DEC 15 Saturday.

Celestia stares at Entropy for a few moments before breaking out into a fit of giggles that becomes full laughter after a second.

I smile at the scene, it seems Entropy really does have a talent for disrupting everything while also utterly annihilating any mood present. "I think I need to teach you how to use that properly, surprises are nice but it's far more fun when you know how to make some proper chaos." I say with an amused tone while reaching over to pet her.

Celestia settles down quickly enough and smiles at us. "As long as she doesn't take anything too far, then again she is young and the young tend to be wild." She moves a piece on the board and looks up to me. "So what was that? Have you been teaching her something new? Or is that something she found on her own?" She asks curiously as she settles back in.

I look at Entropy but she seems happy with her job so far, so I sigh a little and start to explain. "Well, Entropy's getting older and she's been needing something to do. She can't really do much with just wings and talons, so I tried to see if she could manipulate her shadow-like mist to try and remedy the problem." I start to explain while Entropy seems proud of her achievement.

Celestia nods and stops me from speaking further. "You used her mist as a base then? To give something to latch onto and work off of?" I raise a brow at her very good guess. She smiles more with an understanding look, "A good place to start, with the many I have taught I find it's best to start with a visible change and move from there. Has she taken to it well?" She shares her wisdom on the matter.

I sometimes forget she's taught a great many Ponies and actually might be able to help me if I asked. "Exactly. Magic is not limited so I'm hoping she can start moving things with shadows, eventually." I add seeing the stare Entropy is giving me. "For now she lacks control though, I've even been teaching her meditation to help with that. She also took to the ability very well, I think it was always there, just not something we'd know to look for."

Celestia gives Entropy a proud teacher smile and nods. "Again a good place to start off with, and I can't see why it wouldn't be possible. I've seen a few beings with similar affinities do such things, although I'm not sure it was the same affinity, It can be almost impossible to tell at times." I perk up and make a mental note of that fact.

She looks over Entropy for a few seconds. "It would make sense for such an ability to be there unnoticed. Philomena was similar with her fire, it took time for her to have any control over it." I decided to make an actual note of that while moving a piece on the chess board. "What type of practice has she been doing?"

Before I can answer, Entropy speaks up. "Concentrate, compress, control, repeat." She says in a somewhat deadpan tone as she repeats something I said to her before. Celestia looks amused but nods in thought, "Any way to do better?" Entropy asks back after a moment.

Celestia seems to think for several moments before answering. "I assume you are taking the shadow magic around you and turning it into a ball like before?" Entropy bobs her head. "For now Shade is right that you need good control before advancing. But when you can, try to form threads, they are simple in structure and versatile in use." She advises happily and seems pleased to teach Entropy. "Her control was half decent as is, how long has she been working on it?"

I think for a moment. "We started the last day of September, so two and a half months so far." She raises a brow in surprise and I chuckle. "Like I said it seems to come naturally to her, it's just not something we tried before. On a related but different note, what are you thinking about for your birthday?" I ask Entropy softly.

Celestia smiles more and also turns to Entropy, who freezes in realization and thought. "Big fish?" I chuckle again and nod before motioning her to continue. "Need to think, don't know. What can do?" She says after a long silence and she sounds a little confused, it takes me a moment to realize I sort of dropped this on her without context.

I smile widely and pet her again. "We have plenty of time. And we can do anything you like, a party, or maybe a gift you'd like?" I make some suggestions and try my best to actually make it clear she can ask for things. "Maybe invite some friends and have fun with them?" I added after a second. "Think about it," I say softly and try to come off as patient.

Entropy looks off into empty space and it seems I've fully distracted her from what we were talking about, and after a second she chirps softly and flies off to go think. Celestia looks at me questioningly. "I normally throw her a little party with just the two of us. I make a large meal for her and give her some small gifts, but she's getting older and I need to remember that." I have a little awkwardness in my tone as I just realized I never explained birthdays to Entropy before and she's never been to one, I'll need to talk to her later.

Celestia keeps her warm smile. "You are doing very well." I look up from the board confused. "I have long since lost count of the number of parents and foals I have seen. For somepony that did not even plan for such a thing let alone at your age, you are doing very well with her." She says honestly and with an encouraging tone.

I smile a bit but still feel awkward at the praise. "Parents might not be completely correct. Entropy is still undecided about that all, although my friends took the advantage to happily point that out to me. It's odd but I never really thought about it before then, I just knew she was family." I explain slowly.

Like always Celestia doesn't judge and just accepts my words. "Sometimes we are so blind to the things in life closest to us, and family is one of the things that is often the closest of all." I can hear a weight to those words. "What do you think? If she wanted you to be her sire? What then?" She asks a rather hard question.

I continue to play the game in silence for a few minutes as I think about that, and she gives me all the time I need. It is something that has crossed my mind, and honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it. To a point, little would really change, but it would in some ways and that is odd, not necessarily good or bad, just odd.

Being a parent to another living being, not just in action but in name as well. I am basically a parent or guardian at the moment, especially when it comes to providing for Entropy and teaching her. Yet at the same time her seeing me as a father is something so odd to me. I don't even really know what family is and being a part of that is so outside of anything I know.

"I don't know," I answered after a long stretch of silence. "I know I love her and she is family, of that I am completely certain." I say with conviction. "I don't really know about families though, what does being a sire mean?" I question myself and use her as a sounding board.

Yet she answers anyway. "I don't think it really matters what a sire means to others." I blink and lock eyes with her as she looks down at me with a comforting stare. "Family means so much in so many ways, and I think that is amazing. It means you can have a family in many different ways, all of them molded by the world around them." She gets somewhat philosophical but I get her point.

She looks across the snowy forest and the endless expanse of white and brown with small bits of green mixed in. "No, you need blunt guidance here." She drops the philosophically. "I think you shouldn't worry about what others see as family and more about making the family you have happy. If she wanted to call you sire and doing so would make her happy, would you let her?" Celestia is more blunt and forward in her words.

I let that sink in for a few long moments. Yes, I think I would. Celestia is as always good at giving advice. Entropy IS my family, no matter what names are used, and would a name change really change that much? Maybe, but would that be a bad thing? I don't know. She looks at my expression, "It seems you both have a lot to think about then, don't rush it, and if you need advice I will always listen." She makes an open-ended offer.

I take a deep breath and nod, moving the topic to the side in my mind but not ignoring it. "I really got more than I ever bargained for when buying her egg, I don't regret a moment of it though," I state more to myself than her and make another move losing the match.

She sees I'm moving on from the topic and doesn't question it further. "How have things been with Master Clear Water? From what I remember you have spoken well of her so far." I'm thankful for the topic change and remember I've told her about Clear Water a little.

"Clear Water is interesting, not very expressive or emotional, but that's to be expected when it comes to healing. She is a genuinely amazing teacher though." I am honest with my words as Clear Water has taught me a lot over the last few months. "My main concern at the moment is actually Stone. He's really ramped things up after everything happened." I complain a little.

The first week I thought he was just going harder to help me work through the stress I was under, but the training session after my talk with my friends proved that idea wrong. He beat the hell out of me and showed that he is still very much more skilled than me when it comes to a blade.

I obviously asked why the hell he's doing this and his answer was simple. You work for the crown the princess, and I won't have you slacking while doing so. And after that, he continued to beat new methods of attack and defense into me. "Turns out he took me working for you as a excuse to up my training, I blame you." I say in a flat tone.

Celestia just laughs in my face like the demon she truly is. "Oh, I think that was rather expected." I tilt my head a little. "I looked over his file as he was involved in everything, he is still respected for training some of the best Ponies currently in the palace guard. You picked a very good trainer." She takes my pain and somehow finds a compliment in there.

She's not wrong, Stone is one tough and hard bastard, but he sure as hell knows what he is doing. I sigh, "Funnily enough I didn't look for him. I was practicing spells at a range and he noticed me, after that he wanted to test me a bit and he made the offer." I explain not really having anything else to say.

She hums. "Your luck truly is an odd thing, one moment you have the most amazing discoveries or simply great fortune in finding something. The next moment you are fighting dragons and uncovering wars, and losing to old stallions." She adds with some amusement as I mock glare at her. "It makes me wonder why?" She asks but it's clearly rhetorical.

I huff. "I'd love to know as well, and then there is whatever is up with my cutie mark. You know? I never did ask about that, what do you know about cutie marks?" I ask curiously as it seems like as good a time as any to talk about it. And she cranes her neck to look at my cutie mark.

She looks it over for a moment and shrugs a little. "Not much, honestly it is one of the great mysteries and I've never truly gotten much of a hint at it." She says with a level tone. "There are many interesting things about them I know, for instance, yours is curious as it is one of the few that has more detail than most do. I have no idea as to why though." If she does actually know anything it's clear she's not going to share.

I nod slowly and after a moment start to draw out a few runes, the four runes I know match the ones on my cutie mark. She looks confused for a moment, "These aren't from my cutie mark, I found them in spells and other records, and yet they are a perfect match." I reveal slowly and make sure to watch her reaction closely.

She still looks confused but after a moment of staring at the runes, she stands up and walks to my side, inspecting my cutie mark closely. A few thoughts flash through my head as she moves her head down to get a close look but I squash them. "That... Hmm." She sounds genuinely confused about the topic.

I wait awkwardly for a minute as she actually makes a note and moves back to sit down and take off her glasses. "I will admit I've never seen something like this before. I've seen everything from various symbols and art styles all the way to actual letters, but never a full depiction of a rune." She says slowly and seems a little lost in thought. "What are these runes for?"

I take a piece of paper from her and she also holds out the quill she was using. "I can get you the Runic Context later, but I do know what the runes represent. One for wind, water, earth, and imbue. And before you ask, I have no idea what any of this is about, I do know my cutie mark helps with all runic magic, but that's the only connection I can find." I am blunt and honest but she knows I have secrets and sometimes lie.

She nods and looks over my drawings as I copy over the runes. "You just always have something out of the ordinary going on, don't you? This, I don't even know where to start, I remember seeing your cutie mark many times but I always thought it was just more detailed. Like I said you are far from the first in that category... This can't be a spell, it makes no sense at all if it was." She reaches the same conclusion I long ago did.

I am a little disappointed she doesn't know or isn't sharing anything about it, but she is just a Pony and some things are best left alone. "I did actually try to enchant a gem with it once." She raises a brow. "It exploded, didn't even make any effect, just cracked the gem and detonated," I explain calmly as I remember that rather odd experiment. "I have noticed one other thing, all the runes I've found are old, the newest being over a few hundred years ago."

She looks at the drawings I gave her again before nodding. "They do have some styles common in older runes, a few are much older than the rest. Have you tried looking for more of them? Although, I suppose it's not that simple." I nod as she answers herself quickly. "I can look into them if you like, this is all just... Odd. It seems you've given me plenty to do beyond work." She says with a teasing expression.

I just shrug. "Well I'm glad I at least make a good distraction, that is what I'm good at after all." I joke back and spend a moment looking over the game before making another move and actually win the game. She narrows her eyes a bit and I smirk back, "We'll call that another half-point, it makes everything more even." I compromised as she was distracted.

She laughs after a second. "Very well, nine hundred and thirty-one to fifteen it is." It's not a massive victory but it's another step up. "Maybe I'll celebrate at one thousand? Do you think I could find something like a large chess piece for a trophy?" It's clear she's just messing with me but I don't mind.

I reach out with my magic, growing wood up from the floor and slowly forming a large queen piece with a stand under it. She looks thoroughly amused as I decompose some wood to detach it from the floor and take out my dagger to carve a little. "Maybe not, but I sure can. You'll have to earn it though and I'm not making it easy." I say knowing damn well she is getting this thing soon enough.

I spend a moment carving some text into the square wooden base. Congratulations on one thousand lucky victories. I happily place it down on the small table where we often play. She gives me a small glare at the wording but still laughs while reading it, "I suppose I will have to win it properly then, it wouldn't be satisfying otherwise. I think it will be perfect for my office."

I can't tell if she's joking or not but it's not like I could stop her if she is serious. She looks at the floor for a moment, "Can you make a wooden mug?" I give her a confused look but nod and do as she asks. It takes little time for me to grow a mug from the White Oak floor and make it sized for her. It also looks like it's made from twisting roots just for detail. She smiles, "Even on something so small you take the time to make it look nice, thank you."

I shrug because why not? I can and it takes only a little extra effort. I detach the large mug from the wooden floor and pass it over, "So why the mug? Unless you just wanted something sized for yourself for once-" I trail off as I watch the grown mare with a baffled expression.

I watch as she picks up my mostly full teapot and opens the top before pouring the entire thing into her new mug. She smirks as she takes some tea leaves out of my saddlebags and starts to make more tea while taking a large drink from the mug. "Perfect, tea cups just don't let you truly quench your thirst."

I stare confused for a few more seconds before breaking down laughing at the sight of Celestia just unabashedly drinking from a large mug happily. Of all the Ponies I never would have thought I'd see her do that, she glares down at me as I keep laughing. "As much as I like teacups and fancy glasses, they are often, small." She actually seemed a bit embarrassed about my laughing and tried to defend her actions.

I wave it off with a large grin. "That I can agree with. I mostly use them because I got them with the teapot." I reason and don't hold it against her. "It's nice seeing you be so, relaxed," I add but stop as I didn't mean to say that out loud, I quickly recover though, and take back my teapot as it starts to boil. "I'm going to need a bigger teapot if you use that though." I tease her a little to cover up my slip.

She looks a little surprised and her ears jump up a little, but in the end, she huffs at my teasing. "I would think you could just make one, although wood may not work well for that." She changes the subject a little and takes another drink, this one more modest. "It is nice, thank you." She says after a few seconds.

I continue to make the tea and nod. "Sure, it's not hard." I brush it off and try to think of something else to talk about. "Where is Philomena? I just realized you didn't bring her with you. I can't feel her anywhere around Gaia's Eden either." She pauses in taking another drink and looks off to the Vita Tree where Entropy is sleeping in the branches.

"Her burning day is near, and I thought it best Entropy not see her in such a state. As I have done the last few times it's happened." She says softly, trying to be quiet and not be overheard. I've learned a little about a Phoenixes burning day but the topic is not well known like many other things, what I did find was rather uninformative.

She sees my curious expression and grins. "I know more about it than most, there are also a few books I could send to you that would be interesting. Either way, the point stands, Philomena will take a while to recover so you may wish to spend more time entertaining Entropy." She advises and I nod in agreement.

"She should be fine, with her nature being revealed game nights are something she can actually participate in. I'm going to teach her poker, and how to cheat at poker." She gives me an unamused look and it feels like something pinches my ear. "Ow! Hey, jokes are fine!" I defend myself.

She huffs, "Jokes in good taste, no poker." She doesn't even word it as a request. "At least not now." I blink at that and she smirks. "Having that skill can be useful, but not now." She admits and I nearly start laughing again after hearing that. "That is a good idea though, maybe try to find some games she likes as well?" She drops the demanding tone.

I reach up and rub my ear with a light glare sent her way. "I can work with that." Her eyes focused again. "If I've learned one thing, Celestia, it's that anypony will gamble on anything... Ow!" I deserve that one a little for tempting fate but she still just takes a drink from her mug while watching me rub my other ear. "Fair," I admit.

She nods in satisfaction, there is a long minute of silence as both of us just relax and focus on the game for a moment. "What was growing up in an orphanage like, if you don't mind me asking?" She says while giving me a clear way to turn her questions down, not that I would.

I tilt my head and motion with my hoof in a so-so manner, this isn't the first time she's asked after all, but I try to think of a new answer this time. "Boring, I guess? Not much to really be said about it. I think the only really interesting things were how I got my cutie mark and my field." I pick something up to emphasize. "It was peaceful though, if a little too repetitive," I answer honestly.

She slowly moves a piece. "I do find it rather inspiring and motivating that you came from such a place and rose here." She says and I look at her in surprise as if to ask her if she's serious. "I believe anypony can do anything, but for some, it is certainly easier to achieve such things. You have worked so very hard to make all of this, so yes it is inspiring to me." She says that with confidence I don't think I'd be able to match.

I just take the compliment in the end as she seems resolute. "I think that's what I don't like about fame. Something like that feels so meaningful from a friend but from others?" I trail off and leave that topic alone. "What was your early life like, if you're willing to talk about it?" I am gentle as Nightmare Night wasn't long ago.

She goes silent for a moment and shakes her head a little. "I would like to tell you about it, I will even, but... I don't think I wish to now, sorry." I shake my head in turn as she has nothing to be sorry for.

The silence is awkward for a minute before I break it. "Well, Cadance got you to help her prank me, nice one by the way. So why not do the same for me?" She perks up some and I smirk evilly. "I've been thinking about some small spells, and I have an idea."

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :}
Current year is 996

Just more talking, and the birb getting thoughtful.