JUL 2 Wednesday. As I copy another page I look through all the pages I've finished so far, I then double-check them before grabbing a book cover, it takes a while to bind all the pages into a finished book, but when I'm done I put the book next to four other copies.

As for why I'm making so many copies of a single book, well turns out that the city library having the second largest collection of books in the country means that when other smaller libraries lose a book and don't have any to copy they will request a copy from us, or in this case several copies, to replace the lost ones.

There are a few dozen ponies who have the same job as us, I've met a few but most simply ignore me or don't want to talk, so I leave them be, so I've mostly just spent my time talking with Blaz, and while Blaz may be quiet a lot of the time he always has something interesting to say when he does speak.

"I'm done with this order, what's the next order?" Blaz simply points a hoof to a book, I grab it and start the process all over again, I take a moment to look through the first page before starting to copy it, I've learned that this can be the hardest part of the job, it can be hard to simply copy things again and again.

But it's not all bad, I have an amount of work I'm expected to complete, and if I finish before the day ends I can spend the rest of my time reading, I look at a small piece of paper attached to the book, it's the order ticket and it tells me who's ordered the book and how many they want.

I only need to make two copies of this book, It's a thin book so this shouldn't take long to finish, I work my way through the book writing page after page, and by the time I'm a third way through it's lunch, I get up and whistle to Blaz who turns to me, "lunch" he nods.

We both move through the library and enter the breakroom, we get some food and sit next to Daisy and Maple, "so how are you two doing today?" I ask as I sit down.

Daisy answers first, "Besides dealing with an apprentice that decided to leave in the middle of the work day? Fine."

"Who decided to quit?"

"You remember the stallion who always, ALWAYS tried to mix philosophy from books into his sentences?"

I let out a groan, I've unfortunately met that pony a few times, and even as an introvert I've never wanted to end a conversation faster, he was a minor noble who decided that working at a library would make him look cultured, all he really did was read about romance and quote philosophy.

"Ya, I remember him, well at least we won't have to listen to him at lunch anymore."

"So that's why lunch is so quiet today? Well like the colt said we won't have to hear his yapping anymore."

"So what about you Maple?"

"Well I have the day off tomorrow, not anything interesting to do though."

Maple's days off are Friday and Saturday, "why do you have the day off?"

Daisy answers me, "When Mister Philosophy quit I had to shift the schedule around some, so she has another day off this week."

"And you have no plans?" she nods "Well I don't have much to do tomorrow so want to do something?"

It takes a moment for her to answer me, "Sure, anywhere in particular?"

"Well, you do seem to like pie" Almost to prove my point Maple's ears pop up and she looks at me more intently, "So let's go find some, I know a cafe where we can find some pie."

"YES, oh sorry, yes that sounds nice, what time?"

"I have a few things to do, so let's meet at the library at twelve, that works fine for you?"

"Sure, and thanks Shade."

"Hey what are friends for if not to waste your free time", we spend the rest of lunch talking before getting back to work, and after a few more hours of copying and writing books I'm free, like always I clean my work area before saying goodbye to Blaz and leaving.

I stop at my apartment for a little while to feed Entropy and grab my saddlebags before leaving again, it's Wednesday so it's time to be run ragged by an old stallion, I leave Entropy and make my way to meet Stone, I find the right building and enter it making my way to the right room.

But before we start Stone asks me something, "Well colt at this point you are in good enough shape for us to change things up, so today you're learning something new", he tells me this with a smile, a smile I do not trust.

And an hour later I'm more than proven right, Stone decided that I'm ready to learn some basic hoof-to-hoof combat, and the end result was me getting a good amount of practice with both of the healing spells I know, that and getting my ass kicked repeatedly over the course of the next hour.

When we are done I still have several bruises to heal, "That healing spell works well, most recruits would need a full day of rest doing half that, keep it up colt."

I guess that's a downside to learning healing magic, when Stone found out I could speed up my healing process, even if it takes a lot of magic to heal myself, he took it as an excuse to push me harder, but even with this training being hell it's definitely working.

At this point I've burned off all my fat and have gained a good amount of muscle, that is an upside to the healing spells I'm using, they only speed up the healing process so muscle fibers still grow back in increased amounts, the main downside is that the spell only works at a decent speed if I use a lot of magic to make it work.

For a lot of spells you can add more magic to increase the effect or speed of the effect, the upside is obvious, it's faster, but there are two main downsides, first the magic costs grow exponentially so you have to be careful not to drain yourself completely, the second is a little more situational.

If a spell is not made well, or when using runic magic if the matrix is damaged then overpowering the spell could go horribly wrong, this is why I only overpower the healing spells while meditating, it helps keep everything more stable.

After we are done with combat training I'm asked another question, "So colt, when a guard trains they train their magic and also train with a weapon, I want you to do the same, so before next week I want you to find out what weapon you want to train in, I know the basics for most weapons, and if that's not enough I know a few guards that could help."

I'm thankful this question doesn't cause me more pain, "Ok I'll make sure to try some weapons out, do you know anywhere I can test some weapons out? I rather not buy a bunch of weapons I might not use."

"This place has something that will work great, they have wooden weapons of all types, just ask at the desk and rent a sparring room, now get up colt we aren't done yet", I groan and stand back up.

time skip

JUN 3 Thursday.

I get out of bed and groan a little at my sore muscles, I make some tea and spend a while healing myself before getting ready for the day, I need to meet Maple but that won't happen for a few hours so I have some time to do other things, but first I grab four very small pieces of fish and call Entropy over.

At this point we travel back and forth between the apartment and storage room eight times a day, four times in the morning and four in the evening, it takes eight trips to tire her out the same amount as before, it seems her training is working well.

When we are done I feed her a proper breakfast, I also make myself some French toast, I haven't had this in years so I thought it would be nice, when I'm done cooking and cleaning I sit down and eat with Entropy, and when I'm done fighting off Entropy's attempts to beg for my food I finish eating and move to the workroom.

I sit down and start working on the illusion spell for Entropy, I've made some progress on finding the other rune but still haven't found it yet, another part of the spell I'm working on is its ability to stay active for a long time, this is done by overpowering the spell and making sure the spell knows what to do with the excess magic.

I need the spell to use all the magic I pump into the spell to keep it active, and if I don't tell the spell to do that it will use the extra magic to just improve everything, or go wild, and I don't need that so even if this makes the spell more complex it's worth it.

I work my way through the half-finished spell matrix, I shift things around, and edit things for a while before stopping, I'll need to work on this more but I can't do much more without that other rune, I'll have to find it but that's for later, I write and sort my notes before moving on to the next thing.

I grab the newly named Rocky Wheat and start breeding it, at this point the wheat is mostly done, it can handle the new environment well and just needs the finishing touches, throughout the process of breeding the grains have shrunk a little and there are less of them, I'm going to be fixing that before I fully finish this project.

This should only take a week or two so I'm finishing a little ahead of schedule, the reason that I was able to finish faster is because I didn't take into account that once the wheat adapted to its new environment it wouldn't need to keep struggling, now that it's fully adapted it's growing faster and that uses less magic speeding up this final step.

I breed them for a while before taking a break, I spent a decent amount of magic healing myself so I spend a while resting and drinking tea, after going back and forth for a while I stop breeding the wheat, I don't have anything else I want to work on so I just spend the rest of my time reading.

I'm brought out of my reading by the alarm on my watch flashing, I turn it off and put on my saddlebags, Entropy sees this and wants to come with me, "not this time girl, I'll feed you something nice later ok? so just relax here some", she doesn't seem happy but stays.

It took a while but she now seemed willing to stay when asked, I walked through the streets and made my way to the library, and when I got there I see Maple waiting for me, "Hey Maple, sorry if you had to wait for me."

"It's fine, you are leading the way?" she seems excited, :she really likes pie ha?:

I just smile at my friend, "Sure come on it's not far from here", I start leading her through the streets and to our destination.

We walk along the streets before finding the place I remember, a small cafe named The Blue Berry, it's a stupid name but they make good sugary baked treats, they have most things you'd think of, along with a few booths inside to sit at, we enter the building and find a booth to sit in.

"So what type of pie do you want to get?" I ask as we look through the menu.

"OH, so many choices, I can't decide, apple? raspberry?" she continues naming different pies, she's definitely excited about this.

I also realize that she's definitely the type of pony to take forever to decide, "How about we just get one cherry pie, and an apple pie? Keep it nice and simple."

She seems to war with herself for a few moments before agreeing, "ok", I motion over to a waiter and place our order.

"Well it will probably take a while to make, so want to talk about something?" I ask as the waiter brings me a green tea I ordered.

She thinks for a moment before asking something, "Well how about this, what do you do in your spare time?" she asks.

"Well, honestly a lot, I have a few hobbies and also like learning in my free time, so you'll have to be a little more specific."

"Ok then what's your favorite hobby?"

I spend a moment sipping my tea while thinking, "Drawing, I've been doing too since I was very young and have always enjoyed it", a thought strikes me and I open my saddlebags and take out a book, "Here" I pass it over to her.

She opens it and starts flipping pages, "Wow color me impressed, these are all amazing, although I guess that makes sense you have to draw anytime you want to use a spell."

"Thank you I try, and yes I presume drawing that much has helped me improve", she continues flipping through pages.

"There are a lot of plants, do you like plants? And what's with the crow?"

I nod, "Yes I do like plants, I even keep several in my home, and that's Entropy she's my pet crow."

"You have a pet crow? I honestly didn't see you as the type of pony to have a pet, why a crow?"

"Ya I'm normally not the pet type, but well let's just say that I got lucky and found Entropy's egg, and I wanted to see if it would hatch, after it did I guess she grew on me and now we are almost inseparable, sometimes I have to convince or bribe her to not follow me to work."

Maple lets out a small laugh, "Really? Well you'll have to introduce me sometime", we are interrupted by the waiter placing both pies in front of us along with two plates, and two forks, we spend a moment filling our plates before digging in, while we eat I'm able to get down four pieces before having to stop, but Maple is already on her fifth piece and is still going, "I knew you liked pie, but your really able to eat it aren't you?"

She gains a little blush and pauses mid-bite, "It's fine, I'm just surprised, most don't eat as much as me but you just keep going, well it's my turn to ask the questions, so let's start with what your favorite hobby is?"

She seems to think it over for a moment, "Well I'd say it's baking, I like baking things when I can, but I don't do it often, only when I feel like it."

"Hm, I also bake, mostly bread, It's a good hobby to have, ok next what is your favorite baked good that isn't a pie."

"That's not fair, that's like asking what type of fruit you like and then saying you can only choose berries, but fine if I had to decide I'd say it's cake, any type is fine, except chocolate, I don't like chocolate."

"Ok, what's something you genuinely don't like?"

"Odd question, but sure, hmm if I had to pick I'd say large gatherings, and I mean large gatherings, parties are fine but once you get more than ten ponies in a room with me I stop having fun."

"Fair enough, I don't really like crowds either", I put down my fork and push my plate away, "Well I'm full and I should probably get back home, I have a bird to placate and some other things to do, thanks for the fun time Maple."

I spend a moment paying the bill and gathering my things, "Same to you Shade, and thanks for the pie, but what am I supposed to do with the rest? And how much was the bill?" both pies aren't even halfway eaten.

"Well, I guess you'll have leftovers for a while, and don't worry about the bill, consider it my treat, have a good day Maple."

"Fine, but next time I'm paying, have a good day Shade", I make my way out of the cafe after that and start heading home, I don't even notice Maple watching me from the window as I walk away.

Author's Note

100K words, I'm honestly shocked I've made it this far, I'd like to take a moment to thank everybody that's helped me so far, thank you one and all, seriously, THANK YOU, and I hope your enjoying this story so far. :D

ps, here is the cookie I promised, 🍪 just remember to share it.