AUG 21 Thursday.

I get out of bed and stretch, feeling the pain in my muscles as I move around, they are still pretty sore from yesterday as Stone decided to go extra hard on me, I asked why and he said I looked like I was getting used to his training routine so we'd be going even harder now.

So that's just amazing, but beyond that I'm excited for today and I'm a lot less nervous than last time as I know what to expect now, It's still a little daunting to go somewhere with so many ponies but I'll manage, maybe.

It's still several hours before the Gala and I won't take long to get ready as all I'll really need is a shower and to brush out my mane and tail so I have time to do other things, but first I need to feed the child that I call a best friend and make myself some tea as I always do, after some tea we take a few trips through what I'm now calling the void.

I'm not really sure where we go when Entropy teleports us, but my best guess is some dimensional plane that is easy to access or is easier to move through than others, either way I think that space in this dimension is either compacted, or space is relative and you can move vast distances instantly.

Or maybe being in the void lets you exit wherever you want, the answer isn't that important to me right now but if I ever get good enough at sensing and potentially manipulating space it could be important, but for now there is another question that's been occupying my mind when we do this.

How does she know about this place? Well, I think the answer is dependent on what answer you're looking for, personally my best guess is that whatever she is is born with a connection to this place, I'm not sure how but magic only follows the rules it wants to so who knows?

My mind then wanders to unknown magic, unknown magic is a term used to describe any magic that doesn't follow the systems sentient beings use, a good example is how I do magic I don't really need runes, or matrixes, or anything else to do magic.

But if I tried without all that I would be less than successful, as trying to control magic without the systems and structures in place is like trying to grind a mountain to sand using a rock, sure given enough time or the right pony it can be done, but good luck with that.

This is all to say that the structures and systems we have only work because magic seems to agree with how we made them, we shaped chaos and formed some sort of order out of it, why is magic like this? And why does it behave like this? I don't know and I think the only ones who do aren't telling us anytime soon.

I'm brought out of my thoughts as Entropy makes her last trip through the void, at this point we take four round trips twice a day, the more we do this the further her ability grows and I'm not sure if there is a limit, but if there is a limit I don't think she'll be hitting it anytime soon.

I will need to find a new place for us to travel to as it seems this is no longer pushing her limits, but that's for another day right now I want to work on my new bracelet and relax before the Gala, I grab one of my English notebooks with my notes on the spell and start trying to improve it.

I do this with most of my spells but this one is something I really want to work well so I'm putting in more time than I usually do, as I go through my notes I'm so distracted that I don't see Entropy moving around the apartment like she normally does.

That proves to be a mistake as she decides she wants my attention and carries one of her wood balls over me as I lay near the overhead counters and drops it, her aim proves true as my face gets firmly planted in my book by a small wood ball hitting the back of my head.

"AHH, motherfucker," I slip into English for a moment before rubbing my head and looking up to see the smuggest bird I've ever seen, in response I narrow my eyes and smile back before grabbing a small berry from the Juniper Bush on my counter and using my field to throw it at her, but she proves to be a little too quick for me and move out of the way.

I narrow my eyes at her and after a moment grab another berry, "Berry" seems she knows how to mock me now.

"Oh don't you worry, I'll give you all the berries you want," Things only devolved from there.

And after an hour of berries flying around my apartment and a not-insignificant amount of stains that I needed to clean up afterwards we both calmed down, she helped clean up by eating the berries and bringing me a rag while I cleaned up the stains and berry juice.

Sometimes we may get silly and a little out of control, but that never lasts long as we normally get ourselves back to normal not long after we are done with our fun, Entropy may be a little mischievous and is becoming something of a prankster but I don't know what I'd do without her.

After another few hours of me going through my notes and spending a while drawing a new sketch of Entropy it's time for me to get ready, I take a shower and clean myself thoroughly before combing out my mane that's just long enough for me to tie back behind my head.

As I stare at the small mirror and look at myself, I do a double take as I see the fur around my chin is very slightly thicker than before, ponies mature faster than humans and are basically fully grown by seventeen, but that varies depending on the pony and what subspecies they are from.

Earth ponies in particular can hit puberty before others, and considering my size this shouldn't be much of a surprise to me, but honestly I would rather not go down that rabbit hole right now so I just find my suit and put it on before grabbing anything else I will need.

I want to bring a bracelet and decide to bring my new one as I like the carvings in it, so after I grab my new bracelet and activate it before putting it on, I've been doing this for a few days now when I walk around the city to see if it detects anything.

But so far it's done nothing, I'm not sure if that means that I haven't run into any changelings or that it just doesn't work, personally I think it's the latter and it doesn't work, but that's not important right now I'll just turn it off when I reach the Gala but for now I might as well leave it on to see if anything happens.

After making sure the suit is on properly and that I look decent I pet Entropy some and tell her to stay before leaving, I walk through the streets of Canterlot and not long after I see the Gala, it's dark and the Gala seems to be in full swing already and after passing my invite to a pony and going in I see that the event has definitely started.

I'm not sure what I should do so I just find a place to sit at a table and get some food, just like last year the tables are filled with many different types of food and after a little searching I found some carrot cake and dig in, it's well made and it's just what I needed to take my mind off of worrying about random things.

I spend a while simply watching the Gala and its many ponies talk and interact with each other, and not long after I start looking around I see that Celestia has joined the crowd of ponies, although it's not hard to see her given her height and appearance.

She's wearing an elaborate dress that looks both simple and complex, which from what I know of her makes sense, I keep looking around at all the ponies and see a few faces that I recognize, not anypony from the show just different ponies that I've heard about over the years.

I do see who I think is Prince Blueblood and his family, but I'm not really sure and even if it was I rather not have to interact with nobles, I keep looking around before a thought occurs to me, why was Twilight here last year? She wasn't Celestia's student yet.

I mean many ponies do come here to make connections and socialize so her family could have just come here to do that? Or maybe they just got an invite somehow and decided to come for the festivities? Wait was Celestia talking to us technically the first time they've met?

Maybe? Honestly the show was unclear about many things so I'm not sure if that would have happened anyway, I don't think it matters now as things seem to have happened as they should, I try to focus on other things and leave the existential crisis for later.

It takes a moment for me to return to normal but after that I just keep eating my cake and try to have some fun with the night, I try a few other desserts and even find something I haven't seen in both my lives, the best way I can describe it is carrot pudding.

Some dumbass human thought it was a good idea and probably already made it before, but it's still new to me and after deciding to try it I find that it's not bad, a little too much carrot flavor for my liking but the sweet taste seems to go well with it, although that may just be this body agreeing with it more then my old one would.

As I'm eating I see Celestia spot me, she doesn't nod or anything but she definitely saw me and will probably talk to me at least once tonight, I'm interrupted in my eating as a pony reaches for a baked apple at the same time as me, "Oh sorry, you go first."

I offer as I turn to them, as I get a good look at who is in front of me I take in their appearance, a mare that is on the younger side but definitely an adult, she is a unicorn with a blue coat, teal colored mane, and green eyes, "It's no problem, and thank you" she responds while taking a baked apple.

After that they start eating next to me, I don't really care and just grab an apple without using my field, I do use my field in public but I decided against using it here to draw less attention to myself, too many high profile ponies here and too many who could see it as odd.

That may sound odd but in a world of magic most who see me use my field don't care and just focus on what they are doing, the few that ask I just tell them it's something anypony can learn to do if they train enough, although like I said most don't seem to care.

"So what are you doing here? If you don't mind me prying into your business," I'm a little surprised by the same pony from earlier talking to me but quickly use the excuse I had prepared for something like this.

"I got lucky and had a chance to win an invite and didn't really have anything else to do, so here I am," I chose to use this as an excuse as many get invites from many different sources and the invites also don't have names on them, so unless somepony really tried it would be hard to prove me wrong.

"Got lucky? Well I'm pretty much the same," Seems she got an invite from somewhere, not that it really matters, "So what have you found that's good? I don't recognize half the stuff here."

I'm not the most comfortable talking to somepony I don't know, but I rather not stand out so I answer her in a short and simple way, "Well it depends, I happen to like carrots so anything with that is fine for me but if you're here for something less dense I think I saw some fruit salad over there."

I point to a table not too far away with several fruits and a few other less-cooked things, she seems interested in it and nods to me, "Thanks, and have a good night," I simply nod back and start eating my food again.

But as I do so I move my bracelet as it's uncomfortably warm right now... :wait I forgot to turn it off, WAIT!!: I freeze for a moment before forcing myself to act normal, I try and stay as calm as possible while trying to remember when my bracelet started feeling warm, and after a moment I realize that it started not long after that pony sat next to me.

I keep eating even though I don't want to while my mind goes into overdrive about the situation, let's start with this, is there any reason that would just be a pony with an illusion on them?

They looked young so it wasn't for looks, and I find it unlikely that they would be under a full body illusion, and if they were anypony who touches them would realize, like I said in the past most don't use illusions to hide their looks as it can fail from being disturbed.

That and coming to a party that the princess is attending while under a full-body illusion is suspicious as hell, and honestly could get you in a lot of trouble, so what other possibilities are there? Hiding a scar or other markings? No that's out for the same reasons.

A magic object with an illusion on it? she was wearing a dress but it was simple and seemed to be form fitting for the most part, and even if she had a magic object hidden on her it wouldn't make sense for the same reasons, if a guard or other pony found out they would probably be in trouble.

And she didn't have any jewelry either, but my bracelet still went off so the only real possibility that I can come up with is the most obvious, there is a changeling in the Gala.

Author's Note

I'm sorry to leave this one on a cliffhanger but this one is already getting long.

So tune in nest time for more of Shade panicking about stuff.

Thanks as always for reading. <3

PS, did you know carrot pudding is real? I kind of want to try it now but I think don't I'll like it that much.