JAN 27 Sunday.

I cast a spell to warm up his tea and mine before simply sitting in silence as he thought about how to answer me.

At the moment I'm calm and just content, maybe a little nervous about how he'll react over time but not too much. Telling my other friends first really gave me some peace in telling Avalon, mostly because even if things went wrong I'd still have some friends after everything settled.

Not that I thought he would actually react that badly, out of all of them, he's probably the one least likely to tell others or react badly. Mostly because he has his own secrets and few friends, and we are surprisingly close friends for only seeing each other every week or two at the moment.

He drinks some tea after a minute of silence and looks back up to me, meeting my eyes. "Why?" I motion for him to elaborate as that's a little too vague. "Why do so much and be, h-here?" He asks while looking around my workroom, "I don't like attention either, but..."

I nod as it's a valid question to have. "Many reasons actually. At its base I really do just want to be left alone and not have to deal with things like fame, I didn't even think I'd gain fame from this in the first place." I just started rambling about it. "Another reason is that it would simply be annoying as all Fire." I slip in a more Dragon saying as it fits well.

He listens intently to my words though. "When I started out I made a simple Light spell, because candles annoyed me." He tilts his head and I chuckle. "Yup, no other reason. But I thought it could be useful and I had a way to actually give it to others through The Princess." I continue speaking.

He chirps a bit and I stop as his eyes go wide once again with realization. "Y-You..." He goes silent and looks down at his wooden limb for a long moment before looking back up gratefully. "You sent it to her, you got me that m-meeting?" His tone is a mix of realization and a heavy emotion I can't name.

I nod softly and wait a second before continuing. "I did, but to explain I need to go through a lot of details. So let me do a quick few here." I move over a pot and a simple sunflower seed I brought for this exact reason. "Watch closely," I say and place the seed inside the pot.

He looks curious and very focused as I start to move life magic into the seed and watch as a fully grown sunflower rapidly grows from the pot and nearly touches the ceiling a few moments later. He just stares at it in utter amazement before looking back at me with that gleam in his eyes, looking for an explanation.

I move the plant to the side with some maneuvering while sipping some tea before explaining. "One of my affinities is the life affinity, I assume you came across it while researching them?" His eyes widen more but he nods quickly and seems content for me to keep talking. "And that is also why and how I got into contact with Princess Celestia."

He blinks again and seems very thoughtful while looking over at the sunflower. "You can grow any plant, the magical herbs alone..." He seems to get it and trails off after a moment. "So, you just, sent h-her a letter saying that?" He asks and is pretty close to the truth.

I shrug. "A letter and a box of magical tea, something that she might have had use for and I had an unlimited amount of. I thought it would make a good gift during the Summer Sun Celebration." I go over the same details I have before. "In the end, I got a letter back and she insisted I stay in some form of contact."

He stays silent and after a moment I look at my shelf of notebooks and take one down that has something he can look at without revealing anything he shouldn't see. "Here, some old notes on a few of the projects I've done. You know, I'm very happy you've come so far in all of this. And yes, this is a bribe to make you pay attention and not ask about all of the magic involved." I say honestly to try and lighten the mood and have him be less surprised and more relaxed.

His eyes light up and snap over to the book as I bring it close. But as he reaches out for it he stops and stares at me, my words seeming to register to him. He takes the notebook and places it to the side before going silent for a few seconds and looking me right in the eyes. "W-Why help me? You're Veil Winter! An amazing inventor and-"

I smile at him and cut him off. "And I'm your friend." He stops at that. "Before and above anything else, that is what we are, friends," I state matter-of-factly. "As for why? That look in your eyes, you love magic like I do, and I wanted to see that grow." I am very blunt and honest as he doesn't need anything else right now.

He's stunned to silence once again but I don't let it sit too long. "I always hated keeping secrets from you and my other friends, but to be honest by the time Veil Winter really got famous I couldn't see a good way to tell you or anyone at all really. I was afraid." I admit softly.

He blinks at that but smiles at me, the biggest one he's had all night. "T-Thank you, for being my friend, for helping me, for... Everything." He says after a beat of quiet. "What does this all mean? N-Now that I know?" He asks and I give him a reassuring look.

"For us? Barely anything." He tilts his head again and his feathers shift up slightly. "I'm not going to change my life or anything, I am Shade Evergreen and I rather like being me." I joke and he lets out a mix of giggles and chirps in response. "I guess it means I get to really teach you things now, as long as you'd like to learn," I ask hopefully.

That is one thing I really do enjoy when working with Avalon, teaching and guiding him down the path of magic.
I don't like teaching often but with the right students, I do enjoy doing it. Avalon's eyes actually glow a small bit and I can feel a little heat from him as his magic reacts to his mood. "REALLY!!"

He's a bit loud but I just laugh as he stops and looks a little embarrassed at his outburst. "As a start, I can help you get some better control of your magic, I know of a few methods you probably haven't found yet." He blushes a bit in embarrassment as I point that out. "But yes. It would be the same as before, just with me holding back less and giving more guidance on complex things." I explain.

"I-I'd love to, I get to learn from Veil Winter!" He says to himself in a rushed tone that overcomes his mild embarrassment a moment before. I nearly groan at the use of that name but at least he seems happy about meeting his hero, although he's looking at me with a little too much admiration at the moment.

I decide to tamper that down a little from the start. "Yes, but do keep in mind I am just a Pony." I remind him and that makes him pause for a moment. "I'll admit I'm good at making spells, but my talent in magic comes in second to many others, I got here through hard work and you will get here through the same thing." I encourage but also limit his expectations.

He takes a breath and nods quickly at my words, his smile never leaving his face. "I know! I-I mean, you are just, Shade." He adds and I nod back satisfied. "Still though, all of this, you... The t-things you've made, they are amazing, is that your talent?" He asks and looks at my flank.

I tilt my hoof back and forth a little while holding it out. "Yes and no. My talent seems to help in anything to do with magic casting and anything about spells, but it's small and more like a slightly guiding hoof. Sure it helps but only to improve things slightly, the rest is all me." I explain and enjoy the slightly different topic. "Now come on, I still have one or two interesting surprises left," I say as I stand up and head for the door.

He looks around him and I smirk before picking up a few of the things I gave him as he grabs the teacup and the notebook. "Wait, um." He looks around the room like it's beautiful and seems reluctant to leave. "Can I see this again, l-later?" He asks hopefully.

I chuckle a little and he looks a small bit embarrassed once again. "Sure, but I think I have something else you'd find interesting as well. Now come on, we'll come back here when we start using it." The promise of something interesting to look at proves to be enough and he follows me out of the room.

I look over to see Entropy impatiently waiting on her perch and looking at us intently as we walk back into the main room. "Couch," I say to them both and she happily flies down as I walk over to take a seat on one side of the couch with a nice view of the city. "So this one is less my secret and more of Entropy's, she'll be explaining," I say simply while placing down the things I was carrying on the floor nearby.

The look of confusion he gives me as he sits on the other end of the couch and looks down at entropy standing in between us is amusing. "What?" He asks bluntly and a moment later he raises a brow at the sight of Entropy pecking at her band. And promptly jumps back before nearly falling off the couch as Entropy drops her illusion.

Entropy holds out a wing and caws softly while backing up a little so Avalon has more room. "Hello feather friend!" She greets him happily and his beak just falls open. I struggle to hold in my laughter at the sight as even learning that I was Veil Winter didn't do that to him. "Friend feel ok?" She asks after Avalon just sits there slack-jawed for a few long moments. Entropy turns to me after that, "I think I broke, help."

That proves to be too much and I just start laughing at the spectacle of it all. It takes me a minute to get my laughing under control and by the time I'm done Avalon is settled in his spot and looking at Entropy with narrowed eyes, "I know you probably have question-"

"She's beautiful." He says quietly and I stop abruptly. I look down to see Entropy so happy about his words she's shifting from one foot to another in a little dance. I look back up and give him my biggest smile, "I, hello?" He says as he remembers the situation and focuses more on me.

Entropy won't let such kind words go though and moves closer to him with a few happy chirps. "Feather friend beautiful as well! So pretty!" Avalon looks a little overwhelmed as she gets within a few inches of him and is basically an excited filly on a sugar high at this point. "Hey!" She caws out indignantly as I pick her up and move her back over to my side.

I give her a firmer look. "Remember what I said about personal space?" She looks over at Avalon and back to me. "Keep your own, and respect others." I remind her of a talk we had a while ago about just that. "Good job making him bashful though, he needs more compliments," I add with some pride.

I hear another chirp of indignation at that. "Hey-y! I... Thanks." He tries to defend himself and looks a little flustered with his feather crest a little out of place, but he gives up quickly and looks over Entropy with a keen eye. "She's like a phoenix, but the magic is all different." He notes and seems genuinely enthralled by the sight of Entropy. "Wait, she's t-talking."

I nod with a smirk and a happy expression. "You finally noticed, and yes she is, she's a very smart bird. I can explain things about what she is later." That seems to actually disappoint him and I smirk in amusement at the sight. "You seem more excited about her than I expected." I can't help but joke a bit as it is rather odd.

He scratches his arm with his prosthetic for a few seconds. "I really like, magical creatures." He admits and I raise a brow at that. "W-Well, it never really came up." I nod after a moment as he's right, we focus on spells and affinities, magical creatures aren't something that I remember coming up all that much or even at all.

"Huh, I'll remember that." I just make a mental note of it as considering his past if seems odd, but I don't dig into it. "Anyway, since you seem to like it I'll tell you about her another time. For the moment though the most important things about her are, that she is currently five years old, and she's completely sapient, as smart as a Pony of the same age and still growing smarter." I chose this point above all others.

Entropy chirps and hops a little closer to him. "Hello, I think really hard." She says proudly and even with the shock of my words he can't help but chuckle at her. "No laugh! I am smart!" She insists and Avalon does stop abruptly while I just laugh more. "Mean!" She points a wing at me.

I reach out and scratch her. "As you can see, she is very smart. Again I can give you details later, I think I have some notes on her you can look at. Just don't, well, don't tell anyone about her." I realize I haven't really stressed the fact he can't talk about all of this. "Actually, it's best you don't talk about or write anything about, ALL of this," I add, suddenly more serious.

He nods immediately and looks up at me with a firm stare. "I won't, I promise." His tone is surprisingly firm. He looks down at Entropy and slowly reaches out a talon across the couch while scooting over to be closer, "Can I?" I shrug and look down to Entropy, who promptly lowers her head and rubs it against his talon. "W-Wow, that feels, so weird." He mummers as he scratches her.

Entropy basically melts into his palm as he scratches along her farther spines and the skin underneath them. "Best, scratches, ever." She slowly caws out as he uses his much more dexterous talons to scratch more thoroughly than anypony else can. "Friend now best friend." She sounds sleepy from the scratches and lays down to lean into them more.

Avalon for his part just seems amazed he's touching her at all and is thoroughly looking over her form. "She's cold, is that normal?" I nod and he draws back after a moment more, Entropy popping up and almost looking ready to demand more attention. "So, E-Entropy, what can you do?" He sounds a little awkward while asking her but makes an effort.

I can't blame him, he's never met Entropy as an equal before. For my part, I'm happy Entropy likes him and happy to see that is returned in kind. She stands up and looks at his talons reluctantly before answering. "Move." She caws out simply and he tilts his head in confusion. A second later he startles again as she vanishes and reappears on her perch. He snaps his head up to her as she gets his attention with a caw. "Move!" She repeats.

He looks back at me and I just smile. "She's also learning to paint, read, and hopefully write eventually," I add some other things to really try and make sure he understands what she is. "Her teleportation is a natural ability she has, much like a phoenix. I'm not sure but they could be related, although it would be very distant at best."

Entropy flies down and lands on the back of the couch to be the same height as us as Avalon absorbs that information. "Oh, that... She's really that smart?" I nod confidently. "That's, a-amazing!" He chirps and Entropy agrees with a chirp of her own. "I can't believe I never noticed. Wait, how did I never notice?"

By this point his voice is more calm and lacks his nervousness, it seems his interest in magic and apparently magical creatures has overtaken his shock. I do know he'll have many smaller questions for me, just as the others did, but for now, things are nice and calm.

I expected this to go well, but it really did go well. I grin widely and motion to his talons. "It seems you've made a new best friend with nothing but your talons." I joke while he continues to study Entropy and smile. "And that would be through the use of illusions, there is one enchanted onto her band." I point to it.

He looks at it for a moment and thinks for a moment. "Illusions take a good amount of magic though, you'd need something like... Diamond? A magical metal? That's wood. You'd also need a good spell that you'd need, too, find... You made it, didn’t you?" He realizes and I nod. "C-Can I see it?" He asks about it as I expected he would.

I nod again. "Yes you can, it might be one of my creations but it's a less interesting illusion." He raises a brow at that and I stand up. "Come along, I promised to show you something interesting, and Entropy does not count, she's too adorable to be interesting." That earns me a peck as Entropy quickly teleports onto my back and pinches me. "Hey! No biting!" I say without much heat as I brought that onto myself.

He looks between us but unlike my friend he doesn't comment on how we treat each other, he just gets up to follow me with an excited smile. "Veil Winter. All those things he's- You, have made, do you just send them to the P-Princess?" He asks as I lead him to my bedroom.

I shrug. "Most of the time, I work on a lot of things, but most aren't for the crown." He looks understandably confused at that. "Basically I have a similar deal to you. Whenever I make something I send it off and beyond that, I have no boss or anything, I'm more of a contractor really. Sometimes I help with other things though, stuff I can't tell you about"

He hums softly in thought but switches to looking up in wonder at the ceiling as we enter my bedroom. "It. It's, beautiful." I smile at yet another reaction of amazement and surprise. He looks at the gem floating nearby and moves over to it, "A Floating spell? No, maybe?"

I smirk at the sight, his interest in how it's floating larger than the fake sky above him. "A Stasis spell, one I made. It was released but it's mostly used in construction I believe, not something you'd come across." I try to remember that information about that particular invention. "And to answer the earlier question, her band is some magical wood around a mithril core with pure diamonds in it."

He pokes the floating gem and watches it move slightly before shifting back to its slow spin, I'm not even sure he paid attention to my answer. He looks at me, "Can you teach it to me? I m-mean, would you mind teaching me that s-spell?" He tampers his excitement but I just turn around to walk out of the bedroom. "No then?" He asks, sounding a little sad.

I chuckle and shake my head as he follows me. "I can and will, not in my bedroom though, I have a workshop for a reason." I joke a bit and he looks both relieved and slightly embarrassed. "Thanks for waiting, Girl, we'll be in my room if you need us," I say and drop her off on the couch so she can do what she wants before I turn to Avalon. "Come on, I have a few things to teach you it seems."

I can admit it will be very fun to teach him things without restrictions, or at least not nearly as many of them. He quickly follows me back into my workroom and once again starts looking around. "Thank you! I-I mean it!" He says even though he really doesn't need to.

I give him a level deadpan look. "Sure, first rule. No fanning out when we are here, please? It's odd." I put down a simple rule and he has the decency to look embarrassed about that. He nods readily, "Good, rule two. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING, not unless I let you after you ask, or I tell you to." I am very firm about that rule as a few things in here are very delicate.

He nods again and I grin before walking over to a shelf as I remember something I'd forgotten about a long time ago. "Great, last rule, don't hesitate if I tell you to run." He looks at me with some concern as I bring over a large triangle-shaped amethyst inside a wooden base. "Now this will take a minute, sit as still as you can," I instruct and place the gem in front of him before tapping it twice and backing up.

This is the device I made for testing how much magic I have, something that never had much use beyond a fun project to me, and something I basically forgot about. And honestly, I'm curious to see how much he has, I don't think it will be a massive amount but it should be interesting to know and give us both more information to work with in the future.

He looks like he wants to question me as I place a small piece of paper on the gem, but he sits still as I tell him to. I also want to test my own magic as well, it should be fun, but I'll do that later. We both wait in silence as I walk around and note a few things for later while he tracks me with his eyes.

We both look over when there is a small flash of light and the gem is drained by nearly a quarter. I walk over and pick up the piece of paper, "You can move. Now let's see." 156 I raise a brow as that's a bit higher than expected. "Huh, looks like you've practiced more than I thought." I compliment the confused Griffon.

I pass him the paper and explain. "That is a rough measurement of how much magic you have, two hundred is normal for an adult Unicorn. Congrats." He looks surprised and looks at the number oddly while I smile at him. "This thing is old though, some of my early work and rough at best, want to help me fix that?" I ask as an idea forms in my head.

The best way to learn is to simply do it and learn as you go, and in this case, this project is more advanced but still within its limits, with my help of course. He looks excited, like I'd just said it was his birthday, "We're working, on t-this?" I nod and he smiles widely before he glances down at the gem, "Are you going to?" He points at it.

I tilt my ears for a moment in thought. "I was going to improve it first before trying to do it again, but sure, why not?" I shrug and motion for him to back up some, which he does as I place another piece of paper on the gem and activate it. I sit still and we both descend into silence as I have to sit still.

Avalon takes that time to look around a little, walking around the room like I did but keeping some distance from the shelves. He stops for a moment as he looks at the Vita Tree branch shining with its golden luster. He doesn't touch it but looks at it closely for a minute before walking back over to me. "This p-place is, absolutely, perfect." He says.

We wait a while more and once the gem is done I notice I drained most of the gem's remaining magic, which was still pretty full before. Once it's done he's the first to pick up the paper and look at it, before turning to me with a look of admiration. It's a little awkward but I brush it off as he passes it to me. "That's, a l-lot. You said two hundred was... Wow."

I raise a brow and look at the paper before blinking. One thousand one hundred and thirty-seven. "Huh."

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 997

I thought the number for Shad made sense because it's been a few years and he's literally been focused on upping his capacity for his whole life. And I thought Avalon's would make sense as while he's put a lot of work into it, he's also a little older and started older.