JAN 19 Friday.

I sit in Gaia's Eden amongst the slowly defrosting snow and look down at the fish as I feed them a few more berries.

Winter Wrap-Up happened a bit early this year due to winter starting earlier than normal. The city has no more snow and the warmer weather is already melting the snow out here, it probably won't be fully melted before I leave though. Not that the newly sprouting plants are waiting for it to finish.

Over the past two weeks, I've completed my new fire shield spell and sent a letter to Celestia to ask for a meeting. The earliest we could meet was today and that's part of the reason I'm in Gaia's Eden at the moment. The other is to experiment with some plants.

Two weeks ago Avalon gave me Redwood Tree seeds and I've been thinking about them for a while now, specifically I want to try and create something interesting with them. I don't really have much of a reason but I feel like my idea could be useful someday so why not at least try to make it? And it helps that I don't have many other projects going on right now.

I have my normal training, breeding the Copper Lilly, crossbreeding the Iron Oak and Fire Blossom, and improving the Blood Leaf Tea. Not much beyond all of that though, the main thing I really focused on the last two weeks is my Spatial Cut, specifically its formation speed.

To do a small pony-sized cut can take less than a second if it's near me. A Dragon-sized Spatial Cut is much more draining and demanding though, I have less range with it and it can take several seconds to do. It's still viable though and will work as long as I'm careful, and it's also improving continuously so I have time.

Past the training, I was able to accomplish something important recently, and it has to do with my staff. For a while now I've been searching for a Life rune that can allow me to make a spell to let the Life Gem collect life magic automatically. I FINALLY found one that works, somewhat.

It's not a very good rune, it's actually pretty shit at what it does, but it works and that's enough for the moment. Its runic context lines up with gathering life magic to an extent and after a day or two of messing around with the spell, I got it working this morning and enchanted the Life Gem on my staff.

I haven't really tested it yet as I decided to feed the fish for a moment to take a break, but I can feel the spell slowly pulling in life magic to charge itself so it definitely works. I stand up and walk through the thin snow over to the Vita Tree to make the setup I envisioned. I take out a small gem from my saddlebags as I approach the golden-leafed tree.

The area around the Vita Tree is completely clear, with the exception of the gem and barrel that collects gold dust and those are resting around twenty feet away from the tree itself. The Life magic gathering spell will work better depending on the life magic density so the closer it is to the tree the faster it will charge.

With this in mind, I want to make a charging pedestal that can hold the staff for it to best charge, and also have some fun. I take out a Redwood Tree seed and toss it right at the base of the Vita Tree, only a foot away from the tangled roots that form into the trunk.

I start by growing out the Redwood without bark or leaves, while also controlling the roots to not harm the Vita Tree by accident. I grow out a two-foot wide circle of Redwood that raises a few inches above the grass and grows a single thick root straight down to anchor it in place.

Next, I hollow out a hole in the middle a few inches deep and remove the soil from decomposing the wood. I take the small sapphire I have and place it inside the hole before activating the enchantments and growing it over with wood so it's completely unseen.

I move over my staff and hold it near the wooden stand I've made, I feel a weak pull on the staff that I could easily overpower to take the staff back if I tried. Instead, I let go of the staff and watch as it slowly floats up into position, standing straight up at the center of the wooden circle.

It floats a few inches in the air and slowly spins around as it sits in place at the center of the wooden slab. I smile at my little creation and the pretty cool display. The gem inside the wood has a few weak spells, a scanning spell to detect the staff along with a floating spell and a movement spell.

It comes together to make the staff sit in place at the center of the wood where the gem is while looking pretty cool. I do need the staff close to the tree and raising it up a bit to be closer to the trunk will help it absorb more life magic from the Vita Tree, honestly I could have just stuck it in the ground.

This is much better though, both in looks and because it was simply fun to make. I mean, what's the point in magic if I can't make stupid things that look cool? It's stupid, yes, but I enjoy it. But like I said it is also slightly practical, just a bit, the more the staff is exposed and away from obstructions the quicker it will refill.

I take a moment to note how full the Life Gem is and the time I placed it on the stand. The spell is not like the others I use on my gems, it will take a decent amount of time to charge fully even while sitting next to the Vita Tree. I can't make a perfect guess but I think it's going to be at least a day, probably more.

That's to go from around half charged as it is right now and full. From empty to full it might take two or three days in total, which is not ideal in the least but without a better rune, this is the best I got. I base this on the rough rate of absorption I feel right now, still I'll have to test it for better information.

Even at that speed getting any tiny amount of life magic without effort on my part is amazing, it is so nice to finally move beyond the entire gathering process needing me. I finally have a way to gather life magic without my direct action, the closest I came to before this was the gold dust.

With that done I moved onto the other thing I wanted to experiment with. I want to create a new type of Redwood Tree with only one single goal, I want it to be the largest tree possible. Why? Because I know it's possible to make something truly titanic and because I'm curious if I can do it.

The dead tree that Griffonstone was built on is a true mystery and I'm wondering if I can do something similar. I have no practical reason to do this as I said, but it could have some advantages, it'd make a lot of wood if nothing else. But again it's not exactly a practical thing.

I even have an idea on how to go about it, as a starter I'm going to be crossbreeding the Redwood Tree with the Iron Oak to give the Redwood Tree some more durability. I want this new Redwood to use the Iron Oak's ability to strengthen itself to grow much more than normal.

Normally Redwood Trees can grow to be absolutely massive, but they fall under their own weight as they simply grow too large to sustain after a point. The problem is that the Iron Oak's ability to strengthen its own wood rather than growing larger, I'll need to breed a tree that only strengthens itself when needed and not as a first priority.

So, I'm going to try and use Guided Evolution on the Iron Oak's magical ability, which is probably going to be pretty hard. I've tried this same thing with a few other plants, but it never worked out that well and the sheer amount of life magic needed to make any change was ridiculous.

But I noticed that those attempts were mostly me trying to improve those abilities even further, this attempt is me modifying the ability in a different direction. The ability will be just as strong or weaker and it will be a relatively small change, so I'm hoping the cost is going to be much less and the process faster.

This does bring up a problem, how am I going to test this? The shield around Gaia's Eden extends a few hundred feet into the air, but that might not be enough to test this new tree properly. I'm growing a tree that might be over four hundred feet tall, probably more. The only spot here with that headspace is the center and that's taken up by the Vita Tree, so no luck there.

I can't really grow something like that anywhere either because ponies will notice something like that very quickly. So, I'll be doing that in the Dragon Lands, probably at night. It's not perfect and I'll need to leave quickly if a Dragon notices, but they will most likely ask far fewer questions than anypony would if they find a very big tree suddenly.

At a minimum, I can set fire to the tree without starting a forest fire of some kind. With my goal in mind, I plant a seed of both trees and decide to also test another idea I've had. I grow a seed on the Redwood sapling that was pollinated from the Iron Oak sapling and I start to focus my life magic and will.

I normally make a change to a seed and then plant it, but what if I just kept changing the seed more and more while keeping it on the plant? Well, let's see what happens if I focus on a single seed until I leave for my trip, it should be an interesting experiment as well. I spend the next hour like this before I feel space bending as Celestia arrives.

She appears inside the pavilion basically right next to me and looks around for a moment before looking at the plants in front of me. She looks around and nods, "Shade, busy as always I see, what is it this time? A lemon bush?" She asks jokingly. "Then again, I wouldn't be too surprised after the Strawberry Tree." She says happily sitting down with me.

I chuckle a bit and nod. "Hello to you too. I got my hooves on a Redwood Tree, so I'm messing with that, tell me if you want any wood it looks great." I motion to my staff still floating in the air on its new stand. "I also did that, and yes it is silly. I hope you liked your gifts by the way." I add after a moment and notice she's wearing the necklace I gave her.

She also notices I'm wearing my new necklace. "I loved them, just as much as I hope you like the necklace." I smile a bit and try not to blush at that. She takes off her crown and looks at it, "My favorite is the spell though, it's so small but so much less work. Aren't you just spoiling me?" She teases me a bit more.

I try not to blush more and roll my eyes. "Says the pony who got me a necklace made from magical silver and gems. I loved the book by the way, I am curious when you published a book though? I didn't find any record of it either." I ask to stop her from teasing and to answer a small question I've had knocking around my head, I went looking and found nothing about that book.

She pauses for a moment and looks a bit bashful, much to my amusement and confusion. "Well, it's not published, yet." She says after a moment and my mind sort of blanks. :She gave me the original copy of a book she hadn't published? Wait, yet?: I raise both my brows and give her a look that demands answers.

She blushes a small bit for a moment and I chuckle. "You did like the last book, so I spent some free time writing again. I enjoyed taking up that hobby once again, it has been a long time." She looks a bit less shy as she talks, I just nod as I'm not used to seeing her a bit shy. "Anyway, I thought that I might as well publish it. I never did before and it sounded, interesting." She says adorably like it’s some defense.

I recover quickly from my shock and give her a beaming smile. "Twilight would lose her mind." She snorts a little at my comment, not expecting it. "Still, thank you, and congratulations. I think it will go well, I liked it at least and I don't even have a large interest in that craft." I say with full confidence.

I'm still surprised she actually published a book now of all time, I guess I really did affect things huh? But seeing her smile it seemed to be for the better in this small case. She brings over my teapot and takes a cup out from under her wing, "Thank you, and yes I'd hope a few find it helpful if nothing else." She says back happily, hiding her slight bit of shyness again.

I enjoy the moment of silence before deciding to change the topic as I have a few things to get through. "So, how is the whole Changelings situation going? Anything I should know about? Or that I can help with?" This is something I wanted to talk to her about as my presence might be needed on my planned trip.

I know I made a lot of plans already but worse comes to worse I just delay my trip by a few weeks. That's why I was happy to get a meeting with them more than a week of time before I was planning to leave so I could adjust my plans to her plans. She hums for a moment and drinks some more tea, before looking at her cup. "Just like lemon and mint, I can barely tell the difference."

She comments before looking at me. "Not much, mostly just letters of slowly talking back and forth." She thinks for a moment longer and continues. "I believe Queen Chrysalis is investigating things before committing more, while also focusing more on the war from what we can tell. It seems she considers us less of an immediate priority." She explains with a relaxed tone.

I nod slowly in response after a moment. "She didn't know if we were a threat before, she probably had some resources tied up in preparing for a potential fight with us." It's what I'd do, in her situation. "She probably still is doing that to some extent, maybe just a lesser amount. It is good she has more to work with though, it means she can win faster." I give my thoughts.

Celestia smirks and nods back. "A possibility indeed. Probably also to spy on us more, and figure things out considering how much we surprised her. We've also been more focused on Cascadia for now, making sure she can't surprise us. Not much else has happened though, but we've made amazing progress as it is so nothing to complain about really." She assures me and I nod again in agreement as Cascadia is now definitely the largest threat to us.

I look a bit less serious. "Well, I have two things of importance from my side. First, have more work," I say cheerily and pass her some papers from my saddlebags. "Second, do you think I'll be needed for the next month and a half at most?" I ask and change the topic somewhat.

She raises a brow but looks unsurprised as she starts to read through the papers. "Hmm, a good addition to your inventions, and more crops as well." She drinks some tea and shakes her head. "No, I don't believe so. Queen Chrysalis won't ask for another meeting so soon, and there have been no problems with the Love Gatherers. Why do you ask? Am I blessed enough for you to be taking a vacation willingly?" She says jokingly.

I nod and her brow raises higher in surprise. "I've been taking trips once a year for a while and I wouldn't mind seeing some new sights and taking a break. I'm planning a full four-week trip." She smiles widely and looks ready to celebrate. "To the Dragon Lands, and yes I know how this sounds," I add and nearly laugh a bit as she abruptly shifts to a long sigh.

I don't think she'll try to stop me, but I can tell my choice worries her a bit. After a moment she nods slowly and looks at the papers again, "That at least explains the spell choice." She chuckles a bit and smirks at me. "Really? You want to take a vacation, there? That is the best you could come up with?" She asks more curious than anything.

I shrug a bit happy she's being relaxed about things. "Yes? The last Dragon I talked to got me curious, and it would have some impressive sights from what few records I've found. I also just want to learn more about Dragons in general." I say and notice that Entropy has woken up from wherever she was sleeping and flew over to us, sadly she left her hat at home today.

I scratch Entropy a bit as she gets comfortable with us. Celestia smiles down at me with a mix of concern and care. "I won't stop you, you know how to stay safe, and Entropy is more than capable of getting you out of any danger you get yourself into." She teases me, I don't try to fight that point either, I know when to quit.

I nod in thanks after a moment. "Thanks. If it makes you feel better I do have a way to defend myself as well." I bend the space a bit to emphasize my point. "Not that I want a fight, but I am ready for one," I reassure her and she thinks a bit before nodding and smiling more. "Any advice you can offer? I suspect you at least talked to a few Dragons before?" I ask hoping to make her feel more comfortable with the idea and actually get good information.

She thinks again for a bit. "Somewhat. I've talked to a fair few Dragons, but I've only ever been to the Dragon Lands a few times myself." She shifts to get comfortable and has the teacher look on her face so I pay extra attention. "There was an incident with an older Dragon a few centuries ago, and I had to go there to sort it out." I raise a brow as I don't remember reading about this.

She sees my confusion and elaborates. "It was a relatively minor incident during a Dragon migration, on the edge of Equestria at the time. I ended up talking to the Dragon Lord at that time, Valdus I believe." A different Dragon Lord is interesting, I wonder if the dragons have records? "In the end, she agreed to keep her Dragon under control, at least the older and larger ones." I've never seen the Dragon migration itself as it's only every few decades and can be inconsistent.

She continues after Entropy demands attention from her hoof as well. "It was a very simple affair actually, we made a deal to stop any aggression on both sides and I visit each new Dragon Lord to remake that deal, the current Dragon Lord is Torch, who has been the Dragon Lord for around a century now." I take out my notebook to take notes on the valuable information as she continues.

Celestia shrugs a bit. "Still, I only see them every few decades or centuries. Lord Torch is a rather reasonable Dragon actually." She comments and I take note of several things. "I didn't speak much to the others though, you will have to tread carefully." She looks at me more intensely and locks eyes with me. "And if you don't, I will lock you in a room with Cadance." She says dead seriously.

I blink a bit trying to decipher if she's joking or not, but she just stares back. I nod quickly, "Understood, try not to die. In my defense though, life has a tendency to throw unexpected things at me." I add in a half-joking way before drinking some tea and bringing out my chess board. "Well, I have questions. First, what's our score now?"

"Seven hundred and thirteen to eleven point five. I'm still amazed you made it into double digits." She says without missing a beat and teases me at the same time while she makes the first move after I set up the board. "I don't know much but ask away. Actually, would you mind asking about baby Dragons if you find a safe opportunity to do so?" She asks with a more relaxed tone once again.

I'm happy she's still respecting my choices, even the stupid ones. I also notice the care she has in her tone when asking that. I nod in understanding, "Right Spike, I could ask. I'm not really sure how a Dragon would react though, so a solid maybe. I'll try my best, and I will try to stay safe." I answer as she reminds me of another thing to ask the Dragons about.

She gives me a thankful look. "Thank you, and please stay safe, use the paranoia for something productive." She jokes again and passes Entropy back to me by placing her on my head. "Now, let's see if you can't snag another lucky victory." She teases me again, she's done a lot today, it's probably just her worry getting the best of her.

I sigh as Entropy happily sits down to sleep on my head. "You know, I think you should play against a friend of mine. Her luck is like mine, except actually good." She giggles a bit and I lose yet another game. I'll pull ahead of her someday, I just need more practice.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 996

Not too much to say, next chapter we start the new adventure, or maybe the chapter after that. I haven't decided yet.