OCT 31 Wednesday.

I sip my tea slowly and try to unwind from the morning shift at the hospital. My mind is occupied by worry for my friend and how she's doing at the moment.

After spending time with Celestia a little more than a week ago we haven't spoken, but yesterday she sent me a letter. I was worried as she normally contacts me to meet before or on Nightmare Night however I only got this letter a day before the holiday. I look down and once again read through the letter I have read several times by this point.

Dear Shade.

I'm sorry for not contacting you recently, I've felt rather... Uninterested in talking to one another since our last meeting. Nothing against you or any other Pony, I just feel the need for some privacy. I'll probably be spending Nightmare Night at Gaia's Eden, and I have a bit of a request for you.

To explain, I normally always avoided the castle this time of year, going only on rare occasions. I am beyond grateful you have gotten me to go more often, but this year I simply don't have it in me. I don't want to go there, but I would like to be close.

This is why I wish to ask if you would be willing to let me have a private day at Gaia's Eden? To let me be alone on this night? I just feel that I need some time to myself, and that I would like to be somewhere familiar that feels like home, and there is only one place that fits.

I know it might be a big favor, more so because I know you would be tempted to show up anyway and try to comfort me. But I believe I need this time to myself. I know it is short notice, but please write back with an answer when you can. And I will see you as soon as I can after Nightmare Night.

Signed your friend, Celestia Solis.

It lacks a lot of detail and she's right in saying I'd like to be there to try and help her on this night. To give some comfort as a friend when she's at her lowest. All the same, though I sent back a letter saying she was more than welcome to use Gaia's Eden for as long as she needs and I'd leave her alone for the night until she is ready to talk.

I don't know what has changed from the years before, maybe it's stress over the war, or her thinking she's putting too much of her worries on me, but it's fine all the same. She spent nearly a thousand years holding this grief and as much as I don't like not being there I know she will be fine all the same.

It does leave me in a bit of a pickle though as I don't really have anything to do tonight. The sun will set and after that, it will just be me alone with Entropy. I could ask what my friends are doing? But I don't have any form of costume and I think they are already out and about for their own plans.

I sigh and fold the letter up before walking over to my workroom and placing it in a box I use for letters from Celestia and Cadance. "I guess it's just us tonight Girl," I say as Entropy nods slowly. She also read the letter, or at least as much as she could, and asked me to read to her the rest.

She caws softly while riding my back. "Friend sad, make better, later." I nod silently in agreement. I had to explain that Celestia wanted to be left alone, and while Entropy looked like she also wanted to go to Gaia's Eden and help, she relented and settled for a determined promise to help later.

I'm a little proud she's able to care for others as she does and respect boundaries, or at least respect them with some guidance. On that topic, I've been trying to find something for Entropy to do that isn't a skill or a hobby, and in the meantime, I've been letting her help me with small tasks, mostly just asking her to grab things I need. Anyway, I've narrowed it down to a few things.

There are many chores I do that she could help with but she lacks something important, the simple ability to move things in a precise manner. Her talons work but for a lot of things, they could mess things up and otherwise not be maneuverable enough for a task.

So instead of not considering these things I've been thinking about trying to see if we can find a way for her to manipulate objects on her own, and maybe also expand her abilities to defend herself. She doesn't have anything like my field and if she does have space magic it's going to take a very long time before she gets enough skill to use it like I do.

Her use of teleportation seems instinctual and training it to hold things would most likely take a long time and a lot of effort on her part, years worth actually. But after some thought, I think her shadows might be a better place to start, even if picking something up with a shadow seems like an odd choice.

Magic is in large part about Will though, and with enough magic and Will, it should be possible to do anything with any ability. And after some more thought, I might be able to even add something of a mental crutch for her to base a new ability to manipulate her shadow magic.

Visualizing something can be very hard and she's still very young, but controlling something that is already there is much more simple. She already knows how to move shadow magic out of her body, but forming that into anything can be a very hard thing to grasp, so I have an idea to aid us.

I pick Entropy up and give her a smile, "We will, but for now I have something I think should be a nice distraction for us." I hold her and move her along with me back into the main room, setting her down on a clear spot on the floor and sitting with her.

I reach into her toy box and bring out an old toy she has, a simple wooden ball, not even a magical one. I move it over to us and place it down in between us as she watches curiously. "You control shadows, yes?" I started to try and lay the groundwork for a good way she could think about doing this.

She bobs her head. "And you remember how I explained you have shadow magic?" She bobs again. "Good. Now, what do you think all that black mist on your body is?" I want and probably need her to think about this and draw the conclusion herself, it should help with forming the connection in her mind.

She tilts her head and brings one of her wings in front of her, looking down at it in thought. She brings out one of her legs and runs her talons over the feather spines and mass of shadow mist. "Shadow?..." I stay silent and she looks down again. "Shadow magic?" I smile and nod, to which she chirps happily.

"Yes, it is. Your body gives off small amounts of it." That is only a theory in truth, I have no idea if that is actually shadow magic. I can't think of much else it would be and I don't think it necessarily needs to be true for this to work. "So, if you control shadows, can you control that mist?" I leave the question open-ended.

She again looks down at her wing and looks closer at it. "Don't know." She states simply and I nod in thought. "We find out?" She questions as she seems to realize what I'm getting at. "Can do?" Her tail starts to wag as she seems excited by the idea and looks up at me.

I shrug. "I can't see why not." I can in truth think of a reason or two that might make it hard or impossible, but she doesn't need to know that. "So how about we try?" She caws excitedly and looks up for instruction. "Try something small, focus on the mist around your wing, and pull some off to the side." I try to think about how I would do this and this seems like the first logical test.

Honestly, I'm surprised I never thought about this before, it seems obvious in hindsight, but we got there in the end. She again looks at her wing and waves it around a little, watching as the slowly sweeping mist falls from her wing to the floor only to disappear entirely a moment later.

I can't tell if her eyes are open but I wait patiently as she stops moving her wing and focuses. And to my surprise, it only takes a few seconds for something to happen. The mist falling from her wing starts to pull to the left as it falls, with no wind or other cause being visible.

It's only really shifting to the side, but after a few moments, it starts moving left horizontally and not even touching the ground before disappearing. "Girl!" I say excitedly as my slight shock wears off. I assume she opens her eyes and sees the shadow mist moving before it abruptly stops happening. "You did it!" I celebrate and pick her up for a quick hug.

Positive reinforcement is another way to help ingrain this new ability into her memory so I celebrate maybe a little more than needed. "YES! Victory!" I chuckle at her words as she hugs me back. I hold her for a moment before placing her back down on the floor. "Proud?" She asks with a hopeful tone.

I smile widely. "Beyond proud, I'm absolutely amazed." Which is not untrue as I expected this to take a lot longer than it did. I think this ability is ingrained and natural to her kind, we just never had the idea so it didn't come up. It's something another older member of her race would probably teach her when she was much younger. "Do you feel tired? Did that feel like it took a lot of magic?" I ask curiously and activate my illusionary notebook to take notes.

She hops around one of her feet in a little circle, celebrating and basking in the praise. It takes her a few moments to calm down enough to tilt her head and give me an answer. "No? Very little." She says and it's not too much of a surprise, she already has a lot of practice with shadow magic from her shadow walking and this seems much more simple.

I smile even more at her adorable display and make a note of her answer. "You want to keep trying?" She caws enthusiastically. "Ok, let's try something else. Move the shadows like before, but try to move them to a single spot." I think more for a moment and make a small dot on the floor with my quill from my saddlebags. "Try to direct it here."

She looks at the dot on the floor and nods before once again going silent. This time she takes longer and I think she's just too excited to concentrate as much. Eventually, she looks to the spot and stares at it hard before the mist on her wing starts to move over slowly.

It's not as fast as before and it seems keeping her eyes open makes it harder to concentrate on it. However, the longer she concentrates on it the faster it goes as the mist moves with an invisible force. Gathering at the dot, forming a small vortex as the shadow mist moves over to it before disappearing as it arrives and vanishing entirely.

I make another note and speak quietly as she concentrates. "Now imagine the Shadows staying there, not disappearing but gathering around the dot," I add and the only indication she hears me is a small soft chirp. There are a few seconds of inaction but then the wisps of shadow start to stay longer than they were before.

The wisps start to stay longer and longer gathering at the spot. It takes a minute for the shadows to form a misty half-sphere around the dot on the floor. After they form together I move out a hoof and touch it. It feels cold, but I can't feel anything beyond that and my hoof moves right through it.

Entropy stops moving the mist and looks up at me questioningly. "Why hoof?" She asks and I stay silent continuing to watch, she looks down and notices it as well. Despite her cutting off her mist and not giving more to the half ball, it stays in that form for nearly thirty seconds before fading away rapidly.

I keep my wide smile as several ideas rapidly run through my head. It seems she can have shadows move and condense, on top of making them last a while without her direct control. At this point, I am beyond impressed with her ability, but I can also see we need a lot of work for this to be truly usable.

I think it should be possible for her to harden her shadow mist, if she can move and condense it that also seems likely. And if she can make them solid then there is no limit to the possibilities, but there is also no need to rush things. "Did that take more magic?" I ask while making more notes and theories.

She nods. "Yes. Not much, still small." She explains simply and I write that down. "Make more?" She asks back and looks at the dot, clear excitement in her tone. It seems she's taken that from me, the endless grind has taken another generation for itself.

I pet and scratch her. "As much as you like, just don't try anything new without me ok?" I ask with a more firm tone. She may be able to take care of herself, but this is untested magic and she's still a child, I can't just leave her completely unsupervised. She can at least practice the basic things we did though, it is very unlikely for anything to happen, let alone something bad.

She nods quickly. "Promise! Training time!" :Yup seems she definitely picked a few things up from me:

POV shift Cadance.

I sigh sadly as I look over the simple note Aunty left for me this morning.

Dear Niece. I'll be back tomorrow morning, please take care of things for today.

It is simple but not much else really needs to be said about it. She always gets like this today and I'm just glad she's not in her room crying, something I have seen a few times no matter how sneaky she thinks she's being. At least she has somewhere to go and not be bothered, and it looks like I have extra work today, not that I mind helping Aunty a bit.

I look over the large desk and the equally large amount of paperwork I'll have to work through today, it's not too bad at least. Most of these seem like large documents, time-consuming but less urgent. I settle in on the couch in the office as I think about the low mood of today.

I don't mean to drag Aunty down, but her mood can be a bit distracting when it's as low as it is, and I even feel bad about how she looks when I see her. The week before and after she always looks tired and sometimes she just looks blank, those days make me feel a little helpless that I can't do more for her.

I'm not alone in my efforts anymore and I can count on Shade to help her when I can't. They really have gotten close, Aunty told me a few parts of their last talk together and I can read through the lines. They seemed to have talked about some sensitive things, things Aunty doesn't talk about much with me.

I think she just wants to protect me from it all, or not burden me with anything. It's frustratingly kind of her and I can't help but want to just make her be quiet and hug her for a few days. In the end, though, the best thing I can do is what I'm doing now, doing the work to let her have some space.

I still remember that before I came along when I was still younger and freshly ascended, she normally had a song and dance she would repeat this time of year. She often focused on her work and spent time in solitude in the small moments of free time she had, not the best but far from the worst reaction to the situation.

In the end, I got involved and insisted on taking more of her work so she wouldn't have to deal with it as much and could just do anything else. It let her just go off and cry in peace, not a great situation but much better than working through it all and holding it in until the small moments she could let it out.

I look over the documents and pick up a quill, ready and able to work through this all. "I swear to magic, you better take care of her Shade," I mumble out in worry and settle in for a long day.

time skip POV shift Celestia.

I drop another small berry into the warm water of the pond, the colorful and dull fish alike coming up to nibble and eat away at it.

I watch them in the darkness as my magical light hangs above my head. The dim moon shines faintly through a thick cloud layer as the night is silent around me. I remember the simple letter I got from Shade yesterday, an acknowledgment that Gaia's Eden was mine and mine alone for as long as I needed it.

He's always so kind, even when I am imposing on him and his space, he gives it up without a fight and gives me all the room and time I need. Where would I be without him? Without my friend? I don't know, but I feel things would be so much, darker.

His words at our last meeting ring true and in this cold and gloomy night, I am ever more thankful for having such a friend. A friend who sees my pain, something even my little Niece doesn't see fully, and yet I can't seem to hide it from him. Every time I am feeling low he seems to notice and starts doing all those little things to make me smile again.

From letting me speak on the most random topics to engaging with all the things I like, he even tries his best to distract me with anything he can. All to be kind, to try and make some light in an old life that rarely seems to find such light. I will miss him.

I quickly shake my head hard to get away from that thought, the very ideas plummeting my mood much lower. I am no fool, I know all too well how my Ponies fade with time, and the thought of Shade just being, gone? It scares me a lot more than it should. Even there he brings some hope and light.

Practitioners of life magic often live much longer, one I knew fairly well lived to be almost two hundred years old. And they all started at much later ages than Shade, he's been practicing and pushing his limit every day for more than a third of his life so far, and he's already making such great progress.

Then there is the simple fact of ascension. To help so many in so much, it's a real possibility he could ascend, but I have seen others who looked like they may ascend only to never reach such a point. I take a deep breath and move that entire thought process to the side, choosing to ignore it internally before I shed even more tears than I already am.

I feel the wet streaks on my face and watch them fall into the pond below, causing small ripples across the still surface. I would question what he would do if he saw me now, but I know what he would do. He would sit, listen and hug me when he thought it best, but I don't want that today.

He's seen me like this for a few years and I think this time he doesn't need to see it. Maybe that is selfish, but I will accept being selfish for today, and I know he would forgive it in a heartbeat. I slowly stand up, shaking the snow that has landed on me off as I start a slow and tired stride to my home.

All day, hours upon hours, I thought and I remembered, and above all else, I cried. Even now I can barely keep myself together with silent tears, holding in the worst of it only after letting it out for the entire day. The reason for my tears isn't always the same, the thoughts that bring them forth are always different.

Sometimes it is nothing but the guilt, sometimes nothing but the numbness, and worst of all is that little bit of anger. Anger at myself and at the situation, and yet I can't bring myself to be the least bit angry with her. She wasn't the fool who couldn't see her sister's pain, and worse still didn't do anything when she did see it.

That's the worst thing of all, isn't it? The what if, the regret of what could have been if I... No, I know better than to think like that. Things were not so simple and I didn't know, I didn't listen as I should have. I am a different Pony now, and I take what comfort I can from that.

"Is pain worth the good that comes from it, from learning to be better or more?" I say to myself as I near my little home. I find myself pausing a little as if waiting for an answer, but none comes, as I am alone. I walk up the few steps and open the door to the well-furnished and taken-care-of home.

I look around the dark room and feel my magic shift as a spell flashes in my mind for a moment, the room filling with several dozen soft balls of light, each a different color. I find my eyes drawn to the simple yet beautiful wooden piano sitting in one corner next to the largest windows of my home.

I stride over and while I can't bring myself to smile I feel a slight warmth in my chest. I told him I liked piano once, only once. And in the years between that time and all that's happened until now, he remembered that little off-topic question along with my answer.

I look over my work and open the top of the piano, tracing a hoof over the carvings I have been working on. A large carving of a full crescent moon in as much detail as my skill allows, along with equally large carvings of plants. Many types all grow in random directions and styles, with no pattern or reason to them.

I sit at the front and open the cover revealing the keys, stopping for a moment as something I'm forgetting ticks in my mind. I think for a moment before bringing out a very weathered book from under my wing, its pages stained with age. A book I was gifted so long ago by the only family I have left.

One of the few things I've kept all this time, and one I will always cherish. A little book where my little sister made notes to help me learn the piano when she saw I was struggling. I feel more tears well up in my eyes and fall from my face, but I don't allow them to stain the pages for fear it would damage them.

I flip through it and find a song, a song made by me and her, something I've always felt too ashamed to look at. A distant memory that I felt would be tainted if I brought it back into my life. But no more, I have the strength now, even if I cry. It's time for this old memory to live again.

I place the open book in view, reach out with my magic to the keys, and start to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5phpqpv52gg

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :]
Current year is 996

Going to the castle again felt a little too similar to the last chapter, and I wanted to try something new. I thought it would make sense for some years to be harder than others, and for it to not always be consistent.

As for Entropy? Well, shadow magic seemed obvious and a few of you even pointed it out as I was writing about it in the chapter, thank for for the ideas by the way. I only have two things to say about it really, Shadow Tentacles, and Shadow Blades.

And finally, while I sadly didn't have time to respond to you all I thought I'd thank each and every one of you for the love on 300 chapters. It's truly heartwarming to see, now please stop. My heart is already running at 153F and I don't think I can take any more kindness.