MAR 12 Wednesday. I get out of bed and after waking up Entropy and we move into the kitchen so I can make us some breakfast before going to work, I make myself a grilled cheese and some fruit with the last of the fish for Entropy.

But as I eat my breakfast I hear a knock at the door and move over to the door to answer it, "letter and package for yo, Shade?" I see a guard in their armor specifically one Shining Armor standing at my door with a box and letter, :oh hell, why the FUCK is it you again:.

I need to think fast and not say anything stupid, "oh hey Shining I didn't know you were part of the guard, when did that happen?" he still seems a little confused but after a moment answers me.

"I joined younger than most and got into the guard early" :good now don't ask me abou:, "if you don't mind me asking why are you getting a letter and package from the princess?' :WHY!:.

I think fast trying to come up with an excuses and the best lies are the truth so let's try that, "I sent her a gift once and she liked it, after that we started sending letters back and forth for a while now as for the package I have no idea."

He still looked a little confused but seems to have dropped the subject :thank god: Shining's horn lights up as he passes me a letter and box, I take the letter from Shining while I move the package inside the apartment with my field before opening the letter and reading it.

Dear Shade Evergreen, I'm writing to you because the first full tests on the pest enchantment have finished and included in this letter is a copy of the results that I'd like you to review if you have the time, as the researches want to check that the results are what you expected and also asked you to include any more advice you can give them.

I'm also asking you to join me on the fifteenth of March at three in the afternoon for a meeting with me as I'd like to discuss something with you, beyond that there is a second package with this letter that's a late Hearth's Warming gift as it took me a while to copy the book in my spare time I hope you enjoy it. Signed princess Celestia.

I haven't gotten a letter from Celestia since she sent me a thank you letter for my Hearth's Warming gift, I look back to Shining "I'll send a letter later thank you for bringing this to me, nice seeing you Shining."

He gives me a nod "same to you Shade" he then walks away from my door and down the hall, I close my door before calming down some :I swear if I bump into him unexpectedly again I will flip a dame table:.

I refocus on the letter and take out the test results and place them to the side along with the letter, I move the package over to me and open it inside is a single book with a green cover and no name on it, I spend a few minutes to skim the books contents and find it be a hoof written instruction book.

The book's author is a pony named Green Skies, a unicorn mare born in the year 124 and died in 235 at the age of one hundred and eleven, she lived a long life especially for the time period she lived in and that's what makes this book so interesting.

Green Skies was a master at using the life affinity I've even seen her name a few times in my research about affinities, this book is a book she wrote for her at the time apprentice who made a few copies, some of the knowledge it this book I even found in the library but only bits and pieces.

This is as far as I can tell a full unedited copy of the book, Celestia said she copied it for me and considering her age she might even have one of the original copies, as I flip through the book I find many things that interesting me all worth learning, I have to stop myself from reading it because I still have work so I just place the book in my room before finishing my breakfast and leaving.

I get into the library and go about my work as always and like every other day with nothing of particular interest happening, While working I let my thoughts wander specifically to what happened when I was camping the Sonic Rainboom.

First when the Sonic Rainboom happened I was far enough away to not feel it or maybe the forest and valley walls dampened the effects enough for me to not feel it either way the result is the same, I've been researching about what happened and I may ask Celestia when we meet.

I've found little unfortunately the best source of information I've found about the event is a newspaper that explained some about the event but it had nothing I didn't already know so I wasn't able to learn much out of this whole thing, I did learn how the public reacted though.

And it's pretty much what you'd expect some panic over the magic shockwave and then even more panic over the dragon head busting its way out of a building, after an hour or two the guards got everything under control and Celestia made an announcement that everything was fine.

After that most calmed down and after a day everything was basically back to normal, this once again reminds me about how much ponies trust Celestia not that the trust they give is unwarranted, the effects of the shockwave didn't do much else besides giving every weather team a stroke over how much work they needed to do to fix the weather after it.

I check the time by looking down and activating the enchantment on my bracelet It's lunch time so I head to the breakroom,
and when I enter I see a newly recovered Blaz sitting with Daisy and Maple so I grab some food and sit with them.

"How's everypony doing today?"

Daisy is the first to speak "Shade perfect you can help me prove my point."

Blaz also speaks "Hey colt, ya you might be able to shed some light on this."

I'm not too surprised at this as when you work in a library you often have ponies disagreeing over different topics, "Sure why not, what's the topic?"

"Well blaz here thinks that the warming spell can melt stone if you use enough magic when casting it, I think the spell will take too much power for anypony to cast before the stone melts, what do you think?"

All three look at me, Maple quietly listening in, "well first we are using the basic warming spell not a modified version right?" the both nod "well than I think it depends on the type of stone something like shale has a low melting point so that would take a lot less effort."

"You'd also have to take into account the affinity of the pony casting it if they have a fire affinity then it would be easier, so in short yes and no."

Blaz speaks first "told you so."

"He didn't say you were right just that it was possible" both continue to bicker over the topic.

Maple looked confused at this before turning to me "does this happen often?"

"Right you probably haven't seen them like this before, no not often but maybe once a month or so depending on what it's about."

She pauses for a moment with a thoughtful look at me "why ask you?, not to sound rude but they are both older then you so why ask you? also what is an affinity?'.

"Well first I focus mostly on learning how spells work so I know a little more than most, and second affinities are what type of magic you have a natural advantage in you can read up on it if you want the library has plenty of books on it."

It's not often I talk to a pony that doesn't know what affinities are, but I work in a library so maybe I'm just biased, "I might just do that thanks" I nod to her as my mouth is full.

I swallow before speaking "So any plans for the day?'.

"No not really, I did want to look for some new blankets though."

"Did the room not come with them?, mine did."

She looks a little embarrassed at my question "ya they do, but I kind of destroyed mine."

I raise a brow at this before deciding that it's best not my business, "well your still new to the city and there's a few places I know where you can go to get what you need and I also need to buy some necessities, so after work would you like me to show you where they are?"

She pauses looking like she doesn't know how to answer me for a moment, "yes that would be very helpful, thank you."

I smile at her "No problem, but we really should finish our food, lunch is almost over" we eat and get back to work for the next few hours.

After I'm done with work I walk back home to grab my saddlebags before returning to the library entrance and waiting for Maple, she comes outside not long after so we start making our way to the market district.

We make it to the market and first we stop at a cloth shop, it mostly sells cloth for other businesses but also sells things like bed sheets tablecloths and other products that use large amounts of cloth, we spend a while looking through their stock feeling and looking through different cloths.

Eventually Maple finds one she likes and buys it, I tell her she can head home but she decides to continue shopping with me, so we move through the market talking as I show her around and buy what I need which is mostly just food but I also need meat, so when we approached the street that has the meat market I stop us.

"So this part of the market is for meat, I'm not sure if that's a problem for you so do you want to stay here?", I ask her as most ponies get uncomfortable around meat especially raw meat, but hearing my question she seemed unaffected.

"No that's fine I'll come with you," I'm a little unsure as she may change her mind when we enter the street, but as we walk down the street she does seem unaffected by what's around her I don't think I've ever seen a non batpony so unbothered by this.

I'm curious but keep my thoughts to myself we all have a past and Maple seems to keep hers close, hell it's not like I'm one to judge over somepony not talking about their past, I buy some bass and we move on as our shopping is done so we decide to part ways and both head home.

I make it back home and as always I'm greeted by a certain bird demanding to be fed, so after making some lunch for me and cutting up some fish into small bites, I eat while placing small pieces of fish inside the magic shield we letting her teleport inside and back out repeating this over dozens of times before stopping.

She's now able to teleport inside the shield almost instantly and is much better at teleporting in general so I'll have to find a new way to train her ability, I give her the rest of the fish before making my way inside my work room I sit in front of a desk and start working on my almost finished project.

The copying spell is proving to be more difficult than I expected, over the past two weeks I've drawn and redrawn it more times than I can count but finally a few days ago I finished a decent working version of the spell, I've been testing and adjusting and now it's basically finished.

I still need to test it some more and unfortunately the spell ended up needing another runic symbol to make it work, this has made the spell use more magic then I'd like but it's still castable by almost any unicorn, I'll also probably be giving it to Celestia at our meeting so she can take credit for it.

After some testing of the spell I moved onto the test results for the anti pest enchantment, the tests were done over the months of January and February and they consisted of three crop fields, the first was wheat the second potatoes and the third blueberries.

The wheat seemed to be decently protected but a few larger pests were still active but that was expected, the potatoes seemed to be helped only some as the pests that ate them mostly lived underground but the enchantment did help keep the plants leaves and stems safe.

The blueberries were the crop most positively affected as most pests that tried to eat them died or fled the area, over all it seems the enchantment was a success after reading through the test results I added some suggestions on where to deploy the enchantment and what other plants would benefit most from it's help the most.

After that I grab the book Celestia gifted me, the book doesn't have any ground breaking techniques or anything but it does have many small things that will help me improve on what I already have, I spend the rest of the day reading through the book and testing different things on my plants.

The most impactful thing I've found in the book is a better way to feel the life magic flow through a plant, this doesn't help me in memorizing the flows but will make it a bit easier to feel the flows of magic so it will speed up my progress slightly.

Beyond that the book does have something else of use, it has a list of useful plants to help somepony practicing and training their life magic, I'll still need to find these plants but I'll at least know what I'm looking for now, after draining the last of my magic I make some dinner for me and Entropy before heading to bed.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading.