JUN 22 Monday.

I move some things around and continue to sort through my saddlebags. It's my last day in Ponyville and I'm both happy and sad to leave.

On one hoof keeping my guard up for certain ponies all the time is tiring, but on the other hoof, I've had a really fun time. The ponies have been friendly, hanging out with my friends is a blast, and the festival was a fun event to attend. It's a very slightly bittersweet moment for me.

On a positive note, I'm currently working on a small gift for Willow, she's been amazing to us and I feel like I should give her something. So I'm making a very simple and weak spell, it will keep a teakettle and the tea inside warm for basically forever without needing anything to heat it.

My friends believe I have aspirations of creating and researching spells, they just don't know that it's far more than just aspirations. But I've been wanting to show my talent a little more so I can move more freely and not hide as much of my life from them.

I want to show that I have the ability to enchant things, but only simple enchantments. So I'll tell them I found the spell and learned it so I could enchant my teakettle. Once the simple spell is complete I gather my things and make sure the room is properly clean before leaving.

Our train back to Canterlot arrives at noon and it's already ten so it's best I get this done. I walk downstairs and see Maple and Willow sitting together and quietly talking while drinking tea, perfect. I walk over and sit with them, "Willow?" She turns to me, "Can I see your Kettle for a minute?"

She looks confused but nods and passes it over to me, it's still slightly warm and full of tea, guess I have good timing. I slowly start to draw out the correct matrix for the spell I just made and the spell used to enchant an object and bind the spell to it. I make sure to go a little slower than necessary and even double-check a piece of paper with me.

They are both silent as I work and just watch, and I take a full minute to draw everything and cast the spells. The reason I'm drawing the matrix out instead of instantly casting it is simple, I haven't kept the fact that I'm a Journeypony runic caster secret, but I've downplayed how far I've gotten with my practice.

Once the enchantment takes hold I pick up the teakettle and inspect it for a few moments. "What did you do?" Willow asks, her tone isn't angry, just curious.

I smile at her and tap my hoof on the kettle three times before passing it back over as it starts to slowly heat up. "I enjoy tea often, and a while back I got tired of having to reheat my tea so much to enjoy it. So I did some research and found an enchantment to keep the kettle warm."

She looks at the kettle and places a hoof on it before pulling it back a second later, seems it's working well. "To turn it off or on just tap it three times like I did." I see the curious look on Willow's face shift into a happy smile.

"Thank you Shade. You didn't have to do this, but it's much appreciated." Her reply may be simple but I can hear a lot of emotion behind it, I'm happy she enjoys it.

"You've been very nice and shared your home with us, it's the least I could do." I decided to also keep my reply short. After a little while both Daisy and Blaz join us at the table and we talk for a while and enjoy Willow's company, but noon grows near and we need to leave.

As we're gathered at the front door we start saying our goodbyes. "Thanks for letting us stay Willow." Daisy is the last of us to say goodbye and is by far the most reluctant to leave. I've come to see that Daisy and Willow are much closer than I expected.

Willow smiles at her and embraces her in a large hug. "It's my pleasure, remember to write and have a safe trip back." After their hug, Willow steps back and Daisy joins us, standing a few feet away.

"I promise I will." Daisy still seems reluctant to leave but she waves one last time and turns to us, "Let's get going before I cry." She says with a half-joking tone. It's a nice day outside and it doesn't take us long to arrive at the train platform, and after that it's just a little more waiting.

I play Go Fish with Maple as we wait and the time passes quickly, and we don't have to wait long before the train arrives. We all shuffle into the train and find an empty compartment, and after a little maneuvering we all have our things put away, and we're properly settled in.

It's a quiet ride but after a while I find myself getting bored, I don't feel like drawing and I can't do spell work. So after some thought an idea struck me. Me and Blaz never found any time to train with my new wings in the last few days, but right now could work.

"Hey, Blaz?" He turns to me and puts down the book he's reading. "I'm bored, want to help me learn how to move my wings? I'd prefer it if I didn't look like a foal." I ask with a smile and a small joke.

He chuckles and nods. "Sure, why not?" He then turns to Daisy who's sitting next to me, "Swap seats?" She's looked a little sad for the ride so far, she nods and a moment later Blaz is sitting next to me. "I should probably explain a few things first. Bear with me, it's been a while since I taught my son."

He starts explaining a few things to know about using my wings properly. He used his wings as a visual aid to show me what he was talking about, which helped me understand. He tells me about how to tell what feathers need to be where and how to tell if they are unaligned.

He also gives some explanation on what muscles to move and a few things to practice so I can move around properly when I'm not using the wings. His explanations are not that in-depth but do inform me about a lot of simple things I didn't know about. After a little more talking I lay down and started to draw out the spell matrix.

I take my time to make sure I don't mess anything up and after a few minutes I'm sporting my wings again. I stay in place on the floor as Blaz starts pointing at different parts of my wings and showing me how to properly move them. But Blaz proves to not be the best teacher.

Sure he can explain things well but that's different from teaching. After an hour I need to use the restroom, so I tell Blaz just that and leave our compartment. I look out the windows as I walk down the train to the restroom, It's odd to see just how far Entropy can travel.

As I walk I try to implement a few things Blaz told me about how to better control my wings. It's still not easy but I can at least somewhat keep them pinned to my back and stable. When I near the restroom I see a small sign on the door saying occupied, so I just stand nearby and wait.

The bathrooms on the train lock and aren't separated so I'm not really surprised when a pegasus mare opens the door and starts to walk out. But from the look on her face she's a little surprised to see me, she takes a few moments to look me up and down, her eyes even take a peak around the side of me at my flank. All the while I stand there a little awkwardly waiting for her to finally move.

After around ten seconds I'm about to ask her to move, but then I see a sly smile appear on her face. "Well hello, what's a handsome stallion like you doing here?." :What?: "Are you here alone?" :What?: "Maybe we can head to my compartment,

or yours, and get to know each other better." :What the fuck?:

As she says this she uses a charming and sweet tone of voice. She also shifts her hips and flicks her tail back and forth behind her a little, while also getting closer to me. As she speaks I go from confused, to really fucking confused, and by the end I'm just shocked at what I'm hearing.

For a moment I'm too shocked to answer her, but I recover quickly and take a step away from her. I have no interest or want to get involved in this so I answer bluntly and firmly, "No thank you." I keep my tone a bit firm but that doesn't seem to deter the mare.

I try to walk past her but she moves in front of me again. "Oh come on, I'll be fun, I promise." At this point she's once again closer than I'd like and I'm getting a little annoyed. And surprised at a part of my mind that wants to accept her offer, fuck I hate puberty.

I decided to be more firm with her. "Miss I have no interest in your offer, leave me be." I make sure to keep my voice firm and no-nonsense while also keeping a flat emotionless expression.

She frowns at me a little, "Fine. But when you change your mind I'll be in compartment thirty-three." She says with a sultry tone, while she walks past me, and as I watch her leave she even lifts her tail a little while looking back at me.

Once I see that I look away and quickly head inside the restroom. :What the fuck was that?: To say I'm confused is a massive fucking understatement. She came onto me way too strong, why? I know I look decent for a pony, I'm in good shape and keep myself clean.

But even then the fact she was so blunt and bold about it is just a shock. I know I look older than I am, but I'm an earth pony, we are larger by default. It's at this moment I realize the problem with that thought process, I don't look like an earth pony right now, right now I look like a taller-than-average pegasus stallion.

That might be part of the reason, but even then it's odd to hear a mare offer that to me. I spend a few minutes calming down and doing my business before drenching my face with some cold water. I'm not sure what to do honestly, I guess I'll ignore it?

In a way I'm flattered, and my hormone-stricken mind definitely liked the idea. But I'm not interested in a fling, and it's technically illegal for her to even offer what she just did. My thoughts are interrupted by somepony knocking on the restroom door.

I make sure I'm clean before heading out and I start making my way back to my friends, I probably shouldn't mention that this happened. While that mare did annoy me a little I don't think she deserves to get into trouble just because she couldn't tell how old I was.

So I just head back to our compartment and lay down on the floor again so Blaz can continue teaching me while ignoring what just happened. Thankfully the rest of the train ride goes without incident and we all arrive in Canterlot. While we walked home from the train station me and Blaz worked out a rough schedule for flight practice.

It's near the end of the day when we arrive in Canterlot, so Blaz and Maple separate from me and Daisy when we arrive at our apartment building. As me and Daisy are walking up the stairs I talk to Daisy. "Thanks again for inviting us, it was a nice break. And I even did as you asked and had some fun."

She laughs and looks over to me before nodding, "And thank you for coming. And it was a nice break, three full days without a single piece of paperwork, truly a dream come true." I chuckle at that. "Maybe we can do it again, it's always nice when I get to visit Willow."

She always has a smile when she talks about Willow and I've been curious about why, I know they are close but it's just odd for them to be this close. Even if Willow mentored Daisy, I decided to just ask. "Ya know I've been wondering, how did you meet Willow?"

I keep a casual and friendly tone, but as soon as I say that I see her face shift. I'm not sure exactly what expression she had, but I can tell she's sad. I panic a little thinking I overstepped on something, "Sorry, forget I asked."

Her expression shifts again to what I can only describe as a flat, sad smile. "No it's fine, I just don't like thinking about that time in my life." We both lapse into an awkward silence as we near our apartment doors. "I'm sorry for not answering, but I just don't want to talk about it."

I shake my head, "It's fine, we all have things like that. Have a good night Daisy. And keep your chin up, you have paperwork to look forward to tomorrow." I attempt to joke in hopes it will repair her mood a little.

I see her expression crack into a very small smile, and she quietly chuckles. "Thanks Shade, now all I'll think about tonight is paperwork." She says back with a deadpan and serious tone.

I give her the biggest smile I can. "You're welcome," I answered with a very cheery tone.

She groans slightly and laughs a little, "Good night Shade." She says with a tired tone as she enters her room and closes the door behind her. I hope she's ok, mental note, don't bring that up again. I enter my apartment and start looking around, it's good to be home.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading.

None of this chapter is serious in any way, if it seems like that it's because I'm bad at humor.