, and that sure sounds like death to me. Although, I don't think Death likes glitter as much as she does.

I look over the other notes I've made recently, most about the fight I had and possible avenues for improvement. I don't have much practice when dealing with group fights but when dealing with Changelings they will probably outnumber me in most fights I have. It's something I need practice with, Stone might be able to help me, maybe.

Beyond that I also need something else to take down Changelings without just hitting them really hard, so I've been looking into spells. The Lightning Bolt spell I used in the fights was a bit too much and injured them more than would be preferable, it would have been a much worse injury if it was a pony as well.

I have several options to do this but in the end, I've come up with three good ideas. I can use a lightning spell, and I'll be making a spell to deliver a strong but non-fatal shock to something, I do need to be careful though as overdoing it could kill. My medical knowledge is actually helping with that though and I have a good idea of what that amount should be, testing is a problem though.

I also thought about weaponizing shields, specifically the ones that aren't see-through. I first thought about using it to form shields in front of the eyes, just a small distance to block out all light and disorienting opponents. That was easy enough to make and test, as I don't need my eyes to see.

I just needed to modify the shield spell with a scanning spell and some additional runes to make sure they form properly no matter the creature it is used on. I even added a nice touch by making the shield only block light, you can rub your eyes just fine but wouldn't be able to feel or see the shield on you.

Beyond blinding those in combat I can use this spell and another spell to block any sound to make a Changeling or unicorn unable to fire spells at me. They can't fire spells at me if they are rendered blind and deaf, at least not the vast majority of them.

A few may have an affinity that lets them sense me, but those should be far and between. My last idea is less about keeping others down and more about hiding myself even more, I'm finally looking into an invisibility spell once again. By magic is it a bit of a mess.

The runes Celestia provided me awhile back and even a few I found myself aren't perfect for what I need. They'll work but making the invisibility spell will take me some time, so I'm just going to work on it slowly as I get ideas. I have the time and it's not urgently needed so no need to rush things.

After I'm finished with my notes I move back to the new lightning spell I want to make. It will take more time as well but is relatively simple all things considered so it shouldn't take me too long to make. The problem is how I want to test it, could I try it on animals?

But the sapience of creatures in this world is much more suspect and blurry than in my last world. I don't want to kill something that is even slightly sapient, but I still need something to work with. Bugs? I am making it for Changelings and while a bug is very different from a Changeling there is some consistency, and bugs have never been shown to talk.

I could start small and scale it up to a Changelings size, I'd need to be careful but it's a place to start at least. Now, where the hell am I going to get so many bugs?

POV shift Chrysalis.

I sit in my private chambers and slowly go over the agreement I signed not a week prior. The memories of that night are still very fresh in my mind. Honestly, the past few years have been so much less simple than before. Oh, to find irony in wanting the simpler war I once found myself in, it's not like I asked for all of this though.

I shake those memories away and focus on writing down and documenting even the smallest bit of information I can remember that may help me in the future. Just as I have done for several nights over the past week when I had the rare free time available to do so.

When I first learned that the ponies had found out about us I nearly had a panic attack. If they wanted to get involved my entire hive could not stand against Equestria, even if I allied with that monster of a so-called queen we'd lose. I take a deep breath to remain calm and look over the small gem floating in front of me.

Things oddly worked out though. The Princess of the Sun, Celestia, proved to be as peaceful as I'd heard. I tried to buy time with the ponies by sending little messages and small bits of information. I hoped to finish this war before dealing with that looming problem, things did not go to plan, at all.

On the war front, despite my best efforts I needed to recall some of my little Changelings to help spy on the ponies, which gave the monster time to wriggle. A mistake in hindsight, but we are still winning this war, even if it's slower than before. That plan to stall the ponies also seemed to work, as there was silence for a long time as I stalled them with little things and shallow talk.

Then they got very insistent about a meeting, and at first, I assumed the worst was an attack or trap. I am not blind to the fact the monster has resorted to taking ponies, FOOLISH. She really is mad to think that the pony's rulers wouldn't notice such a thing, or take action.

In the end, though it seems her madness works in my favor yet again. I study the contract closely before bringing over a small gem. We've found basically nothing of use in this gem so far as the enchantments are too strong to get through. With time we could crack it, but we don't have the resources for such a thing at that moment, and this is the less valuable piece to the puzzle anyway.

My efforts in stalling the ponies seem to have been more than skill or luck in the end, they were stalling as well. Until they had something so valuable that we'd need to at least come to the table to negotiate. It explains why they became so utterly insistent on a meeting recently.

I feel some anger over the betrayal I suffered at that meeting, but it is tempered by the fact things worked out. My cover story to the hive was that I was meeting with a group of hiveless Changelings for some reason, something I did do right after the meeting with the ponies.

I stopped at the pony meeting on the way with the excuse of resting there, those Changelings were most likely sent to kill us in our sleep as we camped, but they were regular troops though so maybe a rushed attempt. A commander seeing an opportunity perhaps? Maybe I can negotiate for any information the ponies get out of those Changelings?

Either way, they did not expect a direct attack. I place the gem down very gently on the table I had made from the solid rock carved from the tunnels. The princess practically gave me no choice but to sign these papers, I'd be an utter fool of a queen to ever consider turning down such an opportunity.

The ability to gather incredibly pure and filling love with nothing but a gem, it is a dream come true for all our kind. The irony of a pony making it is not lost on me, but if the price of even the possibility of trading for such food is not harming the ponies and playing nice, then I am glad to take such a deal.

It also puts my mind at ease a bit. I do not trust them and was worried about retaliation of some kind for the ponies taken, but they have made an effort for peaceful relations, and hiding away is no longer an option for us anyway. We must adapt to the changing world, and friendly relations with those we live off of are a necessity for that. It also lets me focus more on the war effort once again.

This contract may be simple but it lets me fight without needing to constantly watch my back, now I need to merely glance every once in a while to make sure they don't stab me in the back. The idea of getting a truly steady supply of food though is worth such a risk, no more hunger may become more than just a rallying cry to my Changelings, it may become a reality.

But I must be careful, the ponies are crafty and I will not let my Changelings be used by them. I must also be careful of the pony's power, I still remember that knight, the one with neither emotion nor sound. He walked silently and was a very capable fighter, it seems I underestimated them a bit. Plans will need to be adjusted.

The fact he sees without eyes and barely makes himself known along with his height and clear strength. I saw those wounds on the changelings, while he was barely scratched on his armor. He took out seven Changelings without his weapons, none of them even had a stab wound, it's as if he beat them into submission.

It's so... Ruthless, this Shadow is a conundrum. I have never heard of him, not even in any of our records on the ponies. Yet, it has become clear I do not know many things about what the ponies have been doing recently. I tap the gem the same as that admittingly intimidating knight did and watch the shield expand.

I place my hoof inside and shudder while my wings spread out and twitch. Even to me, the feeling of such pure love is enjoyable. I absorb some of the love inside but leave the rest before writing down the experience to collect information to review later.

Then there is the inventor of this new miracle the ponies have made. To invent such a thing that could help my Changelings so much, who? Who has such capabilities? We have tried such things before but always failed, was it their other princess? Did the princess of love help make such a thing possible? Something to look into later.

Its creation would also need to have been started in the last year or two, three at most. Such a short time to make this? We need to investigate thoroughly, but we must not anger the ponies, not when things have started off so well. They hold too many cards over us and cooperation is an option that has a better chance of survival as it is, than war is to be avoided if it can be.

I finish a small sketch in my notes of the odd knight I bore witness to. Who are you? And what made you into this?

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 995

A few of you wanted a pov change, and I agreed. It might be a bit early as we don't know her too much, but what better way to know her then this? So here, have a smaller chapter with some of Shade's plans and thoughts, along with Chrysalis's ponderings.