FEB 21 Saturday.

The first thing I do after leaving the train station is to find a place to stay the night as it's already near the end of the day. Before that, I found a public restroom and had Entropy move into my shadow, the spell I cast on her was almost over. After that, I started looking around the area for a place to stay.

New Trotten is a decently big destination for travelers so there are many places to stay. I found an inn not long into my search but decided to look for someplace closer to the ocean. I haven't been to the ocean in over two decades and it would be nice to spend some time there.

It takes me a while to reach that part of the city and find a place to stay. This inn is smaller in size and also a little more rundown then others, but it's also got the right feel to it. It's called the Salty Pony, by magic these names. I ignore it and walk inside the inn while looking around.

The place is what you would expect. A room filled with tables, and ponies eating while having fun. A bar on the back wall with a pony serving drinks and talking with others. It's got a down-to-earth feel and in my opinion, it is much better than the other inns tourists go to.

Their sign said they had rooms but I couldn't see any other ponies beyond the bartender and a few waiters, so I just decided to walk over to the bar counter and wait a while for the bartender to come over to me. I don't have to wait long as the mare bartender comes over to me.

"If you need food, ask for one of the waiters, I only have drinks." They say in a bored tone. I guess she thinks I'm just here to eat, well I am but that's not the point.

"I'll probably get some food, but first two questions. Do you have a spare room? And are pets allowed?" She looks me up and down with a close eye for a moment before nodding.

"Small pets are fine, just keep them under control. And we do have a few rooms free, ten bits a night without meals, and eight more bits every night you rent after the first night." I nod and use a little force to force open my saddlebags and take out my bit bag. Including tonight, I'll be staying here for sixteen nights, so I passed them a total of one-hundred and thirty bits.

I have to count them out one by one which takes a few minutes, I really hope the bit counter catches on soon, this is just painful. The mare raises her brow as I go and looks quite happy by the time I'm done. "That should be enough for the next sixteen nights."

She nods and takes the bits, she moves a key out from under the counter and over to me. "I hope you enjoy your stay." I nod again and leave them to their work. I walk out of the inn for a few minutes to find another restroom, it's harder to find one on this side of the city but I do find one after a little searching.

I wake Entropy and have her leave my shadow before casting an illusion spell over her. Then with her on my back, I walk back into the inn and sit at a table. It doesn't take long for a pony to walk over to me, "What do you need?"

"A serving of whatever you recommend, and some fruit for my little friend." Entropy perks up at the mention of food and moves off of me and onto the tabletop.

They nod and write it down. "Some potato soup and bread, with some fruit." They walk off and I take out my sketchbook to draw as I wait, not long after the same pony places two bowls and some bread on the table. One is filled with some diced fruit that Entropy starts eating as soon as it's on the table, and the other is filled with hot soup.

I eat the bowl of soup, it's well seasoned and cooked, and it also goes very well with the bread. When we are done I walk through a hallway on one side of the inn and pass several doors before finding the room number that matches my key. I close the door behind me and lock it before looking around the room. It's just a bed and a small desk, but that's all I need.

I take off my cloak and saddlebags before sitting at the desk to continue working on a few ideas I have. While I may not have done much today I've been awake for far too long at this point, so after two hours of notetaking and brainstorming ideas I have Entropy merge into my shadow before heading to bed.

FEB 22 Sunday.

I slowly open my eyes as I look around the room. I do some basic exercises, but keep it light, before casting the illusion spell on Entropy and leaving my room. After locking the door I walk into the large room and sit down at a table to get both me and Entropy some breakfast before we leave the inn.

I wander the streets for a while with Entropy in my shadow before finding a guard. I ask them for directions to somewhere I can buy a map, and they bluntly give me those directions. I follow the directions and see the streets start to fill with more and more ponies and griffins as I get close to the markets.

The streets are filled with mostly ponies, but there are also a lot of griffins walking around, much more than I've seen before. I walk around a street corner and see familiar rows of stalls and the sounds of a bustling market. I walk through the markets looking for a place to buy a map.

I want a decent map of the city so I don't have to ask for directions all the time or get lost. This city gets a good amount of visitors so finding a stall that sells maps doesn't take me too long. I bought two maps, one that shows most of the important business, and another that shows a more detailed layout of the streets and buildings.

Maybe I should work on improving maps? Thoughts for later. I start walking towards the side of the city that connects to the sea. I haven't seen the ocean since I was twelve in my past life, that was a long time ago. Since when did I start reminiscing about my life?

Then again if I add my lives together I'd be thirty-two years old, some days it feels like my last life was an old dream. I shake my head and focus on enjoying the nice day, I make it to the beach and step hoof in the sand for the first time in a long time. I simply enjoy the feeling for a while before continuing.

As I walk I watch the waves form and crash onto beach sands. The last time I saw a view like this was when I was a kid on a cross-country trip to a cousin's wedding. I hope they are still doing well, I shake my head again and continue walking down the beach.

I walk up to the ocean before something important occurs to me, I don't know how to swim. I never learned how to do that in this body, I think for a moment before deciding to not go swimming today. So I lay down in the sand and took out my sketchbook to start drawing.

I spent a while drawing the sea and watching other ponies swim in the water. I chose to observe to learn how they swim through observation, I still won't go swimming right now but it's good to see how others do it.

When I'm done with my basic drawing I get up and clean off any sand on me before leaving the beach and walking back through the city streets again. This time I'm not looking for market stalls but shops, specifically plant shops. Coastal areas can have many types of useful plants that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection.

The map I bought has a few listed and I decided to visit them all. Two hours of walking later my decision turns out to be less than effective. Out of the five shops listed, three of them were just flower shops, and another sold only decorative plants. The only slightly useful shop was the last one. It mostly sold normal plants but did have one thing that I wanted, Salty Seaweed. This plant is very similar to normal Seaweed but with a few twists.

The name comes from this plant's ability to absorb a lot of salt into its own leaves and stem, this makes it hard and unpleasant for many sea creatures to try and eat the plant, giving it a good defense against being eaten.

In fact, the plant can absorb and store so much salt that it's a viable way to harvest salt, it's also used in several different popular dishes. But this also leads to it being overharvested by many, and because of that it can be hard to harvest any large amount of it at any given time.

The plant also has two other properties that interest me, it can survive in freshwater, although it does have some difficulty with that. It can form small salt crystals on its stem if it lives long enough in an environment with enough salt to absorb.

I bought a small bottle with the plant in it, it's not doing that well inside and probably wouldn't live that long if I didn't give it life magic. This plant doesn't have much use to me, but like my other plants, I can breed its abilities into something I can make use of.

I plan to just grow some seeds later and dispose of the plant afterwards. Once I'm done with plant shopping I start looking around for other things to do, and after a little searching, I find a small cafe advertising free board games to use. I have nothing better to do so I walk inside.

It's nicely decorated and filled with several ponies sitting around and playing games or talking to each other. I find an empty table and sit down, I wait for somepony to take my order, and a griffin walks over to me with a notepad not long after.

"What can I get you? And will you need chess pieces?" I'm about to answer their first question but stop as I hear the second question. :Chess pieces?: I'm confused by their question and they seemed to have noticed. They just point down at the table with a talon, and I notice that the table has a chessboard built into it.

I just chuckle to myself for a moment before answering. "A cup of green tea and some cookies, please. And yes I'd like the chess pieces." They nod and write down my order before leaving. It's a little odd seeing so many griffins around, maybe I should use my language skills a little more? Why not?

Not long after they leave the griffin returns with a small box that has all the chess pieces inside it. "Your things will be out soon." I nod my thanks and entertain myself by setting up the chessboard while I wait. I decided to use the white pieces and set the other side up with the black pieces.

After a few minutes, the griffin places my drink and a plate with cookies on the table. "Thanks." I pay them and they nod before walking off to tend to other customers. I sip my tea and enjoy a cookie while taking out my notebook to work on a few things as I wait.

Prosthetics are hard to make for several reasons. The main reason is simply the fact that there are so many different limbs that could be missing, even just griffins and ponies add so many different limbs. And you'd need a different type of Prosthetic for every type of limb in several different sizes, and that's a tall order, even with the crown's resources.

Magic could provide several ways around this problem, but I don't think I have the skills for something that advanced yet. Making a single prosthetic may be possible for me, but I don't have much of a reason to make one right now. I'll keep looking into this but probably shelve it for a later date.

I keep working through several math problems to form a few different matrix’s and spells. I eat a few cookies and finish my tea by the time somepony sits down across from me, I put away my book and look at who sat down with me.

An old griffin with a scar across the left side of their face stares back at me, I examine them a bit. They looked male but it can be a little hard to tell with Griffins, they also have a slightly intimidating presence to them. They remind me of Stone in a few ways, they sit up straight and wear an unreadable expression.

After examining them I speak up. "Black goes first." I think they seem like the type that doesn't talk much, and that guess was proven right when they moved a pawn without saying anything in response.

I ask for a refill on my tea as we play chess in silence, neither of us say a word as we play out our game. They are a good opponent but after a long drawn-out game that I barely win through a little luck on my part. I look back up to them, "Checkmate." They study the board for a few moments before looking up to meet my eyes.

"Hm, not bad." After saying that they finished the drink they got and stood up from our table before walking out of the cafe. Well that was definitely something, I double-checked my bracelet and necklace, and both are working fine. I finish my cookies and tea before paying and leaving the cafe, I walk through the streets making my way back to the inn.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading.

Also happy birthday, I have no idea if it is someone's birthday. But if it is and their reading this, then make sure to have the absolute best day.