OCT 3 Friday.

I wake up and go through my routine of healing myself and doing my morning exercises. I have my first biweekly meeting with Celestia later today, It's at three in the afternoon and it's only six right now so I have a lot of the day still free. And I don't mind that as there is something I want to work on.

I make some breakfast and feed Entropy her food. I eat while looking out the window and see small flakes of snow falling outside. It seems winter is a little early this year, it's not unheard of but still not common either. I just enjoy the view and eat my food.

Once I'm done and have everything cleaned up I head into my workroom. Next to a shelve I have the seven Chestnut wood blocks stacked together, I don't have a use for all of them, but I do want to turn one into a bird bath for Entropy. She should prefer that to me taking her in the shower.

But making a regular bird bath would be boring so let's have some fun. I take one of the blocks and move it over to my desk. I've been doing a little testing on how detailed I can get when decomposing away unwanted wood, and have made a little progress.

I lack the control to do fine work for now, but taking out rough chunks to speed up the process is relatively easy, only taking some time. I started by grabbing my wood carving kit, it's seen less use as the wood I normally work with is too tough, but now it will see some use once again.

I use my magic to take out a rough amount to form a base, I do the same to form a bowl on the top. After cleaning all the soil off and using it to feed several of my plants I start doing the detailed work. Right now I have a wide base that thins and then widens into a bowl on top.

I start by cleaning up the base using my tools and some sandpaper. I slowly make my way up the bird bath, and after three hours I've finished most of the outside. The next, and last, part takes over an hour by itself, as the bowls inside needs to be smoothed out.

Once I'm finally done with the carving I can move on to the enchantments. I want it to fill with water and also keep Entropy from flinging water everywhere when she cleans herself. The first part is easy as I'll just use the same enchantment I use on my flask.

I enchant a small ruby as that should provide enough water. The shield will take more work though, I need it to just stop water from leaving the shield but not any water on or inside Entropy. None of this is that hard, just time-consuming, it takes me two hours to get the shield right.

When I'm done I enchant the shield into a small sapphire. I take both gems and hollow out places for them on the birdbath base. And once everything is finally ready I move it to the main room. Entropy is currently sleeping on her new perch that she seems to love.

I take the bird bath next to the perch and let the enchantments do their work. I add some water as it will take a while to fill on its own. It's not very large but it should do just fine for her. I admire my work a little before heading back into my workroom.

I want to bring something to show Celestia, nothing fancy, honestly, it will be more of a toy than anything. I just want to know what she thinks of it as it may give me some inspiration, or even just something to talk about with her. I grab one of my steel wood blocks and get to work.

The heavily modified float spell I made has a quirk to it that I didn't realize at the time I made it. Depending on how much magic you give it determines how strongly it will keep an object stable, the minimum is just enough to keep it from falling out of the air.

Take my small planet for example. It doesn't have much magic so I can just take the ruby off by pulling on it a little. If I increased the magic the float spell gets it would be much harder to move it around without turning the enchantment off.

And this gave me a fun idea. I take the float spell and modify it slightly, changing the area it floats things in. When I'm done I enchant the small cube of Steel wood and activate the enchantment, I let go of the cube midair and watch as it just stays there not falling.

I had the enchantment only effect itself letting it just stay in the air forever. The best part is that I weakened the effects of the spell just enough for it to not move, but for me to still be able to overpower it and move it around with ease. I take a while to just play around with it before stopping.

I check the time and see I still have a few hours left before my meeting, so I decide to just practice with life magic until it's time to go.

small time skip

I place an illusion over Entropy and put on my saddlebags and cloak as I prepare to leave. My meeting is in a short while and I need to leave, so I take the Steel wood cube I enchanted earlier along with some paper and writing supplies before leaving my apartment.

I step out into the street, the snowfall has only increased and the ground is now covered with an inch of snow. I walk the streets with a few other ponies as I make my way to the palace, I've kept her letter as an invite for when I get there.

I've done this a few times now so I just walk up to a guard and show them the letter, and like those last few times a guard leads me through the palace. And I'm once again led to a doorway, before I'm let in I take a moment to take off and fold up my cloak before stuffing it in my saddlebags.

And when I'm led inside I see Celestia at a table waiting for me, I give her a bow and sit down with her. "Hello Shade, thank you for joining me. I hope things are still going well?"

I nod to her, "Yes everything is just fine princess, and thank you for inviting me. It's always a treat to see the palace." I try to be less formal than I have been in the past but still use her title.

And she doesn't seem to mind. "It's fine and you're free to use my name, not many do. I see you've brought Entropy with you." She says while looking at Entropy who's still on my back.

And Entropy stares back at her. I'm not sure if Entropy likes her yet but Entropy doesn't seem to mind her presence if nothing else. "Yes I wanted to talk about her with you, but first I have something of a gift."

She just smiles as Entropy stares her down before giving me her full attention after I speak. "You always bring me things, not that I mind." She says this in a joking manner.

But I don't mind and just take out the small wooden cube, I pass it over to her and let her inspect it for a few moments. "It's nothing important, more a small oddity than anything, but I thought you might find it interesting." She passes the cube back to me.

I tap it twice and activate the enchantment before moving it in front of both of us over the table. And I just let go of it with my field, and it works just as intended staying still in the air. She smiles at it before casting a spell on it, "Definitely interesting. What spell did you use for this? I can detect one."

I make a mental note that she can detect spells with some form of spell. "A heavily modified float spell, it can be used to specify an area where it will keep objects stable and in the air. This one I made is weak enough to be moved without needing to turn it off."

After my explanation she does just that, moving the cube around and letting it stop in the air. "You're right it is more of a toy than anything, but it's still an interesting application for a float spell. I don't think I've ever seen it used like this before. I have seen others accomplish the same thing, but this is a much more elegant solution."

I just nod to her, "Thank you. And I suppose it could be called elegant, I'd just call it simple. Honestly I find the material I used more interesting."

She doesn't ask and just pours us some tea, so I just take that as a sign to continue. "It's Iron oak, but I found that if I saturate a small amount of it in enough life magic its properties are enhanced past its normal limits. Although it's still wood and has a tendency to burn when too much magic moves through it."

She does nothing but smile as I explain, "You remind me of my student, she also likes to discover new things. Do you mind if I keep it? I like collecting small oddities like this."

I shake my head, "Go ahead I don't really have a use for it, and I can just make more wood."

She nods and the small cube is turned off and placed on the table. "As for Entropy I'm afraid I don't know much, I did spend some time looking through the royal library to see if I could find more but still I didn't find much."

She drinks some tea as I wait for her to continue. "I found a few myths and legends about the Night Crow, but most of that seemed more like speculation and hearsay. But I did find one thing, it was vague and the text was very damaged, but what I did find was interesting."

I'm excited to finally learn anything about Entropy, so I just keep quiet. "It was an old text and the author is unknown but it spoke of an ancient bird made from the night that protected them from beasts. They are said to blend into shadows and move through nothing."

I raise a brow as she stops. "That's it?" She nods, "Well that is definitely vague but it's better than nothing, thank you for taking the time to look for anything you could find."

She just keeps her smile and nods. "It's no problem, I was also curious about her. And you now have a hint of what she might be capable of."

I nod, "Yes that part about shadows, I haven't seen her do anything like that before but it wouldn't be far-fetched from what I've seen of her abilities." The prospect of Entropy being able to work with shadows in some way is something I'll have to test with her later.

"I also wanted to ask you something else, how smart is Philomena?"

She looks thoughtful, "In what way?"

"Well Entropy understands me enough to bring things to me and take me to specific places when I ask her to, and she's learned two words so far. That's why I was asked how smart Philomena is, to try and compare the two of them."

"What are the words she knows?"

As if on cue Entropy joins our conversation. "Berry, What?" She says both words to Celestia.

She raises a brow at Entropy. "That's what I mean, I didn't even have to ask her she just listened and knew. Honestly she's less than a year old and I'm starting to wonder how smart she will get."

She's silent for a moment, "I can say for certain that Philomena has never spoken, she does know where to take me or my letters when I ask. But I'm not sure how much she understands beyond that. Now that I think of it I can point out a few cases but they are very few."

"And if I compare Philomena to Entropy it's not really a competition. What just happened shows she at least understands we are talking about her and her ability to mimic speech. I can think of many magical animals that have an understanding of someponies intentions but few know how to speak, or understand what others are saying to them."

"Really? I thought there were a few ponies that could understand animals?" I'm curious as ponies like Fluttershy can do something like that.

"Yes and no, Someponies can but it's more about intent and body language than actual words."

"So this is also a dead end? Well it was worth a try. Do you have anything else you wanted to talk about? I'm out of questions."

"I have a few, but first have you ever tried teaching her new words?"

"No not in a structured way, I have tried to help her mimic more words but I'm not sure she's ready yet. Like I said she's not even one yet and her intellect is still growing, but that does sound like a decent idea once she's grown up some. Thank you."

"No problem. Keeping on the topic of Entropy, you said she moved you both through a place you called the void? What is that exactly?"

I think over the best way to describe it before answering. "I only appear there for fractions of a second each time so I don't know much. But I know that there is nothing there, no light or dark, no sound, no downwards pull, nothing to stand on. It is an almost complete void."

"Almost?"

"Yes almost, while I'm there I can still feel my body and magic. But I'm not sure what else is really there as like I said I spend only tiny moments there. I haven't tested anything like trying to stay there or anything, I'd rather not get stuck."

She once again nods. "That's probably for the best, teleportation can be a dangerous thing. Moving on, are you still doing ok? Anything bothering you?"

I smile at her, it's nice to have somepony ask that. "About the same, as in life is just going, nothing to really complain about right now. And even some good news, your idea worked and I now have some glowing paste, it's not very useful but it's fun to mess around with. And using a brighter strain of Moon Glow gives it a pretty bright glow even I dilute it, letting me make it very bright."

"Brighter strain?"

I nod, "Yes I breed a type that is brighter and one that is dimmer, it was mostly just to practice but they have their uses. Beyond that the new cleansing spell should be done in three weeks, probably a bit more though as I need to make sure everything is working right."

She smiles at that. "Speaking of spells I heard something that I thought you should know about." I drink some tea while listening to her. "Recently a few of my researchers and two that happen to also be nobles requested to know who's been making all the new spells."

I choke on my drink a bit at hearing that, after a little coughing I recover enough to speak. "And your response?"

"I told them it was a gift from a pony that works for me, not a lie but also not the truth. I won't reveal that you have anything to do with it unless you want me two, but ponies are starting to notice so many spells coming out and the cleansing spell will be much more noticeable. It's not often that a new healing spell is made, even if it's only for cleaning many will take notice."

I let out a sigh at that, I try to think of a good way to deal with that but can't see a good solution. Why not ask her? She's probably dealt with similar things in the past, :fuck it?: "I have no idea what to do about that, do you have any suggestions?"

Her smile grows a little. "I have one, although it may seem counterintuitive. I say you give them what they want, just not all of what they want."

I think I see where she's going with this. "So something like a writer's name? Give them a name so they have something to look for while sitting right in front of them."

She nods. "Precisely, most will look for anything connected to that name and I don't think many if any would suspect you."

It does seem like the easiest way to solve this before it gets out of control, and she's right basically nopony would suspect a library apprentice. "Thank you again. And I'll give it some thought before giving you a name to use."

"Good, and no need for thanks. Well, our time is running short, is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we are done?"

I think that over for a moment. "Yes actually, how far away would you say my apartment is from here?"

I see her realize the what I'm thinking. "Around ten miles probably a little more, I'm guessing you're thinking of having Entropy deliver your letters here?"

"Yes exactly, she can make a trip like that twice without needing to rest halfway and it would make things more convenient. Would it be fine with you?"

"Yes but I'll need to find a place she can come and go from, I can get that ready by the next time we meet. Thank you for coming Shade and have a good day."

I stand up and give her another bow. "Same to you princess," I say back in a joking way. She just smiles as a guard leads me back outside.

Author's Note

Will you all please stop guessing what I'm writing about as I'm writing it? JK do it more I want to see how much you all can get right. :D

Also Shade's pen name, got any ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for reading.

Ps this and the last chapter where setup for there meeting and things will start moving faster soon.