DEC 7 Friday.

I slowly sip my tea and try my best not to let my nervousness and worry get to me. I look over and see that Daisy and Stone are still just playing Go Fish.

They came over early, and now we're just waiting for Maple and Blaz to show up. The last few days have been relaxing in how normal they were, and as a bonus, I've had something to really focus on, namely the Mind Protection spell Celestia sent me a few days ago.

With over thirty runes involved and four rings, this spell is turning out to be something complicated. She did say it was complex and hard to learn, and it also costs a decent amount of magic to cast on yourself. The large upside is the time its effect lasts, nearly a full day if you cast it properly.

The spell has a few interesting things about it and a lot of the runes are ones I didn't know, not too surprising as this type of spell is in a legal gray area. By definition, it is mental magic that is outlawed but learning spells to defend against mental magic is a specific exception and is still legal.

It's not something you can get in any library and would be very hard to impossible to buy legally. It may be legal but a lot of the runes used could also be used for less legal spells and this sort of thing is normally heavily watched when it does go up for sale, however rarely that happens.

Anyway, the spell is by far the most complex spell I've ever learned and should be both good practice and a welcome addition to my collection. That and I'm just thankful to have something that helps protect my mind, it's something I've wanted but never had a good avenue to pursue it from.

I look up from my notes as Daisy looks over to me. They both insisted on coming over early and have been staying as support, something I am silently thankful for. "Hey, before they get here, how do you want to do this? You probably have a plan and you don't need us messing it up. Also, what are you working on?" She asks kindly as Entropy stretches a little to my side.

They are on the couch while I'm lying a few feet away on the carpet. I tilt my head a little, "I was going to ask both of you to hold off on any questions and let them go first, they are the ones going to be the most shocked after all." I reason and I see Stone nod while Daisy smiles in confirmation. "As for this? An advanced spell, it's going to take a week or two." I mumble out a vague explanation.

Daisy looks curious but does a double-take after a second. "Wait, if that's an advanced spell how long does it normally take you to learn a Journeypony spell? A week." I shake my head. "Oh come on! You can't say it's even less." She complains as Stone listens silently.

I choose to be completely honest with her, mostly because I have no real reason to lie to either of them. Some of my abilities and such are still going to be secret, but a lot of things around casting I can be much more honest about. It feels a little off that I can just, say it, but also nice in a way.

I think a part of it is me just not wanting to make up more lies. I don't really need to anymore, I can just tell them I can't talk about it and that's enough. It's still a bit of a struggle though, I spent the last three days mentally preparing myself for this and I'm still hesitating to answer Daisy.

After a long moment, I answer her slowly. "For an apprentice spell I can learn it in a day, Journeypony takes a few days depending on the spell and if I'm modifying it. Anything advanced is a week and up." I am blunt and she just looks at me in bewilderment before laughing a little. "Any other burning questions to get out of the way?" I ask curiously and try to keep the mood light and myself distracted.

I have some tension in me when talking about all this, but talking about it also helps. She thinks for a moment, "Actually ya, how rich are you?" I blink at that and Stone turns to me and seems interested in my reaction. "With all the stuff you've invented it's got to be a lot by now. I mean, unless you spend it on something?" She reasons out.

I sit there for a moment and try to recall the details, honestly, I don't keep close track of that at all. "I'm not sure?" They give me odd looks. "I buy things when I need them and I know I have enough to buy them, my expenses are small so I don't really pay attention to it." I again am honest and there is a moment of silence before Stone starts chuckling and Daisy just looks unsurprised.

"Oh come on! Really, Shade?" I raise a brow. "You couldn't even pretend to care? I mean who just sits on probably more bits than a noble and decides to do nothing with them? What do you buy that's actually expensive?" She asks as if trying to find some logic in everything.

I shrug a little. "I mostly make what I need, the expensive stuff is gems and anything I need made out of metal. Entropy's little band is made from highly magical wood and mithril." I give the only good example I have inside the room. "And I have a large amount of gems for projects," I add after a second.

Daisy just groans a bit but does look at Entropy with curiosity. "I've been meaning to ask about her. Are you fine, Entropy?" The smart bird caws a little in confirmation. Entropy is still pretending to be herself for the moment because I asked her to, she did seem rather excited about showing off her true form though. "Wait, where would you even put a project? I've seen your workroom and it's not large, there are also the plants you make." She adds.

I realize we are getting a little too deep into this for the moment. "The plant thing is complicated and for later, same with Entropy. I can say I do actually have somewhere I test things and store other stuff, mostly plants." I end without any real explanation.

Gaia's Eden is best kept very vague even with them, things there are far too secret and I don't need one of them to go looking. Mainly Daisy because I know she would try if she had some motivation too. Daisy rolls her eyes but doesn't argue, "Everything about you is complicated."

I huff a bit in good humor and try my best to remain grounded. The last week has really helped me mentally prepare for this, it also helped that I was close to telling them before all of this kicked off. I just wish it would have all come together under better circumstances.

There is a length of silence as I slowly pet Entropy and study this new spell, but eventually, I feel two Ponies walking up the stairs. I'm sure it's them when they stop on my floor and start walking over, I straighten up a bit and flip a switch under a plant pot in preparation.

They knock and I open the door without getting up, they both walk in as Daisy and Stone turn to them, with me being on the other side of the couch and out of sight. "Hey Stone, good to see you joining us." Blaz greets him happily as he walks in followed by Maple.

Maple places a pie on the countertop while Blaz walks over and around the couch to see me. "Colt, good to see you are still studying when you should be having fun." He starts off with a jab aimed at me and Stone and Daisy give them both happy greetings. "So, what do you all got planned? Got to be some reason you are all cozy already." He asks while taking a seat on the couch.

I chuckle a little and take comfort in the happy mood even if there is worry welling in my heart. "Nice to see you too, you old stallion. Hey, Maple." I add as she walks over and sits on the floor near the couch, all of us in something of a circle. "And I wish we had something fun planned, it would make tonight a little upbeat," I say with a little of my worry slipping out as a joke.

That catches their attention apparently as Blaz raises a brow and Maple looks over slightly curious. "Colt?" He asks and he turns to Daisy and Stone, who just motion back to me. "Ok, well something is still up, what did you do this time you mad colt?" He makes a joke out of it but doesn't hide the curiosity in his tone.

I sigh slowly and close my notebook before sitting up and moving a little back so they can all see me easily. "I have news, but to really do this right I need proof to start off with." When thinking about everything I decided that proof was the best thing to start with. "Name a color," I state.

My words and much more focused demeanor seem to make them realize this is a little more serious than normal. "Are you ok?" Maple asks bluntly, and I nod even if I'm not sure myself. "Pink." She decides for them and I nod again before casting a spell.

In a moment flat there is a basic light spell matrix in front of us. "Most of you probably know this spell, right?" I ask as those capable of using magic nod along. "Good, then you know it makes a small white light. Now watch closely, I don't like performing and I'm only doing this once." I say flatly and start my work. Modifying this should not take long at all.

At this point, I have their undivided attention and they watch on confused as I just start taking apart the spell matrix in the air. Remaking it might have taken me longer but modifying such a simple spell in such a simple way is easy for me. Still, I decided to make it slightly more impressive to prove my point better.

"What the- ..." Blaz mumbles as they watch me take the spell apart and change several numbers quickly while adding a little more math along with another rune. They watch me take apart the spell and put in additions before putting it all back together in two minutes flat. And then I cast the spell, "Wait!" Blaz tries to warn me but that's cut short. "What?" He mumbles as a small pink light sits in front of them slowly orbiting in a small circle.

There are several stunned moments of silence as they all look at the new spell in front of them. They look at me after a moment with curious and demanding eyes, I nod slowly. "No, I did not plan that. So, this is going to take a while to explain." I start off with a very sober tone.

They slowly recover from their shock and while Blaz looks pretty happy but also confused as hell. "Colt, that... Did you just, make a new spell?" I nod. "You did it! You always said you wanted to, how?!" He asks in jubilation at my apparent achievement. I'm slumped a little and even with my best efforts my tone seemed to make him and Maple concerned. "Are you really ok?" He asks more to himself than us, after quickly dismissing his celebration.

I sigh slowly. "I'm very nervous. This is going to take a while to explain, but I just want you to... I'm not sure." I finish oddly and Maple gives me a smile as if to try and help. "To start off with, those two know more because they learned it by accident, Stone much more recently."

They keep looking at me expectantly but with patience. "I've always had a lot of secrets, you know I don't like attention, at all." Blaz and Maple both nod as they remember the whole dancing incident. "I've kept a very big secret for a long time, years actually. And I'm going to tell you today." I say that last part with some noticeable hesitation.

Blaz looks over at Daisy. "Is he ok? This seems, forced? His business ain't ours." Daisy hums and Blaz looks back at me with a reassuring look. "That was absolutely amazing, and crazy. But you don't gotta tell us anything Colt, you know that, right?" His words are kind and he doesn't make any jokes, taking the sudden tone shift seriously.

Maple nods along with him in silent agreement. "Thank you, but this is important, and while I would have liked to do it at a different time and when I'm in a better mood. I need to do it now though, it's not as much of a choice anymore. Not to me." I say seriously and sit down on my flank. "To start, I've lied, a lot," I admit slowly.

Stone chimes in at this point and interrupts me. "He had a reason to, not a bad one either. I'd say don't hold it against him but I think the only one here really worried about that is him." He makes one of his rare jokes and that breaks some of the tension as Blaz chuckles softly.

They look back at me. "I need to explain a lot of things but to start. Another demonstration to start it all." I bring over a pot filled with dirt and have a single acorn on top, something I prepared earlier. After some thought I decided to show them my life affinity, mostly because I can't easily explain the plants I made as Veil Winter and because they are going to be keeping worse secrets, so what's one more?

They actually seem excited as I start, adding some life magic to the acorn. It sprouts and rapidly grows into a two-foot sapling in a minute while they all watch on almost transfixed by the sight. "Life affinity, the ability to manipulate and control life with magic," I reveal softly before moving the plant to the side.

Stone looks very intrigued and Blaz just laughs while Daisy smiles. Surprisingly Maple speaks up first, "So this is the secret? I suppose others could want that for themselves." She hits the nail on the head and her words get Blaz to realize it as well. "How long have you been doing, this?" She motions to the small sapling.

Blaz smiles widely at me, a mix of wonder and excitement. "Colt, you make no sense! Sure, why not add the ability to grow anything to the list of many MANY amazing things? And apparently the skills of a master spell crafter." He seems to be taking things in stride, Maple as well seemed very calm about this. "You know, it's nice to see you open up Colt, good on you." He encourages me with a happy tone.

I smile a bit and shake my head slightly as she's only half right. "For a while. Yes and no. This is how everything started. So, one plant I own is Blood Leaf Tea, if you know it?" Blaz and Daisy nod and the other two shake their heads. "It's a rare and very expensive magical tea that increases magical regeneration. Very useful, and I can make an endless amount."

Maple looks very thoughtful while Blaz just mumbles something about rich colts. "I never sold it, I don't like attention and only a Pony with my affinity could do this. After a while I had too much from growing it as practice, I didn't want to sell it so, I just sent it all to The Princess." That earns me several confused and shocked looks, and one excited stare from Daisy. "I sent it on the Summer Sun Celebration as a gift like many others, I did not expect to get a letter back."

They didn't stop me this time but their reaction was about what I expected. "This was all when I was around eleven. I got an invite, turns out I caught her interest." Their eyes widen more. "That was an interesting meeting, she is more intimidating than you'd assume." I make a small joke as I do find the difference between how they see her and how she is to be funny.

Blaz gets over his shock first. "Colt, are you telling us? You've met THE Princess, because if you are I think those gossipy newspapers might have been right." It takes all my will to not react to that and give him anything to work with, instead, I roll my eyes. "So what, you help grow magical plants? I mean, doing that for the crown, ya that's a good reason to not say anything." He speculates but holds no resentment in his tone, only curiosity and humor.

His joke gets a chuckle from them all and I sigh. "Again, yes and no. Either way, this is where my other demonstration comes into play. You all know I've wanted to work with spells, make and change them, and you saw I have skill in it as well." They nod. "I've been doing it for a while now, and at a much more advanced degree than you know."

Before they can ask anything I cast a spell and vanish from their sight, they jump a little and look around for a moment before I reappear a second later. "That is an advanced invisibility spell I made, not modified, made." I once again try to stress my point across as I get ready for the final reveal.

They all look surprised, Stone more so because of the spell itself. Blaz looks at me for a long moment. "First, stop being vague, it's making me impatient. Second, you've just been making spells? Wait... Plants?" He asks himself as if he just had an idea pop into his head. I stay silent for a long moment as he may have just guessed it outright.

I smile a bit. "I know, come on, this is the real secret. And I'll be blunt after that. Just, I'm sorry I lied so much." I tell him with an improved mood but a sobering statement. They have been mostly happy for me so far, celebrating my achievements. Well, Blaz has, Maple just keeps smiling at me and seems to be in thought about it all, that's normal for her though.

I walk over to my workroom and unlock the door, leaving it open so they can follow me in. They look around and looks of shock abound again as I sit in the middle of the room. "I make plants, I make spells, and I work on several other things. Nopony knows because I use a fake name. I, am, Veil Winter." I say with a large nervous smile as I try to enjoy their faces.

Maple's normal expression of stone breaks into full shock, one of the few times she's not held back her expression. And Blaz, he just laughs, like it's the funniest thing in the world. "By Celestia's SUN, you're what?!" He asks through his laughter and laughs even harder somehow. "Why by magic does that make sense?! HAHAHA!"

Daisy giggles a little and Stone smiles silently. Blaz laughs so hard he starts coughing and Maple looks at me in this mix of amazement and realization. Eventually, Maple speaks up as Blaz recovers from his fit, "My necklace, you made it? Even the spell, just for me?" I raise a brow as that seems like something unimportant, but I nod anyway. "Why now?" She asks suddenly.

That switches the mood a bit and I sigh. "That's where things get more complicated. First though, you probably have other questions, and while I can't answer everything I will try my best." I say with a more upbeat tone than before. They took it well, but they still don't know what I dragged them into yet.

Blaz looks at me and promptly complies. "You know, it really does make some sense. You never drew attention but always tried to help us whenever you could, I wondered why you didn't do that for others. But you were! Just not like I was expecting... Damn Colt, just when I thought your life might be boring." He says with a chuckle. "I know you don't like attention, is this why? Or, is it the other way around?"

I shrug a bit. "Both? I never liked attention, and being famous secretly didn't help, at all. That was never the plan, Ponies just took notice." I move to one side of the room and grab a small ruby. "Still, you're right, I like to help, and I do. Ya know? I thought it would be simple, just never tell anypony and it's like it doesn't exist, that did not work out." I walk back over to them and look at Maple.

She is silent and her expression has mostly gone to extreme curiosity. "What do you actually do? Do you have a job from the crown? Do you just make things and send them over?" She asks a few more good questions. "What do you want us to do now that we know?" She adds and I feel some weight from that question.

I look serious for a moment. "Once again yes and no. Veil Winter does have an official job as a researcher for the crown. In truth, I'm given a lot of freedom. Unless I'm sent something to work on I just do my own thing and send in my work, actually, I don't even really track anything after that." I comment as it seems a little funny to point out. "As for the second thing? Well, this is about why I'm telling you now."

Blaz tilts his head. "Huh, so you just sort of sit here and work, that's surprisingly mundane. What is all of this stuff?" He asks while looking around the room and the various shelves. "Scratch that, what are those letters?" He points to a crate full of letters bound together.

Everypony else looks over and I sigh after a moment. "Fan mail," I admit begrudgingly. I glare at them as they give me amused looks. "Those are the actually kind ones. I get a decent amount more, I burn anything I don't like or need." I state in a deadpan tone. "Like I said, this is my workshop. It has a little bit of everything, mostly gems and notes, also don't look at any documents, they might be classified." I add seriously. In truth, I already moved anything truly important to Gaia's Eden before this.

They all nod. "Now with the old stallion not having any more questions, there was an incident," I say and start to work on the small ruby I picked up as I talk. "I can't say much because calling it classified is an understatement, but-" That's as far as I get before Maple cuts me off quickly.

"Should you be telling us that?" she asks quickly with a slight frown. "That seems, bad. I mean, we don't work for the crown." She adds and makes a decent point, her small tone makes it clear she's not worried but just concerned for me. I already asked Celestia if it would be ok to tell them about all this and she gave me the green light, as long as I am vague about it.

I nod firmly as Blaz also looks a bit wary. "Yes, I got permission to tell you. I will stress you all to never tell anyone about this, EVER. The Veil Winter thing is complicated but this is..." I trail off as I enchant the small ruby to stay locked in the air with a stasis spell.

Maple shifts a bit at that, it seems the topic is a little concerning to her. Not that I can blame her, Daisy was also concerned and probably still is to some degree. And much like me Maple seems happy in her quiet life, something I would leave alone if I could.

They watch closely and Blaz waves a hoof. "I know she's not saying a thing and I ain't either. I've seen some young Ponies be scammed out of a lot in life, and no matter what you're doing you don't need trouble like that. I'll keep my trap shut." He says with his usual flare. "And just to say it, no need to stress Colt. I might have kept this a secret too in your place, this is, a lot. I couldn't be more proud." He adds with a large smirk on his face.

I smile wider after hearing that, I'd guessed as much but hearing it is nice. Maple also nods, "I know I would, dealing with other Ponies is annoying." She states with a kind undertone. "I'll make sure to watch the drunk so he doesn't spill anything." She says bluntly with a tiny smirk.

Blaz huffs and I place the gem down having finished enchanting it. "Thank you all, but if you need to, just ask and I'll let you yell at me about it." I again make a small joke, but it doesn't really land with them. "Ok, serious time. A week ago somepony broke into a secured location and stole several documents."

That apparently was not what they were expecting, three of them gave me looks of bewilderment. "Ya, that's normally not my problem. however, they were documents for something I've been working on, and that's as much as I can say on that." I made it clear I won't answer any questions about that topic.

Daisy looks concerned as she glances at Stone for a second, I guess he waited to see what I would tell them before sharing with Daisy. "The name on those documents was Veil Winter, and that means I'm now involved. And that means you are all involved to a degree." I let that sink in as they all look deeply thoughtful.

There is a caw from the side that breaks our attention for a moment. And suddenly nopony is thinking about my statement anymore. Instead, they all jump back a bit as a large crow made from pure shadow stands there a few feet to the side next to the doorway. "Hello!" Entropy says while waving a wing.

I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose. "Wait your turn, how hard is that? Why can nothing go to plan?"

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 996

I realized that this wasn't the most emotional or personal, it was mostly just shocked faces and explanations. And I want to do this thoroughly, so you get two chapters for this.

See you all Monday, if you'll excuse me I need to replace my celling fan, boy is that going to be fun!