MAR 21 Wednesday.

I stand up and Celestia follows me while bringing the teapot and her teacup along. "So, do you have an actual way to describe what you are doing? One that makes sense I mean." She teases me a little more and I can tell she's also trying to improve the mood.

Our conversation is still not completely like it normally is when we talk, but it's getting closer. I think for a moment while walking out into the grass field to give myself some space. "To massively oversimplify it, I am shortening the distance between two points, I'm still moving through space, it's just shortened to make it faster." I try again to explain my method again.

She follows behind me and stops around ten feet away. "Hmm, I suppose that makes sense, if you don't think about how it is being done." She takes some notes and sits down while I start to concentrate on my task. I move my space magic slowly and double-check everything as I work.

After a few moments, I dump some extra space magic into the Spatial String in case I'm unable to supply magic from the inside for whatever reason. The Spatial String will only move me twenty feet from my current location and should only take a moment to move through. "If I get hurt, get the staff, or get me to a hospital," I say seriously just to be safe.

She nods and watches me very closely as space starts to visibly bend in front of me and I open up the Spatial Doorway. I walk in without pausing and keep my eyes open as I move past the threshold. The inside is a tube a little larger than my body, and for a brief moment, I see the inside.

All I can make out is swirls of colors blended and mixed to nonsensical degrees and the tube from the space that is bent around me. The space warping from the tube seems to distort light and make it hard to see the outside. I can still roughly tell where the ground and sky are but any detail is completely lost.

My senses aren't affected much as I'm used to the bent space, and I'm even able to sense things outside the tube as I move through it, although it's a little more difficult. Physically all I feel is a hard pull as I'm moved forward to the other end of the tube in less than a second, only to promptly faceplant as I exit the other side and trip from moving faster than expected.

I groan a little as I right myself from laying belly up in the grass and shake my head a little from the disorientation. "Good to know, I need to brace when exiting," I comment to myself and hear Celestia laughing a few dozen feet away, I turn to her with a slight glare. "For your information, I'm fine," I say with some sarcasm.

I stand up and hear the Spatial String collapse a moment later with a loud pop, I'll need to test if I can supply magic from the inside later but for now, I know it works. I look over at her and concentrate for a moment, I step forward as I open a Spatial Doorway faster than before and step through, half a second later I brace my legs while teleporting again.

I once again faceplant as while I do brace myself, the pull from my space magic to move me through the tube being fairly strong. I blush as Celestia is now next to me, holding in her laughter while looking down at me with a mix of amusement and pride. "If it makes you feel better, it took me several attempts to get it right, and to not teleport a few feet off of the ground. I think I better understand your method at least." She shares some of her own embarrassment to lesson mine.

I once again pick myself up off the ground and try to ignore my embarrassment altogether. "It does make me feel better, thanks." She just smiled down at me as we both walked back to the pavilion to lay down again. "I guess it's something else I'll have to learn, still I am happy it ACTUALLY works." I show some pride as this is the accumulation of years of training.

She keeps her smile and nods while lying down and passing me the teapot to refill my cup. "It is an amazingly impressive feat, very few Ponies have ever accomplished teleportation, let alone inventing a new way to teleport. You'd be celebrated as a genius, if you cared to tell anypony that is." I roll my eyes at that but try not to blush again as she keeps complimenting me. "I am amazed how far you've come in only a short few years." She says with that damned smile.

I wave a hoof and just shrug. "I'm just obsessed with training and practice, honestly I find it more odd that other Ponies don't experiment with their magic more, but you've already heard all that." I downplay the praise as a more competent human would be able to do a lot more than I have. "So, any news I should know about? The Changelings?" I suggest, trying to move us past my accident.

She sips her tea and nods. "I do enjoy the apple variant by the way, I wonder if you could do pastry flavors with some vanilla beans?" She ponders out loud and I shrug while smiling, knowing full well she might be serious. "As for the Changelings? I do actually have some news about that." She focuses more while keeping her relaxed tone.

I stay silent but bring out my chess set so we can have something to do while talking. "I have started to place Love Collectors in different cities, nothing massive but a start to build up a stockpile and get some love to do things with." I nod in agreement as that sounds like a good call, "I also took your advice and invested in a few things to improve gem production. It will be needed for this." Again I'm happy to see my advice doing some good.

She takes out a letter from under her wings. "As for the war? Things have mostly remained unchanged for the moment. Chrysalis has been trying to form some better relations with us, likely to get access to more love. She's been sending some more information on the war and helping to actively keep innocent Ponies out of it." Celestia's tone shows some slight respect, not much but it is there.

I sip my tea and move the first piece on the board. "A good place to start on her part, it shows she at least pretends to care about innocents, and it does help us." I voice my agreement as it is a good strategy on Chrysalis's part. "I wouldn't recommend acting on the information though, it's unlikely to be too accurate," I add a warning after a moment of thought.

Celestia nods in agreement. "My captain of the guard said much the same, for now we are trying to simply keep lives safe by discreetly moving them out of the way. It will likely be noticed by both hives, but they will probably suspect a defector or us sending our own spy in instead of collaboration."

She flips through the letter and passes it to me and I read it while she moves her pieces. The letter is from Chrysalis and is mostly just blatant and blunt information, but there are a few kind words and a recommendation to meet again to discuss some plans in person in case Queen Cascadia ever finds out about our cooperation.

It's a pretty blatant attempt to meet with Celestia again and try to convince her to supply love or help more in general, but Chrysalis isn't wrong either. "Are we actually supplying them yet? She's definitely pushing hard for it either way, not that I expected anything different." I move a piece on the board and pass the letter back.

Celestia shakes her head. "Not really we have sent a few more Love Cells but not much, it's given her a bigger taste of what we have to offer." I give her a deadpan stare at the pun, she just smirks. "At the moment we are using what love we aren't storing to entice other hiveless Changelings and trying to build good relations with the various groups, there are many though." She reveals after her train wreck of a joke, that it's not like I'm better though.

Hiveless Changelings are the largest rogue element in this conflict, their reasons and loyalties are complex and unpredictable. "How are you feeding them? It is good to get their loyalty but if we have a leak on the Love Gatherer it would be bad, no matter the timing." That knowledge will come out eventually but the longer it doesn't the better.

Celestia smiles. "That is a concern though, we are trying our best to take precautions but it won't be a secret forever no matter what we do." She reassures but is honest as well. "To that end, a few of my trusted Ponies came up with an interesting solution to that. The shield spell you made prevents emotion magic from leaving or entering. We simply activate it and flood the room with love we gathered." She trails off.

I blink and smile. "And then they just walk in, eat their fill and walk out. Huh." It's a very simple but effective solution to not letting unknowns see the Love Gatherer or Love Cell. I think for a moment, "That does mean the shield is put on a room with emotional magic already in it, it would degrade the quality of the love slightly. I'll make a variant of the shield spell to expand from a point so it doesn't happen." I spot a concern and make some mental plans to fix it.

She gives me a knowing look while smiling widely. "I guessed as much, thank you. The feeding is actually very easy to do, no Love Gatherers are on site and the Love Cells are heavily guarded so no one sees them. And as a requirement for getting love from us, we make them write down their name and age." She adds.

I hum in agreement. "A good way to get a rough estimate of the population of Changelings. A lot of them might not trust that, but it will work overtime to build up trust between them and us, it also makes us look good as we're treating them better than the hives." I lose our first game of chess with little fanfare. "Are you thinking of accepting Chrysalis's meeting?"

She looks uncertain at that. "I am tempted, it would be a good step to meet again and build more trust with them as well. If they get too demanding though and we give them too little in return, they may get impatient and feel they need to act." She points out a problem. "If we do meet I will ask that you join me again, your presence helped greatly last time." I nod my agreement immediately.

"No problem, I should probably get some more practice in my armor as well. And with healing too, I've gotten to the point of actually healing wounds now." I shift our subject to move away from the topic of war. "Although, I'm taking it slowly, making sure nothing goes horribly wrong." I reset the board and noticed Entropy and Philomena sitting on the pavilion railing watching us from the sidelines.

Celestia looks at my saddlebags, "Do you have any lemon and mint?" I nod and just point to the right pocket of my saddlebags, she retrieves it and starts to make fresh tea. "I remember you mentioning reattaching that Dragons tail. Actually, how large was this Dragon?" Her voice carries a curiousness while clearly trying not to judge me more.

I know the topic might make things a little odd again, but the more we talk about it the less it will affect us "Around sixty to seventy feet from snout to tail." I answer without missing a beat and her eyes go wide. "Reattaching his tail took a lot of my magic actually. I also never tried that before then, it seemed to heal fine from the way he was immediately able to move it around again." I continue to explain while her shock deepens.

She takes a deep breath and sighs. "I don't know why I should have expected differently. Really though? An ADULT Dragon?" She asks incredulously, her tone more dumbfounded than angry or mad. "I won't even say anything about testing an unknown ability on them. I suppose you didn't really have an alternative there." She just seems to give up on chastising me at all by this point.

I nod and don't take any enjoyment from her being stressed over my safety. "I could have just healed the stump, but I wasn't willing to leave him like that, not when I could do something about it." I continue to be honest with her and take the valid criticism head-on.

She chuckles a bit and nods. "Because that's who you are, a Pony that will fight an adult Dragon and heal them once he's won, and you won't even brag about it." She finds some humor in my actions and I can't really disagree that it's odd. "You make me worry you know? I can never tell what you will get yourself into." She is also honest for a moment and her ears lower a bit.

I let out a breath slowly, feeling bad about putting her through all this. "I wish I could tell you I'd never do anything like it again, but that's not who I am. No, I'm the stupid stallion who just has to do what I do, and often even I'm not sure why." I joke a little and watch her chuckle a little more.

She shakes her head and smiles at me. "I know, and I accept that. Yet you seem determined to worry over every little thing except for yourself, and so I worry over you, for you." She jokes back a small bit. "Enough of this though, say something happy or crazy to change the subject, like you always do." She forces the topic onto something else.

I grin seeing that she's noticed that I do that often. "Well, I think I met a filly who can either naturally see through illusions or something more powerful, I'm not really sure." I do as asked and make an absurd claim with zero hesitation and a larger smile as she full-on laughs at my words. After a minute of her laughing, I continued. "I am serious though." I drop the joking tone.

She stops laughing after a few more moments and looks at me expectantly. I was going to mention this to her as she is one of the few creatures in this world that might actually know what this is. Or at least to get a second opinion to put my fears to rest. "You remember the filly I saved in New Trotten? The royal from Griffonstone?" I ask while taking out two drawings from my saddlebags.

She nods. "Well, both on my way there and when I was traveling back, I spent some time enjoying their hospitality. On a side note, they are lovely hosts." I shrug a little with a grin. "Who would have guessed? Anyway, Silvis drew this while we were eating. And keep in mind Entropy was always under an illusion." I emphasize and pass her the first drawing.

She unfolds it and looks it over for a moment, glancing at Entropy when she flies over, apparently curious about her name being mentioned. I pet Entropy as Celestia tilts her head a bit, "I can see what you mean, but I hardly thin-" I cut her off by passing the second drawing to her. Her eyes focus as she looks between the drawing and Entropy. "Hmmm."

I nod. "The first is from when I was passing by, and the second was when I was heading home. Entropy was either under an illusion or my shadow the whole time. I didn't even see the second drawing until I was on the train leaving, I spent my entire train ride going from... Well, worrying over it." I admit slowly not finding a way to skip over it.

Celestia gives me a sympathetic look. Entropy interrupts us at that point, "Very scared, made stop." She says with clear pride and Celestia looks back at me more concerned.

I sigh. "Entropy is family, and if others knew about her... I full-on panicked, Entropy snapped me out of it." I admit after a moment while Celestia looks both concerned and reassuring. "The good news was I just needed time to process everything, and the train ride did that well. I'm fine now, it's not really that bad. I'm more curious about how this happened at all." I reassure her with a calm tone.

After coming home I was much more calm about everything that happened. It's not too bad and if worse comes to worse I will just deal with it. Celestia stretches out a wing and pets Entropy, "Good job, you looked after him well." Celestia praises Entropy, who looks very proud while sticking out her chest, before turning back to me. "I expect you to send a letter if you need to talk, and as a friend I will be very annoyed if you don't." She is firm but adds some humor at the end.

I nod and she goes back to looking over the drawings. "I have encountered a few things of similar nature before. It really depends on what she's actually doing. I've known some magical creatures to be able to see through illusions, it could be something in their family line." I think on that as I suspected something similar but wasn't sure it was possible.

"If it is something more akin to soothsaying or truth-seeing then it is much less simple." She takes a large drink of tea as we have been talking for a long while. "I can tell you for certain some beings can see the truth even when their mind doesn't recognize it. Such as an artist drawing a hidden truth while never knowing of it, not even a bit." She moves a piece on the board as I listen.

I think about that and nod as it could very well be the case here. "It might be possible, the details are so accurate though? I can understand the feathers and general look, even the wisps of shadow look to be moving the same way." I voice my thoughts and ponder aloud. "I guess something like that is rare though, they might not even use an ability like that often."

Celestia shakes her head a little and I raise a questioning brow. "I find that beings with such an ability use it often, but using it and harnessing it are two very different things. Much like your magical affinities, the first step to controlling them is recognizing that they are there at all." I find myself nodding in agreement with her logic.

"In this case, neither of us has enough information to truly know anything, and as much as I also wish for answers we are unlikely to get any easily. You may wish to simply try and let go for now, keep thinking and theorizing, but also live your life at the same time." She says the same conclusion I myself have come to.

I nod in agreement and look off into the distance of the dark Everfree Forest. "I thought the same, I ended up at that very answer after the train ride. Thank you though." I thank her once again. "I'm just not really sure what I should do about it in the future? I could try and be creative and test for it, but they have been nice and welcoming." I am reluctant to cause a problem for someone who's been so kind.

Celestia looks pleased at the answer. "Hmm, maybe it is something that is better left alone then?" I continue to look at the board as she talks. "It might be best to simply do nothing, if it becomes a problem deal with it then. As you often do when inventing things, it seems to work well for you." She gives more advice.

I stay silent and simply think about her words. My paranoia and fear aren't unwarranted, but it seems I continue to learn this same lesson over and over again. She is probably right, but that doesn't mean I won't prepare for the future now. "Maybe, but I think it might also be time to dive a little more into illusions, would you be so kind as to teach me? I suspect you know a little." I ask knowing full well how much she likes teaching others.

She smiles happily and gets the familiar look of a teacher. "As you said earlier, with pleasure."

POV shift Chrysalis.

I watch silently as another cold body is dragged across the grass. Why did this clash have to be in the day? We must hurry to clean things up before it was noticed by others. This may be a remote area but I know better than to assume none may pass through on a whim, I've nearly made that mistake before and learned my lesson well.

I look over at the twelve bodies and six injured drones, my drones. I turn to another drone who is tending to the injured, "How bad?" I do not waste words and demand an answer as fast as possible, my drones also know the urgency and are working as quickly as possible.

They don't bother to bow as we do not have the time. "Two must be carried, but the rest can fly my Queen." The answer is quick and only uses a minimal amount of formal words. I nod and move over to look at the bodies closely as they are being moved to a hastily dug grave for them, made by a pair of drones casting earth spells.

It was a small clash that unfortunately was interrupted by a wild predator, drawn in by the noise most likely, or the smell of blood. The small forest clearing is stained with splashes of greenish-red blood, it stinks up the otherwise peaceful clearing. What a waste.

I lost four drones in a useless battle, one neither side planned to have to begin with. It seems that the monster is still gathering food in the nearby city, I'll need to increase my attempts there, I can't have them causing too much trouble. I look over the pile of things the enemy drones were carrying with them.

Everything is mundane, basic daggers and a short sword, along with a few flasks and jars filled with fluids of various colors each representing a different emotion. If nothing else I have taken some more food from that monster and more of her drones were lost than mine, still these drones shouldn't have died for so little.

I watch as my other drones finish burying the dead and start carrying the wounded as they all prepare to fly off. I only came here because I was nearby when I was passing and a runner from the group was able to find us in time to get help. I glance over at the large corpse of the dire bear being prepped to move by a dozen drones, it took more magic than preferable but it is no longer a problem.

This part of Equestria is remote, good for moving things around unseen but also much more dangerous. I take flight after a few moments along with the rest of my drones, making sure we are all low to the ground and all in disguise in case we are spotted at a distance.

As I fly my mind drifts to thoughts of the Ponies once again. I know that Princess Celestia is tempting me, and it is working. The little amount of love she's sent has been a larger boon than she may have expected, it has given the hive more energy, even if it doesn't give us much to quell our hunger with.

It risks the monster finding out, so I am simply telling the hive it is love that we gathered in a new secret location only for the elite and trusted love gatherers, not a perfect lie but good enough for most of the hive. That idea of more food is improving the morale of many, and by this point it is desperately needed.

I still remember how spirited and determined those who first joined me at the start of this war were, but that has dulled with time. War grinding away their will, but they now see a light, a way forward, and that we are still winning. The Ponies are being stubborn though, not fully backing us but giving us a taste of what they could offer.

The price though, I have disturbingly little to offer in exchange at the moment, beyond some less important information. Still, I can not walk away from this after the improved fighting spirit of the hive, if I try it might be the breaking point for many.

A meeting first, I must get a meeting and try my best to find something to offer and entice them. I wonder what my drones have found out about that knight? He seems to be very trusted by Princess Celestia, he was allowed to deal with a problem without even really informing their group at the meeting.

I sigh and look out across the sky at the setting sun. Later, I must deal with this mess first.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :)
Current year is 996

I had fun adding to the conversation, and I decided to add a bit more humor. I didn't really know how to end it though so I thought checking in on Chrysalis would be fun, I might do that occasionally, I'm not sure yet.

Second thing, Shade's birthday. Any ideas? Things he or his friends could do? Keep in mind they aren't too big on Celebrating and normally keep it simple.

Ps, day off. See you all Monday.