It's been a week since I started working and I've gone through several shifts sorting and shelving books while learning the layout of the library and getting more familiar with it. And after work researching several topics, but as I've dived into the knowledge of the library, I realized that just learning things at random Isn't going to work.

To that end I've decided to redo my training schedules and plans. Let's start with the latter. My plans for now mostly consist of learning any useful magic and also probably creating some new spells but I'll need a lot more practice and knowledge for that as for my long-term plans.

One thing I've never forgotten is my past life and with it the show. I've done a lot of thinking on how I want to act and I'm still not sure. But I know I don't want to be dragged into the main plot mostly for fear of messing things up. But I also don't just want to do nothing. So for now my plan is to help from behind the scenes. Nothing obvious but things like seeing if I can put some protections around a certain tree of harmony or helping with one of the other disasters. And now that I have a decent amount of privacy I started to write down all that I remember from the show in a hidden journal.

And as for short-term plans, I want to unlock my elemental affinity and learn more spells in general which brings me back to training and researching. For training I run once a day in the morning and drain my magic halfway when I start and finish my shift and mostly read and practice spells then completely drain my magic before bed. For now there's not much to change so I'll stick to my current training until I find a better way.

The last thing I'm still training is my TK field, as it stands right now, I can pick up a pony although it's still hard to move things that heavy. And even then only for a dozen or so feet, but for smaller objects like books it's around twenty feet. This has made my job of putting away books much easier as I don't need a ladder to place them on higher shelves. This also being the main way I've been training my precision and aim. I've also started to move more than one thing at a time and although I can, my control is much less when doing it so I'll keep training. As for raw lifting power I mostly train that by lifting my bed a few inches off the ground and holding it there for as long as I can.

In terms of research I've decided to only pick three or four projects at a time to not overwhelm myself. Sight now the topics I'm researching are mostly runes, how affinities work, and spells in general. And to a lesser degree I'm also learning about history, namely anything about alicorns and the past of the princesses. And finally I'm thinking about learning healing magic as no matter what I plan on doing it will be somewhat dangerous so being able to heal myself and others will be a big help.

In the past week I've been reading about a few runes for different things. One of my interests is one that was in the book Daisy gave me. It's effect is to nullify gravity in a small area, it doesn't work on large or heavy things but if I modify it to be more powerful it could be useful to me later. For now though I'm looking more into the affinity spell and I ended up finding a book that goes more in-depth about it.

I'm glad I did as some things I learned are important. The main thing being that when you cast the spell it doesn't only take a large amount of magic but also takes a large amount of magic to maintain the spell. So you only have around half a minute to write down the results before the magic runs out. The second important thing is what the spell actually does when you cast it on somepony of yourself the spell's matrix will have several balls of light each of a different element.

So I spent some time in the past week looking for a guide to what the different colors mean and I did find one. I don't know if it has all the elements, but it does have a good list, so I wrote them down for later. I also went to the market yesterday to see gem prices and found that I wasn't that far off from my earlier guess. I'll take me around three more weeks to buy one and a few days to enchant and fill it.

Speaking of enchantments I'm in the library right now after work reading a book on enchanting. The process being surprisingly easy all you really need is a material that can conduct magic. And to cast a spell on it while also casting a smaller matrix inside the main spells matrix and then applying it to your item. I ended up finding the spell to hold magic. It wasn't too hard to find and it's not too complex so I've decided to get some practice with the spell before I use it on a crystal.

As I put the book back after drawing out the matrix in my notebook. I turn to start heading to my room. Only to stop dead in my tracks as not far in front of me I see a unicorn filly mare reading at one of the tables a purple coat, a tail, with a main of dark purple almost blue with a stripe of lighter purple and pink going through it.

I immediately start walking the other way before moving behind a bookshelf. After gaining some distance I started to calm down. :Why the hell is she here? out of all the ponies to run into that's almost the worst: As I make my way out of the library and into my room I close and lock my door :the last thing I need is to start messing with canon before it's even started: After some time, I calm myself down.

Ok so I might have overreacted some but still I shouldn't interact with any of them right now. After showering I decide to practice the enchanting spell to form it right, and after a while I draw and redraw the matrix a few times. I stop and notice that it's getting late so I draw the matrix for the candle flame spell before pumping all my magic into it creating a foot-wide ball of fire for a few minutes before it fizzles out and I head to bed.

sponge bob like cutaway "three days later."

After the scare three days ago. I was walking on eggshells for a while but after I didn't see a certain purple pony again. I settled back into my daily routine nothing else happened thankfully. And right now I'm heading back from shelving books I take a moment to draw the temporis spell.

Eleven fifty-three lunchtime. I leave the cart in the sorting room and make my way to the break room where I sit next to Blaz and Daisy as I normally do and after I sit down I start eating "So Shade you've been here more than a week now how you are liking the job'' Daisy asks me.

"Not bad the work is pretty easy so nothing to really complain about."

Blaz speaks up "You've been doing a good job colt most who start don't get past two carts a day you did double that yesterday just don't push yourself too hard ok?"

"I won't" I pause to take a bite of some heyfries "I've been trying to find books on spells to train my control, if either of you know any good ones?"

Daisy pauses in her eating for a moment "I think I remember some, but most are complex or take a lot of magic so I'm not sure how much luck you'd have trying them."

I perk up at this "Really do you know any basic ones?" she shakes her head.

"Sorry can't say I have, although I do know some books on training I could find for you?"

"That would be great thanks" After that we talked about some other things before getting back to work.

After I finished my shift, I decided to go to the park for a walk to relax. I've been doing this every few days to clear my head and get some fresh air. As I walk through the park, I see a group of tables with several ponies playing game. As I watch them play, I see an elderly unicorn setting up a chess set on one of the tables before sitting down.

I've come through this park a few times now, so I've learned that it's an open invitation to play. So I decided to walk up to him "Hey you mind if I play a game."

The old pony turns to me and after a moment he gives me a smile "Sure colt you ever played before?"

He says while motioning for me to sit "Ya I've played it's been a while though so a refresher would be nice" he nods.

After a few moments of him explaining the rules, they end up being the same as my old life. As we started playing, going back and forth turn to turn, and while I wasn't the best at chess in my past life it was something I always liked so as the game continued, we seemed evenly matched but, in the end, his experience wins out and he checksmates me.

After our game the old colt turns to me "Well now it's not often I find one so young that can give me a challenge" he says with a light chuckle as moves the board back into order.

"Thanks sir. Anyway I better get going, have a good day."

He nods "Same to you colt and come back if you ever want a rematch."

As I leave the park and start walking through the city passing several shops before seeing a tea shop. I decide to get some tea. As I enter the tea shop its walls are a soft dark wood several wall-lined seating areas with small dividers separating them. I approach the counter and wait in a small line for a bit.

After getting to the front of the line I'm greeted by a younger-looking mare "What can I get you?"

"Mint tea with some lemon please."

"Sure. Three bits and you can sit anywhere you like" After paying her I go and sit in a corner booth and pull out my notebook to study some while waiting for my drink.

After a few minutes a pony comes and brings me my drink "Thanks."

She gives a smile "No problem if you need a refill just ask" I nod back and take a sip of my tea before returning back to my notes as I work my way through my notes organizing them and making them neater. And after some time, I finish my tea and get up to leave.

As I walk down the street heading back to the library as, I start to hum a tune. And after a few minutes arrive at the library and make my way to my room putting my notes away before grabbing the book about affinities and making myself comfortable on my bed as I start reading.

Another thing that I've learned about is emotional affinities. Most emotions have an affinity counterpart but what makes them special is how they function. Unlike elemental affinity which enhances a spell's power through whatever element you have. The emotional ones enhance the power of a spell based on what emotion you're feeling and how strong it is along with what you're doing with that spell. So if you have an affinity for love and perform an act of magic out of love the spell is enhanced.

Another branch of magic I've been interested in is cutie marks but I've found almost nothing on the subject so far what I have found is mostly just reference material and not much else. So I've had to make some guesses about it. I think it's at least part random but I can't rule out the possibility of fate in some form.

What I do know is that the effects of a cutie mark can be vast or small. Take mine for example, through trial and error I've found that it enhances my runic magic how fast I remember a new matrix and helps me draw them. The effect isn't large, but it is noticeable and has helped a lot.

After some time I finish reading and like most days, take a shower and drain my magic before going to bed.

Author's Note

[thank you for reading]