Nov 14 Friday.

It's been a week since I bought my new plants and I've learned a few things about them. First the Spicy Red Root, honestly what I found on this plant is mostly cooking recipes and a way to make red dye with it. It comes from the savanna and is a popular crop for the Zebra's.

Second the Venus Fly Trap, or what they call it the Bug Trap, I prefer the human name but both work. It's not edible and can't be used for anything and is mostly valued for its ability to kill bugs. And it's known to grow in wet jungles or marshes so it should do just fine with the jungle environment spell I used.

Third, the Frost Bloom, I already said where it's native to and what it does. The only other thing I found out about it is that while it is poisonous if used right it can help with pain, although you have to be very careful not to poison somepony while using it.

Fourth, the Solar Vine. Same as the Frost Bloom I already explained most things about the Solar Vine. The only new thing I learned is that I can make a bitter tea from its flowers that helps with indigestion, but I don't think that will be of much use to me.

Besides my new plants I've also finished with my practice of Griffin, Caelum said I was done and so I was. There were no tears or heartfelt goodbyes, I simply paid her for the last time and said goodbye after thanking her.

I have a few things I want and need to do today. I have my meeting with Celestia later and I want to work with my new plants. Right now I just returned from a trip through the Void courtesy of Entropy, and she can now make two round trips twice a day.

"Thanks girl, good job." I feed her a few berries.

"Good." Another new word she learned two days ago.

I smile and scratch her, "Yes good." I leave Entropy on her perch and move into my workroom. I take three filled pots and grab a Soler Vine seed and a Gripping Vine seed. I've never used the Gripping Vine for anything and long ago decomposed the plant I had while keeping seeds.

I plant both and grow them until they are large enough to grow flowers. I picked the Gripping Vine to crossbreed with the Solar Vine as both have several traits in common. And my goal is to increase how fast the Solar Vine grows and how tall it can grow.

The Gripping Vine can grow higher and faster than most other Vines while still staying stable. I want those traits for the Solar Vine, and I also want to increase the Solar Vine's glow but that will come later. I start by moving pollen from one plant to another while using my life magic to grow new seeds.

Over the next three hours I grow many seeds that either don't grow, or grow into a worse plant that I have no use for. By the time I stop I don't get any good results, but that is to be expected as I am basically just mashing two plants together and hoping for a good result.

I check the time and see I still have a few hours until my meeting. I eat some lunch while thinking over something I've thought about a few times this week. What should I get Celestia? She probably doesn't need anything but she's helped me and I want to do so.

She'd probably prefer something personal as a gift. I start thinking over the problem again and after a while I get an idea, and it involves the Iron Oak. The Iron Oak will grow as fast as it can with how tough the wood is, so an Iron Oak with weaker wood grows faster, and one with stronger wood grows slower.

I think this happens because the tree doesn't want to have different parts of itself having different amounts of strength. If half the trunk can withstand a tornado and the other can't it won't end well for the tree.

My idea is to make a small Iron Oak that has been strengthened so much it almost doesn't grow, it still will but if I can make it Steel wood then it could take years to grow even a small amount.

I walk over to my Iron Oak and start growing a small acorn, I keep it small but let it fully develop before collecting it. I have a smaller clay pot that should work just fine, I take it and fill it with the proper soil before planting the small acorn.

I let the seed grow but keep it as small as I can. I slowly grow it into a small bonsai tree, it looks fully grown but is only half a foot tall. Once I'm done growing it and styling it, I start dumping my life magic into it. I still have a few hours until my meeting and by that time I should be able to make this small tree all Steel wood.

I spend this time draining my magic into the tiny tree and taking breaks where I draw and drink tea. By the time I have to leave the tree is ready, it will now grow very slowly and be pretty hard to kill as it has a lot of life magic in it. I grab my saddlebags and leave my apartment.

I've been through the process of showing the guards my invite and having them lead me. But that's where things go a little wrong, standing as a guard for the room is Shining Armor. I recognize him and I know he recognized me. :God fucking DAMMIT! Why is it you every time? I don't even have a table to flip right now:

Despite my worries, I'm thankful that he stays professional and doesn't say anything to me, the other guard opens the doors and I walk in trying my best to pretend I don't recognize him. I'll have to think of something if I ever need to explain this to him. Honestly with Twilight being Celestia's student I'm surprised I haven't run into her yet.

I walk in and bow to her like always before dropping the formalities and sitting down. "It's nice to see you as always Celestia."

"Same to you Shade, I'd like to start off by apologizing if I was a bit off at our last meeting." She sounds genuine and looks a bit down.

I wave my hoof. "We all have bad days. Anyway, here, Happy Hearth's Warming." I passed her the Iron Oak.

She smiles a little at this, I'm glad that helped lift her mood a little. "Thank you, but you didn't have to get me anything."

I just smile back. "You've helped me a lot by just having somepony to talk to, and that didn't stop me last year."

She looks over the tree for a few moments. "Hmm, isn't this an Iron Oak?"

I nod. "You decided to learn about it then?"

She nods back. "Yes, after our first meeting I wondered if any others found out how to grow Steel wood. But I couldn't find anything beyond just framing and harvesting it, not that I'm very surprised as you were only able to make it because of your magic. Did you pick this tree for any reason? It seems odd for you to choose something so normal."

I smile at her jab. "Yes I picked it for a unique property it has, the more life magic used to strengthen it the slower it will grow." I drink some of the tea and enjoy its taste, I don't know who she has make it, but it's much better than when I make it. "That tree will take years to grow."

"I saw that being mentioned in a few books, a creative way to make a house plant. Thank you for the gift, it's lovely." She moves it to the side of the table.

"I'm glad you like it, also the wood is very tough so when you do need to trim it you'll probably need enchanted tools to do so."

"I'll keep that in mind. Here happy Hearth's Warming." I'm surprised at this but I really shouldn't be. She moves a book over to me and I look at its cover, How To Make Wooden Jewelry By Hardy Wood. I was not expecting this, but it's a welcome gift that I can get some good use out of.

I take a moment to skim through it and see it has several sections, even one on how to embed gems into wooden jewelry. "This is perfect thank you, and you might be getting some jewelry."

She nods. "I'm glad you like it, and that would be nice I don't wear wood often. Now before we move on I thought you'd like to know how the cleansing spell is doing." My ears betray me and stand up showing my interest. She just smiles, a smile I don't trust. "It was open to the public a week ago and to say it's going well would be an understatement."

"I've had the two main hospitals in Canterlot and several others in the region offer you a job and several dozen ponies requesting a meeting with you." That floors me.

"THAT many? I know healing spells aren't made much but this seems a little excessive." Not many make new spells but that still means several dozen good spells, and who knows how many bad ones come out each year. It's been a single week, why the hell would so many care?

Her smile just grows, and I have the feeling she's enjoying my reaction. "A few reasons. First I had all the other spells and inventions you've made were placed under your alias, so the first time many are hearing of you is from taking credit for two popular spells and two widely used inventions. The only thing you didn't get credit for is the Rocky Wheat."

I just give her a tired and deadpan stare. And she just continues to smile back. "Second. While many spells come out very rarely does an established and well-known spell see such a large improvement. And finally, that simple fact that nopony has heard of you before, you're a complete unknown that's done much in a short amount of time."

I just sigh and drain my teacup. Honestly I should have guessed she'd pull something like this, I know she means well and wants me to take credit for my accomplishments, but I also don't want others to know about all this for several reasons. But I also expected something like this. It is odd for an unknown pony to come out of nowhere and improve a spell so much. This is just that but more, I'm not sure whether I want to thank Celestia or prank her. Maybe both?

I speak after filling my cup again. "Thank you for respecting that I don't want my name to be known, and for helping me release all these things," I say this in a tone that shows how unamused I am. "What was the excuse you used for me?"

But this damn princess won't stop smiling at me. "your welcome, and I should be thanking you. I declined all the invites and meeting requests for you, and I told them you work for me as a private researcher meaning you worked for me and me alone, that only resulted in me getting dozens of letters addressed to you."

She takes out a stack of letters bound in string and tied with a bow, I swear she's doing this just to fuck with me at this point. I take the stack and move it to the side, I look back up to her and see that her smile is still there. :Oh fuck there's more:

"And there is one last thing of note, after I declined the hospital's requests for information on you they requested for me to have you work on a certain spell." She passes me a rolled-up piece of paper. I unwind it and see a complex spell matrix, this one for a Blood Loss Prevention spell, commonly shortened to B.L.P.

It's made to save lives by keeping blood loss to a minimum, it creates a small shield around any wounds to seal them. It's not a permanent fix by any means, but it does buy time for the injured party to get proper help. And in a world where travel can take a while it saves many lives often.

But I'm not sure how much I can improve this spell, it's much more complex than any other spell I've worked with before. It uses three rings and eleven different runes on top of all the math. After looking over the spell I place it down and turn back to Celestia. "I've never worked on anything this complex before and I can't guarantee how much success I'll have in improving this spell."

She gives me a reassuring look. "Let me tell you what they want before you reject it." I nod and let her continue. "They are offering a large amount of bits and a stake in the hospital, I wouldn't take the latter offer as they could find your name if your part of their shareholders."

I give her a grateful nod. "Thank you I'll be careful of that in the future."

"You're welcome. In exchange they want you to streamline the spell, specifically, they want you to lessen the magic cost while not sacrificing anything else about the spell." I think about the offer for a moment while taking another look at the spell matrix.

If I'm just cutting down on the magic cost and not making the spell better then this becomes much more doable. Looking at the spell matrix again I can see a few places to improve but this could take a while. I look back up at her, "When would they want it finished?"

"They want it done in a year and will let you go six months over that if you can improve it some by the end of the first year." A year? I spent just over three months on the Cleansing spell and I held it back for two weeks just to double check my work. Celestia sees my surprise. "Most don't make spells as fast as you do."

"How much do they expect me to improve the spell?"

"Ten percent. and for every percent after that, they'll raise your pay by ten percent." It seems they have a way to measure the effects and cost of a spell, I'll have to look into that later. I started really thinking about this offer, if they just want ten percent then I could probably do that, it would take me a few months, maybe half a year but I could do it.

"Why me? I'm an unknown that's only been around for two years." I find it odd they would just offer something like this to me.

"I did tell them you work for me and that comes with a level of legitimacy that most take years to achieve, and while you are new everything you've made is impressively well made."

So after some more thought and studying the matrix, I decided to accept. "I think I could do ten percent but I promise nothing over that."

"Really? Well even if you fail you'll just have to pay a fine to them. Here?" She passes me another piece of paper. It's a contract with more details and how much they'll be paying me.

"HOW MUCH!!" I shout out as Celestia just continues to smile at me.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading, and have a good day.