FEB 25 Wednesday.

It's been a few days since I arrived in New Trotten and been having a good time. I've spent that time eating at several restaurants and shopping, I've even found a few interesting things to keep.

A very well-made sculpture of a small island that is painted to look accurate. A wooden mug made from maple with metal rings to hold it together. Several types of seasonings that I haven't come across before. And finally, a small envelope opener that looks like a small sword, it even has a tiny sheath.

Right now I'm walking to the beach for something I found yesterday while wandering. I found a flier advertising swimming lessons, they are apparently a popular thing. That didn't make much sense to me for a while, but then I once again realized that these are ponies not humans.

Humans consider swimming to be a skill that most need to learn, but there are a few outliers to that. But overall most humans know how to swim and do so a lot throughout their life, it's not the same for ponies.

As a pony, we aren't as good at swimming as a human and from what I've seen many just never learn to swim at all. To be fair not many have a reason to learn, ponies on the coast teach their foals to swim but ponies from inland don't bother doing it that much.

This also varies depending on the subspecies, not many pegasi learn to swim as wet feathers can be less than fun. So most who learn to swim are unicorns and earth ponies. As a result of many not knowing how to swim, many choose to take lessons while visiting a coastal city, and I've decided to do the same.

The practice starts at ten am and is at a calmer part of the beach, anypony can show up and pay them ten bits to learn with everypony else. I have Entropy in my shadow and am walking to the meeting place. I look around the city as I walk.

Most of the buildings have a more open design to them than Canterlot. The buildings here are taller and further apart. This lets many pegasi and griffins fly around with more ease, and also leaves more room for balconies. All of this gives New Trotten the city a much less cramped feeling than Canterlot.

Another difference is what the buildings are made of. In Canterlot the buildings are mostly stone and wood, but here the buildings are made from brick and mortar. I near the beach and start following a path for a while before seeing a sign on a post in the sand.

It's another advertisement for swimming lessons. I walk over to a decent-sized group of ponies and wait with them until it's ten am, twenty minutes later a pony gets our attention. "Hello everypony and welcome. If you're here to learn please form a line and talk to one of the ponies that are wearing the same vest as me."

They are wearing a white and red vest that stands out, I walk over to a forming line and once again wait for a while. After I get to the front I pay them ten bits and wait until everypony else finishes. The next two hours after that are fairly boring overall and mostly consist of me slowly learning the basics of swimming as a pony.

I had to take a shower afterwards, I was a very salty pony by the time I was done. It wasn't very hard to learn to swim but I'll need more practice to let that knowledge set in. It was a little past noon by the time I was done so I started thinking about what to do next.

I think about what to do as I once again wander the city streets looking for anything that catches my interest. After some wandering I see something that wasn't marked on my map, it's a smaller street filled on both sides with market stalls and ponies walking around shopping.

I looked through my map again but couldn't find anything about this street or its market, so I decided to just take a look around the market and see what they had. And what I find is both amazing and a little worrying, this is a gray market. I'll need to give some context to explain that.

Crime is not anywhere near as common in Equestria then anywhere in my last world, but it does still exist. And by far the most common form of that small amount of crime in Equestria is gray markets. They sell a lot of things that aren't really illegal, but are also not truly legal.

A good example is herbs, some are illegal to sell, but only because they can be dangerous if used improperly. Why would the crown allow this? Well getting rid of all crime is simply not possible, and the next best thing to that is controlling that crime.

Illegal markets will never go away as long as there are things ponies can't buy in regular markets. If you tried to get rid of these markets they would just hide better and be harder to find and control. So instead the crown lets a small and controllable amount of illegal markets so it's easy to keep them under proper watch and control.

Doing this lets the crown pick off any truly dangerous crime while getting help from other criminals. Why? If you were a gray market seller, you and you aren't doing anything the crown would really care about. But if another pony in the same market starts doing really illegal things then it would be in your best interest to tip off the guard.

The end result is a self-limiting illegal market that keeps major crime to a minimum while still being something the crown can keep under control. To be blunt, this is all in a controlled mess that could properly only function under the guidance and planning of an immortal.

I double-checked my knife and put on my cloak before entering the street. There are a few things that I could find while here so as I walk I pay close attention to what others are selling. I keep to myself and don't draw attention as I shop, but I don't have to be too careful.

Places like this are normally open secrets to the local communities, I've seen at least two ponies that give me the same feeling as guards and carry themselves in the same way. I walk through the streets looking at what they have to offer, a lot of what is here are items of dubious origin.

Most of these things aren't illegal to own or sell, but that just means the sellers probably got them through less than legal means. A few things I do recognize as illegal are around, but none of them interest me. Honestly, this place is less illegal than I thought it would be.

The atmosphere is much lighter than you'd think, and a lot of ponies seem to just treat this like any other market. Around half of the griffins and ponies here don't even hide their face from view. Seeing the way this place operates I take my time looking through various stalls.

I have to fight my paranoia a little to not make me act too careful, that would just draw more attention to me. I found a stall selling herbs of various types along with different remedies. I look through the labels of a few remedies for a few moments, but wrinkle my nose and stop after I see a bottle labeled, Male Enhancement.

I just keep to the different herbs and find an interesting herb that I buy before moving on to other stalls. I stop at another stall selling enchanted objects and start looking through them. They have a few things you'd expect to see here, including one of the water flasks I invented.

It's probably here because it was stolen or some other reason. I keep looking through the objects before finding one of interest to me and buying it. I continue through the market but don't find anything else of interest to me, so after reaching the other end of the street I walk away and start heading back to the inn.

I take off my cloak in yet another restroom and let Entropy ride on me under an illusion before entering the inn. I got us some lunch before heading into my room. I found two things that have shown some interest to me. I start by taking out the herb I got and placing it on the small desk in my room.

I recognized this herb and thought I might have some use for it. Spine Leaf is a small plant with very sharp needles on the ends of its leaves. And It's not even an illegal herb, It's needles can be used as a seasoning, but not many like the taste, and because of that very few ponies sell them so it can be hard to find.

The needles are said to have a unique taste and are sometimes used as a seasoning for different dishes. I only bought a few needles but I still feel a little life magic left in them. I've never tried to grow a plant from an almost dead leaf, but it's worth a try if nothing else.

I don't have any soil or pot, so that's the first thing I need to solve. I leave Entropy in the room, I walk out of the inn with a small glass bottle I had free, and start walking down the street. There are still a few hours of daylight left so I decide to do something fun before continuing with this.

I give it some thought and start walking to the cafe I went to a few days ago. They had good tea and snacks, plus I wouldn't mind having some fun with a game or two. When I arrive and enter the building I look around and I'm slightly surprised to see someone I recognize.

The same old griffin from last time was playing a game of chess with a pony while drinking some tea. I order some tea and a pastry before sitting at the same table as the old griffin. He turns to me and gives me a small nod, which I return, before going back to his game.

The other pony playing against him is not doing very well and doesn't seem happy about it. They aren't as quiet as us and even let out a few quiet curses when they badly lose the game, they leave right after that and walk out of the cafe. I move and sit down opposite the old griffin and start setting up the game.

"White goes first." His deep and dry voice calls out white I'm moving the pieces. I nod and set up the white pieces on his side before sitting back to relax and enjoy my tea. He doesn't talk again after that and we start our game, it doesn't go as well for me this time.

While we play I take some time to get a better look at this old griffin. His feathers are a mix of coal black, and deep ash grays. His eyes are a light yellow, and his talons have a stone-gray look to them. Honestly seeing someone so darkly colored is a little odd, even most other griffins I've seen weren't this darkly colored.

Our first game ended with me losing badly due to a mistake I made at the beginning of the game. But our second game is much more evenly matched, it ends in a draw as we both only have our kings left on the board. I look up to him while finishing off my tea, "Not bad."

He looks up after I say that and locks eyes with me. His face hasn't changed this entire time, but now I see it change very slightly to what I think is a humorous expression. "Not many give me a challenge. Phelix." He holds out a talon to me.

I smile a little and shake his talon with my hoof, "Shade." He nods before standing up and walking out of the cafe. I check the time and decide to do the same as it's getting near the end of the day. While walking back to the inn I look around for any loose soil, It doesn't take me long to find a tree planted on a street corner.

I make sure nopony is looking and fill the bottle with soil before walking back to my room at the inn. I sit at the desk again and start thinking about how I want to try this, after some thought I just decide to try something. But I only have three leaves so I do need to be careful.

I start by taking one of the needles and sticking it in the soil. I focus and start dumping life magic into the needle while trying my best to force the magic to grow roots on a part of this plant not normally able to do that. It takes a full minute of focus to succeed, I watch through the glass bottle as a few small roots grow downwards.

Next, I cut off the needle and grow the plant from its new roots. I watch as a new plant is grown from the roots and steadily takes form. Once it's big enough I use more magic to grow some seeds and harvest them before testing if they are viable.

I take out the first plant but keep it intact before planting a seed and giving it life magic. It grows in short order and I decompose both plants to make room for more tests. I take the second needle and cut it in half before trying to grow it the same way I did before.

The first time it took two, maybe three times the magic it took to fully grow the plant from a seed. I repeat the process and roughly compare them. The second test with half a needle took five to six times more magic than using a seed, to make the same fully grown plant.

I cut the last needle and only used one-fifth of the needle, like the others, this one also becomes a fully grown plant, but it took much more magic than the others. It seems that I can grow a full plant from any plant matter as long as that matter is still alive, but it also takes increasing amounts of magic depending on how small of a sample I'm working with.

I bought this plant for two reasons. First, I'm curious about how it tastes and I always like new seasoning. Second, the plant's needles are very sharp and fairly sturdy for their small size, I see some potential in selectively breeding these needles for other uses.

I open my notebook and settle it to start writing down Ideas while studying the plant in front of me.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading my mind slop.

Mind slop? God WTF is my brain?