JUN 13 Wednesday.

I look over the small pot as a sprout of a small plant starts to rapidly grow and form into a twisting bush.

Over the past few days, I've been trying to think of what I should get Celestia for her birthday, and it has proven as difficult as always. Getting something for a Pony that has anything they want is never easy, so I've once again gone back to a good starting point, plants.

One of the few things Celestia can't get easily is custom plants and that I can do, so I've been working with something I've been neglecting for a while now, the Prismatic Rose. I got it as a gift but haven't had much time to really grow or experiment with it, until now that is.

I started by using them as some much-needed decoration, specifically I've grown a large amount of them on the outside walls of my little shack in Gaia's Eden. The walls are now caverned in bushes that grow up the walls on all sides, deep green leaves, and a never-ending variety of colorful roses that all shine in different ways.

As for my gift? Well, the idea is very simple and should be great. I've spent some of my time over the past two weeks using Guided Evolution to change the Prismatic Rose, I made it so that not only would the flowers be a random color, but the stems and leaves as well would be random.

This little pot with a now one-foot-tall bush is the result. A plant that looks more like a rose bush that somepony spilled random paint over, it looks like a shattered rainbow. There is a pattern on the bark, while each leaf and flower is random the stems are a more controlled chaos and something that took some extra time to add.

The colors are still random, but they are constant in a way. The base of this bush is red for an inch before shifting to blue, green, and pink. Every few inches and every time a branch splits off the colors smoothly transition to something else and the never-ending color just keeps changing with no order, but always in a smooth gradient.

I've decided to name it the Rainbow Rose, for obvious reasons, like always it's not a complex name but it fits well. Beyond the new plant I've also been trying hard to make something a little more personalized, but it's proven to be a mess and is taking longer than I would like.

I went out and bought some Vanilla seeds, it was pretty easy as a few shops sell them to add to baked goods or certain foods. After that, I spent some time tracking down Cocoa seeds, otherwise known as chocolate, and that actually proved to be much more difficult.

The climate here is not suited for Cocoa plants and most chocolate comes to Canterlot as a finished product and not as seeds, often grown and made in the lower parts of Equestria. It took me three fucking days to find somepony who sold them, but only after finding several places that sold roasted seeds instead of live seeds.

After gathering both of these I've been trying to breed them together to make a Vanilla chocolate taste. That proved to be a fucking mess as well, at first all my results would just make something that tasted so strong I nearly threw up when smelling it, or other times the smell just came out fucking disgusting.

That's something I've noticed about smells and tastes when it comes to breeding plants, even with Guided Evolution they are so delicate that you more often than not get a bad result. Mixing different flavors is also harder, and that's without trying to crossbreed a tree and a vine.

It took a WEEK of constant trying, even while not breeding other plants, to make something that had both tastes without either being wrong, and even then they aren't perfect. Right now they are combined, the vanilla taste is a little light and needs to be increased while the chocolate taste is too strong, but the plant is done and I should be able to make the finished result in time.

Once I have the flavors down, I'm trying to get close to a vanilla chocolate cake flavor, and am getting there. I've been breeding the taste into the bean of a modified Vanilla because it takes less magic and is easier to taste when needed than a Cocoa Tree. Once I get the taste right I just need to add it to a Red Leaf Tea bush and bam, chocolate cake tea.

All this shit for some cake-flavored tea, but it will be worth it to see how happy she'll be with her gifts. I'm not sure how much she'll actually like it as making this tea is a little odd, but I do know chocolate and vanilla is one of her favorites so I think she will enjoy it. I refocus and harvest a few dozen seeds from the Rainbow Rose bush in the pot in front of me and pack them away in a bag.

I check the time and see that I need to get going soonish. After the letter Cadance sent me, I've been thinking about my revenge, and it just so happens that we have a nice little get-together planned for today. With an admittedly odd twist to it, an amazing prank was planned thanks to Celestia's recommendation.

Celestia gave me a small but wonderful idea on how to prank Cadance, and it goes back to an idea we came up with that we never ended up using. I spent a little bit of my time tweaking one of the spells I've made before, the spell that I used to make Celestia's invisible grape illusion.

This time, I swapped the idea and made an illusion that everypony but the one it's cast on can see. Leaving me with only one thing to do, picking an appropriate illusion of course. In the end, I went with something harmless but funny as all good pranks should strive to be.

It will only last for an hour or two, but in that hour everypony will see an odd thing, a nice red heart spinning around Cadance's head. It takes on the classical shape, I even made it a lovely shade of red just for her. I'll have to wait and see what her reaction will be but I am excited to find out, not that I'll see it as I expect a letter not long after our meeting.

For the moment though I spend some time checking on a few of my other projects, specifically the Fire Blossom Tree I'm breeding and the Water Lily. I walk over to a barrel placed next to the pavilion and look inside, seeing a slightly withered Water Lily that seems to still be struggling.

The process is actually going a bit slower than I would have liked, this being my latest attempt to strengthen the Water Lily's ability to survive. It's taking longer because I underestimated how much time I'd have to spend just watching a plant sit in water and see if it survives longer than the last one.

My gifts to Celestia have also taken up a lot of my time over the past two weeks and even with Guided Evolution this is probably going to take longer than just two months. The main problem is that I can't really speed up this process, giving it life magic will just have it heal unnaturally and will skew my results.

I make a few quick notes and move on to a single lone tree with a patch of ash under it. This has been the result of my using a mixture of Guided Evolution and simple selective breeding to increase the amount of fire magic a Fire Blossom tree can convert, it has actually been going very well.

I've gotten lucky and am reaching my goal a lot faster than I thought I would, doubling the tree's output in a few short weeks, it will take more time but it is going swimmingly. I've mostly completed the shield that I will need to contain the lava needed as well. Now I'm looking into fire and earth runes to make a good enough spell to increase the temperature and melt rock.

I again make some notes while moving around a small Fire Gem to get a rough estimate of how much fire magic is being produced. With those last two things done, I spend a moment walking over to my shack and putting a few things away before looking for Entropy.

I can sense her and to my amusement she's once again inside the fish pond, apparently she now enjoys playing and bathing in it. I walk over and spot her lying belly up in the pond, her wings spread wide as she floats in the water. I look up and watch the small streams made by the Water Tree flow down and add to the pond slowly, an admittedly very peaceful place to relax.

The fish are actually not avoiding Entropy, maybe it's because she doesn't really look like a bird or because she's just floating in the water, but they swim near her without any panic while keeping some small distance. Most of the larger fish come over to me as I approach the pond, them now being used to Celestia or me dropping in berries whenever we get close to them.

I smile down and chuckle quietly as I notice that Entropy is actually asleep, it gives me the perfect opportunity to have some fun. I pick a few barriers from the plants nearby and walk over to the side of the pond Entropy is floating in, crushing the berries as I do.

I take the bits and pieces of berry and gently place them all right next to Entropy in the water, at the base of her outstretched wings and neck to be specific. It only takes a moment for the fish to notice and come swarming over to eat, which has the truly unintended and unfortunate side effect of them trying to eat the bits of berry from the feathers of Entropy.

After a few moments of me watching I see the fish start to nibble on the spines of her feathers as she stirs from her rest. I see her twitch and a moment later a particularly hungry fish starts to nibble on her feet and talons, which proves to be enough to wake her. "Wha- CAW!!" She flaps her wings in surprise as her head bolts up and she looks around.

She thrashes around for a moment as the fish keep trying to eat, she loses a bit of her buoyancy and sinks leaving only her head above water. The fish scatter from the movement, giving up on the food as Entropy speaks up and I laugh. "No! Not food, bad fish!!" She caws and moves her wings around the water to scare off the fish that stubbornly remain.

She gets over her shock after a moment and looks up at me as I sit there still laughing, enjoying the sight. "Help, bad fish!" She complains and moves flaps around the water looking a little helpless. "Wait... You make fish bad!" She accuses me and I laugh harder while she teleports away.

A moment later I sense as she and feel some water vanish, only to feel in a different way when a small ball of water drops onto the back of my head before I can dodge it as she teleports above me. My mane and face are suddenly drenched in cold water and much like the expression, I go silent and abruptly stop my laughter.

She drops onto my back a moment later glaring at me while I glare back, both of us wet and trying to pretend that this wasn't funny. "Mean, fix." She demands and I keep my glare strong for a moment before chuckling and nodding. She drops her glare as well and chirps, "Revenge later, friends now?" She makes a frankly ominous statement and asks if it's time to leave.

I cast a drying spell on both of us and a moment later she puffs her suddenly dry feathers out and starts to preen them back into their proper placements. I nod again, "Yes, we get to go see Cadance again, I even got a little prank planned. And if you spoil it I will start giving you showers again." I threaten as while I'm ok with it and even a little proud she wants revenge, I don't want her to ruin my other prank.

She chirps out excitedly. "No mean. Wouldn't anyway, funny." She doesn't hide the fact that I raised her, and we both have a bit of a thing for pranks. I chuckle a bit and shake my head as I walk back to my shack, I spend a few minutes gathering the armor I'll need to spar with Shining and take the time to grab some more tea as well.

I nod to Entropy and a moment later we're standing in the workroom with Entropy looking at me attentively. "Go see fire friend?" She asks and I chuckle a little more before nodding, watching her quickly teleport away to go bother Celestia by playing with Philomena.

I spend a moment making sure my saddlebags are on correctly before leaving the room, meeting a guard on the other side like many times before. I silently follow them through the palace and arrive where I was expecting to be with little delay, entering a guest room with Candace waiting inside it.

As I close the door behind me I see Cadance sitting there with a far too smug smile and a knowing look. "Hello, Shade, did you enjoy my letter? I thought it was interesting to discuses the oddities of cutie marks in detail, didn't you?" I glare at her silently as I walk over and try not to blush at her words.

As I sit down I cast a spell immediately, right in front of her face, and smile a bit as she jumps. "Wouldn't know, sorry I burnt that letter, I even turned the ash into soil for my plants, thank you for that," I say with a fake sweet tone, ignoring the floating heart she can't see while not providing any explanation for the spell I just cast.

I enjoy her shocked expression while she quickly looks over her body for a moment before pulling a small mirror out from under her wing and looking at herself from other angles. But she finds nothing after a moment and looks at me with narrowed eyes. "What did you do?" She demands as I continue to smile.

I give her my best innocent look and shrug. "Nothing permanent, enjoy." I don't give anything away and enjoy getting my revenge for the moment. "So how have you and your husband been?" I ask, changing the subject and using a more normal tone, while silently enjoying her more intense glare and the cute heart floating around her.

She huffs at my first words but actually looks bashful about me calling Shining her husband. "You do know we're not married, right?" I nod and she sighs while dropping her glare. "Worth it, so so worth it, even with WHATEVER you just did. And don't think I'm not onto you, you are not in any registry and I know it now!" She suddenly exclaims.

I blink for a moment before the memories of her trying to find Gaia's Eden pop up in my memory, and I can't help but laugh. "Took you long enough, I almost started giving you hints." I tease her more as her eyes focus on me, not a glare but a silent promise of revenge. "Also, he's not your husband, yet." I tease her a little more.

She stays silent for a moment and looks at me. "I'm going to start taping pictures of Aunty to the inside of your kitchen cabinets, very suggestive pictures." She threatens with a level tone that almost makes me think she is serious. I roll my eyes but she stays silent and maintains the same stare as I grow more concerned at her growing smile.

My ears pin back and I shake my head. "Please don't, I do not need to see that." I insist as my body tries to form ideas that I ruthlessly crush. I try my best but a slight blush comes through and she smiles more before nodding as if satisfied that she got a reaction out of me.

She relaxes more and also takes a less teasing tone. "Maybe, but you can't lie to me and say you wouldn't want to see them." She adds after a second and my blush deepens. I really try my best not to think of Celestia like that, but just like everypony else I do in fact notice the mares around me, just as mares seem to.

I huff and shake my head. "I'm not answering that, and if you trick me into answering it I'm making you volunteer at the hospital for good press, and you know Celestia would love the idea. I WILL do the work to make it happen." I threaten back and her ears also pin back a bit.

There is a long moment of silence as we let our threats hang in the air, but after a few seconds we both start chuckling, and then laughing, it lasts for nearly a minute before we calm down again. "You didn't answer my questions, how have you been recently? We didn't really talk about you last time we met." The last time we met I was mostly talking about my trip and the wolf.

She rolls her eyes. "As if I'd let you derail the conversations from you fighting Dragons to how my day was. It's been great, Shining has moved into the palace on a more permanent basis, he used to go back and forth a lot but Twilight is older now so he's going to be around here more. And you?" She seems very happy and I nod as I remember hearing something similar from Twilight.

I think for half a second and smile before taking out a piece of paper and starting to copy a spell I made for her as a gift. "Things have been going well for me, as well as normal at least." She raises a brow at the paper and my statement. "I haven't gotten into any fights, and I've been thinking about going further into healing, maybe," I say while drawing out a spell matrix.

This spell is a small modification I made to the Silence spell I made long ago. It basically just makes a sound shield that only lets sound in and not out, a similar design to the spell I made for foals. The difference is that this is more heavy-duty, capable of blocking much louder sounds, and is made to conform to the walls of the room you are in when you cast it.

I prefer the smaller version I've made that just makes a bubble around me, but this one wasn't made for me. I move the paper over along with instructions on the spell, "Here, I have no idea when Shining's birthday is and I missed your last two, so consider this an apology. It should help now that you two live so close together." I say with a knowing tone as she reads the paper.

She looks both confused and apprehensive for a moment as she reads. "Silence Spell?" She mumbles and I see her blush a moment later as it clicks in her head, blushing harder than I've ever seen her before, getting a laugh out of me. She looks at me with an odd expression, like she's not sure if she needs to glare at me or thank me.

In the end, she sits there blushing for a minute before smiling as an idea seems to pop into her head. "I think Aunty could use a copy of this." That stops my laughter as it starts to trail off. She places the papers under her wing and they vanish. "That's for later though, so, what have you got planned for Auntie's birthday?" She asks and changes things before I can stop her.

I think for a moment but just take the small victory of making her blush, for now at least. "A few things, and maybe something extra, can't have you dropping hints. As for you? I do have one more gift." I use my last card, this one less about embarrassing her and more about annoying her.

I place a book in front of, a book about the philosophy of love. I smile happily as she looks back up at me. "I dislike you, a lot. But I found the place I want my Strawberry Tree, so you get a pass." She states but still opens the book. "How about you read it with me? Can't have you misunderstanding love after all." I perk up at the mention of the tree, but once again, my attempts backfire on me.

POV shift Celestia.

I hum a tune softly as I go through another document, yet another about the supplies and preparations needed for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. It should prove to be a merry day like the many MANY years before it, yet another part of me is excited for something else.

I don't really remember the last time I felt excited like this, excited that I know my friend will have something planned for me on my birthday. Right, Shade and Cadance should be meeting sometime around now. I could stop in. There is still much work to do though, maybe another day, plus it is good that they get to talk on their own.

I sigh a bit and stop abruptly as I see the floor not far away from me fill up with a shadow. From underneath a bookshelf, I notice a shadow grow larger and larger in a mere moment, before springing up and taking full form. Sitting on my floor Entropy caws a little and flies over to my desk. "Hello." The cute and pure voice greets me with a happy tone.

I smile widely at the sight of the bird, the dark hole in reality itself acting like a friendly filly. That's what Entropy is though, a cute little filly who's nice and despite her looks is a very good girl. "Hello to you too, Entropy. I suppose you came to find Philomena?" I ask as I move another document to the side.

They may be the oddest pair I have ever seen, but Entropy and Philomena have been good friends for years, or at least as good as friends can be when one of them isn't fully sapient. Entropy bobs her head, "Well, she's in my bedroom at the moment, you remember the way?" She bobs again. "Good, don't break anything." I remind her with a small bit of sternness.

She fully nods. "Won't, bye friend." She says happily and disappears from my desk a second later. I let out a small laugh at her cute attitude before picking up a new document. I start humming again as my thoughts drift back to where they were a minute ago.

I'm excited to see what he's done, maybe another party? Then again he can be rather good at surprises when he wants to be. I idly glance at the necklace I have on, a familiar one made of wood and a single gemstone, one I wear a fair amount. He is also very good at gifts.

My thoughts drift more to the stallion in question and I chuckle knowing he's dealing with my niece right now. She can be very effective with her teasing and taunts, I can even name a time or two when she got me with them. But for Shade, it is so much more amusing to watch.

It is rather odd that she uses me to do it so much, not that I can't see why she does so, it just feels a bit odd to me. I know Shade may look from time to time at me, but I can't blame him for that, he's far from the only one and he makes an effort to not stare too much. And I also... Well, he's not alone in staring. I am willing to admit, even if just to myself, that he is a good-looking stallion.

Tall, healthy, and he takes care of himself. I shake my head as my thoughts go a little too far and I find myself thinking a little too much about his appearance. I really need to stop doing that, he is a very good friend and I am very close to him but I... My thoughts stop as I try to find a way to end that thought that makes sense.

Instead, I just stop thinking about it and move the entire line of thought to the side and focus further on my work. I have things to do and if I want to be able to spend the rest of the Summer Sun Celebration away from my little Ponies I will need to get it all done in time.

I do wonder what he has planned? Either way, I think I will be enjoying it, I always do enjoy the time we spend together. I again stop my thoughts as this seems to steer in the same direction I just moved away from. I force my mind away from it entirely and just focus on reading the documents.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :)
Current year is 996

I thought seeing Cadance again would be nice and going with a more simple approach for gifts would be nice. As well as adding a little more of good old Celly, just a bit.

Also, depending on the time zone your in, happy new years everybody!! I hope you all get read for another year of earth and all in entails.

On a different note, if this was timed right, (it might not be) This story might pass the mark and be in or very near the top 100 for word count. I just wanted to point that out to say I appreciate all the kind comments over the months that have kept me writing, it really dose mean a lot to me.