DEC 28 Sunday.

I put down my carving tool as I crack another piece of wood and ruin another attempt. Making things out of wood is a lot harder than you'd think. I've improved a lot in detail work, but I still have a long way to go. I clean up my desk, sweeping off wood shavings and chunks.

Today is Entropy's first birthday and at first I wasn't sure what to do for her. I already made her a perch and bath, and she doesn't really need much else. So after some thought I decided to just get her a nice meal and spend some time with her. It's for this reason that we are heading out tonight.

It's the late afternoon right now and it will be dark in about two hours. I've made a reservation at a fancy restaurant that allows pets and serves meat. I had to look through several restaurants yesterday to find it and I could only get a reservation after dark on such short notice.

But I don't mind the cold or dark much and I know Entropy doesn't. But before all that I still have some time to mess around. I take out a few seeds and two pots before setting them on my desk. I plant the two seeds and grow them to a decent size, both the vines that grow are odd.

They have a deep green vine, but yellowish sandy leaves. This plant is the result of me breeding the Solar Vine and the Gripping Vine. The flowers still glow but it's gotten even dimmer, on the upside the new vine is stronger and grows faster. Now I just have to selectively breed it into something useful.

My main goal is to have the vine grow strong enough to cover a large area. The original Solar Vine doesn't grow that large and can collapse if it grows too large. I want to breed it until I can grow it as large as I like, and then focus on how much solar affinity magic it can store and release.

I breed the new vine for a while as I keep an eye on the time. When I'm almost out of magic I grow some seeds and decompose the plants away before storing everything. I still have another hour so I go out and lay down next to Entropy's perch. "How are you doing girl?"

"Berry?" She asks while landing on my back.

I scratch her neck and grow a Juniper berry for her. "Here, you've grown a lot this year and saved my ass two times now. Enjoy the well-earned berry." She just eats it before lying down in between my forelegs as I continue to scratch her. But I have to move my face away as she starts flapping her wings.

"AH! The fuck?" I have to close my eyes until she stops. I look back down at her prepared to give her my best disapproving look, but stop as I see something on the ground. Ever since Entropy stopped growing several months ago she's never lost a feather, but on the ground in front of me is a large feather that consumes all light.

I pick it up and examine it. It's one of her bigger feathers and seems pristine and undamaged. I turn back to her as she looks up at me. "Great, I can't even be mad at you now. Ahhh, just take your damn scratches." I continue scratching her while looking at the feather.

I have no idea what I can do with a feather but I'm sure as hell going to try and find out later. After a little more pampering I stand up and walk into my work room, I place the feather on the shelf next to the box that I got Entropy's egg in, it now contains her eggshell. I walk back out and start putting on my saddlebags.

I lay my cloak over my saddlebags and raise its hood. "Come on girl, we're going to get some good food." She lands on my back again and I cast the illusion spell over her before we leave. The snowfall is still light so we should be able to make it there easily.

I brought my light with me to see, and after a while I found the right building. It's only just after dark so a decent amount of ponies are still around. The restaurant is well lit and after walking in I move over to a small front desk while lowering my hood. "I'm here for a reservation, it should be under the name Shade Evergreen."

The mare behind the desk nods and looks through a book for a few moments. "Yes, your reservation is for six. You are a little early, but we aren't too busy. Would you like to wait or get a table now?"

"Now is fine."

She nods again. "Just to remind you if your pet eats any other customers' food or breaks anything you'll have to pay for it. Please follow me." She leads me to a table and I get comfortable while Entropy sits on the table. After a short wait, a waiter takes our orders and leaves.

I got a fish club sandwich. And asked them to just bring out some cooked fish and fruits for Entropy. I pass the time by giving the birthday girl all the attention she wants. Both of us skipped lunch so by the time our food arrived we immediately started digging in.

I relax as I finish my meal. This place may have taken a while to find but by magic the food was worth it. I pay for our meal and we leave satisfied. As I walk outside I see that the snowfall has gotten much worse, I can't see more than a few feet in front of me.

I flip up my hood and tighten it, before moving through the snowfall. I rather not walk through this snow and luckily for me I don't have to. I look for somewhere out of the way so Entropy can just take us home. After a little walking, I see an alley that is unlit and out of view from others.

I walk into the alley and look around, I can't make out much so I walk further down the alley and I see that the alley turns left. I walk over to check if it's a dead end where we can hide from view. I turn the corner only to have something slam into me. I flinch from the impact and I feel Entropy fly off my back. I strain my eyes in the darkness and snow to look at what I ran into.

In front of me in the dark I can just make out a pony. I'm about to speak up and apologize, but in a quick movement they lunge at me. But I haven't been getting my flank handed to me every Wednesday for nothing. I dodge to the left and tense my body, they rush past me but quickly find their footing and lunge again.

I panic and just move, reacting with the training that's been beaten into me. I dodge again and as they pass me I swing my hoof out as hard as I can, I feel the thud as it impacts the side of their head.

They hit the street and landed in the cold snow several feet away. Through the dark I see that they don't get up and just stay on the ground. :WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!:

I sit there for a minute just trying to get my panicked breathing and racing heart under control. After my mind processes what just happened I quickly take out my light, I hit them in the head pretty hard and I need to check that I didn't just kill somepony by accident.

I activate the light and move over to the pony. I'm not a doctor but I know enough to tell if this pony is dead. :OH god please don't be dead, don't be dead: I keep repeating this to myself as I walk over to the pony. But once I see them only one thought occupies my mind. :FUCK!!:

Laying in the snow is a dark mass of chitin sprawled out on the street. A Changeling is lying face down in the snow not moving. :This is BAD! I NEED to think fast: I have no idea if others will be able to tell what just happened in some way. After some panicked thoughts I form a rough plan.

I grab the Changeling and turn to Entropy, she flew off my back in the scuffle but returned once the Changeling was down. "Take us to the forest with the Oak tree, now." She wastes no time and lands on my back. And after the most stressful minute of my life we vanish from the alley. We appear inside in the small clearing with the Oak tree.

But I don't relax, hell I don't think I can. The forest is dark and quiet, the Oak tree I grew in the past has no leaves like the rest of the trees. I clear some snow off the ground and lay the Changeling down, I need to see if they are even still alive. I start looking over their body.

I can see them breathing as their chest moves. :Ok not dead that's good: I keep looking them over, I check their head to see no real damage to the outside beyond a scrape on their chitin from my hoof. Seems I hit them hard enough to knock them out.

And that's a problem as I don't know when or if they'll wake up. I'm not an expert on insects but I don't think they are going to die, I can't really be sure though. I don't know if they can find this Changeling somehow so I need to leave as fast as I can. But even a pony could freeze in this cold if left out here.

I could just leave this Changeling out to just die? They attacked me. I stop that thought and smack myself with a hoof. I can't- no I WON'T let this changeling die just for trying to survive as who they are. I turn to Entropy. "Take me home," It takes another minute but we appear at my apartment.

I've made up my mind and I have a rough plan. I didn't see any green flames, this Changeling wasn't transformed and probably attacked me because I saw them. And I refuse to kill someone just for trying to save themselves.

I find a spare blanket and cast the best cleaning spell I know on it, if I remember correctly that spell also removes hair. I give the blanket a shake to remove all the things the spell loosened off. Next I head to my workroom and grab all the Chestnut wood scraps I have.

Once I have both I turn to Entropy again. "Back to the Oak Tree girl." She's already made two jumps so I can only go home after this. We reappear inside the forest again, I move over to the Changeling and wrap them in the blanket before dumping the wood scraps in a pile.

I use the candle flame spell and light it on fire. I made sure to only grab the Chestnut pieces so nothing could be traced back to me. I lay the Changeling on their side so their underbelly is facing the fire. I double-check to make sure they're still breathing and wrap the blanket around them tightly.

I use my field to disturb all the snow I walked on to remove my hoof prints and turn back to Entropy. She's clearly tired from teleporting me, and so much cargo. "One last time girl, home." It takes longer than normal but we vanish and reappear in my apartment, finally safe.

Entropy is barely standing up and looks utterly exhausted. I pick her up and move her to my bed, "Get some rest girl, magic knows you've earned it." I wrap her up in my blanket and leave her to rest. I don't rest though I still have things to do.

First I take off my cloak and saddlebags. I go through every pocket and make sure I haven't dropped a single damn thing. After checking and double-checking I move on to the next thing. I start thinking of anything that might link me back to this. It was dark and I had my hood up and drawn low, so I don't think they saw what I looked like enough to recognize me.

But a Changeling might be able to see better in the dark? Still, even if they can it would be hard to see past both my hood and the thick snowfall. I shake my head and focus, I can't do much about it if they saw me. What else? Entropy? She flew off my back when we collided, and trying to see her in the dark might as well be impossible.

Blood, I don't think I was injured? I start checking my body for any wounds. I have a small bruise from when we ran into each other but that's it, so I didn't leave blood behind. I keep running through different things before I stop. I find my notebook where I keep my knowledge about Changelings and start writing.

I add any small detail I can remember about this mess. I hope that Changeling wasn't too injured and can recover. That wood should burn for a while but if they are in a coma I don't think I can help them. I definitely can't go back to that forest anytime soon to check if they died.

I pushed those dark thoughts away, I did what I could while keeping myself safe, even if it wasn't enough to save them. I sigh and check the time, it's not that late but this day has been a fucked mess and I need rest, I'll think about all this later. I walk into my bedroom and snuggle up with Entropy. I let sleep claim my mind, and the dark thoughts along with it.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading.

I've had the gore tag from the start and haven't used it yet. fair warning, this story WILL earn that tag someday.

Also an interesting fact, one of my favorite games is bloodborne. :D