MAR 1 Thursday.

I shape my space magic in a repetitive pattern, forming a tiny tube of compressed space to grow out from a point.

The last three days have been a mix of me preparing and spending my time at the market buying things. I only talked to Larimar for a moment over the last three days and that was to tell her I'd meet her sometime today, I did spend some time thinking of a few more good questions for her though.

I plan to say goodbye to her later today before I leave, but it seems our cooperation has come to an end. The knowledge I've gained was worth every bit and every moment of my time. With the extra time from not talking to Larimar, I've been doing several things.

First I've been practicing my new ability, Spatial Strings. I've seen some small improvements already, mostly in the speed at which I can form the Spatial Structure. It's not a very complicated thing and it's easy to practice so I've made some progress even in such a short time.

I can form around ten feet of the Spatial String in a second and that distance is increasing with practice, I've also managed to cut down on the magic costs by a very small bit. I can form the Spatial String between two points and then form the entrance and exit, which is the most magically intensive part of this Spatial Structure.

I'm mostly training my speed and control for now as they are the most important pieces of this new ability, but I did do some tests with it. As a starter I can confirm this ability doesn't allow you to move through magical barriers, I tried to move a few rocks through the shield on my cave and they bounced right off without effort, I obviously also can't move things through solid objects.

The magical shield lets me form the Spatial String through it but because I'm still moving through the same space so it will block anything trying to pass through it. I think I would still be able to move through the shield as I normally can, but I'm not going to be testing that anytime soon.

I also tested the Spatial Strings on living things, with the help of several plants that I threw through an open Spatial Doorway. That is the name I decided on for the entrance and exit of a Spatial String, I needed to call it something to make sure my notes didn't descend into chaos and the name worked well enough.

I tossed a few plants through a Spatial Doorway and all of them came out the other side fine, even the more delicate plants I used. I will probably test it on some dead fish and living insects, but it seems to be fine for living things to move through the Spatial Doorway and Spatial String.

I stop moving my magic and stand up with a stretch, ignoring the small pop as the Spatial Structure I was practicing with collapses. Beyond my magic practice, I spent the rest of my time at the market over the past few days, sadly I didn't see Aurora so I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, but I was able to spend a good amount of the bits I had on me.

I have a decent amount of things I'll need to bring back with me and I need space for them, I have packed everything away already and am ready to leave. While trading I was mainly looking for elemental gems as they are normally small and I can't bring anything large back with me.

Sadly that also means I can't bring back some large gems, it's not like it matters though, I have more than enough bits and don't need to do all that work for some cheaper gems. If I or Entropy ever get good enough to travel here quickly it would be a good source of large gems, but it's just not practical at the moment.

I did find a few good elemental gems though, specifically three gems that were worth the effort needed, all the others I found were too poor quality to be worth the extra weight. A five-inch rounded Iron Gem, a two-inch Ice Gem, and a four-inch Fire Gem with great quality. None of them are that impressive but with how cheap they were it was worth it.

The fire Gem in particular is going to be useful for a project I'll need to work on later, I need a source of extreme heat and this could make that much easier. I was also able to find a few more old books, nothing incredible but they are interesting and I can never have enough books.

I look around the cave I'm in for a few moments and make sure I have everything packed away in my saddlebags. I've decomposed the Razor Vines by the entrance of the cave and left everything else as it is, I don't see much of a reason to destroy this place.

Even if a Dragon finds it they wouldn't even know what to question, to attempt, to figure out that something is odd here. I look at Entropy as she stands on my back under her illusion, she's been riding me when I go to most places recently. Except for the market, that still seems to be too much for her.

I scratch her and start to make my way outside into the afternoon sunlight, but I stop after leaving the cave as I see a familiar Dragon sitting on a rock not far away. Smolder is sitting there with a small gem in her hands and just seems to be snacking on it, but her head turns to me after I leave the cave.

I smile a bit at her but quickly notice as she walks over to me that she's a little stiffer than the last time we met. She seems to be a bit more wary of me, probably from the fight with Obsidian. "Smolder, good to see you. And convenient timing, I was just about to head home." I am casual and keep a relaxed tone, I don't want to make her more wary of me.

My unchanged tone from the last time we met does seem to make her relax a bit. She stops next to me in front of the cave. "Shade, I got to watch your fight with that prick." She says and then smiles largely. "You are one badass, that magic was awesome. Wait, you're leaving?" She gushes a little and I nearly frown.

The absolute last thing I need right now is more fans, so shrug and nod. "To be fair he was not exactly going all out, and being underestimated can make for some great surprise attacks. And I am, it's time to head back." I give some bare-bones excuses and think for a moment. "So how have you been?" I ask while thinking over my sudden idea more.

She keeps her small smile but looks a little thoughtful at my words. She huffs a little smoke after a moment, "Fine? Not really much going on, the most entertaining thing I've seen in a while was your fight. Oh, right, I heard you got hurt? You look fine." She asks curiously and looks me over.

With some more life magic, my wound completely recovered yesterday, it doesn't even feel sore anymore. "It was mostly a scratch, it healed right over with some magic." I give an honest but vague answer once again. "You want to come in? There are a few things I left and don't really need anymore, you can take them if you want?" I make an offer and motion behind me.

There are some small gems I bought while trying to talk to various Dragons at the market along with a few things I grew from wood that I don't need to bring back. She blinks for a moment and then looks at me, slightly suspicious. I don't blame her and just wait for an answer. "Mmm, fuck it, you wouldn't need to lead me into a cave to beat me into the ground." She shares her reasoning openly.

I chuckle at her and walk back a bit to turn off the shield around the cave. "Fair enough, I wouldn't trust me either." I give some praise as she did at least think about the risks before agreeing. I cast a light spell and started to walk back into the cave, "Come on then." I encourage her as she moves her hand through the empty space the shield once occupied.

As she catches up to me we take the sort of walk down and enter my small abandoned camp. I left the cloth I put on my makeshift bed and the campfire is still burning some wood. "What? How?" I chuckle again at her confusion. "Damn, this is awesome as well, you've just been chilling down here?" She asks slightly indignantly.

I nod. "Magic makes things much easier, as long as you have the right spells and knowledge. Take anything you like, I'll just leave the shield off so you can come back for anything later." I decided after I saw her on that rock that she might be able to make use of anything left and I don't need it. So, why not?

She looks around more and runs her claws over the moss covering the walls and looks at a few vines in the ceiling that I grew to prevent rocks from falling. "Magic huh?" She mumbles with a smile. "This is a cool place, I'm tempted to take everything." She makes a small joke and chuckles, but stops short when I don't join in.

I think for a few moments and nod. "Sure, you can have it, it's not like I'll need it." I agree with her joke almost immediately. She could make good use of it and this place can still serve its purpose. "I can even make it so the shield will let you in, makes it nice and private from others," I add to my offer with a smile.

Her head snaps back to me after I agree and she looks at me with wide eyes. "Wait, like, seriously?" She asks hesitantly, I nod again. "Fuck ya! Finally, a place away from Garble and his shit! Thank you, you have no idea how annoying my brother, can, be." She slowly trails off and looks a bit nervous. "Ahh, I didn't mention he was my brother, did I?" She asks slowly.

I just wave a hoof. "I guessed you were at least friends after the thank you from last time." I lie through my teeth as I always knew. "And considering your reaction it seems I made the right choice, come on, let me show you the gem." I keep my friendly and relaxed tone and start to walk back to the entrance of the cave.

She quickly follows after me with a smile as I stop near the gem hidden by the cave entrance. She looks at the large gem and I see her lick her lips a bit. I quickly step to the other side of the shield and link her to it, I tap on the shield but it no longer lets me through. "Tap the gem twice to turn it off and on, don't move it from that spot, and don't eat it." I joke as she looks away from the gem and to me after a moment.

There is a long moment of awkward silence as she looks at me and I sit still, Entropy watching our interactions silently from my back. "Hey, ahhh, for this, well. Thanks." She says softly after a long moment as my gift seems to fully register in her mind. "You know what? I owe you one." She nods to herself as if that's a better answer and looks less uncertain.

Neither of us knows each other, hell we've talked for less than a few hours all put together, but she does seem genuinely happy with my spontaneous decision. I nod to her, "Like I said, I don't need this place, but sure." I agree and she looks more confident after my agreement. "Have a good day Smolder, if you are ever in Canterlot the library has good books on magic, just don't burn anything." I make another joke at her expense to make things less awkward.

She nods back enthusiastically and seems to forget her awkwardness for a moment. "Maybe, sounds too, wordy for me." She dismisses my advice but doesn't look completely unconvinced. "Goodbye, Shade." She gives me a simple goodbye and I turn to leave.

That was a little awkward, then again she's a Dragon, she's probably not used to being gifted things by a stranger she barely knows. Still, I feel good about doing a small kindness to someone else, and having that favor could have its uses someday down the road.

Entropy looks at me from my back. "Nice, new friend?" She questions me with some curiosity. Smolder isn't a friend, at least not yet, so I shake my head after a moment. Entropy doesn't ask anything else as I walk the familiar path to where me and Larimar meet, nearly done with my last task in the Dragon Lands. It will be a little odd going home, I'll have to get used to dealing with Ponies again.

I may like Ponies but they can be far more sensitive than I'd prefer, I'm just lucky I made friends with Ponies that can take a joke. Or maybe that's why we became friends in the first place? I'm not really sure honestly. I push my thoughts of home aside for a moment as I see Larimar sitting where she always does.

She lifts her head to look at me and watches me walk over to her. "Larimar, a beautiful day as always," I say while looking up at the slightly cloudy and overcast day. "And our last day as well," I add and her eyes focus more as she stops herself from putting her head down again.

She looks over my filled saddlebags and nods slowly. "So it is. You are not done asking questions though, are you?" She says knowingly while I chuckle and nod in agreement as I want to ask a few more things before leaving fully. "Good, because I have questions for you." She says levelly while crossing her forelegs and sitting up straighter.

I raise a brow but take a seat on the stone ground after laying down my sleeping bag like normal. "Why not? I still have some time." I was planning to just ask a few short questions I thought of last night and then leave, but I have the time and she got me curious now.

She keeps that same expression and waits for me in silence as I quickly make some tea. "Let's get these out of the way quickly." I start first and take out my notebook, only three pages left still having any room to write. "Have you ever seen a Dragon die of age?" A question that I realized I should have asked earlier.

She tilts her head a bit and goes silent for a few long moments. "Possibly, it was less age and more his age and his wounds. An elder when I was young was badly injured, I have seen younger Dragons recover from worse injuries but he seemed unable to do so properly and died." She says after some thought.

I make a few small notes on that, even if Dragons don't have an age limit their bodies still accumulate damage over time. "Ok, what happens to a Dragon's body when they die? I haven't seen any bones or graves, so where do they go?" I ask another odd question I didn't think up until recently.

She looks as expressionless as ever as she answers me. "The sea, it is the only place our bodies can rest without being eaten in sight of others. Some see it in a more divine way, but it is simply the most convenient place to get rid of a body our size, considering we can't burn." She uses the normal logic she has and keeps things factual.

I don't shy away from the topic as I'm used to more human concepts of burial, which can take a great many forms. For Ponies, a grave is by far the most common way to deal with the dead, although I think there are some historical cases of cremation in the past, particularly during plagues.

I use up more of the limited space I have and ask my last question. "This is a bit of a dark question, so don't answer if you don't want to." I take a more gentle tone and give her a warning, she just raises a brow at me and almost looks amused. "You said some eggs don't hatch, so what is done with them?" I take a softer tone and speak quickly to get this question over with.

Last time we were talking about this she actually showed some emotion and I changed the subject after that, but she's also probably the only Dragon that will give me an answer. She pauses at my question, closing her eyes for a long moment and taking a slightly deeper than normal breath, the changes subtle to even me.

The seconds stretch on as she remains silent and I almost move on but she speaks first. "The sea as well, to be lost among the waves. To be free." Her tone is deeper than normal and she says it all very slowly. I just write that down and nod my silent thanks. "What are you?" She asks after another few long moments of silence.

I look back up at her confused, she narrows her eyes a little. "I have spent some time learning about your fight more, the way you acted and took down that drake." She reveals and I'm not very surprised. "You could have ended it in a moment flat, without a fight. What kind of predator puts themselves in such danger when it is unneeded?" She asks with an even voice.

I always found Larimar's ability to see what I am underneath interesting. Other Dragons can see it to some degree, they saw it much more in my fight, but not like her. I stayed quiet for a few seconds, "I did say I wanted to send a message, make a statement so that I was left alone." I give her the same answer she got last time, now interested in her thoughts about me.

She snorts at me. "No, you toyed with him," She states bluntly. "He never was going to win, those strikes and blows you made were testing him, testing us. Seeing what worked where." She says in a very certain voice, "I do the same with my prey, but why do you do it with other predators?" I get more into her thought process as she speaks.

There aren't really any predators like humans in this world, none of them are as adaptable or violent. "Wouldn't you? It is a disadvantage to do otherwise. I am the type of predator that has another predator hunting it. Nether fully prey or predator, but also not both at once." I give her a somewhat vague answer as I don't really want to reveal too much.

She again goes silent. "Perhaps, but not like you do, you cut us open with your eyes. You are different. I can't even tell if you're a real Pony any more, who knows with the magic you wield." She gets far closer to the truth than anyone has before. "It makes me wonder, just how dangerous are you? Just how much do you hold back every day? And why hold back at all?" She asks me with a somewhat focused look.

I stare at her in thought for a while. Larimar has been a massive help to me and a very interesting being to talk to, she knows more than most and yet keeps quiet. In many ways we are alike, seeking little attention from others and playing our cards close to our chests.

We are both a mix of secrets and lies that obscure most of what is underneath. I look around for a moment, "What do you think is the toughest thing here?" I ask, she raises a brow but also looks around for a moment, she reaches out after a bit and picks up a large boulder.

It somewhat fills her hand and is over twenty feet wide, a very large and heavy boulder. As she moves it over to us, my magic acts quickly, faster than she can react. I expend around a tenth of my total magic in a single moment. I overpower the magic to make it faster and in a split second, there is a loud cracking sound.

She quickly moves her hand away, dropping the boulder to the ground with a loud thud. She nearly snaps her head over to me but stops halfway, the large boulder she held a moment ago now being cleanly cut in half. The Rebound was strong enough to break the boulder apart a little more, along with the fall, but the two halves are mostly intact.

I pack away my things, holding seven things at once in my space magic to put it all away in a short moment while also casting the Wing spell on myself. She looks over to me quickly with narrowed eyes, I just smile back. "I am a Pony, but a Pony can be a great deal more than you may think. When every reasonable possibility is excluded, only the impossible remains. " I give some wisdom from my last world. "It was a pleasure speaking to you, Larimar, may we meet again."

She looks at me with a very slight wariness. "Shade Evergreen, you are the most interesting thing I have seen in a long time." She stands up and looks off into the distance. "I believe we will meet again, someone like you is not so easily forgotten." With that, she goes silent and I give her one last nod before taking flight, flying back to the land bridge that brought me here.

I could have walked to be safe but I'm leaving and after my fight, I think I'll be left alone by any Dragons I pass. As I fly away I glance back at the Dragon Lands. I think this vacation went well, maybe next year I will have a vacation without any surprises though. One can hope.

POV shift Larimar.

I watch as Shade flies further and further from my sight, disappearing behind some mountains a while later. I look down and reach out a single claw, I run it over the boulder on the ground at my feet. The smoothly cut stone looks to be cut perfectly.

Beyond the cracks when it fell the rock is perfectly smooth, I don't think I've ever seen something so smoothly cut before. The rock was more than thick enough to make up part of my neck, I wouldn't even see it coming. I feel my spines stand on end a bit at the thought, but suppress that response while gently picking up one half of the boulder and bringing it closer.

I know the smell of magic, of a gem filled and a powerful spell cast, and yet, nothing. There is no scent of magic, no power left over from his actions, as if nothing at all happened. The speed as well, it took him a mere moment, it was no projectile either, it simply cut from nowhere.

As if from within the rock itself, cut in a moment with no signs what he did, or how he did it. What is he? I thought he was a violent Pony, an aberration of his kind, but this is more. He just showed me that I was never a threat, I was never even close to being a threat to him.

I feel my scales shift against the stone ground as I leap into the air and take flight. Let us see what the Dragon Lord knows of him, he must have learned something important. Beings like this must be watched, dismissing anything about them is a fool's mistake.

What drives a Pony, any being, to make something like that? A weapon unseen and unheard, a mere moment, and you are gone from the world. What else has he made? What other things has he built to fight and kill those that stand in his way? Maybe it is best that I never know.

He is like their Princess, the one of the sun... No, he is worse. She has chains that bind her to her way of life, to restrain herself, but him. The chains on him are nothing but his own will and chains like that will bend and break as needed.

Yes, I think we will meet again, one day. Something like him does not die easily.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading. :D
Current year is 996

Not too much to say, just us finishing up in the Dragon Lands, back to Griffonstone.

Ps, I'm taking my day off, see you all Monday and enjoy the weekend.