DEC 25 Thursday.

I finish wrapping the last gift and place it with the others before standing up to stretch. It's been a little over a month since my last meeting with Celestia. And at the end, she told me she would be busy with a few things and we won't be having any more meetings until January 14.

In the past month things have been going just fine, I've started my work on the B.L.P. spell. I start to go on another internal rant as I make some fresh tea.

The B.L.P. spell works by forming small shields around a wound and keeping the blood inside. This is accomplished by using several runes together and a lot of math to tell the spell where a wound is and where the shield should go. This is all done by the spell so the caster only needs to provide enough magic.

And that is the main reason this spell is so complex. It does almost everything by itself and just needs magic and some will. This is good as a doctor can just cast the spell and not worry too much about blood loss for the next hour. But it also means that the magic cost is very high and like I said, it only lasts one hour, more if you overpower the spell but that's just a waste of magic with how much the cost increases compared to the time you gain.

The good news about this is that while the spell is complex it has many places I can improve. I can now confidently say I can hit the ten percent mark they want, but it's going to take a long while to go through this spell and make sure nothing breaks at the same time. This also explains why they're paying me so much for ten percent.

And that brings me to who's paying me for this, and the answer is complicated, to say the least. The medical system in Equestria is something that could only work with an immortal princess running it.

First, how do hospitals work? Well, Equestria has free healthcare for all citizens paid through taxes, if you're a pony that wants to get medical help you just go there and get it, For the everyday pony it's that easy. But for anypony working in the medical industry, it's a fucked mess.

The medical industry in Equestria is a mix of large crown-sponsored and funded hospitals, with many smaller and privately run clinics owned by others. Then you mix in the guilds that help organize and train doctors and other medical professionals.

Then mix in other schools to teach doctors the same things or more things. Mix in an immortal monarchy and the varying degree of control that the monarchy may choose to use depending on where you live. And the result is something that shouldn't even work, let alone work well, but it does.

I'm not sure about a lot of the specifics, but it turns out that having an immortal semi-divine pony ruling over all this is enough to make it work with a surprising amount of efficiency and success. I bring this all up because it can kind of be confusing as to who this spell is for, and who's paying me for it.

The two specific hospitals that offered this job are partly owned by the crown and the public while being funded through a mix of taxes and revenue gained from other services offered.

The free healthcare I mentioned only provides what you need to be healthy. That includes medical exams, medicines, and anything to do with sickness, injury, and incurable ailments. For anything else, you need to pay them, as for what ailments count and don't? I have no idea, and I'm not opening that can of worms today.

Back to the question. The short answer is that the director of that hospital is paying me with some of their and the crowns money to have me make a spell that will be available to the public and any other medical practices, and in exchange, they'll get a large tax break and a lot of the prestige that comes with the spell.

And that brings me to another thing I now have to deal with, taxes. In Equestria it's pretty easy overall, in June they send you a form telling you how much you own from your income. The crown works with banks to collect that data. You pay them, and you're done.

But if you want to declare any tax exemptions you need to bring a lot of information and proof to the tax offices. Last year I didn't need to pay anything as the crown gives orphans a one-year tax break when they get their first job to help them get their footing. But this year I can't do that.

This leaves me with a question. Should I just pay the amount they ask for or try to get a few exemptions? I think I could claim a few as my work is for the crown and I make things to help others. But honestly fuck that, I'd need a tax professional to do that and I'd have to reveal a lot of information to them that I don't want anypony to know.

Even if I get them to sign a contract or something like an N.D.A. I don't think it's worth the risk. Plus I have far too much money to know what to do with, so I'm just going to pay the higher amount so I don't have to deal with it. But enough about taxes and hospitals.

Moving onto my life. The library is going through some repairs and will be closed until the new year, which means me and everypony else has a week off. And because we can't exchange gifts at work we agreed to meet up at Daisy's apartment later today. I'm done making my tea and start on the next thing I need to do.

I offered to bring some snacks with me so I'm going to make some cookies. I take out some fine white flour I bought and start measuring it out. I measure out all the other dry ingredients and mix them, next I start on the wet ingredients before mixing them together.

I lay out small balls of dough on a baking sheet while preheating my oven. I set a timer on my bracelet and start waiting, I take out the book Celestia gifted me and continue reading it. I've been using this book and small chunks of the Chestnut wood I have to practice my wood carving.

This has helped me improve my wood carving as it has been a fun hobby. And if I use it properly I could make some interesting things if I have the right type of wood and gem. But for now, it's just a way to improve my wood carving until I can get good enough to make decent-quality things.

I read through the book for a while before checking on the cookies, I look at my timer and turn it off. I take the cookies out to cool down and go back to reading. A while later I check the time again, it's six in the afternoon and we're supposed to meet up at six thirty so I should probably get going now. I pick up all my gifts and the fresh cookies before heading to my door. I close my door and lock it behind me, I walk over to Daisy's door and knock.

After a moment Daisy opens her door. "Shade nice to see you, please come inside." She moves to the side and I walk inside. The walls are painted a light red, and the room is much more furnished than mine.

Her apartment is the same as mine in terms of space and layout, with one main room with a window and two side rooms. She has a dining table with a few cushions. By the window, she's made a small nook surrounded by paintings on the walls and a few potted plants.

In the middle is a large plush carpet. "Sit down wherever you like, and tell me if you need anything." Daisy lives up to her friendly and nice attitude with a happy tone.

"Thanks for hosting our little get-together, also I have to say I like the way you've decorated." I look through some of the paintings on the walls. Most look well-made and are mostly paintings of cityscapes and plants. "Are all these paintings you've made?"

She comes back over to me. "Thank you. I pride myself on being able to decorate. Yes and no, most of them are mine but a few I got from my dam, she was a painter for a living." I think I remember her mentioning that before.

"Regardless they're very good." I turn away from the walls and pass her the plate full of cookies. "Here as promised, where do you want me to place these?" I asked while gesturing to my gifts.

"OH, these smell good, thanks for making these. And under the tree is just fine." I move over to what might as well be a Christmas tree that's set up in a corner of the nook. I place the gifts in a few spots, none touching any other. I look around and see Daisy cooking something in the kitchen.

"What are you making?" I walk over to the kitchen but don't enter.

"Hot chocolate, I thought it would go well with the cookies, and I can't resist a good hot chocolate." We both turn as we hear a knock at the door, Daisy walks over and opens the door.

"Blaz, Maple glad you both could make it, come on in Shade's already here." Both Blaz and Maple walk in each with a few gifts.

"Hello you two, have a nice walk through the snow?" I ask as a jab. Blaz just smiles while Maple gives me a deadpan stare.

"Same as ever colt, and yes the cold was lovely you should take a swim later." And like always Blaz jabs back.

"I hope the cold wasn't too bad Maple, I'm making hot chocolate if you want some?" Daisy offers as she closes the door behind them.

"That would be nice, thanks." She responds in a somewhat tired tone.

Daisy nods. "Either of you want any?" Both me and Blaz just nod. "Feel free to sit where you like, and gifts go under the tree."

I decide to sit at the small table, I get comfortable and enjoy the calm atmosphere. Maple also sits at the table while Blaz helps Daisy retrieve some mugs. "So Maple, you seem to be doing better recently, still feeling ok?" I ask as she has been doing better but still looks tired a lot of the time.

She nods. "Yes I'm doing better, this cold has just been brutal, and like I've told you I don't do well in the cold." She's said that a few times now after we pressed her on why she's so tired all the time. She told us that she had a condition that makes her tired when it's cold.

I'm not sure if I believe her, but she also asked us to leave the subject be and so we have. I can't say I'm not still worried or curious, but it's not my place to dig into her life.

Daisy and Blaz walk over and sit down with us before passing out a few mugs and placing the plate of cookies on the table.

We talk while eating through the plate of cookies. I also get a surprise as Daisy eats half the plate by herself, I didn't know she had a sweet tooth for cookies. After a while, we decide to start unwrapping gifts and all lay down on the thick carpet and get cozy.

Daisy speaks up. "How do you all want to do this?"

I think it over for a moment. "Just pick them one at a time?" I offer, I haven't done this in years so I honestly have no idea.

Daisy looks to Maple and Blaz who both shrug. "Randomly it is." She picks one out and reads the name. "From Shade to Blaz." She passes him the gift and he opens it, it's the puzzle box I got him.

"I got the pony I bought it from to show me how it works, it's a hard one so you should have fun trying to figure it out," I explained to him.

"Thanks colt."

"Next, Maple to me." Daisy wastes no time in opening her gift, and it's even more blue paint. She grabs another gift.

We continue like this as we all unwrap our gifts. I got just what I wanted. A painted pot from Daisy, it has several Rose bushes filled with rose flowers painted on it. Maple did find a good pie pan, and she did find me a pie recipe with tea in it, somehow.

And finally, Blaz got me a very nice chess set, it comes in a small wooden box and the pieces are made from stone. One set is granite and the other is a darker stone I don't recognize. "Hey Blaz I think you may have gone a little overboard on the chess set, don't get me wrong I love it, but still."

We're all sitting around and organizing what we got. He looks up at me and smiles, "You'd think so, but that chess set was owned by my ex-wife. She never wanted it back and it's been years, and I don't want it so it's yours now." Blaz has mentioned his ex-wife a few times but never told us why they split up.

"HU, well ok then." I look over to Daisy as she organizes different paints she got, in an odd twist of fate, me, Blaz and Maple all get her some amount of blue paint. She seems happy about it though, "You think you finally have the right color of blue in there?"

"Maybe, with painting you can never be sure. But a few of these show promise." She says this while holding a small jar of paint up.

I look back over to Blaz who mostly got puzzles. He looks back at me and has a look on his face. "Hey colt I just remembered I also asked you for some recipes, did you forget?" He says the second part is a fake hurt tone.

I just give him a large smile. "No, I remembered it, in fact I already gave it to you."

He looks confused for a moment before looking down at the puzzle box. He starts chuckling, "Well colt looks like you got me good this time, I'll make sure to return the favor."

I look over to the last pony and see that Maple mostly got different sweets, she has one hell of a sweet tooth, I almost feel bad for her teeth. But like everypony else she seems happy with what she got. We spend our time messing around and I use my new chess set to play a game with Maple, who loses horribly.

We stay late and go home even later, but when the night is finally over I can get some rest.

Author's Note

Thanks as always for reading. This one doesn't have much happening in it, but I have things planned. :D