Twilight's Blog

Chapters

II February
III March
IV April
V May
VI June
VII July
VIII August
IX September
X October
XI November
XII December
XIII January
XIV February
XVI April
XVII May
XVIII June
XIX July
XX August
XXI September
XXII October
XXIII November
XXIV December
XXV January
XXVI February
XXVII March
XXVIII April
XXIX May
I January
XV March
XXX June

II February

Friendship

Feb 1: It's funny that although I'm the Princess of Friendship, I'd say that Applejack and Pinkie Pie are much quicker to make friends than I am, at least most of the time. Sure, I'm slower to make judgements about ponies, but they're quicker to befriend ponies that they've judged in a positive light.

There's magic in friendship and that's what I've been studying ever since I moved to Ponyville. The magic of Friendship is my greatest strength and it has come to define me. Thus, I'm not the best at friendship, and yet I'm the Princess of Friendship. Maybe I could get rebranded... as the princess of studying. Or the princess of books. As long as I get to keep my friends.

Early tomorrow morning I am going to catch the train to Canterlot for on an overnight trip with Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike. Rarity needs to replenish her supplies and we're there to help carry and to have fun!

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Feb 2: (no post, overnight stay in Canterlot)

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Royal Lipizzaner Ballet

Feb 3: I'm back from Canterlot where I had a great time shopping for cloth, thread and wool with Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike. It felt good to prance through the cobbled streets again, sample the old specialty treats and share in the delights with friends with an eye for design. On our way back from acquiring the very best that Canterlot had to offer on Silk Row, we dropped into Hoity Toity's Best of the Best Boutique where some of Rarity's dresses are on display. I'd say that her dresses are a cut above the other garments picked out by Hoity Toity. Rarity was particularly excited about a dress that sparkled with tiny flowers picked out in gemstones. Fluttershy noted that legwarmers were making a comeback. I sure hope not.

Soon after, while walking down the Esplanade, we bumped into Fancy Pants. Not literally bumped into him, but it was a close call, Spike had trouble seeing where he was going under all those boxes and bags. Fancy Pants is fun to talk to, and as he had a few minutes, we stopped at a café for café au lait and éclairs to chat.

We sat at a table outside in the sunlight, conversation wafting lazily over steaming cups of coffee brewed to perfection. Spike sitting on our mound of parcels and stuffing himself on éclairs. In passing, Fancy Pants mentioned Rarity's friend, Rainbow Dash, the Trainer of the Wonderbolts. I tried not to choke with laughter on my café au lait while Rarity carefully steered the conversation away to less perilous grounds. Fluttershy was blushing like a beet. Spike looked puzzled for a moment but he caught on. I think his huge grin cancelled out any points his silence may have won him in Rarity's esteem.

Before leaving us, Fancy Pants invited us to the Royal Lipizzaner Ballet, to four seats in his box that evening. We accepted and it was wonderful! Muscular stallions stomping, spinning and doing caprioles! What's not to love!

We retired to our rooms at Canterlot Castle late that night, visions of Lipizzaners dancing in our heads. Except maybe Spike. He fell asleep at some point in the third act. I lifted him gently off my back and tucked him into his cot, still fast asleep.

It was fun, but now it feels good to be back home, to my own bed and to my books.

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Tree Library Picture

Feb 4th: I'm getting better at getting my graphical display grid spell to get a clear connection via the castle wall to this Earth journal. I have a nice fall picture of the Golden Oak Library that Pinkie found somewhere, I'll try and send that now. It would make a pretty "icon" for my journal. I need an icon, right? All the cool fillies have one. First, for a warm-up, I'll send it full size to the print archive, like I did with Spike's picture.

........

Visual data transferred and encoded, check! It worked! Better than last time, I think. At least it felt like the spell was smoother.

"Large thumbnail" copied and pasted, check! Pressing "save"!

........

Check, check! ...Come to think of it, that must be a really large thumb, to be that much bigger than the text. Earth people must have incredible eyesight to read text that small. Oh, I know! They must hold their fingers in front of their eyes while they read. That would make a thumbnail appear huge. Cultural relativity! Thumb size is relative to where you hold it, culturally! (That was supposed to be funny but I think it fell flat.)

Next, "save" again, then transfer spell again, this time to "Upload a userpic"! I can do this!

This was a bit trickier that I thought. Let's see if that worked.

........

Yes!

I'd better get a move on. Pinkie Pie and Applejack have been hard at work putting together the Ponyville Mid-Winter Fun Feast. Rarity and Fluttershy are helping with the decorations and I'm going to trot on down to see how I can help.

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Mid Winter Party

Feb 4: While the four of us were in Canterlot the day before yesterday, Applejack and Pinkie were hard at work putting together a Mid-Way Through Winter party. Our hay stores are robust, as reported at the Hay Board meeting a few days ago, and the carrots and corn stores are well stocked as well. The last apple crop was a bit lean due to the jump in the vampire fruit bat population last year. I should ask Fluttershy if she found out the whys and wherefores of the bat population boom from the Biodiversity and Ecology board.

So we have food and time on our hooves, it's a good time to throw a party. Fluttershy helped Rarity hang banners and streamers, Applejack saw to it that the tables and bins were supplied with food, punch and treats, Pinkie helped the DJ set up and sound-check her sound system, I double checked to make sure everypony had all the supplies they needed and all the invoices were in order, and Rainbow Dash flew around town distributing flyers and pulling a banner inviting all the townsponies.

By two in the afternoon ponies were lined up at the door to the Town Hall and we were ready.

First event, Rainbow Dash and a few of her fellow Wonderbolt reservists wowed us with a show. With practiced, precision flying, they performed aerial stunts, skywriting and cloud sculpting. Great teamwork! Then Mayor Mare made a (mercifully short) speech and we threw open the doors to the Town Hall. There was food, music, dancing, games, confetti and streamers everywhere. Everything a pony could want for a good party. Pinkie stuck a crown on my head and had me waving from the balcony. I'm going to get Pinkie for that! I should have a new copy of that book on practical jokes in my library. But on the other hoof, I'd better not start a gag war that I'm sure to lose. I'll just glower at her for a bit.

The party still going strong, but I'm all partied out. And stuffed too. I don't think I'll need to eat for a week. Now I'm going to enjoy a bit of light reading before turning in.

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What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me

Feb 5: A cutie mark is a pair of images that appear on the hindquarters of a pony, situated between the point of the hip and the dock, on the skin and hair above the gluteus superficialis muscle. There is one on each side and a cutie mark on one side is the mirror image of the cutie mark on the other side.

These marks are a manifestation of a pony's special talent or affinity. Just like a unicorn has a horn, a pegasus has wings and an earth pony has neither, a cutie mark dictates to some extent what you are going to do in your life. How much a cutie mark shapes your life depends a lot on how powerful you are at what you do.

A unicorn need not excel at magic, a pegasus need not fly and an earth pony need not be outstanding at agriculture and strength. There are many tasks a pony can adapt to, neigh, has to adapt to and master, despite not being born with specialist affinities for that task. Naturally, the same holds true for cutie marks. A pony whose special talent is being grumpy or popping balloons is going to have to develop other talents to get by.

There is a caveat -- the more powerful the magic in a pony, the stronger the bond between their special talents, as described by their cutie mark, and their identity. I learned this the hard way when I cast Star Swirl the Bearded's unfinished spell in the presence of the Elements of Harmony.

The Magic of Friendship has transformed me and my friends. With every lesson we've learned about friendship, with every battle we have won, with every adventure, sorrow, laugh, hope, fear... we have shared, we've grown more powerful. Each and every one of us. Dash flies faster, I teleport further, Applejack is a rock of dependability, Fluttershy tamed Discord (!), Pinkie and Rarity keep making each of their projects better and more refined every time. And that magic feeds back into their special talents to the point that if somehow you remove that special talent and replace it, it's like you've yanked out and transplanted their raison d'être, their reason for existence. And with them it's not a small raison d'être that can be ignored as they get on with their lives, but a huge, central to their existence raison d'être, a primal urge that resonates with them, body and mind.

When I accidentally switched their cutie marks, I replaced one motivator with an equally powerful motivator. My friends got saddled with powerful talents that their minds and bodies couldn't mesh with. I suppose it would be like feeling like a flying ace pegasus without wings. Good thing everything snapped back into place with a judicious combination of the Elements and going through the motions of what my friends are talented at. And then I got vaporized. And winged.

My wings were not something I'd been born with. They were not part of me as I grew in power through Friendship. So my wings were not well meshed with my mind and body, but unlike my friends'... experience with swapped cutie marks, since my wings were somewhat underpowered relative to their appearance, they were catching up to me instead of the other way around. Good thing too. Those things are huge. And they keep getting in the way. Well, less now. Hmph.

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Librarian Spiders

Feb 6: After nearly a month of playing with this journal in another universe, I think I can say with some certainty that there are no spiders maintaining this "web". I'm halfway between relieved and disappointed. Relieved that should this window to the "web" become a door (it won't, that's not how this spell works) no spiders will come through. Disappointed because really, librarian spiders? That would be really really neat!

Well, if Fluttershy decides to hook up to an E-journal here with me, I won't be asking if she's met a spider yet. I mean an E-spider, not the local ones that catch flies and offer you flowers. I told her a bit about inter-universe journaling over hot cacao at her house the other day. I emphasized that it's a safe way to go exploring, like having quill-pals you'll never meet and who write footnotes in your journal. If they find your journal. And if you let them. I told her she can be both adventurous and be brave at home! Fluttershy didn't look too convinced.

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Crystal Ponies

Feb 7: I met a few Crystal Empire ponies in town today. They were in town to deliver an order of naturally pastel hued lambs' felt to Rarity. They were taking advantage of the trip to do some sight-seeing, taking in the local flavor and shopping at the bazaar. They were hard to miss, I could see them sparkling in the crowd a field away.

In a way, Crystal Ponies are living relics from the distant past. It says something about pony society that even after being outside of the passage of time for a thousand years (and thus in a state of complete suspended entropy ... that was one impressive spell cast by Sombra!) the crystal ponies still fit in quite well, once they had broken Sombra's hold and shaken off the emotional scars of years of harsh slavery.

The Equestria Games helped a lot in that regard I'm sure, even if my friends and I had to play the role of guides to sway the opinion of Ms. Harshwhinny to make it happen. But in the Crystal Empire, the crops must grow, the seasons must be changed, and good will to others must be maintained, as it has been as far back as anyone can remember. This takes ponies. In the frozen north, it's the Crystal Ponies that are the best suited for the task.

And the books donated to me by their library are still pertinent to my studies, a thousand years later!

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Horseshoe Fries and Hay Burgers

Feb 8: I felt like eating horseshoe fries and hay burgers today so I headed over to the Hay Burger, where Pinkie works. She was on her lunch break (an hour after the noon day rush) and we ate together.

Now that the mid-winter food fest is over, she's working on her set design ideas for the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant. The old stage is in need of extensive repairs and the mayor would like to have it renovated or replaced. The set is in a similar state. Pinkie is redesigning much of it and she asked Rarity to redesign the wardrobe. Applejack is on board for the construction job.

Hearth's Warming Day happens three weeks before Winter Wrap Up. It's a way to bring ponies out of their homes and to come together during the coldest part of the winter. It's also a reminder that spring is on its way.

Pinkie and Rarity have been working together so that the sets and the costumes complement each other, all the while respecting the time period and the light but serious nature of this morality play. Pinkie is very excited but planning out all the tasks is starting to get complicated. That's now my job. We have two and a half weeks, we'll make it.

I asked for news of Maud's rocktoral studies. We ended up chatting about rock farming in winter. Rocks never sleep, so the Pies sweep away the snow to keep up production. Pinkie was over to visit the farm a few weeks ago. They spent the evening in warm and fuzzy silence by the fire, watching the hearth stones glow and feeling the pulse of the bedrock through the ground.

Lunch break over, Pinkie broke off and quick as a flash, she was back to serving. I returned home to my studies.

I sure like horseshoe fries and hay burgers, but I don't think they like me. I'll go make a mint tea to calm my stomach.

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Hearth's Warming Stagecraft

Feb 9: Today I met with the mayor to talk about Pinkie's Hearth's Warming stage, set and wardrobe renovation. She agreed I could have the job of organizing the ponies and keeping everything on time and within the budget. I've already begun to schedule meetings for the entire crew. I've put Fluttershy and Dash in charge of making sure Pinkie's new set elements respect the logistics and ergonomics of moving them quickly and safely during the show. Our first meeting is tomorrow. I can't wait!

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Hearth's Warming Stagecraft Meeting

Feb 10: We had our first technical crew meeting this morning for the Hearth's Warming production. It went well. Present were Rarity and Pinkie Pie (direction and design team), Applejack (construction), Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash (quality control, lighting and ergonomics) and Toe-Tapper and Torch Song of the Pony Tones. Toe-Tapper and Torch Song are the stage managers and they are in charge of the actors. I was there too.

We met on the second floor of the Town Hall, in a room just off from one of the balconies. It has a low table, blackboards and cushions to rest on and it is ours to use as our headquarters.

Pinkie arrived with a mock-up of the stage that she had built as well as concept art for the scenery. Rarity brought a portfolio of costume designs she had made and she explained how they complemented and fit in with Pinkie's vision in both color and style.

Applejack's crew has almost finished tearing down the old venue and she's about ready to build. Using Pinkie's mock up, Applejack immediately started to sketch out blueprints for the new stage and to calculate the supplies she'd need.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy copied down Pinkie's concept art and took notes on the mobile elements and the systems of pulleys, rails and lights they would require. After we had concluded our meeting, they met with the running crew to work out the practicalities of making Pinkie's concept a reality.

The stage managers are tasked with meeting with the actors this evening, getting them up to speed with the new scenery and scheduling them to meet Rarity to get fitted for the new wardrobe.

Tomorrow morning I should have lists of all the materials needed by the three production teams and the estimated cost. With that I can formulate a budget and get it approved by the mayor.

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Hearth's Warming Budget Approved

Feb 11: I presented the numbers to Mayor Mare around mid-morning today and the budget for the Hearth's Warming stage, costumes and props renovation has been approved. We'll be recycling a lot of the old props, of course, but some items will be refurbished to fit in with the design team's vision. I gave the good news to Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack and they sent out their orders right away. They're all old hands at this and they'll get good prices.

Rarity has started to measure the first actors and Applejack's crew are making frames and spreading the canvasses so Pinkie can paint her scenes.

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Framing the Stage

Feb 12: The local supplies for the Hearth's Warming play project have been acquired and are already getting put to use. Applejack is building the framework for stage, following the shape of the old structure with a few improvements to aid cast and crew movements behind the scene. It will be in interconnected modular parts for easy break up and storage. Rarity has measured all the actors and Pinkie will start painting her scenes tomorrow. Thirteen days to go.

The snowflakes this morning were really big and fluffy stellar dendrites, with a few flat and reflective stellar dendrites mixed in. Very neat!

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Hearth's Warming Weather

Feb 13: It was sunny but really cold today and the wind made it a biting cold. It was really starting to nip at my hocks on my trot down to the Town Hall to see how Applejack's crew was getting along. Toe-Tapper and Torch Song were upstairs going over the props and making sure we had enough make-up. It's going well.

Even bundled up in my red and gold horse blanket I was cold cantering back home. Ponies have started to put up festive garlands, candy canes and decorated trees but I didn't stop to admire them. I could practically feel Windigos blowing down my neck. Well not really. It takes a lot of hard feelings and bickering to summon Windigos.

So much of Equestria's ecology is chained to the combined mood and will of all ponies and so much can go so very wrong. That's why we have the Hearth's Warming holiday, to bring cheer to ponies when winter would have us stable ourselves away. Ponies change the seasons but ponies can also bring the Windigos. We can be our own worst enemies sometimes.

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Piaffle

Feb 14: After checking in on the stage construction today, I dropped by Rarity's Boutique. Inside was a flurry of activity. There was cloth flying everywhere, scissors snipping off pieces, ribbons and buttons scurrying about like live things, pins chasing down hems, and in the eye of this storm, Rarity. She was in perfect focus, "in the zone" as she likes to say. It was beautiful to see.

After supper this evening I challenged Spike to a game of Piaffle. Piaffle is a word game where you select seven letters at random and you use those letters, plus a letter on the board to spell out the longest word you can. It is a really fun game! For extra excitement we play the Olden Pony Runes version. I have a copy of Samule Lawnson's Whinnypiafficon of the Equestrian Language, the first lexicon to be organized by letter, not subject. It was commissioned by Princess Celestia centuries ago as a means to standardize spelling. It was a revolutionary idea! It must have been so exciting, fitting ancient runes to sounds in a logical, organized way! Olden Pony Runes eventually went the way of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Inking notes in griffin-style scratches, called griffonage, is much faster than stamping out runes.

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Just Horsing Around

Feb 15: Some days you just don't feel like writing anything at all.

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Chocolate Peppermint Tea

Feb 16: Today the wind died down a bit and it wasn't quite so cold so I paid Zecora a visit. I meant to only take a quick trip, but the sun peeked out through the Everfree gloom and the walk improved my mood. There were interesting tracks in the snow on the way, it looked like a manticore had felt like waltzing. Or chasing its tail. That must have been a sight to see. I wonder if Fluttershy would be up for manticore watching... in the Everfree. Maybe that's not a good idea.

Zecora is an expert with herbs and she makes one of my favorite teas. It's a soothing, hot and spicy drink that tastes like chocolate and peppermint, perfect for those long cold winter nights of studying. I was all out and I could really do with some this week. I only meant to be a few minutes, but we got to chatting and I learned a new breathing exercise to help calm my nerves. It was late afternoon before I was trotting back home, centered, focused and with a fresh pack of chocolate peppermint tea packed in my bag.

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To the Spa

Feb 17: I joined Fluttershy and Rarity at the spa today. For Rarity and Fluttershy this is a regular event. I just felt the need for some soothing mud, a hoof trim and a long hot soak.

Rarity has been hard at work. She's pinned all the patterns, recalled the entire cast one by one to make adjustments to the fitting, and now she's sewing it all together. Zecora teaches me breathing exercises and Rarity teaches pacing. Taking break at spa does a lot to refresh a pony.

That sauna was so hot I feel like I'm going to radiate heat and sunshine for a week.

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Cruel Sparkly Windigos

Feb 18: Rarity has finished the costumes! That mare is efficient. Pinkie Pie's Hearth's Warming Eve concept calls for flying Windigos above the stage, and not on poles carried by cloaked stagehoof ponies. Pinkie's Windigos will be suspended, giving the actors a lot more room on stage. These puppets have to be airy and light and so Rarity is again putting her couture skills to the task.

Pinkie's plan is for three gossamer Windigos to circle menacingly above the actors, going lower and faster as the players bicker and fight. Following Pinkie's rough concept art, Rarity is putting together ghostly white horse shapes that are both glittery and cruel. Rainbow Dash has designed airfoils and ballast to get the Windigos to float through the air on an even keel. What Pinkie lacks in carpentry and structural design she makes up for in building contraptions of strings, gears and pulleys. Pinkie built a pedal powered crank up on a catwalk to spin a hoop from which the Windigos will dangle on strings. Gears and pulleys make the big hoop go round and another fly pony is in charge of raising and lowering it into view.

The running crew is mostly satisfied with the layout of the catwalks, projectors, changing room, storage spaces and the access corridors below and behind the stage. Toe-Tapper and Torch Song are handling the acoustics. The stage shape amplifies the sound and the pleated curtains lining the walls of the Hall dampen the echoes and crowd noises.

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First Dress Rehearsal on the New Stage

Feb 19: Less than one week to go before Pinkie Pie's Hearth Warming Eve production goes live! She's nervicited, which isn't really a word, more of a pinkicism. Pinkicism isn't a word either, but it should be.

The stage structure is finished. Pinkie is hard at work repainting the old hanging elements as well as the new ones being built by the construction crew. The crew is now focused on the details, like hanging the projectors and pulleys, building mobile platforms and staircases, installing rails for the sliding panels, and stringing up the hoop for the windigos that Rarity is sewing. There is a bit of a delay, Rarity ran out of white sequins, but they should arrive tomorrow.

Now that most of the paint has dried, Toe-Tapper and Torch Song have called in the mane cast for a dress rehearsal tonight.

Everything is still on time and on budget!

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Jack Foallack Style

Feb 20: Pinkie is busy painting all the scenes and panels for the Hearth's Warming Eve play. She paints fast but there is a downside. This afternoon she was looking like she had dumped all her buckets of paint on the stage and then rolled in it. Pinkie hadn't noticed until Applejack pointed out that she was starting to leave paint splatters everywhere. Rainbow Dash suggested she could go on display at the Manehattan Museum of Modern Art as a living Jack Foallack painting. Pinkie thought that was hilarious and rolled on the ground laughing. Leaving a pony-sized Jack Foallack print on the floor. Rarity was appalled. It took an hour to wash all that paint out of her hair. Now Pinkie paints in a full body cloak that Rarity made for her.

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Party Cannons

Feb 21:

Pinkie Pie gave me this snapshot of me that she'd taken in the "Red Room". Amazingly, there are no paint splatters on it. The illumination/image transfer spell is still a bear, I hope the granular matrix is well regimented and not too runny or merged.

The sliding panels Pinkie was working on are nearly all painted. Most will hang from the catwalks mid-stage, changing the look of the scene and giving it an illusion of greater depth. Pinkie has also set up a pair of "party cannons" behind the scene. They're there to fire confetti and streamers at the very end of the play to punctuate the celebration of harmony between the three pony races. She would have liked to fire cupcakes into the crowd but that was beyond our budget. And Applejack pointed out that getting a cupcake in the eye might put a damper on the fire of friendship for most ponies.

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Hearth's Warming Choral Instruction

Feb 22: Three days to go before this Hearth's Warming play goes live! Toe-Tapper and Torch Song had another dress rehearsal scheduled for this evening. This one included the bit players and was followed by choral instruction. The full cast will sing the Heart Carol together at the end and their voices have to be clear, harmonious, synchronized and the sound has to carry. Every pony in the entire Hall will join in (it's pony tradition), following the lead of the ponies on stage. It's the peak of every Hearth's Warming Eve. With the entire Hall singing on beat you can feel the power of the herd vibrate to your very core. It's a magical moment.

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Dry Tech Rehearsal

Feb 23: The scenery elements are all ready and the paint is dry. Most of the day was dedicated to a dry tech rehearsal in which set pieces were moved on and off scene and the costumes and scenery were evaluated in a costume parade under the lights and filters. The fly ponies tested the cables and Pinkie's Windigo spinner and I had a close look at Rarity's Windigos. They're gigantic figures of gossamer, sequins, lace and felted wool and when they're pulled they look like they're really flying.

Toe-Tapper and Torch Song are satisfied with the acoustics and they're having another choral practice this evening.

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Full Dress Rehearsal

Feb 24: This evening we had a full dress rehearsal. All the roles are being played by Ponyville ponies, as usual, and Mayor Mare is the narrator. Most of them have done this before and all of them have watched the play every year since they were fillies. Every pony knows the Hearth's Warming play by heart, all the more motivation to get every line perfectly! They did not disappoint. Everything is ready, on schedule and within the budget. Tomorrow is Hearth's Warming Eve.

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Hearth's Warming Eve

Feb 25: Today is Hearth's Warming Eve!

It is now the depth of winter, almost three whole weeks before Winter Wrap Up. This is a time when the bounty of our autumn stores are thinning out, cabin fever is setting in and the deep cold reminds us of the time when Windigos nearly froze pony society. It is time to relive the Hearth's Warming, and tomorrow, all across Equestria, ponies will be doing exactly that.

To light that spark in pony hearts, we have the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant. It brings everypony into one room, like the cave that sheltered the three pony races who founded Equestria. Together we relearn the lesson of harmony. Together we relearn the importance of friendship and cooperation. And together we share the Hearth's Warming tale, we laugh at our mistakes and we raise our voices as one and we sing.

The fire of Friendship lives in our hearts
As long as it burns we cannot drift apart
Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few
Laughter and singing will see us through (Will see us through)
We are a circle of pony friends
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end!

I'd best trot off to Town Hall to oversee the final preparations, it's showtime in just a few hours.

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Hearth's Warming Eve Venue Renovation, Check

Feb 25 (Evening:): The pageant was a success! Pinkie's set design was dazzling, Rarity's hoofwork sparkled and the actors were inspired! The poise and clarity as they delivered their lines, larger than life, giants on stage... it was like we were there, a thousand years ago, reliving a time before Equestria.

The Windigos were terrifying, Chancelor Puddinghead was hilarious, and the division between the tribes was heart wrenching. It was an emotional seesaw ride to end all emotional seesaw rides. We sang! We in the audience and the cast and crew were one being. The thunderous pounding of our hooves made the actors bounce on stage as they took their bows.

I was so drained. Rarity's mascara traced grey rivers down her white cheeks but she did not care. The audience burst out the doors, like the Hall was just too small to hold the joy that they felt. We joined the cast and crew party upstairs. Everypony was so excited, talking all at once, I couldn't make out what anypony was saying but it didn't matter, I could read the joy in everypony's eyes. And Pinkie was just walking on air.

I am still drained. I am going now to sleep the sleep of foals, washed clean of all my cares.

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Hearth's Warming Day

Feb 26: It's Hearth's Warming Day, a day for traveling house to house, singing on doorsteps, sometimes in costume, and getting invited inside for snacks and stories. Each household prepares a small story of something fun or happy that happened to them in the last year and the stories get collected and printed the next day in a special holiday edition of the Ponyville Express.

I left Spike in charge of the TreeCastle to go caroling with Rainbow Dash, Scootlaloo, Fluttershy, Rarity and Sweetie Belle. Spike is great at whipping up snacks and he loves to talk, so he got a lot of attention. Applejack and Pinkie, along with Granny Smith, Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom, were also out caroling for most of the afternoon and we met up with them a few times, but we didn't combine groups. Some ponies are nervous, and we would have been a herd of eleven. That's a lot of neighbors all at once in a small house.

We managed the carols quite well, with Rarity, Fluttershy and Big McIntosh doing harmonies, Sweetie Belle singing enthusiastically on key, Scootaloo singing enthusiastically off key, and the rest of us somewhere in between. To feel comfortable, Fluttershy wore a deep cape with the hood all the way up and she kept to the back.

Houses with only one pony often had a "gone caroling" sign on their door as they can't be both places at once. Or if they're shy. Like Fluttershy, shy ponies may prefer to blend in with their friends and family going door to door, especially if everpony is going in costume.

We visited quite a few houses over the course of the afternoon. Sweetie Belle liked caroling so much we didn't always stop inside for sharing stories. That suited Fluttershy, she didn't have to take off her cape. Our last stop was Sweet Apple Acres and after a hot cup of apple cinnamon tea I headed back home.

Night was falling and groups of carolers were knocking on doors and laughing in the streets. Spike was waiting for me, grinning ear to ear. Now that I think of it, leaving him alone to weave funny stories for the guests may not have been a great idea. I have a feeling that what I'll find printed tomorrow in the Ponyville Express may have been embellished.

I hear more carolers singing at the door! I'd better trot on down there and lend a hoof and an ear.

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A Visitor Comes Knocking

Feb 27: I've received my first comments in this journal, a Hearth's Warming Day visitor from another universe. In the conversation, they asked me about how much I know of this E-universe. Well, not much. There are so many differences in how Equestria and Earth work that there is little that is practical in Earth science for me. The flood of information is a little overwhelming as well. Seven and a half billion of you in a wild system with no magic and no controls. From my small window on the Earth, the view is quite alien.

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Tree of Harmony and Kindness

Feb 28: I'm working on the hypothesis that the action of the Elements of Harmony was an extension of the 'spark' that activated them. In the case of The Six, the spark is Friendship and the action was to reverse the madness of Nightmare Moon and make her friendly. The same applies to Sunset Shimmer. Discord is a harder nut to crack and it took two more blows from the Elements to soften him up enough for Fluttershy to tame him, perhaps because he is only part pony. With Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the spark probably has to do with devotion and duty. Thus, with them, the action was harsher.

Now that the Elements have been returned to the Tree, how they act would be a reflection of the nature of the Tree. The actions of Tree and the Elements have, as far as I know, always been a function of merit as well as bond and need. They didn't work with Spike standing in for Rainbow Dash and the sixth Element only appeared when I had both earned it and needed it.

After I had returned the Elements to the Tree, the Tree anticipated our need for magic of the highest order but still made us work for it. We had to reassert our core identities and our common bond, working together to literally unlock the power lent to us by the Tree.

So the Tree honors valor and unity and granted us the ability to re-establish order in Equestria our way. But had the Tree imposed order, it might have been different.

The Tree built the TreeCastle. It's about as close to a pony-designed residence as a pony-built birdhouse is to a woodpecker hole in a tree. It has to say something about the builder and I think it says that if the Tree re-established Harmony in Equestria, Pony society would wind up about as regimented and structured as the rows of corn in Applejack's fields. A place for everypony and every pony in their place.

On the other hoof, if the Everfree is what I think it is, and if Equestria is the Tree's garden, I think the Tree likes to give its garden a lot of free rein.

The Tree is Fluttershy.

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Author's Note

I think that if images are being represented by an error message stating: "Upstream responses of unknown length not supported", the error is a function of traffic on the site. If there is a lot of traffic, resources will not be allocated to displaying images. Maybe. Or FiMFiction doesn't like my img scr.

III March

Dazed and Confused

March 1: If I was to somehow cross over into your universe without getting scrambled, I'd probably be very disoriented at first. I'm adapted to living in Equestria, where travel between two points rarely takes the same path, but my perception of distance, taking advantage of the two dimensions of time, gives me a steady illusion of reality. Crossing over from my rocking ship to your immutable steady-state would probably put me halfway between blind and seasick. I'd get over that, but every time I'd take a step it would be a shock. I would not be able to find the most convenient path and with every step the world would wobble and spin. It would take considerable effort to move toward an objective.

I have found it very unpleasant to watch moving pictures from Earth. Translating that many regimented and sequential matrices of tiny dots into the Equestrian non-Euclydean equivalent was exhausting, and watching it was like getting spun in a cloud so hard that you can't figure out which way is up. I don't even remember what it was I tried to watch. I won't be doing that again. Text is easy and it translates well; it's abstract.

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Going to Make You Sweat

March 2: I had a strange dream last night. The Royal Lipizzaner Ballet was performing in the study right below my bedroom loft in the Golden Oak Library. I don't remember the music, but they kept leaping higher and higher, hovering and sweating at eye level from my bed. They were so muscular with their flared nostrils and glistening arched necks, and they smelled wonderful! Then something happened and I was arguing with Spike about whether pearls are gem stones or just really smooth calcareous rocks.

Silly distracting dream. I'm going to go see if Spike wants to come join us at the spa today.

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Tending the Bridge of Friendship

March 3: Dear Earth Journal,

Since I started writing here I've learned that, despite the interlinked mega-colony aspect of this giant book of all the things, making quill friends isn't easy. At least not as easy as it was to make my Ponyville Friends on that Summer Sun Celebration's Eve right before Nightmare Moon's return. Part of that is probably because I'm not Applejack or Pinkie Pie. I'm slow on the 'How-do-you-do's and 'getting to know you's. There are books to read! Things to learn! Puzzles to puzzle over! So many distractions.

When I first came to Ponyville, it was at Princess Celestia's behest. My task was to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration and to "make some friends". I met my friends while doing my Canterlot duty, but I didn't make my friends. They made me.

I've learned that friendship is a delicate thing. It's a bridge that needs attention and care. I must learn to do that in this, my bridge from my universe to yours.

Your quill pal,
Princess Twilight Sparkle

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Stabling

March 4: It was a nice day to stay indoors, grey and windy, even if it wasn't as cold as it has been. I have my hay and my books and all the worlds within the pages. I don't care if I ever go out again. I shall be queen of the cushions, my blanket is my sky. My home is the printed page.

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Picnic in the Snow

March 5: My friends came over and pulled me out of my book fort. The sun is shining! So we went for a picnic.

We chose a sunny spot just outside of town and sheltered from the wind. As I helped Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity to spread out a big blanket, Dash and Applejack built fortifications a little further away and launched a snowball fight. We sat down to watch Applejack and Rainbow Dash pummel each other with snowballs. Spike investigated the contents of our picnic baskets and distributed the turnip sticks that Fluttershy had prepared. So we settled in, calling out encouragement and strategy while snacking on turnip sticks. The battle ended in a draw and a cease fire.

Rarity negotiated the peace treaty and reparations were paid in firewood (Rainbow Dash) and starting a campfire (Applejack). To ensure the peace held, we observers melted down the ammunition in a pot over the campfire. Spike stirred in dried sugar beet pulp from Dash's saddle bag and made a hot soup. It was delicious and went so well with the dried daisies on alfalfa crackers that Applejack had prepared. For dessert Pinkie produced a big bowl of rock sugar bits.

After lunch we lounged in the sun on the picnic blanket and sipped chocolate peppermint tea. Rainbow Dash got antsy and she challenged Applejack to a game of horseshoes.

Most of Fluttershy's wards are hibernating or have migrated. She has Angel and a few mice to keep her company but not enough food to keep all the critters active all winter. She's looking forward to spring. Only two more weeks until Winter Wrap Up! She told us that Land Management has approved recruitment in the bunny population to five live births to compensate for projected loses due to spring thaw mishaps and other mortality factors. The approved recruitment is lower than in previous years due to a projected lower carrying capacity of actual rabbit habitat. Discord's vines and the perpetual near-twilight while the Princesses had been abducted put a real dent into the primary productivity last growing season. There are still no limits on Jackalope breeding. It's just so hard to juggle the antler casting, to get them into season and then to time the delayed implantation just right, even for Fluttershy.

Eventually Applejack and Dash had enough of horseshoes (and digging around in the snow to find the throws that missed). It was a tie. They rejoined us, tramping snow all over the blanket. To Rarity's relief, the conversation soon segued to supply, finance, advertising, commerce and the whims of pony fashion and showhorseship.

Time raced on, the sun got low, and even wedged between Fluttershy and Rarity I could feel the creep of the cold.

We shook the snow off Rarity's picnic blanket, gathered up the dishes Spike hadn't already put away, and headed home. Time flies fast when you're with your best friends.

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The Matrimares (action thriller book)

March 6: This book was a slow poison. It looked really good from the first line on the inside of the cover -- a young mare with a Hades-may-care attitude gets recruited by a smartly trimmed older mare into a secret world of espionage and daring rescues! So I got comfortable and began to read it.

The action starts right away. Four Matrimare chargers burst into a mule fortress and corner the boss mule. The boss mule triggers a rock slide to get away but gets crushed under a boulder along with one of the chargers. The chapter ends with the elder of the three Matrimare chargers giving a medallion to the family of their fallen comrade, a medal with an inscription. The sire is bereft with grief and will have nothing to do with the medallion; so the fallen spy's foal, Aggy, gets the medallion instead.

Next chapter, Aggy is all grown up and her sire is a lout. She still has that medallion and wears it all the time. She hangs out in a rough neighborhood, gets in trouble with Princess Celestia's guard and ends up about to be tossed into the dungeon. She reads out the inscription on the medallion, finds herself released from custody, no questions asked. Soon after she's enrolled in a series of tests to become a Matrimare.

This book has Rubecka A. Hinnylane flaws written all over it. (Hinnylane wrote Luna is a Harsh Mistress, Strange Mare in a Strange Land, and my old favorite, The Star Beast. Hinnylane's stallion characters, while showing some muster and smarts, are nearly all written as playthings and lesser herdmates for the mares. Hinnylane was from another time and oh how times have changed.)

The elite group of seven vying with the young mare (Aggy) to join the Matrimare herd includes both mares and stallions. The stallions are sympathetic characters and side with the small Aggy when the other mares give her a hard time. That's not too surprising as mares do tend to jostle for dominance in a new herd. So far so good.

The first test has the candidate's cottage dropped into a river in the middle of the night. Aggy breaks a window and all escape except one stallion who drowns. This is a rough course. I wonder how nopony got cut escaping through the broken window.

Meanwhile a charismatic mare named Reneigh Veilteller is giving away fabulous scarves to everypony in Equestria, for free. The scarves are booby-trapped with a want-it-need-it spell that she can trigger simultaneously all across Equestria by using the Alicorn Amulet and drinking an activating potion. She wants to destroy pony civilization and rebuild a pluralistic multi-species society on its ashes.

The story swirls towards the drain as Aggy's favorite stallion keeps needing guidance to get over his greatest weakness -- a fear of falling. This is not noticeably Hinnylane-esque at first, but it starts to get annoying through repetition. Aggy fails the final test, but gets recruited to save the day anyway when her mentor is killed by Reneigh and she discovers that the matriarch of the Matrimares is under Reneigh's control.

In Reneigh's fortress, Aggy meets an imprisoned prince who had refused to join Reneigh, but on the outside chance of getting freed, immediately offers to scandalously debase himself for Aggy's favor. That was shocking.

Aggy defeats Reneigh's stallion henchpony, breaks the amulet (I'm still not sure how) and takes up the prince on his offer to be her plaything. She returns home a new charger, all the mare of the world, to free her sire from the criminal mares that were pushing him around.

Bad book. Do not read.

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The Round Bark Tree Time of the Foals

March 7: Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were over this afternoon for tutoring again. This "Twilight Time" I thought I'd start with teaching them focus using Zecora's breathing exercises. I got the idea in my head that I'd demonstrate breath release by humming. That had mixed results.

Sweetie Belle turned it into music. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were bored. We moved on.

Scootaloo brought a bag of odds and ends which she dumped out on the floor and began trying to fit together. I asked her what she was trying to repair. She wasn't fixing anything, she was "building a contraption". What kind of contraption? Scootaloo: "I don't know yet."

I was distracted by Sweetie Belle up-ending Apple Bloom's saddlebags and dumping all the glassware out. I barely caught it in time, some of those vials smelled really vile. While I tried to again teach Sweetie Belle to focus, only to get rewarded with chromatic scale humming and not much telekinetic control, Apple Bloom stuffed an acorn into a pot and set up a series of glass tubes, burners, flasks and condensers.

Scootaloo's contraption was beginning to look like abstract art, like one of Alexander Coltdeer's Stabeels, with spiral horn amplifiers sticking out of two hoops. "Neat huh? Granny Smith gave me some of her ear horns! She has a whole closet full of them! The loopdehoops were Apple Bloom's idea!" Scootaloo opened up another small bag and dumped several dozen metal wafers out on the floor and began screwing those to random spots on her contraption.

Several of Apple Bloom's flasks were bubbling merrily, I caught a vial Sweetie Belle had sent hurtling just before it would have smashed against the wall. I convinced her to carefully lift six of Scootaloo's extra metal wafers at once. Scootaloo's hooped construction was now as tall as she was. She was fitting rings containing little metal balls to the pivot points.

Sweetie Belle squinted in concentration and I could see the six wafers starting to vibrate. I told her to focus on her breathing. Scootaloo gave her abstract hooped thing a satisfied swat and it started to spin. Apple Bloom's condenser was dripping on the acorn. I forgot to ask her what compounds she had combined, at that moment Sweetie Belle's six wafers rose off the floor and she started to hum. And everything happened at once.

The acorn sprouted. The wafers on Scootaloo's device started to glow and hum in tune with Sweetie Belle. It spun faster. Sweetie Belle was focused on her six wafers, coaxing them to fly in a figure "8". Apple Bloom's acorn was now a tiny tree, but it wasn't growing straight. The tiny trunk had divided itself into six branches, and the branches were weaving through each other and leaving a big space in the middle, like they were cradling an invisible orb. Sweetie paused for breath, Scootaloo's gyrating hoops slowed down, the tiny tree branched out sideways. Sweetie dropped the wafers and beamed. "How was that?" she squeaked. The tree unfurled tiny leaves on six horizontal branches and stopped. Scootaloo's contraption wobbled to a stop.

All three looked at the tree, then Scootaloo's round metal thing then at Sweetie Belle's wafers. Did you get one? Did you get one? Did you get one? They looked at their flanks. Still blank. Oh well.

That was enough for today. The three dismantled the apparatuses, picked up their things and ran off show the tree to Fluttershy. It could make a nice bird house. Or mouse house.

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Potluck Supper

March 8: We're having a potluck supper at Sweet Apple Acres tonight. Well, I expect Pinkie to have dessert covered, so I decided to go with a Canterlot dish -- Buckwheat and alfalfa sprout pancake rolls with hot and sour orange sauce. To make sure I didn't ruin the cooking, I read out the recipe and Spike did the cooking. He's an ace in the kitchen. He made me repeat that four times, the attention sponge. And I nixed the tourmaline sprinkles, except for his plate.

Time to trot! It's all cooked and packed and we're heading out the door. Potluck suppers are fun!

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Buckwheat and Alfalfa Sprout Pancake Rolls With Hot and Sour Orange Sauce (serves seven to ten):

Prepare Alfalfa Sprout Pancake Rolls.
Prepare Hot and Sour Orange Sauce.

Serve cool.

Served cool on a plate with a splash or artful dribble of spicy orange sauce, these delightful soft aromatic rolls with their watery, delicately crisp interiors are sure to please your dinner guests.

Buckwheat Pancakes (makes eight to ten pancakes):

Ingredients.

3 tea cups of wheat flour, finely milled.
3 tea cups of buckwheat flour.
2 heaping tea spoons of baking powder
3 soup spoons of sugar
1 tea spoon of salt
1 egg
3 soup spoons of melted butter
7 tea cups of milk

Put the butter into a frying pan and start heating it. This will melt the butter and also coat the frying pan and prepare it for cooking the pancakes.
Sift all the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, sugar and salt) into a large bowl and stir.
In another bowl, beat the egg lightly, throw away the egg shell (or feed it to Spike!), then stir in the melted butter. Next, stir in the milk.
Pour the liquid mixture into dry mixture and stir. Stop when the mix is runny and lumpy throughout. Have more milk on the ready if this batter is not runny enough.
When the pan is just sizzling hot, pour in one ladle of pancake batter and wait for bubbles to appear and start to burst. Use a spatula to flip the pancakes, even if you are an ace chef (that one on the ceiling is yours, Spike).
When done, the pancake should be a mottled golden brown on both sides. Adjust the temperature of the frying pan to cook fast without burning the pancakes.
For pancake rolls, you can get a thinner pancake by adding more milk to the batter. This also makes two to three more pancakes.

Alfalfa Sprout Pancake Rolls

Ingredients.

10 hoof and a half sized warm thin pancakes
5 tea cups of fresh washed alfalfa sprouts
10 toothpicks

Prepare: Pancakes. (May be substituted: other pancakes, such as Buckwheat, Jennycakes and Oatmeal.)
While the pancakes are warm and flexible, on each pancake add a half tea cup of alfalfa sprouts, roll the pancake into a tight cylinder with the alfalfa on the inside, and secure the roll by piercing it through and through with a toothpick.
Serve with: Hot and Sour Orange sauce, Peanut sauce, Peppermint sauce or Flambé.

Hot and Sour Orange Sauce

Ingredients.

1 tea cup water
1 tea spoon sugar
2 soup spoons fine ground orange peel
1 half tea spoon salt
1 half tea cup lemon juice
1 tea spoon hot sauce
1 soup spoon cilantro
1 tea spoon arrowroot powder

In a small pot, combine the water with the sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Heat to a low simmer, then add the orange peel and salt, stirring to dissolve the salt.
Simmer and stir 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, add lemon juice, hot sauce and stir while cooling until warm to the touch.
Stir in the cilantro and arrowroot while warm and serve at room temperature.

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Just Desserts

March 9: There's always too much to eat at a pot luck supper. Last night, I was afraid that my ten small alfalfa sprout buckwheat pancake rolls wouldn't be enough, but of course when you add five more small courses to the meal, everypony ends up fit to burst.

Pinkie had us fooled. She did bring the dessert, but it looked like beet sticks and hay burgers! Rainbow Dash nearly choked laughing. They were small cakes and cherry ice cream. The winter weather kept it from melting on the way to Applejack's place. It was delicious.

Over dinner we got to speaking about restaurants and dessert. Pinkie told us that everypony likes dessert but it doesn't help the restaurant, especially not busy restaurants. Desserts often require a specialty pastry chef, thus more cooks to pay and less kitchen space for preparing the mane meals. That increases the cost overhead for a restaurant.

There is only so much a pony is willing to pay for dessert, so a plate of cake is never going to be priced as much as a plate of greens and hay. That means less profit for the restaurant. Dessert keeps ponies at a table longer, increasing time spent by customer at a table by 50% or more. That slows down turnover which cuts into the profits of busy restaurants.

The problem is that everypony likes dessert and if a restaurant doesn't serve dessert, they'll go eat somewhere else. So restaurants have to have desserts on the menu to keep ponies happy, even though they'd wish you'd skip dessert and didn't linger.

Now drinks, that's where the money is. Fancy teas, cider, fruit juices, these go with the mane course, increasing how much a pony spends without increasing how long they occupy a table.

And Sugarcube corner? It only serves dessert and tea. It makes money because most of the customers don't eat their cakes at Sugarcube, they take them home. So the Cakes have more customers and fewer tables to serve.

As for catering, that's a whole different horse race.

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Tea With Rarity

March 10: After meeting up with Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie at the spa, Rarity invited us over for tea. Fluttershy had a pet-grooming appointment and Pinkie had Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake to go sit, so it was just me and Rarity in her Boutique.

Rarity prepared a pot of jasmine tea, put on Beethooven's Pasture Symphony and we chatted about the tapestries and library in the Carerfilly Castle ruins. We really should fix the damage. The rift between the royal sisters is no more and the gaping wounds in that old structure should be repaired as well.

I couldn't stay long and I left Rarity's boutique shortly after drinking my tea. Tomorrow I have to go on royal business to Canterlot and I will be gone all day. I'm all freshly groomed thanks to the spa ponies, but I have some chapters I need to read and a checklist to make before bed. A chariot will arrive to pick me up right at dawn.

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March 11: (Busy all day in Canterlot.)

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Royal Duty

March 12: With the crown comes the duty. I got up early yesterday morning, did everything on my checklist (it's so satisfying to tick off those little boxes) and stepped out my door just as the twilight met the dawn. The chariot that Princess Celestia had sent to collect me was ready and waiting. I got in and gave the two white royal guard pegasi the go ahead. As the sun climbed, pink, orange and yellow into the sky, so did we, flying fast and true to the mountain city of Canterlot.

It was a cold trip through the crisp winter air and hunkered down in the chariot, I was glad for my scarf and my red cowled horse blanket. We set down at the entrance of the castle where a livery pony took my garments and led me to the hall where I had breakfast with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They filled me in on protocol and what to expect. Breakfast over, we went to the Grand Hall where the mayors and officials from across Equestria were assembled.

This was the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs where a representative of each municipality reported on their affairs and economic contribution Equestrian society. They all addressed us, but apart from Princess Luna's speech from the throne, we did not speak. Chairpony Flax Bit and the Royal Committee on Equestrian Finance and Civic Affairs received the speakers one by one, asked all the questions and noted all the grievances. We just made the whole proceedings official. It was a long day.

I could have kicked for a book to read. Trying hard not to fidget. Some of those ponies just seemed to drone on and on. Princess Celestia must have been meditating, I don't know how she managed to look so serene through the whole proceedings. Lunch break was a relief, and then it was back to the thrones on the high platform and trying to look regal. I bet Princess Cadence was happy for me to be sitting in for her.

Mid afternoon Mayor Mare gave her report, projecting an increase in crop production to make up for last year's shortfall. Each municipality also submitted a written report. I could have just read those in half the time.

Early supper break, and back to the assembly. Only a few more towns to go.

The last municipality gave their report and we retired while the committee deliberated and the princesses set the sun and raised the moon. Then we sat down one last time for the committee's closing remarks and to sign and seal the register.

Luna's personal guard and chariot were waiting for me in the castle courtyard. Luna's moon was rising large and luminous among the dazzling stars. I could hear the chatter of ponies and the sound of a string quartet in the garden. I drew my cloak about me, straightened my crown and stepped into the chariot. The two black pegasi spread their wings and whisked me off through the brisk night air. Home, to the quiet and comfort, to my books. Away from the turbulent crowds.

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Pony Spatial Cognition in Relation to Displacement of Objects in the Equestrian Environment

March 13: Ponies choose appropriate routes in the Equestrian environments to optimize their own displacements, but they also use this predictive ability to move objects, from thrown apples to rain showers.

Ponies have a feel for taking a route that gets them to their destination despite living in a landscape where the shortest distance between two points is rarely a straight line. As I explained before, the slightest shake changes how long a train trip lasts and just hoofing it can get you there faster.

Ponies start to develop these skills from the day that they're born, developing a cognitive map of their immediate surroundings and recognizing landmarks. They inventory objects, remember outcomes and sense the passage of time. The critical part of the brain responsible for navigation is the hippocampus, a pair of 'c' shaped structures in the temporal lobes. As young ponies grow, they choose preferred paths to navigate a wiggly environment where distance is a function of approach. Of course, each pony makes slightly different choices when building a cognitive map of their Equestria, but the outcome is generally the same.

The hippocampus is where memory, time sense and the cognitive map of a pony's private Equestria resides, but it's in the prefrontal cortex part of the brain where a pony makes sense of it all and acts accordingly. The prefrontal cortex also connects to a unicorn's horn. By capitalizing on the wiggle of Equestrian topography and the fact that nothing is ever perfectly still, a unicorn moves objects. What moves and how subtly is a function of the mental origami performed in the unicorn mind. Timing, movement and form. Grab, throw, grab, throw, pull through and there you go, tying that winter scarf, just like your mother taught you. That's magic.

A unicorn may be adept at guiding an object through space, but all ponies get a sense of where objects that they've let go will land. Earth ponies and pegasi use position and timing to ensure objects to which they've imparted kinetic energy and momentum land where they want them to. Rain clouds generally stay where weather ponies put them, but it takes extra skill to get the rain to fall where you want it to. Just like it takes skill to get apples to fall from the trees and into your baskets, and not land three fields over.

Pinkie takes navigation in a non-Euclydean landscape to the next level. She not only predicts the best path for her movements and for things she's moved, she feels out the possible paths of objects around her that could intersect with her projected positions.

Like traveling from point A to B, it's largely subconscious. Pinkie has connected her enhanced map to her motor cortex and translated her feelings of dread into coded body spasms to better know what it is she's expecting and act accordingly. She calls this her Pinkie Sense.

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All Team Organizer Coat

March 14: Only five more days until Winter Wrap Up! I went with Spike to drop off my all-team-organizer coat at Rarity's place so she could adjust it for my wings and my bigger body1. There were a few other ponies already there with their Winter Wrap Up jackets and about a dozen in a pile by Rarity's sewing machine. Oops. I could have not waited to the last moment, but what if I grew some more and had to get my coat adjusted twice?

I got my turn with Rarity and she'll be letting a bit out at the seams. She's not worried about getting all the jackets repaired and altered in time, as long as not too many more ponies show up at the last minute. Maybe I should include that in my Winter Wrap Up itinerary next year. A pre-Winter Wrap Up check list of supplies and a jacket maintenance schedule, alphabetically by name.

I'd better get Spike and go talk to the team leaders about supplies now, and start that check list. Or rather, tomorrow, when the sun's up.

1 My growth has not been smooth but has followed the growth in power and connection between my friends and to our identities. Magical power is something a pony grows into as they tame it and make it theirs. As I tame alicorn magic, build the connections, the neural pathways that make that power mine, I grow larger and stronger. There is much to learn.

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Winter Pet Date

March 15: Winter Wrap Up is only four days away now. The weather ponies must be scraping out the bottom of their snow flake bins. There's fresh snow on the ground today, but it's all bits and pieces. I guess I won't see the sparkle of fresh snowflakes until next year.

I dropped in on Amethyst Star, Team Leader for the Animal Team. Her supplies are gathered and ready to go. She knows who to assign to what and where, we just have to plan out the timing a bit and it will be perfect.

Next I took Owlowiscious to our pet date, and Spike and my checklist too. While Winona chased snowballs and Angel dug tunnels in the snowbanks, I consulted Rainbow Dash and Applejack, the Team Leaders for the Weather and Plant Teams.

The carts, shovels, plows and bells are dusted, tuned, repaired and ready (check!). Seeds are properly identified and ready to plant, sticks, ribbons and straw all set to go (check check!). Ponyville ponies are old pros at WWU.

The plows, nest making and planting material and half the carts are to be stored at Applejack's, the rest of the material at the morning rendezvous location, Town Hall. Sounds good to me. I'll double check the inventory1 with the team leaders on site the day before Winter Wrap Up, to be sure. Maybe we should number the shovels. And put the seeds in alphabetical order; and sort the straw and sticks by size!

Annnd, maybe not. A good friend knows when not to go overboard. I rolled up the checklist and Spike took a nap.

Owlowiscious had a great time hooting directions to Winona who was trying to find the snowballs she hadn't caught. Most of the time, all I could see of Angel was his ears poking out of a burrow. Opal watched from her pet carrier. She had declined to step out into the cold, wet snow. Tank and Gummy were absent. Tank was hibernating and Gummy was feeling sluggish, basking by the oven at Sugarcube Corner. Snow's not his thing either.

It was a grey day and we didn't stay long. I woke Spike, called Owlowiscious and we all went home.

1 With some things, like ice skates, ponies provide their own. But it's risky to wait until Winter Wrap Up Day to find out if all the kinds of seeds we need are where we thought they had been stored.

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Game Night

March 16: We got together for an impromptu supper and game night in our Friendship Treecastle. Spike and I threw together a big mixed hay salad and some hot sugar beet pulp soup, a big bowl of alfalfa cubes, a smaller bowl of peppermint sticks and sugar cubes, and a whole lot of mint tea, just in time for our friends to arrive.

I had the food and dishes displayed on one table and the games on another. We were going to have fun, fun, fun! By the book! I had Bookchase, Ring Fling, Bundle of Sticks, Tangle, Piaffle, Rope Rings and lots of quills, ink and scrolls for score keeping and for more games like Tic Tac Toe and Bulls and Cows.

The long smooth surface of the mane hallway is perfect for Ring Fling, and after wiping the tracked snow off the hard rock floor, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already at it, with Spike waiting to challenge the winner. In Ring Fling, the object is to make flat wooden rings slide and stop as close as possible to a target 10 pony lengths away. Applejack had suggested horseshoes, but sand and dings from flying shoes in the hall, not a good idea. The wooden rings are propelled with a hoof-tip in the ring and a swing of the leg. A felt cushion makes them slide easily and they give a satisfying tok! sound when they knock other rings off the target. Rarity bought this set last time we were in Canterlot with just this in mind.

Everypony helped themselves to the food and we got down to gaming. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and I settled on the Bundle of Sticks1 game which we set up on a low table to one side. I'm useless at these skill games but Rarity and Fluttershy were really good at pulling out the colored sticks without letting the structure collapse. Mouths only, no wings or horns allowed! It was tough holding my head sideways to try and reach the white sticks without brushing against them with my mane.

Later Rarity and Spike were battling it out at the Ring Fling, I was dueling with Applejack over Bulls and Cows and the others had started a game of Rope Rings, with a bird bath as the target.

Everypony has gone home now but we had lots of fun. Game night was a success!

1 Bundle of Sticks -- shake 100 (elbow) length sticks into one ring of yarn and get the structure to stand on the table, carefully remove the sticks one by one so the sticks remain standing, each pony removes a stick until it collapses, ending the game. (or for points: yellow / gold-1, blue / sapphire-2, green / emerald-3, red / ruby-4, white / diamond-5 points)

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The Wild Woods

March 17: Warmer air from longer days is making fog rise off the snow in and around Ponyville. It's very pretty, but ponies do like to see into the distance, just in case something nasty might be creeping up on them. So the streets of Ponyville were mostly empty. Rainbow Dash will be out clearing the fog soon.

The Everfree Forest has a mind of its own and was mostly fog-free. Sure, there are many dangerous creatures there and the gloom and untamed plant growth makes me feel trapped, but I wanted to visit Zecora, and between the fog and the Everfree, the Everfree Forest was almost more inviting.

Spring isn't for another three days in snowbound Ponyville, but in the Everfree, a lot of the snow is gone and there are spring flowers! I saw snowdrops, coltsfoot, skunk cabbage and crocuses pushing up from the ground, the skunk cabbage was even melting the snow! Weird, wonderful, worrying... I hurried on.

Zecora welcomed me inside and over tea we chatted about spring, the Equestrian Municipal Affairs reports, magic and the magical resonance that occurred last "Twilight Time". Zecora thinks I should see if the foals can repeat the tree canister feat. A hollow tree can make a nice house, fit for a pony if coaxed to grow larger than that for a mouse.

If we try that, we'll do it outside in the spring. I don't need a full sized tree in my hall. Especially not if it catches fire or explodes.

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All Set For Winter Wrap Up

March 18: Today I went with the three Team Leaders to double check the inventory for tomorrow's Winter Wrap Up. Everything is present and accounted for at Sweet Apple Acres and at Town Hall. I got my All-Team-Organizer vest back from Rarity, all nicely adjusted again. Quills, ink, checklists! And Spike, of course. Ready to give 110%, which doesn't make sense, unless he's counting assistance from Owlowiscious.

Time for one last evening stroll in the snow.

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Winter Wrap Up: Up Before the Dawn

March 19: Winter Wrap Up starts at first light! It's still dark out. I can't wait! Got my All-Team-Organizer vest on and a projected optimal work flow that should respect the deadlines of all three teams. Should I go wake Spike already? We could get a front row view of Mayor Mare's speech!

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Winter All Wrapped Up

March 20: Spike dragged his feet a bit yesterday morning so we weren't in the front row for Mayor Mare's speech, but close enough. She got us all raring to go, then the Team Leaders got to work splitting up their crews according the Winter Wrap Up itinerary that I'd made.

The first priority is clearing the snow off houses, trees and the higher elevations to avoid flooding the animal burrows. That required all of the weather crew, except for two flight crews who were pointed south to fetch the birds, and half the Animal Team.

The other half of the Animal Team got to the task of with stringing up the bells while Rarity started building nests.

The plant crew delivered Rarity's supplies and got down to clearing, plowing and planting the fields in a regimented formation. Snow plows are not as bereft of magic as they may first appear. The motor pushing a snow plow is an earth pony, and earth pony power and skill is magic. That's how they clear the snow so well. Yoke a manticore to the driver's bar and the best it would be able to do is push the snow. A manticore-powered winter wrap up would take weeks.

Once the higher snow had been cleared, the Animal Team reformed, picked up their animal care material and went to wake up the sleeping critters and help Rarity make and install nests. As the critters awoke to baskets of food, the weather team donned skates and went to score the ice by crisscrossing the lakes and ponds.

Fluttershy and her animal waking crew reported success. All the critters were awake, fed and their homes dusted clean. I tried to break up some clouds. It's harder than it looks.

Finally Rainbow Dash's Weather Team formed a controlled tornado and swept the skies clear, and what was left of the snow with it. The afternoon sun beamed down, breaking the ice and the free members of the Weather and Animal Teams joined the Plant Team in finishing up the planting and watering of the fields. The southern flocks arrived this morning to green fields and open water.

Applejack's Plant Team ponies are looking a lot perkier now that they have fresh dirt clinging to their hooves. I feel more awake now than I have in the past month. There must be something in the soil.

The sky is clear, the birds are singing and the air smells like spring. Winter wrapped up on time in Ponyville, check!

Spring is here.

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Pinkie's Spring has Sprung Party

March 21: It's the first full day of spring, so naturally, Pinkie, Ponyville's permanent party pony, threw a party for the whole town.

There were banners, balloons and streamers and cake, pinatas and games like kick the can and pin the tail on the pony, and Pinkie's special punch. Which hopefully was not Gummy's favorite.

The Ponytones sang, the foals ran a six-legged race, many mares were sporting lovely spring hats and everypony had confetti and streamers on their coats and in their manes.

Spring flowers are coming up everywhere and the southern birds were singing their hearts out. The smell of warm earth and fresh growth was in the air. The spring sun in the blue sky felt wonderful on my face and I spread my wings to cradle that warmth.

Evening came and as night fell my friends and I gathered close to watch Pinkie's fireworks burst like giant flowers in the sky. It was magical.

And as another sure sign of spring, I've also started to shed.

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Ocean of Storms, Sea of Serenity

March 22: As much as we ponies put on airs and congratulate ourselves for keeping Equestria habitable and pleasant, we are animals and living things, just as much as any other animal or living thing in Equestria. As such, we make mistakes based on looking out for ourselves first and foremost. We plant our crops to suit us. We coddle the animals that appeal to us. We claim land and resources for ourselves. Like every other plant and animal, we push all obstacles out of our way to claim what we want. We are just better at that than just about any other species in Equestria.

I am not perfect. Sometimes I crave attention. Sometimes I want to run and hide. Am I worthy? Did I brag too much? Why does this bother me? I have books, shelter and food, I should be content. What is this urge to go out and talk to ponies? I am a pony, ponies are herd animals. I am an animal and my nature betrays me. My herd, my nature, my books.

We have made Equestria our pasture and we have to tend it carefully. If we fail, there will be no more ponies. This realm will go on without us, something may even survive and flourish. It would be sad for ponies, but indifferent for what was once Equestria. The rocks bear the scars of all that passes but the rocks know not what they remember. Time moves on.

I must live in the moment. I must not overreach. My closest friends are my herd. My creature comforts are the silences that bookend the turning of a page.

My thoughts are my own.

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Spring Molt

March 23: Spring molt is definitely underway. I dropped a few primaries this morning, a secondary is loose and my wings are looking ratty. Every time I get up, my reading cushion has a lilac coating of hair.

Spike is grumbling about hair clogging the drains. On the bright side, I now have new quills that match my coat!

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Whicker Quasiprobable Topography

March 24: On further thought, for non-natives, moving about in Equestria wouldn't be quite as wobbly as I'd first imagined it. I had thought that should a human appear in Equestria, they would find that moving would be like walking on violently shaking jelly. The thing is, most of the paths between points in Equestria are roughly the same distance, so it wouldn't be quite that bad.

The overall effect of the non-Euclydean geometry is to give objects a quasiprobable location and thus a fuzzy appearance to unadjusted eyes. The outlier paths between points are what you could consider the equivalent of quantum tunneling and they're easy enough to find and exploit.

So sure, careless walking will cause you to suddenly bang into objects that had appeared to be far away, but if you keep perfectly still, your surroundings will look a lot sharper! Maybe your best bet would be to sit in a cart and let a pony do the walking. Of course, there's the risk that every jostle of the moving cart could cause you to accidentally drag it every which way, and the hapless pony pulling you, along with it. Well, how about a full-body cast hooked to balloons? That might work!

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I Shed She Shed

March 25: I dropped four more secondary feathers and two new primaries are growing in. The blood feathers are very sensitive and distracting.

We got together for brunch in the 'throne room' and we're all molting like crazy. There was hair in the tea, hair in the salad (fresh dandelion greens!), hair on the frosting on the cupcakes... White hair, yellow hair, lilac hair, blue hair, orange hair, pink hair... Hair everywhere. I heard Spike mutter something about stuffing a mattress with it.

Rarity says that March is the cruelest month. She's threatening to "give this whole ghastly affair the heave-ho" and have the spa ponies shave and wax her entire body! Pinkie was laughing so hard she turned blue. While leaving a fuzzy pink halo on the floor.

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Focus

March 26: I counted two more primaries dropped and I have two secondaries growing in fast. It's not just my flight feathers, some of my contour feathers are dropping too.

When will this end? I feel disorganized and distracted. I need blinkers so I can focus. My winter coat slowly drifts to the floor.

I can feel little lilac hair-bunny eyes watching me from crawl spaces under the furniture. Every passing breeze sends them scurrying about. They grow larger.

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Out For a Brush of Fresh Hair

March 27: I had to get out into the fresh spring air and find a sunny spot to read, away from the musty smell of dust bunnies grown fat on my shed coat.

Many ponies were out too, and it lifted my spirits to note that everypony's coats were just as ratty as mine.

Quills and Sofas in town is having an inventory clearance sale on quills. With feathers raining down from the sky, I can see why. I circled back and headed to the eastern meadow.

I had brought a couple of brushes with me. I chose a dry, sandy bit of ground and before settling down to read, I brushed out all the loose hair I could and set it free.

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Heart Felt Figures

March 28: I had tea with Rarity and Fluttershy this afternoon in the Carousel Boutique's sitting room.

With the worst of the spring molt in full swing, Rarity has taken to wearing a shawl, hat and sunglasses, even indoors, to keep the molt from getting everywhere.

On a little end table by our cushions was Rarity's latest triumph. Ever inventive, she has been making little dolls out of her shed hair, the fine insulating hair lends itself well to needle felting. They have bead and sequin eyes and she's even tied mane strands together and sewn them in to give her pony dolls proper tails and coiffures.

They were so adorable that we got out the brushes and harvested fresh yellow and lilac hair to provide Rarity with more raw material. We went outside to do that, to avoid coating everything in the Carousel Boutique with hair. We also shook out a bunch of contour feathers and once back inside with our spoils, snipped a few judicious clips from our manes as well.

Of the finished dolls, I brought home one that I thought looked the most like Rarity to give to Spike. He found a place for it on a shelf with his comic book collection. I think I'll ask Rarity if she could make a Spike-shaped felt "figure" to go with it.

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

March 29: Half my feathers have been replaced now. I gave myself another good brushing and my coat is starting to look a lot less ratty. Another week of this and I'll look spring fresh. Ha!

Meanwhile Rarity has been busy. She's brushed and trimmed Applejack and Pinkie Pie and made a few dolls that look just like them. She has them posed in a cabinet in her room. Rainbow Dash was a bit trickier and Rarity had to let her brush herself and snip her own hair. Rarity can be persistent and she usually gets what she sets out to get.

I asked Rarity if she could make a felted doll that looks like Spike. Rarity looked appraisingly at my fur for a moment, and got to harvesting more lilac colored shed off me as it about matches Spike's lilac scales. My molt is winding down so it took a while, but eventually she gathered enough fine hair with which she could needle felt a small figure. As for the green scales, she will probably dye some white felt green and work it in. Spike is going to be pleased.

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Green Felt and Long Black Beads

March 30: Rarity came over and gave Spike the felt doll she'd made to look like him. She had dyed some white felt made from her own fine winter fur to make the green scales and crest, and she used long black beads for the pupils in the doll's green sequin eyes. Spike held it preciously then rushed off to place it on his shelf, right next to his Rarity figure. I find it funny that with all his grumbling about hair all over everything, he's over the moon with this gift made from hair. What's worse, made for the most part with my hair.

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Spring Fresh

March 31st: The Spa ponies have had the worst of the spring molt. They've had a surge of customers come in, ponies looking to at least look and feel fresh for a short while, even if their coats aren't quite there yet. For Aloe and Lotus, getting the hair out of the mud bath is a lost cause, and keeping up with the filter in the hot tub is a constant struggle. Each customer is subject to a full brush down on admission, before they get even close to benefiting from any of the spa's other services. Everypony still sheds anyway.

We are no exceptions. We succeeded in reserving six places at the Spa this morning for an hour for the six of us. Rainbow Dash skipped the seaweed wrap and the hooficure but joined us in the sauna and the hot tub. They are still using Zecora's herbs and salts in the water. I feel so sleek! My coat is starting to get a summer shine and my new flight feathers look pretty good too.

As we left, Aloe tucked a red trillium into our manes and we stepped out into the bright sunshine, in high spirits and feeling as good as we smelled. We descended on a café, pulled two tables together and chatted about this that and the other thing over lunch and several pots of tea.

I finally feel as fresh as the spring.

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Author's Note

There have been two views total so far since I submitted the first chapter last week... Was that me checking the text for BBS errors? ... Annnd we're live! Only one week in the queue. Just felt like for-evvverrrr. 8^D

Cook up a batch of those Buckwheat and Alfalfa Sprout Pancake Rolls With Hot and Sour Orange Sauce! For science!

IV April

But Then I was Part of His Dream Too

April 1: It was another glorious spring day today. I went back to my sandy knoll, stretched out and reread much of Harness in Wanderland by Levade Corral.

It got me thinking about the strange mirror-verse that Sunset Shimmer is exploring, and how she might be affecting it. And the possibilities! Why are the Sirens still young?

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Frozen in Time

April 2: I've been trying to puzzle out the nature of the Canterlot High world where Sunset Shimmer is staying. With the emergence of the Sirens there, I'm thinking that this Canterlot High universe was created by Star Swirl the Bearded.

Instead of building a bridge to an existing Alt-universe, I think he accidentally created a new, flawed Alt-Equestria. It is populated by beings that mirror the hearts and minds of existing Equestria residents, but they manifest as totally alien, flat-faced, bi-pedal and multiple-fingered furless beings.

Since there is no magic there, he used it to gently dispose of problem creatures, namely, a trio of Sirens bent on enslaving all of Equestria. Thing is, this Alt-Equestria is sustained by the Equestria it mirrors. At a certain age, the hearts and minds of new residents of Equestria in close proximity of Star Swirl's mirror is detected by Star Swirl's spell, which then causes a Canterlot High version of them to pop into existence.

I suspect that they spend their lives as teenagers enrolled in endless classes from which they never graduate. Really old ponies switch to a profession. And, as their Equestria counterparts die, they vanish.

The three Sirens are probably the only three that got dumped into Star Swirl's oubliette. Since they had no magical bridge of their own back to Equestria, they were caught in the static time loop of Star Swirl's closed universe.

In a closed universe, time does not just move forward, it moves in reverse as well. The context and ponies reflected from Equestria would change but no one notices, not even the three sirens. In this world all is illusion and memory is a flash in the pan that keeps getting rewritten1. It is so like the passage in Alice in Wanderland, where she meets the Red Queen, variable time running but remaining in a static frame.

The Sirens were imported by Star Swirl the Bearded and their magic was imported along with them via the gemstone each wears as a choker. This is quite similar to Sunset Shimmer importing magic via the Element of Magic crown. It still looks like magic is alien to the Canterlot High world but that magical artifacts remain magical when imported and that they leave a magical impression on Canterlot High beings they have affected. The Sirens may still be dangerous.

So, how does this mirrorverse work? Why haven't the Sirens experienced over a thousand years of exile there? Since this universe was created by Star Swirl, it isn't expanding and driving time forward via increasing entropy. Time there usually swings back and forth. But then came Sunset Shimmer and her book2. By keeping an open link to Equestria, it is causing the passage of time in the mirrorverse to match that of Equestria and thereby driving it out of its static frame. The question is, did Star Swirl set a time limit, say six years to match the high school model? Will this Alt-Equestria and all the entities living there implode into nothing? I think it may be time to try and convince Sunset Shimmer to come home.

It's the ultimate oubliette. It may well be a nearly inescapable oubliette. Without a tether like Sunset Shimmer's book-link to Princess Celestia, not much time passes before time reverses. The gateway opens every thirty moons in Equestria. At the Canterlot High end, prior to Sunset Shimmer, time may well have been restricted to less than 30 moons. The gate would open, but the pattern would depend on how time passes in Canterlot High.

If time lasted only a day, then it would seem that the gateway was open every day... or never. A pony trapped at Canterlot High wouldn't remember the days the gateway was closed. A short passage of time also reduces the amount of time a trapped pony can search for the gateway, assuming they didn't note where they came in. Or that the gateway at the Canterlot High end doesn't move!

Worse yet, if a pony came through the gateway with the plan to stay longer than the time span of the Canterlot High Universe, they might never leave because they'd never reach that goal! But now, thanks to Sunset Shimmer's tether to Equestria, time is moving as it would in an open universe (or a very big closed one).

I wonder, are there now trapped ponies rapping on the gateway back to Equestria every once in a while? I half expect Star Swirl the Bearded to walk out of that mirror one of these days.

1 As time swings back, all the memories, growth and connections that were formed during the forward swing are undone. It is a perfect amnesia. It is also, in a sense, a suspended animation that lasts until the pony or Siren returns to Equestria, or until this Canterlot High world collapses into nothing.

2 Sunset Shimmer's book is the one allows her to instantly send written notes to another book with which it is linked, without the benefit of dragonfire. I received the linked book along with a pile of other books given to me to furnish my castle library.

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Hidden in Plain Sight

April 3: I am still pondering the dynamics of the Canterlot High world.

With time swinging back and forth, a pony without a tether would not know that they are reliving the same situation over and over again, the only changes being the changes mirrored from Equestria.

But unless that short swing in time is just a short while in the night, it still doesn't explain how there haven't been visitors from Canterlot High. The gateway I traveled through is in plain sight in a busy area. I think there would be a high probability that some-body would accidentally bump into it and fall through. (Especially if there have been one thousand years of opportunities, what with it opening like clockwork every 30 moons.) At Equestria's end, it was in the Canterlot Throne Room. At the Canterlot High end, people disappearing into a glossy wall right in front of the school would have created a buzz that would have attracted the Sirens.

I wonder if Star Swirl temporarily blinded the Sirens prior to leading them through the gateway and then moved the gateway at the Canterlot High end so they couldn't find it in the short swings of Canterlot High time? The best way would be to move it magically from one glossy surface to another in the Canterlot High World.

As for learning more about this puzzle without performing tests, such as removing Sunset Shimmer's tether, I fear I may be out of luck. Princess Celestia is very vague about the nature of this gateway and the world it leads to. She does know much that she doesn't reveal, as part of her way of nurturing all of Equestria and shaping events. But I fear that Star Swirl the Bearded's notes about it are either lost, hidden or misfiled.

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Annual Biome Management Conference

April 4: In a few days I'll be accompanying Fluttershy and Amethyst Star to the annual Biome Management Conference. It's a two day conference and this year it's being hosted by the Crystal Empire. Ponies responsible for the wild fauna and flora from all across Equestria will be attending.

Fluttershy and Amethyst Star have their hibernation and migration data tabled and collated and all set to be submitted. I was at Fluttershy's cottage today and the three of us were going through the conference program guide, picking out interesting round tables, events and presentations to attend. There will be ponies sharing data, teaching theory and demonstrating practical techniques! Fluttershy is excited and nervous. I'm just excited. Amethyst is taking it all in stride.

I will be there mostly for moral support, but I do intend to spend time browsing the Crystal Empire Library as well. There are a lot of books I'd like to borrow. I'll also slip out at some point for tea with Princess Cadence and my brother.

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Pre-Conference Preparations, Check!

April 5: My saddle bags are all packed for the Biome Management Conference. I'll stop by Fluttershy's cottage to pick her up and we'll trot down together to the Ponyville train station where we'll meet up with Amethyst Star. We'll be taking the early train to the Crystal Empire and we should arrive in time to register before the first presentations start. Spike is on pet-sitting duty.

The conference is being held in several of the state rooms and halls in the castle. Most of the conference guests will be housed in the complex build to accommodate the athletes for the Equestria Games, but Princess Cadence has found three rooms for us, so we'll be staying in the Castle.

I'm bringing a bag of Zecora's delicious and spicy chocolate peppermint tea to give to Cadence and Shining, and of course we're going to speculate about Star Swirl the Bearded's Canterlot High world!

It's two full days so we've decided to stay two nights. I should be back to my own bed three nights from now, unless I, or we, get called back early for an emergency1.

Time for a little light reading! I can't take all my books with me to the Crystal Empire. Well maybe if I cram them into my saddle bags just right I could, but then I might not be able to lift my bags.

1 Called back, by the Tree of Harmony. The Tree that build us this rock pony house, like we build bird houses, and gave us a magical boost when we most need it. It now helps us find and solve Harmony problems, somewhat like how we help out animals in the spring. That Tree.

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April 6: (attending a conference in the Crystal Empire)

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April 7: (The Princess is out, come back tomorrow)

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Walking the Wilds of the Crystal Empire

April 8: We're back from the Biome Management Conference. We caught the train this morning and we arrived around midday. Spike was very happy to see us. He was getting dogpiled by squirrels, mice and bunnies and looking a little worse for wear. I think he was mostly happy that Fluttershy was back so he could stop pet-sitting. Owlowiscious was watching the whole affair from a high perch in Fluttershy's cottage with an 'I told you so' look. Or maybe he was just sleepy and I'm imagining things.

The Conference was fun. I sat in on a few talks with Fluttershy and Amethyst Star and I went on the field trip with them as well. The field trip was very popular with the conference guests as it was the first time any of them had seen the wild areas around the Crystal Empire. We were in ten groups of fifteen.

Fluttershy had her pith helmet and her binoculars at the ready, Amethyst Star had collection jars and keys to the flora of the taiga and I had a few guide books. Walking on a raised bog is like walking on a giant mattress! We saw some lovely abstract red and green picture plants, brilliant yellow (and sticky) sundoes, and fur-leaf tea. Amethyst gathered some so I can give a bag full to Zecora. Fur-leaf tea doesn't grow around Ponyville.

It's early spring so it's still fairly chilly and breezy, which is just as well. The moss key toads were sluggish and less prone to bite. When it gets warmer, the moss key toads are so ferocious that they drive the crystal hares to congregate in areas of bare rock. We were told that on sunny days you can sometimes see big gatherings of crystal hares sparkling from leagues away.

While Fluttershy and Amethyst attended workshops, I went to the library to read, and yesterday I had tea with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. We talked at length about Star Swirl the Bearded, the Sirens and Sunset Shimmer's chance tether, but all we could do was speculate1. I didn't find any books on the subject in the Crystal Empire Library either.

It's good to be back. I think I'll turn in early.

1 For instance, the gateway opens to a place heavily populated by Ponyville alternative beings. Could Star Swirl have had an experimental lab here, somewhere in or near Ponyville, back when it was very far from all pony habitations? I could see that he'd want to be far from everypony for safety reasons when testing powerful spells. Meanwhile, I've written to Sunset Shimmer outlining the danger I think she may be in. She may or may not share my view. If she does, it would be hard to leave the Canterlot High world with the expectation that the friends that you made there will return to living a short time swing until they vanish, and that they could forget that you ever existed. If she doesn't, the Canterlot High world is a fascinating place. Either way, I don't expect her to ask me to open the gate any time soon.

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Planning Out Rabbitat

April 9: Now that I'm back I'm trying to catch up on my reading. We should be having another potluck supper soon, probably at Rarity's boutique. It will depend on everypony being up for it. What should I make?

Applejack has been working long hours tilling fields, planting and weeding. The lion's share was done as part of Winter Wrap Up, but there's still plenty to keep the Apple family busy.

Dash is off on Wonderbolts Reserves duty, but she'll be back tomorrow. She has weather duty in Ponyville too and Applejack isn't going to be too pleased if her fields and orchards don't get watered on time.

Rarity should be making a run to Manehattan soon with an order of spring formal wear and to touch base with Coco Pommel. I think Pinkie Pie has been stashing long thin balloons everywhere for "balloon animal emergencies".

Fluttershy has high hopes for kits from her jackalope pair. She's added willow and poplar trimmings to the options in the diet of the animals she has under close husbandry. She's looking for areas around her cottage where she can plant some pioneer trees and bushes and boost her primary productivity. Preferably near a stand of mature trees1. And she's going to make a few brush piles. A good balance of interspersed cover types and early succession woody plants along grassy areas makes for good rabbitat.

1 An ecotone, also called an edge, is where two ecosystems meet, such as a pond and a field, or a forest and a field. Along the edge, not only do you have a higher diversity of plant growth because it is getting seeded from both ecosystems, it is a place where an ecosystem is often transitioning from one community to another. This transition is called ecological succession and in the case of forests, involves pioneer plants that bunnies like to eat. Thus "rabbitat".

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Tea in the Clouds

April 10: Rainbow Dash got back from her Wonderbolts Reserve duties earlier today, and after the clouds had cleared I flew up to knock on her door. We talked a bit about our next potluck over hot apple cinnamon spice tea. Rainbow Dash makes hers with extra sugar and lemon juice to give it extra kick.

The Wonderbolts tour involved a lot of drilling and flying in close formation to better combine shockwaves when making cyclone strikes and sheer sweeps. Flying in formation also conserves power during long flights as they ride the slipstream of the lead flyer and each pegasus takes turns being in the lead.

After I left Rainbow Dash I made a quick trip over to Zecora's hut to give her the fur leaf tea leaves from the Crystal Empire. I had suggested to Pinkie that we invite her to the potluck supper and by the time I got there, Zecora had already received her invitation. It will be on the day after tomorrow at Rarity's Carousel Boutique and she'll be there.

My invitation was glittering on my writing desk on my return.

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Creature Comforts

April 11: I spent most of the day sprawled out with a half dozen books on my little sandy patch in the east fields. It was sunny and warm with the occasional distracting butterfly and bird. I felt I could almost see the grass growing. I had my picnic blanket to keep the sand out of my books, but little bits of fluff would blow in every so often and settle in the windshadow they cast. Then I noticed an ant colony diligently excavating their tunnels, grain by grain. No way was I going to get any reading done. I went home.

When I got back, I found Rainbow Dash and Applejack in the mane hall playing Ring Fling. They were tied at four games a piece, best out of five. I pulled up a cushion and got back to reading while they fought it out point by point, best out of seven.

I forgot to notice who won. It was probably a tie.

We should really do this more often.

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Pot Luck at Rarity's

April 12: Pot Luck supper went off without a hitch and it was fun and filling. We're still a ways from the first cut of haying season so a lot of the food is from our winter stores. The zap apples aren't due to come into leaf for a few days yet, but there are already a few spring greens to be found.

Spike and I made a lemon poppy seed bread. It was delicious and we served it still hot, that way the butter melted on the slices. Fluttershy made a trout-lily, cattail shoot salad, decorated with spring beauty flowers. Applejack's contribution was dandelion greens and grated carrot salad with little apple cubes. Zecora brewed a spicy currant sauce, poured on chocolate ice cream and served with whipping cream on top. Rarity brought a corn pudding soufflé, Rainbow Dash brought a tub of rainbow sherbet and Pinkie brought a huge batch of rock candy. Spike ate most of that.

We set up a game of Bundle of Sticks. Zecora beat us all. She has a very steady and careful reach, and always seems to know which stick to pull. Dash kept going for the high score sticks even though we'd often warn her to try for something more strategic. I think she was teasing us, it did put all eyes on her when it was her turn. That game was a lot of fun.

We chatted about the smells of spring, how the air seemed to be alive with sound after the whispering quiet of the winter winds, and how the touch of the soil has lifted the spirits of everypony. All that's lacking is the swish and taste of hock-high pasture in the early morning dew.

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Leftovers

April 13: This morning we all went over to Rarity's to help her carry her things to the train station. She was off for a day trip to Manehattan with a spring formal wear order for a client there. She's going to meet up with Coco Pommel who will help her deliver it. It's a quick trip so she should be back by now. Deliver her wares, lunch with Coco, then back on the evening train.

I went into my library room to read up on the effect of vibration on plant growth and the day just flew by. I'm eating some of the left-overs from the pot-luck supper: Applejack's salad between two slices of toasted lemon poppy seed bread! It's good.

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Coco Pommel

April 14: I remembered that today is when my friends usually go to the spa. I met up with Fluttershy in the waiting room and we chatted about rabbitat while we waited for Rarity and Pinkie to arrive. They soon trotted in together and Rarity was wearing a new hat that was really nice. It was an open crown hat with a deep dusky rose bow ribbon band and a very wide brim traced with concentric circles.

While we were in the sauna, Rarity told us about her lunch with Coco Pommel, the mare who gave her her Element Key and who Rarity hired to make costumes for a Bridleway production on her behalf in Manehattan.

Coco is still busy making costumes for Rarity's Bridleway friend. It's hard work but Coco is fast and very talented and she has had some of her costume design ideas adopted by Rarity's friend. Coco's reputation has been growing and the word has gotten around between different costume designers. They have been offering her work left and right. There's even been a bidding war for her time! She's looking to hire helpers to keep up.

Coco has an eye on returning to fashion wear, especially practical clothes that makes a mare look elegant, not showy. She plans on entering this year's Fashion Week contest, probably with a line of hats. She gave Rarity the hat she was wearing today. If all her hats are that nice, she's going to turn some heads.

After the sauna I had a good long soak in the mineral bath. It really feels good on my hooves. It softens them up and makes them feel more springy. Sometimes in the winter they get so hard and dry that I get small cracks and I have to dab ointment on them. Of course, if I went to the spa more often, like Fluttershy and Rarity, my hooves would look as nice as theirs. But I get to reading and looking things up, and then I forget to go.

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Fixing Holes That Kept My Mind From Wandering

April 15: This afternoon I caught up with Applejack and Big McIntosh in the orchard. They were tidying up around the trees and filling the few dozen extra holes I'd dug for them the other day, seeing as they didn't have enough apple tree saplings to plant in all of them.

That was a bit awkward.

While I helped fill in the holes, Apple Bloom got home from school and was about to high-tail it for her clubhouse. I told her that since the result they had had working together last time had been so promising, this week when she and her friends came over for instruction, we were going to try and grow another acorn, but make it bigger. It's only a few days away, so they should be practicing their skills and not forget their supplies. By that point she was so excited she was a red and yellow streak racing over the hill towards the clubhouse. Applejack and Big McIntosh were grinning like... something to do with squirrels, herding, and a corn seed mattress.

There are still no leaves on the zap apple trees.

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The Timber Wolves Were Howling

April 16: I went over to the bowl left in the ground where the Golden Oak Library had stood. On my way there three different ponies stopped me to tell me that the timber wolves had been howling in the wee hours of the morning. Zap apple season has arrived.

The bowl was perfect for a growth spell. The ground is still dug up and there wasn't anything there that further upheaval would damage. I flew off to Sweet Apple Acres to see the trees.

Applejack and Big McIntosh had started to set up baskets for the harvest that was due in four days from now. Tomorrow they expect an early morning electrical storm to blow in from the Everfree. That will cause the zap apple trees to sprout leaves, at which point the Apples will start watering the zap apple trees.

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Preparations

April 17: Tomorrow is the day the fillies work in concert during their lessons and try to again to shape an oak as it grows, this time in the open air. If it works, it will take the castle hall out of the equation.

Since Apple Bloom's contribution is the growth potion, I invited Zecora to come watch. Zecora has a vast knowledge of potions and she could suggest improvements. Then I went into town to get three hard hats, visors and lab coats for the fillies. Everything should be fine, nothing should explode, or catch fire. I hope.

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Let's Take it From the Top

April 18: Today I was back again at where my Ponyville home once stood. I didn't have time to dwell on that, I had three excited fillies to coordinate, and somehow, a small crowd of onlookers. I had invited Fluttershy and Zecora, but it seems that word had spread of this magical experiment and the entire foal population was watching as well. They were a bit noisy at first and I was afraid they would break the fillies' focus, but Cheerilee also dropped by, and between her and Zecora's pointed looks, they kept it down to a low buzz.

Zecora was there for the potion aspect and she was interested in seeing how her breathing exercise had become humming scales. Fluttershy's interest is in the reforestation potential and building a better bird house.

All three fillies marched into the center of loose earth where the Golden Oak had once stood. Dressed in their lab coats, hard hats and safety visors, they started setting up their demonstrations. Although they had been hamming it up for their friends in the crowd, they were starting to look nervous now that the moment of truth had arrived.

They had brought their materials, but with some differences from the last time Apple Bloom had sprouted an acorn.

Apple Bloom's glassware had an added distillation and titration stage that didn't look necessary to me. She also had many more flasks, some containing liquids that looked suspiciously like apple juice, pond water and mud.

Sweetie Belle came equipped with twelve sparkling sapphires and this time Scootaloo's large mound of odds and ends included forks and pinwheels. I was beginning to think the experiment was going to fail. But the lesson would not be lost.

Apple Bloom was busy connecting glassware, Scootaloo was rapidly building a base out of her eccentric collection of odds and ends, and Sweetie Belle was already gritting her teeth as she attempted to levitate all twelve sapphires at once.

I stopped Sweetie Belle to remind her to find her focus first, and to levitate the sapphires one after the other, as if they were on a string. Breathe in. Breathe out. Clear. Focus.

My focus was broken by Apple Bloom searching madly for an acorn in her bag and flinging flasks into the air. I caught those before they smashed. Some fillies in the crowd were laughing (cut short by a stern look from Zecora). I had brought an acorn. Apple Bloom took it sheepishly. She made a mud, apple juice, pond water puddle and stuck the acorn into it.

Scootaloo's scrap sculpture fell over, making us all jump, including Sweetie Belle. She had been counting her breaths. I tried to explain the breathing exercise again. Many of the foals in the crowd had become bored and had run off.

Apple Bloom's potion, or potions, were bubbling, condensing, getting titrated, combined, and filling the collector poised above the acorn. The foals left in the crowd pressed closer.

Scootaloo's contraption was now looking quite a bit more sturdy with extra spokes on the inside loopdehoop and with a fork attached to each ear horn. She was screwing metal wafers to the outer hoop. It really looked like abstract art made out of junk.

Sweetie Belle was starting to get the hang of the breathing. A first sapphire twitched and rose up, followed by another. A third twitched.

Apple Bloom watched the color of the potion in her final condenser darken, her hoof poised over the valve.

Scootaloo took a step back, looked at what she had built, put a few drops of oil on a pivot, and gave it a gentle push. The pinwheels caught the breeze and twirled.

Sweetie Belle had all twelve sapphires following each other in a circle in mid-air. They wavered a bit, then moved into a figure-eight pattern. Sweetie Belle remembered to breathe.

Apple Bloom opened the valve. A big dark green drop of liquid fell onto the acorn. It sprouted immediately.

Scootaloo's metal hoops turned lazily and silently.

Sweetie Belle started to hum as she made the sapphires spin while they carved a figure eight in the air above her head. A chromatic scale. Scootaloo's hoops picked up speed, going faster with each note and echoing them. In the crowd, all eyes were on Apple Bloom's sapling oak. Some of them were humming too.

The oak sapling was growing fast and round, as it had in the castle hall. This time the tree grew as large as a barrel before a collective gasp and cheer from the foals sent three branches growing up like corn stalks five pony lengths into the air. Distracted, Sweetie Belle dropped her sapphires. The tree stopped growing and a single leaf sprouted from each branch. Scootaloo's hoop-thing went silent but kept spinning.

The roots on the barrel tree were so shallow that when Scootaloo leaned on it while posing for pictures, it fell over and smacked Zecora and Fluttershy over the back. The barrel is hollow.

The experiment was a success. The fillies have already put it behind them. We'll do something else next time.

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Fine Tuning

April 19: Fluttershy dropped in to see me about the fillies' tree growing experiment. Now that she had seen it for herself, she had hopes that the Biome Management Association could put together a team of ponies to fine tune the process. She had met up with Amethyst Star and together they are going to hammer out a proposal. It will probably take ponies with expertise in making musical spells. The two of them are going to get Zecora's input as well, to see to what degree Apple Bloom's potion was responsible for the sapling's receptivity to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle's harmonics.

There will be, of course, an ethics review board on the procedure.

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Zap Apple Harvest

April 20: The zap apples are ripe and Applejack and Big McIntosh have been harvesting them since this morning. By tomorrow the apples they haven't yet picked will be gone.

I went over to help. They have to be hoof-picked one by one, so it's a slow process. I flew up to pick the top-most apples, but I'm a slow picker and it was tiring. By afternoon I was pretty drained. I kept bumping into the trees. After the third time a tree zapped me, I was past ready to call it a day. Applejack and Big McIntosh are still at it, and Apple Bloom is helping out.

Spike and I have a dozen fresh zap apples for supper, fruit of the first harvest of the year.

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Getting the Massage

April 21: Today is the day Rarity and Fluttershy usually meet at the spa. As I was still sore from picking zap apples, I went too.

I brought five zap apples, two for the spa ponies, one for Rarity, one for Fluttershy, and a spare. While I waited with Fluttershy for Rarity to arrive, I gave the two zap apples to the spa ponies and ordered the massage treatment. Rarity arrived and I gave them each an apple too.

Fluttershy has been busy with Amethyst Star preparing the tree shaping proposal. They are worried it might not pass the scrutiny of the Ethics Board. There is the perpetual concern of accidentally creating another parasprite or poison joke. Or a whipping willow. It's not always easy to keep such things restrained to the Everfree Forest.

When they have it all prepared and typed out, Amethyst Star will take care of the correspondence as well as any delegations from the Biome Management Association.

That massage and soak in the hot tub did me a world of good. I'm still tired but at least I'm not still sore.

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Zap Apple Jam Methodology

April 22: Earlier this afternoon Apple Bloom brought me five jars of zap apple jam. She was very proud to tell me that she had helped Granny Smith in the jam making and had kept careful notes of all the steps and procedures necessary to making good zap apple jam. It seems that even the zap apples themselves can be very particular when it comes to being transformed.

Note taking is important if she's to develop her potion making skills. I should get her a wax canvas field notebook. With a snap strap to hold it closed and a pencil holder. Come to think of it, all three fillies should have notebooks where they keep track of their successes and failures, to thus build better methodology.

I've added it to my check list of things to order.

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Book Order

April 23: It's high time I ordered some new books from Random Horse Publishing for my Library Annex in this castle. The Observer's Guide to Equestrian Rodents looks useful, as does Potshards of the Paleopony Period; I must read The Eight Enchanted Items of Mage Meadowbrook again; here's a good companion book to go with it: Eastern Unicorn Pony Protocol, Policy and Politics; more must-have reference books: Sustainable Arid Pasture and Silviculture; The Economics of Sharing Pasture with Sheep, Cows and Goats; The Great Equestria Lexicon of Colloquialisms (oh my yes!); and finally, the latest edition of The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, to replace the book Spike sneezed on.

Some frivolous light reading would be good too. Pace Speculation, Zebra Science Fiction, Dell Neigh often have good books. Or another volume from Pasture Ffjord's bookworld detective series where off duty fictional ponies step out of their books and visit other fictions. There's the many Hairy Thatchet's Flying Plate World books too.

I've read about The Cutie Mark of Dorein Bay by Ostler Wild. Seems it was scandalous when it was first published. Maybe I should order that too.

Tomorrow I'll send Spike to Quills and Sofas for more quills. I'm down to the smaller secondary feathers from my spring molt. They break easily and they don't make very good quills anyway. Also scrolls and three wax canvas field notebooks for the fillies.

That reminds me. None of you seem to have caught the Harness in Wanderland riddle I cribbed back when I was shedding all over the place. There are so many parallels between our worlds that I suspect that if I searched, I could find your equivalent to that book. You should read it! It's a classic!

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White Horses of Spring

April 24: I went for a walk through some fresh puddles of water after the early morning rain shower today. It feels great to get my hooves wet, they get so soft and springy. I resisted the urge to gallop through the streets like a wild thing, cascading everypony and everything in my path with great spouts of water and leading a stampede of white horses through the soaking wet pastures, just for the unbridled joy of it all. I could read the words of The Hayloft Song of J. Alfalfafed Poolrock in my mind...

Let us gallop, you and I,
When evening has spread over Celestia's sky
Like a salt-drunk pinto sprawled on a table;
Let us trot, to where pastures and forest meet,
Grass whispering at our feet
Of uneven ground hiding pitfall wells
And grazing soured by wood sorrels...

Another sure sign that it's spring is that it's Hearts and Hooves day.

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Zap Apple Brunch

April 25: It was a bit of a wet and grey spring day today and I have those jars of zap apple jam, so early on I met up with Pinkie Pie and I suggested a late brunch at the Castle. Pinkie was off in a gasp, delivering invitations. I hurried to the baker to get fresh bread and to Sugarcube Corner for cinnamon rolls.

I got back home and nearly jumped out of my skin when a confetti cannon blasted me with an invitation just inside the front door. Pinkie had come up with a zap apple spring theme. Everypony was due to arrive in a few hours.

I had Spike cook up a few dozen biscuits. I put out cups, saucers, plates, butter, jam, spoons and knives, got out comfortable cushions for seven, and the games.

By the time the biscuits were cooked and the tea brewed, they started to arrive. Pinkie brought balloons, Fluttershy spring flowers, Applejack brought zap apples, Rainbow Dash found some pussy willows and Rarity, airy spring foulards. Each of Rarity's foulards was a different color for each of us and printed with our cutie marks, an emerald flame pattern for Spike. She'd been planning this. Spike wore his like a cravat and put on a sophisticated air.

Everything was delicious and the conversations infectious. The hours just melted away. We never did start any of the games.

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Force Fields and Air Resistance

April 26: A lot of pony magic comes from our ability to navigate our non-Euclydean environment and our two dimensions of time. It allows us to stick to objects with our hooves, lever very large objects through the air, to fly, to walk on clouds, all by negotiating increments of distance. With the same force, a pony or an object has an infinite number of choices of distances. Thus a small force that shouldn't move an object, can, if you choose the right path. And similarly, a pony can control the resistance of the air and water, allowing for flight and walking on clouds. Van der Waals adherence is a function of twisting microscopic distances between surfaces so that enough of the hoof touches the handle/wall/ceiling to stick. Some ponies do these things better than others, and it usually takes practice.

Making a force field or a hard air bubble is an extension of this magic. Air is a lot of gas molecules bouncing around in random directions with a lot of space between each molecule. To get the air to stop moving, a unicorn must alter random paths of gas molecules to expand into a cloud of probable locations, thus occupying more space, becoming larger, and locking in with each other to form a amorphous solid of super-sized gas molecules. This is different from the pegasus approach of increasing air resistance by reducing the path air molecules travel with each applied force (wing beat).

Theoretically, an earth pony or a pegasus could stamp or wing a shock wave of solid air. That wall would dissipate the instant they moved.

Like with glass (which is a non-magical amorphous solid), light goes through but solids and gases are blocked. Gas exchange through the barrier could occur slowly through swapping. This could be useful for underwater exploration, maybe as a cylinder that's open at the top. It would require using weights to reduce buoyancy.

Rapid growth magic is a combination of squeezing and pulling cells and taking advantage of the second dimension of time. Earth ponies are particularly good at this, although I can grow a mustache on a pony by getting skin cells to die in columns. That takes some rather tricky mental folding.

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True Blue Grit

April 27: I met up with Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie for muffins and tea at Sugarcube Corner today. I told Applejack I was thinking of tasking Apple Bloom to make long chain molecules from plant sources, like reeds or wood. With long chain strands you can make just about any shape.

As for Sweetie Belle, I told Rarity that she was getting good juggling small items, so I want to increase the difficulty and get her make patterns in colored sand, as a way toward visualizing moving air molecules, either as a shock wave or a shield. All I lacked was the sand. So I asked Rarity to dye some sand for me in different colors. Rarity had a better idea.

We went over the the Carousel Boutique with some sand, which she dyed, but she also pulverized some gem stones into sparkly grit and crushed some semi precious rocks too, for variety. As she looked down at the platters of sparkling grit, I could see the flash of inspiration in her eyes. I think she's going to incorporate gem stone grit into cloth for extra sparkle. Sapphire Shores is going to be blinding.

Pinkie got in on the task too. Pinkie knows rocks. She even makes rock candy from rocks (how does that work?!). Now I have quite a lot of colored sand in various jars. All the colors of the rainbow, plus white, black, brown and grey.

I stashed the jars of sand and grit in a cupboard at the castle (and I told Spike not to eat them) and I went calling on Zecora. Over a cup of fur-leaf tea from the raised bogs of the Crystal Empire (it's not bad), I explained what I had in mind for Apple Bloom. Zecora wrote out a few procedures for extracting polymerizing compounds from woody sources for Apple Bloom to try.

Now, what to have Scootaloo try? Maybe have her build something from components she makes herself, from scratch. Like a composite material.

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Nothing But Blue Skies

April 28: A few flakes off a nice sweet sun-dried bale of second-cut timothy hay to settle the stomach (after one too many cupcakes), a few good books, a comfortable cushion, blue skies above, Ponyville far below, and that was my day, up on the larger balcony of the Treecastle.

I need a new telescope.

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Slumber 201

April 29: I should do another sleep over. My copy of Slumber 101: All You've Ever Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties But Were Afraid to Ask is gone, but with some help, I think I could pull one off. I just need to convince at least some of my friends to do a slumber party. To make memories in this new castle.

I was thinking it would be fun to throw a surprise party for Pinkie Pie some time soon. Fun, but really hard.

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Books, Fresh From the Printing Press

April 30: The books I'd ordered from Random Horse Publishing arrived this morning. It was a good time as any to re-shelve my athenaeum. Then I leafed through The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy.

There will be significant meteor shower in about a hundred days from now, issuing from the Celestia's Boot constellation. Celestia's Boot, which will appear to be just south of Canterlot when viewed from Ponyville, is a pretty reliable reference in the sky. Unlike some constellations, such as the Ursa Major, it doesn't move around or go for walks in the Everfree. The best time to watch that meteor shower will be well before sunrise.

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Author's Note

I wonder what's the best update frequency and timing, one that would balance exposure with story length. I'm aiming for once a week, but it's hard to wait when I've done all the proofreading and touch-ups.

V May

Devious Plans

May 1: I went calling on Rainbow Dash with my idea to throw a surprise party for Pinkie. At first she wasn't too keen on the idea, seeing how hard it was to keep Pinkie in the dark and how depressed she became when she found us all avoiding her last time we tried to throw a surprise party for her. But when I outlined my plan, Rainbow Dash was all for it. Rainbow Dash likes a good prank, and throwing a surprise party for a surprise-party-pony like Pinkie Pie is hard to beat.

One way to surprise Pinkie is to enlist outside help. Rainbow Dash is going to use her connections to track down Cheese Sandwich and today I wrote to Pinkie Pie's sister Maud Pie. Maud is on a rock research trip in the Galloping Gorge (which cuts through the Equestrian Shield) where she is gathering data for her rocktorate in rock science. I want Maud to be a surprise in the surprise. The date that we choose to throw this party will depend on her availability. That's the when. There is also the where and how to roll in the surprises in waves. I need to speak to Rarity next. She's good with theater.

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Voice of Fire

May 2: Overall, I think the lesson with Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom went well.

Apple Bloom followed Zecora's instructions and turned chopped reeds into a goopy smelly liquid that shot out of her flask, ignited, and stood for an instant as a red and blue column of flame that just about touched the ceiling of the grand hallway. Scootaloo was enthralled. She calls it Apple Bloom's Voice of Fire. That was not the intended result. I was expecting an epoxy glue.

Scootaloo's project is to design and build a better trailer for her scooter. The one she has is very sturdy, but it isn't light or attractive. I told her that with laminated plant fibers, she can take the sturdy frame of her trailer, cut out the extra weight while retaining key structural components, and build a light weight chassis over that. She gave me a blank look. OK. Trying again, I said, draw some pictures of what the most awesome, and cool, (and something else, I can't remember what it was Dash says), trailer would look like. Then take apart a spare trailer and put enough of it back together so that holds together and can carry a full load. Next, on that frame, weave a mesh structure based on the best drawing. The plant fibers will be laminated to the mesh structure with Apple Bloom's epoxy. Paint comes last.

She made several drawings. I think that soon she is going to need a wind chamber.

Sweetie Belle sweated hard over the sand and grit. It's not easy getting that many tiny rocks to move at the same time. The tourmaline grit is quite pretty, so she took that jar home with her to practice on.

I gave each of them their very own wax canvas field notebooks so they can track their progress, work out problems and build on their discoveries. Scootaloo has started hers with her design ideas for her 'cool' trailer; Apple Bloom has Zecora's procedures written out with notes as to where it was she probably went wrong; Sweetie Belle's notebook has a series of squiggly lines that mean something to her, I think a kind of combination of musical and magical notation, by feel.

After that, we celebrated out on the smaller balcony with bowls of vanilla oat swirl ice cream and called it a day. Or I called it a day. They ran off to do something or other. I spread my wings and sunbathed.

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This Will Be No Picnic

May 3: Cheese Sandwich is hard to find. Where he's been is easy enough, he leaves a trail of confetti in every town, village, hamlet and watering hole he visits. Rainbow Dash is still inquiring but it isn't easy. We'd have to know the whereabouts of a party that is needed before it happens.

I had a chat with Rarity. She likes the 'chain of surprises' plan. For the kernel, innocuous activity, Rarity thinks a picnic is hard to beat. Pinkie wouldn't miss a picnic if she can help it and we can set the date of the picnic with her, just making sure that the day we pick is the day Maud can show up.

I was thinking Maud could be the first surprise, but Rarity threw cold water on that. When Maud arrives, Pinkie might be too distracted with catching up with her sister to notice any of the other surprises.

Rarity had an idea. She suggested we ask Mayor Mare to declare a Picnic in the Fields day, that way the day will be fixed in advance. I didn't think that would quite work since we are planning Pinkie's surprise party, and inviting the town to a Picnic Event would confuse ponies. Many would wonder if we were trying to hijack the community picnic. But getting the town to attend the surprise party would be a plus. That could be the final surprise.

I left Rarity to work out the sequence some more. This event is going to require timing and coordination. I should speak to Fluttershy to see if she has any furry or feathered friends who could act as messengers.

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The Elusive Cheese

May 4: One of Dash's contacts spotted Cheese Sandwich! Seems his 'cheesy sense' is telling him that Ponyville is calling, but this time he doesn't know when to arrive. He left a return address, and if I my letter doesn't catch him before he leaves, he's going to leave a forwarding address.

I wrote to him right away, explaining that it's a 'string of surprises' surprise party, and that he's one of the surprises. The tricky part is that it's Pinkie Pie we want to surprise, so we need to plan well. The date depends on when Pinkie's sister can come to town. More details to follow...

I explained the plan to Fluttershy. Fluttershy doesn't like getting startled by surprises, but since she's in on the surprise, it won't be too startling, and Pinkie does like surprises. She also likes the chain of events concept and how it could be considered open air theater. So she's in.

Fluttershy suggested that maybe, if the town participated, they could sing? 'Happy surprise party' or something? A Flash Mob! If we could pull that off! Fluttershy is going to see with Rarity and the Ponytones if they can find enough ponies to pull off something like that. Maybe singing a tune everypony knows, like something from Hinny of the Hills or some other Bridleway musical.

It's beginning to look like the setting is going to be a picnic in a popular picnic spot. And yes, Fluttershy thinks she can rely on several of her feathered and fuzzy friends to deliver messages.

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Salt In My Tea

May 5: I was feeling a bit antsy and snappish, so I joined Rarity and Fluttershy at the Spa this morning. Pinkie wasn't there. I think she and Dash were out pranking Applejack, putting newsprint in her hatband and attaching noise makers to the crankshafts of her wagons. They also switched my salt and sugar and hid a party cannon in my current reading pile. Those nuts. Thankfully, I salted my tea and got covered in confetti after the spa.

Even though Pinkie Pie wasn't there, we didn't discuss her surprise party. Ponyville is a small town. Word can spread very quickly.

After the spa I dropped in on Applejack to let her in on the plan and to get her up to speed. It would be great if she could cook up a bunch of treats for the crowd. We discussed Maud Pie and how to get her to the picnic without Pinkie seeing her. Applejack thinks she could build a crate for Maud that Rarity could decorate as a gift box. One way or another, Big McIntosh could be helpful carting Maud from the train station to the picnic.

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Waiting for Word

May 6: No word yet from Maud. Delivery of a letter addressed to "Maud Pie, Galloping Gorge, Equestria" must be a bit of a challenge. It's also a challenge to cook up enough food for a surprise party and to deliver it into an open pasture without the guest of honor noticing. We need a cake too. That requires baking, a lot of baking, right under Pinkie's nose.

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Brainstorming Session

May 7: Scroll and quill in hoof, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and I held a brainstorming session in the Carousel Boutique. These are the elements we need to assemble and orchestrate:

Maud Pie
Cheese Sandwich
A group picture, signed, framed, as a spur of the moment gift.
Suddenly singing ponies converging on Pinkie
Sky writing: 'Pinkie Pie' and 'Surprise'.
Sonic Rainboom? (no, will blow everything over)
Food, "catered to" and then delivered by various ponies, such as maybe Lyra, Cheerilee + school, Lily, Amethyst Star, Minuette... who turn up on cue
Decorations
Party cannons?
Music
Messaging/cues
Transportation of surprise guests and food.

If the Cakes could "cater" to several ponies, and those ponies carry the food in baskets to their "picnics" that just so happen to be near ours, that would solve the food transportation problem. On cue, they would walk from their picnic blankets to Pinkie, bearing food.

Once we had spread our picnic blanket we could start by giving the picture to Pinkie. While she's wondering why, Dash's Wonderbolt Reserves could write Pinkie Pie in the sky. While she's still wondering why, singing ponies converge and now the pegasi continue to write: Surprise! The song ends and more ponies converge, this time with food. The sky now reads Pinkie Pie Surprise! Party. The cakes arrive with a big cake, Cheese Sandwich leaps out. Party chaos ensues, "All are invited" is written in the sky. Big McIntosh arrives with a very large gift box with Maud Pie inside. Last element: music. Provided by DJ Pon3.

We're going to need Cheese to pull this off. Otherwise, who knows how or where we'd hide the party hats and banners. Behind brush piles? We'd better leave that problem to Cheese.

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It's In the mail

May 8: I got a letter today from Maud Pie! Her reply was short and to the point: "Good idea. I will arrive at the Ponyville train station at noon in 14 days."

She wrote the letter three days ago, that leaves 11 days.

I sent the date and our party plan to Sandwich. We now have a deadline.

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Picking Up Speed

May 9: We're in a bit in that spot between steeplechase hurdles. We're gathering up for the leap over the baking obstacle, but we're waiting for Cheese to lean into the saddle. The Cakes are about due to call on Applejack for apples. I asked Applejack to explain the plan to them. They will know who would make good mules, ponies they often cater and who could smuggle in the party treats to our picnic.

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Ring Fling

May 10: Today the weather was chilly and rainy. After Rainbow Dash had finished organizing the downpour, she and Applejack dropped by for a few rounds of Ring Fling in the mane hallway. The stony silence of the Treecastle was broken by the wooden knock of one ring knocking another out of play and of the jocular mock anguish of the pony losing a round. I paused my reading on deception strategies in insects, got out a big pitcher of mint iced tea and three cups and went down to watch.

Rainbow Dash knows a few ponies who could do the sky writing, so that's a go. Applejack hasn't spoken to the Cakes yet, but she will do so soon. Either when they make their next apple order, or she'll find a reason to go the Sugarcube Corner on business.

After an hour of heavy competition, Dash went off to clear the clouds and Applejack headed back to the farm.

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Intermission

May 11: A pile of books, a balcony high above the hustle and bustle on the ground, blue skies and the day just flew right on by. Now the moon is up and the constellations are riding high. Time for some sleep.

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Seven Days

May 12: Another key piece to the Pinkie Plan fell into place today -- I received a letter from Cheese Sandwich. It was somewhat enigmatic. He wrote: "A surprise in a cake as pretty as you please, watch out Pinkie 'cause here comes the Cheese!" Nothing else, no details or plans. It looks like we're in for surprises too.

The surprise is next Tuesday. Time to start cooking.

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Working out the details

May 13: Applejack and the Cakes are calculating what they need to bake and when it needs to be baked. Items such as apple chips, beet pulp cookies and oatmeal swirl ice cream can be prepared now; other items such as the cream cheese icing and pies can be cooked a little later; and perishable food like carrot and turnip sticks and spring green salad have to be prepared last.

A Pinkie picnic surprise party should have food, right?

The Cakes have started to gently sound likely ponies to see if they'd be willing to serve as picnic food mules. They have a structure for hiding a pony in a cake, they just need to assemble it and to layer it with cake and icing. That's probably going to be the last thing they do. It's easier if Cheese is already in it when they apply the icing.

Zecora is in charge of the beverages.

Rarity and the rest of the Ponytones Quartet have chosen a song and have surreptitiously organized a crowd of singers. They can't do a rehearsal together, so each is practicing their parts at home.

I'm going to invite all five of my closest pony friends over for a "game night" evening after next. That will give me the chance to suggest a picnic and for us to plan it for Tuesday. I wonder if I could suggest to Pinkie that she cook up a big batch of her rock candy, with the idea that we could make rock candy necklaces during picnic, for fun.

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Thick as Thieves

May 14: So far, Lyra, Lily, Amethyst Star and Roseluck are in on the food wave part of the plan. The Cakes are having them drop by Sugarcube Corner to order various baked goods, all from a predetermined list. The Cakes have made a mental tab of what they will need to bake, and it doesn't get written down as a list until a "food mule" orders it. That way, to Pinkie, it looks like business as usual.

I've invited all five of my friends over for a game night here tomorrow night. Only Pinkie is unaware that it's to set the date for her picnic.

Wheels are spinning!

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Games Ponies Play

May 15: The whole gang was here. I set out alfalfa cubes, turnip sticks, apple chips and mint tea for us to snack on. Pinkie brought over a few jugs of her spring punch too. Soon we were chatting and laughing over games of Bundle of Sticks and Ring Fling.

I was trying to pull equal numbers of each color from the stack, Rarity looked to be strategically removing just the right sticks to leave the stack in an attractive climbing spiral pattern, Fluttershy seemed focused on rescuing the low-value sticks, and Pinkie looked to be snatching out the first stick she saw as fast as she could. Meanwhile, Dash and Applejack were making those felt-cushioned rings streak down the hall, whacking the opposing rings so hard they were bouncing off the walls. Spike was waiting to challenge the victor, and while he waited, finding where the rings flew off to.

I brought up the picnic idea. "Say, it's been a while since we've had a picnic, we should have one soon." There was a blur of pink next to me as Pinkie snatched out another stick. Somehow the pile remained standing. She spat out her stick (lips only, no horns, wings, tails or tongues!). "Ooh! A picnic! Let's have one tomorrow!"

My turn. I studied the pile. I needed another yellow one to make a perfect set. Or I could try for prime numbers instead. So circled the pile looking for a green stick. "Not tomorrow. I have the three fillies coming over to continue their private instruction. I think it's going to rain tomorrow as well. Dash?"

Dash was in mid swing. Her throw missed Applejack's ring; it bounced off a wall and would have flown out the front door if we hadn't closed it. "Aw shucks! Yes, there's a little spring shower planned for tomorrow. And another on Monday."

I found a likely looking green stick. Pinkie looked cross. "Two daytime showers? Why so often? Why can't it rain just at night?"

Applejack glided her third ring into a scoring position, slightly in front of her other ring in the bullseye. "Crops need waterin' That means small, frequent showers." Dash glared at Applejack's rings. "Yeah, and the pegasi mostly work during the day." She took careful aim.

I pulled out the green stick. The stack stood. I'm going to need 1 gold, 2 sapphire, 3 emerald, 5 ruby and 7 diamond for a perfect game. Rarity's turn.

Dash's ring slid noiselessly down the hall, hit both Applejack's rings with a hearty wooden 'crack', and all three rings went bouncing off the walls to the far end of the hall. The score was still zero-zero. Spike asked: "How about the day after tomorrow?" I'm going to let Spike in on the plan tomorrow.

While Rarity expertly extracted a white stick that was sticking out like a cowlick, Fluttershy replied. "Oh no, not then. That's bath day for the critters, I've scheduled the bear for a realignment for his back pain and there's the prenatal exam for the jackalope doe. I think they're finally going to have kits!"

Applejack took aim. Fluttershy studied the pile. Pinkie asked: "How about Tuesday? The Cakes have asked me to watch Pumpkin and Cup Cake in the morning, but I'm free all afternoon. We could make it a picnic lunch." (Victory!)

Applejack's ring stopped in the bullseye. Fluttershy delicately rescued a yellow stick with just a little lip tremor.

Picnic lunch next Tuesday was fine for everypony. I asked Pinkie if she had any rock candy. "Making rock candy necklaces next Tuesday in the sunshine would be fun." With at least three days for her to make rock candy, I think we're in for a lot of fun.

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Singing in the Rain

May 16: After the fillies had demonstrated their progress in their tasks (progress is slow, but it's there), I went for a stroll in the rain.

The raindrops made a pitter patter of tiny splashes on my back, slicked down my mane and ran down my face. It felt good. I closed my eyes as I walked, letting my memory guide me for several strides before I'd peek, just enough to adjust my course. The slick, fresh streets were mostly empty, but here and there through open windows I could hear bits of a song from Hinny of the Hills. The Ponytones have made their selection and I bet it's 'Just Live For Today'.

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Rock Slide

May 17: Picnic in two days! I don't think we've ever been so keen on a picnic before. I hope Pinkie doesn't find that suspicious.

Pinkie has been cooking up a small rock slide of candy, and getting underhoof while the Cakes rush about baking up all their orders. I told Pinkie we could show up at noon with Applejack's wagon to help ferry it all to the picnic. She thought that was a great idea. I also hinted that I thought there was more than enough rock candy here to keep us busy. About that, she wasn't so sure. This better not require two trips.

The other picnic groups are set to arrive before us and take the hilltops, leaving us a spot nestled between two rolling hills. Ponies prefer open spaces with a view, to see danger in time to run away. But we don't want Pinkie to see the surprises arriving, and the low spot make for a natural amphitheater, for open air theater.

With Pinkie foal-sitting it'll be hard for her to reserve a spot. And with all of us arriving together, choosing that low spot is going to be easier.

I mailed out a final letter yesterday to Cheese and Maud, confirming the date and time. Big McIntosh will pick up Maud Pie at the train station and the Cakes will be waiting for Cheese Sandwich at Sugarcube Corner.

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The Final Lap

May 18: Nearly everything that can be set is ready. Tomorrow we picnic in the east meadow.

Applejack built a gift box and Rarity made it look stunning. It's on Big McIntosh's cart and ready to roll to the train station. There's a sheet over it right now which is just as well -- it's so glittery that if the sun hits it, I think everypony clear across Ponyville will see it.

Today Applejack was delivering pies, fritters, and caramel apples to some of the 'food mules'. We might end up with too much food. Better to have too much than not enough.

The Cakes are on the cake phase of the bake off. They're making cupcakes, muffins, donuts and cakes today. The icing is already made, and as soon as the baked goods cool, they will get decorated. Except for the hollow cake for Cheese. They'll stack the frame with cake and puffed oat cubes and slather on the icing after Cheese is inside. They'll have to work fast, they have only one hour at most.

Checklist.

Maud Pie contacted and confirmed. Check.
Date set for picnic to coincide with Maud's arrival. Check.
Cheese Sandwich recruited and confirmed. Check.
Cakes recruited. Check.
Zecora recruited. Check.
Ponytones recruited. Check.
Skywriters recruited by Rainbow Dash. Check.
Fluttershy providing a messenger critter. Check.
Applejack providing extra treats. Check.
Maud-sized gift box. Check.
Big McIntosh to meet Maud at the train station. Check.
Rock candy. Check.
Keeping Pinkie occupied. Check.
Somehow keeping it a surprise. So far so good.

We dropped the group portrait idea. It's better to do that as group project, not as a surprise.

We are so close to the goal! The Map better not call us.

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A Surprise Party To End All Surprise Parties

May 19: We all arrived at nearly the same time at Sugarcube Corner, just as the Cakes were returning from their final delivery. Freed from her foal-sitting duty, Pinkie emerged with bowl after bowl of rock candy and stacked them in Applejack's cart. It all fit, but it made for a dazzling pile of rock candy, a full spectrum of sweet facets glittering in the sunlight. We were all a bit jittery as we tightened our saddlebags and hoisted our baskets. Just in time, I thought to ask Pinkie to bring her camera, waving my hoof in the general direction of the blinding kaleidoscope of rock candy. Pinkie zipped back inside and emerged victorious with her camera. All set, we made a bee-line for the east pasture.

There were a lot of ponies out picnicking. It looked like the whole town was there. Even the school was having a picnic. Applejack and Dash got distracted by a game of netball but fortunately I spotted our destination and got them on track. We tried to avoid running over ponies as we made our way past ponies sunning, eating, reading! (I tripped over Spike), rolling in the grass and generally relaxing.

We arrived and unloaded all the candy (I think drawing many eyes our way). While we set up our blanket, Applejack headed back to park the cart off the field, back the way we came. By the time she had returned, I had organized the bowls by wavelength into a glittering crescent and everything was ready. "Pinkie! Take a picture!" I suggested we make a necklace to wear before lunch. As we finished stringing rock candy, Pinkie snapped more pictures and Fluttershy released a blue jay that flown in to see her. Suddenly, somewhere in the crowd, a pony broke out in song.

Though fillies there be
Who never foresee
That the future holds anything pleasant;
Who grimly cast
Their eyes on the past,
And who gaze all aghast at the present!
The golden rule
For sage or fool,
For princess and pony and peasant,
Is, come what may,
At work or play,
To live, just live for today!

More and more ponies joined in and started walking toward us from all sides. It was fabulous. Pinkie was in shock. They were singing 'Just Live For Today' from Hinny of the Hills. Pinkie knew this song well, we'd all been to a private showing of Hinny of the Hills on Briddleway thanks to Rarity.

Sing hay! Sing ho!
There's no time like the present!
Sing ho! Sing hay!
There's no day like today!

They sang the entire song. They were at least fifty ponies strong by the final verse. I had trouble counting, I had tears in my eyes.

When a mare's depressed,
Not feeling her best,
She'll lament over yesterday's sorrow,
And brood, what's more,
On worries galore
That the fates have in store for the morrow.
Yet mares have power
From every hour
Some gleams of sunshine to borrow;
So don't delay
But find a way
To make the most of today!

Sing hay! Sing ho!
Take no thought for the morrow!
Sing ho! Sing hay!
Live, just live for today!

They ended by looking and pointing straight up. High above up us, two pegasi were spelling "PINKIE PIE" in huge letters made with clouds. There was a thunder of hooves pounding in applause all around, then suddenly more ponies sprang up bearing baskets and saddle bags stuffed with treats, plates and cups. The Cakes thought of everything. Zecora trotted up with a wagon. She brought the punch, the water and the iced tea. And she brought ingredients to make more.

The pegasi hadn't finished. I grabbed Pinkie and pointed at the sky. They were putting the finishing touches on the words "SURPRISE PARTY". Pinkie's mouth formed a huge "O". Then she started talking so fast I couldn't tell when one sentence ended and the next began. I caught a few words, like 'acting strange', 'so many', 'picnics everywhere' and 'cake'. Then the crowd parted as another cart crested the rise. The Cakes had arrived.

I slipped Pinkie's camera over to Rainbow Dash and whispered, "take pictures!" I'd have done it myself but I think Dash is better at it. Dash was way ahead of me. She had thought to ask a few photographer ponies to document the event, and through Scootaloo, Featherweight was on the job too. I think we'll end up with enough pictures for a scrapbook.

The Cakes, with their foals in their saddlebags and a giant cake in their cart, beamed as they pulled up in front of Pinkie. In the sky, the pegasi were putting the finishing touches to the last two words: "ALL INVITED". All around ponies cheered and started chanting: "Cut the cake! Cut the cake!"

Pinkie leaped up onto the front of the cart and held up a hoof for silence. In the quiet she pointed at a tag on the cake and announced, "Wait! There's something written here. It says, 'To give this party a special zing, let me out, pull my string!'"

In the crowd, a pony called out: "Pull it!"

Pinkie pulled the string, then dived for cover as the cake began to spin, throwing icing in all directions. In the center, out popped Cheese Sandwich wearing the lid like a hat, playing an accordion and firing party cannons. (I breathed a sigh of relief. He made it!)

Some of the cannons provided instant party decor, others confetti, streamers and balloons, and another tossed up a shower of party hats that floated down under parachutes. DJ Pon3 appeared like magic, her turntables spinning and her hoof ready on the needle. Cheese Sandwich gave Pinkie a hug, grabbed a microphone and made an announcement. "Hold your horses, mares, stallions and foals! Before we start this party for the Premier Party Pony of Ponyville, the Surprise Picnic Party to end all surprise parties," (loud cheers) "there is just one more surprise, and it's almost here!" He pointed and all eyes turned to Big McIntosh, yoked to his cart and steadily plowing through the crowd, straight to Pinkie. In his cart was the box Rarity and Applejack had built, hidden under a sheet.

Pinkie dashed through the crowd, grabbed the edge of the sheet and yanked it off. The natural amphitheater made by our chosen location magnified the "oohs" and "aahs" from all present. Big McIntosh came to a stop at our picnic blanket. Applejack called out, "Right on time." Big McIntosh replied, "Eyup."

"Open it Pinkie!" "What's inside?"

Pinkie Pie studied the sparkling box with mock gravity. She grabbed the giant ribbon with her teeth and gave it a tug. The box remained closed, but as the ribbon fell off, it revealed a door handle. Pinkie did the obvious thing, she knocked. "Come on out!" The door handle turned and Pinkie gasped and scooted away, falling on her back. The crowd caught its breath. Out stepped Maud Pie. "Surprise."

Pinkie sat down right there and burst into tears.

I think my heart stopped beating for a moment there. I think everypony's heart stopped. But then in an instant, Pinkie leaped up, grabbed her sister, grabbed the microphone and with tears still gushing, announced "This is the BEST SURPRISE PARTY EVER!" and bear-hugged everypony in sight. Cheese Sandwich set off a few fireworks to punctuate the fluffy white words written in the sky, Dj Pon3 applied a needle to a disk and the party started.

Cheese delivered a giant party. There was a food fight with cream pies. Rock candy necklace making event. Fireworks, some from Cheese, some from Zecora. A conga line a hundred ponies long with sprinkler fireworks (resulting in a lot of singed manes). Pinatas, games, balloon animals, cake juggling...

I'm all partied out and Spike is fast asleep, but through my small balcony door I can hear that this party isn't winding down anytime soon. I've kept my rock-candy necklace as a souvenir and I have another one I'll give to Pinkie tomorrow. As will each of us.

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The Morning After

May 20: The east meadow is littered with sleeping ponies in party hats and rock candy necklaces. Maud caught the morning train back to Galloping Gorge (wearing a fresh rock candy necklace, check!). Pinkie looked a little bleary eyed. Half my friends looked a little bleary eyed, but Maud looked as calm and steady as always. Dash was nodding off the whole time. I'll ask her tomorrow to round up the pictures. Already there are special editions of the Ponyville Express and the Foal Free Press, full of pictures of the event. We'll make a scrapbook party out of it! Oh, that will be fun! I have the quills and the inks, Rarity has the glitter, I'll write to Maud for a poem, Fluttershy could put in a few bluejay feathers, Pinkie could throw in streamers and deflated balloons... We'll make a book!

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Tea And Book Planning

May 21: Over tea at Rarity's boutique, we held a scrapbook planning and brainstorming session. Pinkie thinks it's a great idea and wanted to start it right away but we're still waiting for all the pictures to come in. Apart from the few that were printed in the papers, most are not printed and some are not even developed yet. It was an all night party and ponies are catching up on their sleep and on their duties.

Pinkie was wearing, and eating, her seven rock-candy necklaces. Five from us, one from Maud and one from Spike. The one Spike made was extra sparkly. Spike has a knack for selecting stones and he may have grown and tuned the rock candy a bit. We were discussing the paper for the scrapbook.

I want them to be good, thick, archival-quality, cotton fiber pages. Pinkie wants paper to be all colors and the book to have tassels, lots of tassels. For bookmarks. For every page. Rarity insists that the color scheme for the book should be pink, baby blue and yellow.

Dash thinks we should have all the pictures in our hooves the day after tomorrow. That gives Rarity enough time to put together an assortment of ribbons, glitter, sequins and her book-making kit. Pinkie will bring the paints and well as vanilla, chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon and other spices, to scent the pages. And frosting too. I have doubts about the frosting idea.

Fluttershy is going to press and wax some flowers, leaves and grasses, and a blue jay feather. I'm bringing the quills and inks. Spike will do much of the writing. Applejack is going to make the book covers and spine out of apple tree wood, she just has to decide what to carve into the wood. Dash suggested decorating the covers with polished rock candy. Pinkie will have to promise not to eat it.

We'll do this in the Treecastle. There's more room and the rock floors will be easier to clean if we make a mess. I wrote to Maud Pie to ask for a poem. We can always add that in when it gets here.

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Picking Out Supplies

May 22: I sent Spike to Canterlot to pick up paper for Pinkie's Surprise Picnic Party Scrapbook. Twenty-five pages of each color, in two shades of pink (raspberry and rose), yellow (pale gold) and cerulean (not baby) blue. Rarity, the color expert.

Spike and I know a shop in Canterlot that has the very best in stationary and art supplies. While he's there, he'll pick up some archival quality colored inks and calligraphy quills. Spike often acts as my secretary and he really knows his quills.

Rarity has the necessary thread. Applejack is hard at work on the book covers. She's fitting together pieces of seasoned knot-free apple wood to make planks that are flat and sturdy. There was still some rock candy left from the party (Pinkie had made a whole wagon load!) and Rarity is polishing some of the nicer ones, in colors that will represent each of us.

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Working on the Book

May 23: Dash brought in a pile of pictures which I sorted into chronological order and set them all out on the dining room table, along with the pictures from Pinkie's camera. It seemed to be the logical thing to do. Pinkie and Rarity brought her supplies which I set in the center of the table next to the four piles of paper from Canterlot, arranged by color, the five quills, in ascending nib width, and seven ink wells and blotters. Spike had bought black, blue, gold, green, purple and silver inks. He also set out a copper ink that leaked a blue edge. Very cool.

Applejack arrived with her apple wood hinged book covers and spine, along with wood working and wood burning tools, wood stains and polish. Fluttershy had her carefully pressed flowers, grasses leaves and blue jay feathers, preserved in transparent wax sheets. They looked to be dancing and bobbing to music only they could hear, but that we could all remember.

Spike set out the snacks and drinks on a separate table and we were all set!

Every book needs a beginning, so, working together, we composed a preface recounting the tale of the Party Pony of Ponyville who is really hard to surprise. Spike took notes and Rarity prepared the paper so it could be properly bound into a book after we'd filled them.

After a few drafts, during which Rarity snipped a few locks from our manes and somehow tied them into fancy lace-like outlines of our cutie marks, we were ready to have it written into the book. But first we each dabbed ink on a hoof and left a hoof-print here and there on the first six pages in the book, carefully tracing the outline of the hoof as well. Near each pony's print, Rarity glued the knotted mane-lace cutie marks. Spike left a scale and a claw-print too, and he filled in the rest of the space with the tale. He really is good with a calligraphy quill.

On to the pictures! We played a bit with the order and the narrative they made and I spaced them out so that there were pictures on all the pages that remained in the book. Then it was just a question of filling it in with anecdotes, descriptions, Fluttershy's hoofwork, glitter, paint, sketches, ribbons, scents and the like. We left a space for a poem from Maud, when it arrives.

Applejack and Rarity were hard at work on the book covers. Applejack had worked three balloon shapes into the front and the back, burning in strings for the balloons and staining the wood in shades of pink, yellow and blue. She carved out sockets for Rarity's polished rock candy facets, arranged to represent flowers, and together they scored the wood and glued in gem grit in firework patterns. The title, Pinkie Pie Spring Picnic Surprise Party, they spelled out in gold foil on the front and the spine. Inside the front and back covers, a rough map of Ponyville in gems, wood stain, wood burning, paint and inks. Rarity thought to bring tissue guards which will be placed inside the covers once the paint, inks and stains are dry. The tissue guards keep the paint and stains from transferring to the book pages. The advantage of the wooden covers is that they keep the paper pages flat. Rarity made a pair of plaited silver wire clasps to hold the covers shut just for this purpose.

All the pages are resting on the table now, drying and waiting for assembly, Rarity will be doing that with our help on the day after tomorrow. Pinkie is all for the wait -- it's a party that, while it may not go on forever, it's not over yet. There is also Maud's poem. And Pinkie is going to get every pony in Ponyville to sign it. This party might just last for months.

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Rocking the Rock Candy

May 24: Rock candy necklaces are the new 'thing' in Ponyville. Since Pinkie is the sole source of rock candy in Ponyville (it's a secret recipe), she's been baking and filling the new rock candy bins at Sugarcube Corner. At least it's allowing the pages of her to-be-assembled scrapbook to dry unruffled.

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Between the Covers

May 25: We got together again this afternoon to assemble the pages and fit them between the covers. While we drank tea, Rarity sewed the pages together and connected them to the book spine. With all pictures, ribbons and pressed flowers, the book was a bit thicker than expected. Applejack added a bit more wood to the spine to make it larger before connecting the covers to it with hinges and adding Rarity's two plaited silver clasps.

We read through it again, of course. All that's left is to transcribe Maud's poem, when it arrives, and to get everypony in Ponyville to sign it. Cheese Sandwich too, next time he comes by. Pinkie will probably have to write to him.

One scrapbook for Pinkie, check. The Surprise Pinkie Party has been a success.

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Hot Spring Day

May 26: It was really hot and muggy for a spring day today. A taste of what awaits us in summer. We all went to the spa today, even Rainbow Dash, although she didn't stay long. She joined us for a relaxing soak in the hot tub, then flew off for a nap.

It turns out that Pinkie has a few scrapbooks already. I guess the scrapbook we collaborated on was a better gift than I imagined. Sometimes I get lucky.

Apart from the soak, I enjoyed a mud bath and a massage. Wallowing in mud makes me feel all tingly, like I'm a filly getting into mischief. But it also feels great on my skin and after the mud is washed off, my coat just shines.

After the spa, we hauled Rainbow Dash from her nap and went to Sugarcube Corner for big bowls of fruit and spice ices. I had a mint tea and lemon flavored ice. I wouldn't mind having another right now. I should make some mint iced tea for tomorrow.

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Maud Pie's Poem

May 27: I received a late delivery of a letter from Galloping Gorge. It's a reply from Maud Pie and it read:

my sister
sedimentary
bedrock
metamorphic
volcanic
sparkling
with crazy
facets
shine on

OK. I forgot that Maud composed short poems. This will take less room than I thought. Spike has penned out a few trial versions in the various inks. We'll ask Pinkie tomorrow which is best.

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Lithography in Silver Ink

May 28: Pinkie asked Spike to use the silver ink (it's on a blue page) and to copy Maud's hoofwriting as well as he could. He made an exact copy, just bigger.

Well, the book only lacks signatures. Pinkie has been knocking on doors and there are already several signatures. It's slow going because at each stop, every pony wants to tell their version of the party. It's great for Pinkie, she's reliving the whole thing at every house she visits.

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Between the Pages

May 29: After all that excitement planning, living and reliving Pinkie's surprise party, it was good to spend time with my books.

I need more books.

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Wild Herbs

May 30: I dropped in on Zecora today. She was at the surprise party, but there was so much activity and noise we were hardly able to exchange two words that day. I thanked her for the fireworks and for bringing the delicious punches and other drinks. They were so good that everypony kept her and Big McIntosh hopping, fetching more water and mixing fresh batches all afternoon and well into the night. She'd seen the scrapbook already, Pinkie had come by earlier to show it off and get it signed. I spotted a rock candy necklace dangling amidst the suspended vials and gourds in her apothecary of medicinal ingredients.

We had a nice chat over cups of a bitter mint iced tea. I think I detected wintergreen, peppermint and dandelion. It's amazing what she can do with wild herbs.

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No Guns in Equestria

May 31: I've noticed that "guns", which use an explosive chemical reaction to push a projectile, seem to be a weapon of choice in your Euclydean universe. In Equestria, that would not be practical. The explosion is too fast for most ponies to guide the projectile in a way that it can reach its target with any force or accuracy. Shooting arrows or launching spears and rocks gives a pony a lot more control, consistency and distance. If you depend only on a split-second detonation to push a projectile, the 'path' (choice of distances) it takes from point A happens at random, and it could end up at just about any distance in the direction it was heading. Due to gravity, its displacement through the air is not in a straight line, it follows a curve. That means at every instant, its "vector" (to use the Euclydean term) has a different slope and thus a whole new infinite selection of 'paths' (distances from A to B) that it will 'follow' at random. A pony would do much better to just throw a rock, thereby maintaining control of the 'path' of the rock the whole time it's in flight.

Party cannons, like those used by Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie, employ a spring. A spring launcher is slower and lets the party pony control the path of objects fired. That way Pinkie can use a party cannon to set tables and launch balloons and confetti.

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Author's Note

May be? Yes. It be May. I still don't know when's the best rate, time of day and day of the week to update. Only one thumb (rating) so far. I think it takes ten for that to show. I stuffed this story into two world-building group folders since there is no 'lore' or 'world-building' tags and you can't make your own tags in FiMFiction.

Voice of Fire was all over the news once upon a time.

VI June

And That's How they Do It Down On The Farm

June 1: Applejack had us all over for supper and "some down home cooking". Pinkie took a break from knocking on doors and showed us all the signatures she'd collected so far. There were lots of scraps of paper stashed between the pages to keep down the smudging while the inked signatures dried. Most ponies signed on their pictures, near pictures of ponies they knew well or near pictures of events that night that they liked. Rarity fussed a bit over the scuff marks to the covers and put a fresh shine on a few of the rock candy flowers. Pinkie had also brought over the scrapbook she had made of her road trip with the Apples to Goldie Delicious' house. Fluttershy was especially fascinated by the odd creatures living in the "scariest cave in Equestria".

The food was delicious. After we ate we played horseshoes out back until well after moon rise. There were two horseshoe pits, which is just as well, or we'd still be waiting to play the winner after Applejack and Rainbow Dash got at it. They just don't know when to call it even.

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Carerfilly Trip Planned -- It's a Picnic

June 2: While soaking in the hot tub at the Ponyville Spa, I announced my intention to Rarity to head over to Carerfilly Castle to browse the books. Rarity thought that we should all go. It would be a great excuse for a picnic and to see how her mended tapestries were holding up. Dash volunteered to get the word out to Pinkie and Applejack. Fluttershy, surrounded by friends in the warm relaxing embrace of the hot tub and feeling brave, said she would come too. She's curious what late spring has brought to the Everfree. I could almost see manticore cubs dancing in her eyes.

So we're going tomorrow! Spike has packed a pot, bowls and the ingredients for alfalfa cube, apple slice sugar beet pulp soup. I've packed quills, ink and scrolls, and I've invited Zecora. I intend to get there early and to leave late.

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The Heart of Carerfilly Castle Beats Still

June 3: I got ready early and set out to the Carerfilly Castle with Spike. While on our way to pick up Zecora, the morning sun broke through the Everfree gloom and briefly shone on a large stone outcrop up ahead. A cockatrice jumped up on the rock and started sunning itself. We made a detour.

Zecora was all set to go, some picnic treats packed in one saddlebag and her all purpose herb kit packed in the other. We set out for the library! Adventure awaits! (Spike rolled his eyes when he thought I wasn't looking.)

We were soon over the moat and at the entrance to the ruins. The time had passed for lilacs and innocence, it was too early for forget-me-nots, but there were a few irises and dandelions in bloom by the tumbled stones. We walked in and strolled down the stately halls, down to the library and magic.

I lost track of time.

While I was nose-deep in books, Rarity, Fluttershy, Tree Hugger and Applejack arrived, around about late morning. Tree Hugger is Fluttershy's naturalist friend and she was passing through Ponyville today so Fluttershy invited her to come along to our picnic in the Carerfilly Castle ruins. We had met before as Fluttershy had also invited her to the latest Grand Galloping Gala. Along the way they had met the river serpent again, sunning and preening in the shallows. Tree Hugger says he's one with his center, all his chakras are in order and his aura just glows. I think that means she is impressed.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash arrived a bit later. Dash helped Applejack spread out the picnic while Rarity, Tree Hugger and Fluttershy toured the castle and discussed esthetics. Pinkie Pie made a bee-line for the "organ to the outside" and started pounding out preludes and fugues by Eweslamb Sebaastian Black on the keyboard. This I know because she hit a key sequence that nearly launched me out a window while I was reading a book on living tree trunk habitat and design. It took me five minutes to find my place again. Zecora and Spike snickering in the stacks did not help me regain my concentration.

Over lunch Tree Hugger spoke at length of the harmonics in the ruined structure and discussed harmonious reparations with Rarity. It looks simple to me. You put the stones back from where they fell, and if you're not sure, you copy the pattern across the hall. Esthetics escapes me.

After lunch I zipped back to the stacks. So many books to read! I think Zecora found good reading too. Evening came much too soon. Spike had headed back to Ponyville with the others and it was just me and Zecora turning pages in the deepening shadows. It was time to go home.

How I missed this library and all these old books! I want to take them all home.

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The Grass Also Rises

June 4: I went for a morning stroll in the Ponyville Commons and grazed a bit in the pasture while leafing through Effective Haying Equipment and Practices for Temperate Equestria and the Lower Mountainous Regions. The grass is growing well (it's also quite tasty!) and soon there will be another Hay Board meeting, some time before First Cut.

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The Stars, See How They Shine For You

June 5: It's so nice out tonight. Rainbow Dash had cleared out every last cloud out of the sky over Ponyville before sunset and all the constellations were up and active. The night is just full of stars. Princess Luna waited at least two hours before raising the moon, probably to show off her sea of stars to full effect. I saw at least two shooting stars go by, winking over Applejack's farm. Getting a new telescope is still on my to-do list. But laying down on my Treecastle balcony staring deep into the starry abyss, I could feel my whole universe spin. Wheels within wheels.

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Get Power Grass! Your Fillies Will Run Like Griffins!

June 6: I'm going to have to cut down on that fresh spring grass. There are ponies selling fresh picked bundles at the bazaar and I just can't seem to only eat one. As a result, my energy levels are coming in fits and bursts. I fell asleep halfway through re-reading Daring Do and the Eternal Flower. Will she meet the unageing pony one day? My hooves are growing long and uncomfortable. I'll get them filed down on my next trip to the spa.

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Back to the Books

June 7: I was feeling a bit fidgety so I decided to go browse the Carerfilly Castle Library some more. I made myself comfortable with a few likely books in Princess Celestia's old reading room, checked out of Equestria and into the thoughts and words of ponies gone a thousand years. Little has changed. The crops still grow, ponies change the seasons and magic is magic. We have a good system.

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As the Sun Rises So Does the Moon

June 8: Another Summer Sun Celebration is coming soon. This year Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are going to Fillydelphia to be feted. Princess Cadence is staying in the Crystal Empire, and I am staying here in Ponyville. My best friends are here, so that suits me fine. Getting anchored to this Tree-Chest-Castle, as Pinkie puts it, does have an up side.

Every town in Equestria is set to party all night until the sun is raised on Summer Sun Celebration day, regardless if they're in the crowd watching Princess Luna lower the moon and Princess Celestia raise the sun. Ponyville is no different. Pinkie will be off to the races with the planning and execution, but everypony will be lending a hoof. It's tradition. Fluttershy is orchestrating her birds for a special dawn chorus. There will be food and banners and glitter and clouds in the shape of the Royal Pony Sisters placed 'just so'...

There's tradition, but with Princess Luna back, should there be a stargazing event included? If so, should the name be changed to... Summer Sun and Moon Celebration? Or better yet: Summer Sky Celebration? Or maybe have two events six months apart. A Summer Sun Celebration and a Winter Moon Festival? Winter Moon, right after the Running of the Leaves, kicking off three months of ease and holidays. That could work.

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Refreshed

June 9: Spa Day just couldn't come soon enough! My hooves were really feeling long and off and all that time in Princess Celestia's old reading room in Carerfilly Castle got me feeling all grubby. That place hasn't been dusted in centuries. I arrived at the spa early, even before Fluttershy. Luckily, I'm always equipped with a book to read.

It wasn't long before Pinkie joined me in the waiting room. She has just about finished touring Ponyville with her scrapbook. When she's finished, we'll probably freshen up the scents we put in it.

Applejack walked in looking a little worse for wear. She's been clearing out some of the dead apple trees and teaming up with Big McIntosh to pull out the stumps. She went for the sauna, massage and aromatic oils regime.

Fluttershy and Rarity arrived at about the same time. Fluttershy's house full of critters is driving her a bit ragged (especially the baby birds fillies and colts keep bringing her) and Rarity is midway through completing another order for Sapphire Shores. Both also looked past due for the Ponyville Spa. Aloe took our orders.

An hour and a half later we were mellow, shiny new mares. Rainbow Dash too, although she arrived late and just soaked with us in the hot tub. Finally my hooves feel right again and I don't feel like I've spent an afternoon cleaning an attic. We celebrated with ice cream, just because. Philosopher Pinkie Pie stated on no uncertain terms that ice cream with friends is reason enough to celebrate. I couldn't agree more. I had orange chocolate jalapeno ice cream. For the adventure!

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Call of the Smoothie

June 10: I can hear the spring grass calling me. Soft, tasty spring grass. Leave me be, grass! See here, I'm eating second cut hay from last summer. Ha! I am safe in this Tree built rock horse-house, high above your siren song, here in my fortress, my island of serenity. I am an island in the sea of green. You can not touch me. I'm not listening.

I wonder if Fluttershy saw anything interesting in the Everfree the other day? Not that she could take a manticore cub home. It would probably eat her nestlings.

I think there's a pony at the bazaar who specializes in grass smoothies... a spring grass smoothie must be really, really good.

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Brain Freeze

June 11: I caved in. I got a spring grass smoothie. It was good. It was cold. I have a headache. I think I drank it too fast.

Hay Board meeting tomorrow. I'll feel better by then. Yay.

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Making With The Hay

June 12: Hay Board Meetings are fun! Our hay stores are still well stocked. We'll make it to the second cut. The rougher first cut hay is better for less active ponies. The more physically active ponies, such as the pegasi and ponies plowing the fields, need the boost provided by the faster burning second cut hay. But because the second and third cut hays are softer and sweeter smelling, most ponies like them a lot too. Our local harvesters also produce special mixes with more or less alfalfa, clover and with other grasses like oats and wheat, as well as fermented bales. A lot of that is for export and trade with other species.

There is still a fair amount of demand for our specialty hays but prices have dropped now that the pastures are lush once again. We have just about depleted our inventory of fermented hay. Export demand is highest for our silage so we recommended that our harvesters make more polymer-sealed hay bales. Those are the easiest to transport and because they're relatively small, they sell better because less is wasted to spoilage after the polymer seal is broken.

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Spur of the Moment

June 13: After the all the fun of planning out the short, medium and long term production recommendations and common pricing strategy with the Hay Board, I was keen to gossip with Applejack and Rarity. We got together at Sugarcube Corner today, all six of us, and over tea and oatmeal cookies, we hatched a plan to take a day trip to the Crystal Kingdom and visit their library!

Or maybe it wasn't so much a plan, more of a suggestion. That I made. To return a few books. And look at more books. Did I mention it wasn't a popular plan? Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn't look too excited.

Well I'm going, and surprisingly, Applejack and Rarity are coming too. Rarity is looking for fresh pattern ideas and she wants to research old Crystal Empire fashions. Applejack wants to see if she can grow crystal corn in Ponyville and to see first hoof what apples and apple accessories sell in the Crystal Empire.

I wrote a quick note to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor to say we're coming and sent it by express mail, special delivery.

Tomorrow, we take the train! Bright and early.

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On Our Way

June 14: Ugh. Who named me 'Twilight' Sparkle? Wouldn't 'Evening' Sparkle have been enough? (Went to bed late last night... or earlier this morning.) Must get going. To the train station. For the books.

I'm worried it might have been a bit too short notice and we might have trouble finding a room. Too late now! We could always take the overnight train back to Ponyville. I hope Rarity packed light.

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Back From the Crystal Empire

June 15: We're back from Crystal Empire and I have a fresh load of books from Cadence and a few borrowed from the library. That library, so big, so full of books! Floors and floors of bookcases full of books! The librarian found several illustrated manuscripts for Rarity detailing exotic Crystal Pony fashion as well as scrolls with dressmaking patterns. Rarity looked like she was rolling in clover. Meanwhile Applejack canvassed the Crystal Empire shops, picking up crystal berries and corn, and finding new clients for her apples and apple-based confections. She even joined us at the library to look up recipes and to jot some down.

Cadence and Shining found rooms for us in the castle. We didn't have to sleep in the street or sleep three in the same bed. I did get chided for not giving them more advance notice. Ha ha, ah well, sometimes I'm not as organized as I could be.

Cadence and Shining Armor invited us to dinner. I almost missed it, the librarian let me stay late and I lost track of the time. Applejack came back to get me. Rarity wore an 'evening hat' to dinner that trailed colored streamers down to her withers. She said it was all the rage over a thousand years ago in the Crystal Empire. That's a bit vague since _all_ the Crystal Empire fashions date back to over a thousand years ago. She did attract some odd looks from the older crystal ponies serving us.

This Summer Sun Celebration in the Crystal Empire promises to be extra festive. Princess Cadence has been studying Crystal Empire traditions and now that the ponies have most of their memories back, she has been pumping them for ideas. It's going to be a big bash, sure to light up the night sky all over Equestria. A gala, dancing, midnight candle-lit parades, extravagant costumes. Rarity's eyes were as wide as saucers. She looked very tempted to skip Ponyville's Celebration and go back to the Crystal Empire to see this. Maybe next year.

Cadence has been picking up books here and there for me. She's put the word out that she has a taker for any old books that ponies might not want any more and she has been given several dozen. It's an eclectic mix. Children's story books, reference books, journals, cook books (Applejack has already borrowed those from me), travel guides... Almost all of them are over a thousand years old, like the Crystal Ponies that had owned them. It's fascinating!

Time to hit the hay! It's been an exciting, but tiring, couple of days.

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Paper Lanterns and Fireflies

June 16: On the ride back to Ponyville on the train, Rarity was hatching a plan to have a Ponyville version of the Crystal Empire parade in the wee hours before the Summer Sun Celebration sunrise. It involves streamers, paper lanterns and fireflies. She'll have to run it by the mayor and Pinkie for approval.

In the late evening the weather ponies sent us a real drencher! The clouds just poured down pounding torrents of water. It was quite exciting! Spike called me to the balcony to watch. It was totally worth putting down a book for a few minutes to go look. The heavy, sudden rainfall was there to flush out the streams and drainage ditches. It beats cleaning them by hoof. Then the pegasi mostly cleared the sky and dropped in a few rainbows. Everything looks sparkling clean in the bright sunshine now, all set to get decorated for Summer Sun.

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Proposing the Procession of Sparkles

June 17: Rarity had little difficulty convincing Mayor Mare and Pinkie to include her idea of a parade of lights. Usually ponies just step out of their houses or where they're having their all-night parties and watch the sun rise from the streets. With the parade, we can all end up together in a good spot, like a hill top, and watch the sun rise from there.

That was Rarity's opening argument, parading through town, picking up more ponies on the way, and ending up somewhere with a view. Probably the west pasture. There are some nice big rolling hills there. She brought some samples to show what she had in mind: wide gossamer cloth streamers glistening like dewy leaves, magicked to float like the air; colorful paper lanterns, some transparent, suspended on sticks and lit by candles. What she didn't have on hoof, but she hopes Fluttershy can pull off, is to have hundreds of fireflies to fly above the procession and follow it. Fluttershy is already having rehearsals with her special dawn chorus flock of birds. A hilltop destination would work out well with that too.

I saw Rarity's sample streamer. It's really beautiful. She and Spike spent all afternoon today digging up gems and tomorrow, while she's breaking and polishing the stones, I'm going to Canterlot with Spike to pick up enough gossamer cloth for her project.

Fluttershy was out after dark, rounding up and talking to fireflies. Spike was exhausted and went to sleep early.

Canterlot tomorrow! I wonder if I'll have time to take a peek at telescopes!

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We Came, We Bought, We Bolted

June 18: We caught the early train to Canterlot and arrived in time for an early lunch. We hoofed it to a café, ate and set off to the garment district where we found a few shops dealing in bolts of cloth. We got a rainbow assortment and we had so many that we hired a cab to lug it all back to the train station. It's a lot harder to find a cab in Canterlot than it is in Manehattan. Ponies are just more used to trotting and strolling leisurely in Canterlot.

I left Spike to guard our cloth horde while I went back to a shop selling scientific glassware and optical equipment. They had telescopes. Many telescopes. Mirrored telescopes. Glass lens telescopes. Combinations of reflective and refractive telescopes. Tracking telescopes. Telescopes with oculars that can be swapped for a photographic plate or a projector. They also had a book on telescopes. I bought that.

Back at the train station, I took over guard duty while Spike ran off to buy a snack. We caught the afternoon train back to Ponyville, arriving just before moon rise. It isn't too far to the Carousel Boutique from the train station. I managed to levitate all the cloth, and carry a sleeping Spike, and take it to Rarity.

I have lots of room on my Treecastle balcony. Maybe I'll get a nice fat mirrored telescope. But a small refractive telescope is fast and versatile! Hmph.

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Many Hooves At Work

June 19: Preparations for Summer Sun Celebration are picking up steam. Lots of decorations are going up following that drenching rain we got and the parade has been announced in the Ponyville Express. Pinkie has several ponies making the paper lanterns and the poles to carry them with. The candles were easy enough to find.

Pinkie and the Mayor have planned out the parade route and Pinkie is going to stash lanterns and Rarity's streamers all along the way. That way, as the parade grows, she can keep supplying ponies with more lanterns and streamers.

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There's a Party Going On

June 20: It's the night before the Summer Sun sunrise and the celebration has started! I have to gallop off to the Town Hall to where most of the ponies are partying. Pinkie wanted me to be the greeter at the door, seeing as I'm the local princess. Applejack thought that made sense, I could see the gears beginning to turn in Rarity's head and Fluttershy looked conflicted. I threw cold water on that idea. That's Mayor Mare's strength and this party is as much her doing as it is Pinkie's. Not only do I not want to steal her thunder, but if I shake everypony's hooves, all six of us will have to do the same. We're a team. And this is not our party, it's to celebrate the Royal Pony Sisters.

Luckily for me, nopony else was keen to spend the night shaking hooves. At least not that kind of shaking.

It's going to shaking, pronking and rolling at City Hall! DJ Pon3 is spinning her records, Rarity and Pinkie incorporated the paper lanterns and the bejeweled streamers into the festive decor, and Fluttershy's myriad of lightning bugs are blinking like mad on the outer walls of the building.

I'm going to catch up with my friends there. Maybe I can organize the overnight treat tables! Or maybe if a bring a lexicon and my Piaffle game I could interest some ponies in a game? Um, probably not. I'm sure Pinkie's got the party games covered. I'd better just go.

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Happy Summer Sun Celebration!

June 21: The party was fun. I spent the whole time there with my friends. I danced for a while, and tripped over my wings a few times. Those wings still have a mind of their own. At least they don't throw my covers halfway across the room that often anymore. I think I tripped a fair number of ponies too.

Pinkie Pie was often zipping off to organize a game, like pin the tail on the pony, or to tell a joke, or to juggle cream pies, or to drop a thousand balloons into the room. Applejack had her hooves full keeping the refreshments coming, and no she didn't want any help. Fluttershy stepped out a few times to make sure the fireflies didn't wander off. Her dawn chorus birds were sleeping in the bushes around a hill in the west pasture. Rarity was wearing a summer dress sequined in a starburst pattern and she had on a large plumed hat. Spike was playing all the games and Dash was playing pranks on Pinkie and Mayor Mare. That joy buzzer earned her a bucket of ice water over the head, courtesy of the Mayor.

Before the morning twilight, while the stars were still shining brightly in the night sky, Mayor Mare cut the music to announce the parade! That was Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's cues. Rainbow dashed off with a few other pegasi to collect and shape the clouds they'd parked by the west pasture and Fluttershy went out to rally her flashing fleet of lightning bugs. Rarity, Spike and Pinkie set to moving the lanterns and streamers to the door, ready to be distributed by me and Applejack.

Mayor Mare explained that we were all to follow her lead. She was going to trot all around town, and we were to try and match her gait pattern, the clip-clopping of our hooves in the streets ringing as one! Now that's a fun game. She pointed out that Applejack and I were handing out lanterns and streamers to ponies to carry, and as a bonus, there were little silver bells and chimes on the lanterns and streamers, to compliment the fancy hoofstepping. She told us remember to look up, and as a final surprise, we were heading to a choice location to watch the sun rise. There was much hoof stomping. Everypony was champing at the bit to get going.

Rarity, Spike and Pinkie Pie slipped out ahead (Pinkie knew the route to be taken), Mayor Mare got to the door, and out, and the trot about town began. I calculated that with what we had, every fifth pony should get a lantern or a streamer. That went pretty smoothly. There were a few ponies that didn't want to carry anything and a few that really, really wanted to be a lantern or streamer bearer. I had to relight a few candles that had gone out. Finally, everypony was off and trotting and we followed.

The Mayor was having a grand time putting us to the test. Not just trotting, but stomping and tap dancing, fast and slow. As we went along, ponies that had stayed home or were at other parties joined the procession and joined in the drumming of the hooves. Pinkie was pulling out more lanterns and streamers from where she'd hid them and Applejack and I helped distribute them among the new ponies and I helped Spike light the candles. Meanwhile, a river of fireflies followed us overhead. It was amazing.

As the twilight grew near, Mayor Mare left the edge of town and trotted zigzags and loops through the western pasture and then spiraled up the biggest hill in the field. The lightning bugs were matching us every step of the way, the sky was growing lighter, and suddenly I felt waves of hope and love in the air. Everypony stopped and stared. From the north, giant streams of colored light were spreading south. The Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies, like us, were celebrating.

"Look east, everypony!" called out the mayor. There, bookending Ponyville in the distance were the Royal Pony Sisters carved in clouds. Rainbow Dash landed next to me, pleased as punch. The cloud sculptures began to turn pink, then salmon. To the west, the moon set. Then, straight over Ponyville, the sun rose. In the hush, Fluttershy's special dawn chorus sang from all around. Everypony cheered.

We were a lot of excited ponies, full of hope and love, in a wide, rolling field, with dozens of very sparkly streamers clenched in our teeth. There was pronking and galloping and prancing, the ponies with the streamers became impromptu leaders of small processions, running patterns. It was dazzling, like a thousand stars in the early dawn light. After a while the leaders took off toward town and headed back to the Town Hall where Applejack's crew was spreading a delicious Summer Sun Celebration breakfast for everypony.

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After the Party

June 22: Summer is here and the Celebration is done for another year. All that's left is the clean-up. The western field got a bit dug up with all the galloping yesterday morning. Our agriculture specialists have been busy all day smoothing out the ground, raking in peat and compost and reseeding. Right before sunset the weather crew gave the hill a light drenching. Fresh new grass will give the hill stripes in bright shades of green in no time.

The streamers that Rarity made have been collected and carefully stowed away for next year. The lanterns were given away to anypony who wanted one. Now every house has one, including mine. I have a lavender one hanging above my front door, and after sunset, I lit the candle.

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Dear Princess Celestia

June 23: It has been a long time since I've written a Friendship research letter to Princess Celestia. Research in that respect has been replaced by sporadic practical applications. What Friendship lesson can I draw from the success of our Ponyville Summer Sun Celebration? That when many friends work together in harmony, the fruit of their labor can be better than they ever imagined.

So I asked Spike to pick up a scroll and ink, just like old times.

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

This year's Summer Sun Celebration party in Ponyville was like no other that I've seen. While your royal presences were absent, your spirits were in the hearts of everypony in Ponyville. The pre-sunrise party lasted all night and was crowned with a procession of glitter and lights designed by Rarity and inspired by the Crystal Empire festivities. Fluttershy orchestrated thousands of fireflies for the procession and dozens of birds for the dawn chorus. We had the night sky, the lights from the Crystal Empire, the lowering of the moon and raising of the sun, all while everypony in Ponyville was gathered in an open field. It was magic.

Many hooves worked and stamped as one to make this the best Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville ever. The lesson that I learned right there and then was that when many friends work together in harmony, the fruit of their labor can be better than they ever imagined.

Your faithful student, now and always,

Twilight Sparkle

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First Cut Harvest Party

June 24: The timothy hay first cut harvest has begun! The cut grass is drying in the sun in several fields now and more is going to be harvested soon. By mid afternoon the mouth-watering scent of curing hay was wafting through my open windows. I was finding it hard to focus on my reading. I went down to the kitchen stores to see what I could pull out. I was rummaging through the pickled beets, crispy dried celery sticks and chopped corn stalk silage when I received a knock at the door. It was Pinkie dressed as a hay bale. She gave me an envelope, which promptly exploded in a cloud of confetti, leaving me with an invitation to a 'surprise hay harvest make way for the new harvest feast and party party' with only one hour to prepare myself and arrive at Sugarcube Corner. A feast was sounding really good by then.

It was just after closing so we had the first floor to us and the Cakes. Pinkie had gone all out with the harvest theme. There were long straw bale tables piled high with food, smaller straw bale tables with straw mound seats, harvesting equipment on the walls and paper lanterns hung up with baling twine. (I didn't know she had any left. She's getting extra mileage out of those lanterns. I guess she stashed a bunch more for "lantern emergencies".) Even with all the cooking and decorating she had found time to pick a few tasty bouquets of daisies, bladder campions, dandelion leaves, evening primrose and rough bedstraw.

The general idea was to eat the old hay to make room for the new hay. There was no way we were going to do that in one meal or even one day, but that was part of the joke. Still, Pinkie and the Cakes had pulled out all the stops in preparing and serving first cut hay in every way imaginable. It was all delicious. Now I'm stuffed. I think I ate too many hay fries, and crispy hay, and hay soup, and sweet and sour hay silage. And hay casserole. And hay juice smoothies. And hay cake. And ooooh, I'm going to go lay down for a while.

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Under Cover of the Night

June 25: Pinkie's hay feast was a good idea. After stuffing myself silly last night, I haven't been hungry all day. I did make a fresh batch of mint iced tea and I nibbled a few carrot sticks, but for the most part, I didn't eat. The smell of the fresh cut hay from the surrounding fields isn't as alluring as it was yesterday.

I bet there are foals out there now, in the fields under the cover of darkness, rolling in the sweet smell and eating great mouthfuls. I know I'd be tempted. The farmers are going to be vexed. There was an article about that last year in the Ponyville Express.

The hay farmers had a long list of complaints, like bunnies running off with their mouths stuffed with cut timothy grass and alfalfa, hiding it and coming back for more. Older foals sneaking into the fields after dark and not only eating the hay but making "hay princesses" everywhere, building hay forts, hay tunnels and carving trails through the hay as they galloped about chasing each other. The hay doesn't dry properly when it gets bunched up by this activity, and the gaps make baling more difficult too. At least there haven't been any stampedes. Yet.

I think someponies were exaggerating a bit. In Pinkie's opinion they're just grumpy gusses from working long hours without a break. According to Rainbow Dash it's just the prima donna farmers fussing. Rarity sympathized with them -- laying the grass out in patterns to dry right is _an art_. Running about on that tableau is _vandalism_. (Her emphasis.) Applejack didn't comment, she was on the farm, hard at work weeding and hoeing. And probably chasing varmints.

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When Winter Came to Equestria

June 26: One of the books Princess Cadence passed along to me is pretty interesting. It's a foal's storybook about how winter came to Equestria. It's a great insight into Crystal Pony culture. It goes something like this:

When Winter came to Equestria

Long, long ago when ponies first came to Equestria, the land was forever green and the grass grew long and lush. But the giant Windigo that lived in the mountains of the north came down to live in the plains and forests, and his name was Winter. Where he went, his hoofprints left sheets of ice. Where he swished his tail, frost covered the grass and the trees. Great clouds billowed from his breath, covering the sky and burying the land in snow. Soon all of Equestria became frozen and white. Nothing grew anywhere and the ponies became weak with hunger and despair.

Epona, the All Mother, decided to send the Windigo away. She traveled long through the wilderness, following the frost to where the snow was the deepest, to where Winter had settled. She found him one night, resting by a frozen waterfall as tall as a castle, on a carpet of pure white snow that glittered like a field of diamonds, under a breathless sky where every star stood still and shone with all their might.

The giant Windigo bid Epona welcome, but before Epona could speak, Winter began to mesmerize her with tales of the land before ponies, when all was cold and rock and sparkling crystals. Epona became drowsy and fell into a deep sleep. She had a dream. In her dream, the giant Winter filled the sky, his eyes like ice and his mane weaving across the sky like smoke. Then suddenly, in her dream he began to shrink and melt. Great rivers flowed all around and meadows of sweet grass sprang up. Epona slept for three whole months.

When she woke, the Windigo was gone and her friend the crystal hare was nestled in her mane. "Far to the south there lives a Princess," said the hare "her power is greater than the Windigo. Find her and bring her here."

More tomorrow.

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When Winter Came to Equestria (concluded)

June 27: Epona wallowed through the deep snow and made her way south. The days passed, the snow and ice grew thinner, then patchy, and here and there green things grew. She crossed rivers and plains. She trotted through wild mossy forests, skirted a vast swamp and walked through a jungle into a wide clearing. It was as hot and humid as a sauna. Birds chased insects over gigantic leaves, grass grew belly deep and the scent of flowers filled the air.

In the distance Epona could hear the sound of hooves and singing. She approached cautiously. On a low hill rested a grey mare and around her galloped and pranced four foals. The grey mare was unlike any Epona had seen before. She had wings. And she had a horn. When Epona had recovered from her surprise she noticed that she was no longer alone. An old pony had joined her. The old pony spoke. "The foals are celebrating Life, Growth, Renewal and Light. They do so to honor their Princess. Her name is Summer." At last Epona had found her Princess.

Epona emerged from the tall grass, stood at the bottom of the hill and called. Summer rose, and with hoofsteps as light as a feather, walked down to meet her. The All Mother is leader of all ponies everywhere.

Together they raced back north. In every hoofprint Summer made, grass sprang up and spread in all directions. Above her the skies cleared and the frost retreated. Over the hills and to the north they ran, leaving a trail of green life behind them. Finally they reached Epona's country where everypony slept and the land was silent and white.

Winter was waiting for Epona to return and he was delighted to see she had brought a tall grey mare with her. But before Winter could speak, Princess Summer took to the air. With great wing-beats she cleared the air of mist and clouds. She folded her wings, dived to the ground and landed so hard that she shook the snow off the trees, shattered the ice on the lakes and rivers and woke everypony in the north. She then opened her wings and with her horn shining like a second sun, sang a note so pure that every plant burst into leaf and flower; and the heat that they made melted all the snow and ice, carrying away Winter in a torrent of water.

But Epona is the All Mother and she caught the giant Windigo by the tail and she dragged him to the shore. She made Winter promise to return to his mountains. But she also granted Winter permission to come back every year for three months to balance out Summer's growth and bounty and to give ponies and their land a rest.

In this way, Epona gave us a new Harmony. Summer and Winter give us a time for work and a time for play. And like night and day, a balance between the time to run and the time for little ponies to sleep.

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Epona the All Mother

June 28: That foal's storybook is probably a glimpse into pony culture thousands of years ago, before there was an Equestria and maybe before alicorn ponies. The story elements of relevance that I'd place emphasis on are: winter, snow, Epona, strange alicorn, crystal hare, land before ponies, north, a time without seasons, weather as an instrument of harmony and a benign/tamed windigo. Also: the story predates Crystal Empire princesses and was probably adapted to include Equestria to make it relevant when this book was printed about a thousand years ago. Epona is a very old legend. I wonder who she retrieved from the south to combat the windigo in earlier versions and what did the crystal ponies call Equestria back then?

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Ancient Chic

June 29: We all met up for some ice cream at Sugarcube Corner this afternoon. Rarity was keen to share her latest designs inspired by ancient Crystal Empire chic. She's been studying a book she'd borrowed from the Crystal Empire Library and she'd come up with a few ideas. I went with Fluttershy to the Carousel boutique to look, but Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had other plans.

From the line of dresses and ensembles Rarity showed us, I see she picked up mostly on the ancient styles of pleated skirts, the variations on zigzag and squared sinusoidal curves, the light gauzy wraps and the rope-like gold leg bands, necklaces and head ornamentation. Rarity's creations look both elegant and summery. They also look very reserved for Rarity. The glitter was turned way down, she had just a hint of sparkle along the hem line, nothing more. Very nice.

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Getting Bathed, Oil School!

June 30: It was another hot and humid day today and I was ready for trip to the spa. So was everypony else. Fortunately I'd dropped by the spa yesterday to reserve us six spots.

The spa ponies had something new. Rarity had come across a description of a fragrant oil bath in a book she consulted at the Crystal Empire Library. It involves getting covered in oil and then getting nearly all that oil combed out of your fur, mane and tail with a curved, scoop-like comb. I had to try that! For science! Fluttershy, Applejack and of course Rarity were game too, but Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had other plans.

While we got hooficures, massages, seaweed wraps and finally a cool rinse and dry in anticipation of getting slathered in oil, those silly mares went from the hot tub to go roast in the sauna! When finally they were so hot you'd think they were about to burst into flames, the two of them dashed outside to where Dash had parked a big black cloud. Dash kicked the cloud into action and they cooled off in the torrential downpour. Then, looking like drowned rats, the two of them ran back inside and giggling like fillies, shook their coats, spraying us until we too were soaked.

We dried off again, and we were ready for the oil. Lotus and Aloe must be consulting quite a bit with Zecora because that oil really smelled heavenly, relaxing and invigorating, all at once. Rarity said that the reference she had was pretty vague on what the oil was made of or what it smelled like, so the spa ponies just, improvised.

We stood on large raised stone tables and got light, warm oil poured all over our bodies. It felt weird. There were grooves on the table to both collect the oil that dripped off our coats and to ensure we wouldn't slip and fall. There was also a wooden bar in front that we could grab with our teeth, in case we started to slip anyway. When the oil had soaked through, the spa ponies pulled out their custom-made "strigil combs" and combed and scraped every flank, hock, crevice, nook, hair and feather on our bodies. Those ponies work fast but it still was a lot of work. But Celestia! It was worth it!

When the four of us stepped out of the spa, so mellow and so silky, I swear all conversation just stopped everywhere. We just glowed and glistened in the sunshine and everypony stared. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie joined us and as we strolled to Sugarcube Corner for ices, I think we nearly started a parade of agog ponies.

It still feels fantastic, but there is a downside. I have to watch where I settle down so I don't leave a pony-shaped oil patch on a favorite rug or anything else that's hard to clean. Like my books.

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Author's Note

Unlike Prufrock and The Maid of the Mountains, you might not recognize where I cribbed the How Summer Came to Equestria story. See Goodreads, here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8271853-how-summer-came-to-canada

Twilight's Blog has been rated three times so far! Whoop! Meanwhile, I've dropped Twilight's Blog into a Slice of Life (Main) community folder. Seemed like a good idea even though I do have a Slice of Life tag. You can't get more slice of life than Twilight bloging her life day by day, slice by slice. Unless Twilight discovers Twitter... Nope, don't even try, not going to happen. Nope, nope, nope. Blogs rule, Twitter drools.

After careful consideration and much staring at the 'views' graph, it seems to me that Mondays and Wednesdays are good days on which to post updates. It remains to be seen what time of day (Universal Time) is the best. Well, everypony caught up? Ready or not, here's June.

And now... Deep Thoughts, by Twilight Sparkle:

Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The aches and pains of outrageous brain freeze,
Or to take Arms against the call of weakness,
And by opposing go smoothie-less.
Aye, there's the rub.

VII July

The View From Here

July 1: From my castle balconies I can see much of the patchwork of fields, orchards and forest. It's very pretty. The harvest has turned the hay fields from lush green to golden yellow, which is now slowly gaining a delicate green as the grass grows back. Wispy timothy grass with a touch of alfalfa. We should plan a picnic soon, while the fields are still short and golden.

I'm a lot less oily today (my sheets are a tad shiny now) but my mane and coat are just so silky. It was so much fun just running my brush through my mane and watching the hair flow like water through the bristles.

I doubt Rainbow Dash or Pinkie will try the oil bath. Pinkie likes her mane frizzly and Dash isn't keen on having other ponies touching her all over.

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She's Got the Winds Something Fierce

July 2: It sure was hot today, I moved off the balcony and into the cool interior of my library room early. One of the advantages of living in a tree-shaped horse house made of cold stone is that it's cool indoors. It also sucks air by convection through the front door like you wouldn't believe. I thought Spike was slamming the door. Nope. Air was getting pulled in, along with anything or anypony by the door that wasn't well rooted or nailed down. I think I saw my Sum Sun paper lantern fly by me in the stairwell, on its way right out my small balcony window and rocketing off into the wilderness.

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Summertime and the Living is Easy

July 3: It was a good day for a picnic. The weather ponies scheduled a downpour for Ponyville, light showers for various root crops and vegetables in the farmland, but clear skies for the pastures.

We met up in the western pasture, up on the Summer Sun Celebration hill. Applejack brought a couple of her always excellent pies, and with summer in full swing, we had fresh celery sticks, fresh-pressed beet juice, baby carrots and lettuce to go with our freshly harvested first cut timothy hay. Pinkie contributed these great peppermint cookies. I could grow fat and content eating those, all day long!

The grass is growing in nicely in the strips of ground that got churned by galloping ponies playing follow the leader two weeks ago. We settled down to read and bask in the afternoon sun after demolishing all the food. All around us were golden fields, most turning green, some with scattered bales awaiting collection and storage. The grey rain clouds were busy over Ponyville, and in the mist floating up from that downpour, a brilliant rainbow.

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Strawberries

July 4: Turns out the solution to the wind tunnel effect is to keep the door at the top of the stairs closed and open a few windows and balcony doors in the lower levels above ground level to replace the air going out the windows higher up. I'm still fiddling with which windows and how many. I like my scrolls on their shelves, not scattered all across Ponyville and beyond. This magical Treecastle is huge.

Strawberries are in season! There are so many strawberries for sale at the Ponyville bazaar, I just had to get a whole bunch. Applejack and Pinkie are probably making big vats of jam. Spike and I are just going to eat ours.

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Strawberry Jam

July 5: OK, I gave in, we're making strawberry jam. Spike insisted and we just have so many strawberries. But the batch with the glittery sapphire and emerald grit in it goes into _very_ clearly marked jars. I had a ruby shard jammed between two molars once. I don't want that to happen again.

The jam is just about ready, time to heat the jars and lids!

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Ya Mare You Be Jammin' Too

July 6: It turns out everypony is making strawberry jam, even Rainbow Dash! So we had a strawberry jam-off this afternoon. The Treecastle dining room was the popular choice. It's huge and it's as cool as a cave.

Everypony brought a fresh loaf of bread (some still hot!) and a jar of jam. I provided the butter and the iced tea as well. Once we were all assembled and the loaves sliced, the jars were opened and the fun began! I was a bit embarrassed by my plain old straight strawberry jam, but I hadn't even planned to make jam at first. I got compliments anyway, or I should say we got compliments as Spike did all the stirring and cooking. I mostly read the recipe and watched the timer and the thermometer. We didn't actually taste Spike's bejeweled jam, but it sure was pretty to look at.

Rainbow Dash had a cloudberry and strawberry jam. They were very early cloudberries, very tart but perfect for the jam Dash made. Cloudberries are very popular in Cloudsdale and thus very expensive. Dash wouldn't say where she got hers. I think she has a secret berry patch on a mountain side somewhere.

Applejack had July Pippin apples in her strawberry jam, Fluttershy combined cherries and strawberries, Rarity made tiny jars of wild strawberry jam and Pinkie had stirred in swirls of chocolate into her strawberry jam while it was cooling. We finished that jar first.

We all promised to give each other a fresh jar of the jam we'd made (they were all delicious), even Spike. Spike's jams will be just to look at, until he comes over to eat it, eventually.

So it was easy for me and Spike to distribute our jars right away, since we had them at hoof. We'll be getting jars from our friends as they drop by in the days ahead.

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Message in a Bottle

July 7: I've waffled long enough. I'm going to Canterlot and I'm going to get a telescope. While I'm there, seeing as I won't be on a rush errand or at some royal function this time, I'm going to go book shopping with my foalhood friend, Moondancer. My foalhood friend from back when I didn't even realize I had friends. Awkward. But that's all in the past, and it's good to have friends in Canterlot, especially a friend who's as book crazy as I am. I sent her a letter. Everything will be fine. I'm sure she'll be happy to see me again. And make time for me. I hope she writes back. Soon.

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Friendship Preserves

July 8: Everypony has dropped by with a fresh jar of strawberry jam. All the jars are different shapes and all the jams are different colors. They're all so pretty I decided to put them on display. I pulled out Pinkie's chocolate strawberry swirl jam from where I'd stashed it, deep in a cupboard and tried to decide where to put them. A shelf in the kitchen makes sense, but they'd probably get eaten before summer was out. I could put them in my bedroom, but then my friends wouldn't see them. The Treecastle is huge, so there's lots of space but I don't want to put them in some spot where nopony goes. Not my library. On the dining room table? They'll get eaten. Not the throne room either. There's the sitting room, with the couch. That's kind of cozy. That will be perfect.

I'd just chilled a fresh pot of iced mint tea when Rainbow Dash dropped in (via the balcony) with her jar of cloudberry and strawberry jam (in a lovely Cloudsdale jar). We got to talking about Daring Do's latest exploits, such as finding the Eternal Flower and notably, the previously invisible cloud city of Cirrostrata. It should be somewhere near the town of Alto Terre, but I have not heard any news of long eared pegasi in Equestria. Neither has Rainbow Dash. Maybe these elusive ponies have found another way to remain hidden.

My seven jars of jam have pride of place on a well lit shelf in my sitting room, nicely ranked by size. I was going to go for hue, or perhaps from light to dark. I considered making a pyramid with Rarity's tiny jar on top. It's cute -- she tied a cloth cap to the lid with a shimmering red ribbon. The pyramid would have been interesting but precarious. The row approach is best.

All my best friends, in jam form. Spike's jam sparkles as I walk by. I might never eat these.

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Ticket to Ride

July 9: I got a letter from Moondancer! I'll meet up with her at the Canterlot train station day after tomorrow and we'll head out from there.

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I'm Going To Catch That Train

July 10: I'm catching the early train to Canterlot tomorrow morning! I've packed a few books for the trip and a jar of the strawberry jam I made with Spike (but not Spike's gem-grit jam). The jam is to give to Moondancer. I guess I could fly to Canterlot, but I'd rather read on the train. I'll be taking the train back anyway since I expect to be loaded with books and a new telescope! Spike is staying here. Shopping for books and a telescope didn't appeal to him.

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Practical Glassware

July 11: I caught the early train to Canterlot this morning and sped off to connect with Moondancer, get a small versatile telescope and go buy some books.

After meeting up at the train station, we went to that shop selling scientific glassware and optical equipment I'd seen last time I was looking at telescopes. We pondered the Celestian line of telescopes. The reflector-type Startracker model was tempting, but calling your brand "Celestian"? How gauche. I wanted a refractive telescope anyway. Double Bridle Glassware had a Lightbridle reflective with a trusstube Bobroanian "light bucket". Oh mare! That has to be my back-up choice. But in the end I got a big Double Bridle night and day refractor telescope. It's quite similar to the one I had at the Golden Oak Library, only a bit bigger. It comes complete with tripod and an eyepiece and filter set.

We stopped for lunch and then it was off to Moondancer's favorite bookseller. I got that copy of T.S. Celerybit's Collection of Poems I've been meaning to buy, as well as some more reference books and some light reading.

From there we went to my old place where we talked for hours. I told Moondancer about the foal's storybooks from the Crystal Empire I'd read, especially the one with Epona and the windigo named Winter. Moondancer sat bolt upright at that. She told me about a scroll fragment the Canterlot Mane Library has in its archives, a fragment that is all that's left of a larger text several thousands of years old. It appears to recount a legend of a time before ponies. You need special permission to see the treasures they keep in that archive and this fragment is very delicate. It's printed on gold leaf and she wasn't allowed to touch it or even breathe on it! It spoke of a giant windigo named Winter. Moondancer thinks she can figure out where this windigo lived. It's very exciting.

Moondancer has been practicing Haycartes' book-study method and she's making good progress. I read therefore I am the book!

I caught the afternoon train back and lugged my boxed telescope and my new books back to the Treecastle. I was a long day and I'm tired.

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Some Assembly Required

July 12: I opened the box my telescope was packed in. The bad news was that there was some assembly required. The good news is that there are detailed instructions. I didn't want to end up with a microscope, knowing how well I put things together. It's not like the instructions aren't clear, it's just the assembling part that keeps going wrong somehow. So I got help.

Rarity is my go-to pony for this. She's a whiz with this kind of fine motor control. She can insert tab "A" into slot "A" and not "B", "C" or "D", no problem. Pinkie is good at assembling things too, but the things she builds are often a bit eclectic. She might end up making a starlight cannon rather than a telescope. Applejack is a can-do pony, but she can-do best with a hammer. I think she can-don't do delicate glass instruments. Too fiddly.

So I got out the instruction manual, hi-lighted the key steps, made a flow-chart and arranged all the parts on a table in the order that they are to be assembled. Then I called on Rarity.

Rarity was free this afternoon, and after tea we got to it! I read the instructions, Rarity put it together and Spike handed her all the tools and pieces. Team work! I did have to rein in her artistic tendencies a little. There were a few times she suggested that such and such a piece would look oh so avant guard breaking free from the orderly arrangement of the other parts and oh! glitter and could we paint it chartreuse. Chartreuse is so "in" this season!

So now I have a shiny new, two whole hoofspans lens, modular ocular, refractive, night and day, Double Bridle telescope. With a glittery chartreuse bow tied around the middle. I took it out on my small balcony after dark and gazed deep into the sky. Just like old times.

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Plans For the Morrow

July 13: Just a lazy day spent reading inside. It's much too hot to go out for more than a short errand or such. But I did organize a stargazing picnic for tomorrow night. Maybe if we're lucky we'll see a few meteors go by.

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The Spinning Heavens

July 14: We met up in the west pasture right before sundown, I brought my telescope, we all brought snacks, pillows and blankets.

Together we watched the sun set over the fields and forest. Into the twilight rose Luna's moon, scattering constellations and stars as it carved a path through the sky. We ate strawberries and we watched for meteors. Some constellations dodged about the stars playing tag, and when a meteor did shoot by, scramble to catch it and toss it hither and yon across the night sky.

The true constellations, the ones that move, not the other stars that fill up the sky, are alive. They are the star beasts, born of grouped stars, probably stars attracted by a shared love. A love of family, a love of adventure, a love of lore... That link lives on, in giant twinkling beasts in the illusion that is Equestria's night sky.

Maybe one day I too will be one with a constellation. Or perhaps I will be a shooting star. For now, I gaze up, not down. I press closer to my friends.

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By the Books

July 15: I got a letter from Moondancer. She has found that she can teleport from one book to another, but only if it's the same edition and printing. It was an accidental discovery and not too practical since both books would be identical. She is still limited in how long she can maintain Haycartes spell.

She also wrote that she's working on something exciting but she'll tell me about it later when she has more time. I wonder what? She's interested in just about everything.

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Tea For Two In the Everfree

July 16: It was a lot cooler today. The weather ponies gave Ponyville and the surrounding fields a good drenching early in the cool hours of the morning and the cool temperatures stuck with us all day. It had been a while since I had spoken to Zecora so I decided to take advantage of the break in the heat to go knock on her door.

She was at home but when I arrived I peeked through her window and I saw that she was meditating. I decided to let myself in quietly and practice the breathing exercises she'd taught me. By the time she was ready I was feeling well centered.

We drank chilled chocolate peppermint tea and chatted about wild and ancient Equestria and what it must have been like before ponies (or the Tree) equiformed what is now Equestria. Also, what if the moon is a failed Equestria. Or maybe it's just not equiformed. Maybe weird, wild things live in the moon.

That chocolate peppermint tea is really good, as good cold on a summer day as it is hot in the winter. Zecora keeps her summer brews cool by storing them in a felt-lined hole in the ground.

We got to talking about Haycartes and Pasture Ffjord's bookworld books and how Moondancer found she could teleport from one book to another... kind of. We wondered if Pasture Ffjord discovered the same trick... or even if her books aren't fiction. After discovering that the Daring Do series is in fact real life travel diaries, all bets are off.

We whiled the hours away, but I really had to go home before sundown. The Everfree Forest is dangerous enough by day, but at night even more creatures go prowling.

I left Zecora a jar of the strawberry jam Spike and I had made, and I took home a pouch of that great chocolate peppermint tea I like so much. That Zecora is so talented.

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Fish Are Jumping and The Sun is High

July 17: Applejack invited us all over for an afternoon of horseshoes, swimming, snacking and generally just hanging out. It's too early for harvesting the corn, it's between cuts for hay, most of the weeds have been shaded out by the crops and she doesn't have that many early pippin and star apples to buck. It's still a month early for the boughsweets. So she's been making apple butter.

I finished up my jobs early, closed my books and headed over to Sweet Apple Acres. Rarity took the occasion to show off a dazzling swim suit she's designed which Pinkie was testing by doing cannon balls into the Apple family water hole. That's not exactly how a swimsuit is supposed to work. Fluttershy watched from a safe distance. Dash and Applejack were already pitching horseshoes, and I just spread out on a picnic blanket and sunned myself. Fluttershy and Rarity soon joined me. Eventually, when we all got sun baked and hot, we all went for a swim.

It's summertime and the living is easy.

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Tutoring the Trio

July 18: The "Twilight Time" tutoring sessions are moving forward slowly but surely.

Sweetie Belle's has progressed from sorting the gem grit by color and size to arranging it in abstract swirls. She now makes more complex patterns via magically enhanced harmonies, such as simple diffraction of streams of gem grit through a narrow gap in a magic shield. I think the notes she takes in her field book helps her to focus and improve.

Apple Bloom's glassware vibrates a bit under the influence of Sweetie Belle's humming and I could swear the color and length of the strings Apple Bloom pulls out of her pitchers and flasks match the color of the grit Sweetie Belle is moving and how long she sustains her humming between breaths. Apple Bloom is also developing a very strong glue. It just hardens too quickly and it needs to be more flexible.

Scootaloo has built a few wild scooter designs out of cloth, scroll paper and Apple Bloom's glue. Long boards, short stunt boards, boards with longer hang-times. Her wax canvas field notebook is already three quarters full of design ideas for all sort of mechanical things, from better gears to fixed wings to tire treads. I'm having her build an index on the last few pages to keep better track of what she's done and to find things faster. She's also playing with ways to weave Apple Bloom's fibers with reeds to create a lightweight board. I think Rarity could help her with that.

At the end of the session, I had the fillies stick short strands of Apple Bloom's strings to Scootaloo's near-finished vehicles, tie them down and move everything else into a nearby room. Then I opened up a few doors in the stairwell to the upper floors, opened the front doors, and we had a wind tunnel in the corridor. The fillies were thrilled, throwing bits of paper into the gale and leaning into the wind. I told, shouted really, that wind was howling, to Scootaloo to look carefully how the air flowed over her designs and to look for straight and wagging strings. After I closed the doors I explained drag and turbulence, putting into words things Scootaloo had a feel for before but now she could visualize.

They were so excited that I think all three must have run all the way to their clubhouse to work some more on building the perfect scooter.

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Appreciating Pets in the Park

July 19: Fluttershy came knocking on all our doors to suggest that we really should have a pet appreciation outing. It's been quite a while since the last time we did that together. So this afternoon I roused Owlowiscious and joined my friends and their companion animals in the east pasture.

Applejack was playing fetch with Winona, Rainbow Dash had Tank tracking down strawberries, Fluttershy was watching Angel tearing around like a mad bunny (distracting Winona and making her lose track of the stick Applejack had thrown), Opalescence climbed a tree and watched as Gummy sat in the sun below with his mouth open and let butterflies light upon him. Owlowiscious flew to a higher branch and watched the watchers.

After a lazy few hours we called it a day and I took Owlowiscious home.

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Moondancer's Venture

July 20: I received another letter from Moondancer this morning -- in it she wrote that I should go find my copy of Haycartes -- Treatise on Ponies and leave it open on my reading table. So I pulled my copy off the shelf, opened it up to a random page and a few hours later there she was! She's in the Crystal Empire and heading north with Lemon Hearts to look for the giant windigo of legend, Winter! She said it takes some doing to get to the _right_ copy of the book she's teleporting to. While she was getting the hang of it, she even popped up in a book somepony else was reading. Fortunately, the pony was just flipping pages idly and didn't notice her. We had a good laugh over that!

She didn't appear long. The Haycartes spell is hard enough without stretching it halfway across Equestria! She said she'd spent a few days researching and planning her journey in the Crystal Empire Library and she was all set to go, north of Yakyakistan and into Equestria incognita! I tried to tell her to be careful, but, well, ponies. They're either running from danger in a panic or charging into it at full gallop and teeth bared. They'll be fine.

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Memory Like the Glimmer of Star Dust

July 21: It's a cool, clear night and I was playing with my double bridle telescope, peering at stars so faint that they were like dust kicked up by Taurus' hooves. Were there stars before ponies? Do old stars forget what they were and fade away?

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Off Kilter

July 22: I went back out on my balcony last night and I was up way too late looking through my telescope. Then I slept in. Then I had a headache so I ate a big bowl of beet pulp soup to settle my stomach and balance my blood sugar. That took a while. By the time I felt better it was night again.

Time for a little light reading and off to bed again. Tomorrow I'll be back on track.

Speaking of on track, I suspect Moondancer is either in Yakyakistan or she's already following her compass due north to the unknown and the stuff of legends. My copy of Treatise on Ponies is always open, ready and waiting. But I'm not always beside it. I probably wont hear of her adventures until she gets back to Canterlot.

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Seismic Sundae

July 23: It was hot today. That hot and sticky kind of day, one that just calls out for ice cream.

I did heed that call, but I didn't go alone. With some help from Spike, I rounded up my friends and we converged on Sugarcube Corner for ice cream and cake. The cake was to sop up the melted ice cream, of course. Many other ponies had the same idea, so it was a little hard to find a table for all seven of us, but we pulled in an extra chair here and there and we squeezed in around a table.

Pinkie ordered a "seismic sundae" for us all. A seismic sundae is a whole bucket full of ice cream, a mix of flavors and three flavors of syrup or sauce, with a cherry buried somewhere in the ice cream. It's called "seismic" because after you've eaten it, you're so cold you shake. She chose a chocolate fudge, a strawberry syrup and a peppermint sauce, poured over every single flavor the Cakes had on hoof. And we had vanilla cake to go with it. It took us a better part of the afternoon, and more cake, to finish it. It was good! We talked, we laughed, we shivered and we ate some more. Pinkie got the cherry.

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So Large Against the Sky

July 24: Somehow nearly all of our constellations share the same names as yours. Parallel universes are weird.

For Equestria, space travel is not the option it may be in your universe. Our sky is an illusion where going up eventually leads you back to the ground. The horizons touch at all points and our constellations exist just this side of that convergence. If you could imagine the fourth dimension of space as a cone perpendicular to Equestria and the other three dimensions of space, "outer" space is a point and Tartarus is infinite.

The closer something gets to where the horizons join, the bigger it looks from the ground. During the day, the higher up you fly the hotter it gets due to the inverse square law and getting close to the sun.

Staring up into the nothingness beyond the stars makes me giddy.

Don't ask me to explain gravity. Nopony has that figured out yet.

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A Site to See

July 25: The Treecastle is attracting tourists, I'm sure of it. The train station is more crowded and I'm seeing more unfamiliar faces at the Ponyville bazaar. There was a group of crystal ponies there. They're hard to miss in the bright sunshine. I also heard Manehattanite accents and saw a few buffalo. And there are always ponies wandering the grounds around the Treecastle and gawking at it.

At the bazaar I picked up raspberries, early blueberries and summer apples, sweet ones and tart ones. Spike wants to make apple butter.

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Apple Butter

July 26: Spike got his wish and we made apple butter. That called for bread, so we made that too. Lemon poppy seed, rolled oat with sesame seed, and raisin bread. It wasn't that hot outside, but it's still nice that the castle absorbs all that heat from our baking.

While the bread was cooling we ran out and called our friends over. They brought food too. So we had an impromptu surprise supper and get together.

Most of the apple butter is now gone, eaten right out of the pot. I guess we'll have to make more. In the meantime, we suddenly have leftover Fluttershy's salad, Applejack's pie, Dash's creamed potatoes, Rarity's raspberry oat parfait, and Pinkie's green grass and clover caramel cream blintzes.

That was unplanned, unorchestrated, a little chaotic, but fun. Friends make everything better.

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Hoof-Cranked Ice Cream

July 27: We had a scorcher of a day today. It was already hot out when Pinkie popped into my door and announced she had a super special great idea. We were going to make ice cream at Fluttershy's cottage. I like ice cream as much as any pony so this sounded like a good idea. It also turned out to be a not so good idea.

We were each to bring our own fruit, flavors and other savory ingredients to add to the ice cream. Pinkie was providing the cream, milk, sugar, salt and the hoof-cranked churns. Rainbow Dash was providing the ice maker, on loan from the Cloudsdale weather factory.

I grabbed some peppermint oil, a few pails, a basket of sour apples, threw them into my pack sacks, grabbed Spike and we were off to Fluttershy's cottage to make our own ice cream!

On the way we caught up with Rarity. She was packing dark chocolate and saffron. When we were almost there we met up with Applejack. I was expecting something with apples but no. She'd received a case of oranges from her Aunt and Uncle in Manehattan and she intended to turn a dozen of them into ice cream. It was either that or marmalade.

Dash, Pinkie and of course, Fluttershy, were waiting for us at the cottage. Since it was their idea, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had a head start. Pinkie planned on a carrot cake ice cream, Dash was going to try for a vanilla oat swirl and Fluttershy's idea was to make a dandelion, almond, sesame, marzipan, cherry ice cream. She insisted that it was not Angel's idea.

We set up the ice maker on a end table and on the kitchen table we installed three hoof-cranked ice cream churns. Making ice cream is a team effort. I teamed up with Rarity. That chocolate really smelled good and teaming up with Rarity suited Spike just fine. Meanwhile, several dozen pairs of eyes peered out at us from their hiding places in various nooks and crannies of Fluttershy's cottage. This is where Pinkie's plan was not such a good idea.

It's a few weeks short of mid summer. It's the height of summer baby season. Fluttershy gets most of the orphans, the lost, the tired parents, the injured. Most of those live in her cottage. Most of them are always hungry. We were piling treats on Fluttershy's kitchen table, right under their noses. All those eyes were looking to see which of them would make the first move.

It was a jackalope kit that struck first, making off with a mouthful of Pinkie's grated carrots. I was told it was a jackalope, but at that age the kit didn't have antlers yet. Some chipmunks and mice helped themselves to the oats and almonds, and when Rarity reached for her saffron, she found a few bees buzzing around in the jar, happily loading up on saffron. There was still enough for her ice cream.

Pinkie had to push a fawn and a bear cub away from the milk and the cream, then away from the honey and everything else on the table. By now all the critters were getting a lot braver, scampering about and looking for ways to get on the table. Fluttershy wasn't much help. The kitchen was heading for total chaos.

Finally, I cast an exclusion zone around us to keep Fluttershy's critters out of our workspace and materials. They'd already eaten about half our stuff. Or rather, they were eating it while looking in through the bubble I'd cast, moaning and chittering plaintively, with their mouths full. I somehow felt guilty.

We succeeded in making a fair amount of ice cream, despite our losses. We were also almost obliged to pick up the pace, just to keep warm. Dash's ice maker also chilled the room. That drove off most of Fluttershy's wards to warmer areas of the house and we got some relief from their sad, hungry stares. I think the ferrets and the skunks teamed up to leave us an offering of insects, fish and dead things. I'm not sure if they hoped we'd make a dead thing ice cream for them or if we'd take it in exchange for something like honey and cream cheese. I don't speak ferret and Fluttershy wouldn't say.

I popped our protective bubble and we fled with our buckets into the afternoon haze before Fluttershy's horde woke up from their naps, play tussles and whatever it was they were doing.

Next time we make ice cream, I think we should do it in the Treecastle.

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News From the North

July 28: Moondancer appeared in my copy of Treatise on Ponies. She was very faint and she wasn't there long but she had good news! She found an ice cave carved out of a glacier saddled between twin peaks of a mountain range in the snowy north. It's much further north than Yakyakistan. She and Lemon Hearts were going in. She said something about a weird mist trickling out of the cave and then her projection faded out. I hope she finds something there, a clue to this pony legend, ancient pony artifacts... A book even! It shouldn't be long now. Her Haycartes combo spell has turned out to be pretty useful.

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Blue Mare Group

July 29: I got a good soaking today. Late this afternoon I went out to run a few errands and to stretch my legs (that's good for the circulation and the digestion). I'd picked up a few quills, some fresh green alfalfa and a couple of books I'd ordered. On the way back I was nose deep in Quantum Energy Transfers and Micro Manipulation: Proceeding from the 65th Decennial Canterlot Conference on the Advancement of Magic and on instinctive navigation. I didn't notice that the sky was filling up with big black clouds.

It get very dark very quickly and I automatically lit my horn to see what I was reading. I was in the zone. Then I heard a low rumble. It sounded like an avalanche building up momentum and it sounded like it was headed straight for me. That made me look.

Looking back over my shoulder and then up, I saw the clouds and I saw flickering lightning. It wasn't raining yet and generally our weather ponies manage to tame the lightning pretty well. So I just picked up my heels in a light trot and kept going.

I'd just about found the paragraph where I'd left off when it started to rain. Hard. Great. I put a protective shield over my book, held the book over my head and trotted faster. Then the real lightning strikes happened. Right behind me.

All of a sudden the air got a blue tinge, I smelled ozone, and the thunder! It sounded like a giant beast was tearing its way out of the rock slide and it was heading my way! The lightning flashes were dazzling and I wasn't trotting anymore. I was at a full gallop, racing for my front door toward safety, so far away. Behind me there was a sound of titanic hoofsteps. Slow at first, but picking up speed, working up to a trot, then a gallop, with a sound like the ground was going split asunder right down to Tartarus. Now I was terrified.

I never galloped so fast in my life. I streaked, screaming, right past the outskirts of Ponyville, down the road to the Treecastle, magically opening the door while I was a dozen body lengths away and slamming it shut a split second latter. I didn't stop until I was in my library room.

Soaking wet, gasping for air, my heart pounding so fast I could feel it in my ears, I stood stock still in my library. I happened to be staring at my sorting table. There, on top of a neat stack of papers, illuminated by the continuous lightning flashes, was a printed program. "Blue Mare Group Outdoor Concert. Cloudsdale's Finest Brontotechnic Percussion Orchestra is coming to Ponyville! Be prepared to be amazed and thrilled as the Blue Mare Group unleashes thousands of tuned lightning strikes and musical rumbles to shake you to the bone!" And it went on to list the works to be performed. I'd just fled in terror from the second movement of Night Mare Mountain. Now I felt soaking wet and foalish. I'd forgotten all about it.

I dried off, and now that I had my wits about me, I teleported, first to Rarity's boutique. Nopony answered the door so I gritted my teeth and bravely teleported to Sugarcube Corner's front door. All my friends were there looking out the windows, including Spike. Sugarcube Corner has a good east - west view of the concert and I joined them to watch the rest of it.

The last piece ended with the clouds parting, revealing the setting sun to the west and a rainbow to the east, to the sound of a sighing rumble, like the clouds had gone to sleep. After the last rumble had faded away and the blue-clad pegasus performers had gathered on a fluffy white cloud over the center of town to take their bows, the citizens of Ponyville poured out into the streets and drummed their hooves and whickered and whinnied in applause. It had been an outstanding performance.

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It Was a Real Scream

July 30: It seems my shrieking flight through the streets of Ponyville didn't go unnoticed. There was a picture of me being chased by forked lightning on the cover of the Ponyville Express, brought to me by a very gleeful Spike. Who then promptly burped out a scroll from Princess Celestia. She had had a good laugh as well. I hadn't yet realized that Canterlot Castle receives the Ponyville Express too, I guess delivered by Pegasus Express. If I ever had hope of being a picture of princess elegance and poise, this certainly squashed that. Spike plans on asking the Ponyville Express for a print so he can frame it. I'm glad he has his own room now.

Later we all went out to Sugarcube Corner for frozen deserts and to treat Fluttershy. As I suspected, she gave out her ice cream to all her critters and barely tasted it herself.

I passed a lot of giggling ponies on the way there. I think that the Ponyville Express printed extra editions to keep up with demand. My friends all had a copy as well. Rainbow Dash was grinning from ear to ear. At least Fluttershy understood me. Hmph. It didn't help when other patrons in the shop stopped over and sheepishly requested I sign their copies. All the while stealing glances with their friends and suppressing giggles.

I had orange, lime and peppermint sherbet. It was good. I feel like I could eat a whole tub.

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Silver Lining

July 31: I had some surprise visitors today! The whole Blue Mare Group knocked on my door. They were out of costume, but there must have been twenty of them. I was a bit agog but I invited them in for tea. They were bursting to tell me that the Ponyville Express picture of me fleeing their concert has been a real boon for them. Newspapers all across Equestria have been reprinting the picture. I was a little less than thrilled to hear that. The upside is that the Blue Mare Group has been getting offers and invitations to perform from here to Yakyakistan. They were so thrilled and enthusiastic that it was infectious. Until one of them chirped up that the picture would make a great album cover. I must have looked mortified because another quickly modified that to using the picture as a model for an album cover. I guess that wouldn't be so bad, as long it wouldn't be obvious that it's me on the record sleeve.

While Spike hustled to get tea for everypony (being a fire-breathing dragon comes in handy in boiling that much water that fast) and served cookies and our apple butter on squares of bread, the Blue Mare Group gave me a gift. It was a big print of the Ponyville Express picture, framed and signed all over with thank-yous, little drawings and well wishes. Oh no. I was already wondering in which dark, forgotten corner I was going to hang it. Then the mare that had handed me the picture asked me to turn it over.

The back was transparent too and visible on the back of the picture there was a short letter. It read:

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Today I learned that through music and pure chance you can make friends with people you'd never met before and that together you might just make something wonderful happen.

Your faithful subjects,
The Blue Mare Group

My first friendship letter. Addressed to me. I cried.

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Author's Note

note: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Daring_Do_and_the_Forbidden_City_of_Clouds in case you haven't read it.

And for clarity, here is more than you thought you'd ever need to know about hay, until now:

'First Cut' hay is literally the first hay harvest of the year. Hay is dried grass (and legumes) and grass keeps growing from the bottom after you cut the top. Thus, grass can be 'cut' three, sometimes four, times a growing season and the dried clippings (hay) will be long enough to be baled and stored. The quality of the grass clippings change during the growing season.

The first harvest tends to be of grass that has had time to grow tall and to have a lot of other plants mixed in with it. It tends to be lower in protein and higher in fiber and starch. This makes a good winter-food hay since it takes a little longer to ferment in the equine gut, slowly releasing energy and providing more heat during digestion.

Second cut and third cut hay is leafier, greener in color and usually higher in protein. That makes it a better fast-energy food for ponies that need a burst of energy, like Fleetfoot in a pegasus race. Since those cuts come from later in the growing season, and after the first cut, the 'weedy' plants racing the grass for a spot in the sunlight in the Spring have been cut back during the first harvest and shaded out by the grasses since then. Thus, second and third cut hays are mostly just grass.

Second and later cuts can be made less rich and more 'stem-y' (coarse) by waiting for the grass to mature more before making a cut. Ponies can get gassy eating grass that's too rich, so the hay board has to weigh the needs of the export market with the needs of the local population and recommend a balance. The Hay Board also has field agents that act as liaisons between the farmers and the weather ponies, ensuring that the fields don't get wet while the cut grass is drying.

VIII August

We Are Going To Chill

Aug 1: Tomorrow afternoon we're going to have another ice cream confectionery party, this time in the Treecastle. I think the dining room would be a good place. Rainbow Dash is going to borrow the ice maker again, Pinkie has the churns packed and ready to go and she has all the salt, milk, cream and sugar we'll need. I've made several large jugs of iced tea, Spike has apples, carrots and celery all set to be cut into sticks, and we baked a few dozen cookies too. I also invited Zecora and Fluttershy invited Tree Hugger (who happens to be in town). I'm curious to see what flavors they'll make. What flavor should Spike and I make?

As Rainbow Dash says, let's do this!

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Eight Fancy Flavors

Aug 2: As planned, this afternoon we had another go at ice cream confectionery, this time at the Treecastle in the dining room, festively decorated by Rarity, where there's ample room for everypony and all our material. This is also where I've decided to hang the Friendship Letter that the Blue Mare Group wrote.

Pinkie and Dash were the first to arrive, just as Spike was setting out the last of the mugs and dishes to go with the iced tea, vegetable sticks and cookies. Next Zecora arrived, followed by Fluttershy and Tree Hugger, then Applejack and Rarity. The teams we had last time worked well, so we kept those and Zecora teamed up with Tree Hugger.

I just had to show all my friends the Friendship Letter. Rainbow Dash was more impressed by all the signatures on the picture side. Anyway, that out of the way, we got down to making ice cream. It was a lot more fun this time without all the critters, but we still had a good laugh as we told Zecora and Tree Hugger what had happened last time.

Zecora made coconut cinnamon ice cream and Tree Hugger made a "harvest granola crunch" ice cream. Most of us made the same thing as last time, except Pinkie. She made "rocky road" ice cream, which in her case is tiny rock candy (secret recipe is secret!) in licorice ice cream. That was Spike's favorite. Our biggest trade was with Pinkie.

Fluttershy made two batches of dandelion, almond, sesame, marzipan, cherry ice cream, one for her and one for her critters. We stored her pail here in the castle. She also made a trade -- swapping for a fair amount for Tree Hugger's confection.

All that churning was hard work (I didn't have Spike do all the churning, I can turn a crank, most of the time). It was worth it. We have eight exotic flavors of ice cream and enough to last at least a week.

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Time For Some More Ice Cream

Aug 3: Spike and I have been eating so much ice cream. Our batch might not last the week after all. It's very hot out, premium ice cream eating weather. Fluttershy came by to eat some of her ice cream stash too. Her having to cross town to eat her own dessert is not an ideal arrangement.

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No News is No News

Aug 4: Several days of hot weather has made me feel grimy and ready for a trip to the spa with the gang. After a seaweed wrap and an ice bath, the six of us went for iced tea (and ice cream for Fluttershy) at the Treecastle, where we talked about Moondancer's quest. It's been a week since she and Lemon Hearts found that cave and still no news. Rainbow Dash is itching to leap into action and go find her but I'd rather wait another week or two. If we're wrong and they're OK, I don't want to look like we're muscling in on her research and stealing her glory. As Applejack said, I don't want to make a friendship problem, especially not one we can't fix.

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They Only Come Out At Night

Aug 5: The shooting stars are really active this time of year. For six weeks there are more stars than usual that go tearing across the night sky and we should get an all out meteor shower in about a week. Those are really fun to watch. I should organize another star gazing picnic for about then. East or west pasture?

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Melts in Your Mouth

Aug 6: Fluttershy dropped over to put another dent into her ice cream supply. Spike and I joined her and dug into what we had left. Rarity's chocolate saffron is gone, there's just a bit left of Pinkie's Rocky Road, a dab of Zecora's coconut cinnamon and a fair amount of our tart apple and peppermint ice cream left. If we make ice cream again, I think I'll try a sweet apple and carrot confection. With a raspberry swirl.

Fluttershy is all for a nice peaceful, night under the stars picnic. Six days from now works for her. I think I'll invite Princess Luna. If she's not busy. It would be interesting to talk about the stars with her. I'll send her a letter tomorrow morning.

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Yaks Abroad

Aug 7: After sending that letter to Princess Luna out with the morning mail I went for a stroll through the Ponyville open air market. I picked up some lettuce, raspberries, blueberries and I made arrangements with Applejack for delivery of thirty bales of first cut timothy hay. I have a lot of room in this Treecastle, I might as well put it to good use.

I saw a few yaks at the market too, visiting Equestria. I wonder what they bought? I bet Pinkie will find out sooner or later and take notes.

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Lofting Hay

Aug 8: Applejack and Big McIntosh delivered my thirty bales of first cut timothy hay today. Since I think Spike would have had an aneurysm if I'd hauled all that hay through the corridors, I had them stop outside at the front steps. I selected a guest room near the kitchen, stacked all the furniture in a corner, opened the balcony door and neatly lifted bales in through the balcony. There should be good ventilation in there.

I stacked them in order of size, big bales on the bottom, smaller bales on top; by weight, heavier, not as well dried bales in front; and by color, yellower sun bleached hay closer to the door, greener, leafier hay in the back. They're resting well off the floor on wood planks and away from the wall. Maybe I should store the second cut hay, after that harvest, in a different room.

With ninety bales of hay I should be all set for an entire year, but if I have guests, I may need more. I'm not sure my storage space is a good as the Ponyville hay barns. Maybe I'll just stop at sixty bales.

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Remembrance of Homes Past

Aug 9: The Treecastle smells like hay now, at least on the upper floors near the kitchen. I've read that ponies recommend opening a fresh bale of fragrant hay in a home that's for sale when potential buyers come visit. It's an improvement over the cold smell of rock, although I suspect to Princess Celestia, hewed stone smells like home. The Golden Oak had a warm smell of wood, earth, leaves and books.

Spike is worried that storing that much hay might make more dust. I think I can live with a little dust.

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Picnic Planning

Aug 10: Luna wrote back. She will be delighted to join our meteor watch picnic. I alerted my friends and we're going to the west pasture for this outing. Turns out there have been other ponies having stargazing picnics lately, to watch the shooting stars. We'd better get there early to get a good hilltop.

I'm starting to shed the short hairs on my back. Summer molt has begun and it's getting on my cushions. Spike is going to be grumpy.

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Fat and Sassy

Aug 11: It has been now two weeks and no news from Moondancer. Maybe the cave was a dead end and she's gone even further north. That last book-hop she did was pretty faint so it could be that she's out of range. Or it could be that I wasn't looking and missed her, or I wasn't on the right page. I'll wait some more.

My summer molt is in full swing. I feel itchy. So do my friends. At the spa I asked for the full scrub down, wash, massage and the Crystal Empire fragrant oil bath. Rarity and Applejack thought that was a great idea. The others skipped the oil and finished up in the whirlpool instead. Applejack says she feels sleeker than a greased pig. Rarity made a face. I don't know about the pig part, but I do feel silky and clean. I've also filled out a bit too with all the rich summer grazing. Winter is beautiful but summer is like a dear friend, a doting aunt and a soothing bath, all wrapped in one.

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Look At The Stars, See How They Shine For You

Aug 12: As day turned to dusk we entered the western pasture, four ponies and a baby dragon. We walked in hock high timothy grass, wet with evening dew, rustling underhoof and tickling our bellies enticingly. The crushed stems smelled so sweet and fresh we just had to slow to a wandering step, biting off tender mouthfuls as we made our way through scattered stargazing ponies. Ahead on our chosen hill top, Rarity and Fluttershy were waiting for us, lounging on a picnic blanket spread under a rising moon.

Luna landed just as we were laughing, tossing about cushions and spreading more picnic blankets as well as we could over the springy stalks. We bowed to the Princess of the Night and finished setting up the plates, cups, Spike's punch and my telescope. We spread out the contents of our picnic baskets and settled in to watch the night sky. It is starting to get chilly at night so I'd brought a blanket for Spike. Owlowiscious flew in and perched on a picnic basket, ready for night duty.

By now the cloudless sky was a velvet black canopy studded with brilliant glittering stars and constellations. Luna had lowered the moon for everypony to better appreciate the antics of the meteors. The sky looked so full and so close I felt like I could almost touch it. As I ate a dandelion alfalfa sprout sandwich, the first meteors flashed overhead.

Meteor showers are waves of shooting stars, the spirits of many ponies, galloping across the sky. Often, they're the spirits of ponies who died too soon. They run to be free, they run for joy, they run in memory of an event, they run to flee and they run to forget. They also run to draw the attention of those they left behind. They run across the sky to wave hello, and good bye. They run because waiting for you is a hard thing to do. And they run because they remember that they were ponies.

We were built to run.

Luna knew many of the stars personally while they were still ponies. Some of them were close personal friends. Four powerful ponies in particular. I asked her about her time as the Mare in the Moon.

Imprisoned in the moon was like becoming one with it. In the moon, life and the dance of the heavens happened too fast to make out the details. Everything was a blur, only the glowing rock seemed solid, a single constant in a grey smudge of sky. But Luna's friends remembered and the stars experience time's passing, faster than the living stones but slower than the ponies tied to the ground. They helped her escape, to give her a second chance, for friendship. They were powerful ponies in life, now brilliant stars in the sky.

We sat in silence, watching the stars twinkle and shoot by as they looked down and watched over us.

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The Hayloft Song of J. Alfalfafed Poolrock By T.S. Celerybit

Aug 13: Last spring I quoted a passage from The Hayloft Song of J. Alfafafed Poolrock. It was Hearts and Hooves day which may be why I felt the need to quote poetry.

Chemistry.

The point is that now I have a replacement copy of T.S. Celerybit's poetry, I can write it out for you. So, here you go!

The Hayloft Song of J. Alfalfafed Poolrock By T.S. Celerybit

Let us gallop, you and I,
When evening has spread over Celestia's sky
Like a salt-drunk pinto sprawled on a table;
Let us trot, to where pastures and forest meet,
Grass whispering at our feet
Of uneven ground hiding pitfall wells
And grazing soured by wood sorrels:
Errant trees with branches bent
On shade making commitment
To shape doubt and your hesitation...
Neigh, do not shy or fidget
Through the brambles let's go visit.

Into the clearing the stallions go
Talking of Mare. E. Angelo.

The yellow itch that lands uninvited upon your mane,
The yellow puff that trills uninhibited on your mane
Licked the brambles to judge their seasoning,
Lingered over flowers still wet from the rains,
Carried the dust that falls from the cones of evergreen trees,
Slipped from the forest, just for a small peek,
And seeing the night sky where the stars sparkle bright,
Nestled in behind your ear, so small and meek.

And indeed there will be room
For the yellow sprite that seems so sweet,
Trilling quietly deep in your mane;
There will be room, there will be room
To graze the grasses and choose the grasses you can eat;
There will be room to bite and to bait,
And room for bridles, bits and rope
That lead you blinkered toward your fate;
Room for you and room for me,
And room yet for jostling for position,
And for incursions and recursions,
Before rejoining the company.

Into the clearing the stallions go
Talking of Mare E. Angelo.

And indeed there will be room
To wander, a little here, a little there
Backing away from too dominant a mare,
With an eye twitch and an ear droop from her stare--
(They will nicker: "She will never fit in!")
My glossy coat, my mane fixed with a silver pin,
My rich aroma of crushed lavender, freshly rolled in--
(They will nicker: "But her withers are much too thin")
Am I mare
Enough to be adverse?
In a pace there is room
For notions and motions both forward and in reverse.

For I have roamed them all already, roamed them all;
Have roamed the roadways, forest paths, avenues,
My steps wear a rut along the path that I choose;
I roam the scents that crawl to their owners' call
Beyond the leaf curtain with their perfume.
So what rank dare I assume?

And I have roamed the words, roamed them all--
The words that lead you pursed lipped into a maze,
And when I am roped, trapped and penned,
When I am penned and cribbing on my stall,
Then through the yoke how do I tend
To signaling my experience and my worth?
And what rank dare I assume?

And I have known the necks already, known them all--
Necks that are arched and delicate and fair
(But with manes that cascaded with extended hair!)
Is it sight of a braided tress
That wills me to confess?
Necks that lie of home and stable, or drape on one and all.
And a rank dare I then assume?
And whose friendship do I win?

. . . . .

Shall I say, I have breathed the musk where grass and forest meets
And watched fireflies rise in blinking flights
On lonely twilight eves, weaving through the shadows?...

I should have been a pair of blue skin wings
Fluttering silently in the night breeze.

. . . . .

And the earth, the soil, beckons so invitingly!
Powdered to dust,
Soft... clingy... or it turns all to rust,
Stamped out in the glade, here beside you and me.
Should I, after teasing and styles and perms,
Kneel down and roll in the castings of worms?
But though I have stamped and mingled and stamped and displayed,
Though I have had my back (sagging slightly) piled high with blather,
I am no mule--and it's not what I'd rather;
I have seen my pace slide behind mares who were quicker,
And I have seen them look back in amusement, and nicker,
And left back, I obeyed.

And would it have been worth it, to stand tall,
After the jostling, the looks, the glee,
Among the fancy hats, who look down long noses at you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have summoned false charm and guile,
To kick down the door to my stall
To fling it toward the court in session,
To say: "I am Equus, the mare in red,
Come back to lead you all, I shall lead you all"
If one, with a dismissive toss of her head,
Should say, "You are not fit to lead at all.
Not fit to lead a herd, at all."

And would it have been worth it, to stand tall,
Would it have been worth while,
After the brambles and the clearing and the woodland meets,
After the baubles, after the gossip, after the long eyelashes that I wore--
And this, and so much more?--
It is impossible to neigh just what I mean!
But as if by magic my desire were laid bare like a Changeling Queen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, with a dismissive toss or in a mocking drawl,
And turning to the meadow, should say:
"You are not fit to lead a herd at all,
Not fit to lead, at all."
. . . . .

No! I am not a Princess aspirant, nor was meant to be;
Am an attentive mare, one that will do
To widen the path, test that which is new
Write to the Princess; clearly, on rule,
Deferential, quill of a goose,
Blue ink, no fuss, and luxurious;
Full of flourish, but not too loose;
Strong, succinct, almost spurious--
Almost, at times, the mule.

I grow old... I grow old...
I shall trim my mane and wear it rolled.

Do I share my mind? Do I dare to teach?
I shall linger in the taller grasses, and sample some of each.
I have seen the pegasi hovering, just out of reach.

I do not think they will land for me.

I have seen them riding clouds toward dawn
Combining the white clouds with the dawn at their back
When one horizon is silver and the other is black.

We have lingered in the wild meadows of the Everfree
By untamed things and giant weeds of red and brown
Till Celestia leads us, back to town.

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Head in the Clouds, Hooves in the Grass

Aug 14: The second cut hay harvest is due to happen soon. The first cut trimmed back the clover and other plants mixed in with the hay and has allowed the leafy grass to dominate the fields. That makes second cut hay softer than first cut hay. I have another Hay Board meeting to attend in a few days.

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Seasons Change

Aug 15: I reorganized my winter wear that I have stored in my cedar chest. I pulled out and refolded the lovely blanket Rarity made for me, and packed it back snugly with my matching scarf and boots. "Folly". What a great color. Rarity has such an eye for these things. But it's summer. Warm clothes are for another season. It's too hot to wear anything but the most breezy of dresses, and even then, I'd rather not. Especially not now. I'm still molting.

I went out on the balcony, under the stars, to brush out the loose hair again. While I was brushing my throat a couple of meteors flew by, straight overhead. They were headed straight north. I told them to look out over Moondancer and Lemon Hearts. I doubt they heard me, or that they could assist Moondancer in her research, either.

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Hay Board

Aug 16: We held the second cut Hay Board meeting this afternoon, The cutting and drying starts tomorrow, as does the collection of the hay slated to be made into silage. For the rest, baling will be as soon as the cut grass is dry. The grass is looking good and the farmer ponies on the Board are hot to trot. Yakyakistan relations has opened up another market and the yaks are especially interested in our second cut. Most of their buyers are coming first to Ponyville. We will probably have to be careful with our inventory this winter and expand our pastures next spring.

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Harvest Work, Harvest Party

Aug 17: We're nearly two thirds the way through summer. Lots of crops are ripe and gracing our tables; fruits, berries, roots and leafy vegetables. But the queen of the greens is hay and the second cut has begun! Naturally, this calls for a party.

We had the 2nd cut party at Applejack's barn. Applejack specializes in apple cultivation, but she does have a hoof in the haying. To free her up for Pinkie's Second Cut Party, Dash, Fluttershy, Spike and I spent the day helping the best we could, mowing her parcel, and then harvesting, sorting and preserving the day's pickings. While we were doing that, Pinkie and Rarity were hard at work setting up the party, from the food on the plates to the banners in the rafters.

Finally, after a refreshing dip in the Apple Family water hole (I really needed that dip, it was so hot working those fields), we feasted and feted 'til the cows came home and joined us, and then we feted some more.

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Spurred Into Action

Aug 18: Three weeks! No news, not a peep from Moondancer. I don't think she'd have returned to Canterlot and not drop me a note or any such thing. This does not look good. If she's still out there, in the field... summer will be over soon! I'm going after her, and I'm taking all my closest friends.

We held a planning session in the map room. Before we go several of us have work that needs to get finished up. Applejack has the Jersey Macs and the Paula Reds to buck and store, Pinkie and I will help her with that; Rarity's fall line up is planned out, she just needs to sew forty dresses for some clients, Fluttershy will help her with that; Fluttershy's summer broods are just about ready to fend for themselves; Dash has to put in a few days in the Wonderbolt Reserves and she can do that now; and Pinkie is calling in Cheese to hold the fort while we're gone. Spike will mind the Treecastle while we're away.

This is going to be an expedition and it's so nice to be able to have time to plan ahead, or at least to have more time to plan than we usually do. Usually we have to just drop everything and run.

There's still the possibility that Moondancer and Lemon Hearts are just fine, but I've waited long enough. We're doing this.

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Pomiculture

Aug 19: Day one of preparations -- helping Applejack get ahead in her pomiculture. I got up before sunrise and had a good breakfast. It was first cut hay and beet pulp mash, to give me steady energy, without giving me the fidgets. At dawn I was out the door. Pinkie appeared at my side on the way to Applejack's orchard.

Applejack was already setting out the baskets under the trees with the ripe apples when we arrived. Then it was harvest time! Applejack bucked and coordinated, I picked and sorted, Pinkie stored. I'd forgotten how tiring it is to just harvest, sort and store all those apples. We drank a lot of apple juice.

We were at it all day and we didn't stop until after Celestia had lowered the sun. Oh but it felt good to soak in the Apples' water hole and watch Luna's moon rise gracefully up above the horizon. Another day and we should be finished. Big McIntosh and Granny Smith will handle the rest while Applejack is gone. We should be back before the McIntoshes are ready for bucking.

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Storin' Apples in the Cellar Below

Aug 20: Day two of helping Applejack. I had a bigger breakfast and two cups of Zecora's chocolate peppermint tea to start my day. It was a little harder to get up and get going, but I still managed get to the orchard a bit past sun up. Pinkie was her usual bouncy self. Big Mac is taking care of baling the hay we'd cut a few days ago and for lunch, Granny Smith served us a few of the pies she's baked from the apples we harvested yesterday. We just managed to finish up packing the last of the Jersey Macs into storage by evening twilight. Applejack looked as pleased as punch. I just wanted to flop down in the pond and float 'til morning. Pinkie did a victory cannonball dive. The wave nearly threw me out of the pond. Maybe I should have eaten more sugar.

During the mid-day break I wrote to Minuette, Twinkleshine and Lyra Heartstrings, asking if they had any news from Moondancer and Lemon Hearts.

Tomorrow I'm sleeping in. I just know I'm going to be sorting apples in my sleep all week.

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Stitched in Time

Aug 21: Rarity's last dress has been sewn, primped and is ready to ship. Pinkie and I are going to Manehattan to deliver that order tomorrow morning, and Rarity and Spike are heading for Canterlot, back same day. After that, Rarity has a few ensembles to sew for a local client.

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Dresses Delivered to Their Addresses

Aug 22: Pinkie and I delivered Rarity's dresses to her customers without a hitch. As we walked back from the train station, I saw Dash fly overhead, making a bee-line for her home. So she's back from Wonderbolt reserve duty. She looked exhausted.

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Loose Ends

Aug 23: Fluttershy's cottage is now guest-free although most of the critters didn't disperse far. They're hanging about in nearby bushes and nooks. Spike will be filling the various feeders with critter and bird food while we're gone. Fluttershy spent the day coaching him. Spike has mixed feelings about this responsibility. The critters are a bit demanding.

Got a letter back already from Twinkleshine. She's had no news from either Moondancer or Lemon Hearts since they left. She's going to ask Minuette and Lyra if they've heard from Moondancer or Lemon Hearts yet, and if they have, she'll send another letter.

Dash is looking more rested today. She brought word from her pegasus connections: Cheese was in Vanhoover and he is headed for Ponyville. I guess Pinkie won't have to write to him.

Tomorrow morning I head to Canterlot for research. I want to see if Moondancer and Lemon Hearts left any clues that could help us to find them.

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Investigation in Canterlot

Aug 24: I'm off to catch the morning train to Canterlot! My plan is to knock on Minuette's door, pick up Twinkleshine and Lyra Heartstrings and together we'll see if we can find clues at Moondancer and Lemon Hearts' houses as to where exactly they were headed. I'll be staying overnight. Wish me luck!

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Scraps of Paper

Aug 25: It has now been four weeks since Moondancer and Lemon Hearts embarked on their journey. Searching through what they left behind with the help of Minuette and Lyra, we didn't find much in the way of clues. Moondancer had a rough sketch of a saddle-shaped mountain range in with her waste paper and Lemon Hearts had a list of mountaineering equipment and arctic gear. She also apparently bought a lot of alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. The wrapper of the one she ate smelled delicious. I caught afternoon train back from Canterlot and tried to remember every detail, every word Moondancer had said about this expedition. I need more information.

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Research

Aug 26: I'm reading up on mountaineering, avalanches, inflatable saddlepacks (for avalanche survival), snow shelter building, orienteering, Yak culture and history, snow blindness, frostbite, sledges, food caching, local guides and how to hire them, water purifier spells, high calorie long burning food that won't give a pony colic, wild plants and creatures of the far north... Fortunately Princess Cadence has sent me quite a few books from the Crystal Empire and they tend to cover these kind of subjects.

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Trail of Crumbs

Aug 27: I still have much material to read through. Finding them, if they are truly lost, is going to be tricky. I need to know what they knew so I can recreate their journey. We'll also inquire around as to if anypony, or being, has seen them.

A Dream Width quill pal seems to think I'm heading to a pony version of the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. I looked it up and I don't think it will help me prepare for what our expedition will find. Moondancer didn't describe city ruins and as for Old Ones, we've already met our Old One. It's the Tree of Harmony. The are scary beasts in Equestria, but I don't think there are any powerful entities older than the Tree.

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Getting Prepared

Aug 28: Well, I told my friends to gear up for winter and to get ready for something ancient and deadly cold. Rainbow Dash said she was born ready. Pinkie said she's readier than ready. Applejack thought we were already ready. Rarity and Fluttershy nodded in agreement. My friends are nuts.

I asked Pinkie and Applejack if they might make alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes for all of us, a week's supply. I lent them the book that has recipes for a few variations on power cubes, tailored for different energy requirements. That wrapper really smelled good. Rarity is looking into light weight full-body horse blankets for really cold weather. And boots for all of us.

I'm going back to Canterlot to go through the books that Moondancer checked out at the library to try and learn what she learned.

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Read All the Books

Aug 29: I flew to Canterlot to save time and I spent the day in the Canterlot Mane Library. There I got help from the librarian looking for books related to old legends from the north and to the Hearth's Warming tale. I was especially interested in those that Moondancer may have consulted. The librarian brought me a lot of books to go through. The books that she had only consulted and reshelved while at the library had no record, of course, but those from the rare book archives require signing in, help from the librarian, and signing for each book, even though they never leave the archive. They're very strict with their old books there. Moondancer is interested in everything and even shortly before she left she was reading a variety of texts.

I spoke to her bookseller friend too, to inquire as to what she had been looking for that might be related to her research trip. I took down the names of a few field and travel guides.

So I am still vague as to what her plan was. I guess it was to go north, look for deep snow, an ice field and a cave by a frozen waterfall, and something about beyond the Twilight Plain. The more beautiful the frozen scenery, the closer you are. That's a bit vague. But if it was easy, Winter would have been found years ago?

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The Stage Is Set

Aug 30: Going through my updated checklist. Rarity's winter clothes. Check. Applejack and Pinkie, power food. Check. Fluttershy, field research gear including camping equipment. Check. Rainbow Dash, maps. Check. Spike, instructions, lots of instructions. Check. Letter to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor that we'll be passing through the Crystal Empire. Check. From me: a game plan. Check.

We just need Cheese.

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Farewell Party, Winter Theme

Aug 31: Cheese Sandwich popped up out of the blue and threw an Adventurous Rescue Expedition Party for us this afternoon in the middle of town, with a winter theme. I don't know where he got all that ice. He must have borrowed several ice makers from Cloudsdale to pull off what amounted to an instant winter in the middle of Ponyville. Pinkie probably helped. There were ice slides, ice cream, ice sculptures, apple, carrot, peppermint and other flavors of sweet slush drinks, snow forts, snow ball fights, an ice castle... A winter festival in August. It has been hot weather this week, and what with the summer molt slowly bringing in the winter coats on ponies, everypony has been having a great time. The party is still going strong. I hear fireworks.

With Cheese here, everything is ready. Check, check!

I have my canvas field notebook, my notes from my investigation in Canterlot, Moondancer's discarded sketch and my five best friends. We will be unstoppable! (Princess) Spike will hold down the fort while I'm gone. He'll have the care of all the pets and Fluttershy's wards to keep him busy. Fortunately, he's a tough, honorable dragon. And he's done it before.

We leave tomorrow morning.

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Author's Note

Notes: There's no adventure tag, but the mane six, they're adventure prone, bound to bump into some adventure or other sooner rather than later. On to adventure!

Speaking of adventure, now that there are over 100 readers (huzzah!), I can better see the trends! (Happy dance.) OK, it looks like 70 % of people don't get past the first three months, either too much pedantic, too much ordinary life (food, snow, WWU, Twilight chatter), or they got distracted by other stories and the Blog is lost in the pile. Another trend: I've been updating in the morning most of the time (Eastern Time), catching people for whom it's evening in their time zone. Spreading update times over the 24 hour period should help catch the attention of people worldwide... I just need to hold back from hitting that 'publish' button after that final proofread pass! Not easy. So tempting. Oh! Two, neigh, three! Three more things. Rating votes are around the 1 in 20 readers norm. 1 rating vote per 10 readers is a rare thing and at about 10 new readers per update, it's going to be a while yet before I get that magic 10 total votes. Next, the sum total of 'bookshelves' + 'tracking' = about the number of people reading past March, minus ten. The majority of readers appear past midnight Graph Time and a third have some other means alerting them that another chapter has been published. Thirdly, a significant drop last three days! Could be the Lunar New Year, could be the Olympics. Hee hee! What fun!

IX September

We're Off!

Sept 1: Well, it's been five weeks, still nothing from Moondancer. No letter, no news, no Haycartian hello, no knock on my door. We're going. First to the Crystal Empire, then to Yakyakistan, then north to the Saddle Peak and never-ending winter.

We'd better go. If I called it off now, I think Rainbow Dash would drop a very black, rain soaked cloud on my head. She, and all of my friends, have been antsy for days.

Farewell Earth-Journal friends! We're off to catch the morning train to the Crystal Empire. I will probably be gone a good two weeks. No journal entries until I get back. I can't take this Treecastle with me. I wonder if I break off a chunk of rock and carry that with me... Maybe some other time. I'll let you know how it went when I get back!

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(The Princess is out. Please try again later. In case of Princess emergency, use the Spike.)

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A Hard Won Trail

Sept 18 -- We're back! We found them! And so much more! I'm exhausted despite stopping to loaf around in the Crystal Empire for a day on the way back. I think I'll sleep for a week and only get up to stuff myself silly on hay.

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The Moondancer Expedition Begins!

Sept 19 : I'm feeling a lot more rested now. Spike managed to take good care of the pets and Fluttershy's bevy of beasts. They were all very happy to see us anyway. I have a large pile of mail I've been going through and Owlowiscious has been bringing it to me wherever I stop when I change rooms. I can't so much as glance in the direction of a book and he drops it in front of my nose.

Ponies have been knocking on my door all day, asking how the rescue went. Among them was a pony who writes for the Ponyville Express, so it should be a story in tomorrow's paper and I won't have to tell the tale quite so often.

Well, I took notes in my nifty canvas field notebook. It was great to put it to good use! Here we go, Day 1 (which is the same day I made my last entry here before we left).

Packed up with gear like gypsy vanners, we got off the train at the Crystal Empire and headed for the castle. (Naps had been taken on the train as some ponies had been up until the wee hours partying.) The streets are bustling with activity, happy crystal ponies everywhere, the city is so much more alive now than any other time than I've been here, even during the Equestria Games or during the Wildlife convention.

We met with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence and she gave us directions to Yakyakistan, even though Pinkie has already been there and back. I filled them in on the details of our expedition, we made our goodbye's and we went to the Crystal Empire's fabulous old library to get copies of old maps, to find out what Moondancer consulted, and because it's a really, really big library. The librarian was very helpful. She remembered the pair of out-of-town ponies and the rare books they consulted. That made reading what Moondancer read that much faster!

Dash got bored and she went with Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity to buy avalanche survival saddlepacks and to check out the local merchants.

A few hours later they returned to the library and we set off to Yakyakistan.

We've pitched our tents, lit a fire and made our first camp at the border. Tomorrow, to Yakyakistan, find a guide and head to points north!

Day 2. We got up early, and carefully entered Yakyakistan, avoiding the abominable snow monkey cat thing thanks to Pinkie and Dash. It was a long climb uphill through the snow, a taste of what will be our life until we find Moondancer and Lemon Hearts.

We wandered about in Yakyakistan for a while. All eyes were on us and a chattering and giggling crowd of calves followed us everywhere. We were the only ponies there and we were feeling very aware of that fact. Finally, after a bit of a runaround, we found a yak guide who was ready and eager to go into the frozen north. Our bag of bits helped.

He bought yak gear and supplies to supplement our pony gear. The gear and supplies were perfect. If it hadn't been the case before, we now have everything we need.

It was afternoon by the time we left and we trekked north, our guide breaking trail in the lead. Our guide really likes our alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. I hope we have enough. I like them too.

Evening came and we pitched our tents again, second camp! So far so good. This is going to be fun! Tomorrow, north! To adventure!

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Into the Frozen Wasteland

Sept 20: Sure enough, the Ponyville Express is printing a story about our expedition. I see they're drawing it out over three parts and they've interviewed several of my friends as well. Moondancer is probably hard at work finishing her research paper on the Winter legend...

The second cut hay harvest is long over and I haven't bought any for my pantry yet! I was so busy preparing for the expedition north that I didn't have time. I better buy my hay tomorrow, the longer I wait, the higher the prices may go. Right now the farmers are inclined to sell for a little less to make more room for the third cut. I think I'll get 15 bales.

On to my field notes!

Day 3. Getting colder. Yakyakistan is snowy, but this is insane. Everything is white. Celestia's sun stays very close to the horizon here, it's very strange. We're all wearing snow goggles, the ones with a slit to see out of, otherwise we'd all go blind. We're wearing our winter gear, boots, ear muffs, scarves and blankets. Rarity just glows with satisfaction when she looks at us, like we're a high north fashion show on a very long runway.

At least the sun is at our backs. We are following our shadows into deeper snow. We followed our guide's instructions and compacted the snow at our camp site before pitching our tents. The wind has picked up and is blowing snow over us.

Day 4. It's amazing how well an oil lamp can heat a snow-covered tent. Last night something big left huge clawed prints in the snow in our campsite. It's a bit unsettling. OK, we were scared. But we're up and heading north. To adventure!

By morning the wind had died down, thankfully. It's cold and snowy enough without a white-out to slow us down. Lunch was beet pulp soup again. For a short while we feel full, but it's mostly water. The alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes give us boosts of energy, but the small meals make my stomach rumble and churn.

We set up camp this evening in a field tiled with pentagon shaped blocks of ice formed by alternating cold and colder temperature cycles. There has been little precipitation here and what ice there is expands and shrinks over and over again. After an evening meal of hay crackers and rehydrated beet pulp soup, I told the Thing from the Mountains of Madness story! Adapted to Equestria, to make it a bit more believable, but not too believable.

I remade the Thing as a hair-eating changeling that leaves its victims cold, bald and hairless. And when it ate enough hair, it would divide and there would be two of them! They would take up snatching ponies away to be farmed for their hair, and replacing them with changelings. Starting with the spa and quietly foalnapping ponies in their sleep. No pony is the wiser. In fact, every pony here, except you, is a changeling. At this point I've snuffed out the oil-lamp flame and while our yak guide was trying to relight it I sneaked up behind Rarity and tugged gently on her mane. She shrieked. Scary camp fire story, check.

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Beyond the Edge of Night

Sept 21: That hay was more expensive than I bargained for. Yak buyers have driven the price up. Still, it's cheaper now than it will be come midwinter. Applejack will be delivering my 15 bales in a few days. Right now she's very busy catching up on bucking and processing the late summer apple crop. Apparently there's only so long the apples can wait before going bad. Big McIntosh has been working hard, but we hadn't expected to be away quite this long.

Back to my field notes.

Day 5. Celestia's sun rides the southern horizon, barely peeking above the field of snow behind us. Ahead the land is rising. Now I know what was meant by "... beyond the Twilight Plain, high in the Mountains of Eternal Night, Winter slumbers in his cradle of ice". This darkness is really neat! Not all my friends share my fascination, especially since it is getting still colder. Now we are buckled head to toe in thick wool blankets and our every breath is a geyser of steam. My eyes water at every gust of wind and Rarity's nose is running. She is _not_ amused.

My hearing is muffled by the scarf I'm wearing over my ears to avoid frostbite. The squeaking of the snow under our hooves seems distant and the landscape just too quiet and dead. It feels like all I can hear is the rustling of the wool as it slips back and forth over my ears. I think we're all feeling a bit jumpy. Everypony keeps looking back to make sure that something isn't sneaking up on us. We trudge north, stop for lunch and breaks and trudge north. Our yak guide is less bothered by the cold but even he is wearing warmer garments.

I caught Fluttershy muttering there is no such Thing over and over again. I finally figured out what she was chewing over. That camp fire story. Really now, no Fluttershy, the Thing is not real. We are not heading to the "Mountains of Madness". Telling that story was a bad idea. Rainbow Dash thought that was hilarious, earning her five sets of glaring eyes. But Pinkie produced paper lanterns for each of us, "packed for paper lantern emergencies!" and Fluttershy forgot all about campfire horror stories.

Day 6. Mid-morning and Princess Celestia's sun has vanished for good below the horizon. We are in the land of eternal night. We walk the frozen sea of snow, above us in the cloudless sky is the playground of the stars. Strange constellations gallop and play in the heavens here. There are creatures up there that appear terrifying, all tentacles, eyes and fangs. I hope they stay up there. Our guide is steadfast, but when he thinks nopony is watching, he looks back wistfully, to the south and home. We are close, I can feel it! We have started to ration our alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. This is taking longer than I expected. Summer ends in just over two weeks. We've set up camp out of the wind in the shelter of a jumble of giant blocks of ice. Our guide says we are walking now on an ice field at the southern end of a very large and slow moving ice sheet. A big glacier, scouring the bedrock. The terrain continues to climb.

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Beneath the Sea of Stars

Sept 22: I decided to store my second cut hay in a different room from the first cut, or at least for the time being. I chose another guest room with a balcony, near the kitchen, and I moved all the furniture into a corner, out of the way. I don't get many guests. That's just as well or I'd have to hire staff. The first cut hay in my other larder still smells good, although it is not smelling as sweet and fresh as it had a month ago. Ponyville grows good hay.

Back to my notes from the dark, starlit north!

Day 7. Tethered single-file, we've been picking our way through the boulders and pitfall crevasses of this ice sheet all day. It's slow and tiring. We're taking more breaks and a longer lunch.

During lunch and short stops I have to use a pencil to take notes. Even though I thaw the ink in my inkwell before dipping my nib, the ink freezes solid again before I can press the nib to paper. At camp, in the evening, the oil lamp heats the air in my tent enough to make the ink workable, but just barely. For extra warmth we've taken to sleeping two to a bedroll and combining our horse blankets. I've noticed that Rainbow Dash snores, but most of the time I'm so exhausted I just sleep through it.

Suddenly, mountains! Rarity helped Rainbow reposition her winter blankets to free up her wings and she went scouting ahead after lunch. When she got back she told us that we were nearly out of the icy debris and we could have avoided most, if not all of it if we had walked on a long ridge a bit to our left. But the best news was that up ahead she had found a serene valley of snow framed by two identical mountain peaks!

She was half frozen from the flight. Rarity rebundled her until all we could see of her was the tip of her muzzle deep in a tunnel of wool cloth, like she had been rolled in a carpet. After two cups of hot cocoa she stopped shaking and we were good to go.

We headed first to Rainbow's ridge and continued north from there. By evening we'd made camp at the south end of the valley. The snow in this valley is so light and fluffy, it drifts willy-nilly with the slightest breeze. I've never seen anything like it, these snowflakes are so different from our hoof-made snowflakes. They're mostly dendrites with plates, but the plates look like duck's feet and the dendrites like a cross between club moss fronds and moth antennae.

If anypony entered here recently, all signs of their passage has been obliterated. In some places the soft snow was up to our necks but we still could easily push forward. Tomorrow we'll have to move carefully to avoid falling into pits hidden by this snow.

Day 8. It has been slow going in this unusually light and fluffy snow. Again we are tethered together, our guide in the lead, advancing single file, blind to what is at our feet. The constant fear of falling into a crevasse and feeling our way around rocks or chunks of ice is very tiring. We've stopped for lunch. It takes a whole lot of this snow to make a tea cup of water. We're melting clean chunks of ice instead. The constellations above us are so weird they're nearly abstract. They seem crystalline, or maybe geometric.

Rainbow went scouting again and says she's spotted a cavern ahead, carved into a brilliant blue glacier, a bit to the left! Could it be the same cave Moondancer described the last time I saw her in Haycartes' book? Lunch is over, Rainbow Dash is just about warmed up and we're all feeling our oats. I think we're almost there!

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The Fire of Friendship

Sept 23: At this point in the expedition, things got exciting.

Day 9 entry in my wax canvas field notebook: Yesterday we reached the blue glacier Rainbow had seen and what turned out to be not so much a cave as a large ornate entrance carved in the ice. Either by design or by trick of the darkness, the glacier looked like a tremendous waterfall had been flash-frozen. When we reached the opening, Pinkie unpacked her paper lanterns. Rarity put in fresh candles, and when each of us had a lantern, I delicately warmed the wax and lit the wicks.

We left our guide by the entrance and went in. There we were greeted by a corridor of giant columns and ice walls that glowed a royal blue and rose to meet high above us in a pointed arch. Everywhere there were delicate ice crystals, frost that made every surface sparkle and shimmer until we couldn't guess distances any more. Two sets of hoofprints led down the hall. Stepping quietly in our insulated boots, we followed them, just the sound of our breaths, the creaking of our saddlebags and the soft crush of the frost on the floor disturbing the silence. The hallway opened up into a huge ice grotto, glittering in our lantern light and glowing deep blue in the shadows. It was filled with columns, arches, spirals and ramps, like a pegasus winter playground. The walls that were close enough to see were dotted with entrances, maybe passageways to other caverns or chambers beyond.

Straight a head of us on the flat, central part of this frozen blue underworld were dozens upon dozens of pony-sized blocks of semi-transparent ice, most of them thick with frost. We could just make out the shape of the frozen beings trapped inside. Pony, yak and griffin explorers. Almost all the ponies we could see looked like crystal ponies. They've been frozen for a very long time. And in the middle of them all we found Moondancer and Lemon Hearts! They too were frozen in ice, together, their horns touching and a small spark, like a flaming heart, floating above them. They were alive! They looked like they were sleeping standing up.

That spark -- Moondancer had studied the Hearth's Warming spell! Well, of course she had. I'd learned it too. I also had five of my best friends with me, pegasi, unicorn and earth ponies. I was prepared for this.

As we drew near the ice encasing Moondancer and Lemon Hearts we heard a deep soothing voice, talking to us, like he was midway through a bedtime story that never ends. The voice was like a soft breeze over snow and the tinkling of icecrystals rolling in swirling gusts of white. Distracting and hypnotic. It was Winter talking, alive and well, a gigantic figure that floated out from the shadows to perch on an arch directly above us. Staring down his long muzzle at us with knowing blue eyes, he was only too happy to see us. With every misty breath he was weaving a binding spell. I could feel anger and suspicion clouding my thoughts and ice was growing up from the floor. I drew my friends close to cast the counterspell, the Hearth's Warming spell... I told everypony to Sing!

We began with the Heart Carol and remembered how all together we put on the best play Ponyville had seen in years. Winter's murmuring monologue faltered and I forgot what it was that I was angry about. We remembered our friendship and the good times we had together. I concentrated to embrace that joy. We sang 'Just Live For Today' and we relived Pinkie's surprise picnic. As we sang and talked the cold blue cave faded from sight. Winter's words were just the wind in the tall grass. We sang 'Find the Music in You' and we giggled over Fluttershy's trickery. I recited Friendship Letters from memory and we just hugged as we relived all the lessons we'd learned. As we hugged, a pulsing flame shot straight up from our circle, divided in two and curved in on itself, two ponies high. It hovered above us, red, brilliant and hot. The Heart Carol flame.

All around us the ice was melting. Moondancer and Lemon Hearts revived and joined us. Beyond them other ponies were thawing out too, as were the yaks. It was a bit slower for the griffins. Winter was still talking, but he was also shrinking and the frozen mist of his breath was clearing. Pinkie pulled out a party cannon, plus balloons and hats. I don't know from where. There was now confetti everywhere, singing yaks and Rarity and Pinkie decorating the place with ribbons and balloons. Party time! Winter retreated deeper into the cave. By now most of the griffins had thawed out too.

I called for attention! I told the surprise (and surprised) crowd to grab a balloon, put on a party hat, find a stranger and make a friend! Each and every one is to tell the other their most happy memory, the best day or event in their life! They must do this now to feed the magic flaming heart that was warming us all. (I doubt there was a song we could all sing, there were even ponies with long floppy ears and a caribou in the crowd of revived explorers!)

That worked pretty well. Winter had shrunk to about goat size and had vanished into one of the passageways at the far end of the cavern. Applejack went back to the entrance to get our guide and then we set up camp in the cavern with the flaming Hearth's Warming heart floating halfway to the ceiling above us. We were safe for the time being.

Every explorer was well stocked with food and supplies, and now that every pony, griffin and yak was revived, we built fires, swapped food and stories and had the best nerd party ever! Every pony, griffin, and yak had stories and adventures to share, it was like a living library, like the Haycartes spell, spread over an entire library. Nopony wanted to leave. But eventually, the party has to end. We did keep the party going for several hours more, allowing my herd and the explorers to take naps by turn and to repack their belongings for the trek back south. I think Winter was beginning to revive because several of us caught glimpses of him peeking out of various entrances on the far walls. So we couldn't tarry much longer in his cave.

Some explorers were keen to explore Winter's home some more and we had to practically push them out the cave entrance. We had arrived by late afternoon and by now it was the wee hours of the morning of day 9. We had to get some distance between us and Winter's stronghold!

It's now early evening and we've made camp in a sheltered spot nestled up to Rainbow's ridge, well past the southern end of the valley of fluffy snow. Traveling is faster when you know your destination and you can make better decisions in choosing the shortest path. My friends and I have our homes to return to, but most everypony else that had fallen to Winter's grasp will have to start over.

We divided up the return expedition at the entrance to Winter's icy abode. The air was still crisp, but it seemed to have lost its bite. The yaks, Crystal ponies and what must be Cirrostratans were all set to make good time so we bid them farewell and they left first, their ancient cities unchanged with the passing millenia of their absence. Next, the pegasi and griffons took to the air. The sky was clear and the stars were helpfully pointing the way south. We soon lost sight of them in the night sky, only the winking of distant stars betraying their passage. Then all that were left were my friends and I, our guide and those for whom the landmarks and their destinations had moved or changed too much for them to find a familiar destination point. But by following us they could make better time than they would by just heading south.

For these ancient explorers, being living relics from a vanished time won't be too hard a situation to adjust to. These adventurers are used to being on the go and not really tethered to one spot, and hopefully the academics will quickly be too engrossed in catching up on research and writing papers about their findings to dwell on all the ponies they left behind. They'll make new friends quickly enough.

I'm exhausted. I didn't get any sleep last night. My friends and our guide will take turns keeping watch. For the others, this will be their first true, full night's sleep in a very long while.

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The Stars Will Aid in Our Escape

Sept 24: If you've kept track of the days, you probably noted that it took a while for us to get home. On to my field notes! Oh, and I expect my 15 bales of hay to be delivered tomorrow.

Day 10. Rainbow's ridge through the ice sheet weaves a bit left and right but it is heading south and we're making good time. Lemon Hearts said this is what they trotted on when they were going north and that it extends all the way to the southern end of the ice sheet, with a few gaps here and there. When the ridge rises over a submerged hill we catch glimpses of a glimmer of twilight at the southern horizon. Our yak guide is feeling especially chatty, trading "A pony walks into a donut shop" jokes with Pinkie, and during the evening meal, asking strings of questions of the defrosted explorers in our party and not waiting for answers. The caribou explorer (Leaf Hairrakesson) is especially intriguing, coming from the wandering herds of the far north. He'll be leaving us as soon as we reach the point where the sun rises above the horizon.

They tell me that a large part of Winter's binding spell is him describing winter in great detail, where only the wind and the stars move over an ancient frozen landscape. Winter likes an audience, which is why everypony, griffin and caribou are still alive. Since he's a windigo, I think he feeds off their cold, rapt attention in some way.

Our fast pace has worn out our explorers and we are very tired too. It has been ten grueling days of walking in freezing cold with no hay to speak of in our bellies. We're still walking Rainbow's ridge through the ice field and even though we could have reached the snowy plains to the south by evening, we're stopping early. There are fifteen of us, too many to fit around one soup pot, so we made three groups at each stop. To get to know each other better, we switch around who sits in which group.

Our tents are like a little village in the snow. But Leaf Hairrakesson's shelter isn't a tent. With a long wooden, blade-like tool he's cut compacted snow into large bricks and he's built a small stable, with a roof! It's warmer than our tents. Moondancer and I took notes and made drawings.

The cold has found its bite again so we're sleeping two by two for warmth. When I get home, I'm going to the spa where I will sit in the sauna until I'm so hot I catch fire.

Day 11. Midday halt. The twilight is much stronger now and lasts for about four hours. By this time tomorrow I expect to catch a glimpse of Princess Celestia's sun. We're all quite tired of the near perpetual dark. Up above, weird constellations gaze down upon us with their many eyes and wiggle their tentacles.

Early evening, a sudden wind blew down upon us from the north. As we looked back we could see a wall of clouds and flying snow racing after us, like a giant breaking wave. Riding that wave was Winter, grown gigantic, even at this distance, bearing down on us at terrifying speed. We bolted, galloping hard for the south with no hope of outrunning this storm. Winter was gaining fast. Our yak guide was in high spirits again, cracking jokes between pants and gasps for breath. I made a change of plan.

I called for an immediate halt and to make camp right there. Pinkie caught on right away. "This calls for a party! A hello goodbye party for Winter!"

As the wall of clouds rose ever higher and the wind gained strength, we pitched our tents in a tight circle, built a snow brick wall all around and lit an oil lamp flame in the center. Pinkie produced marshmallows and crackers. It's Pinkie, I didn't ask. "We'll make smores!" Soon we were an oasis of cheer in a world gone white, roasting marshmallows and laughing at how silly it all was. I started to build the Hearth's Warming spell.

But the wind was whistling, the snow swirling closer and closing in over our heads. Winter's standing wave became a hurricane, rising from all sides, spinning and blotting out the twilight heavens. Ice began to grow, up our snow brick walls and arching up and over our camp. We were a small oasis of smores and cheer, lit by one oil lamp flame and a slowly growing Hearth's Warming heart, in the black eye of a giant storm. The ice dome did not stop or even slow down. Winter was prepared to win this time.

Then we heard a whinny, like a rumble of thunder, rise above the howl of the wind. Standing up and looking south, I saw a glimmer, something shimmering in the blackness, then a gigantic head crashed through the crest of the spinning wall of clouds. Emerging whole through the whirling clouds of Winter's hurricane, a constellation, a being of stars, galloped down the wall of snow and wind straight for us and was shining brighter with each step. It was a pegasus constellation, with a brilliant star on her forehead lighting her path.

As she charged, she not only stopped the blizzard that was building up, but changed it into a gentle rain. With a few more strides she reached our camp, stood over it and spread her wings. Then she looked down to us and made a mother's call. It was a gentle rumble so deep it made the ground tremble. We could feel it to our very bones. I could suddenly remember the taste of mare's milk, my mother's warm flank protecting me, her warm breath on my neck. It was so real, so there, so vivid. A warm glow, safety, one with a world fresh, exciting and new.

Indescribable.

The storm vanished. Winter fled back to his fortress of ice and we were standing, as weak and wobbly as foals, reborn under clear skies on a plain of mist. Summer is here to lead us home.

We've collapsed into our tents and snuggled under our bedrolls. I feel so safe and warm. I can barely keep my eyes open, my friends are sleeping like foals and in a moment, I will too.

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Into the Light

Sept 25: Applejack and Big McIntosh rolled up with a wagon load of second cut timothy grass hay for me, as fresh and green as the day it was baled. Well, Big McIntosh pulled the wagon and Applejack came to help with the loading and unloading. Once the straps were off I lifted the 15 bales, moved them into single file and sent them up and through the balcony door to their "pantry". There's still plenty of room in there for the third cut, due in a few weeks.

Speaking of food, Pinkie teamed up with Fluttershy two days ago and we had a Hello to Fall supper in Fluttershy's cottage. After having been on such a long trek through a frozen, dark and lifeless land, all of Fluttershy's resident critters popping in and out of their hiding holes to snatch morsels off the table was a welcome distraction. And the food! Fall is the height of the harvest season and Pinkie and Fluttershy spread for us a huge feast. Did I mention that we were hungry a lot on the expedition? Part of our dinner conversation went something like this:

Me: Oh, the smells of home! Never has it felt so good to be back!
Applejack: In winter in Ponyville it don't smell near so full sterile as it were in the dark North. Even buried in snow here you can still smell the trees. Dig a mite and there's dirt and grass waitin' fer spring. And everywhere, ponies.
Rarity: And perfume!
Pinkie Pie: And mouthwatering bakery aromas!
Fluttershy: Hot cocoa! Cedar chests!
Me: Spice tea!
Rainbow Dash: And... I got nothing.

Back to my field notes!

Day 12. We woke up early and came tumbling out of our tents in our hurry to see if Summer was still watching over us. She was! She was standing right over our camp, a brilliant field of stars in the darkness, held up by four sparkling pillars. She took a step south, looked back and nickered to urge us to follow. We packed up our belongings, hastily ate a few bites of breakfast and trotted after her. It then occurred to me that I felt refreshed and that the rest of our party looked perky as well. Like young foals on their first stroll, we kept as close as we could to Summer, without getting stepped on. I fought the urge to frolic and gallop about.

As I expected, the sun peeked above the southern horizon for a brief moment around noon. It was a bittersweet moment. Summer had left us a few hours earlier as the twilight strengthened. She climbed an invisible (to us) incline into the night sky and from there she galloped westward until she vanished beyond the horizon. We whinnied a sad farewell to her retreating form. After she was gone, we picked up our feet and carried on south, toward home.

We've stopped for lunch. It was beet pulp soup and hay crackers again. We ate mostly in silence. Without her standing over us we feel like lost foals in the wilderness. It's a hard feeling to shake off. Her warmth has gone and I can feel the chill of this cold region again.

Now that it's dark again and we've made camp, I keep looking up to see if I can find her in with the strange northern constellations. Tomorrow we push on.

Day 13. Once again Celestia's sun rides the horizon and our spirits are on the rise. We are all wearing our snow goggles against the glare and gleaming snow. We have left the foothills of Winter's country but everything is white, barren and frozen. It's cold and the snow squeaks.

We've reached the windswept area where the ice expands and contracts into five-sided slabs. Tomorrow we will be into the region of deeper snow.

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At Last, Civilization

Sept 26: Day 14. We have exhausted our supply of alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. Fortunately, several of our new expedition party members are equipped for long treks and we have been pooling our resources. Some of it is really old, yellow, dry and brittle after being encased in Winter's ice for so many years. We eat it anyway and talk about all the things we miss. Above all else we miss the smells.

The air is warmer now and we've shed some of our deep-cold garb. It makes talking easier as we walk, but we have to conserve our strength and walk single file, taking turns breaking trail in the snow.

Over lunch we remembered things we miss. Apples, grass, fresh hay, growing things, birds singing... living things. Pinkie: "and cupcakes!". Applejack: "Especially apples." Me: "I'm so tired of beet pulp soup and hay crackers, I'd be happy to eat anything else." Rainbow Dash: "Even cheese quesadillas?" Me: "Maybe even that." (shudder)

Then Leaf Hairrakesson spoke up. Our caribou companion has a knack for finding edible forage under the snow! It wasn't grass, but the woody twigs and buds I ate helped settle my stomach. How do these plants manage, in the cold, the weak sunlight and with nopony to tend them? Applejack is even more dumbfounded than I am.

Over supper Moondancer wanted to know more about the quesadilla story so we told her about Pinkie's Party Planning Cave and her extensive notes on everypony in Ponyville's likes and dislikes. Everypony was impressed.

Leaf's tender twigs and buds and grey-white balls of lichen made our yellowed pot-luck stew tastier but it's still lacking in nutrition. I just want to sleep.

Day 15. Early this morning our caribou companion left us, a little later than originally planned, but he can feel the pull of the herds, somewhere to the west. At lunch break we boiled something old, grey and brittle until it was soft enough to chew, washing it down with fur-leaf tea, a parting gift from the caribou. Time to get back up and marching. So tired of marching. We are in Yakyakistan and we should see civilization by this evening. Our guide seems to grow more cheerful with each step. A successful rescue expedition is a perfect rescue expedition. Chalk one up for good yak/pony cross-cultural relations.

We bid farewell to our yak guide. We had a kind of parade through the streets of Yakyakistan. I'd forgotten that the other yak explorers got home days before we arrived. They've made quite the sensation, being back from the dead and having stories to tell. Prince Rutherford has insisted we stay the night in his guest rooms. We're so tired I don't think we made great conversationalists. Fortunately, we weren't really expected to make speeches. Yak hay beds really are soft and comfortable.

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The Final Leg

Sept 27: After Summer left us and we finally reached Yakyakistan, all that is left to tell is an anti-climatic denouement: we go home. Heh! Well, that's life, right?

Day 16. I woke up late to blinding sunlight coming in through the window. It took me a moment to remember where I was. I decided against eating the Yakyakistan hay mattress I'd been sleeping on, but I was very sorely tempted. I did the civilized thing and held off until I joined my friends and the five rescued explorer/academic ponies in our common room. We asked our hosts about food.

We had an early lunch, or a really late breakfast. I ate it so fast I'm not sure which it was. I was really hungry. We packed up our gear again, took our leave of Prince Rutherford and his gracious hospitality and we headed for the Crystal Empire, arriving on Princess Cadence's doorstep in the early evening. Again we were too tired to be talkative. Tomorrow.

Day 17. After breakfast and a long soak at the spa, I have started to revive. The Crystal Empire is abuzz with the return of so many ancient explorers. Ancient, even to the crystal ponies! Princess Cadence has met with most of them and they've been keeping her busy, regaling her with tales and she setting them up with stipends and a place to write about their exploits or their research.

We had lunch with Shining Armor, Princess Cadence and a few of the academics we'd rescued. Rainbow Dash was probably pretty bored until the conversation shifted to Daring Do's discoveries. We did help Daring a bit with those Rings of Scorchero.

For supper we treated ourselves to a trip to one of the Crystal Empire's finer restaurants. Not too fancy and especially, with enough to eat. We've all lost a lot of weight. We sat on straw cushions at a table for eight, remembering the trek and the wonders we'd seen, Lemon Hearts recounting the wonders Winter had whispered in her ear while Moondancer focused on feeding the Hearth's Warming spell. The restaurant patrons were probably agog to see us there. I didn't really notice, my eyes were on the fresh bread, hot and sour silage, crystal corn soup, hot oat muffins, grated apple and carrot salad (with pine nuts!) and big heaping plates of Ponyville second cut hay. My heart was with my friends. A little crystal filly did come to our table and ask us to sign her story book. It was When Winter Came to Equestria! We all signed it. I wrote in it: "This is a true story" and read what I wrote to the filly as I levitated the book back to her. She said, in a serious tone, "I know", then she scampered back to her table at the restaurant. Then the eight of us got in a debate as to whether it was Summer, Epona or both together that was the mind and spirit of the constellation that drove Winter away from us.

Another night's rest in the Crystal Empire and tomorrow, home at last. Ponyville for us, Canterlot for Moondancer and Lemon Hearts. Princess Cadence has graciously offered to house our five companions while they recover and get their bearings. I suspect most will try to find some trace of their past lives, maybe through genealogy, maybe by looking for what became of their old homes during the centuries they've been gone. Some will just pick up and carry on doing what they do best, research and exploration. They just need a little time to stable down and raise funds for their next project.

When we get home tomorrow it will have been seventeen days that we've been gone.

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Gathering Ecological Data With Fluttershy

Sept 28: Applejack isn't the only pony who has been working hard to catch up on her duties after our long trek north and back. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are responsible for monitoring the biodiversity and population dynamics in and around Ponyville. That includes assessments of the diversity, density and age structure of the plants via regular and scientifically rigorous sampling of various ecological communities. That sounds like so much fun! Today Fluttershy was heading out to Whitetail Woods to do some transect sampling. I volunteered to tag along and enter the data into her wax canvas field notebook. An excellent choice in rugged bound stationary, I might add.

The early fall is such a nice time of year. The lush growth of summer is bearing fruit, the air is cool and fragrant, and the leaves are beginning to turn color. We packed dice, flags, a spotting scope, a random number table, a key to identifying the plants of Ponyville, Canterlot and the Everfree Forest (I want one!), measuring tape, stakes and string. We also packed a picnic lunch and Angel Bunny.

Fluttershy's starting point is 500 paces into Whitetail Woods, following the Leaf Runner Trail. From there she uses the dice and her random number table to find a fresh starting point on the trail, either forward or back. At the fresh starting point, the dice and random numbers give her a compass direction and she uses the spotting scope to establish a straight line for her belt transect, which is three paces wide and one hundred paces long. We placed flags to delineate the study area, and then the fun began!

Fluttershy identified every plant at every pace, measured every tree diameter at withers' height, and I followed her and wrote it all down. Angel Bunny also sampled the plant life, in his own way, although not so much in the belt transect and not really at random either.

Fluttershy has noted a fair bit of disruption to the various plant communities around Ponyville. Discord's plants saw to that. As a result there has been an increase in the number of secondary successional plants colonizing the gaps left by toppled climax plants. But overall, Ponyville's plant communities are recovering nicely. The Running of the Leaves helps.

Every year, ponies wrap up fall by running as a herd through the forests. This causes the cell walls in the abscission layer of the tree leaves to thin and the leaves to fall. The pounding of so many pony hooves also stimulates the health of all the plants in the communities the run goes through. Thus the rapid recovery of the plants here after the Tree had eliminated Discord's vines.

We stopped for lunch under the trees. I noticed that I could tell where we had walked by the appearance of the plants we had passed. The leaves of the understory plants were suddenly going yellow and the leaves in the trees were changing to red, orange and yellow right before my eyes. Pony magic.

After lunch, Fluttershy finished up the day's data collection with a quadrant, or rectangular plot, sample area. She rolled and looked up a random point on, and a direction perpendicular to, her belt transect, then looked up a random distance to establish the lower corner of the quadrant. We pegged and strung a cord from one corner to the next to make a six pace by twelve pace rectangle and then Fluttershy methodically identified every plant and measured every tree diameter in the quadrant.

The job done, we packed up our things, collected all the flags, scooped up Angel Bunny and headed home. Behind us, the trees were beautiful.

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Fresh Fall Food

Sept 29: I spent a quiet day with my books, with a short excursion to the Ponyville open air market to buy some fresh produce. Fall is harvest time and the market is full of stalls selling a wide variety of fresh produce. I picked up some goose neck squash, spinach, lettuce, beans, peas, corn, melons, grapes, carrot greens and celery. That will make some nice side dishes with our meals over the next few days.

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Green Fields

Sept 30: I went grazing in the early afternoon, after the morning spritzing the weather ponies had sent us had soaked into the ground and the grass was clean and fresh. The agriculture specialist earth ponies were out walking the pastures, stimulating growth in preparation for the third cut haying. Ponyville was founded on zap apple jam, but I think we grow the finest hay in Equestria.

Applejack was walking the fields too and she came over and joined me. As Cloudsdale moved on overhead the wind picked up and blew off Applejack's hat. It was funny to watch her chasing after it. Further away, a couple of fillies got frolicsome, pronked, bucked the air and went racing through the open fields with the wind, vanishing over a far rise where I imagined them laughing, rolling and stopping to graze some more. Friendship. The wind died down and Applejack, hat firmly on head, returned to graze with me a while longer.

From the goofy grin she was wearing, I think she thought it was pretty funny too.

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Author's Note

Two crazy ponies walk into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "We don't serve your kind here". The first crazy pony points at the butter pecan donuts and says "Oh yes you do! We're nuts!"

A changeling pony walks into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "We don't serve your kind here". The changeling replaces him and says "now we do".

Haycartes walks into a donut shop. The baker looks up and asks "Do we serve your kind here?" Haycartes replies "I think not..." and vanished.

Two Saddle Arabians in fancy bridles walk into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "The pastries here are not free". One of the Saddle Arabians removes the metal bar from his mouth and says "We know, see? We brought bits".

A Clydesdale walks into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "We don't serve draft here". The Clydesdale points to a large pony sitting at a table and says "I'm here for the Suffolk punch ".

A tennis player trots into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "Your kind can't serve here". The tennis player replied "no but you can". And the score was one love.

A Nirik walks into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "We don't serve your kind here" and puts him out.

A pony and two cows walk into a donut shop. The baker looks up and says "we don't serve your kine here". So the cows left.

X October

Books

Oct 1: While we were out trudging through the snow Princess Cadence continued to mail me books. I got another package today. Some books are more interesting than others, and even with these shipments I'm getting low on things I'd like to read. Should I go pester Moondancer in Canterlot, or should I see what I can find in the old ruined castle of the Pony Sisters in the Everfree? We had intended to fix the old castle up, but that plan has fallen by the wayside.

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Night Life

Oct 2: The nights are cooler now, cooler and quieter. I got a hot mug of chocolate peppermint tea, set out a comfortable cushion, aimed my telescope up into the inky black abyss and watched the stars.

Most of the constellations were up and taking their places in the night sky. The pegasus and foal constellations among them, high in the sky. It's not the same pegasus as the constellation that rescued us. The one that charged in through Winter's storm and watched over us until we'd just about reached the dawn. This I'm sure.

There are a lot more stars out there than I'd imagined. Equestria, or pre-pony Equestria, must be much older than I'd assumed for there to be so many stars.

As Luna's moon rose ever higher, I wrapped myself in my blanket on my balcony and peered up at the stars through my telescope. Directly above me walked the pegasus and foal constellations. They did not stop or look down. They kept going, doing their own thing, walking across the sky.

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Hot Tub

Oct 3: Everypony has caught up with mucking out the tasks that got stabled while we were out marching through the cold, dark wilderness. So we went to the spa! We're all still a bit gaunt, despite eating like horses since we got back. At least it seems to me all I do is eat. The spa ponies noticed. They also noticed how worn our hooves were and how frayed our coats had become from chafing against horse blankets day and night. As always, Rainbow Dash hates to get her hooves filed and she's not too keen on having her coat curried, but she's all for soaking in the hot tub. So the spa ponies added some great fragrant oils to the hot tub and after we'd soaked in that for a while we came out looking shiny and new. Dash really looks great when her coat is shiny like that. The rest of us had our hooves trimmed while Dash looked on and winced. She'll trim them herself later.

After the spa we headed over to Sugarcube Corner for some fresh hot muffins and tea. Pinkie knows the baker and arranged for them to be hot out of the oven when we arrived. We won't be gaunt for long!

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Quality Over Quantity

October 4: I really need new books. What I've picked up so far is a pretty eclectic mix, not too surprising since they were all given to me in a short span of time. Many are probably books ponies didn't wish to keep anyway, and what with the Golden Oak Library burning to the ground, sending them to me was an easy way to give them a new home.

The Golden Oak had a really good collection of books, one that was accumulated over many years. Useful books, reference books, recommended books, books ponies wanted to read but not necessarily buy.

My new collection... Well, a lot of genre fiction reads like retreads of the same story with the names and the places changed. "Buck Billets loosened his necktie and let it slip to the ground as he stepped into the moonlit clearing. I could smell the musk of hot sweat slicking his coat, glistening on his neck and tracing small rivulets that ran between his magnificent bulging pecs. As he arched his neck enticingly, I felt a shiver of anticipation go through me, like a pink cloud of butterflies had landed on my back and were now dancing up my withers, only to launch back into the air." And so on and so forth. Hanoverian Romance novels and the like. Not exactly useful reference books.

So I trotted off through the Everfree Forest and to the ruins of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's old home. I didn't want to stay long, or return home through the forest after dark, so I just borrowed a few books. I came home with a reference guide to constellations, shooting stars and comets, a beginner's manual for gem growth and tuning, and a book on how to create perpetual self-feeding water features for homes and gardens. I wonder if the Treecastle would look better with a permanent rainbow waterfall pouring from one of the balconies?

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The Lure of Lore

Oct 5: As I was walking back home from the ruins of the castle of the two princesses yesterday, it occurred to me that I could maybe invite Moondancer to come over and visit this library. After sleeping on it, I still thought she'd like that. So I dictated a letter to Spike asking Princess Celestia and Princess Luna permission to show Moondancer their old castle and book collection. Spike can send scrolls directly to Princess Celestia and she to him, so I got an instant reply. Yes. Blanket permission. I can invite anypony as I see fit.

I wrote letter to Moondancer, inviting her over to browse a thousand-year-old book collection. I suggested a date five days from now.

She will probably say yes. I know her weakness.

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Taking a Chance

Oct 6: I am relatively certain Moondancer will heed the call of old books and catch the train to Ponyville. Assuming she's fine with the date I set, even though it's a bit short notice, I should prepare. I decided to invite Zecora to the library as well, and to top off the day with a supper at the castle. Supper for nine, Spike and my friends included.

I went early to the market with Spike and we bought a lot of food. Fortunately I have a lot of hay, so we didn't have that to carry that home. We only bought food that would still be fresh four days from now. Some things, like the silage, will have to wait until the supper day. Have you ever had day-old silage? It goes bad very quickly. Spike will be preparing the supper while we're out browsing books. It may or may not include cheese quesadillas. Eww. Just for laughs. As long as they're very far away from me on our very large dining room table.

With the supper, this means more invitations! This afternoon I went around, first to Zecora's hut, then to my friends houses, to invite them all. Zecora said yes, as did everypony else. So far so good.

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Pegasus Eye View

Oct 7: I received another box of books from Princess Cadence. A lot of them were more romance novels and outdoor adventure books. I wonder if I can pass them on to somepony else.

My coat's getting thicker. It makes me look a bit less thin. Or it could be all those oat muffins I've been eating. I should ease up a bit on those before I get colic.

My balcony gives me a great view of the fields and woods. Every day I can see the change of the fall season. Just from the yellowing of the standing corn stalks and where the trees have burst into color you can tell where ponies like to stroll and where they pause. The green land is crisscrossed with wavy lines of red, yellow, orange and brown, interrupted by wide patches in full fall glory. With each passing day those lines grow larger and merge. It's the sunset of the trees.

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Wet Weather

Oct 8: It was a rainy day today, one of those grey fall days with a slow drizzle that pauses every so often, so ponies without umbrellas or the desire to get wet can dash from one building to another. A good day to stay inside with a good book and a pot of hot spice tea.

I did go out a few times and on one of my sorties I dropped in on Rainbow Dash. She told me that the weather will be clear day after tomorrow. Hopefully that will be true of the Everfree Forest. That place is dreary enough without rain showers masking the approach of wild things and the paths turning into mud.

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All Set

Oct 9: I got my reply from Moondancer in the morning mail: she said yes! I expect her tomorrow morning. It will be me, Zecora and Moondancer exploring the stacks of the old castle library. Fun, fun, fun!

Today I got ready, preparing the picnic and double-checking the shopping list for Spike. While we're out he's going to buy the remainder of the perishables and cook up a supper for nine. We made the pumpkin sesame soup today, but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

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The Books in the Wild Woods

Oct 10: I am so stuffed. I think I ate way too much pie.

Today was the day to visit the old library in the ruins with Zecora and Moondancer! Moondancer arrived with the morning train from Canterlot, where I found her disembarking with her nose buried in a book (Observer's Guide to Ponyville and Surrounding Area). We nipped off to the Treecastle to collect the picnic baskets and wasted no time heading off to the Everfree Forest. A whole library awaited and no time to waste! On the way we dropped off at Zecora's cottage. She was ready to trot so after a quick introduction we were back on track to the ancient castle of the pony sisters.

It's fall in the Everfree too. There isn't nearly as much color in the trees as there is in Ponyville and the forest forbs and bushes have lost a lot of leaves. Fortunately, it was not raining, just gloomy. We chatted as we walked, eventually crossing the suspended plank bridge and climbing the steps to the front door of the castle ruins. We had arrived!

I showed Moondancer the throne room and the tapestries that Rarity had mended. We skipped touring the trap doors, hall of hooves and the 'organ to the outside' and instead went straight to the library. I opened the door to the Princess lounge and we got down to the business of combing the stacks for interesting books.

We paused for lunch and I mentioned to Zecora that I had noticed that the leaves in the Everfree don't change color where we had walked by. The weather, the seasons, the creatures and the plants, all are independent of pony control and management in the Everfree. Maybe it's the Tree that runs this wild wood. Moondancer thinks that the dark north where Winter lives is also wild. Home to rocks, ice and stars. But no ponies.

After lunch we were back between the pages, browsing through likely looking volumes. I put aside a few to borrow, as did Moondancer and Zecora. The afternoon fairly flew by, it was evening all too quickly. But we couldn't stay, we were expected for dinner in Ponyville.

I'll write more tomorrow, Moondancer has an early train to catch and it has been a long day.

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Nine For Supper

Oct 11: Moondancer had stayed overnight and we got up early for tea and hay on toast for breakfast before she caught the morning train back to Canterlot. We made arrangements to meet up and go shopping for books in Canterlot three days from now.

Yesterday I left off at where we were fixing to make our way back to Ponyville and an evening supper cooked by Spike. We put back the books we'd pulled off the shelves, which isn't easy when you keep seeing yet another book you'd like to read. (I could have brought Owlowiscious, but then he usually sleeps during the day.) Eventually we each had a small pile of books we were borrowing and everything else had been re-shelved. We bid farewell to the castle, crossed the plank bridge and headed back through the Everfree in the evening light.

We were the last to arrive at the Treecastle. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already sitting at the table and getting served soup by Spike. Pinkie knew we'd almost arrived. Zecora, Moondancer and I drew up our cushion chairs and sat down to Spike's pumpkin sesame soup. Spike had prepared bowls of fresh chopped alfalfa to sprinkle on top of the soup, and we passed these around. Yellow-orange soup and green bits, very colorful, and tasty.

We talked of the expedition and of Moondancer's paper on her findings, to be published in the prestigious Journal of Cultural Hippology and Magic, pending approval of her third draft revision. These things usually go through a few revisions, the peer reviewers are pretty picky.

Moondancer had not understood to what degree Friendship was key to the strength of the Hearth's Warming spell. In Winter's compelled dream state she was goaded to anger and away from the cheer she needed to feed the spell. It flickered and waned, it was never strong enough. With each passing day the spell was ebbing, fading down to that small spark that was all Moondancer could maintain by the time we had arrived. Friendship is my area of expertise. That gave me an edge, and my friends gave me the power we needed. All the other, smaller exploration and research parties were doomed the moment they set hoof (or paw) into Winter's grotto.

We were lucky that we had surprised Winter with our strength. It gave us time to free all the explorers and to recruit them into feeding more cheer into the spell. Had Winter hammered us as he had on our trek home, we'd still be trapped there.

Spike kept the food coming, all very delicious, except the cheese quesadillas. Quel horreur. Pinkie and Spike ate those. For dessert there was apple pie and Spike had found a large tub of dandelion and daisy ice cream. A last taste of summer, frozen but still fresh. An analog to our most recent adventure.

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Mirrorverse Ethics

Oct 12: Sunset Shimmer, my quill pal who is studying a mirrorverse, in person, wrote back today. She is mulling over my theory about what could happen if she continues to keep the mirrorverse time tethered to Equestria. She is also seriously considering concluding her study and returning to Equestria where she can better explore musical spells in a magical environment. It's not clear to me whether the two are connected. Either way, whatever motivates her to come back to Equestria is fine with me.

She's also weighing the ethics of leaving her communication book with our mirror friends. If I'm right and the mirror universe time span reaches an end-point and winks out of existence, will she have caused the "deaths" of hundreds, maybe thousands, of these mirror people? But if she brings her book back with her and time goes back to a short oscillation, isn't that also the "death" of the mirror people? I can see now why she has been putting the whole thing off.

I'm still expecting Star Swirl the Bearded to pop out of the woodwork there, but that hope is fading fast. I would have thought that Star Swirl would notice that the ponies he knew are not being mirrored and that there are way more beings there than there were ponies in his day.

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Speaking Engagement

Oct 13: I got a letter this morning from the Canterlot Explorer's Society. It's an invitation to speak at their dinner in six week's time. They have an "In The Field" series of lectures, with dinner, about every two weeks. That's one of the things I miss about Canterlot, lecture series! Well, I wrote back and accepted the invitation. Now I have a speaking engagement! As guest speaker, I'm allowed fourteen guests, all expenses paid. They may regret that.

I went to the spa where I met up with Rarity and Fluttershy. I told them about the invitation while we sweltered in the sauna. They're in! After the spa we went to Sugarcube Corner for oven toasted fresh plain donuts and tea. I like to dip my toasted donuts in my tea and let them soak up as much tea as they can without crumbling. Fun and tasty! Pinkie joined us at our table. She's in too! Spike is in, of course. I just have to talk to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, if Pinkie doesn't find them first.

Tomorrow I'm off to Canterlot to shop for books with Moondancer. I can invite her and Lemon Hearts then. Who else should I invite?

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Shopping For Books With Moondancer

Oct 14: I took the train to Canterlot, went to Moondancer's house, and from there we went shopping for books. Her favorite bookseller had a good selection of speculative fiction, mostly published by Dell Neigh, Pace Speculation and Zebra Science Fiction. I picked up Foalhood's End by Halter C. Cart plus a few reference books. I looked at books on stone masonry, ceramics, topiary, meditation, embryology, cabinet making and at cookbooks. Shopping for my own collection is not the same as stocking a public library. So I got a cookbook and the book on meditation, plus The Art of Invisibility Spells and Thornhoof's Brief History of Canterlot (two books I lost when the Golden Oak was destroyed). This reminds me, I should see if Applejack will lend me her past issues of Poplar Mechanics magazine.

After buying our books we went to a nearby café to eat. Moondancer passed to me two of the five books she had borrowed from the ancient castle library. Snow Flake Architecture, and Star Formation. She had finished reading them and asked me to return them.

We talked of the mirror verse that Sunset Shimmer is studying, how it must be artificial, unlike the Breezieverse. We mulled over whether it could be a real, independent universe or just a magical reflection of our universe. I argued that it is probably the latter. Sunset Shimmer, Spike and I all changed form and gained clothes on passing through the mirror. Every entity there has an Equestria equivalent. The fact that some species are apparently not mirrored neither supports nor refutes either side of the argument. (Namely, dragons, griffins, cows, sheep, zebras.) And final argument, Star Swirl used it to trap three sirens 1,000 years ago and they haven't aged or changed attitude in all that time. That does not sound like an independent universe ticking along on its own and mirroring Equestria by sheer accident.

Before we parted ways and I headed back to the train station, Moondancer told me that she is to be a guest lecturer at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, presenting her research and field data on the windigo, Winter! That's in four weeks time. I'm going to sit in on that, I wouldn't miss it for anything! Well, almost anything.

Moondancer is going to see if Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts and Lyra Heartstrings are free to attend the lecture I'll be giving for the Canterlot Explorer's Society. If they all say yes, that will be 11 guests. I guess my parents would like to attend too. I should ask them. And my brother, and Princess Cadence and Princess Celestia...

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October Horse

Oct 15: I read about an Earth practice called "the October Horse". It involves a race between pairs of horses and the horse on the right side of the winning team gets slaughtered. As in speared. And then the townsfolk squabble over his or her head. Ugh. What a way to reward somepony that ran a race for you. Hopefully you've stopped doing that.

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Making Plans

Oct 16: Applejack has about bucked all the apples there are to be bucked this year. I'd like to go on a picnic by Saddle Lake. I wonder if everypony else is up for a hike. I'll ask around tomorrow.

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Picnic Food For Thought

Oct 17: I guess we're overdue for a picnic and a short hike is no biggie, not after two weeks of marching through snow and ice. Everypony said 'Yes!' Rainbow Dash said it will be warm and mostly sunny in two days' time, so that's when we'll go.

What should I take? Bread and my assortment of jams that we all made? We have to eat them sometime, don't we?

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Juggling Invitations

Oct 18: It was cold out today. Almost cold enough to see my breath.

I got an answer from my brother and Cadence. They can't go to the lecture. They have duties to attend to in the Crystal Empire and they're preparing for their foal. Decorating a room, buying clothes, scheduling private Lamare classes, preparing the celebration announcements... I think they've also been up to their ears in the retelling of being under Winter's spell from all the crystal ponies we rescued.

As for Princess Celestia, She's an honorary member of the Canterlot Explorer's Society. It's a rather old and posh society. I suspect Princess Celestia has been given an honorary membership by quite a few of these prestigious societies. So Princess Celestia might be there. And Princess Luna too. I'll ask if they're going.

So for guests, I'm still at six from Ponyville and five from Canterlot, out of fourteen. Room for two parents and one yak!

Spike has been baking bread today. Two loaves, one bran bread and one oatmeal. If we run out of food, we can graze.

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Picnic at Saddle Lake

Oct 19: As scheduled, it was a warm and sunny day with just a few fluffy white clouds in the sky. The rendezvous for our departure was at the Treecastle, 9 am. When everypony had arrived, we set out at a leisurely pace, going east over fields and following trails, heading for Saddle Lake.

The trees are still mostly green out this way, past the east pasture and off the beaten path. That changed as we passed. The tall grasses were just waiting for this moment to turn golden yellow and burst into seed. Around us the low-growing maple boughs broke out in yellow and red spots on their green leaves. The stands of sumac looked like somepony had splattered them with red paint. We walked on, a sea of green before us, a wake of warm colors spreading behind us.

We chose a nice high spot by the lake. Close enough to the water to get a drink and high enough to see Canterlot, Foal Mountain and way off in the distance, Rambling Rock Ridge. We spread our picnic blankets and gathered up some wood and rocks. Pinkie was keen to roast marshmallows! She had also brought graham crackers and chocolate. While Spike lit the wood Applejack and Dash had collected (without incinerating it all at once this time), I set out the jams and the bread by the food everypony else had brought. Salad, apples, tea, baby carrots and rough bedstraw sandwiches. Perfect picnic fare.

After lunch Applejack went around touching the trees. As she rested her hoof on their trunks, one after the other, they went off like fireworks. They burst into color, the crowns of the maples holding on to a delicate yellow green at their core with a halo of salmon red at the tips of their branches. The larches and aspens went golden yellow, with a few stray branches of green. The oaks preferred browner shades and the few stray apple trees remained green but with redder apples. Blue sky with white fluffy clouds above, and all around us a riot of color.

We lounged about for a few hours, soaking up the sunshine, chatting and enjoying the scenery. Fluttershy picked a few bouquets of asters, cattails and tall grasses, taking care to not cause the cattails to fluff, then we packed up our things and headed back home.

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Foalhood Friends, Check

Oct 20: With all the excitement of the expedition and the exhaustion and recovery time when I got back, I'd neglected to leave my Haycartes' Treatise on Ponies open, in case Moondancer wanted a quick word with me. It was only after my book-buying trip to Canterlot that it occurred to me. So it's been back on the end table by my reading couch, open and at the ready, except the few times Spike or Owlowiscious re-shelved it.

As luck would have it, I looked over at the Haycartes book this afternoon as I was refilling my tea cup, only to see Moondancer staring at me. She'd been trying to get my attention, but I was reading at the time. She said she could tell by my replies that I wasn't paying attention. She was about to give up and write a letter to me instead. Well, she had my full attention now.

Moondancer has spoken to all four of our mutual foalhood friends and all four said they could make it to the Canterlot Explorer's Society dinner and lecture. I told her that Shining Armor and Princess Cadence couldn't make it but that I planned on inviting my parents and our yak guide, if I could find him again. I also need to write to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to ask if they will be attending.

Our guide's name is Machur Lulach, which means 'small calf of the plains', I think. I don't know how common that is. The search might take a while. I'll see if any of my friends are up for a short trip to Yakyakistan to look for him. Sharing a daunting task with friends can make it both easier and fun.

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I Dream of Sheep

Oct 21: I had a weird dream last night. I was in a restaurant run by sheep. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor were already there, sitting at the corner of a large table and I went over and joined them. They were uneasy, they had something to tell me and while I never found out what it was, I felt that it wasn't anything that important. The restaurant was huge, with lots of ponies and heaps of food on big tables everywhere. We were sitting somewhere near the middle of the room. I don't think I could even see the walls. Sheep were running about with dishes. They were also serving as table ornamentation. A sheep would get up on a table saddled with a very large dish on his/her back and then magically become completely immobile until the patrons had finished with the dish. Then the sheep would come back to life and run off.

I guess I went to sleep hungry.

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Autumn in the Everfree

Oct 22: While it is just fairly chilly in Ponyville, there was an early freeze in the Everfree Forest. I went for a stroll this morning, south of Ponyville to the edge of the Everfree and I could feel the cold air rolling out. I decided to drop in on Zecora.

The sun was actually breaking through the gloom from time to time as I picked my way along the path. Where it struck a tree, the heat would cause a sudden cascade of leaves to rain down, like huge snow flakes or like green, yellow and red butterflies. I stopped to watch the flashing leaves fall. The sound was like a sudden shower of big rain drops and everywhere the floral scent of fresh fall leaves. It was magical. I walked on through the fragrant patchwork carpet of leaves, beautiful overlapping patterns of scattered foliage on the path, each tree's shed mixing in with the next. I took care to step lightly. The leaves were fresh but they did rustle loudly if I dragged my hooves. I didn't want to attract attention in the Everfree Forest.

I arrived at Zecora's home to find that the swirling mists had given it a sparkling coat of frost. She had lit a fire against the cold and inside, a pot of hot tea awaited. I knocked and I was greeted by Zecora's rhyming chatter. A welcome oasis in the Everfree.

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In the Mail

Oct 23: I received two interesting letters in the mail today. First off, there was a letter from the assistant editor of the Canterlot Explorer's Society publication division. It turns out that they are expecting a written account from me about the expedition for which I've been invited to speak. The deadline is two months after the dinner and it will go through the usual review process to ensure that my article is in line with their preferred format. My written account is to be published in a subsequent volume of the Society's quarterly journal. This is a bit more formal than I anticipated. As my expedition was mounted in support of Moondancer's venture and it was she who determined, through her own research, that there was something worth investigating, I wrote back to the Society requesting that I have the option to invite her to the podium to outline her findings and the impetus that led her to head north in the first place. That will make citing her and summarizing how it was that she ended up in Winter's ice castle that much easier.

In a different letter, this one from the In The Field lecture series planning committee secretary, I've been asked to provide the names of my guests and any restrictions or special accommodations they may require. I have a few weeks to submit that. Meanwhile I'm waiting for letters from my parents, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

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Table D'Honneur

Oct 24: Princess Celestia wrote back. She will be attending the Canterlot Explorer's Society lecture series on the night that I will be guest speaker and she is looking forward to seeing me there. The Society heads and the guest speaker dine at a table on a raised part of the floor, up front, by the stage, and when they attend, that is where she and Luna are usually seated as well. Otherwise, their table is set on a large balcony overlooking the stage. It occurs to me now that I won't be sitting with my friends. That explains the even number of guests I can invite.

I received Princess Luna's reply today as well. She will be there, and she "would hear more about the pegasus constellation that rescued us from Winter".

And finally, a letter from my parents. They will be there too. Good! All that's left is to go to Yakyakistan and find our guide. Applejack and Rarity have volunteered to go with me. We just have to choose the date. It will be a two-day trip.

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Farm Fresh Macoun and Braeburn Apples

Oct 25: Applejack dropped by late this afternoon. She told me that the apple harvest is winding down. Macoun and Black Oxford, Braeburn, Winesap, and Spy are the last apples still on the trees. She brought me two saddlebags full of Macouns and Braeburns which I set out in baskets on the kitchen counter. She told me that she'll have a bit of a breather between the last apples and the third cut haying. Next week would be good for her for moseying on over to Yakyakistan. When I last spoke to Rarity, next week was good for her too, although I think the term she used was 'sashay'. I think I'd prefer to just trot to Yakyakistan. That earned me a raised eyebrow from Applejack and Spike just rolled his eyes. Well, I thought it was funny.

I've already written to Princess Cadence to see if they can accommodate the four of us for two nights. Spike is coming too. That way we can get an early start when we 'mosey' our way up the road to Yakyakistan, and after we 'sashay' back, we can have a soft bed waiting for us where we can rest our trot-weary hooves. I should get an answer soon.

Spike said he will make an apple crumble with some of the Braeburn apples tomorrow. Today we just ate a bunch of the Macoun apples. So sweet and juicy!

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Apple Crumble

Oct 26: Spike baked up a delicious apple crumble after lunch, and while it was still hot, we invited ourselves over for tea at Rarity's Carousel Boutique, the platter of apple crumble in tow.

Rarity was in, working hard on concepts for her winter wear line. After our expedition through the snow and cold, she's aiming for warmer clothes this year, like long and flowing cloaks.

So it's decided, we are going to Yakyakistan next week to look for Machur. And to shop for fabric, and to look around and see what apple products sell in Yakyakistan and the Crystal Empire. Well, if I happen to trip over any booksellers... I think I'll carry a few extra bits in my purse.

We ate all the apple crumble. Spike will make another tomorrow. In case of apple crumble emergencies.

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Quiet day

Oct 27: The day just flew by, interrupted by an occasional apple crumble emergency. I think I'll go out on my balcony and see what the constellations are up to. There were some nice shooting stars last week. Maybe I'll see a straggler or two.

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Fresh Hay and A Place to Stay

Oct 28: I received a reply from Princess Cadence about our stay next week for a night or two in the Crystal Empire. She wrote that we can come any time next week, three rooms will be prepared. She invites us to dinner if possible, otherwise the royal kitchen will provide until late at night. That's wonderful! We won't have to hunt around for a place to stay and we can get an early start walking the rest of the way to Yakyakistan. We should be on the train to the Crystal Empire a week from today.

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Home By The Hearth

Oct 29: It was a miserable and wet day today. Windy, chilly, with the rain beating down on the windows. A day where it feels good to hide under the covers, only to emerge for a hot bowl of oats, chocolate peppermint tea, and light reading by the fire. Well, it's autumn and the ground was due for a good soaking. On a day like today, Applejack would be baking and rotating her apple stores in her cellar. Rarity would be designing rain gear or reading detective novels. Dash would be herding clouds. Fluttershy would be having tea with Angel, or maybe Discord (was that today?). And Pinkie would be helping the Cakes, maybe by foalsitting. It was a good day to stay home.

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Piaffle With Fluttershy

Oct 30: I went to Fluttershy's cottage today for tea and a quiet game of Piaffle1. My game uses the old pony runes (the stamped script) so I also brought along Samule Lawnson's Whinnypiafficon of the Equestrian Language, which is the definitive dictionary for spelling in old pony runes.

We drank a lot of tea, quietly moved our tiles and consulted the whinnypiafficon. I won two games and Fluttershy beat me at one. She managed to put an eight letter word on the triple word score space, making over a hundred points in that one turn.

1 Piaffle is derived from piaffe, to hit or dig at the ground with your hoof. It's also a dance move where a pony looks to be trotting but stays in one spot. Since the old pony written script was adapted from codified hoofprints piaffed in the dust or clay, piaffing is also synonymous with writing. Piaffle is a word game where each player has seven characters on square tiles selected at random from a finite set. They use them to try to spell out words on grid.

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Reaching the Audience

Oct 31: I've started working on my Canterlot Explorer's Society talk. Making an outline, prepping flashcards. I need to make transparencies. According to Ponetic's Guide to Effective Speeches, Dissertations and Discourse, in order to reach the whole audience, a presentation must consist of three components: statistics, personal stories and tangible objects or illustrations. I have the personal story aspect in spades, it's the numbers and tangibles that I have to flesh out. Pinkie took a few pictures, I can use those. My fellow explorers will be there, I could invite them on stage... I need to find a star chart that goes as far north as possible. I need to draw a map of our route as well. If I could borrow one of Rarity's mannequins and dress it up in the full winter garb I wore when it was coldest, that would make a great prop.

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Author's Note

Something strange is happening to the stats. 10 hours ago, about when I pushed 'publish' for October, 'views' was at about 140. Now it's at 170 and the green bar on the graph is suggesting a 200 view surge! What's going on?!. Ooh! and a 7th vote! Only 3 more votes to go!

OK, who's got the chops to write an October Horse Thriller + Suspense and even Horror fic? I mean, getting stoned to death in The Lottery is bad enough, and in the Hunger Games you have a fighting chance, but decapitated for winning? How? What?! Why? The horror!

XI November

Building the Perfect Talk

Nov 1: The Society is taking its sweet time writing back with a reply to my request to include Moondancer in my talk. I hope they say yes. I'd have Moondancer explain how she came to the conclusion that Winter wasn't just some old ponies' tale and how she knew where to look. That will give me a starting point and put a face on the ponies we set off to rescue. I think I'll have Moondancer appear on my podium via the Haycartes spell, at which point I'll invite her on stage to fill us in on Winter. That will be fun! C'mon Society, say yes!

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Wild Book Chase

Nov 2: Since I would really like to have some star charts of the far northern sky for my Canterlot Explorer's Society dinner lecture, I took Spike and Owlowiscious with me on a book run in the princesses' library in the old castle ruins in the Everfree. I have the most recent edition of The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, but it just doesn't cover the night sky that far north.

We dropped by Zecora's on the way, but she was busy drying, chopping, grinding and storing herbs. It's harvest season in the Everfree too, it would seem. She had a fire going making her home sweltering hot and there were plants hanging everywhere. The mix of volatile oils and aromatic essences in the air was a bit overwhelming.

Almost all of the Everfree trees have dropped their leaves, and it's not even close to Winter yet! Between the rustling of the dried leaves on the path and the lack of cover from the leafless branches everywhere, I was feeling jumpy and exposed. Fortunately, the cool weather makes the cragadiles and cockatrices sluggish, and I had Spike and Owlowiscious providing two extra pairs of eyes to spot any dangerous creatures before they spied us.

We arrived safely at the castle ruins around mid-morning and we went straight to the library. We searched the stacks for star charts and books on the night sky. I tried to stay focused and not get distracted by interesting titles... A cultural study on freeze-branding, searing, piercing and body art. Who would want to do such a thing? Oh! with illustrations and techniques! That went into my saddlebag.

We also looked for maps of the north but without much success, for either star charts or land maps. What we could find didn't cover the region north of Yakyakistan. I already have what I copied from the Crystal Empire Library but not much else and The Royal Cartographer Society Atlas of Equestria stops pretty much in Yakyakistan. Leaf Hairrakesson would be right useful in that regard, if I could contact him.

We went back to Ponyville, mostly bookless. There's still Yakyakistan, if I can find a book seller there, and if they make that kind of book.

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Plans and Details

Nov 3: I got mail! Specifically, a reply from the Canterlot Explorer's Society planning committee secretary. It appears that it's an unusual request but they will allow it. Now I just have to orchestrate it with Moondancer. I wrote to her outlining what I have in mind. Then I worked some more on my flash cards.

Today I attended the Hay Board meeting for the third cut, which is due to start by week's end, give or take a day. With the autumn cold, the grass growth has really slowed down and we have to harvest the hay while the sun can still dry it properly. The weather ponies are going to give us five straight days of cloudless blue skies and we'd better make the best of them. The farmers on the board are a bit antsy, some feel we put off the third cut too long. The grass needs six weeks before hard frost to recover and build up energy stores before the Winter. It's the same story every year, the third cut has to wait for the apple and carrot harvests to wind down, to free up the harvesters. Fortunately, we're not due for a hard frost in Ponyville for another six weeks at the earliest. Unlike the Everfree Forest.

Tomorrow we head out to the Crystal Empire, and from there to Yakyakistan for a day. Applejack and Rarity are all set to go and I've packed my over-night saddle bag. I think what Spike is looking forward to the most in this trip is to see his statue in the Crystal Empire again.

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(Twilight has gone booking. Back in a few days.)

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Back to Yakyakistan

Nov 7: We got back yesterday from our trip and I'm happy to report that we were successful. I have maps and Machur Lulach has agreed to join us for dinner in Canterlot.

Let's see, our trip started with the train to the Crystal Empire. Spike, Applejack, Rarity and I got off at the station, dropped off our bags at the Castle and I made arrangements for dinner with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the Crystal Empire market.

Applejack bought some crystal corn to take home, Rarity found a few bolts of crystal pattern cloth she liked and I picked up some leather leaf tea for Zecora and a book: Fundamentals of Book Collection Development and Systematic Reference Management.

Spike found a souvenir stand full of miniature copies of the statue the crystal ponies erected in his honor. He signed several and got one free. And yes, he posed next to his statue, holding his souvenir. I thought he looked like he was trying shelve it on an invisible bookcase.

We got back to our rooms, cleaned up and had supper with Cadence and Shining Armor. There was a wide variety of food on the table. Princess Cadence is wrestling with surprise changes in what she finds tastes good and what tastes bad. That's normal, since she's pregnant, she's more vulnerable to bacteria and fungus that may grow in fescue and other grasses, and to other things that are normally not that toxic.

After dessert, we had tea on a balcony overlooking the city. The sky was clear, a great night to look down at the city lights below and at shooting stars above. We even saw an early fireball! Then the Crystal Heart channeled the good will of the crystal ponies, shooting colored lights straight up into the night sky. It's a very impressive sight to see from where we sat. It's huge! A voice of light at our backs, rising like a geyser to paint the sea of stars.

We didn't stay up long, we had an early start the next morning.

Next morning we hiked to Yakyakistan. Once in the gates, it wasn't long before we had a giggling gaggle of calves following us, again. This time all eyes were on Spike, riding on my back. I guess dragons, especially baby dragons on the backs of ponies, are rare in Yakyakistan.

Finding Machur was easier than I expected. We went to the general neighborhood in which we had found him last time and we got promptly lost in a maze of tiny streets. The calves were of no help. But not for long, we asked around and every yak we met seemed to know who had guided our expedition.

When we found him, he was sitting at a stall selling a close approximation of the alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes we ate on our expedition! It took a while to explain that were weren't hiring him, or trying to muscle in on his alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cube business, we were inviting him to a dinner in Canterlot. I was beginning to wonder if he expected us to pay for his fare and his time.

But we got through and I did explain a few times that the food, while probably not perfect, will be edible. It's being at the table with friends and meeting new ponies that is the point. I hope that only Prince Rutherford expects perfection, or reacts as strongly.

He wrote down the date, place, time and how to get there, and how much the train fare would cost. We also exchanged mailing addresses while we sampled Machur's power cubes. They were different. We didn't smash the table, but Machur could tell that we knew these weren't pony power cubes. Instead, Applejack dictated the recipe she used for our power cubes as Machur wrote it down. She explained that she and Pinkie drew from three different recipes to make her version and she listed several substitute ingredients Machur could try.

That was quick, so we had time to shop! Machur gave us directions to a market where we could find vendors of fine cloth. Once there, Rarity bought a few bolts of beautiful dyed yak felt cloth and Applejack traded two dozen Macoun apples for a nice two tone green yak wool headband with red stripes that fit right under her hat. To keep her ears warm.

At another stall a vendor asked Rarity, "How much? How much for your baby dragon? I trade you three groats and a lemming." The lemming was very cute. Rarity refused quickly. "Not for sale." Spike thought he had said "goats". He looked half insulted, half proud. Insulted that anypony would think he could be bought or sold, half proud that he outmatches at least three goats.

The best find was a stall selling illustrated manuscripts! Legends, botany guides, astronomy, medicinal herbology, metallurgy, farming practices, and fashion and etiquette (Rarity and Applejack immediately borrowed the last two). The astronomy book includes star charts that I will be able to use in my talk! Success! Finding Machur and star charts, two more items off my check list. I was quickly much lighter in bits and much heavier in books. It was a long walk back to the Crystal Empire.

It was late evening by the time we got back to the Crystal Empire. We went knocking on the kitchen door for a snack and we got delicious hot leftovers instead! Just as we sat down to feast, Princess Cadence came in to join us. She was feeling restless and hungry. She's eating like a horse.

The next morning we caught the train back to Ponyville. Rarity trotted off to her boutique with her fresh bolts of cloth, Applejack made a beeline for the farm and her haying equipment, and I settled in with my new books. Spike put his souvenirs up on his shelf: a replica of his Crystal Empire statue and a Yakyakistan groat. I'll take the tea to Zecora some other day.

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Harvesting

Nov 8: I had a Haycartes chat with Moondancer and that part of the Society talk is now all set. It should take Moondancer about ten minutes to explain the basics of what drove her to go looking for Winter, how she knew where to look, and a bit about her journey. It will be a bare-bones version of the lecture she will give three days from now at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I'll be there!

Ponies that had been out mowing their fields while we were in Yakyakistan are already starting to bale the third cut. We've had clear blue skies, a light wind and pleasantly warm, dry days. The cut timothy stems in those first fields to be mowed are nice and dry, they don't smell moist and they don't discolor when rolled between the hooves. Granny Smith uses the oven method to test the Apple Farm hay, just to be sure. Applejack is out raking and turning her crop of timothy hay, it should be dry enough by tomorrow.

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The Final Cut

Nov 9: The fields of Ponyville are dotted with bales of timothy hay. I have great views of this from my Treecastle balconies and it's very pretty. Especially with the trees all around the fields in full blazing color. There are still horseradishes, cabbages, beets, stalk-dried corn, soybeans and turnips in the fields, but this is the last big harvest before the running of the leaves.

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Hay Harvest Picnic

Nov 10: Pinkie and Fluttershy put together a combination pet date and third cut harvest picnic in the western pasture today. They set the rendez-vous for mid-afternoon. Fluttershy came over to invite us this morning, so we skipped lunch and when the time came, I roused Owlowiscious and Spike and I went out looking for everypony else.

We hunted about a little, but not for long. Pinkie had chosen a high spot to spread the picnic blanket. Up by a rock pile, in the middle of a harvested field and we could see it from a good ways away.

It was really a choice spot for a hay harvest picnic. All around us were fresh bales of hay waiting to be picked up, above us brilliant sunshine in crystal blue sky, and beyond the fields, the trees glowed in oranges, reds, yellows and browns, with a hint of green. In among the rocks, there was one gnarled pine tree and several tall asters that were blooming in shades of lilac, hosting a few lazy butterflies drifting in on the breeze.

Angel and Gummy were already present, and soon Dash arrived with Tank. Dash had Tank dressed up in a scarf and coat against the nip in the air and it wasn't long before Tank found a sunny spot out of the wind and took a nap. Tank will be getting sluggish soon, not that it's that easy to tell with a tortoise.

Then Applejack and Rarity arrived with Opalescence and Winona. We got down to eating. Pinkie and Fluttershy passed out the dishes and spread out the greens and grasses, the soup and sandwiches, the corn and carrots, and the cakes and cookies.

After our late lunch we relaxed and chatted on the picnic blanket while the pets did their thing -- exploring, running, digging, watching, napping... Until Celestia's setting sun began to paint the sky and we collected ourselves and headed home.

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Moondancer's Lecture

Nov 11: I went to Canterlot today to attend Moondancer's lecture at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, so I was gone for most of the day and part of the evening. I caught the Friendship Express to Canterlot and arrived just before noon.

Lemon Hearts was on the platform to meet me and we walked together to the restaurant to join Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lyra Heartstrings and Moondancer for lunch. My foalhood friends were all in high spirits, except Moondancer. Her class was just a few hours away and she was all jittery and distracted, going over her flash cards and tweaking the order. I complimented her on using flash cards but I don't think she heard me. She barely touched her hay sandwich.

Lemon Hearts is glad to be back in Canterlot. No more trotting off into the frozen wilds for her. At least, not for a while. She still dreams of being buried to her ears in snow and helplessly watching shimmering snowflakes drift down from a sea of stars. She takes frequent trips to the spa to sweat in the sauna, get a massage and relax.

After lunch we split up and Moondancer and I headed to Celestia's School and the lecture hall where Moondancer would be speaking. Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lyra Heartstrings and Lemon Hearts had other obligations and since Moondancer had practiced the lecture on them more than once, they'd heard it all before. Lemon Hearts didn't look like she was really all that hot to relive that adventure again today.

We were early, and while Moondancer set up and tested the projector and counted chalk sticks and erasers, I found a seat in the back and pulled out a book to read. I was prepared for this.

Before long, students began to filter in and Moondancer left the room to go over her notes again. By the time she got back, the room was filled to capacity. She looked a bit shocked. But she had her flash cards, and reading off them, one by one, I could see that she forgot the crowd and caught the flow of her carefully planned out exposition. It was an excellent lecture. She got a stamping ovation.

After Moondancer bid farewell to the chair of cultural studies and the lecture series coordinator, we walked together to the train station. We chatted about our respective lectures and about Moondancer's paper, soon to be published in the Journal of Cultural Hippology and Magic, until the train was ready to board. Before I got on, she gave me the three other books she had borrowed from the Princesses' library in the Everfree ruins so I could return them for her. Then she went back to her books and the train whisked me back to Ponyville and mine.

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Fleeting Stars

Nov 12: According to my The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, tonight is a good night to see shooting stars! So I took a break from transcribing star charts and maps onto transparencies for my talk, brewed a fresh pot of chocolate peppermint spice tea and went out on my balcony to watch the sky.

The stars are easier to see here than in Canterlot. Not only are there fewer lights in Ponyville, but my Friendship Treecastle is outside of Ponyville itself. I get a better view than I did from the top branch platform on the Golden Oak Library.

I saw a dozen shooting stars before I called it a night. A few of them teased the Ursa Minor, zipping past her head. They're much too fast to get swatted. I wonder what motivates these stars, that they aren't just content to be fixed stars, or to join a constellation?

There were quite a few yak hay buyers at the market earlier today. They select the finest, softest bales from the cut and have them delivered to the train station. From there the train hauls them to the Crystal Empire on hay cars. The yaks use carts to take the hay the rest of the way to Yakyakistan. Good thing I ordered my hay in advance, the best of the 3rd cut is selling off fast and the prices have tripled already. Applejack collected the last of her bales off her fields yesterday, just in time for peak demand! She should deliver my order of 15 bales tomorrow.

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My My, Hay Hay

Nov 13: Applejack and Big McIntosh rolled up to my door with 15 bales of choice third cut hay, right on schedule. I lifted the bales, one at a time, to the room that serves as a pantry for my second and third cut hay. Right into the balcony door and about where I wanted them stacked. Now I'm all set for the winter. I have 1st cut hay to keep me warm in the cold winter weather, and I have 2nd and 3rd cut hay for quick energy and fancier dishes. It's just as well that the yaks prefer the 2nd and 3rd cut hays, it's the 1st cut hay that keeps a pony on an even keel during those lazy winter months.

With the new addition of fresh hay, it smells just heavenly in there! I have to fight the urge to loiter in the pantry and eat the fresh hay straight off the bale. Why is it that? It's the same hay that's in the bowl on the table! Fortunately for me, Spike thinks hay is just OK. Otherwise I'd expect to find Spike-sized tunnels eaten into our hay hoard.

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On Call

Nov 14: I went back to the ruins of the castle in the Everfree to return the books Moondancer borrowed. It's freezing in the Everfree. There's even snow on the ground here and there. The Everfree snow wasn't much to look at. There were no flakes, just tiny white round balls of various sizes.

On the way I went down the stairs to the stony crevasse where the Tree of Harmony... is rooted? It hasn't changed. I looked at it for a while. It didn't move. Or speak. Or write any messages. It gave no clues as to what it may be thinking1 and I have no way to find out. It would be nice to be able to communicate with the power that drops puzzles on our backs without so much as a by-your-leave.

My life had more stability... and purpose, when I was just researching Friendship and reporting back to my teacher. I guess the old Friendship puzzles were a bit mundane, but they were _my_ puzzles and there were many lessons to learn.

Now there are fewer puzzles to solve, and when I or my friends fix a problem, we don't report back to anypony. And so I just sit in our giant, cold, tree-shaped castle, with my nigh 20,000 books, and wait to be prodded and guided to something disharmonious that requires a fix.

1 The Tree of Harmony's actions have been complex; the box of locks series of quests that were instrumental in defeating Tirek, growing this Friendship Castle, the map of Equestria table and the link it has to our cutie marks, all those actions by the Tree have been spontaneous, directed and occurred one after the other. Whatever this enigmatic Tree scheme may be, it really doesn't look like any old pony would serve the Tree's plan. It wants us. It chose us. Ergo, it thinks.

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Future Fields

Nov 15: Now that the hay is in, the forage specialists of Ponyville have started a month of intensive hay field expansion in preparation for next year. We expect more demand for our hay from Yakyakistan buyers next year and we want to be ready. Also, we plan on moving up the third cut by at least two weeks earlier next year. The extra pasture space will offset the shorter growing time and the increased rest time for the pasture will mean healthier grass in the long haul. It will also mean longer hours for Applejack and the other ponies tending the fields. We'll see next year how that works out.

From my balcony I could see ponies out at the far end of the eastern pasture starting to remove trees and rocks. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are also hard at work, establishing wildlife sanctuary zones in and around the expansions, relocating animals, having snags and hollow logs collected and moved, and building new hibernation dens. The farmers have selected gentle, smooth slopes with good drainage for the future fields, leaving the rocky, wet and steep areas to the wildlife specialists. The new patchwork of woods, brush and pasture will benefit many creatures that thrive in ecotones or use multiple cover types.

Winter happens in just over four weeks from now. By then, the new fields will have been cleared, graded, tilled, seeded and spread. From there they shall sleep beneath a blanket of snow until spring, where sun and Earth Pony power will urge them to awake and grow.

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Picking Perishables For the Pantry

Nov 16: Spike and I went to the open air market together today to replenish the perishables in our larder. There are a lot of pumpkins and winter squash at the market this time of year. We picked up a bunch of small pumpkins, some spaghetti squash, a big zucchini, some fresh-picked alfalfa, a few jars of silage and some turnips.

We'll make squash spaghetti another day. Today we just ate raw pumpkin, seeds and all, stuffed with fresh alfalfa. My stars, that was good! The pumpkin seeds really settled my stomach, too. I also had a big plate of beet pulp mash to go with my pumpkin. The beet mash gives me steady energy and an even mood after the alfalfa and pumpkin power rush wears out. We ate so much beet pulp during that trip to find Moondancer. It's good I no longer mind it, beet pulp is an excellent, gentle food. Versatile too! It can be served hot, cold, as a soup, as an ingredient...

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They Sparkle and Fly, Just Out of Reach

Nov 17: I've been out, catching an eyeful of yet another meteor shower. A lot of the more restless stars are up and zipping about this time of year. More now than in, say, the winter and spring. I have yet to see a good explanation.

What gets them up and going now? Is there more energy in the air now than there is in the winter and spring? Do they migrate in the winter to another part of the sky, somewhere beyond Equestria? Or are they around always, but the kind of events that they observe don't happen in the winter?

They do not talk to me.

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Talking the Talk

Nov 18: The Canterlot Explorer's Society Dinner lecture is all set. I tried to get my friends to sit for a dry run. That didn't work out. But Zecora agreed! Probably because she didn't live through it.

The dry run went well, I think I'm ready. Zecora said there weren't enough zebras in my story. I think she was kidding.

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We Wonder Whether Wetter Weather Wets Her Withers

Nov 19: It's windy and wet outside. This afternoon, weather ponies set up a cloud bank full of dark, rain laden clouds over Ponyville and area, bunched them tight, and bucked a shock wave through them. It's like ringing a bell or dropping a big rock into a pool. The kick rings back and forth through the cloud bank, sending down waves of big heavy raindrops. Some time tonight the clouds will run out of rain, at which point they will be small and white. Tomorrow morning the weather ponies will clear them out. There shall be blue skies and mud puddles. And not the imported kind.

Tomorrow I'm going to invite my friends over for supper.

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Spaghetti Squash

Nov 20: I had my friends over for supper. They hesitated, suspecting a trap. I had to convince them I wasn't going to test my talk on them.

Spike and I cooked the spaghetti squash, loosened it up in the rind and topped up the result with oats boiled and softened until they pop when you bite them, fresh ground green alfalfa sauce and cubed carrot chunks. We served that on a big plate of third-cut timothy hay. For dessert we had hay crackers dipped in chocolate.

After supper we settled in for a game of Bundle of Sticks while we munched on peppermint sticks and sugar cubes. It's not too easy to reach for the right stick with your mouth full of peppermint stick! It was lots of fun, chatting up a storm and trying not to breathe while pulling sticks from the jumbled structure. It's Nightmare Night tomorrow and we made plans to meet up here. Except for Fluttershy. Nightmare Night is not her thing. Chatting about it and what we planned on wearing was throwing off her game, so we talked about other things.

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Not Her Element

Nov 21: That was a fun Nightmare Night with my friends. Even Fluttershy joined us for a while... with mixed results. I should explain what Nightmare Night is.

After the harvests, when food is plentiful, it's another way to celebrate, relax and party. It was also a way to defuse the terror of the eventual return of the slumbering Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon. During Nightmare Night, everypony puts on disguises, decorates the town with scary faces, and gives out candy. This way we make two paired associations: fear with fun, and the unknown (disguised ponies) with reward (candy).

For extra measure, we sweeten the deal by making a sacrifice, giving some of the candy to Nightmare Moon, for the common good. Thus, we say we go in disguise so Nightmare Moon wouldn't know who gave her what candy, prompting her to spare everypony equally.

It's pony psychotherapy. It's also a lighthearted way to calm the nervous Nellies everywhere. There are always a few. Disguises also encourage pranking, which adds to the fun. But nopony really remembers these little details anymore. So when the Mare in the Moon was no more, nopony thought to cancel Nightmare Night. It has taken on a life of its own, an excuse for a fun costume ball with games and generous gifts of candy.

The Tree Castle is really far off the foal candy-quest circuit, so it doesn't get that many visitors on Nightmare Night. We decided to meet here at sundown before heading over to Rarity's Boutique to put on the costumes she'd made for us this year. Then Fluttershy showed up, looking to "borrow" some carrots for her bunny. That was a surprise. Usually she doesn't even answer the door on Nightmare Night. It's too scary for her. It was a whole new level of surprising when she volunteered to join us.

I put out a big bowl of candy by the door. Spike (who already had his costume on) went questing in town, and the six of us went first to Rarity's place for our outfits and then to Sugarcube Corner for fun and games. That didn't work out to well for Fluttershy, who was anything but relaxed, even though Pinkie proposed very mundane games. I got an idea. Since we couldn't come up with anything, maybe if Fluttershy was the pony pulling the strings, she would be able to join us by running the game, but since she would be trying to scare us, she wouldn't be scared. It was worth a try. It flopped.

We wandered around Ponyville while Fluttershy set up in her cottage. We took in the sights, munching on sweets, then we went to Fluttershy's place. Her 'dinner theater social disaster' set up was just not scary. Inventive, but something that would not keep me up at night. We moved on to collect Spike and go try the Sweet Apple Acres corn maze, without Fluttershy.

The corn maze was fun, but not that scary, until Fluttershy, with the help of her critter companions, scared the oats out of us. I guess paired association kept us from keeling over from shock when we realized it was Fluttershy stalking us and we weren't all going to die.

Long story short, Fluttershy has tried Nightmare Night and she still doesn't feel that it's fun to be scared, or to scare others. It's not her thing.

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The Future is Coming On

Nov 22: Panic! The Canterlot Explorer's Society talk is in two days! I think Spike is getting sick of hearing me timing my talk, shuffling the order of the different modules, trying different forks in logical progression, juggling the numbers, anecdotes and props to retain the interest of all three personality types... I'd better get some quality sleep tonight. I tend to mumble when I'm tired. What if I'm tired tomorrow?! What if I drop my cards? Maybe I should triple check to see that they're all numbered. And then bind them together! Or not. Time for some breathing exercises.

Welcome to my primal fear.

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Last Minute Review

Nov 23: The Canterlot Explorer's Society talk is tomorrow. I am calm. I am focused. I can do this.

My preamble will go like this: It all started with a foal's storybook from the Crystal Empire, sent to me to help rebuild my book collection which Tirek had incinerated when he burnt the Golden Oak Library to the ground. The storybook tells a cute story about how winter came to Equestria, and it goes like this. {Read book, project transparencies of the book pages}. I didn't dwell much on it until I had a chat with my friend Moondancer. She had seen a different telling of this story on a scroll fragment in the Canterlot Mane Library archives. This led her to do some research. Next thing I knew, she, via a quirk she had discovered in the Haycartes spell, appeared in one of my books and announced to me that she was in the Crystal Empire and that she was on her way north on an expedition! {Place open Haycartes' Treatise on Ponies on projector plate, Moondancer appears}. There she is now! (Speak directly to Haycartes book, invite Moondancer up on stage to share why she went and what happened next...) {Moondancer tells how she knew where to go and what to look for and what happened up until she and Lemon Hearts fell into Winter's icy slumber}.

...

Thank Moondancer for her help, move on to our expedition.

Our gear and supplies. Show examples of horse blankets and boots designed by Rarity. Our camping equipment and yak gear. Short list of staple foods and power cubes. Our yak guide, Machur Lulach. Group picture of us in our winter gear and snow goggles.
Map of the route we took, with camp sites indicated. Pictures and descriptions of the terrain. How many hours we walked a day, approximately how far north we went, how long it took, how cold it got.
Star charts from Yakyakistan covering portions of the heavens not seen in Equestria but sadly, not as far north as we went.
Arrival at Winter's castle of ice, already described by Moondancer, explain how we succeeded in thawing everypony, allowing us to escape and the ancient explorers to disperse. With Winter lurking in the tunnels, there was no time to explore. {pictures by Pinkie}
Our rescue by an unknown pegasus constellation.
The other cultures we met however briefly: the long eared Cirrostratans, our caribou companion, our guide and our brush with Yakyakistan. {pictures by Pinkie}
Home safe and sound. And very skinny. The expedition was longer than originally planned.
Question period.

That should take about an hour. I'm going to pack my saddle bags now. That way I can repack them with everything I forgot three or four times before I catch the Friendship Express to Canterlot with my friends tomorrow. Wish me luck!

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Nopony here
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Canterlot Explorer's Society Lecture and Dinner

Nov 25: I should have mentioned that it was an overnight stay.

Yesterday we were seven ponies, one dragon and a mannequin riding the late morning Friendship Express to Canterlot. Me, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Lyra Heartstrings, Pinkie Pie and Spike. The mannequin was for the talk. I was far too distracted to notice the trip.

Minuette met us at the train station and gathered up my companions to show them where they could drop off their overnight bags. While they were off trotting about town, I headed to my old place, carrying the mannequin. There I met up with Moondancer and we prepared for the talk. A few hours later, Moondancer left to catch up with the others back at the train station where they welcomed our yak guide, Machur Lulach. I went straight to the Canterlot Explorer's Society hall to test the set-up in the ballroom, dress up the mannequin for northern exploration, and stash my cards, transparencies and Treatise on Ponies in the podium.

Not much longer now. I went into the room reserved for their guest speakers, furnished with a table, a cushion, water to drink, quills, ink, scrolls, a mirror and a wash basin. Hay wafers on a silver tray. I couldn't eat. Shelves packed with old issues of the Canterlot Explorer's Society quarterly journal. I couldn't read. The wait had me sweating and champing at the bit. So I made myself stop pacing. Worked on my breathing. Focus. Live the moment. Like Zecora taught me. Calm and ready.

Just in time.

There was a light knock on my door. I opened it to find a pony waiting to tell me it was time. Down the hall I could hear the sound of many ponies chatting. This was it.

I waited at the stage door as the crowd grew silent. The chairpony of the Canterlot Explorer's Society made a brief statement, introduced me and during the polite applause, I took her place at the podium.

Good evening. To every adventure there is a beginning, and this adventure began with a tale in a foal's storybook. I was given this book by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire, along with many other volumes, to help restock my personal book collection after the Golden Oak Library was incinerated by Tirek. The storybook tells a cute story about how winter came to Equestria, and it goes like this.

After Moondancer gave her account of what drew her to travel so far into the Frozen North, I talked for about an hour. It was distracting to talk to a room full of ponies seated at round tables, sipping their drinks, whispering to each other from time to time. The lights in the room were dimmed a little to make my transparencies easier to see, but I could see everypony very well. Did I know that pony? That other pony looks familiar too. Was that pony laughing at something I said? So many ponies dressed in sequins in the room, sparkling like frost in the night. Now everypony is looking at me. Change the transparency! Next subject!

After the applause, there were many questions. About the Haycartes spell, about why didn't we map Winter's ice castle, did we bring home samples of the frost, will we be going back, what did it feel like to be in such an ancient building, is Winter a threat to Equestria, and so on. Then it was over and I got to sit down for supper.

I was at the Very Important Ponies table, with the society heads, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and other notable ponies. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Fancy Pants had a chair at the VIP table. He does seem to be the type that enjoys hearing of exploration and adventure exploits. As it was, I did a lot of talking, and not much eating.

I think my friends had more fun at their tables. They were seated at two tables of seven. Pinkie and Dash sat with Lemon Hearts, Moondancer, Minuette, Twinkleshine and Lyra Heartstrings. That was the party table. The other table was much more sedate: Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, my parents, Applejack and our yak guide, Machur Lulach.

Between Dash, Pinkie and Minuette, the gags, balloons and confetti were flying every which way. The food too, as there were at least two impromptu food fights. It looked like bread sticks versus croutons. Lemon Hearts is a Canterlot palace event organizer and there she was, under the princesses' noses, constructing makeshift crouton catapults out of the cutlery. I obviously have not been going to the right parties at the palace.

At my parents' table, things were much less wild. Machur was the epitome of yak sophistication and panache, manipulating pony utensils and glassware with ease, dressed to the nines in gold leg bands and sparkling crystals that dangled from braids in his mane. Rarity was in her element, my parents looked charmed, and Applejack looked like maybe she would have preferred to sit at the party table. But then Spike got a scroll, quills and ink, probably from Moondancer, and he was busy writing things down. The whole table was intently discussing something. They told me later that they were trading recipes and techniques.

Princess Luna got my full attention when the conversation at my table shifted to talk of constellations. She pointed out that a constellation is made of several stars and thus out of several personalities. The pegasus that saved us could not have been just Summer. Summer may have been the dominant personality, as evidenced by her driving Winter back, but the other stars may be her companions from her lifetime, or just other ponies with similar nurturing tendencies. It's rare for constellations to form a figure that resembles their form in life. The form a constellation takes is the embodiment of their collective drive, in the same way that a cutie mark is the illustration, often symbolic, of a pony's drive or ability. The map is not the territory, but it is an abstraction of the essence of the territory. A constellation is an abstraction of the essence of the collective motivation or commonality of the stars that joined it. The point is, the constellation may not have been Summer but it could be the combined will of many lives that together act as Summer would. You can't exactly go up to a constellation and ask, either. If you can get their attention, constellations generally don't speak. Their actions and replies are the consensus of a myriad of voices and as such, that generally results in simple activities and an entity that forgets that you are there and just listens to itself think.

The dinner finished late and rather than leave early and run to the station to catch the last train back to Ponyville, we stayed overnight in Canterlot. That way we could see Machur off safely to his morning train the next day. Rarity went to her boutique (with her mannequin); Machur stayed at my old place; Pinkie and Lyra stayed with Minuette; Twinkleshine put up Fluttershy; Dash and Applejack "crashed" at Lemon Hearts' house; and Spike and I stayed at my parent's place.

This morning we got up early, said goodbye to my parents, collected Machur and went to meet everypony else for breakfast at a restaurant Minuette recommended. After breakfast, Rarity went back to review some orders at her boutique, Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts left, Moondancer went to the library, and the rest of us gave Machur a guided tour of some of the things to see in Canterlot.

Machur, his saddle bags laden with Canterlot specialties, caught his train back to the Crystal Empire, and soon after, Rarity arrived and we boarded our train back to Ponyville. Home at last. Canterlot Explorer's Society dinner: a success.

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Moondancer Corralled

Nov 26: I was relaxing in my reading room, pouring some chocolate peppermint tea when I heard Moondancer calling me from my Treatise on Ponies book. I'd stacked a few copies of Applejack's magazines on top of it but there was a corner of a page showing, with Moondancer's head and a waving hoof peeking out.

She's hiding out at my old place. It seems that ponies have been interrupting her studies all day and into the evening since my In The Field lecture two nights ago. They all want to learn the Haycartes spell. Oops. She also got a letter from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns inviting her to do another guest lecture, this time for the Advanced Magical Techniques class. If you guessed Haycartes Spell, you get a carrot and advance three spaces.

Moondancer was trying to not look too put out, but her tail was swishing. I don't think there are any flies in my old place. At least there weren't any two days ago. Well, if she agrees to teach that class, she may get away with not getting asked to teach it over and over again, one pony at a time. Or not. At this rate, Moondancer is going to end up becoming a professor, either by plan or by default. Her first article is soon to be published, in the Journal of Cultural Hippology and Magic no less! She's doomed. Sorry, Moondancer.

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Walk, Crumble and Fall

Nov 27: The trees are really pretty this time of year. I went out walking the fields this morning and down to Whitetail Wood. I returned home hungry for some apple crumble. Spike baked some this afternoon. What would I do without Spike.

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Game Night Get Together

Nov 28: It was a crisp day today. Short too. I decided to round up my friends and have a game night in the Treecastle. With food, or at least substantial snacks.

Late morning, Spike and I went to the market to see what we could find. Squash, roots, hay (I have lots in my pantry), silage, fresh alfalfa (looking a little yellowed), still lots of apples (hi Applejack), dried mint, sugar cubes, milk, flour.

After lunch, Spike went around with the invitations while I got out the games and brought them down to the mane hall. Bookchase, Ring Fling, Bundle of Sticks, Tangle, Piaffle and Rope Rings. Quills too, lots of quills, ink and scrolls for score keeping and for quill on paper games like Tic Tac Toe and Bulls and Cows. I set up the tables and the cushions. Put out plates, cups and bowls, and pulled out a book to read until Spike got back.

Spike returned and we got cooking! He made bread, I got out the hay crackers, alfalfa cubes, peppermint sticks sugar cubes and a few jams. I brought down the mint tea, tea pot and water so I could start it brewing after everypony had arrived. I got a few flakes of second and third cut hay from the pantry. Spike fluffed up the hay and threw in some dried daisies and chopped up dried rough bedstraw to make a dry salad. And last, he cooked a squash, added hot sauce and pureed the mix. Right before the guests get here, he'll open a jar of silage and stir that in to make a salsa. You have to be careful with silage.

While the bread was rising, we went to Sugarcube Corner to see what we could find. We came back with cherry pie, cupcakes and a chocolate dip. I put out more hay crackers and a candle to heat the chocolate dip. I also put out more water. Hot mint tea may not be what a pony may want to wash down a burning mouthful of Spike's hot sauce salsa.

The bread was cooling in the mane hall when our friends began to arrive. Lyra Heartstrings arrived first, followed by Rarity and Applejack. Rainbow Dash was delighted to find the Ring Fling game waiting and challenged Applejack to a tournament. Pinkie, Lyra and Fluttershy got into a game of Tangle, distracting Rarity, Spike and me from our game of Bundle of Sticks. I think that Tangle was the favorite game of the evening. We all had a go at it. I can't say if anypony really won at that game, it always ended with everypony collapsing into a giggling tangle of legs, manes and bodies. But that is the point of Tangle. Silly fun. Everypony wins.

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At Your Peril

Nov 29: I've started work on the article that the Canterlot Explorer's Society publication has requested. They sent me several examples of articles with notes on style, length and illustration that they expect me to emulate. It looks like I'll need to cut out a lot of the backstory and details. I'll need to focus on the trial of surviving the cold, the wonder of Winter's ice palace and the cultural shock of Yakyakistan. I'd better not make it sound like a walk in the park or before you know it, there are going to be dozens of frozen pony tourists entertaining Winter.

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High Society

Nov 30: Today I received a wax-sealed scroll, via special delivery. The primary document, written on high quality cotton paper, was a proclamation of my appointment as a honorary member of the Canterlot Explorer's Society. Not a subscription to the quarterly journal, membership in the actual society. That's worth a lot of bits. It probably means that if I attend any of their dinners, I sit at the VIP table. There was also an RSVP where I am requested to confirm acceptance of this membership. The Canterlot Explorer's Society membership committee is so sure that I would jump at the occasion that they have apparently sent the out the cart before checking to see if it was hitched to the horse. Should I accept?

They also sent me a schedule of the In The Field dinners. There is one a few months from now where the speaker is Professor Intrepid Tölt. He's one of the explorers we rescued from Winter! Seems that he was a big name that vanished centuries ago and nopony knew where to look for him. I'm going to go to that one.

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Author's Note

November sees the first integration of an concurrent episode from the show into Twilight's Blog since the start in January. That's a long stretch of time. I have all the Season 5 Map Quests happening pre-Blog. It looks to me that each show 'season' spans more than a year in Equestria and I have no clue how many years have passed since the Summer Sun Celebration of Season 1. Ergo, I'm using Roman numerals in my chapter headings to differentiate this year's January from the next one and so on for all the months.

XII December

We'll All Float On OK

Dec 1: It's been a while since I've had a nice soak in a hot tub so I went to the Ponyville Spa this afternoon. Rarity and Fluttershy had already left but another pony showed up soon after I'd settled in. We soaked together in silence, just enjoying the warmth and the herbal scents. Now that my winter coat has grown in, I float a lot more. I felt weightless and tranquil. The spa ponies were using a herbal mix they'd bought from Zecora. Very relaxing.

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Call of the Hay Burger

Dec 2: I felt the call of hay burgers and horseshoe fries today. Around midday, I gathered up Spike onto my back and headed out the door toward the Hay Burger. We caught sight of Rainbow Dash as we entered Ponyville so we called her down to join us, and we picked up Pinkie on the way.

There's always a crowd at the Hay Burger and the food is as messy and oily as always, but service is fast! I remember Pinkie telling us how feeding as many customers as fast as possible is key to profits in the restaurant business. Well, this restaurant has that down to a T. With all the ponies at the tables there, I'm not the only one who keeps coming back for more. But I feel as blah as I usually do after eating there.

The food was good while I was eating it but afterward there was a whole rumbling, uncomfortable lecture coming from my stomach and there about. I'll never learn. I'm washing out my sore stomach with jasmine tea. Spike is fine, of course. I think dragons could eat just about anything.

Still, I got my Hay Burger fix along with a few of my best friends. It was a good day.

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She Comes Across Like Diamonds

Dec 3: After nibbling a bit on grass stubble near the Treecastle, I dropped in on Rarity in her boutique. Over jasmine tea and chocolate dipped hay crackers we chatted about this and that, like the Royal Lipizzaner Ballet, her Canterlot Boutique, winter fashions and yak felt clothing.

She has designed really warm clothes this year. I think she still feels the cold from our excursion into the sunless north. She has added gem stone grit along the edges to give the blankets and flowing robes a fresh snow glitter, but with color. They look very nice.

Rarity is looking splendid in her winter coat. All those trips to the spa have helped her look soft, shiny and luxuriant. I kidded with her, telling her that if she always looks this good, her customers will think soft fur au nature is the new black and they will spend all their bits at the spa and not buy clothes. She didn't know whether to thank me for the compliment or glare at me for suggesting she was turning ponies off her dresses.

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Living Off The Edge

Dec 4: I was part of another Hay Board meeting today. The hay harvesters delegate gave us a report on the progress and environmental impact assessment of the new field expansions. So far they've removed rocks, used contour tilling to limit erosion, smoothed the ground, worked in fertilizer, and left in woodland corridors for wildlife at key locations. All should be finished by next week, well before the Running of the Leaves. Between the wildlife corridors and the increase in edge density, the delegate forecasts an increase in primary productivity and wildlife density in the new areas.

Then Animal Team Leader Amethyst Star gave us a detailed account of the changes that were made to the affected wildlife habitat. Namely, new burrow and brush pile (rabbitat enhancer) construction, and hollow stump and snag relocation. Rocks removed from the new fields were piled up to make winter dens for snakes. Amethyst Star reports that all is now ready to house the local hibernating critters.

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Finishing Touches

Dec 5: I worked some more on the final draft of my article for the Canterlot Explorer's Society Quarterly journal. I think it's about ready to be submitted for review.

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Habitat For Hibernation

Dec 6: Since I wanted to see the new enhanced winter warren development that Amethyst Star had told us about last Hay Board meet, I talked Fluttershy into giving me a tour. It wasn't hard to convince her.

She snapped up her wildlife kit, collected Angel (her bunny) and off we went. First stop, a big rock pile in a wildlife corridor in the western pasture expansion.

Snakes are already exploring these new rock piles they've built. I kept a respectful distance and an open eye on the ground, in case one should slither by. Maybe Fluttershy could have chosen something else to show me. But Fluttershy is quite proud of her rock piles. They're built in sheltered spots on sunny slopes to keep the snakes from getting too cold in the winter, and they're the warmest spots in the woods in the fall and spring. Now I know which areas to avoid in the late fall and the early spring.

Next it was bats. In another sunny location Fluttershy and Amethyst Star made a kind of bat roost central with several hollow, upright snags. Fluttershy said that the bats approve of the setup and have moved in in large numbers. I took her word for it and I didn't look too closely to see if I could see any of the winged mammals. At least they only come out at night. We moved on to a hilly area.

There, Fluttershy and Amethyst Star chose the sides of bowls and nestled hills on higher ground to excavate dens and warrens for most of the critters. That way they won't get flooded and they're protected from the wind. Angel hopped down from Fluttershy and demonstrated just how fast a bunny can dig when he's in the mood, choosing a spot under a brush pile.

The brush piles that are in with the dens are for critters that prefer the extra protection a pile of branches can give from swings in temperature, but most of the brush piles are elsewhere. They are distributed in locations along many of the new fields, just inside the forest edge, for bunny use during the summer.

The winter dens, warrens, snags and rock piles are grouped in clusters. This is not just because the animal team selected the best locations for denning. They're also clustered to make finding them again in the snow on Winter Wrap Up Day that much easier, and to speed up the time it takes to wake all the critters up and serve them their first post-hibernation meal. The dens are on higher, well drained ground, but all the critters must be awake before the Weather Team can clear the winter clouds and melt the snow.

Well, I'm happy to report that after all their planning and hard work, the Animal Team and the ponies clearing the area to make new fields have built some first class hibernation homes for our wildlife, and in plenty of time for the critters to move in.

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In The Mail

Dec 7: Here goes nothing. I held my nose, stuck a wax seal on my final draft and mailed it off to the Canterlot Explorer's Society publications office.

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To Where Pastures and Forest Meet

Dec 8: This is the usual day Rarity and Fluttershy go to the spa, but I didn't feel like it. I wanted to go somewhere quiet, with a few books. Away from this windowless stone tree-shaped stable. Well, it does have windows, but you can't see out of them. This is what you get when a magic rock builds you a home. I went out.

I found a sheltered spot at the edge of a field, a little nook facing the sun with the root disk of a fallen tree at my back. A great view, out of the wind, dry, grazing a few steps away, perfect. I sprawled out on my picnic blanket and read. I had a book on dietary considerations when entertaining browsing ruminant dinner guests, another on non magical water purification structures and techniques, and a few old issues of Poplar Mechanics that I've borrowed from Applejack.

Nightfall arrives early this time of year. I stayed out by the field until twilight blended into moon rise, then I gathered my things. I walked home under a canopy of stars, to the Friendship Treecastle, where Spike awaited with hay crackers and a bowl of hot beet pulp soup.

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Tasty Rocks

Dec 9: I wonder what's keeping Spike from eating the faceted columns lining the walls and snacking on the colored stones hanging from the ceiling in this Treecastle. He's got will power, but he's also absent minded sometimes.

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You'll Play Your Part

Dec 10: What I ought to do is start up a fresh Friendship research project. It would be an extension of what I and my friends had been doing, when we would stumble over a friendship lesson, write it down and either mail it to Princess Celestia or make a note in a common journal. This time, what I envisage is to call on the ponies of Equestria to mail Friendship lessons to me. Then, every week, my friends and I would meet to audit the lessons and file them. Eventually, they could be components in a reference book on Friendship: "The Magic of Friendship, a Reference Manual".

Since my mandate, as Princess of Friendship, is to share the Magic of Friendship with everypony, involving all ponies in this quest will further that goal.

This would be an open ended project, but that wouldn't stop us from printing a first edition of this Friendship book we'd make and sending copies to libraries all across Equestria. Then we'd print updates. Then a second edition, and so on.

I'd better see if my friends are up to this. I'll also have to research how to make and distribute a proclamation. There must be a book on that subject somewhere.

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Call to Council

Dec 11: Well, I made the rounds, dropping in on each of my friends in turn. I told them over snacks and tea and serving as a clothes model and pulling a hay cart, that I am considering creating a compendium of friendship lessons from across Equestria. I'm a bit stiff and full of tea. I've invited all five to join Spike and me for supper tomorrow to discuss this together.

It's research! My friends could be a bit more excited... I told them it'll be easy, we'll each play to our strengths and do this together, like we always do. We've trained for this. (That got Rainbow Dash's attention!)

Tomorrow Spike and I will see what's in our pantry and go to the market to see what we can get to make a good supper for seven. Right now Spike is sleeping and I'm just too full of tea.

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Friendship of the Round Stable

Dec 12: For supper Spike whipped up a pumpkin sesame soup, followed by hay casserole with sunflower seeds and raw cubed acorn squash. He also made a lemon poppy seed bread which we served with apple butter. There were carrot and turnip sticks to munch on, and for dessert, beet pulp cookies and oatmeal swirl ice cream.

While we ate we started to discuss how often we should convene and how to proceed. I would be the pony to go through the letters first, arranging them by type and writing a summary of the actual lesson for particularly long and rambling letters. Spike would read the letters aloud and together we would weigh their pertinence to friendship and the strength of the lesson. That could be tricky. Spike would take notes.

This is assuming we get any letters at all.

I proposed using my book of Friendship Lessons as basis for organizing the new lessons and filing them for efficient retrieval and reference. Dash looked relieved that I'll take care of that. To each her strengths!

This may be a good way to spread the Magic of Friendship, but Equestria is a big pasture. We'll get through this puzzle, one small bite at a time.

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They Sparkle and Twinkle and Some Even Fly

Dec 13: Research on proclamations or official request writing is on hold! There are meteor showers to watch! Rainbow Dash has cleared the skies, I've rounded up my friends again, Spike is keeping the snacks coming and the beverages hot and we're all out on the big balcony, wrapped in blankets and watching the skies! I just popped in to get another bowl of hot apple cinnamon spice punch and Spike's basket. So many shooting stars, and more tomorrow!

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Fill In The Blank Page

Dec 14: You know that there are a _lot_ of ponies in Equestria? Thousands. Many thousands. I'd better be careful on how I word this official request for friendship lessons. If everypony feels that they have to send in at least one friendship story or friendship lesson, we will drown in the paper flood. Maybe I should start small. I could just post the request in the Ponyville Express. Or I could take five minutes to address the crowd waiting to start galloping at the Running of the Leaves. Or I could address the students at the Ponyville schoolhouse. Then work up from there.

I worked on the proclamation today. I'm toying with the idea of including a fill-in-the-blanks form letter, with a checklist of usual types of friendships. Or how about a list of conflicts and cooperative puzzles solved by friendship? Can't do that, I would be biasing the data. How to ask? Probably something along the lines of: describe a conflict, problem, task or event that was solved or made easier through friendship. Or, tell me of the time you and your friends fixed something or solved something you all thought would be impossible to solve or fix. I need to write that so it looks official And fun. And important. And useful.

Princess Celestia makes this kind of thing look so easy.

I realized that I had to make sure I wasn't going to get myself into hot water with this. I had Spike take a letter and send it to Princess Celestia -- is it OK to make a call for friendship lessons in the Equestrian press?

She wrote back, I can request letters in this way as long as it's voluntary and clear that I'm not paying for these letters. She added that I need to be clear that I reserve the right to summarize or change or omit the submissions as I see fit.

I think I'll go out and watch for more shooting stars.

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Of Uneven Ground Hiding Pitfall Wells

Dec 15: I really do have to hope I get this launched right. Rarity and Moondancer have shown me what sudden overwhelming demand on their time can be like. Slow and cautious it will be.

With the Ponyville students, there would be the advantage that, while they may all jump at the chance to mail me a friendship lesson, they will soon move on to something else and forget all about it.

At the Running of the Leaves next week, I expect most of the ponies there won't be in a frame of mind to be thinking about the nature of friendship. And what if my oral request gets reported in the press? What if the reporter gets it wrong? So I am back to publishing a written tract in order to keep the message straight.

I'm still stuck on the formulation of my request. The more I work at it, the more complex it gets. There are so many permutations and outcomes in friendship. Would ponies understand what it is that I'd like to see if I call for examples of altruism, mutual support, tolerance and well being in a friendship framework? Or perhaps simply, how friendship made your life and the lives of your friends, better? If my request looks esoteric, it might control the flood. Or maybe there wouldn't have been a flood at all, and I'll get nothing.

Into the clearing the stallions go
Talking of Mare. E. Angelo.

Well, I'd better test the waters with the Ponyville Schoolhouse students. I'll talk to them about friendship and how being a good friend makes you a better pony. I'll tell them about my discoveries about friendship. I'll also provide a written invocation for each student and a scroll for them to fill in. It should start: Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle...

I'll have Spike buy twenty new scrolls tomorrow.

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Test of Concept

Dec 16: I'm going to need a chapter on anti-friendships in the book. It occurs to me, thanks to Starlight Glimmer, that antagonism from other ponies can change the course of pony endeavor and spur some to make lasting friendships.

This is research -- questions that spawn still more questions.

I saw Cheerilee today and I'll be by to talk to her class tomorrow afternoon. Spike picked up twenty blank scrolls and he copied out, on twenty sheets of paper, the task that I will be giving them. Namely, to tell me how friendship made your life better and what you learned to do to make that friendship stronger. Test launch of the cooperative community data collection project on building and strengthening friendships is a go!

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Friendship 101

Dec 17: The students have a week to write a friendship lesson. I think my exposition on friendship went well. At least I seem to have had their rapt attention. I'm not sure they understood what it was I was saying, but they have my written request which they can read when they wake up from their 'oh, wow, a princess, here' collective trance. I think the only questions I got were "may I have your autograph", "may I have my picture taken with you" and "do you really live in the Friendship Castle?" It's up to Cheerilee now to explain what I said and to collect the letters from the foals that have a friendship lesson to share.

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Foal Free Picture

Dec 18: I picked up a copy of the Foal Free Press this morning and sure enough, it has pictures of me. There was a short article too which stated that I had talked about the Magic of Friendship at the school, but it doesn't mention my call for data. There wasn't anything in the Ponyville Express. I doubt there will be either, talking to a class full of young students isn't news. Now I just have to hope some students at least thought about friendship.

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Being There

Dec 19: My draft article for the Canterlot Explorer's Society publication is back. The editor and the referees have penciled in lots of notes and arrows, changing my phrasing here and there and making several requests that I expand some things and shorten others. "Quote things said by your yak guide and the rescued explorers, in their own words". "Say how this made you feel", "what were you thinking at the time", "I can't feel the hardship here".

What is this, psychotherapy?

Well, I stuck my hoof into this, I'm going to slog through it. You'd think this Society would be more interested in how to choose the right snow to make building blocks for a caribou snow-stable than how often my stomach grumbled and how afraid I was that my hooves would freeze off. Maybe I'll throw in one of Machur and Pinkie's jokes.

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Sweating It Out

Dec 20: What I get from the editors notes is a general idea that the readership of the Canterlot Explorer's Society Quarterly isn't interested in a guide to how to prepare for a trek in northern Yakyakistan but just what it was like to be on our expedition. I'm interested in details and how things fit together and that is what's reflected in my travelogue. I'll ask Rarity for help on this.

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The Horse Snows the Way

Dec 21: Today is the last day of autumn and the beginning of winter. Of course there was the Running of the Leaves to clear the trees, then together with my friends I raked up the leaves and prepared some of the critters for hibernation in the new denning areas. And then Rainbow Dash made it interesting. She tried to stop winter.

Rainbow Dash has a pet tortoise that she really likes, although she usually tries to hide her affection. Today there was no doubt -- she tried to keep her tortoise from hibernating.

We were out in the Whitetail Woods raking up the leaves that the Running had knocked out of the trees and expecting snow. Fluttershy swore she had seen a few flakes earlier, but then the skies cleared again. Foals were running around crashing through the piles we'd already made, which was funny to watch, fun for the foals, but not so fun to rake all over again. Fortunately they ran off looking for even bigger leaf piles to scatter and I got my pile loaded on Applejack's compost cart, for use enriching the fields, or to be just piled up to make safe havens for mice, snakes, insect larva and small critters.

So while we were doing that, Applejack noticed something was going spectacularly wrong in Cloudsdale. Next thing we knew, Cloudsdale spat out a giant snowball which went flying straight for us. Fortunately, when it hit, it only buried all of Ponyville and surrounding areas fetlock-deep in snow. Some spots it was knee deep, but generally, the snow spread out pretty evenly. Instant winter. That put an end to raking the last leaves.

It turned out that the snow dump was Rainbow's fault. She was trying to sabotage Cloudsdale's snow cloud production, and all due to her ridiculous unwillingness to let her tortoise hibernate. Well, she failed and she had to accept that a tortoise has to hibernate. There were a lot of shed tears and I got chided for being insensitive!

This is a friendship problem, and Dash had to see that sometimes a friend needs his rest. Dash is usually so brash, but I think it's her Element of Loyalty that was pushing her buttons here. Tank is very loyal to her and that resonates with her Element. It's probably fortunate for the rest of us that our pets don't embody our respective Elements or we could be saddled with the same feedback Dash gets from Tank. Dash doesn't want to hear any of this and my less than analytical friends aren't helping me, but they helped Dash. That's another Friendship Lesson. Empathy. I just hope Dash doesn't dig Tank up mid-winter to see if he's alright.

Well, winter's here and Dash's crisis is over. It's like what one of my quillpals wrote about Friendship: we can have quarrels and rough moments, but we're friends and we'll always be friends.

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Lights of the Party

Dec 22: The harvests and preparations of autumn are over. Today is the first full day (and night) of winter. There is snow everywhere thanks to Rainbow Dash. The weather ponies cleared the sky and at nightfall, the moon rose over the sparkling snow. Serene, beautiful and fresh.

Princess Luna is resisting the idea of there being a winter celebration in her honor, something more specifically for her than the somewhat goofy Nightmare Night. I'm sure everypony would love a Winter Moon Festival.

With or without Princess Luna's blessing, we had an impromptu night sky festival, just my friends and I. We chose a hill near the Treecastle to spread a few blankets, some on the ground, some to drape over us. Pinkie set up paper lanterns here and there. With Dash's help, she set off a few fireworks. Rarity stamped little shafts in the snow all around us and in each she placed a lit candle. After the noise and smoke of the fireworks had drifted off, Fluttershy served hot tea and Applejack got out the baked apple treats she'd brought. Spike had had the idea to bring sparklers. He lit a few dozen and I lifted them high into the air where I made them fly about in spirals, circles and geometric patterns, faster and faster until it looked like the sky was full of miniature shooting stars.

After the sprinklers burned out, the Crystal Empire sent out streams of color from the Crystal Heart. We huddled together for a few hours, Rarity's candles making the snow glow white all around, Pinkie's lanterns bobbing slightly in the breeze, and above us the living sky. We sipped tea, chatted and admired the beauty of Luna's night.

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Away From the Heat

Dec 23: I used Moondancer's Haycartes spell variant to drop in on her. I think she is a little stressed out. I could see her from my spot on the open page, sitting half hidden behind a great wall of reading material. I got her attention by calling out her name, but she was so startled that she knocked over a whole pile of scrolls and sent them rolling every which way. When she trotted closer, I could see her breath. I reminded her that it's winter now.

She told me that her furnace stove is buried in books and that she just hadn't got around to clearing them off. I think that letting her house look like she's not there might also be why she's not heating yet.

In other news, Moondancer has agreed to be a guest lecturer for a class on advanced study techniques early next semester. That's when she'll be teaching the Haycartes spell. The flood of ponies piaffing her door and whickering at the window has slowed to a trickle, but she'll be relieved when she has given the lesson and she'll get some peace. She said she's usually at my place now, and the heat is on there.

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Tabulating the Data

Dec 24: Cheerilee came over and dropped off the Friendship Letters her students wrote. I've read and sorted them. Many repeated the examples I gave. Some just stated that they had friends and they have fun together, which is a bit vague. Well, time to get my friends together, to sit in our thrones, and weigh the lessons. Then I will present our findings to the class to complete the loop.

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Trees Please Me

Dec 25: It looks like many of you, in your corner of your universe, are having a winter festival of sorts. It involves trees and gifts and friendship, but it lacks a star appreciation or a windigo repelling aspect. That's no doubt because you lack pegasi to clear the clouds and you probably don't have a windigo threat. Well, happy holiday! May your tree blossom with friendship, remind you of spring and produce a bountiful harvest of gifts!

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It Was a Torturous Journey Of Hardship And Discovery

Dec 26: With Rarity's help I've finished the rewrite of the Canterlot Explorer's Society article. Or I should say that _we_ finished it. Rarity put quite a bit of pulpy drama into it. We tested it out on Rainbow Dash (who's in a bit of a funk right now since her tortoise is hibernating) and she perked up a bit. But not for long. It reminded her of the Daring Do stories she'd read to her tortoise. So, success? We should have found somepony else to test it on.

Come what may, it's done, sealed, and mailed. I hope it doesn't come back.

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Chemistry

Dec 27: Tomorrow we get together in the Map Room and go through the new Friendship Lessons I've collected. I've made a rough, first pass sort-through of the pile Cheerilee brought me. We'll go through the list, evaluate them, and inscribe the friendship lessons in my volume. And try not to bore Dash.

What is the spark that ignites a friendship? I felt that spark during my confrontation with Nightmare Moon... it seems so long ago. What brings on that realization, the dawning that a pony is your friend? Can we build a protocol for laying down a framework from which friendships can grow? Can we find a reliable catalyst that will ease the transition from stranger or antagonist to a stable friendship bond? Or will friendships always rely on putting ponies together and hope that they find a common goal or interest?

I share therefore I befriend.

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The Friendship Council

Dec 28: We met this afternoon in the Map Room. I had everything prepared for a round-table analysis and I had sorted the friendship lessons I'd received so far. First, there were the letters that mirrored lessons that I and my friends had already written down. For simplicity, I reminded all of us of what we had experienced, then Spike read out a summary I'd made of the letters giving the same lesson. Then he listed the ponies who'd written them. That cleared most of the pile quickly. Rainbow Dash was still awake! Bonus! Spike was also furiously scribbling down notes on what we covered and where we filed the new material.

That was the warm up. On to new material. There was the lesson from Flareblitzfury, that even when communication breaks down, a friend learns to have faith in a friend that cares for them. That's similar to what we learned when we didn't know what a parasprite was and we couldn't understand what it was Pinkie was doing. From Algernon97 came the lesson that friends may quarrel, but friendship brings everypony back together, and that it's always hard to say goodbye to a good friend. I think we all glanced at Dash.

More lessons. A good friend shares what they like with you and will sample new things that you offer. Pinkie Pie approved of this lesson.

A good friend will go out of their way and spare the time to lend a hoof. Applejack approved.

A good friend helps you find your flaws and weaknesses and gives you the motivation and courage to understand how to master them. Rarity felt this lesson resonated with her.

While it is easier to become friends with somepony so similar to oneself that it's like holding up a mirror of perfect familiarity, a good friend will compliment your familiar likes and strengths with new and seemingly oddball quirks. It is from these exotic friendships that we build magic, understanding and community. I got a lot of blank looks. That lesson needs a hoof trim.

Overall, I think the Friendship Council was a success. It was a bit vague, but then what we are attempting to quantify is nebulous. At least we are getting back into the friendship halter! The after-council supper with all my friends was the best part. Good food builds strong friendships.

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Refreshed

Dec 29: It was cold and dark today, perfect motivation for a trip to the spa with Rarity and Fluttershy. I just felt the need for some soothing mud, a hoof trim and a long hot soak in the hot tub with my friends. After the spa we stepped out into the snow, all shiny and fuzzy in our winter coats, radiating heat and good cheer.

Rarity invited us over for tea at her boutique. She was dying to show us the full body winter gowns that she'd just made with Crystal Empire lamb's felt and fabric she'd bought in Canterlot. With the hood, they cover a pony from head to tail! I particularly liked the small sparkling flowers she'd sewn into the hem lines. They were made from dragon-cut gems. Très chic. Rarity has such a knack for design.

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Blanket of Snow

Dec 30: Yesterday's grey weather, it turns out, was the weather ponies setting up Ponyville and area for a winter snow storm. Rainbow Dash bombed us with snow on the last day of autumn, but we need more snow to properly insulate the ground. When the snow is deep enough, a subnivean gap forms between the snow cover and the ground. That gap is dark and has a steady temperature, perfect for mice. The steady temperature of the ground also makes winter dormancy of plants and hibernating critters easier. So today we got snow. Lots of snow.

Naturally, the snow falls everywhere, not just on the fields and forests. Ponies have been out clearing the paths to their doors and pushing the snow out of the streets all day. I have it easy. I have a dragon. Spike uses his dragon fire to melt the snow on our walkway. Fortunately, that doesn't send the snow off to Princess Celestia! (She'd get buried!) It just evaporates and drifts off with the breeze. If it was a lot colder out, his snow-melting would produce a frost-building fog. Like it did during a cold snap last winter. The frost was very pretty.

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Winter Wonder Land

Dec 31: The snow covered trees, fields and houses were beautiful this morning. Beautiful and nearly silent. The snow dampens the sound of hoofsteps in the streets and absorbs the sounds of doors closing and voices. There were other ponies out enjoying the view too, but everypony I passed spoke in hushed tones to not spoil the morning's mood.

The sun broke through the few remaining clouds and the snow everywhere sparkled like it was made of white diamonds. I missed this side of winter, when Ponyville looks so fresh and clean.

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Author's Note

OK, this is insane. How the hay did Dash not notice Tank trying to bury himself every December since early Season two, how many winters ago?! Did Tank just, sneak off and Dash figured he'd flown south with the 'southern birds'? Maybe he hibernated in Dash's cloud house basement and Dash forgot he existed for three months straight every year? Or the problem was that this year Dash had in her head that she was going to subject Tank to every winter sport she could think of, instead of letting Tank dose his way through the winter in a chilly corner of the house, as she must have done each preceding winter.

Milestones: 200 "views", eighth 'rating' vote achieved, and this story has squeaked into the top 100,000 in the 'rating' ranks! Party time! The strange jump in hits (?) continues, nearly every day I get a bar on the views chart that dwarfs all the other bars from the past month. I think I've retained the interest of at best 70 readers now, I wonder if the high bars are from Google spidering this story. Google "referrals" are at 34. It was 1 at the beginning and only increased to match the number of chapters until a few chapters ago. So, that answers the question: "but where are the spiders?" Google spiders. Watching you.

Did you know that there are at least 50 stories on FiMFiction that are one million words long or longer? The ponies in this town are CRAZY!

XIII January

Winter Reading

Jan 1st: Winter snow and cold is quite good at convincing a pony to stay indoors with a hot pot of chocolate peppermint spice tea and a few good books. I whiled away the afternoon today like that. My Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac To All Things Astronomy reminded me that there is another meteor shower due in a few days, and in another book I read about Muleavian and Balefriesian mimicry strategies. Some critters have very strange cooperative friendships.

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The Last Blast

Jan 2: I caught up with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie trotting to Sugar Cube Corner for a cup of hot cocoa, so I joined them. I told them about the meteor shower that will be at its peak some time after midnight tonight! Dash said she'll make sure to clear out the clouds for that.

I've cleared the snow off part of the eastern balcony and I have my big cushion and my blankets out there, right next to my telescope. The Treecastle will shield me from the light of the moon. These shooting stars are small but fast and they can wink by anywhere in the sky. According to the Almanac, this is the last major shower for several moons. No more until spring. I'm going to make the most of it.

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Into the Early Morning Night

Jan 3: Last night, after I'd snuggled up under my horse blankets on the balcony and I was staring up at the sky, Rainbow Dash landed next to me! She'd come to watch shooting stars too. She'd brought smores and a blanket. So I scooched over a bit on my cushion and offered her some chocolate peppermint spice tea. Then Rarity trotted out on the balcony. Followed closely by Applejack.

Pinkie had planned this 'surprise meteor shower watch with Twilight'. She and Fluttershy were the last to arrive (Spike was asleep in bed the whole time). Everypony brought a little treat too: Rainbow with the smores, Pinkie some hot cocoa, Applejack hot apple cider, Rarity jasmine tea, and Fluttershy, cookies shaped like shooting stars. I got out the cups, plates and more pillows and blankets. I have the best of best friends.

We did see some shooting stars while we laughed and chatted, with mostly just our heads poking out from under our blankets, but I misread my Almanac! The real peak of the meteor shower is tonight, or rather very very early tomorrow. We thought we were just having too good a time and that we had just missed most of the shooting stars speeding overhead. Of the ones we did see, some came quite close. I think our friendship drew them near.

So I'm going back out under the stars for the real peak tonight! It's colder out than it was last night. I'll need more blankets. And a few hot water bottles. Ear muffs. Scarf. Hat. Tea.

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I Took The Stars From Our Eyes

Jan 4: It was cold last night under the stars! I covered myself in horse blankets, buried so deep that my eyes and nostrils were all that were peeking out. I was like a mountain range, my breath a heavy mist building frost gardens in two near parallel rows down the top blanket. But above, in a burst of activity, shooting stars!

Did they bring on the cold? Are there, were there ice ponies? Was there some winter event long ago, something that they remember and that spurs them into action on this long dark night? Where there is smoke, there is fire. Here there is freezing cold and the last big meteor shower until the spring.

I watched them flash across the sky, in every direction, hither and yon. Silent diamonds with a need for speed. Mysterious. Searching.

I stayed up until twilight, wanting more, until the pull of sleep and the brightening of the sky sent me to bed. I dreamed of maps and dark landscapes long gone, wiped clean by the passage of time. And in the darkness, flashes of starlight, traveling paths that only they could see. I didn't rise until well past noon.

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Silk

Jan 5: Still very cold out today but I was warm as I walked through Ponyville wearing my expedition gear. Minus the snow goggles. Foals would have stared.

It's spa day. As I wandered about, I wondered idly, to spa or not to spa? I looked up and lo, there I was standing right in front of the spa. Destiny. So, taking off my horse blanket, I went in. And nearly ran right into Rainbow Dash and Spitfire.

We roasted together in the sauna, and after rinsing off I convinced Spitfire to try the fragrant oil bath with me, the one where the spa ponies cover you in oil and then remove it with a special spoon-shaped strigil comb. Rainbow Dash is ticklish about ponies touching her with scraping tools so she went to get pummeled by Bulk Biceps instead, followed by a soak in the scented bath.

Rainbow Dash walked out of the spa looking very relaxed and mellow. I feel, and smell! like a million bits. Spitfire shone like the sun. Her mane, and my mane, just flowed like water with every shake of our heads. I feel I could play with it for hours.

Home again, I feel silky and wonderful, but I'm wearing a housecoat. Those strigil combs leave more than just a trace of oil in my fur. I'd rather not leave an embarrassing oil stain on my reading couch. I'm going to go out for a short trot, just to feel my mane and tail bounce and flow some more.

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Between the Covers

Jan 6: The winter semester at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is in session and Moondancer gave her Haycartes lesson. She taught both the standard Haycartes spell which allows you to be fully immersed in the text, and her variant that allows a pony to visit books from the same edition and printing. It was a great success. They had her speaking in the largest auditorium in the School -- the indoor polo court, and the stands were packed full. But there is a downside. Ponies have been using the spell to read books other ponies have taken off the shelf instead of waiting their turn. Now Moondancer can't read her books at the library any more. She's opened some books to find up to three ponies trotting between the covers. The worst are ponies offering their opinion on the book's contents even before she's had a chance to read it. The only solution is to check the books out and take them home to read them.

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The Fire of Friendship Castle Lives in my Hearths

Jan 7: The cold snap is dying down outside, but in the Treecastle, the temperature is constant. The building pulls in heat from deep underground and distributes it throughout the castle via heavy crystalline columns in the halls and buttresses that climb the walls and frame the windows and doors. That's a good thing as there are very few fireplaces in this building and they're small and inefficient. I still use the fireplaces anyway. Not only is the flickering firelight pleasant, but I still find the rock floors, walls and ceiling cold and sterile. I like my wild and messy fire. It crackles and pops and consumes wood like a live thing. I just have to keep it away from my books.

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Interdimensional Craft

Jan 8: I dreamed about the Tree of Harmony last night. I dreamed I was in the Everfree Forest and I was gazing down into a crevasse. Then I was at the bottom of the crevasse which is the alcove where the Tree of Harmony has stood for I don't know how many thousands of years. It began to move. I turned to run, and as I reached the stairway, I looked back to see it floating up after me. I ran in a panic through the bushes and brambles to the Friendship Castle and in the front door. The Tree of Harmony rose up, right there, springing upright from the hallway floor and blew me and Spike and all my books out the door. Then a giant crack appeared in the sky and the Treecastle slid sideways into the crack and vanished.

I woke up, soaking wet with sweat.

Addendum: This journal entry was written on the 1 year anniversary of its inception!

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One Foal Step for a Pony

Jan 9: What my work in progress, The Magic of Friendship, a Reference Manual, really lacks, is material for the chapter on Friendship Creation (the First Spark). I was thinking, where else could I put out a request for Friendship Lessons for my research project and maybe get a few new data points without running the risk of getting swamped with mail? Somewhere off the map of Equestria, so to speak. Not Yakyakistan, not Griffonstone, not Saddle Arabia. I'd get ignored there anyway. No, I was thinking of perhaps putting in a letter to the editor in an Earth newspaper. There's one that looks promising. It's called The Equestria Daily. It seems to have a good readership, even though it has what looks like made-up news from Equestria and it prints new editions much more often than daily. It should probably be named 'Fantasy Equestria Hourly'.

What do you think? Would I get any letters? They could send them here, either as comments or as "private messages" (this E-journal has a mail slot!). The advantages would be: no uncontrolled pan-Equestria announcement of my project, no sea of ponies wanting to tell me their stories in person, and no ponies armed with pitchforks and flaming firebrands banging on my front door if my project goes bust.

So research! Science! Yay! I think my letter to the editor of The Equestria Daily should go something like this:

Dear Earth People, as Princess of Friendship I've decided to expand my studies on the Magic of Friendship by asking for data in the form of Friendship letters from Equestria at large. As I've learned from Rarity and Applejack (Friendship Reference Manual, chapter Living With Friendship sub heading Benefits of Friendship section Observing Friends Sub Section Avoiding Traps) is that careless advertising and promises can lead to overwork. Thus, I started by having a test run using the foals of the Ponyville schoolhouse. That went well, for a test of concept. Now I'm ready to scale up slightly. I read that you like ponies and friendship. Since there are probably at best only a few hundred of you, I feel that asking you for Friendship Lessons You Have Learned won't flood my mail box the way it might if I go next to asking, say, all of Ponyville.

A Friendship Lesson should follow this general format:

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Today (or whenever it was) I learned that {key friendship problem} is solved by {key action}.

Fill in the pertinent details and context.

Your signature statement {for example, Yours Truly, (your name)}

I'm building a manual on Friendship covering everything from starting friendships, building on friendships, mending friendships, benefiting from friendships and stronger abilities through co-operative friendship. It's all about building better magic through science!

You can send your Friendship Lessons to me as a comment in my E-journal here at dreamwidth.twilightpony.org or as a "private message" in that same E-journal. It does both! It's really nifty!

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

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And in the Ponyville Express the Caption Read

Jan 10: Chaos in Canterlot! in big bold letters. It was splashed across the front page of the Ponyville Express: some ponies have checked books out, gone home, only to find out there was a pony reading the book they had borrowed. They get home, put the book down, and a few minutes later, there's pony standing next to it looking lost! Ponies from the School For Gifted Unicorns have instituted a spell on the doors of the Canterlot libraries that cancels out the Haycartes spell when ponies pass through. There were a lot of surprised ponies getting dumped on the threshold at first, but since then ponies have become more ... selective in when and where they dive into books. Since Moondancer has stopped reading her books at the library for the time being, I guess she hasn't been among those landing upside down and sideways in the library lobby. That must be a sight to see!

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A Drift in the White

Jan 11: I went into the Everfree today to check on the tree. As soon as I entered the forest I was in deep snow. I was wearing a white cloak and saddle and white boots to blend in. Friend with the snow.

The forest is so silent. Soft powdery snow was falling from the sky and deadening the sound. I had to follow animal tracks much of the time, which is easier for walking but it had me very wary of getting ambushed. I tried to breathe gently and evenly, listening and watching as I pushed my way down the mane path to the Tree of Harmony. At least the cragadiles and cockatrices are hibernating and many of the other dangerous animals are spending the winter in the Flame Geyser Swamp. The falling snow was like a shroud, hiding me but also hiding anything that might be watching. A pony may be dangerous prey but a pony can be taken by surprise. I did not want to be that pony. I should have asked Applejack to go with me.

I reached the ravine in the wild wood where the Tree of Harmony is found. I felt my way down the stairs, through slippery white powder. There in its deep stony alcove, with but a little drifting snow brushing up against its roots, stood the Tree. Mute, motionless, bejeweled. I turned and left. A silly dream had brought me here.

I climbed back up the stairs, stepping in the track in the snow that I had made on the way down. I took a different path this time and I went to call on Zecora. She doesn't come to Ponyville often in the winter.

I couldn't see Zecora's house until I was almost at her door. Smoke was rising lazily through the falling snow from her chimney and there were no fresh tracks, so I knew she was in. I knocked and she let me in. Warmth. Tea. Her rhyming speech. I told her about my research project, the dream that brought me to wander alone through the Everfree in winter, and we laughed about the Haycartes fad in Canterlot. She remarked on my fragrance and how silky my fur was, so I told her about oil bath at the spa. I told her that she should try it, and when she does, that she should come by the castle so we can go together. I think I might see her tomorrow.

When I left it was late afternoon. The shadows were deepening and it was getting colder. I hurried home. You don't want to get lost in the Everfree at night.

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Oiled Friends

Jan 12: Zecora did venture into Ponyville today! This afternoon she dropped in on me as I was doing an inventory of my hay larders. She was still interested in trying out the ancient oil bath that Rarity had introduced to the spa. So I pulled on my boots, threw on my red blanket with the gold trim that Rarity had made for me, and we set out to see if we could round up a few friends to join us.

It was cold and grey today in Ponyville and I regretted not wearing my matching scarf. I joked with Zecora that she had brought the chill of the Everfree Forest with her. She replied that today in the forest it was warm and fair, on entering Ponyville she experienced colder air. The Everfree Forest really is strange.

We went to Sweet Apple Acres where we found Applejack. She was in need of a hoof trim and a massage. That's one! We caught sight of Rainbow Dash but she couldn't join us, she had weather duties to attend to. Pinkie thought it was a great idea and galloped off to see if Fluttershy was up for a trip to the spa. Two so far. We found Rarity hard at work in her boutique, nearly buried in fabric and patterns. To my surprise she had been too busy this morning to go to the spa, but she could really do with a break. So Rarity made three. Pinkie burst in to tell us Fluttershy had been to the spa this morning and she just wanted some peace and quiet at home. But Pinkie invited Lyra and Lyra said she's meet us at the spa. So all told we were six.

We all went into the sauna together. I told them about my dream and my excursion to see if anything had changed with the Tree of Harmony. They chided me for going to see the Tree alone. I was a bit distracted, I'd never seen Zecora without her gold bangles before.

After the sauna and rinse, both Lyra and Zecora headed for oil bath. Zecora recognized the herbs and fragrances employed by the spa ponies in this recreation of the oil bath Rarity had read about in the Crystal Empire Library. Rarity and I watched from the side as Lotus and Aloe poured warm oil over them as they stood on the large raised stone tables. I tried not to laugh too hard at the faces they were making. They all got to talking about herbal scents, relaxation, cleansers and variations that could improve the oil. Aloe dropped her strigil comb in the oil and had to get another. Zecora's short thick fur was a bit of a challenge but the end result was stunning. So shiny.

After our hooficures and Applejack's massage I invited everypony over for dinner. Rarity declined, Applejack had to get home, Pinkie had to foalsit and Lyra had a prior engagement. When Zecora hesitated as well, I offered her a room for the night (I have so many empty guest rooms). So Spike and I had Zecora as our dinner guest and she's retired to one of the guest rooms with a book from my library for the night.

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Clothes Maketh the Mare Warm

Jan 13: Well, Zecora has left. She got up early, had breakfast with Spike and went back to her home in the Everfree. It's her way.

Later this morning, Spike popped into my reading room to tell me that Rarity was inviting us all over today. I went, expecting tea and cookies, but instead, Rarity had a surprise in store. She showed us what she had been working on yesterday: winter cloaks, one for each of us! We tried them on.

Mine is a beautiful deep dark red, Applejack's cloak is a fresh grass green, Pinkie a royal blue, Dash a golden yellow, Fluttershy a delicate spring green, and for herself, Rarity went with a deep purple. Each cloak has our cutie mark and small sparkling flowers, made with dragon cut gems, sewn into the hem. I just love mine! And it is so soft and warm. Rarity really picked up a knack for warmth on our northern expedition. Practical and stylish!

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Book Horse

Jan 14: Princess Cadence sent me another shipment of books. She included a note that said the rate of books being dropped off had slowed to a trickle. This is probably the last big addition I'll get to my library for a long time. Still, I had fun sorting them by subject and author and finding space on my shelves for them. There were quite a few copies of books I already had. I'll have to find a home for those.

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The Kind of Pony Everypony Should Know

Jan 15: My open letter was denied! The editor of the Equestria Daily wrote back to say that they were worried about "sending people to a place that answers their questions". It must be a cultural thing? I asked what steps I need to take to get on the list of vetted contributors. The editor replied something that I take means that they will discuss my case in a meeting. I guess this is what happens when you are thousands in the same herd, you choose a select few to contribute to your newsletter on behalf of everyone? No matter, I'll just have to bite down on the bit and ask the Ponyville Express to print my open letter.

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Phase Two, Wait For Letters

Jan 16: My letter to the editor of the Equestria Daily got published! I must have passed muster. Now to see if I get any Friendship Letters.

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Message In A Bottle

Jan 17: Still no letters. I thought I'd get at least a few by now. I've noticed that mail moves very fast in this giant library of yours, maybe even at dragon's breath speed. I've also noticed that it never takes me any time to reach and open this journal of mine, once I've cast the graphical display grid spell. Thus, the delay is not due to letters moving slowly through the postal system. It may be that friendship is as hard to quantify in Earth as it is in Equestria. There's also the fact it was a letter to the editor. I barely glance at that page when I read the Ponyville Express.

No letters is still an interesting result. Writing a letter is an investment in time and remembering something you've learned about friendship takes both time and effort. I probably shouldn't be worried about getting swamped by letters!

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Blast From The Past

Jan 18: Pinkie Pie burst in through the door to my reading room this afternoon and made me almost leap out of my skin. (It's an expression, ponies do not remove their skins.) She's found out that the Crystal Empire is reviving its winter festival and she wants us all to go! There will be ice houses and slides and races and archery and ice flower nectar on the snow and dancing and... I got the message. No sooner had I said that it sounds like fun, she was out the door to ask the next pony, I think Applejack. I wrote a letter to Princess Cadence to see if there is room for six ponies and a dragon at the castle and dropped it off with the post during my late afternoon stroll.

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Freshly Fallen Snow

Jan 19: It was Ponyville's turn for a fresh layer of snow. I donned the red cloak with the gems in the hem that Rarity gave me and went for a trot in the falling snow. I had fun admiring Cloudsdale's snowflake craft. The snowflakes show up nicely against the red, and the cloak is so well insulated that they don't melt. I should ask Rarity what shade of red my cloak is.

The weather ponies have collected what's left of their clouds and moved on, leaving us with mostly clear skies. It's all really pretty, white and fresh, with moonglow reflecting off the sparkling snow under the sparkling starry sky. But the temperature is plunging. It's nice inside by the fire too.

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Festival Fever

Jan 20: As I had hoped, we're all going to the Crystal Empire Winter Festival. We met up today at Sugar Cube Corner and discussed our plans over hot chocolate. This will be the first time we will have visited the Crystal Empire in the winter and Rarity is keen to see firsthoof crystal pony winter fashion "in the wild". Fluttershy hopes to catch a glimpse of the wild animals there. They're active despite the cold and snow. Pinkie wants to see it all and try every activity and every specialty. For party research, of course. Parties are SERIOUS business (her words). Since Spike is a local celebrity in the Crystal Empire, we're going to see if the festival organizers would like him to take an official role in any of the activities.

We leave in less than two days. I think Rarity is already packing, there are so many things she wants to wear. I'll pack tomorrow but I bought our train tickets today, just in case.

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Mister The Dragon

Jan 21 I received a letter from Princess Cadence today and in it she knocked two things off my checklist. First off, she said she had room for us at the castle, but we'll have to double up as she has only three rooms left! I think that supports my guess that there will be a lot of ponies at the festival. So we have a place to stay. Accommodations, check. We won't have to pack winter camping gear.

She also wrote to say that Spike is invited to be a Guest of Honor. Seeing if the crystal ponies wanted Spike to make an appearance was the other item that was on my checklist. It turns out that we won't have to track down the festval organizers after all, there will be an honor guard waiting for Spike at the train station. When Princess Cadence learned that Spike was joining us, she told her advisers, and well, there you go. This is pretty exciting for Spike. To help him calm his nerves a bit, I asked him to tell our friends that we'll be staying at the castle and that he will be participating in the Festival as a Guest of Honor. That worked well. Telling the same story five times in a row gentles a pony down nice and easy. Unless you're Pinkie.

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Everypony Loves the Sound of a Train In the Distance

Jan 22: We're off to the Crystal Empire Winter Festival! Spike left already for the train station, he does _not_ want to miss that train. My saddle bags are packed, I'm wearing my new cloak, I have the tickets, I'm all set to go. Back in two days!

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(The Princess is out. Please leave a message.)

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Crystal Empire Winter Festival

Jan 24: Never a dull moment! Well, we're back from a great few days taking in the Winter Festival and all that the Crystal Empire has to offer. In more ways than one.

It was crowded! Even the train was crowded. We were packed like apples in a barrel on that train, but everypony was so excited about this trip, we were happy, singing apples. It got very hot in our compartment. Fortunately it was also a quick trip.

After we poured out of the train, dripping with sweat and steaming in the cold Crystal Empire air, two royal guards pounced on Spike and spirited him off. We divided up Rarity's luggage and made our way to the castle.

We found our rooms, and by that time I felt a bit less than presentable in my dried, sweat-matted fur. Fortunately, we knew where the spa is. Better yet, there wasn't a crowd at the spa. So all six of us got refreshed at the spa before heading out to the festival.

Even though we were early and the festival was just starting up, there were already crowds of ponies on the fairgrounds. There were also stands selling food and goods, and dozens of ponies hard at work making ice sculptures on the fair grounds and along the parade route in the city. The grand opening would begin at nightfall, with a parade, fireworks, a gala dinner and all night dance parties. But the giant ice slide was in full operation and we took the opportunity to plan when and where we'd watch the next day's activities. We were all invited to the gala dinner and I was expected to sit at Princess Cadence's table. I expected we'd find Spike there too.

Evening comes early in the Crystal Empire. We were watching ponies light up some of the finished ice sculptures when we heard fugel horns and drums approaching. We got off the road and out of the way to watch as a sparkling procession wound around a corner and headed to the Crystal Empire fair grounds. There were marching ponies, acrobats, jugglers, bands making a deafening din, floats, and perched high up on a float next to the festival princess, Spike, waving to the crowd. The marching ponies were all wearing hats with colored streamers dangling from the brim on all sides, a lot like the one Rarity had made a while back. I could swear Rarity turned a light shade of pink, but then, it was too dark out to see.

The dinner was in a big building on the fairgrounds made entirely with ice and carved to look like a giant snowflake. We couldn't have been more than a few hundred ponies at the dinner, so it was an honor to have been included on the guest list, especially at the last minute! Spike was there, Princess Cadence made a speech, and the food was all Crystal Pony specialties. Outside, the dance party was already underway, and getting louder. Princess Cadence may be getting a bit bigger around the middle.

Fluttershy, Applejack, Spike and I left before it got too late (Spike was falling asleep despite the stomp-step line dancing of the crowd and the four-part harmony whinnying on stage by the Beach Bays). I don't know what time Dash, Rarity and Pinkie got in, Fluttershy, Spike and I shared the same room.

The next day the Winter Festival was in full swing. We woke up Pinkie, Dash and Rarity, had a quick breakfast from the castle kitchen and trotted off to see the events!

I'll write about that tomorrow.

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Out With a Bang

Jan 25: After breakfast on the second day, all bleary eyed for some of us that had danced until the wee hours of the morning, we put on our saddlebags and winter garb and headed to the fairgrounds. Two official ponies ran up looking for Spike, and finding him with us, spirited him off to stand with the Festival Princess and announce archery and jousting events.

We watched those events, ate ice flower nectar on the snow, cheered on the snowshoe race (how do those ponies keep from tripping over their own feet?), admired more ice sculptures in the making, ate from the food kiosks, went down the giant ice slide, and had a real good time. We were invited to supper with Princess Cadence so we headed back to the castle as night was starting to fall, passing the evening Festival parade on the way. Spike caught up with us at supper, looking a little worn out. He fell asleep in his plate. During the supper, Princess Cadence told us that we must go out for a walk in the streets of the Crystal Empire later. She wouldn't tell us more, just that we should be in for a nice surprise. So after dessert, and after tucking Spike into bed, we met by the door and went out to look for this mysterious surprise.

Outside it was snowing. That wasn't much of a surprise, I had noticed Cloudsdale's arrival earlier that afternoon. The only unusual thing was that they had the clouds snowing at night. I guessed it was to avoid interfering with the festival events? So we kept walking, circling the castle. It was very nice out. Not too cold, the fallen snow making everything look softer, rounder and quieter. The snowflakes were very nice, stellar dendrites, geometric and crystalline, perfect for the Winter Festival. There were happy crystal ponies walking alone and in pairs, like us, watching the snow drift down from the sky.

Suddenly I felt a surge of happiness that is almost palpable. We turned toward the castle just as The Crystal Heart started to flare, sending skyward rivers of rainbow hued light. It painted the clouds and bounced back into the city, reflecting off every snowflake and causing them to spin through the air in time with the Crystal Heart. I was in total awe. Thousands, millions of Crystal Hearts, all around us. I had never seen anything so beautiful.

I barely noticed that we had been turned to crystal, same as the crystal ponies nearby. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and myself, all we could do is sit down right there, hug and stare up in agog. As we hugged, we too began to glow. Crystal ponies looked out of windows and doorways and those in the street stopped to stare as the bouncing reflections from the Crystal Heart entered our translucent bodies and accumulated. That attracted more of the liquid light to us, building up until all I could see was brilliance everywhere. Every snowflake, every building, every pony around us stood out in blinding but minute detail. Dazzling, beautiful, and painful. And then we let go. In one blast, the light within us was released, flash flooding the entire Empire, rocketing down every street, in all directions and lighting up the countryside in rainbow hues.

I think all of Equestria must have seen that flash. When we got back yesterday, from the moment when we got off the train in Ponyville and clear across town, everypony we met wanted to know if we had seen and felt the glorious flash from the north. Yes we had.

We had seen the flash and it was us.

I'm still a bit shaky.

I had weird dreams that night. I think we all did. Although with Pinkie, it's hard to tell sometimes. We ate a late breakfast. Spike had already left for the fairgrounds. Cadence came down to eat with us and hear all about our experience of the night before, straight from the horse's mouth. Let's just say that the flash was not the surprise she'd expected. But we were OK so we said goodbye to Princess Cadence, thanked her for stabling and feeding us and we went off to enjoy our last day at the Winter festival.

There were no snowshoe races or archery that day, but instead there was ice skating and a food fair. I left the skating to Pinkie and Rarity, but the food fair was fantastic! So many strange but tasty concoctions, dishes and grasses. But best of all were the teas, aromatic herbs, spices and flavors! I bought quite an assortment, in doubles so I can share with Zecora. We spent most of the day grazing on all the good food that was just everywhere. We never did stop for lunch. Or supper.

After Spike made one last appearance in the evening parade, we collected our things and caught the last train back to Ponyville.

The festival is not over. It lasts two weeks, with still more activities, such as the costume ball next week. Spike will be going back for the closing parade and fireworks.

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Afterglow

Jan 26: It's nice to be back by my fireplace again, pouring through my familiar books and scrolls, away from the crowds.

There wasn't anything in the Ponyville Express about the Crystal Empire flash. I guess ponies are taking it to have been a sign that the crystal ponies are especially happy with the revived Winter Festival. For me, I hope it's just a reminder that when we come together, the six of us, we channel power. Power that we can only hope to control.

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Staringing Across the Divide

Jan 27: In the cold cloistering season of winter, lounging by the fire in my reading room, I get to thinking. What would happen, if you take out the disorientation implicit in navigating a new geometry of a radically different universe, if a pony should step out into a city on earth World, or if a 'person' should step out into a city in Equestria?

Panic, probably. Like with Zecora, at first, in Ponyville. But eventually? I'd like to think that a person would become accepted as part of pony society, like a minotaur or a griffon, only harder to feed. I doubt a pony, especially a unicorn or a pegasus, would integrate quite so easily into a meat eating society where only one species can talk.

It's probably the hay. Winter fare slows a pony down. First cut hay dampens the metabolic fire to a slow, steady burn.

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Friendship Council

Jan 28: It was a short Friendship Council. For the most part we discussed Flareblitzfury's lesson: "I've found that my friendships usually form the best from at least one common interest, then finding out more things, then as time goes on, more trust and a bond begins to form!". Applejack seems to think that friendships start with a friendly how'd you do and a hoofshake, but she admits that after that, it follows that you have to find a common interest. Our common interest was defeating Nightmare Moon. With the feuding families that the Tree sent me and Fluttershy to reconcile, the common interest was honoring the promise their sires had made to the critters. The trust and bonding came with it being clear that they could best honor that promise if they worked together. Just like we worked together to defeat Nightmare Moon.

Notation made in the Friendship Reference Manual, chapter: Starting Friendships.

Then we had supper!

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Wood Smoke

Jan 29: There was oak wood in with my firewood today. Road apples. I didn't realize it until well after I'd fed it into the fire. I was reading by the fire and getting uncomfortable. I was feeling a rising panic that I couldn't put a hoof on. I had to get up and look around. It was the smell! The smell of burning oak. Again.

I rushed down to the map room. Above the table hung the silent remains of the Golden Oak. Immobile, trailing strings of picture gems, memories of the past. It was not on fire any more.

I went back up to my reading room and lifted up the logs in the fireplace. I found the oak wood and extinguished the flames. Cradling the split, blackened log in my magic, I carried it out to a small rise nearby. I chose a sheltered spot on the sunny side, and buried it in the frozen ground.

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Inventory

Jan 30: The mid-winter Hayboard meeting is tomorrow. I had another look through my pantry to see how much I've eaten so far. Of the first cut, which was harvested seven moons ago and of which I bought 30 bales five and three quarter moons ago: 15 bales are left. I bought 15 bales of second cut four moons ago, a moon and a quarter after the harvest (I was busy snow walking). There are seven bales of that left. Third cut hay now. 15 bales delivered two and a half moons ago, soon after the harvest (before the yak buyers sent the prices sky high). I have twelve and a half bales of third cut hay left.

I'm eating one bale of first cut hay every eleven days, one bale of second cut hay every two weeks, and one bale a moon is the rate my third cut hay has been going down. I save the third cut for when I have guests or for a potluck supper.

Over all, Spike and I eat about one flake of hay a day, not counting the third cut hay. There are six to seven flakes per bale and there was a two week period where I wasn't home. At the rate I'm eating it, we're going to be shopping for more second cut hay next summer, but our supply of first cut hay is going to last to well past next harvest. My third cut hay supply is just about right.

I should eat more first cut and less second cut, especially now, in the winter. I'd feel warmer, less restless. It's just, the second cut hay is so tender and it smells so sweet!

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Summer Bounty, Winter Ease

Jan 31: The Hay Board meeting was this afternoon. With everypony out of the fields for the winter, it was a full room. As I thought, yaks taking a fancy to our hay (the best in Equestria!) has put a real dent into our third cut stores, reduced our second cut stores as well, and that has kept prices high. Fortunately, the price for silage and first cut hay is about the same as it was last year and we have enough good first cut hay to last us past Summer Sun Celebration.

The problem is that if we increase our hay production as planned, we will probably meet the new demand for third cut hay, but we risk over-producing first cut hay. There was talk of using the surplus as building material, or of mowing a few fields every week until after Summer Sun Celebration day and then letting the hay grow to harvest height.

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Author's Note

Tenth 'rating' vote achieved, although it shows up on the bar graph and not the stats. With ten votes Twilight's Blog should have a rating now. Due to some intense, and unexpected, counseling from a pre-reader, I've corrected some egregious typos, verb tenses, capital letter instances and italicization SNAFUs for the first 12 months. There were a lot. I was also chided for my generous use of quoted (from memory!) dialog, "comma splices" and ellipses. I intend Twilight's blog to convey Twilight's enthusiastic speech pattern, not her lecturing 'letter to the Princess' voice. That would be boring. Ergo, I use a lot of comma splices. IIRC, back a few hundred years ago, when I was but a wee thing, texts were meant to be read aloud. I read silently, but I still hear the voices.

XIV February

Party Planning With Pinkie

Feb 1st: I went calling on Applejack this morning, and when I got there I found her talking with Pinkie. It's almost halfway through winter and with Pinkie as Ponyville's party planner pony, that means a mid-winter feast. "Lots of good food makes lots of happy ponies". Pinkie, the philosopher. Nonetheless, that makes sense to me.

So they were dividing up the cooking and I lent a hoof in the logistical planning. What time on what day to start baking or decorating or moving the food to the Town Hall. Who to ask to print the fliers and posters, which ponies to distribute them and when. And, of course the budget. Pinkie has Mayor Mare's approval, but somepony has to write the invoices. That's now my job, so Applejack can concentrate on baking. Apple Bloom and her two friends were put in charge of the print run, they have access to the Foal Free Press's printer. While we were planning, they burst in pulling a stack of fliers. Now there's an invoice to cover that. This is going to be fun!

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Document All The Things

Feb 2: No time for a soak at the spa, mid-winter is in two days! Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie are already hard at work gearing up and taking stock of what they need. I spent most of the day with each of them, jotting down what they needed to buy and what they were able to supply. I don't write all the invoices, the businesses supplying us with material and bulk orders of food write their own invoices and send them to the city. The invoices I write are for my friends, to cover expenses they incur.

Rarity is in charge of decorating the Town Hall and most of what she needs is in municipal storage. But things wear out. I spent part of the day jotting down what Rarity felt was missing or needed replacing, as well as what she felt she could make or repair. Thus, one invoice for Rarity's contribution from her own supplies, and one order for Rarity to take to her suppliers. Then it was rinse and repeat with Applejack and with Pinkie Pie. Applejack was selecting apples and calculating how much food to order. With Pinkie it was a bit more complex since she is juggling baking, the music, banners and items like balloons, noisemakers and such the like.

All these notes go into a single itemized list which I will give to Mayor Mare. She can use that to cross-reference the invoices she receives and to have a written record of what all it takes to hold a mid-winter feast for all of Ponyville in Town Hall.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash is going to provide us with a mid-winter air show. She is off somewhere with her team of Wonderbolt Reservists, planning out a routine of aerial stunts and practicing their moves. That's going to be great!

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Party Preparation Intensifies

Feb 3: Preparation for the Mid-Winter Party is in full swing. I helped Rarity put up Pinkie's banners on the Town Hall and Fluttershy is helping her with the inner decor. Inside, the greens, golds and reds remind me of the leaves and fruit of summer and everything glitters like the snow. All that's left to add are the balloons, streamers and confetti. Pinkie will put them in tomorrow, so they'll be fresh.

Rainbow Dash was back in town with her flying team, taking a break from their dress rehearsal and surreptitiously getting a feel for the air currents and for the widths and corners of the streets around Town Hall. Dash didn't like me calling their practice a dress rehearsal. Ha ha. It's aerial theater, right?

She and her reservists air dropped fliers and put up the posters Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell had printed. The whole Apple family is hard at work baking bread and pies while Pinkie and the Cakes are cooking up wagon loads of cupcakes, cookies and cakes. Zecora will be joining us and Pinkie has put her in charge of the beverages and soups. That way Applejack can concentrate on the mixed hays, silage, apple chips, alfalfa crackers and carrot sticks. Zecora will be coming in tomorrow morning so I had Spike take care of her list of all the things she will need that she doesn't already have. I'll be going early in the morning to her place to help her load and carry cauldrons and supplies. It's not easy pulling a cart through the snow.

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Mid-Winter Feast!

Feb 4: The snow is deep in the Everfree! I followed the animal trails to Zecora's house and I found her just finishing up strapping the things she was bringing to a sleigh. With the snow this deep, the cart was not really an option. We checked to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything and we were off.

We alternated breaking trail and pulling the sleigh. It was hard work and I was sweating by the time we reached the outskirts of Ponyville. We were setting up to begin preparation of the soups and hot beverages when Spike arrived with the things I had had him get for Zecora. Between the grains, starchy vegetables and Zecora's expertise with herbs, those soups were mouth watering! And so many teas! Pinkie made a punch too and added that to Zecora's tables.

It was a veritable beehive of activity in the Hall. Pinkie had ponies making sandwiches, Applejack arrived with her contributions, there were hot dishes, a chocolate fountain started around noon, but not much second cut hay and silage on the tables.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and her team pulled banners though the skies inviting everypony to Town Hall at two in the afternoon and switching banners to count down the hours to the aerial show. At one in the afternoon the square around Town hall was beginning to fill with ponies. We had to pick our way around them to deliver the food and Pinkie's contribution to the decor, including two party canons that she had instructed us to place at the main doors, facing up and away from the building. At two o'clock sharp, Pinkie dropped down from who knows where, right between the cannons, and shouted out to the crowd in her high pitched voice: "C'mon everypony, I want to see you smile!" And she fired both cannons at once, showering everypony with confetti, party hats and balloons. That was Rainbow Dash's cue.

Rainbow Dash and her five teammates came out from behind the Town hall and whistled over the crowd. As one, they curved straight up, all six touched hooves as one, lit their vapor trails and dived straight down to the crowd again. Right above everypony's heads they veered each in their own direction and at full speed each took a different Ponyville street, flying between the houses and back to the square. They did various synchronized acrobatic stunts, peeling off to zigzag through the streets of Ponyville again a few times. This gave Rainbow Dash the opportunity to fly off, gain speed and create a Sonic Rainboom high above Ponyville and make a rainbow trail through the sky, right back down to the Town Hall doors. If anypony in Ponyville had had any doubt that something was happening today at Town Hall, they didn't now.

After the stomping and the cheering, Pinkie threw open the doors and it was time to feast. Inside, the walls and ceiling glittered, the DJ put on some Moosart (just for starters), and there was food everywhere. When everypony had filled their plates and were milling about, chatting, the DJ paused the music and Mayor Mare came out on the large inner balcony. She gave a speech, that wasn't too long, and after the applause everypony got back to eating. The food, the soups, the drinks, the desserts, it was all very good.

We talked, we ate, the Ponytones sang four songs, Pinkie dropped an incredible number of balloons into the room from some place hidden high up on the ceiling, she lit dozens of colorful paper lanterns kept from last Summer Sun Celebration and the DJ went for louder music. The Beach Bays, the Trottles, some Whinny Hoofston and on to Coloratura. Crowd pleasers. It also started getting harder to talk.

I helped Zecora collect her things and move the tables out of the way of ponies who were starting to dance and play games like pin the tail on the pony. We consolidated what was left of the food and drink into a corner, the Cakes went home, and Applejack and Zecora joined the party. Spike was having a great time but I was partied out.

I waved bye to everypony, told Zecora that her guest room at the Treecastle was ready for her when she was, and that her things will be waiting for her in the mane hall entrance there. I pulled Zecora's sleigh back through the blissfully quiet streets of Ponyville and went home.

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All Partied Out

Feb 5: Zecora took me up on my offer of an overnight stay. It probably helped that I was holding her cauldrons and sleigh hostage. She and Spike got in quite late and they slept in this morning too. I was in the kitchen fixing some chocolate peppermint spice tea to go with my morning hay when first Zecora shuffled in, and then Spike. They had had a great time, Pinkie had kept that party going into the wee hours, from dancing to parlor games to ponies slumped down in groups chatting and snacking on what was left of the feast. Zecora was still tired, but she was just itching to get back to her own home, so she left right after breakfast. Spike went back to bed.

I went to Town Hall around mid morning to help my friends, all of them bleary eyed, to take down the decorations, clean the hall, and stack and store everything where it belonged. Mayor Mare took the afternoon off recover, so I'll give her the last of the invoices next week.

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Colorful Ribbons of Joy

Feb 6: The crystal ponies must be happy. There are ribbons of colored light streaming across the night sky and at its source, the Crystal Empire. Their Winter Festival, the first in over a thousand years, is almost over. By all the accounts I've read, it has been a glowing success.

I was out on my balcony, stargazing with my Double Bridle refractor telescope when the flow started. I noticed it just as it started to meander south. At first the constellations moved to the sides to let the first flow pass, but as it branched and spread they let the flows pour over and around themselves. The wobbling flow of the ribbons of light was too much for the leo constellation. It cast all dignity to the wind and _pounced_ on a hot pink ribbon. The light burst into a puff of pink, and reconsolidated a little further on, only to be stalked again by a tail-twitching star cat. It was all very colorful, and as the ribbons intensified, I noticed that I was happy too.

By special invitation, Spike will be attending the closing ceremonies of the Winter Festival. He leaves for the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning.

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Star of the Show

Feb 7: Spike caught the train to the Crystal Empire this morning. The train was so full of ponies heading north that I was afraid he wouldn't get a seat, but fortunately, there was room. Otherwise I would have had to fly him there.

Spike will be staying overnight. He had a full day of appearances ahead of him, followed by the fireworks, the closing ceremony, the VIP dinner, and an all-night dance party. I bet he'll be exhausted, but he loves the attention. Most of the time.

So it's quiet in Friendship Castle. Well, it's always quiet here. It's a big rock tree-shaped cavernous pony stable. But it's just more quiet, apart from my books, they talk to me, and the crackle of the fire.

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Special Delivery

Feb 8: It's a good thing a pony on the train knew Spike lives in Ponyville or he might have ended up in Dodge City or in the train yard at the end of the line! He caught the afternoon train back to Ponyville and fell asleep in the car. The ponies on the train told the conductor and since Spike was sleeping very soundly, he carried him out by the crest and deposited him on the platform. I think ponies are afraid to rouse a sleeping dragon, even a baby one. Fortunately, Spike travels light and he didn't have a bag. There, another pony volunteered to carry him home. I found him just inside the front door, still fast asleep and with no memory of how he got there. We need a door bell of some sort. I went to the train station later to find out what happened.

Spike shuffled drowsily to his room under his own power and I haven't seen him since. So, I guess the hero of the Crystal Empire had a good time.

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Refreshed

Feb 9: Spike was right as rain this morning, fully recovered from his return trip to the Crystal Empire Winter Festival. He said that the fireworks had been spectacular and that he had stuffed himself silly on gems at the closing dinner. Sitting next to the festival princess and waving to the crowds all day and long into the night was tiring. I know what that feels like. So I took Spike to the spa with me, to get his scales waxed, his claws trimmed and what ever else he wanted. That turned out to be a lot of time in the sauna, but no deep muscle massage this time.

Rarity and Fluttershy arrived after we did and joined us in the sauna. I went for a soak in the hot tub, and Spike followed Rarity and Fluttershy to their seaweed wrap so he could continue recounting all he had seen and done in the last few days. I dried off, got my hooves trimmed and after the four of us had tea and cupcakes at Sugar Cube Corner, Spike and I went home. I feel refreshed and Spike is gleaming. I should have thought of the wax job before he went to appear at the winter fair.

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Lunch At Cafe Hay

Feb 10: Pinkie Pie got it into her head that we needed to all go out to lunch together today. She visited each of us in turn to announce her plan and get us to go along with it. Her choice was Cafe Hay. The book I was reading could wait and Spike was all for getting served as well, so we weren't hard to convince. I wasn't surprised that all our friends said yes. Pinkie may be persistent, but who can resist a fun time with friends?

Pinkie had reserved a table for seven and it was waiting for us when we got there. Fluttershy and Applejack got there before Spike and I and Pinkie and Dash were close behind. Rarity was fashionably late, dressed to the nines and sporting a sparkling, light blue brimless felt hat. I was wearing the red cloak Rarity had given me a few weeks ago and Fluttershy and Applejack were also wearing theirs. I doubt Applejack wears hers often, keeping it for sorties like this one were it won't get grimy or ripped. I did feel a little overdressed, but I also felt like sparkling a little. Dash called us the glitterati and Pinkie laughed. Then Savoir Fare arrived and took our order.

We had a leisurely lunch, eating and chatting and having a great time in our own little bubble of friendship. Pinkie and Applejack plan on spending Hearth's Warming together on the Pie rock farm, bringing both their families together on this traditional pony celebration of friendship and solidarity. The rest of us are staying in Ponyville. It will be a nice relaxing Hearth's Warming this time, none of us are helping put on the pageant this year, we'll just be watching the show, like everypony else.

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Planning a Game Night

Feb 11: At lunch yesterday I invited everypony over for a game night. It's been a while since we had a game night in the castle. They all said yes, so that will happen tomorrow night.

Today Spike and I went out to the Ponyville market to pick up a few supplies. We were running low on alfalfa cubes, hay crackers and peppermint sticks, and I also wanted to pick up some cooking chocolate and some milk. On the way home we made a stop at Quills and Sofas for some extra quills, in case we play Bulls and Cows.

Tomorrow we set up tables, cushions in the mane entrance hall (it's perfect for Ring Fling) and prepare the buffet and snacks. It's going to be fun!

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Good Times

Feb 12: Brrr! It's really brisk outside today! Cold, with a little wind that nips at your hocks and pinches the ears. I wore my soft red cloak with the hood up when I went out this morning. Not many ponies out in the streets when it's cold like this.

Spike and I spent a good part of the day preparing for our planned game night. Baking bread, setting up the candle and stand for the melted chocolate, setting out the cushions, tables, games, quills, ink and paper. Cutting the carrot sticks, mixing the hay salad, making silage salsa and hot beet pulp soup, grating the carrots and apples for the grated apple and carrot salad (with pine nuts!). Setting out tea pots ready to brew peppermint chocolate spice tea, apple cinnamon tea and jasmine tea. Bowls of hay crackers, peppermint sticks, sugar cubes, alfalfa wafers, apple chips and oatmeal sesame seed snap cookies, and a few jars of apple butter. Maybe we over did it.

Sundown and Rainbow Dash was the first to arrive. She called dibs on the Ring Fling game and challenged Applejack to a best of three the moment she walked in the door. I got everypony's cloaks, blankets and saddles hung on coat racks while Spike came down with the soup and lit the candle under the chocolate. Everypony here, we had soup, set up more games and got down to having fun! Mostly, we played Bundle of Sticks and Ring Fling. It's easier to chat and nibble on snacks with those games.

We spent a cozy evening eating and laughing and generally having a good time. We demolished that melted chocolate dip. We dipped hay crackers, carrot sticks, alfalfa wafers, even the fresh bread. That stuff is addictive.

Everypony has gone home now and I've stored away what was left of the salads. Spike ate the last of the salsa. Wouldn't want that to go bad. I guess I'll be eating grated carrot and apple salad with my breakfast tomorrow.

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I Grow Fat, I Grow Fat, I Ate Cookies While I Sat

Feb 13: This morning we still had lots of leftover snacks from last night. Apple chips, cookies carrot sticks, peppermint sticks. Peppermint sticks keep well, so they're stored away with the sugar cubes, but the carrot sticks and cookies were just begging to get snacked on. A few here, with breakfast, snag a few more while walking by the kitchen, a small pile while reading, a few more for my walk. Spike had a bunch too. Now they're all gone. Maybe we'll bake some cookies tomorrow, it seems we're out.

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Skate Date

Feb 14. Pinkie dragged me out by the tail to go skating. But Spike and I, we have a cookie emergency, I whinnied! She didn't even slow down. Skate now, cookies later. So we went down to the pond, Everypony else was already there, and skating. I don't skate, but Pinkie had four skates ready for me. So I put them on and everypony took turns either pulling me around by my scarf or trying to teach me to keep from falling down. Rainbow Dash cheats. She flies and just uses her skates to slide when she lands. I can't even do that. She can also skate well when she wants to.

So I'm a bit sore from landing a few too many times on my rump, on my sides, spread-eagle on my belly, face first into various snow banks... Never have I appreciated a hot chocolate more than when we went to Sugar Cube Corner after a few hours of that. Then Dash proposed we go tobogganing. My bruises have bruises.

It was a fun, exhausting day. We didn't bake any cookies.

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Really, Really Old Books

Feb 15: Since one of my Earth quillpals thought it was a good idea, I've decided to give an open lecture on the Magic of Friendship in Canterlot. I wrote to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns to inquire if, when, where and under what umbrella program I could give this lecture. I hope they say yes.

As if on cue, Moondancer appeared in my copy of Harcartes' Treatise after I got back from mailing my letter to the CSGU. She has been busy doing original research! I guess getting turned into a ponycicle by an ancient entity has not chilled her ardor for new knowledge. She was prancing with excitement over a few ancient scrolls that she and one of those explorers we thawed, professor Clarity Quest, are unraveling.

When Dr. Quest got back to Canterlot, the first thing she did was to get the Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns to finance a dig in some caves in the San Palomino Desert. That and reinstate her position in the department of Physical Hippology and Archaeology, as well as try to negotiate a few hundred years of back pay. The San Palomino dig was to be Dr. Quest's next project when she got interested in the Winter legend. When she didn't come back from a 'vacation up north', the whole project got put on ice and forgotten. Not any longer.

Moondancer was mum on how the dig is going, but they must have found something interesting. Dr. Quest brought in Moondancer, as a thank you, to help inventory and decipher the ancient treasures they've excavated so far. Since Moondancer is well read in absolutely everything, the collaboration is, in her words, working better than Clarity Quest had imagined. Moondancer wouldn't tell me anything else, but she was so excited that she was turning into blur on the page and leaving little eddies in the dust. (The book has been open to the same page for a while.) She wants to show me what she's found. So I'm going to Canterlot tomorrow.

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The Gold Scroll

Feb 16: I got back just a few hours ago from my day trip to Canterlot. What Moondancer and Dr. Quest are working on is big. Really big.

This morning, my train ride to Canterlot took a lot longer than anticipated. For some reason the engineer was unable to shake the train into a shorter path. We started out fast enough but halfway there the train was going so slowly that we were just crawling along. Ponies were hopping off the train and trotting the rest of the way to the Canterlot station. I finished the reading I'd brought, and since I didn't want to miss my appointment, I too got off the train. By then the train driver had stopped the locomotive and the brakepony and secondmare were hooking up the express halters to the engine (the conductor was busy with the passengers who were leaving and the engineer and firepony were monitoring the pressure in the boiler). The crew were going to pull it the rest of the way. It was the best solution to getting the locomotive to go fast enough to get back on schedule. I wasn't going to wait. I levitated my bags ahead of me and flew to the landing in Canterlot. Moondancer wasn't there to meet me, she'd left when ponies trotting in earlier had told her about the delay. She left a note on the train station notice board saying to find her in the research archives of the Physical Hippology and Archaeology department of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, so I went to find her there.

After a bit of running around, getting lost and getting directions, I finally found my way through the labyrinthine stacks and cases of pony artifacts to the cramped office space granted to Dr. Quest down in subbasement D. There was no one there, so I checked the name on the door. Dr. Quest. Right place, no sign of Moondancer. I went in to wait and looked around for something to read. There was clutter everywhere, but in a cleared place on the desk there was a long glass-topped tray cradling several fragments of an ancient scroll, puzzled together and held down on a velvet bed by delicate crisscrossed threads. FRAGILE was written on a piece of paper at one end of the tray. Bookending the tray at the other end, another note: DO NOT BREATHE ON IT. But that what wasn't why it caught my attention. The scroll was made of gold.

The writing appeared to be in pony runes, like the ones in my Piaffle game, but I couldn't quite make out the sentences. The spelling and words were very strange. I was casting about the room for a lexicon when I heard a soft pop and Moondancer appeared. She was dripping with sweat, panting from exertion and looking more than a bit wild eyed. I thought she was going to pass out. Instead, she pushed pass me without a word, grabbed a quill, ink and paper, and hastily jotted down notes. By the time she put the quill down, she had stopped shaking. Now she just looked very tired. I followed her out into the corridor where she collapsed on a cushion. I sat down on another cushion and waited.

When Moondancer had recovered enough to talk in full sentences, she told me what she had been up to. She was using the Haycartes spell to try and piece together the history stamped on the gold foil fragment I had been looking at, and on other gold scrolls as well. Because it was such an old text, written before the advent of standardization of spelling, the words were written how they sounded. Back then, words were pronounced very differently from how they are pronounced now. Language is fluid and it changes much more than we think1, especially if you can go back far enough to make a comparison. Trying to get a bridle on that bronco was Moondancer's first challenge. The other is filling in the gaps.

Haycartes' spell is a good way to get a feel for the entire story in a book. I read therefore I am the book. Or in this case, the ancient scroll. Moondancer has become an expert in the use of the Haycartes spell, but these are broken scrolls and those gaps, in a dialect long forgotten, make getting the whole picture very difficult. Moondancer couldn't be happier. I think she's lost a lot of weight.

I pushed her out of the archives, up a few levels and out into the bright sunshine of Canterlot to buy her a big lunch. Between mouthfuls of mixed hay salad, sweet and sour silage soup, stir-fried hay, alfalfa crackers and green tea, she told me about what was on those gold foil scrolls and what else Dr. Quest had found so far in her excavation site in the San Palomino Desert.

I'll tell you what she said tomorrow.

1 In one of my classes, way back when, we were introduced to the theory that pony writing wasn't originally so much a tool for conveying ideas as a mystical concept of giving words and thoughts a life of their own. Almost like abstract art, just more personal to the writer. So texts weren't really meant to be consulted and there was no standard spelling, just strings of sounds that had to be uttered for clarity. From that we presume came advances in magic and eventually practical texts. But nopony knows for sure. Nopony was documenting the process!

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The Hidden Home of a Hermit

Feb 17: Yesterday, over lunch, Moondancer was telling me what she knew of Dr. Clarity Quest's archaeological dig in the San Palomino Desert. Nothing has been published yet and this is all hearsay, but here's what I remember of what Moondancer told me.

Dr. Quest had reason to believe that there was, in the San Palomino Desert, a place that ancient ponies had held in deep reverence. She had read fragments of rotted scrolls invoking the Mare of Mares, the Ancestor, the Sage, and she felt that this desert might have a hidden shrine, a gathering place for pony sages, or some such artifact. It was enough to raise a small grant prior to her expedition to look into the Winter legend. So she's back, thanks to us, and picking up where she left off.

Dr. Quest had had some trouble locating the twin caves she had in mind for the dig. It wasn't that getting frozen for so long had affected her memory, her sense of direction is just fine, the problem was that the once familiar landscape had been shaken up by Tirek during his rampage blasting much further east. (Tirek is a magic eater and he put all of Equestria through the ringer. He also destroyed my Golden Oak Library home.) Tremors had caused a few rock falls that had toppled markers on which she depended to get her bearings. She persisted and succeeded in finding her caves just before the first snows of winter. But now, thanks to Tirek's quake, that included a previously sealed entrance to a third cave.

A moon of exploratory digs later she had still not found any signs of pony habitation. She had been excavating deep in the back of the third cave and she was feeling a bit down and frustrated at her lack of success. It was looking like _nothing_ had ever lived in any of these caves. She had been so sure that these caves had been important to ponies, that they had been the ancestor stables inhabited by pony sages of legend, back in the paleopony period. But they were just dry, dark and dusty. No water, no grazing nearby, and no animals in the area larger than insects.

She was considering giving up and had stopped at about a quarter of the way in from the entrance to that third cave to weigh her options when she felt a surge of joy. In the darkness she caught a glimmer which brought to her attention a crack along a large rock at the side of the passage. She gave the rock a push and to her alarm it fell away easily. She nearly dropped her lantern in her hurry to leap away from a possible cave in.

The collapse didn't happen so she went back cautiously. She was greeted with a musty smell that made her lamp flame dim and saw that there was an empty space behind where the rock had been. Around that hole were now cracks radiating in a regular pattern that looked suspiciously like spaces between carefully stacked stones. She suspected that here she would find a sealed alcove. It was somewhat more than that. It was a sealed doorway to what looked more like the home of an ancient scholar. And she, or he, was still there.

Dr. Quest hit the jackpot! There are several small rooms, apparently lit by glowing lines tracing swirling patterns and branches along the ceiling, and powered by a crystal in the mane room. It's shaped like the squat frog of a giant pony's hoof, or of a stylized pointed heart. Dr. Quest noted that the white glow of the light system, as well as the feeling of joy, would slowly dim over time, but flare back up when the Crystal Empire lights flowed through the night sky.

One area was apparently a sleeping room and there Dr. Quest found the resident of this hidden stable. A pony skeleton stretched out comfortably on a decayed mattress or bed of straw. It looked like he or she, probably she, had laid down for a nap and had never woken up.

Even though somepony had carefully sealed this place up, and although it's dry and the temperature apparently doesn't swing from hot to cold like it does outside, most of the fabrics had long ago decayed, wooden shelves and furniture had collapsed and things made of plant fibers aren't in good condition either. But nothing had disturbed this place in a very long time.

The skeleton, she, is of a small earth pony. Little silver bells lay scattered about her neck bones and there are many colored beads where her tail would have been. She lies in a nook on a raised area of the floor, by a fireplace, also sealed. The remains of the mattress or bed of straw is blackened and brittle with age, very difficult to move. Dr. Quest gently levitated the skeleton, detected gems and metal, and raised each type of item to a separate height in the air to get an expanded view of what all there was to find there. After taking pictures, making sketches, picking out samples and making an inventory of everything, she gently placed it back the way she'd found it.

Dr. Quest had to step gingerly everywhere she went. The floors were littered with fragments of wood planks, shelves warped with age that had shattered when they had fallen from the walls. There were also heaps of what had been cloth, fallen from pegs and collapsed into mounds of dust and fibers, with just a hint of color.

There were scrolls! Many scrolls, piled loosely in the style of how ponies treated written works in the days of the earliest writings. Most were in a small room, piled in the corners, and stacked like logs on a writing desk. The writing desk was still standing! It was there that Dr. Quest found the gold foil scrolls that Moondancer is trying to read. Inventorying the paper scrolls is a difficult job. Old pony written works were not seen the same way we see them now. There was no need for order or a system of classification for scrolls then. They were not used as a way to share knowledge or to build a clearer world view, but as an art form and a way of quiet celebration of thought. So it's all in a jumble, and it's no help that the plant fiber they're written on is blackened and that much of the ink is too faded to read. They crumble at the slightest touch. Moondancer looked dreamy as she told me that the scrolls appear creased and stained from use, that they had probably been read many times. So those scrolls haven't been moved. Moondancer will have to go there to read them, via Haycartes.

It's late. I'll tell you what else I remember of what Moondancer told me tomorrow.

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Three Roses

Feb 18: Moondancer looked much better after lunch. We got up and headed back to the archives in subbasement D, but on the way I made a point to stop to pick up beet pulp, hay, peppermint tea and a basket of apples for Moondancer. She has to eat!

Near Professor Clarity Quest's office Moondancer showed me some of the other artifacts that Dr. Quest has brought back from the dig. In one tray there were a few of the beads the pony had worn on her tail, made from faceted gem stones, and a silver bell, shaped like a rose bud that's about to open. It was black with tarnish, but in the clasp I could see a few pure white mane hairs. In another tray, four small gold slippers, some with a remnant of a pad inside. She had small hooves.

Moondancer also showed me a cracked dish with a red rose motif and a large magnifying glass, completely intact, with a bite guard handle. The glass has a bend that fits the bridge of the nose. For reading and writing! You could still see the tooth marks and wear from years of use. Also useful but not as spellbinding, Dr. Quest had collected pieces of some of the better preserved wood planks. These are to have core samples taken from them and the growth rings compared to archived wood cores from the same area. If a match can be made in the growth pattern of the rings, the wood can be dated.

Finally, Moondancer showed me a picture of the resident pony, the skeleton sleeping peacefully on her bed. I had a sudden flashback to a rumbling mother's call, shaking the snow and ice and filling me with comfort and warmth. I wonder if Moondancer felt the same. But I didn't ask her. Even if she had, we'd been through the same experience, so...

Moondancer was already hungry again, so we sat down to each eat an apple and she told me more of what Dr. Quest had said about this hidden dwelling inside a cave.

It's cool in the cave, the winter cold does not seem to penetrate there. Dr. Quest thinks that the stability of the temperature combined with the dryness has kept the wood and fibers from completely rotting away. Except in the case of elastic fibers, like wool. In the dry air they had almost all crumbled to dust. Here and there she also found tantalizing heaps of colored fibers shattered by the oxidation in the metallic salts used in the dyeing process.

In one room she found a well worn basin carved into the wall. Above it, a simple chevron-shaped hole equipped with a hoof-made clay stopper would have been the water source. The bowl drained into a pony-sized depression in the floor, and that had a hole draining into the ground. Thus, water, a wash basin and a bath, all now bone dry. In the spring, Professor Quest plans on finding the reservoir and why it went dry.

Another area, containing a small broken table and littered with shelves and storage jars, probably served as a kitchen. Nearly everything fell to the ground when the wooden shelves collapsed. Some shelves are carved into the rock and some of the jars are still sealed. Here and there in the dwelling, and on many of the jars, Dr. Quest noted a three rose motif, usually painted, sometimes carved, and a few times picked out in rubies. But carved above the doorway to her sleeping quarters there is what looks to be three white keys in a night sky. The keys are carved but the sky is blue-black paint that has mostly cracked and fallen. On what's left Clarity can see a few stars. She said that symbolizes the Keeper of Dreams. No idea why that's there.

After a week of gingerly surveying the find, Dr. Quest carefully packed the gold scrolls and a few other items, and took them to Canterlot. There, archivist ponies unrolled the delicate gold foil, unstuck parts that had melded together over the centuries, and placed them in glass topped trays in storage cabinets. Moondancer has been trying to read them for about two weeks.

Meanwhile, Dr. Quest is back at the excavation, sketching , inventorying, measuring, preserving, sampling and puzzling through rooms which appear to have been lived in for a very long time. It looks like it was all hoof carved out of the rock. The rock walls, doorways, shelves, nooks... are not just carved and polished, they are worn down, as if thousands of restless ponies had lived there for decades. Here and there there is a hint of a painting on a wall, but from so long ago that it had already cracked and the fragments swept away long before the pony had taken her final nap. And yet there is only sign of one, and everywhere a repeating motif: three red roses in a field of white.

After all that it was mid afternoon and Moondancer was champing at the bit to dive into her gold scrolls again. But before I left her to her research she gave me a piece of paper with a little of what she had deciphered. It was this:

Of al catel whit was gentil and smal the Tree hadde in his garden kepte, that he wolde love alderbest wer the litel hors. Of so greet a craft he laboured ther corpus, make he thanne delivere, of fresshe strengthe and parfit science, in al this world neigh was ther noon hem lik. Of alle hors he plein delit, yit loved he best his white mere Epona.

I think it's going to take some time to translate those old runes into plain, modern language!

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Time to Stock Up On Flash Cards

Feb 19. Well, that was quick. I received a reply from Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns.

Re: Magic of Friendship lecture. Yes, the amphitheater is available on 5th day of spring. It would be part of the school's Guest Lecturer series as the regular courses for this semester have already been planned out. Please confirm.

That gives me five weeks.

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In The Depth of Winter

Feb 20: Hearth's Warming is only a week away which means spring is a moon from now. The hay in my pantry is looking quite yellow and that first cut has been collecting dust for over six months now. Seven months if I count the dust it probably gathered in the hay barn before I got it. It still tastes good, though.

I bet ponies are dreaming of fresh greens around now. I know I do. That's why we set Hearth's Warming when we did. The real Hearth's Warming crisis must have extended into the growing season, for ponies to be driven to starvation, but it doesn't quite fit to teach the Hearth's Warming lesson in the middle of warmth and plenty. It's better to be reminded of how we all nearly got frozen in ice and snow when we've had quite a bit of winter already.

Many Ponyville ponies have already put up Hearth's Warming decorations. They have decorated trees with ribbons, apples and candy canes, there are festive garlands on the doors and in windows, and some have taken to making ice sculptures. I guess they were among the crowds that went to the Crystal Empire Winter Festival and thought it was a good idea. The apples decorating the trees and left to freeze aren't wasted. Have you tried a frozen apple? It makes them really sweet. You thaw a bite full in your mouth and suck on the juice as it thaws. Cold but good!

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Collecting and Cataloging Snowflakes For Fun

Feb 21: Cloudsdale passed by and gave us a fresh coat of snow this morning. I took the opportunity to go snowflake collecting while the snowflakes were fresh. I got a pretty good haul. Stellar dendrites, stellar plates, even some scrolls and hollow columns! I didn't see any really fluffy ones this time. I had my Cloudsdale Weather Factory Guide to Snowflakes with me for quick reference. I noticed that the weird snowflakes I saw up north of Yakyakistan aren't covered in this guide. Maybe that needs to be researched! How exciting! I'll have to ask Moondancer if she's read any books or research papers on that matter.

I was also out to meet up with Dash, Pinkie, and Rarity at Sugarcube corner for hot chocolate. I think I bored them with snowflake lore. When Rarity steered the conversation to Hearth Warming decorations and how the Friendship Castle is looking a bit plain, everypony jumped in. Snowflake collecting isn't everypony's cup of tea, I guess. Maybe because they melt.

Anyway, tomorrow, the four of us will be wrapping the castle in cloth and stringing up some lights. Dash is looking forward to the challenge. For Rarity, any excuse for decorating is all she needs to get excited. Pinkie is perpetually excited. We won't leave Applejack and Fluttershy out. They can serve as art critics. To put a damper on Rarity's enthusiasm.

Also in the Hearth's Warming topic, Pinkie and Applejack won't be in town this Hearth's Warming. They're leaving mid-afternoon on Hearth's Warming Eve for the Pie rock farm and they're taking Applejack's immediate family along. It's going to be a two family Hearth's Warming get together on the Pie farm. That should be fun!

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Gargantuan Ribbon

Feb 22: It's a big job, wrapping bolts of cloth around the castle, and we haven't finished. I spent the morning unrolling and re-rolling the bolts Rarity had selected. I fed cloth to her as she hemmed the edges and combined rolls to make a gigantic castle-sized ribbon. The hems are there so the bolts don't fray in the wind. I also rolled the hemmed and combined cloth as we went along... until she ran out of cloth.

We took what we had and after lunch Rainbow Dash helped me drape the top spire. It's a bit short of elegant, but at least it's holding. Rarity is going to get more cloth from her supplier tomorrow. With Pinkie Pie's help, we strung up a few lights and called it a day. We'll do more decorating tomorrow, either with Rarity's new cloth (if she gets it that fast), or we'll finish stringing up all the lights.

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Stringing Lights

Feb 23: Rarity needs so much cloth of the same color that we'll have to go a little further afield than planned to get enough to finish the draping with 'ribbon' part of the plan. This endeavor is a little bit unorganized, it's true, but it wasn't my idea and there's no rush, really. So today we finished stringing up colored lights and fixing more lights to the strings of gems that dangle from the balconies. Applejack and Fluttershy made a half dozen really large wreaths plus another gigantic wreath, to hang above some of the windows and on the Ponyville-facing smaller balcony. Rarity did have enough cloth to make bows for the large wreaths. Once Rainbow Dash and I had put up the last of those, we were all ready for hot chocolate and marshmallows, which Spike had waiting for us in the dining room, along with cinnamon toast and peppermint sticks.

While we warmed our hooves on our hot mugs, we talked about the exterior decorating we were doing. I think it looks fine as is, but Rarity and Pinkie want to do more! More! More! It took some wrangling, but we managed to bring down Rarity's vision a few notches on how much more stuff she was planning draping over the castle, and we denied Pinkie's proposal that we paint the buttresses in a red and white candy stripe pattern. But it's not over yet. Adding a few gigantic bows and some more ribbon is still a go. Tomorrow we're going to make a short shopping trip to Canterlot to pick up the cloth. While we're there, we are going sightseeing, to see the streets of Canterlot decked out for Hearth's Warming as well.

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Hang 'Em High

Feb 24: Canterlot looks very pretty. It's three days until Hearth's Warming and it looks like everypony in Canterlot had a hoof in decorating the streets together. A lot of houses had star shaped lamp posts framing their walkways and Applejack really liked those. When we passed by a shop selling them we ended up buying a bunch for the castle and some more strings of lights, bright ones.

Rarity bought green cloth and several huge bolts of really heavy duty red cloth. We rented a cart to haul all that to the train station. Back in Ponyville, Applejack went home to get her hay cart and we took it all straight to the castle. Then we stopped for lunch.

After lunch, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie set up the street lamps on the balconies. Fluttershy and I helped Rarity bring over her sewing equipment to turn the new cloth into ribbons and bows. First a red "ribbon" that was as wide as the castle entrance hall walkway. When that was finished I traded places with Pinkie Pie to help Dash and Applejack hang it on the castle, and Rarity got to work on a giant green ribbon, complete with a frilly pleat and the strings of lights. It was early evening when we succeeded in hoisting and tying down that one too. It hangs below the front balcony and above the castle entrance.

Then we had supper. We devoured everything Spike had put on the table. I don't quite remember what all we ate, just that it was delicious. We were all kind of giggly too, we were so tired.

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had to go home after that, Dash had to rest up, but Rarity wasn't finished. She had kept some cloth aside to make the bows. Gargantuan bows. Two of them. One for the spire and one for above the door. We had to agree that bows would complete the gift-castle look. So after supper, I helped Rarity hold up the cloth while she folded, tied and sewed it into two identical red bows, with a few long lengths of material in the back to tie it in place on the castle. Then she put some magic in the cloth to stiffen it and hold its shape. That took all evening and I'm very tired. Rarity has gone home. Tomorrow Dash will be back to help me hang up the ribbons and we'll be done.

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That's A Wrap

Feb 25: Rarity and Dash came back around mid morning to help me install the bows on the castle. The bows barely fit out the front door, but we got them out and with Rarity directing us, Dash and I got them tied into place. It's finally done. The castle looks halfway between a Hearth's Warming tree and a gift that has been wrapped in ribbons and bows. That first cloth we put up, the one wrapping that top spire, still looks a bit like a messy job, but it's holding. From afar, with the stars on poles on the snow covered balconies, the castle also looks like it's part cake with white icing and candles. I hope the cloth will still be OK after we take it down in a few weeks so we can use it again. I guess I now own Equestria's largest ribbons. Knowing Rarity, next year she'll be adding giant ornaments. Really sparkly ones.

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Hearth's Warming Eve

Feb 26: It's Hearth's Warming eve! It's also been very cold today, which goes well with this holiday. Spike and I use the sitting room for our Hearth's Warming festivities -- it has a hearth and I don't have to move my stacks of books out of the way of the decorations. What with all the effort we put into decorating the exterior of the castle, we didn't get to decorating the sitting room until this morning. But now it's looking very festive with sparkling streamers and burgundy bows, fir boughs, holly and ornaments. (Don't eat the holly, it's toxic.) After gift wrapping the castle for four days straight, it was a breeze to decorate the sitting room. Spike brought out the decorations from last year and we just put them up. Easy peasy.

Our Hearth's Warming dolls are up on the hearth mantle shelf. We used our old fabric figures, not the one Rarity made Spike last spring. It would not do to get smoke and ash on that, it's a work of art! I know Spike dusts it and the one that looks like Rarity. The Rarity felted figure on his shelf is as white and clean as the day Rarity gave it to him.

Spike cooked up some traditional Chancellor Puddinghead plum pudding, most of which we ate this evening. On a table in the sitting room I put out candy canes and assorted gems (for Spike) to snack on. I need to get some cushions for that room. And a rug. It's a sitting room with nowhere to sit.

We have a pile of gifts waiting to be unwrapped. Books, I hope! But Spike and I have personal tradition of opening one gift apiece on Hearth's Warming Eve. In his (from me) was a book! Harvester Grazer Settlements and Artifacts from Pony Prehistory. (It was recommended by Moondancer, so it must be good!)

After that we went to the Ponyville's Hearth's Warming Eve pageant with Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. We sang! We laughed! We pounded our hooves so hard in applause that the windigoes were swaying on their strings!

Tomorrow we go door to door caroling, sharing stories and spreading good cheer.

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The Fire of Friendship

Feb 27: Today is Hearth's Warming Day, which is a day for sharing good cheer and for getting to know your neighbors better. I helped Spike prepare a snack bar and an ad hoc lounge in the mane hall just inside the front door. On Hearth's Warming Day, ponies gather up their friends or family and go door to door visiting or they welcome ponies into their house, usually both. Often, ponies only go door to door for a few hours before they get tired of telling the same story over and over again. At that point they switch to receiving neighbors and hearing their stories.

Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo dropped in just before midday and we went out to visit the nearest neighbors while Spike continued to entertain ponies coming to the castle. We sang carols in doorways, and when we got invited in (some households made us sing more carols than others) we'd sit down to holiday treats and we'd tell our Hearth's Warming stories, tales from this year that were either happy or fun.

I chose to tell the happy tale of feeling warm and comforted while getting protected by a pegasus constellation in the far north and being led homeward, away from danger. Rarity also chose a happy story, that of making fabulous glittering winter cloaks for her friends. Rainbow Dash's story was about the fun she has playing Ring Fling with Applejack. Fluttershy shared how it's fun to have tea with Discord. Scootaloo's story was something about "hang time" on her scooter. I thought she'd go with 'happy' and say something about getting her cutie mark.

We visited maybe ten households, passed several ponies in costumes and then we split up to go back to our own homes to take our turn to entertain guests. Except Fluttershy. She went into my reading room, away from the crowds and relaxed with a good book and some soothing tea.

The small herds of ponies going door to door has thinned as Hearth's Warming Day draws to a close. Fluttershy has gone home, our supply of treats has been decimated, and Spike is nodding off between visitors. It's time to call it a day.

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Stone Soup

Feb 28: I got up late today and helped Spike clean up the entrance hall after all the Hearth's Warming Day visitors we'd had. In the afternoon I dropped by Sweet Apple Acres and sure enough, Applejack was back from Pie Rock Farm. She told me how their two family Hearth's Warming went and it sounds like it was a complicated affair. They carved rocks, hid gifts, ate stone soup and rolled a boulder up a hill. Well, if it brings ponies together and they all have a good time, it's in the spirit of Hearth's Warming. The fire of Friendship, keeping Equestria windigo-free for over a thousand years.

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Herd Mentality

Feb 29: This morning Spike and I made a shopping list and went to the Ponyville bazaar. Hearth's Warming Day had emptied our pantry of snack-like food, like hay crackers, carrots and sugar cubes. It was nice out, not too cold, and bright. A good day to combine a stroll with a trip to the bazaar.

The bazaar was packed. It seemed like everypony else had the same idea. Rather than fight our way through the crowds, we picked up some milk and carrots from a couple of stalls that weren't packed flank to withers with ponies waiting their turn, and we went back home. Spike baked cookies and granola bars with what we had. We'll wait a day or two for the crowds to thin out a bit.

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Author's Note

Whicker.

XVI April

Spring Foals Day

April 1st: It's Spring Foals Day. This is the day that we give treats to expectant mares and to new born foals! So I decided to visit Cadence. She's the only expectant mare I know, and she is also my sister-in-law.

There were a lot of ponies getting off the train at the Ponyville Station, but when I boarded, I only found a few headed to the Crystal Empire. According to my copy of the report from the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs, there has been some immigration to and emigration from the Crystal Empire since it emerged from Sombra's spell, but not much. That includes a familiar name: Sunburst. That gives me an idea. I'd better check the Equestrian census data to see if this is Starlight Glimmer's Sunburst or another pony. Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns should also have a forwarding address for Sunburst. Yes! This would be perfect for a friendship lesson! Rekindle an old friendship! I'll add it to my list.

I arrived in the Crystal Empire and went straight to the castle where I found Cadence getting buried in flowers, blankets, sweet treats and the like. I brought her a book. She is hugeand uncomfortable and my brother looks flustered and worried. It will be OK. This is Equestria, we have the best magic. They also look tired so I didn't stay long.

Later, back in Ponyville, I stepped out to look up at the stars. The Crystal Heart is sending up a shower of colored lights that are drifting like ribbons across the sky. The crystal ponies are very proud of their princess. You can feel their joy all across Equestria.

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Two Very Different Art Books

April 2: The mail was good today. I received two books I was waiting for, The Artwork of Martingale Canter Etcher and The Art of Drawer by Sun True.

M.C. Etcher's lithographs are delightful. She drew physically impossible scenes, optical illusions, warped perspectives, geometric figures and tiles of things and creatures that transform across the page but remain fitted together. It's like she took magic and made a drawing of it.

Sun True's book is a classic and perfect for Rarity. Her Canterlot boutique is doing well and she told me she would like to set up shop in Manehattan as well. If the time Rarity nearly lost in that Manehattan fashion competition (when Suri Polomare copied her designs) is any indication of how hard it can be to get ahead in Manehattan, this book could give her an edge. After Princess Cadence foals there will be a Crystal Empire ceremony we will be invited to and my friends are coming over to discuss that tomorrow. I'll give her the book then.

Today I spent time organizing Friendship concepts alphabetically by type. So much fun! Do you think I should have Starlight Glimmer go make some friends with griffons in Griffonstone? Advantage: they're not ponies. Disadvantage: they might not talk to her unless she pays them. Advantage: I think Starlight has an iron stomach and the food won't bother her. Disadvantage: she doesn't have a ready made mutually beneficial quest on which to build a common goal with griffons there, unless she's really good at spelunking through gale force winds. She would have to find common ground with griffons some other way.

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A Lesson Urned

April 3rd: My friends made use of the throne room this morning to discuss the crystalling ceremony for Princess Cadence and Shining Armor's foal and Spike brought them up to speed on what that involves. When I was in the Crystal Empire on Spring Foals Day, Cadence gave me an urn painted in the old Crystal Empire style, showing what to expect. It has stylized images of us, Princess Cadence, Shining Armour and the as-yet-to-be-born foal, as ancient crystal ponies. Plus wings and horns. As you turn it, it shows scenes representing different stages of the procedure: choosing an honor guard, picking a crystal shard, all of us giving power to the crystal shard, which the crystaller transmits to the Crystal Heart. It's a wonderful gift, but not quite accurate. Only crystal ponies can power the Crystal Heart! But it's clear that all six of us are expected.

By the time I managed to tear myself away from sorting through my reams of alphabetized friendship attributes and thinking up lessons for each one, my friends had finished discussing the crystalling and had moved on to the kitchen where everypony was putting together lunch. Oh well, I'm sure Spike did a good job. There wasn't much to explain anyway.

As luck would have it, later that afternoon I received an invitation to Cadence and Shining Armor's crystalling! It's tomorrow. I went out, knocked on all my friend's doors and spread the news. We're catching the first train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning.

On the walk back I couldn't help but notice a few ponies with prams out for a stroll. It really is spring.

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Picking Up The Pieces

April 4th: Remember what happened to us a few moons ago during the Crystal Empire Winter Festival? Well, my guess is that our flash back then did more than provide a light show. But more on that later.

All six of us, plus Spike and Starlight Glimmer, boarded the train to the Crystal Empire this morning. Although he's not part of the ceremony, Spike's a national hero in the Crystal Empire. A royal crystalling is an important event, so of course he went.

We were going for the crystalling and to see the foal, and Starlight Glimmer went with us because I found out that it's Starlight Glimmer's Sunburst who had moved to the Crystal Empire. Since he had been her best friend when she was a foal, I calculated that rekindling that friendship should be a breeze. It's not like Starlight Glimmer had broken his heart or anything.

When we arrived at the station in the Crystal Empire, my brother was waiting for us. He was also asleep on his hooves. Now I had thought that I could go with Starlight Glimmer and coach her through her first lesson, and then catch up with the others in time for the crystalling. I had a checklist of catalysts and approaches at the ready. I was prepared. What I wasn't prepared for was a brother who was half delirious from lack of sleep. Don't they have help at the castle? Nannies? Foal sitters? So, change of plan. We'd all help with the foal and give my brother and Cadence a break and I wouldn't coach Starlight Glimmer through her first real lesson. But then Spike saved the day.

Spike is an old hoof at friendship lessons. I've dictated enough letters on the subject to him. He took my checklist, like he'd done this a hundred times before, and off he went to find Sunburst's living quarters with Starlight Glimmer in tow. If ever I wanted a teacher's assistant, I see now that I already have one. It's Spike.

So the six of us followed a dazed Shining Armor to the castle and the nursery. He told us before we entered the nursery that the foal might surprise us. I figured it was the fatigue talking again.

Princess Luna, Princess Celestia and of course, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza were there. Cadence looked about as tired as my brother, and Celestia and Luna looked lost in thought. We didn't really notice that at first, we were intent on seeing the foal! And yes, she is surprising.

First off, she's huge. With a huge horn. And really huge wings. She's an alicorn! Born of a unicorn and an ascended pegasus. It doesn't make sense, and yet, there she is. Like Pinkie's prescient Pinkie Sense.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna didn't have any explanations, and we didn't really take time to debate it, because right then, the alicorn foal let fly a magic blast that blew a hole through five floors of the castle above her. OK, learn something new everyday. An alicorn foal is an order of magnitude more powerful than a regular unicorn foal. She is also a really strong flyer.

It turned out that Shining Armor wasn't going to get to rest quite yet after all. He still hadn't chosen an honor guard, or a crystal shard, or named a crystaller (which was going to be me). So while Pinkie and I foalsat my niece, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Rarity helped Shining Armor with the rest.

That all went according to plan. We left the nursery and arrived at ground level to find everypony else waiting for us next to the spinning Crystal Heart. The ceremony was just about ready to begin! I separated my niece from Pinkie and gently deposited her into Cadence's grasp. My niece really likes Pinkie, and this did not please her. She let out a giant, magnified wail that resonated with the Crystal Heart. It shattered and rained to the floor in hundreds of pieces. Then all Tartarus broke loose.

The primary function of the Crystal Heart is to create a warm, green oasis in what would otherwise be just another permanently frozen plain of snow and ice. With it smashed to smithereens, the wild clouds of the Frozen North were moving in and the temperature was dropping like a stone. Now we had an emergency. We had to restore the Crystal Heart and we had to do that fast.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna did not know of a spell that would restore such a powerful magical artifact, so they flew off to battle the storm to give us time to come up with something. The Crystal Empire Castle Library is nearly as extensive as the Canterlot Castle Library so Princess Cadence suggested that we might be able to find a restorative spell there. Unfortunately, the Crystal Empire Castle Library has not seen a librarian in a very long time. Maybe not ever. We combed the stacks on our own and it took a lot of searching to find something to give us a clue on how to fix a broken Crystal Heart. Meanwhile, my niece, while very cute and cheerful, was not helping. At all. We found a book on relics that looked promising. In it was a spell of Relic Reconstitution. I read through it once. It looked good! Then my niece burned a hole the size of a dessert plate through it. Ugh.

While I wrote down the spell from memory, Starlight Glimmer went to get Sunburst so he could help us fix the Crystal Heart. Starlight said her attempt at rekindling her old friendship with him had failed. I didn't have time to go over that with her to see what she had learned about friendship in the attempt, but she had said that he was a powerful wizard. Coming from Starlight Glimmer, that's impressive. It sounded like help we could use.

The storm outside was getting worse and worse. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were losing the battle with the wild clouds. Regardless, the crystal ponies were camped outside waiting for the crystalling! Shining Armor went out to order them to flee for the train station, and Cadence and I tried to fix the Crystal Heart with the spell of Relic Reconstitution. That failed. Then Starlight Glimmer returned with Sunburst. That pony knows his magic!

He knew that the crystalling, a ceremony that uses the combined magic of the crystal ponies to strengthen the Crystal Heart, would be key to fixing it, along with Somnambula's Weather Abjuration, a spell that is in tune with the Heart's primary function. Fortunately, he'd crossed paths with the crystal ponies that had been on their way to the train station and he'd turned them back. The crystalling was on!

I reassembled the shards using a different Relic Reconstitution spell that Sunburst provided for me, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia gave me a boost so I could hold it together long enough, and Starlight cast Somnambula's Weather Abjuration. Shining Armor gave Sunburst the role of crystaller, and once the crystal ponies had powered the crystalling shard, Sunburst plunged it into the fractured Heart, healing it! Completely restored, the Crystal Heart went back to spinning in its berth, dispersing the wild clouds and projecting the joy of the crystal ponies all across Equestria.

It was a full day.

Sunburst also had a gift for Cadence and Shining Armor: a spell called Fledgling's Forbearance for my niece. No more bolts of energy, teleportation or wild flights until she's old enough to do all that in moderation! I wish I'd known that spell. Well, my niece does have a name. After all the fun she put us through on her crystalling day, her parents have decided to name her Flurry Heart. It will be an easy name to remember.

We didn't stay overnight (obviously), but my parents probably did. We met them at the train station. They'd missed the crystalling because of the storm. At least they won't be dodging bolts of alicorn magic while they're there. Maybe they'll convince Shining Armor to get a nanny or three.

Now that I've had some time to wonder why Flurry Heart is an alicorn, I have a suspicion. Princess Cadence is a focal point of the Crystal Empire. She was pregnant with Flurry Heart when we caused that blinding flash during the Winter Festival. We may have caused Flurry Heart to ascend in utero!

We are still the Elements of Harmony, even if we no longer draw on the Tree's relics. And when we come together in Friendship, in the presence of powerful magic, we channel it and we wield it. The outcome is not always what we thought it would be.

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Practical Application of Optimum Principles

April 5th: Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are out of town for a few days. They're off to attend the annual Biome Management Conference, held this time in Neighagra Falls. There will be talks and information sessions on the morning of the first day so they decided to avoid missing anything and arrive the evening before the conference. We all turned up to see them off, and while we waited for the train to pull into the station, Fluttershy told me that they are to present a paper on jackalope reproduction and report on the practical application of the principles of optimum hibernation den planning and location. I guessed that Amethyst Star would do the talking. I guessed right. But Fluttershy enjoys listening in on all the discussions and presentations and of course she is especially keen on the conference field trip. While she's gone, Spike is looking after her critters at her cottage.

Starlight Glimmer and I had a postmortem on her friendship rekindling lesson. I see that Spike was not laying it thick, after the initial failure, she did succeed in rekindling her old friendship with Sunburst. With that one, key friendship secured, I think Starlight Glimmer looks happier! It might not be related, but I think she's getting better at finding her way around this rock maze the Tree built. It's been a while since the Tree sent us on an errand. Next time that happens, I think I'll send her along to see a Friendship problem get fixed. She'll probably want my notes on friendship concepts and attributes. I should see if Rarity can bind them for me. Which is better, one very large tome or say, five large volumes?

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Spring Fills the Air

April 6: Cloudsdale delivered a flotilla of rain-clouds early this morning and the weather ponies gave all of Ponyville and area a light spring rain. By afternoon they'd cleared the skies and the sun made the perfume of fresh green growth and wet stone paths rise up off the ground. I brought my reading out on the big west balcony so I could enjoy the sun, the smell, and the delicate shades of green on the fields far below.

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Please Send My Throat Some Soothing Tea

April 7: Today I spent a good part of the day with Starlight Glimmer, discussing the various things I had learned about friendship. How they are as source of strength, how your friends will be there for you when you need them most, how a friend is someone you can share your feelings with and how friends can help you turn a bad situation into an event to be remembered and treasured. I'm not used to talking quite so much. Towards the end I was getting a little hoarse.

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Mysterious Abundance

April 8: Fluttershy and Amethyst Star got back from the BMC early this afternoon. We were all there to meet them at the station and after we'd said goodbye to Amethyst Star, we walked with Fluttershy to her cottage.

The conference did her good, she was practically glowing as she talked about all the things she'd heard and seen. That included a report about startling growth in the Crystal Empire, and I'm not talking about Flurry Heart. The Crystal Empire delegation reported that this year they are seeing plants never seen in living memory emerging around the Empire and of animals flocking in astounding numbers. When we went there for Flurry Heart's crystalling, we totally missed that.

Fluttershy wants to go back with Amethyst Star to see this for herself. They agreed on taking a day trip to the Crystal Empire two days from now, after they'd caught up on work here. Fluttershy said it would be best to go soon, before the baby season starts getting her really busy.

Applejack and I are going to tag along. Her ears perked when Fluttershy mentioned new plants and I'm also interested in ecology.

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It's Going To Be A Trip

April 9: Instead of four, we will be five ponies taking the train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow -- Fluttershy, Amethyst Star, Applejack, Starlight Glimmer and I. Starlight is going to drop in on Sunburst and I also want to see how Cadence, Shining and my niece are doing. But most of the day I'm going to walk the bogs with Fluttershy and Amethyst to see first hoof this explosion of life they'd been told about while at the Biome Management Conference.

On Fluttershy and Amethyst Star's recommendations, Starlight and I are bringing belly-wader boots, wide brimmed pith helmets and head-to-tail netting to keep flying things like nosy-ems at bay. Starlight Glimmer isn't planning on joining us on our jaunt through the Taiga, but it's better to be prepared should her plans change. I've also looked up a few shield, strengthening and repellent spells that I can put into the netting if it's needed.

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Explosion Of Life

April 10: I'm back from the Crystal Empire, and it's true! The bogs are in bloom, the Taiga is swarming with life, and no pony has seen the like in living memory. I mean the living memory of the crystal ponies, since life was very bleak around there for a thousand years.

We really did need those belly-waders. The moss-key toads were everywhere and hopping over to anything that moved. We attracted so many nosy-ems and butterflies that we soon couldn't see where we were going and our head-to-tail netting was collapsing. I used the repellent spell, which kept most of them far enough away to see again, and a strengthening spell on the netting as well. Quite a few nosey-ems just wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and their combined weight was making the net sag. I could see that Fluttershy was sad to see the butterflies repelled, so I modified the spread of the spell on her net so that the butterflies wouldn't be repelled from her pith helmet. It was the friendly thing to do.

Before we went out to the raised bogs of the Crystal Empire to see this wonder for ourselves, we went calling on the castle. Princess Cadence had time to see us, and while my niece tottered about and drooled on Applejack, she told us that the Crystal Ponies are worried about their crops this year. On one hoof, it has been unusually warm and everything is growing like wildfire. They are already harvesting wild berries, the crystal corn is three ponies tall, and all the ewes are producing twins when usually it's one lamb every three years. But there are such huge swarms of creatures of all descriptions that it's possible that they'll eat all the Empire hay before it's ready to cut. I promised to bring that consideration to the attention of the Ponyville Hay Board next meeting and ask our Hay Board to send out requests that other jurisdictions also plan to put aside hay in solidarity and friendship in case of a crop failure in the Crystal Empire.

Princess Cadence looks more rested than she had last time we saw her. I think my parents talked them into getting nanny and foal sitter help.

Fluttershy and Amethyst Star were itching to get out into the field, so we said goodbye to Princess Cadence. Starlight Glimmer went off to find Sunburst. Apparently he's been spending a lot of time in the castle library, doing some research and reshelving books by classification. That library is going to need a lot of reorganization. So Starburst went down to see if she could find him there. We left the castle and took the same street north that we'd taken on the Biome Management Conference field trip last year.

We passed the last of the cultivated fields and paused at the sight of what lay ahead. The riot of plant life, the colors, the swarms of every living thing, it was breath taking, and amazing! Fluttershy took pictures, Amethyst Star collected specimens of berries, flowers and aromatic herbs for her herbarium, and Applejack remarked that all this growth was springing from an apparently poor soil that was either a thin layer of dirt and moss on weathered rock, or just peat and water. I picked some fur-leaf for Zecora and took notes as they dictated them to me. I managed to get moss-key toad bites on my nose. They're pretty potent, there's still a bit of swelling. They're also huge and diverse and some are quite pretty. Amethyst Star was very excited about those, and Fluttershy kept rattling off names of butterflies, it was hard to keep up.

There were also what looked like miniature tatzlwurms, a flower I'd only seen once before when Discord sent me and Princess Cadence to collect one a while back. That tatzlwurm was gigantic, so these are probably a different species. They were lunging out of the ground, writhing about and snatching moss-key toads left and right, moss-key toads that had been following us and were now fleeing madly in all directions. It was in patches of these voracious plants that we found crystal hares. We could get quite close, much to Fluttershy's delight. They didn't want to leave the safety of the miniature tentacled flower patches. Fluttershy had me note that the crystal hares were cooperatively joining up to raise their young in small groups. In each and every instance she observed, the creche kits were at the center of a circle of adults. Fluttershy suggests that this is to protect the small kits from the tentacled flowers and perhaps from the moss-key toads as well.

Amethyst Star and Fluttershy chose a belt transect method to conduct some random sampling and data collection. That took us through patches of enormous picture plants, lush blue berry bushes, fluffy white cotton grass and soft, tasty pussy willows, where we flushed out gangs of bright yellow lemnings, running like liquid gold for cover in some other thicket of greenery. Applejack got bored with the data collecting process and left us to go to the Crystal Empire corn fields to talk with the farmer folk.

We kept going until late afternoon, gawking and recording, but we had to stop. We hadn't had anything to eat since this morning and we were due to meet up with Applejack and Starlight at the train station. We found them there, and we all went to the same restaurant that we'd gone to when we'd come back from our expedition to find Moondancer. The food was still excellent and, no surprise here, on our plates we became reacquainted with wild plants like those we'd been admiring today out in the Taiga. Applejack sighed wistfully at a missed opportunity and in jest, Amethyst Star told her that under no circumstances were her herbarium specimens to be eaten.

We finished our meal and made our way to the train station in the evening light. It was late by the time we rolled into Ponyville. Starlight and I bid a good night to Fluttershy, Applejack and Amethyst Star, and we went home, to the castle. It was a long day of walking on springy moss bogs and my legs are tired. I think I'm going to turn in now.

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Tapping On My Roof And Walls

Apr 11: Starlight Glimmer had a great time with Sunburst yesterday. I suggested she write letters to keep in touch, to keep their friendship strong. She could trade what she's learning about friendship with what he's learning about magic. Sharing is also part of the magic of friendship.

Otherwise, I spent most of the day relaxing with some good books. It was a rainy spring day in Ponyville. I got good and soaked during my morning stroll, and after I'd dried off I just wanted lounge on my couch and read.

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Spring Greens That Sting

Apr 12: The rain tapered off in the night and this morning Rainbow Dash had risen early to clear away the clouds. I think she has Wonderbolt reserve duty for the next few days. So when I stepped out I was greeted by blue skies, low mists and everywhere the sparkle of dew. I went back in, got my saddlebags and packed them with books, fur-leaf, crystal corn meal and some of the aromatic herbs from the Crystal Empire raised bogs. It was a good day to go calling on Zecora!

Apparently Zecora thought it was a good day to go out as well. I got lucky and met her along the path to her cottage as she was prospecting for spring growth. The Everfree Forest is having its usual slow start to spring and everything is still rather brown and covered in fallen leaves. There are no ponies here to rake up the leaves or to stimulate the plants, but Zecora did find some skunk cabbages just pushing up out of the leaf litter. Skunk cabbage wouldn't be too high on my list of things to eat, Zecora had to pull delicately on them with her teeth to avoid getting the stinging juice on her tongue. She also dug up the rhizomes. The spring shoots can be eaten after being boiled twice, if you can stand the smell, and the rhizomes have several medicinal applications.

At Zecora's cottage, as she put her skunk cabbage on a shelf and prepared some tea, I unpacked my saddle bags to give her the things I'd brought for her from the Crystal Empire. We chatted about the spring over mugs of something hot and spicy, I told her all about the crystalling and how the raised bogs of the Crystal Empire are teaming with life this year. She thinks there's a connection. I think she's right, but which connection? The wild clouds freezing the bogs when the Crystal Heart shattered? Something Flurry Heart did before a damper was put on her magic? Our magic flash during the Winter Festival?

Zecora told me that Apple Bloom is braving the Everfree Forest to come learn more about potion making under her tutelage. She's in good hooves here. I haven't had her or her friends over for "Twilight Time" in quite some time, not since they finally got their cutie marks, all at the same time. I guess they've moved on.

Zecora started preparing the skunk cabbage, while it was fresh. I didn't stay for lunch. That stuff smells lethal!

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Science Is A Slow And Careful Endeavor

April 13: I received a letter and another scroll of notes from Moondancer in the mail today. The notes consisted mostly of an inventory of the items from the tomb, but in the letter Moondancer says she found, via her bookseller friend, that Hoofton Muffin publishes an illustrated book on unnatural snowflakes and where to find them! Oh wow! I've got to get a copy of that! I'll send a request for a copy to Hoofton Muffin publishers tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Moondancer is still making progress on transcribing the scrolls. She's wrote that she's getting better at prizing out the words where the gold scrolls are damaged from cold melding, and that careful documentation and preservation in the unsealed tomb continues. Moondancer is mum on a museum display but I expect that that will happen eventually. She wrote that reading the age-darkened scrolls is very hard as it's like trying to see in thick smoke on a moonless night. Moondancer says she can only maintain the spell for a few minutes at most and she comes out of it coughing and covered in dirt. It's really hard on her health so she been spending more time helping with the other artifacts and writing papers for publication. But this has given her and professor Quest an idea for a restoration project. She wrote that she'll tell me about it in greater detail later, after they've worked out their plan some more.

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Chilling With Friends

April 14: It was hot and sunny today in Ponyville. The Treecastle is, as always, cold. Unless I light a fire in the hearth. So Starlight Glimmer and I packed some reading material and we went to find a sandy spot in the sun in the east fields. After several hours spent sprawled out on a picnic blanket squinting at books, we agreed that we were well toasted. I proposed we find some sorbet at Sugarcube Corner.

We weren't the only ponies looking for a frozen treat. It was a fairly long wait until it was our turn. While we waited, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie walked out Sugarcube Corner, balancing fried waffle bowls piled high with ice cream on their heads. We were nearly in the door, so they trotted off to a spot in the shade to wait for us while they ate ice cream. By the time we got out with our sorbet cones, they'd already finished eating their gigantic portions of ice cream and they were shivering in the sun. I bet they competed to see who could finish their ice cream first.

So Dash is back from her Wonderbolt Reserves duty. Since we're all back in town, I suggested we could have a pot luck supper. Pinkie jumped on the occasion. She wanted to have it tonight. It's almost zap apple season, so we should have it soon, but tonight was way too short notice. We settled on tomorrow night. I let Pinkie handle getting the word around. Not an hour later she delivered three invitations to the castle, one for me, one for Spike and one for Starlight Glimmer. So that's that. Pot luck supper, here, tomorrow night. What shall we cook?

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Sharing Food Between Friends

April 15: This was Starlight Glimmer's first pot luck supper! For her, it was a new friendship experience. Since the time, date and place were already set, we went straight to the next step: what to bring to the table? Spike suggested we go to the Ponyville market for inspiration and to see what we could find. So Starlight and I tossed our saddle bags on and the three of us trotted down to the market. We met Pinkie on the way in and Rarity on the way out. We resisted the urge to peek furtively into each other's saddle bags and baskets for clues as to what the other had planned. That would spoil the surprise!

It's still early spring and Ponyville isn't experiencing the riotous spurt of growth that is going on in the Crystal Empire, so fresh anything is a bit rare right now. We picked up a bag of sesame seeds, some eggs and milk for baking, a box of raisins, a bag of carrots, a few jars of apple butter, dried rose petals, a small bag of rosemary, thyme and another of sage, and some early cattails. Then we went back home to work out what to fix.

Since there are three of us, it follows that we should provide three dishes. Plus fill in any gaps (like beverages) since we're hosting the supper. After a bit, we settled on baking a bread, to serve with the apple butter, a salad, mostly grated carrot with diced cooked cattail, and third cut hay, because hay is a must.

We got to work, or rather, Spike and Starlight Glimmer got to work mixing and cooking, I just kept track of the recipes. The bread was a sesame raisin bread, and Starlight whipped up a silage sauce for the carrot/cattail salad. I fluffed up a flake of third cut hay and mixed the rose petals we'd bought into it. I called it a harbinger of the hay harvest. Because it smelled of summer.

By the time the bread was cooked, the table was set, and our friends started to arrive. As always, there was too much to eat, and we had a great time chatting. We never got around to breaking out the games. That will be for another time and another friendship experience for Starlight Glimmer.

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Apple Brown Betty

Apr 16: To the host goes the spoils, so for us, the pot luck supper did not end last night. My friends did take home some of the left-overs, but we were left with most of the apple brown betty, carrot salad, hay, carrot and beet casserole, carrot cake, three bean pumpkin bisque and vanilla oat swirl ice cream. With so many desserts on the menu last night, there wasn't much left in the way of casserole, bread or the bisque. So for breakfast we polished off the apple brown betty with vanilla oat swirl ice cream, in lieu of whipped cream.

Applejack had left the tray she'd used to serve the apple brown betty on so I went over to Sweet Apple Acres to return it after breakfast. When I got there I learned that they'd been woken in the night by howling timber wolves. That means one thing: zap apple season.

While I was there I helped carry baskets to the zap apple orchard for a few hours. The baskets would be better described as wooden tubs. They're heavy. That's to keep them from blowing around during the electrical storms that are due to blow in from the Everfree starting tomorrow. At the moment the zap apple trees are still leafless.

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Lightning In A Jar

April 17: On my way down the hall to my athenaeum this morning, I paused to look out the door to the front balcony. I could see that an electrical storm was raging over the zap apple grove at Sweet Apple Acres, so I took my morning tea out on the balcony to watch. It looked pretty exciting. Black roiling clouds, flashes of light and I could hear the rumbling of the thunder several heart beats later. It reminded me of time the Blue Mare Group had a concert in Ponyville. Scared me half to death.

So here we go, the next step in the zap apple season. By now the Everfree Forest transplants will have sprouted leaves and AJ and Big Mac will have started to water them.

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Biomass And Energy Flow In The Crystal Empire Taiga

April 18: We've polished off all the leftovers from the pot luck supper so it was time to return the dishes my friends had left behind. Spike took care of most of the deliveries but I took Rainbow Dash's ice bucket back myself. Dash's house is on a cloud and Spike doesn't have wings.

On my way back I dropped by Fluttershy's cottage. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star have been analyzing the data we collected last week and comparing their results to what's in the literature. They summed up the number of species, estimated their relative abundance and the living biomass, worked out the trophic structure of the communities, the net productivity in relation to the biomass of the plants and the food chain efficiency of the communities.

In calculating the species richness index, Fluttershy pointed out that the diversity in the study area would not have increased, the previously unrecorded species would have always been there, it's just that they had been dormant or hidden during previous surveys. Still, the new observations bumped up the estimated diversity of the Crystal Empire taiga, regardless of which formula you might use to express it.

What bugs Fluttershy and has her doubting her data is the biomass pyramid. From her calculations of the energy transfer from the plant trophic level to the herbivore trophic level, the food chain efficiency is reminiscent of some aquatic environments where single celled plants breed so fast that they can maintain a stable population despite being outnumbered by their tiny grazers. But in this taiga, these are not multi-generational fast breeding species with low energy costs. These are complex plants and animals, often with one or only a few breeding cycles per season.

Even if you discount sunlight and temperature dependent growth, nutrients would be a limiting factor. With all the nutrients drained from the poor soils of the taiga and raised bogs and held in the above ground growth and animal life, this level of productivity is unsustainable. The nutrients just can't be recycled fast enough. Although it's possible the activity of the tazlewurms and lemnings may dredge up legacy nutrients from deep in the permanently frozen subsoil, there is going to be a crash. Probably in the fall when it will be colder and the plants naturally slow down and die back.

In short, Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are still working on it.

Meanwhile, in the Sweet Apple Acres' parcel of amazing growth, Applejack and Big Mac were out watering zap apple trees. This afternoon, another storm rolled in, with crows, and the trees bloomed.

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Stardust

April 19: It's the fourth day since the Timber wolves woke up the Apple family. Shortly after sundown today, there were shooting stars in the dusk darkened sky above the zap apple grove. Even though that event is not in The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, I was ready and watching through my telescope. It sure looked like a regular meteor shower. The next meteor shower in the almanac isn't due for another three days. Why would flowering zap apples attract meteors? Well the shower was short and the trees should now be laden with unripe fruit. Perhaps the meteors fertilize the flowers somehow. It's all quite strange, but then, they come from the Everfree Forest where a lot of the plants and animals are strange.

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The Mellow Rain

April 20: The zap apples on Sweet Apple Acres are still ripening. It won't be long now before that one day harvest.

I went to the Everfree with Starlight Glimmer to call on Zecora for tea. The sun was shining in Ponyville, but the minute we stepped into the Everfree Forest we walked into a light drizzle. It felt oddly refreshing and peaceful. By the time we reached Zecora's woodland dwelling and tapped on her door, I was feeling as one with the soft wet understory, full of potential and nascent vitality. It was time we got out of this rain.

We found Zecora at home, meditating while she reboiled a batch of acorns (they keep better when raw). We stood there, just inside the door, getting greeted by Zecora in her rhyming phrases. The vague euphoria of the Everfree rain slowly drained off as I stared at the puddles of water around my feet, watching rivulets trace hidden channels across Zecora's floor. I looked up to catch Zecora watching us in amusement. She invited us to walk over and settle down at her table. So we did. It seemed like the harmonious thing to do.

I regained a wider focus after a few sips of chocolate peppermint spice tea. My favorite! I think Starlight Glimmer was trying to figure out what musical note her cup made when she stirred her tea with her spoon. I asked Zecora if she had found where the zap apples grow in the Everfree and if she had picked any. I told her about Granny Smith's zap apple trees and how she had come to have a grove of Everfree trees on pony-tilled soil.

It turns out the Zecora does know where zap apples grow in the Everfree and she does pick some when they're ripe. But she has to be quick and she picks only as many as she can carry. Where there are zap apples, timber wolves are never far away. She said stealth and timing is important, but she will consider carrying a couple of pots to bang together as a backup defense.

She said that the trees she knows of are bearing unripe fruit at the moment and will have ripe fruit soon, probably tomorrow. She also said that the mellow showers we were shaking off happen while the zap apple trees are going through their leafing and fruiting period. She gave us some peppermint sticks to chew on during our walk back home. That helped a lot.

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Electroshock Harvest

April 21: It's the sixth day following the harbinger howls of the timber wolves. I had anticipated the final meteorological event so this morning I was watching from the front balcony with Spike and Starlight Glimmer. The thunderstorm rolled into Sweet Apple Acres, ending in a brilliant rainbow over the zap apple orchard. That's it, the zap apples are ripe! There was no time to waste, they have to be harvested today.

Starlight Glimmer, Spike and I finished breakfast, piled the dishes in the kitchen, and trotted down to Sweet Apple Acres to help. Since we can't use magic to harvest these apples, we had to slowly hoof pick them, taking care to avoid bumping into the trees. I made use of my wings to pick the top apples, the ones growing too high up to be easily picked by the Apple family.

At first I had Spike on my back, I'd fly and he'd pick, but after I'd bumped into a tree for the second time Spike decided to go help Applejack instead. Those trees pack quite a wallop. Starlight Glimmer was laughing in her mane up until she backed into a tree by accident. Even without Spike on my back, I still managed to brush up against the trees as I picked apples. So did Starlight Glimmer and Spike. By noon we'd had enough shocks and jolts and left the picking to the experts.

I think Pinkie and Fluttershy had planned on helping too. They probably dropped by later, during the afternoon. But we didn't leave empty hoofed. We brought home two dozen zap apples. I only ate one so far. I'm exhausted and my flank is still twitching from where I last bumped into one of those trees.

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Getting Unzapped

April 22: Starlight Glimmer and I got pretty well zapped by the zap apple trees yesterday. We were both stiff and sore and our manes were still frazzled. We smelled a bit like burned fur. Spike looked like he had fared better than we had, or he's better at hiding sore muscles. I proposed a trip to the spa for the three of us. The vote was unanimous, after breakfast we went to the spa.

We have several zap apples left, so I packed six in my saddle bags to give away. On the way we stopped by the carousel boutique to see if Rarity was up to a trip to the spa. She was too busy to go, but she was delighted with the zap apple I gave her. Before we continued on our way, she had me wait a minute while she trotted off to somewhere in the living area of her home and boutique. She came back with a small gift wrapped box and she told me not to shake it or open it until I got home. A surprise gift! I tucked it into my saddle bag and we cantered off for the spa.

At the spa I gave Lotus and Aloe one zap apple each. Many ponies are familiar with zap apple jam, but few get to taste the fresh zap apples themselves. So they were delighted.

I ordered a massage, sauna, coat restorer bath and hot tub soak for my sore muscles and my singed mane and tail. Starlight Glimmer and Spike joined me for the first two, but Spike decided to roast a while longer in the sauna and Starlight Glimmer got a Crystal Empire oil bath and a hooficure while I was going from shampoo to fragrant soaking. I'd brought the cerulean foulard Rarity had given me last year and after Lotus had finished drying and styling me, I put it on. It matches my saddle bags. All three of us felt and looked like a million bits when we stepped out of the spa. To celebrate, we had sorbets at Sugarcube Corner. I gave the Cakes two zap apples.

On the way home, I spied Rainbow Dash napping on a cloud (it was just about the only cloud over Ponyville, so kind of hard to miss). I flew up, woke her, gave her the last zap apple and flew off. Successful fly-by zap apple-ing: check!

Thus, we have liquidated more than half our zap apple supply. They are so good and they go so fast. But the path to bliss isn't paved exclusively with zap apples. I have chocolate cinnamon spice tea, my big Double Bridle night and day refractor telescope and tonight, a whole sky full of shooting stars to watch!

But first, what was in the box from Rarity? Remember some weeks ago when I dropped by Rarity's Carousel Boutique a few times to give her fresh material for her felted figure project? Well, she made one that looks like me. She used some of the mane hair she'd collected to give it a coiffure and panache, it has a tiny sparkling tiara, and I must have dropped some feathers too because it even has tiny wings! It's very precious. I put it in the library where it can watch over the books.

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I Was Up Before The Dawn

April 23: I was up late. Spotting the dimmer, more timid shooting stars in the moonlight was hard, even from the shaded parts of my balcony. But Luna lowered the moon a few hours before sunrise, just in time for a spectacular wave of meteors to gallop across the sky. They were shooting out in all directions, although quite a few liked to launch themselves from the Lyra constellation. Lyra is one of those placid constellations that generally does not move, even when frisky shooting stars are ricocheting off its strings. It was twilight before I got to bed and late morning before I opened my eyes again. It was worth it.

When I wobbled down to the kitchen for hay and chocolate peppermint spice tea, Spike was up to his wrists in bread dough and there were seven jars of zap apple jam on the table! Spike tells me that Apple Bloom made these herself. This afternoon we opened a jar and had some on fresh baked rolled oat bread. Apple Bloom has her granny's touch. Delicious!

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Mad Mare Season

April 24: I think we're overdue for some rain in Ponyville. It's been a week or more since I've seen any rain, apart from that psychotropic drizzle in the Everfree Forest. Ponyville looks a bit dusty and the fields smell a bit limp.

I'd packed up a picnic blanket and a few books this morning, but after a short stroll I decided against lounging in the pasture grass. I don't want to get that much dust in my books. I decided to put down my bags, roll in sand and gallop like a mad mare up and down the grassy knolls. Well out of sight of any houses. I felt much better. A little shake to get the sand off, a little breeze on a hillock to dry off the sweat while I stared off into the dreamy distance, I gathered up my regal saddle bags and strode royally off into town. The perfect crime.

In the shop windows I saw romantic-themed sweets and treats. Here and there, couples, dining at tables for two at Café Hay, strolling flank against flank in quiet conversation, one mare had a braided dandelion coronet. It's Hearts and Hooves day again. Little wonder I'm feeling frisky and distracted.

I went to the market to see if I could find some dandelions for lunch, but sadly, everypony was sold out. I did get the last tub of chocolate sesame ice cream. I trotted off to the castle to eat it before some other mare asked for it. Starlight, Spike and I polished it off before supper.

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Laughing In The Purple Rain

Apr 25: I said we were overdue for rain, right? Right! And rain it did today! A hard rain. The weather ponies overdid it. I still had the urge to go out trotting, so instead of reading I went out and soaked in the rain and splashed in the puddles. Behind the castle. In gutters when nopony was looking. Up to my belly in the river. I had to get out of that in a hurry! The current was a bit surprising. Still, I got soaking wet! It was great. I rapped on Fluttershy's door. It was really crowded in her house and Fluttershy was not a happy camper. Critters homes were getting flooded and her cottage is on high ground. That put a damper on my mood, but not for long. I stayed out in the rain, trotted back to the road and galloped through town! Back to the castle and once round it, laughing like a filly. I stopped by the front door, my sides heaving, blowing great gouts of hot vapor, more wisps of steam rising from my sides. I closed my eyes and pointed my muzzle into the air, letting the water flow through my mane until I cooled down. Relaxed, I entered my stone edifice, shook off as much water as I could and went looking for a towel. That really felt good.

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Remembrance of Things Pasture

Apr 26: Yesterday's rain did Ponyville a world of good. The greens are sharp, the leaves are perky, everything looks fresh washed, and the smell! The air smells of fresh grass! Fresh trimmed grass. I so want to go out to the pasture and gorge myself. But that would be bad. Instead, I went to the Everfree to visit Zecora. Far away from the siren call of the spring green pastures.

It was the usual grey and dreary atmosphere in the Everfree, no rain, especially none of that all too soothing drizzle Starlight Glimmer and I walked through last time. After standing around at the edge of the forest, testing the air and peering up into the gloom, I decided it was safe enough and I tread intrepidly down the forest paths to Zecora's snug oasis of zebra lore.

I had in my saddle bag a jar of Apple Bloom's zap apple jam to give to Zecora. Not only as a treat, but to show off Apple Bloom's mastery of zap apple jam making. When Zecora invited me in, I wasted no time in giving the jar to her. She put the jar up on a shelf and took down some things of her own to show me. She had managed to collect zap apples out from under the noses of the timber wolves, and in the usual Zecora manner, she'd extracted their medicinal properties.

She had made a paste to treat inflammation of the articulations, a tincture that smelled strongly of fermented apples and which corrects irregular heartbeat and fatigue, and an oil extract. She had used pungent rosemary oil to extract a lipid-soluble compound from homogenized zap apples. A sniff of that mixture jolts memory.

After tea I left Zecora's home with a vial, a bottle and short wide jar, each with a bit of Zecora's zap apple extracts in them. They're to give to Granny Smith, a gift from one specialist to another.

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Hush Now Quiet Now

Apr 27: I've been meaning to have a slumber party in the castle since I don't know when. I'd even ordered a new copy of Slumber 101, not that I couldn't cobble together a new schedule of events from memory, but because that book was integral to my early exploration of the Magic of Friendship, with the help of Rarity and Applejack.

So I took my book down from the shelf today and moved it to the top of Starlight Glimmer's reading pile and I told her that it was required reading for her next friendship lesson. She is to invite all of us to a slumber party, the sooner the better! She's never had a slumber party before and I told her, neither had I until I'd moved to Ponyville to study Friendship. This is going to be perfect! Her first slumber party, my second slumber party, and a new, wonderful memory for this stone home.

Starlight Glimmer did the rounds and she has managed to wrangle the lot of us into an overnight, day after tomorrow. This afternoon she was already looking nervous and excited at the prospect. She got lost a few times looking for the reading room, then the room where we store the stationary supplies and bookmarks, then where we might keep spare pillows and mane curlers and snacks, then the front door so she could go buy supplies... I think I should take her to Zecora's for breathing exercises.

A slumber party! Day after tomorrow! For seven ponies and Spike! Good thing this castle is so big, we could, should, all sleep in the same room. But that's up to Starlight Glimmer to decide. I must resist the temptation to organize.

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Imported Mud

Apr. 28: On my morning stroll I dropped by Sweet Apple Acres to call on Granny Smith and to deliver Zecora's gifts. Granny Smith was impressed with the concoctions. She said she would be sure to put the ointment, tincture and oil to good use.

Back at the castle, I found Starlight Glimmer building pillow and mattress fortresses everywhere. I wonder if she is planning a game of capture the bed sheet or something. In the kitchen I found enough marshmallows, crackers and chocolate for ten sleep overs. Then I followed a swampy smell in one of the hallways to one of the larger wash closets. There I found so many buckets of mud, fresh from Neighver Moor, that I could imagine that Starlight Glimmer was trying to set up her own swamp. I suggested she might find better smelling mud at the spa. Otherwise, I've refrained from interfering.

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Sleepless in the Castle

Apr 29: Everypony is in the sitting room, roasting marshmallow, drinking hot chocolate and making smores. I slipped out write a little update and to get the apple juice. We've had an epic combination grab-the-rag and pillow fight that had us running all over the castle. It took team-work to grab those rags, not easy when both teams are swatting the other with pillows and trying to stand on top of a teammate to reach the rag, or tip over the crate or pull on the rope... There was also truth or dare, and we started with a few games of Tangle. We were going to read books together, but sadly, that got voted down. I can read a book tomorrow. We told jokes instead. It was going to be ghost stories, but that would have been hard on Fluttershy, and Fluttershy's version of a horror story is a bit hard to follow. I have to gallop on back! I bet Starlight is about to reveal what she intended to do with all the mud. Maybe mud wrestling?

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The Morning After The Night Before

April 30: It was really late, or really early, before everypony went to bed. I think I slept about three hours before Applejack shook me awake to ask how I lit the cook top. We have a magical tree-chest castle heat transfer cook top. So I stumbled down to the kitchen and bumped into the right rocks and stood there in a daze for a while. There was a pink and orange blur in the kitchen. After a coffee or two, bought in Canterlot just for occasions like this, it occurred to me that Applejack and Pinkie were cooking breakfast. Pancakes! I could go wake the others. No, bad idea, I'd fall asleep just about as soon as I saw a bed. I sat down in the kitchen.

I must have fallen asleep at the table. I blinked and there were pancakes on the table, a big pile, on a tray, and oh did they smell good.

I helped carry the pancakes, butter and syrup to the dining room table. Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, Fluttershy and Applejack were already there. They'd just finished setting the table. Rarity had gone to wake Spike. Pinkie was right behind me with tea, milk, sugar, whipped cream, hay, more pancakes and more syrup. We had three syrup flavors on the table, strawberry, zap apple and peppermint. I think some of those used to be jams.

We ate everything and chatted up a storm. There were so many conversations going at once and crossing over, it was hard to keep track. But all good things don't last forever and our friends went home after breakfast. Spike, Starlight Glimmer and I set about cleaning.

That collect the rags game had us picking up feathers in a lot of rooms. We'd even left trails of feathers in the hallways between the rooms. Last night, after the rags had been collected, Starlight Glimmer would announce the next room and we'd race off to get there first. Starlight Glimmer was on my team and she was no help in getting us there through the castle maze. Rarity's team had Spike, so they had an edge over my team. One room had the rag loaded in a confetti cannon. Starlight Glimmer had collected all the confetti cannons (she's particularly good at bumping into the ones Pinkie stashed everywhere) into one room, and while we pounded each other breathless with pillows, the cannons would fire. Feathers and confetti everywhere. That room was harder than the others to clean up today. Some pillows might have confetti in them now.

The clean up is finished and I've had a long afternoon nap. It's been a really short day. I'd say that Starlight Glimmer's slumber party was a success.

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Author's Note

OK, noticeably, there's a lot happening that did not show up in the series, so, how did we get here? Well, first there is the passage of time. The slices of time in the show do not cover more than at best, rough guess, 50 days a year. There are 26 episodes per "season", many of those episodes don't include Twilight Sparkle and as I've noted before, it nearly always looks like it's summer or thereabouts. So that leaves 315 days a year in which something happens, even more since broadcast dates have me waiting an extra year to cover some events. That's a big sandbox. Next, we know that Twilight needs books to fill her castle. Her sister-in-law rules a 1,000 year old relic. It follows that she sends 1,000 year old books to Twilight. That's the flap of the butterfly wing that snowballs into an adventure and an origin story that was never in the series. Mix in implied duties and ongoing interests and still there's loads of room leftover in the year for the roughly 50 days or less of show content. Ergo, stuff happens. It's magnets.

XVII May

Where The Wet One Went

May 1: Cloudsdale is back in our neighborhood, sending in some light spring showers. Dandelion greens and trout lily leaves are plentiful once again. The pastures are looking enticing. I stepped out on the smaller side balcony during a pause between books. I stood in the light rain and watched the shifting wet curtain play over the green fields until my coat grew heavy with water and my mane was plastered to my neck. I shook out most of the water and went down the hallway to the kitchen for a hot cup of mint tea. Leaving a trail of round wet hoof tracks along the way.

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The Quiet Time

May 2: The weather ponies have cleared away all the clouds, giving us a beautiful, fresh washed day. I packed up my Whinnypiafficon and my game of Piaffle and trotted over to Fluttershy's place to see if I could invite myself over for tea and a few games of Piaffle.

At the present time she happens to be in a breather between early spring duties and when the spring broods start getting adventurous. In the early spring she is usually busy tending to critters that had a rough hibernation or hadn't put on enough fat for the migration north. They have all checked out now, having benefited from Fluttershy's professional TLC. Those that had been flooded out of their homes a week ago have all gone back to their dens and stomping grounds now that the waters have receded. In a few weeks the spring babies will start to trickle in and before long Fluttershy will be up to her withers in clumsy fledglings and kits in need of a boost or first aid.

Thus, my timing was good and Fluttershy was all for sipping tea in the sunshine over a nice quiet board game.

Last year she could boast of the kit her jackalope pair had produced, but this year the romance just isn't quite there. But the bunnies and jackalopes are enjoying the bushy areas that Fluttershy planted around her cottage. So we made ourselves comfortable in Fluttershy's garden, drank tea and placed letter tiles on the board while the jackalopes munched on willow trimmings nearby and watched the regular bunnies dash about with spring fever, leaping over each other and playing bunny tag.

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Invitation To A Shower

May 3: Yesterday, during tea and Piaffle with Fluttershy, we were reminiscing about that time Princess Celestia had come to Ponyville to have tea with us at Sugarcube Corner and Fluttershy had 'rescued' Princess Celestia's pet phoenix. Today, that had me thinking -- Princess Celestia hasn't been over for tea since then and it's also been a long time since I last invited Princess Luna over (it was for a meteor shower watch). So I had Spike pen an invitation to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I suggested we could have tea together during the peak of the next meteor shower a few days from now. That would be about an hour before dawn, although they could get here early. I should get a reply soon.

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The Beautiful Night

May 4: Meteor tea with the princesses is off. I received a reply and neither can make it. They have prior commitments. But Princess Celestia suggested we could have a morning tea four days from now. They would both be free then. She wrote that they would like a tour of my new castle, now that I've lived in it a while. So I wrote back that that would be perfect. It's a date!

It's a shame they couldn't make it tonight, it's warm, the skies are clear and the shooting stars are frisky. According to my Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, the best time to see them will be in a few hours. Starlight Glimmer was out with me on the balcony for a while, but she's gone back to the reading room to turn a few more pages before turning in. I've brewed tea for one, chocolate peppermint spice tea, I've a big comfortable cushion, my field notebook, and I'm stepping out to gaze at the stars.

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Into The Warm Night

May 5: The meteor showers did not disappoint! Although she could not come join me, Princess Luna did set the moon early which made seeing even the faintest of the shooting stars all the easier. The meteors sparkled madly as they zipped across the sky. No fireballs this time, sadly. I was out all night, outlasting the constellations that went to ground to rest. I watched them through my Double Bridle telescope as they stepped down where the horizon meets the sky. Such a neat trick. I stayed out on my balcony up until the early twilight began to brighten the night sky and outshine the stars. It's another warm night and I think I'll watch the skies some more tonight.

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Enjoying The Game

May 6: Rarity and Pinkie went off to Manehattan together for a day trip today. Apparently Rarity was scouting for a location for a new boutique and Pinkie met up with her sister Maud, who is studying for her rocktorate in the Manehattan area. Rarity found a vacant storefront in the fashion district. It's in need of some renovation and then she's going to have to fill it! She's going to have to drop a few clients or hire a few seamstresses. Maybe she'll hire Coco Pommel to manage it.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack dropped by to play a few rounds of Ring Fling this afternoon. The mane hallway just inside the front door is a smooth rock floor and the best place for that game in Ponyville. Starlight Glimmer joined them and together they made it a three-way game. I provided mint ice tea and carrot sticks. Starlight Glimmer said what she learned this afternoon is that winning or losing is not important, it's having fun with friends that makes the game worthwhile.

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Prior Engagements

May 7: Rarity sure is a go-getter. When I met her, it was her dream to go to Canterlot to soak up the elegance and sophistication she expected to find there. And now, once her new storefront in Manehattan is open for business, she will be supplying both Canterlot and Manehattan with elegance and sophistication. Her new reality is outstripping her old expectations. She's full of surprises.

In the meantime, Rarity apparently has decided she needs gem stones. I'm not sure if it's to include in her designs, or to decorate her Manehattan boutique, or both. She's found a cave that is wall to wall quality gems. It's also home to a very large colony of bats. Spike told me that he will be accompanying her into the cave tomorrow as her bodyguard. I suspect he will be mostly helping her collect gems.

Starlight Glimmer left this morning for an overnight stay in Manehattan. She has apparently discovered a love for Bridleway musicals! She had bought an advance ticket to see Oatlahoma! a few weeks ago. She had the chance to get a great seat and she leaped at the occasion. This show is sold out months in advance. She will be back late tomorrow afternoon.

This means it will be just me and the princesses at tea tomorrow. Baring emergencies, such as the Tree calling me on a Map Table quest, there will be a tea and a tour. There is so much we will be able to talk about! I've made a list. Magic, the Epona discovery, teaching, the behavior of constellations, the nature of time in the Canterlot High universe, the explosion of life in the Crystal Empire... So that we can cover everything, I could set time limits on each subject!

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The Best Laid Plans

May 8: I had everything planned out. I had a selection of teas and my best tea service was on the table in the small reception hall, along with some delicious custards ordered for the occasion from Sugarcube Corner. Spike had left to spend the day helping Rarity, I had mapped out a route for our walking tour of the castle, with another tea service and cookies waiting for us at the last stop, in the library. Then something came up. Rarity rushed in on us just as we had started tea, an oddly glowing Spike right behind her. Long story short, Spike was getting summoned to the Dragon Lands by the Dragon Lord.

This was the first time I'd heard of a Dragon Lord, let alone of any dragon getting summoned anywhere. The summoning looked hard to ignore. Spike was scratching like he had a bad case of hives but he was worried about answering this summons alone. Rarity was worried about Spike's safety as well, so when Spike asked us if we could go with him, we both agreed. I just had to find out what this was all about, and we both wanted to give Spike whatever protection we could. That meant the morning tea, tour and the chat with the princesses was cut short. I proposed we try again later, perhaps a dinner. Spike's summoning couldn't wait.

Since we were pretty sure that ponies attending this summoning would not be well received, Rarity and I wore camouflage. We went disguised as a rock. That worked pretty well. When we got to the Dragon Lands, we found out that several dozen small dragons had also turned up. Apart from the Dragon Lord, there were no full sized dragons. Either full sized dragons can shrug off a summoning, or they weren't summoned at all. Probably the latter. This summoning was to select a new Dragon Lord, and apparently a Dragon Lord remains a Dragon Lord for a very long time. Thus the importance that the candidates be young dragons. Spike was probably the youngest dragon to get called. At least he was the smallest.

The selection process consisted of a race through an obstacle course and maze to find the Bloodstone Scepter and thus become the new Dragon Lord. Simple but dangerous.

Once that was announced, the summoning spell was cancelled and Spike stopped glowing. He was going leave the competition and go back to Equestria, but we overheard quite a bit of anti-pony sentiment from the other candidates and Spike decided he was going to go for the crown after all, to protect Equestria. That's easier said than done.

Fortunately for Spike, he got lucky and convinced another dragon to team up with him. This dragon, named Ember, didn't have a strong anti-pony bias, which was lucky for us too when she found out we were tailing Spike. Together the two of them out-flew, out-dodged and outsmarted all the other competitors and thus Spike convinced her that friendship is beneficial, not a hindrance. Spike ended up being the first dragon to reach the Bloodstone Scepter.

Since Spike didn't really want to be the Dragon Lord, he passed the scepter to Ember, allowing her to be confirmed as Dragon Lord. No dragons complained about that. Spike told her that he felt she, as Dragon Lord, would protect Equestria, and I agree. Dragon Lord Ember even agreed to answer questions about dragon culture that I plan on mailing to her. We've opened diplomatic ties with the Dragon Lord herself!

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Wear Me, Seedmore!

May 9: Everypony wants to hear Spike tell all about the Dragon Lord and how he briefly became his successor. We decided to have a pot luck supper and tell them all about it then.

Rarity's bat cave spelunking has been put on hold while she works on a camouflage chic line of designs, so Spike was with me when I went to the market to see what we could put together for our part of the pot luck supper. Spring greens are on the menu.

All of Ponyville's pastures are looking lush, just calling to ponies to come out and picnic. I remembered Rarity's suggestion last year, while we were planning Pinkie's surprise party, to ask Mayor Mare to declare that day Picnic in the Fields Day. In the end we dropped that idea, but now, in memory of the great time everypony had, and just because it's a good time for a picnic festival, maybe we should make the suggestion to Mayor Mare. I'll ask my friends what they think of that at the supper, tomorrow.

Starlight Glimmer is back from Manehattan, singing show songs and clutching tickets to Little Shop of Halters and Manespray. She bought two tickets to the Little Shop of Halters show. She plans on taking Sunburst to that one and she has about two moons to invite him before the show date.

That reminds me. Maybe I should get my teeth floated. It's been a while.

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We Eight Ate and Ate and Ate

May 10: Pot luck supper was delicious and full of surprises. Applejack whipped up some kind of poplar bark oat crunch chips with a pureed trout-lily leaf dip. The tangy aroma of the poplar went really well with the sweet dip. Rainbow Dash brought a fresh bedstraw and alfalfa sprout soup. Spike, Starlight and I brought fresh baked oat bread, silage and dandelion blintzes, an assortment of jams to go with them, and third cut hay. Pinkie brought a few dozen cupcakes, all different. Fluttershy brought a mixed spring greens salad made up of oat sprouts, early timothy grass shoots, dandelions, and bedstraw. Rarity brought a crystal corn, beet pulp and hay casserole spiced with saffron.

Between mouthfuls, Spike told everypony, in great and gory detail, all about getting summoned by the Dragon Lord and becoming the Dragon Lord himself, if only for a short while. We were all quite proud of Spike the Brave and Boisterous, or whatever it is they call him in the Crystal Empire. I doubt he'll get a statue out of that adventure, the dragons we observed in the Dragon Lands didn't strike me as being of the type to celebrate cooperation and generosity.

I tossed the Picnic in the Fields Day question over to my friends. They thought it was a good idea. They also voted me to be the one to go see the mayor. I'll do that tomorrow.

After we'd stuffed ourselves silly, we lounged about digesting and chatting. Rarity had brought her sketchbook and pencils and she spent much of the evening sketching out ideas for camouflage-themed clothes. A lot were rock and crystal inspired, these she called camo-Maud clothes. That attracted Pinkie's critical eye, but Fluttershy was attracted by the leafy designs, and she lectured Rarity on and off about different mimicry and survival strategies. Between the two of them, Rarity got an earful.

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Getting The Meals In Motion

May 11: I received a scroll from Princess Celestia this morning, Spike express mail. She wrote that she is free for dinner five days from now, but Princess Luna, regretfully, can't make it. Dinner is a bit more formal than tea, and Starlight Glimmer should be home. I could show off my pupil to Princess Celestia! That's even better than a tour of the Treecastle.

As planned, I booked a meeting with Mayor Mare. We had lunch together in a private dining room at Café Hay and I outlined our proposed Picnic in the Fields Day. She had some reservations about ponies trampling our food supply, but the east pasture did spring back pretty well last year and this picnic event won't last nearly as long as the surprise bash we threw for Pinkie last year. So the Picnic in the Fields Day is a go! Mayor Mare should make it official in a few days with an announcement and posters.

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She's The Very Model of a Mangalarga Marchador

May 12: We all met for afternoon tea in Rarity's boutique so I could tell everypony how my meeting with the mayor went. They were a little disappointed that it hasn't been made official yet, but our hopes are high that the mayor won't change the date or back out of the proposed picnic day at the last moment. Pinkie wanted to know what I had for lunch.

Rarity was excited to hear that I am going to have Princess Celestia over as a dinner guest. She's the one who had redecorated the small reception hall with draperies and bows, but now she plans to come over tomorrow to add a little something for the occasion. I think we all must have given her a sideways glance at the same time because she quickly added that she just has something small in mind. Really. I guess I'll find out tomorrow what "small" means this time.

I wrote back to Princess Celestia to tell her that my pupil, Starlight Glimmer will be joining us for supper. She already knows that I am teaching Starlight about friendship. She wrote back that she is looking forward to seeing how well Starlight Glimmer is doing under my tutelage. I wrote up a few pop quizzes to give to Starlight tomorrow and I've updated the flash cards. By the time Princess Celestia arrives for dinner, she'll know all her lessons forwards and backwards. She'll be as sharp as a tack!

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Chasing the Details

May 13: Rarity's addition was to replace the banner above the table with two new ones. One banner now has Princess Celestia on it, the other has me on it. Thankfully, she didn't blind us with glitter. Maybe glitter went out of style this week. But since I'm feting Princess Celestia meeting my new student, I asked Rarity to change my banner for one with Starlight Glimmer on it to reflect that theme. So she's taken that one down.

It appears we will only be three at dinner. Spike has official business to attend to in the Crystal Empire that night. That throws the balance off a bit in the table settings.

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Doing It Right

May 14: Rarity came back with a nice banner with a bust of Starlight Glimmer on it. This dinner is going to be perfect! I'm going to reread Miss Manege on Dining and Etiquette again.

Mayor Mare made it official. Today there was a teaser in the Ponyville Express and an invitation to hear the announcement scheduled for eleven this morning on the steps of Town Hall. I went with everypony else to hear what she had to say. The Picnic in the Fields Day will happen in five days. As this is now an official holiday, foals will have the day off from school. The ponies in the crowd looked like they thought this was a good idea, and by this afternoon, posters for the event were going up everywhere.

Spike left this morning for a three night stay in the Crystal Empire. As hero of the Crystal Empire, they want him there to help preside over their new fireworks festival. He probably got pampered all afternoon. Or maybe not, the first fireworks are tonight and he probably got a lot of coaching on judging fireworks, where to go, and what to do there. From what he said before he left, they want him to be more than a pretty face in the VIP booth. After all, he's a fire breathing dragon. His words.

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Guest Who's Coming To Dinner

May 15: The dinner is tomorrow.

Starlight Glimmer has already set the table with my best dinnerware. I was going to do that by hoof, and I was going to use setting the table as a vehicle for a friendship lesson through concept association. I had been rereading about oral histories and teaching through mnemonic devices and setting the table with Starlight Glimmer seemed like a golden opportunity for a field test. But apparently Starlight Glimmer has already read the chapter on silverware placement in Miss Manege on Dining and Etiquette and she set the table in about two seconds flat. She heard "set the table" and I had to dodge flying forks and knives in mid sentence. With the table already set, the visual aspect was there, but the kinesthetic factor was gone. So I skipped that lesson.

I'd like to impress Princess Celestia with my student and show off how well she's learning about friendship. So for her next friendship lesson, her task is to make a new friend and to bring that friend to dinner tomorrow night. The table is already set for just the four of us, me, Princess Celestia, Starlight Glimmer and her new, as yet to be discovered, friend. Princess Celestia will be so impressed and I will have restored the four-place symmetry in the table settings!

I think I'll go down to the reception hall and polish the silverware some more. Silverware placement is giving me such a thrill! I even have the strawberry forks out, even though strawberries aren't in season for at least another moon.

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I Fought The Lore And The Lore Won

May 16: Sometimes I really make a mess of things.

Today we were going to have dinner with Princess Celestia. Starlight Glimmer was going to have made the perfect friend, and I was going to be in total control of the whole production, right down to the last detail. That, right there, is the path to madness. I've met too many ponies that have trotted down that path. It's just as well that today, when I tried to choose Starlight Glimmer's friends for her, I really made a dog's breakfast of the whole situation.

Roll back the sun to yesterday, when I instructed Starlight Glimmer, as her next friendship assignment, to make a new friend and to bring that friend to dine with Princess Celestia. I thought I had everything under control, all neatly planned and lined up, like the silverware framing the perfect plates on the neatly balanced settings on the dinner table. Like clockwork. Like a house of cards. And the next day (today), on schedule, Starlight Glimmer found a friend. My house of cards came tumbling down.

Somehow, much to my dismay, Starlight Glimmer had met and befriended Trixie! Trixie does not live in Ponyville, but the two times that she's come here it's been a disaster. The first time she came to town she had a magic show, half of which consisted of boasting and putting other ponies down. That ended with a constellation stepping on her wagon and Trixie running out of town with just the dress on her back. The second time, she returned to conquer Ponyville with the help of a magical amulet. Again she ran out of Ponyville. This time, she's back to her traveling magic show and she's stopped in Ponyville. Well, I'd forgiven Trixie, but we weren't friends. I wasn't too keen on her becoming Starlight's friend or of her eating with Princess Celestia as my pupil's guest. So I did the wrong thing, I tried to make Starlight Glimmer's decisions for her.

I alienated Starlight Glimmer by showing that I did not trust her to make true friends and by showing that I can hold a grudge even though I claim to have forgiven somepony. I tried to tempt Starlight Glimmer with other potential friends. Even when that failed, I tried to pass them off as Starlight's friends and sat them down with Princess Celestia. As I broke Starlight Glimmer's friendship, she broke her dinner date and I abandoned the Princess in front of an empty plate with three guests and no host. In my arrogance, I tried to control everything. In the end, I controlled nothing at all.

What a fine Princess of Friendship I am.

I had to learn the hard way what I thought I'd known already. Give Starlight Glimmer her own space to learn about friendship, trust her, accept her decisions and stop trying to lead her on such a short rein. It is not an easy lesson to learn.

When I stopped trying to force a wedge between the two of them, the friendship bond between Starlight Glimmer and Trixie rekindled. But as for the dinner, Miss Manege on Dining and Etiquette flew out the window on that one. I will be apologizing to Princess Celestia, and to the three surrogate friends I dragged into this mess, for a long time.

Today's friendship lesson was for me. Let your friends make their own friends in their own time. Trying to make their decisions for them can cause you to lose a friend.

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More Lights Over The Crystal Empire

May 17: Spike is back with glowing tales of three days of being pampered and three nights of fire and fury over the Crystal Empire Fairgrounds. At the inauguration ceremonies for the Crystal Empire Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival, he lit the first rocket, but after that it was up to the Crystal Empire team to manage the firing and timing of their performance. The second night, it was Fillydelphia's turn and they had an orchestra playing along with the fireworks. Now that's something I wish I'd seen.

So Spike is presiding over the event, making prepared speeches and looking important. He had some coaching on how the performances are judged, but he has no say in who wins. After those first three nights of fireworks, there will be two months of weekly performances. Each week a different town or region sends their best artificers to the Crystal Empire Fairgrounds to try to wow the judges. In the end, prizes shall be awarded and the winners will collaborate to produce the final fireworks display of the festival. Spike will be going back to the Crystal Empire each week to preside over each performance.

He said that there was food everywhere. The crystal ponies told him that their crops are ripening faster than they can eat or process them, but fruit bats are helping with that. The fruit bats eat only the ripe crops that would have rotted on the vines, bushes and stalks. The crystal ponies had never seen fruit bats before. Many of them have put up fruit bat feeders by their windows to get a better look.

Spike brought back a small pile of Crystal Empire Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival promotional material. I had a look at the schedule. Cloudsdale has a horse in this race and so does Ponyville. There aren't any details as to what they have planned or if any of the entrants will be accompanying their light show with music. If I go, I guess I can't use that as a deciding factor.

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Rarity For You

May 18: Rarity's three boutiques are keeping her busy. She's clearing out the last of the spring dresses in her Carousel Boutique here, and she sent in a line of summer wear to her Canterlot Boutique. The new dresses incorporate camouflage motifs and design flares. Such as asymmetry, ragged hems, lacy and translucent fabrics, masks, wide-brimmed mossy hats, and leaf and lichen print pattern dresses. Today she was in Manehattan hiring a contractor to renovate her new boutique in the fashion district there. It's in a shop-friendly area with wide sidewalks and tree-lined roads. She plans on calling her boutique "Rarity For You".

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Picnic in the Fields

May 19: Today was the Picnic in the Fields Day. Pinkie had a hoof in coordinating the decoration of the ways to the east pasture. As there are several popular entrance points to that pasture, the balloons and banners pretty much lined the Ponyville side edge of the east pasture. The skies were mostly clear, except for several clouds sculpted to look like dancing and running ponies. While they pretty much stayed put, the clouds did tend to coalesce into short-limbed lumpy pony shapes after an hour or so. Pinkie also made huge batches of rock candy for the occasion and ponies were making rock candy necklaces all day, just like last year. Otherwise, it was a pretty relaxed affair.

We arrived with our food and picnic gear around midday. Pinkie was already there and she waved us over to a spot on a hill top. Lots of other ponies were arriving too, and by the time we'd spread our blankets and brought out the plates, half the town was settling in for lunch in the pasture. Some ponies had thought to bring their netball equipment and were having a spirited game not far from us. Pinkie gave us each a rock candy necklace and we unpacked the food.

We had dandelion oat bread sandwiches, third cut hay with trout lily greens, raisin bread with apple butter and zap apple jam, carrot cake and peppermint ice cream for dessert.

After lunch, Applejack and Rainbow Dash went over to play netball, Pinkie went to were she'd left the rock candy necklace supplies to see if anypony needed help, and Rarity, Fluttershy and I relaxed, read books, and soaked in the sunshine. On a whim, I recited 'Pasture' from I Met A Mare to my friends.

I wonder how my niece is doing.

I think the event was a success. I know we had a good time.

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The Sun Is Up, The Sky Is Blue

May 20: There were glowing reviews of yesterday's event in the Ponyville Express today. Letters to the editor, several pages of articles and lots of pictures of picnicking ponies having fun. There even was a picture of Applejack smashing the ball past Rainbow Dash's block in the netball game they joined. Although I think the team Rainbow Dash was on won that game, Dash is going to have a hard time living that picture down.

Starlight Glimmer, who had preferred to stay behind and study yesterday, was only mildly interested in the articles about this 'frivolous festivity'. I have to agree that it's easier to study in a quiet room, far from the maddening crowds.

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Growing Pains

May 21: Spike left this morning for the Crystal Empire, he'll be back tomorrow. Appleoosa will be lighting up the sky there tonight.

I knocked on the Carousel Boutique's door today to have tea with Rarity and talk a bit about Starlight Glimmer with her. Rarity is looking a little bit frazzled. After speaking with several contractors in Manehattan, those she was able to track down, Rarity has come to the conclusion that contractors are (a) in very short supply (b) have to be hired a year in advance and (c) very, very expensive.

Meanwhile her "Rarity For You" boutique is standing empty and boarded up. Rent is very expensive. It needs to be washed from ceiling to floor. All the big names in Manehattan are trotting out their fall lineups and Rarity has to have her dresses on display in time to be able to compete. That seems ridiculously early to me. It's not even summer yet.

The good news is that the existing floorplan will do and none of the fixtures are really that broken or unusable. She is considering just cleaning out the dust and cobwebs and going with the store space as is. But she needs help. She's almost finished her fall fashions line up and she's hired Coco Pommel as Sales Associate. I think that means boutique manager.

She just needs us to help her spruce the place up next week. So it looks like I'm organizing a trip to Manehattan.

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Manehattan Transfer

May 22: Spike is back from his VIP duties at the Crystal Empire Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. They pampered him some more, great food, a prepared speech, applause... They even gave him a big bag of gems to eat. They didn't last the train trip back. He says the fireworks were spectacular and that it's going to be hard to choose a winner.

I went around and all my friends are set to go to Manehattan with Rarity later this week. Fluttershy is going to leave her critters in the care of Amethyst Star, with the help of Spike. Spike will also be in charge of minding the castle while we're away and assisting Starlight Glimmer, if she needs it. Pinkie, Applejack and Dash were all able to shift their schedules to be free for this trip. So we're just waiting for Rarity to stitch up her last patterns and we'll be off!

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True Grit

May 23: I was going through the cupboards in the kitchen, looking for something to eat, when I found up on a high shelf, way in the back, several jars of colored grit. Rarity had made them for me from gem stones last year and I had used them as an aid in teaching levitation control to Sweetie Belle. Spike's hatchday is tomorrow so I got the idea to take them to Sugarcube Corner and have the Cakes make a surprise cake for Spike. It will be ready tomorrow afternoon. I'll get him a gift too. A book, of course! Something instructive. I'm sure he'll like that.

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The Spark

May 24: The cake was a success. At least Spike liked it. I didn't eat any of it because of all of the hard sparkly grit that was in it. But it smelled good and it was very pretty. We had lunch at Sugarcube Corner with the cake for desert. Rarity, Pinkie, Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy were there and we sang Make A Wish It's Your Birthday along with Pinkie Pie. Or at least we gave it a try. I think everypony at Sugarcube Corner was thankful when we finished braying.

We all wished Spike a happy hatchday, and since it's also the same day that we found the spark that gave us our cutie marks, there was a lot of reminiscing. I passed my entrance exam, Rarity found inspiration, Fluttershy discovered critters, Applejack melded to her farm, Dash discovered her love of speed and Pinkie discovered boundless joy and how to spread it.

Nopony gave Spike a birthday present at lunch (we remember all too well what happens when a dragon gets too many gifts at the same time) but we brought home what was left of the cake, which was nearly the whole thing minus what Spike ate. Later, I gave Spike a book: The Snow Walkers by Barley Mowit! It's a really old book about the caribou people, you can really smell the dust on it! Oh yes, that was a great find. I'm sure Spike is going to love it!

Starlight Glimmer didn't go to lunch with us, but she did wish Spike a happy hatchday.

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In The Mail

May 25: The mail today included a postcard from the extensively traveling and theatrical Trixie. It was addressed to Starlight Glimmer. They exchange letters too. I should give Starlight points for having a pen pal.

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Everypony's Looking For Something

May 26: Starlight Glimmer is a serious pony. She studies hard and is always serious about learning, but I don't see much in the way of passion in her. I don't think there is much of a finish line for her. She's out of the stall and cantering along just fine, but she's like she has no real destination. She's not just wearing blinkers, she's practically blindfolded and following where I lead her.

When she had her goal of removing the cutie marks of every last pony in Equestria, she had passion. She knew where she was going and she could see the track clearly. Now that is gone and all she has are her studies. Hopefully friendship will give her the support and confidence to look further and find something that she can be passionate about. Maybe I should ask the Cutie Mark Crusaders to talk to her. It is, if I've understood it right, their calling.

Addendum: A quillpal pointed out that arranging for the CMC and Starlight to meet and discuss cutie marks would be a bad idea. She already thinks I don't trust her to make her own decisions (with good reason, seeing how I handled the Trixie friendship). I don't think I'll suggest that she consult the Crusaders. Maybe I'll point out that their brand of altruism, namely, helping ponies find themselves, is a form of friendship. Maybe I could get her to analyze the CMC's methodology and to postulate on how their efforts help build pony society. Or maybe not, seeing how until very recently she felt that building a better pony society was to be achieved by removing everypony's cutie marks. I'd better let the matter drop and let her find her own path in her own time.

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(The Princess has stepped out. Try again tomorrow.)

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Jigsaw Puzzle

May 28: We got back in the wee hours this morning from Manehattan, where we had been setting up Rarity's boutique, "Rarity For You". It was a wild day and then some, I had expected to be back in Ponyville last night. Rarity has left her new staff in charge of running the boutique while she sews more dresses to replace the ones that were sold yesterday.

Rarity had us helping her at what was really the last moment. The boutique had to open then, that evening, of that same day. It was "the last night of the fall season", and since Rarity had decided to plunge headlong into that scene, everything had to come together right then.

Rarity's plan was, we arrive, we clean, the clothes arrive by parcel post, then her "sales associate" Miss Coco Pommel would arrive after that, we put the clothes on display, and the boutique would be open for business. It wasn't that easy.

The boutique was filthy. The landlord came calling and he foisted his daughter on Rarity (as employee and creative consultant). Rarity found raccoons living in the store room. Pounding music alerted us to the existence of a Club Pony Party Palace upstairs. And then Coco called in sick with a cold.

After sweeping the place clear, we divided up tasks. Pinkie was to get the Club Pony to turn down the volume. Dash was to hire a sales pony to assist customers. I got to sort and organize Rarity's dresses, which had arrived in disarray. Rarity tasked herself with setting up the shop window display. Applejack was to try and put a damper on the suggestions that the landlord's daughter (Plaid Stripe) came up with, and Fluttershy was to ask the raccoons to move out.

That didn't go so well at first. Dash couldn't decide which of three applicants to choose for the job of clerk, Fluttershy got the raccoons angry, Pinkie failed to stop the music pounding through the ceiling, and Applejack found herself getting shouted at by the landlord. In fact, it was going so bad, I might have locked Rarity in the window display to borrow enough time to try and sort out the mess we were making.

By the time Rarity finished making the perfect window display, we'd come up with some pretty innovative solutions. Fluttershy let the raccoons stay, but they had to contribute to the opening, by carrying trays of hors d'oeuvres to the customers, after taking baths and putting on suits and ties. I don't know where Fluttershy found raccoon sized suits. Maybe she made alterations on costumes for foals. She's pretty adept at sewing. Pinkie convinced the DJ of the Club Pony Party Palace to set up in Rarity's boutique, thus making it part dance club. Dash hired all three candidates, which was fortunate. Ponies were lining up at the door to get in. And Applejack admitted that she liked Plaid Stripe's spoon clothes idea, and so did some of the customers. As for me, I organized Rarity's wares in a way that was both aesthetically pleasing to look at and very practical. Just in time for the evening opening.

Several of the ponies who had been waiting for Rarity For You to open were apparently in the business of scouting out the trends and new faces in the clothes fashion scene. Since it was the last day for fall fashions to be introduced, I guess Rarity's Manehattan boutique was the newest of the new blood and the only fresh venue that evening. So they came in droves.

One of those customers was a reporter who decided to interview Rarity, and then each of us in turn, about the work that went into creating this innovative dance club boutique in the heart of Saddle Row. We went to a diner after the opening, and it was there that we each got interviewed. We were all feeling pretty giddy at our success, so we weren't too careful about what we said.

It was late after we'd finished eating, but Fluttershy was anxious about her spring critters and Rarity had to get back to her Ponyville sewing room to replace what she had sold. Since she had left the boutique in the care of Coco and the sales ponies, we decided to catch the overnight train back to Ponyville.

Rarity retired to her compartment early, but the rest of us squeezed into Rainbow Dash's compartment to chat for a while. We talked about Rarity's new boutique and boasted about how we turned a disaster into something spectacular, in a good way. We marveled about the surprising number of customers that had turned up on the opening night, and we exchanged stories about getting interviewed. We didn't stay up long, it had been a really long day.

The train pulled into Ponyville right before dawn. We stumbled out of our compartments and out on the platform, where we yawned our goodbyes and went home. Except Applejack, she seemed wide awake and chipper. She's a morning pony.

It seemed I'd no sooner drifted back asleep in my own bed when Spike woke me. He's was leaving for the train station to go to the Crystal Empire for another evening of fireworks (it's Tall Tale's turn to wow the judges), and Rainbow Dash wanted to see me. Now. She said it was urgent. Then Dash came into my bedroom. She couldn't wait. She had had a flash.

Dash had thought back to those "Gabby Gums" articles that had been about us and other ponies in the Foal Free Press a while back, and she was now worried about what the reporter had written. She had already rounded up Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie, they were waiting downstairs. There was a review of Rarity For You in the fashion section of the Manehattan newspaper (Dash had checked). Since Rarity subscribes to that newspaper, we rushed over to the Carousel Boutique. Dash hoped we could somehow keep Rarity from reading what we expect would be a bad review of her new shop. If that failed, we were prepared to apologize together for not being more careful about what we say to the press.

We failed to convince Rarity not to read it, but fortunately, it was a fair, and fairly glowing, report. We did apologize for not telling Rarity of our stumbling first attempts at setting up her boutique. But all is well that finishes well, and Rarity went back to sewing.

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Green Claw

May 29: Spike Is back from officiating at the Crystal Empire fireworks festival. Apparently, they're getting even better at spoiling their hero, so Spike had a great time. They packed him a gem lunch for the trip home again. I teased him about it, saying he was going to ruin the Crystal Empire by eating all their gems. This time Spike showed a bit of restraint during the train ride back and refrained from eating a particularly nice emerald. He plans on growing it larger and healing all the flaws. Then he's going to eat it.

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Green Wings

May 30: Spike went this morning on another gem quest with Rarity in the bat cave. Rarity's aim is to collect gems while the bats are sleeping the soundest. Bat guano is hard to wash out of your hair. Or so I've been told.

The gem collecting was a success and Spike came home with a small chunk of sapphire that he plans on growing. It had been larger when they had found it, but Spike had nibbled on it.

There are posters all over Ponyville announcing a new Wonderbolts tour next week. I saw Dash putting up the last ones. She told me that as a reservist, she'll be working crowd control, keeping the sky clear of ponies during the aeronautical display, that kind of thing. One day, Rainbow Dash herself will be doing that precision flying with the Wonderbolts. Meanwhile, she looked pretty happy that her heroes were coming to town.

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Eye Candy

May 31: We had another hot day today in Ponyville. I went over to Rarity's place and it didn't take much coaxing to convince her that it was time for a break. To the spa! Along the way, we separated Fluttershy from her menagerie and brought her with us. Pinkie popped up out of nowhere and we were four sweaty, bedraggled ponies crowding into the lobby at the Spa.

An hour later we were four sparkling, refreshed and relaxed ponies heading for the icing on our cake: grass smoothies and fruit sorbets at Sugarcube Corner. Rarity filled us in on her progress. She's already packed most of the new dresses and hats into boxes and this afternoon she planned on mailing them to Manehattan. Tomorrow morning she will be heading off to Manehattan to see how the shop is faring and then the next day she will be catching the train to Canterlot to prepare for the fall selection there. I asked her what do ponies do if they need summer clothes? She replied that they can go to the discount boutiques.

These fashion ponies are crazy! But, it's not like we really need clothes. They're really just adornment.

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Author's Note

There is story potential in these points of light in the night sky. Do constellations dream of ethereal sheep? Are meteor showers the result of many ponies dying in a cataclysmic event? What of the once in a century meteor shower in S1 E24 (Owl's Well That Ends Well)? What was the occasion? And who were the four stars who helped Nightmare Moon return? And fireballs! What's up with them?

XVIII June

Walking The Edge

June 1: This morning I went into the Everfree Forest to visit Zecora, It's very hot and steamy in the Everfree, I felt like I'd somehow returned to the Ponyville Spa, except this sauna didn't smell like hot rocks. The air was laden with the musty smells of leaves, growing things and strange animals. All around there were queer noises. As I walked down the trail toward Zecora's sanctum, I counted humming, buzzing, creaks, hoots, whistles, rustling and knocking. I was acutely aware that the Everfree Forest is very alive. Everything in it probably has spring fever, and broods to feed. That was not a comforting thought. I slunk along the path a little faster.

Zecora let me in and she apologized for the clutter. There were rockets in various stages of completion at one end of her cottage and everywhere jars and bags of colored powders. The hearth was cold and none of her candles were lit. Mayor Mare had asked that she take charge of Ponyville's entry in the Crystal Empire's Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival, which is scheduled for ten days from now. She's been very busy grinding up pyrotechnic powders and making little balls which she had out drying in trays. She's been grinding and building and rolling all this stuff for days. She was happy to take a break and share gossip and a few cups of iced wintergreen tea with me.

On my way back to Ponyville I found that the forest had quieted down quite a bit. At first I relaxed, imagining the unseen denizens of this riot of vegetation had settled in for a midday nap. But a snapping branch some distance behind me got me to consider another possibility. Maybe the quiet meant that hungry predators were prowling. I rocketed out of the Everfree and galloped home.

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Skies Of Blue And Seas Of Green

June 2: It wasn't quite as hot today as it was yesterday. I went for a stroll through the rolling fields and I ended up walking through the new pastures. Everything is green and the sea of grass in the new pastures tastes as good as it looks. Spike thinks that the Crystal Empire ponies are balancing out the riotous growth of their crops with the superabundance of all the creatures that are 'helping' them eat it. In short, he thinks they will be able to store enough of their own hay and produce to last the winter. Still, between the Crystal Empire uncertainty and the yak appreciation of our second and third cut hays, it's good that we have this extra capacity.

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To Market To Market To Buy A Fat Bale

June 3: I bought five bales of second cut hay from Applejack today. It's to tide us over until the first harvest. With two ponies and a dragon in residence, we have been burning through the pantry faster than I had anticipated last year. Five bales should be enough. I've been dipping more often into my stores of second and third cut hays. A little too often. It's making me feel bloated and gassy.

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It's Quiet Here

June 4: It's just me and Starlight Glimmer in the castle tonight. Spike left bright and early for the Crystal Empire, it's Dodge City's turn to set the night sky aglow there. In a week's time, it will be Ponyville's turn and I'm going. I have a Hay Board meeting the day before, but I might catch the evening train and stay two nights. I haven't seen my niece since her crystalling.

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Surprise Promotion

June 5: This morning Dash found out that she's been selected to join the ranks of the Wonderbolts! This has been a long time in coming for Dash. Ever since I've known her, her dream has been to join the Wonderbolts. Our very first conversation in Ponyville was in part about the Wonderbolts. So this is big. Very big. When we found out, we all rushed over to her house to congratulate her while she packed. (I used a cloud-walking spell to keep Spike, Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity from falling through the floor in the softer areas of Rainbow Dash's house.)

Dash will be replacing Firestreak who has switched to teaching flight school in Cloudsdale. Dash's first flight with the aeronautics team will be over Ponyville in two days. While she packed her luggage she told us that she is expected this afternoon at the Wonderbolts' headquarters, probably to get her up to speed on the routines and to get some training before the tour starts. And then she was off! No time for a party.

Meanwhile, Zecora has almost finished building all the rockets for the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. They're being kept in an empty hay loft in Ponyville for the time being. Pinkie will be in charge of moving them by train to the Crystal Empire and she and Amethyst Star will be assisting Zecora at the festival.

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Rainbow Dashed

June 6: Pinkie somehow knew that Rainbow Dash would be coming home this evening and she organized a surprise "Best Day Ever" party. She even got Scootaloo and her friends in on it, putting up balloons, festive flags, streamers, banners and the like. Then we all camped out in Dash's living room to wait. It was well after sunset before she appeared. Fortunately, Pinkie brought snacks. Including bundles of spring grass, fresh picked and juicy. My one weakness! I couldn't just eat a few. I just kept popping them in my mouth, one after the other... until we ran out. I'm not going to get any sleep tonight, am I?

So Rainbow Dash arrived, Pinkie blasted her with confetti, and we all shouted "surprise!". But Dash was not in a party mood. At all. She tried to insist she was too tired to describe her great day. Usually Rainbow Dash is boastful and more than happy to talk about her feats. This was very unlike her, so we asked her if something was wrong, and something definitely was. Apparently, her first full day of training started with a bump and went downhill from there. She fell into a trash can and got pegged with the nickname "Rainbow Crash". Since she had been mercilessly teased with that nickname as a filly, Dash was less than thrilled to get branded once again as Crash, and worse yet, by her Wonderbolt colleagues.

Pinkie pointed out that it could be worse, they could have called her 'Rainbow Trash". Pinkie Pie, great with testy Yaks and Griffins, not so great with the unhelpful quips.

So the party turned into an ego salving session for Rainbow Dash. A good friend helps their friend vanquish turmoil and clear away the gloom. I pointed out that like the six of us, every member of a team is different and has different talents to contribute to the team effort. Rarity suggested to Dash that she demonstrate her strengths and unique skills to the Wonderbolts, thereby getting them to forget this unfortunate mishap she had had. Rainbow Dash really liked that suggestion. So much so that she immediately sped off, probably back to the Wonderbolt compound.

And that was it for the party and the details of Rainbow Dash's best day ever. So we went home. Pinkie left up the festive decorations. Dash will be back soon, and maybe we'll pick up the party where we left off.

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Whispers In The Grass

June 7: No sign of Dash. I hope practice went better for her today. Tomorrow we will get to see her in action, flying with the Wonderbolts over Ponyville!

I went for a walk in the fields, strolling haphazardly and grabbing a few mouthfuls of that fresh, green grass. The sky was full of white, fluffy clouds, left over from a shower Cloudsdale sent us a few days ago. Nopony has cleared them out yet. It was quite pretty, both in the sky, and in the shadows they cast on the rolling hills of waving green. I zigzagged through the fields, going from cloud shadow to sunlight pasture, the taller grasses tickling my belly. I'd brought a few books to read, so I stopped in a shady spot and lay down to read. But when I lay down, the grass was just higher than my head and all I could see around me was grass waving in the breeze, crowding in on me. With each rustling movement of the tall green stems, I imagined some pony-eating creature sneaking up on me, just out of sight, preparing to pounce. I felt very vulnerable. I had to get up, I just couldn't concentrate. I flew home and up to my balcony. Up there I felt better, I could see anything approach long before it would be close enough to pounce.

I wouldn't mind some more grass.

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Rainbow Splash

June 8: The Wonderbolts, now with Rainbow Dash, came to town and wowed us with precision stunt flying this afternoon. All of Ponyville was there to watch. Ponies like a good show.

Unfortunately, Dash tried to insert something extra into the finale and she ended up crashing. Pinkie Pie's giant ball of cotton candy broke her fall, but she managed to get pretty scratched up. On the way down she fell into a tree, got pecked by birds and got a little fried by a storm cloud. It was a long and varied crash. If she was trying to avoid getting called Rainbow Crash, this certainly didn't help.

She looked pretty down while she was getting patched up in the first aid tent, but she didn't want to talk about it. We kind of got kicked out of the tent by the nurse pony, there were ten of us there, crowding Dash and getting in the way. But when we caught up with Dash later, around sundown on the fair ground arena, she was sweeping up the place and her mood was considerably brighter.

It took some doing, but she finally told us the detail that made sense of this whole hairpin turn on her mood. All the Wonderbolts have awful, embarrassing nicknames, and when they named her Rainbow Crash, it was part of welcoming her to the club. Dash wouldn't give us any examples, but she did say they usually commemorated some rookie mistake they'd made in their first days on the team. Applejack pointed out that the nicknames probably helped keep the Wonderbolt fame from going to their heads. I think the nicknames also bring everypony to the same level, so that they work better together as a team.

That was the good news. The bad news is that because of her surprise showboating and out-of-control crash landing, Rainbow Dash has to clean the Wonderbolt compound every day for the next month. She still looked like she was in a state of bliss, despite that. And then we all went and hid in Rainbow Dash's house (with fresh snacks!) to wait for her to finish sweeping up the fairgrounds so she could have that surprise party we'd aborted a few days ago.

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Handled With Care

June 9: Zecora has finished assembling her rockets and Pinkie helped her cart the last of them into Ponyville. They then spent a few hours carefully packing them into crates, getting all the fireworks material ready to ship from Ponyville to the Crystal Empire. There's a freight train coming through Ponyville tomorrow morning and headed to the Crystal Empire and the Ponyville entry into the Pan-Equestria festival will be going there on that train.

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Planning The Cut

June 10: Hay Board Meeting today. There was a lot of discussion on harvest dates this time. With our increased hay field acreage, we decided to harvest earlier than last year as we're trying to push all three cuts to an earlier date so our fields will have longer to recover in the fall between the third cut and winter. We also agreed to reserve 20% of our first cut for the Crystal Empire, in case their crop or stores fall prey to the wild growth phenomena they've had this year.

So, our first cut yield will be lower and 20% of that set aside in case of need. That takes care of the surplus worries we had last Hay Board meeting, we can shelve the plan to use first cut hay as building material for now. Assuming nothing goes wrong, like weed contamination due to harvesting too early, we're still on track for increasing our second and third cut harvests to meet Yakyakistan demand.

Got to run and catch a train! I'm spending the next two nights in the Crystal Empire. Spike and Starlight Glimmer will be joining me tomorrow and Pinkie and Zecora are already there fussing over their pyrotechnic engines and details.

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(Big empty castle here. Leave a note by the door and the caretaker owl will take care of it.)

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Explosive Times In The Crystal Empire

June 12: I'm back from the Crystal Empire. I spent time yesterday with my niece. Sunburst's Fledgling's Forbearance spell is holding, she hasn't teleported or punched holes through the castle since her crystalling. I read several pages of I Met A Mare with her before she got bored and wobbled off to knock over some blocks that Shining Armor has stacked for her. She can say a few words, but mostly she still drools. A lot.

I got to see how the Crystal Empire is faring with the wild proliferation of every living thing that they're experiencing this year. Princess Cadence tells me that they get plagues of butterflies that wash through the town and get into everything, and if it's not butterflies, it's moss key toads, crystal hares, nosy-ems, crossbills, lemnings or pollen. The crystal ponies have taken to keeping their doors and windows tightly shut.

The nosy-ems are the worst. No pony ventures out unless they absolutely have to when the plagues of nosy-ems wash through the streets. The Crystal Heart appears to be keeping most of the riotous surge out of town, but since so much still gets into the streets, Shining Armor and a team of unicorns create an exclusion bubble around the fairgrounds to keep the critters away during the fireworks display.

They can't really bubble the whole Crystal Empire. It would be just too exhausting to bubble everything for the entire growing season, so they just put up with it. I walked past the farmer's fields and over to the edge to take a look. It was amazing! Out on the rolling hills and moss bogs, I could see patches of delicate green vegetation growing, only to attract hordes of plant eaters. The herbivores would vacate one area to attack the new growth, and where they had been, the plants would spring back. Throughout the area I could hear the buzzing of wings, the munching of thousands of busy mouths, the short screams of captured creatures and the rustle of leaves. It was an alarming spectacle.

That evening, on the Crystal Empire Fairgrounds, it was Ponyville's turn to light up the skies. The stands were packed with ponies from Ponyville as well ponies from all over Equestria. The swarm of blue butterflies lighting on every surface in the streets was not enough to keep them away. The fairgrounds was butterfly free for the evening, Shining Armor and his team saw to that.

Starlight Glimmer, Applejack and Rarity had arrived that afternoon by train with Spike but without Fluttershy. I wasn't really expecting her since fireworks are startling and she has critters in need of care. Starlight Glimmer went off to meet up with Sunburst, so it was just the three of us; Spike was already in the judging booth, munching on gems and looking pleased as punch. I had just found a good spot in the stands when Rainbow Dash flew in to join us. We got comfortable and looked up into the darkness to watch Zecora, Pinkie and Amethyst Star's show.

Spike left the booth, went up to a podium, and with a magically amplified voice, announced that Ponyville would be providing the fireworks. Then Zecora went up to the podium. She too had something to say. The crowd went quiet and with a magically amplified voice, she began the tale of When Winter Came To Equestria.

With Pinkie and Amethyst carefully launching her pyrotechnic chemical concoctions, Zecora literally and figuratively burned a moving picture into the night sky, building green fields under dazzling stars, blinding snows, the giants Winter and Summer galloping through the air and rivers of sparkling colors flowing through the fairground amphitheater and stands. Zecora reserved the biggest, brightest and loudest pyrotechnics for the finale, celebrating the harmony of the seasons and the balance between winter and summer. Green for spring, gold, purple and blue for summer, orange, red and yellow for fall, and ending in searing whites for winter.

We all stood up to pound the ground and the stands in thunderous applause. I think the ground shook from all the pounding, but fortunately the stands are very sturdy. They just bounced around a bit.

After the show, everypony left the fairgrounds. Many went to the train station, mostly ponies from Ponyville and Canterlot, to catch the night train back home, but Rarity, Applejack, Starlight Glimmer, Rainbow Dash and I stayed overnight at the castle. Spike, Pinkie, Amethyst Star and Zecora were provided for by the Festival organizers.

So this morning we were still in the Crystal Empire, getting swarmed by yellow swallowtail butterflies and doing a little shopping before heading back to Ponyville. I bought a few books.

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This Is My Jam

June 13: We have two unopened jars of zap apple jam left! With Spike, food like this usually gets eaten sooner rather than later. I suspect that the reason we still have zap apple jam left is because Spike has been getting spoiled every weekend in the Crystal Empire. He's been getting big portions of gems and other goodies to eat so often that he has been less inclined to go looking for forgotten treats in our pantry.

It's been a while since we've had a game night in the castle. I'm going to go around to see if everypony is available for one. I know Rainbow Dash gets home late every evening now, so a midday picnic is out. If we have a game night, I think some fresh bread and one of those jars of zap apple jam would make a nice surprise.

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Bohemian Waxed Wings

June 14: No game night tonight, but we're on for tomorrow! Today, it was spa day for Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy, so I joined them. I think I'm going to the spa a lot more often than I used to. It must be Rarity's influence. Starlight Glimmer didn't come with me, she's decided that going to the spa is a frivolous activity. She prefers to take her own baths and occasionally, to walk in the rain. I bet if Trixie was in town and proposed going to the spa, Starlight Glimmer wouldn't turn her down. There's a friendship lesson in there somewhere.

Fluttershy has a cottage full of very demanding baby birds, eyes closed squirrels and baby bunnies that have her running sun up to sun down. Then at night there are the baby bats and flying squirrels. Amethyst Star is giving her a break so she could get out of the cottage for a few hours and it looks like she needed it. She fell asleep while getting a massage.

We all started with a scrub down, then Rarity had a seaweed wrap with Pinkie Pie while I had my feathers waxed and Fluttershy got her massage. The waxing was Rarity's suggestion. They put tiny flecks of glitter in the wax to give your glistening flight feathers some extra oomph when you spread your wings in the sunshine. I tried it when we got outside. Every pony on the street turned and stared. OK, it's impressive. Fluttershy called me a bohemian waxed wings and ducked for cover. I shot back that I have a home, so I couldn't be called bohemian! Pinkie said that at home, I'd be a seated waxed wings. Rarity said she could "see der waxed wings now". There was no winning this battle.

One thing that I like about this feather waxing is that it improves the waterproofing of my feathers. That's practical! We had ended our spa trip with the four of us in the whirlpool together and I'd floated like a cork.

After the spa we trotted daintily through the sunlit streets, my wings tightly folded so I wouldn't blind myself with the shine and sparkle, and we made a bee-line to Sugarcube Corner for ice cream treats. I remembered that last year I'd once had some spicy orange chocolate ice cream there but they didn't have any this time. Instead, they had salty dark chocolate ice cream, with big crunchy grains of sea salt! I had that. It was Celestia tier!

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Making This Castle A Home

June 15: This afternoon, Spike, Starlight Glimmer and I were busy preparing for game night in the castle. We baked a few loaves of lemon poppy seed bread, tossed a big salad of spring greens, got out tables and cushions and set them up in the castle foyer, and brought out the games. By the time our guests began to arrive, the bread was just coming out of the oven, Starlight had set out plates, bowls and utensils, and I'd selected a flake of third cut hay from our dwindling supply.

I wasn't planning a pot-luck game night, but my friends brought snacks anyway. Pinkie brought hay crackers and peppermint frosting dip (surprisingly good), Applejack brought a fresh carrot and apple pie, Rarity was in the mood for chocolate ice cream, so she brought a tub of that, Rainbow Dash brought carrot sticks and Fluttershy brought birdseed, by mistake. We sprinkled the birdseed on the other snacks, to add a bit of crunch. Poor Fluttershy. It's rough being a wild animal specialist in the spring.

Spike brought down two loaves of lemon poppy seed bread, still hot, with butter and zap apple jam. That was a real hit, especially with Rainbow Dash, who suddenly realized that she was famished. We chatted while we polished off the bread and washed it down with iced tea. Applejack told me that she has been trying to grow crystal corn without success. It probably has something to do with the Crystal Heart. Dash was in another Wonderbolt flight show, this time over Fillydelphia. Rarity's winter clothes line is selling quite well and she needs to make a trip to Yakyakistan for more of their specialty cloth.

Dash admired my freshly waxed, glittery wings. She said they really give me pzazz. It turns out that that is neither cool nor awesome in of itself. I asked. This cool and/or awesome appellation is complex and I let it drop.

We moved on to the mane event, the games! Ring Fling in the mane hallway, of course. Rope Rings near the staircase, Bundle of Sticks on one of the low tables, and I got a taker for a game of Bookchase! I played against Starlight Glimmer. Mare does she know her books! We played best out of three.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash called it an early night, they are both tired from the extra duty they've been doing. Rarity and Applejack were next, leaving me, Spike, Starlight Glimmer and Pinkie. We had one last game of Bundle of Sticks (Spike had to use his mouth, just like everypony else) then we packed up the games, leftovers and furniture and called it a night too.

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Hay Anything (And Everything) Feast

June 16: It's just about time for the first cut harvest. Cloudsdale gave us one last shower this morning, leaving dozens of drained, white fluffy clouds behind. Then Pinkie threw us her 'Surprise Hay Harvest Make Way For The New Harvest Feast And Party Party' at Sugarcube Corner. It was after sundown so Dash could make it and so Applejack could join us after tending her acreage. We had Sugarcube Corner to ourselves. Pinkie planned this party earlier than last year because this year the first cut will overlap with the Summer Sun Celebration holiday, and not even Pinkie can be two places at once.

Since it was a surprise party, Pinkie only told us about it when she handed out invitations an hour before. Or in Rainbow Dash's case, as soon she got home. Balloons were involved.

This year I suspect she got extra help from Applejack in decorating Sugarcube Corner. Not only were the tables replaced with straw bales draped in red checkered tablecloths, but along with the paper lanterns, drying fresh cut hay hung in bunches from baling twine crisscrossing the ceiling, and more hay filled apple baskets along the walls.

Of course, Pinkie and the Cakes prepared and served hay in every way imaginable. Hay soup, hay crackers, hay bread, sweet and sour hay silage, hay tourtière, crispy fried hay, hay casserole, fresh cut hay salad, hay smoothies, hay ice cream, hay cake, hay cookies, hay tea... With the fresh green hay in the baskets, Pinkie and Rarity braided hay tiaras and necklaces for all of us to wear. I still have mine. I'm still deciding whether to eat them tomorrow or keep them, like Maud Pie does with her rock candy necklaces. I couldn't eat them now, I'm so full I feel like I'm going to pop.

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Fields Of Hay

June 17: The first cut hay harvest has begun! All around the castle there is a heady smell of fresh cut hay drying in the sun. I still feel stuffed with hay from last night's surprise feast so mostly I'm just enjoying the lovely smell. I don't have the urge to run out into the nearest field and make hay alicorns, yet. Unlike a few mischievous foals. Every year some foals have fun plowing through the hay, making hay forts and generally rolling in the fresh cut hay. And every year the hay farmer ponies grumble.

Not all of this cut is to be processed into dry bales. We expanded our productivity in order to meet Yakyakistan demand for our second and third cut hay, and that means that our first cut productivity has increased as well. We will of course be producing hay to give to the Crystal Empire should their hay stores fail, but that still leaves us with a surplus. Last year we had demand for more silage than we could supply, so our excess is getting made into silage. From my balcony I can see a few mowed fields dotted with big white marshmallows. Those are fermented bales in air-tight starch polymer bags. It's something new this year that the Hay Board wanted to try. The Hay Board expects them to sell well since they're transportable and keep well (so long as you don't break the seal).

The harvest is earlier this year than it was last year. We're trying to push all three cuts to an earlier date so our fields will have longer to recover in the fall between the third cut and winter. As a result, I think our first cut may be a bit greener than we're used to. But letting our fields recover longer in the fall should give us faster growth next spring, and next year our first cut will be as starchy as always. Unless we push the first cut even earlier. It is overlapping with the Summer Sun Celebration this year, so I suspect that if all goes well, we'll try to harvest a few days earlier.

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Here Comes The Sun Fling

June 18: Summer Sun Celebration is just two days away. This time around it's Los Pegasus that will be hosting Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Here, I've been helping Pinkie organize Ponyville's traditional Summer Sun Celebration event. Rarity is on the task of decorating town hall, the Apple family and the Cakes are cooking up mountains of treats, Pinkie has DJ Pon3 slated for music, and Rainbow Dash will gather up the clouds when she gets back from Wonderbolt compound duties tomorrow evening. Pinkie suggested that we hold the all night party in the castle, but I quashed that idea. We're not celebrating me and the town hall is the heart of Ponyville. It's traditional.

We're bringing back some of the fun things from last year, such as princess-shaped cloud sculptures, a lantern procession and fireflies. Fluttershy's feathered friends have been pestering her to conduct a dawn chorus again, so it looks like we'll be doing that again too. One good thing about the early first cut harvest is that the hay in the western pasture will have been baled by tomorrow evening, so it will be easier for that field to spring back after all of Ponyville tramples it. Pinkie put up posters everywhere, so everypony knows where to go and what to expect this Summer Sun Celebration. She has several ponies making new paper lanterns so we'll have enough to go around.

Spike left this morning for the Crystal Empire, but he'll be back in plenty of time to party all night with Ponyville tomorrow. It's Baltimare's turn in the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival.

Hay is still drying in the fields. The odor is intoxicating. The castle just sucks in that delicious aroma at ground level and wafts it down every corridor. This stone tree is trying to get me fat.

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Dusk To Dawn

June 19: A lot of hay was made into bales today. From my balcony, it was fun to watch the progress of tiny ponies in the fields, making bales and changing the color of the fields as they revealed the short grass stems under the dried hay. The activity stopped just before sundown, not just so everypony could attend Summer Sun Celebration parties, but because the evening dew raises the water content of the dried hay and a wet bale gets moldy. A stack of moldy bales of hay can catch fire. So no baling wet hay.

The party is well underway in Town Hall. My job helping organize it is done. I stepped out to watch Fluttershy's thousands of fireflies fly about the building and I slipped back to the castle get a breather from all the loud music and ponies. I'm heading back soon. I don't want to miss the lantern procession! I'm going to see if I can drag Starlight Glimmer along. She's still in the library studying.

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Frisking The Night Away

June 20: I went back to the Summer Sun Celebration party in Town Hall where I arrived just in time to watch Spike take his turn at Pin The Tail on the Pony. He was pretty close, he pinned the tail on the pony's ear. Most of my friends were watching from next to Applejack's treat table, still piled high with treats, so I went over and joined them.

While we chatted, Pinkie dropped a thousand balloons of every color from the rafters, and the music took on a dance beat. We ambled out into the balloons and my friends teased me by singing sweep, sweep, sweep while plowing through the balloons. When we had been setting up Rarity's Manehattan boutique, I'd suggested we could sweep to the beat pounding through the ceiling from the dance club upstairs. It seems I'm never going to live it down. In just a minute, every pony wading through the balloons in Town Hall was singing 'sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep', and they had no idea why.

Just before the morning twilight, everypony left Town Hall, some picked up a lantern or a streamer on the way out, and we followed Mayor Mare through the streets of Ponyville. The procession weaved its way through the streets, picking up ponies and more lanterns on the way, and followed by a gently whirring parade of lightning bugs. The fireflies landed on the gossamer streamers we were carrying, making them even more sparkly. Rarity approved. As we passed the castle, Starlight Glimmer joined us too.

We trotted, we stomped, we marched and we tap danced. All through the streets of Ponyville and out into the fields. Mayor Mare was having a great time putting us through the paces, and so were we. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew up ahead in the early twilight, Dash to put the last touches on her well behaved clouds, and Fluttershy to warm up her dawn chorus.

As the sky grew lighter, Mayor Mare led us through the Western pasture, up down and around small hills and gullies. We were a river of light; bobbing, glittering and flashing through the fields and getting close to the hill marked by two tall pony-shaped clouds framing the setting moon. Then, from the north, the Crystal Empire bathed the night sky and all of Equestria in peace and joy. We arrived at the vantage hill where we all found a place to stand, draped in flashing streamers, our lanterns at our feet, waiting for the dawn.

A hush fell over the hill. Luna's moon set, Fluttershy's birds began warbling in harmony, and Celestia's sun rose to bathe Dash's cloud sculptures in pastel shades of pink. Every pony pounded the ground in applause, sending the lightning bugs airborne and flying back to their homes in the bushes around Ponyville.

While ponies in high spirits galloped, pronked and played steeplechase over the hay bales, Applejack, Pinkie and I trotted back to Town Hall to set up the Summer Sun Celebration breakfast for everypony. Even after snacking most of the night, I still ate a lot.

After that, not much was moving in the fields. It's hot and dry today and ponies have been taking it easy in the wake of the Summer Sun Celebration all-nighter. There's no rush to get the hay into the lofts right away. I can see one field from my balcony that has been cleared, the rest are dotted with bales.

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Fields Of Gold

June 21: My west balcony is one of my favorite reading places. It's quiet, I don't have to carry my reading cushions far, it's a quick trot to get more books or another pitcher of mint tea, I can sunbathe and read at the same time, and the view is wonderful. All around the fields are rapidly turning yellow. The hay cultivation and transformation specialist ponies have collected most of the bales for storage and we should get another shower in a day or two to spur the fields into fresh growth. I should order 45 bales of first cut hay from Applejack.

Spike tells me that if I want to see the Cloudsdale fireworks display at the Pan-Equestria festival, I'd better get there early. The festival heads told him that every bed in the Empire has been reserved and most will be occupied by visiting ponies two days in advance of the fireworks. It's going to be huge. Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash want to see this event too, so I wrote this morning to Princess Cadence to see if she has room for five ponies on an overnight stay. With the wildlife being so lively in the Crystal Empire this year, I don't think any of us would get any sleep if we camped outside.

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Scholarship Is Magic

June 22: It's been a while since I've heard from Moondancer. Today I got a notebook, two scrolls and a letter. The notebook was mostly full of descriptions of items recovered or found in the tomb she and Professor Clarity Quest are studying, and the scrolls contained transcriptions of sentence fragments from two of the scrolls Moondancer has been trying to read.

In her letter, Moondancer filled me in on their progress. They have two papers that are in the review process and pending publication. One is a description of the tomb and why it's probably the final resting place of Epona. The other focuses on the transcription and analysis of the gold scrolls. But they are also working on other papers, such as a report on the restoration, analysis and overview of the subject matter contained in paper scrolls. Moondancer will also be submitting a paper on the Haycartes method as an hippologists' tool in restoration and gentle handling of fragile documents. She tells me in the letter that she is learning to detect, map and transcribe metal based inks from burnt scroll fragments! Now that can't be easy.

There's a museum exposition of Professor Quest's find in the works. Moondancer wrote that the Cultural Hippology Museum in Canterlot has space available and the lead curator is champing at the bit to put Professor Quest's artifacts on display. This is going to be huge.

Now the next bit Moondancer wrote was really exciting: it seems that Haycartes also restores a document as it's read! The more a Haycartes spell is used to read a document, the more clear a previously faded text becomes, and the more the stains and discoloration gets wiped away. With the surge in popularity for Haycartes reading in Canterlot, Professor Quest wants to encourage ponies visiting the exposition to read the scrolls, and thus clean them!

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Gone With The Wind

June 23: Starlight Glimmer was in a sour mood this morning. She forgot to close the door at the top of the stairs, so when Spike went out on an errand this morning, air got sucked in at the ground floor, rushed up the grand staircase and blew out like a gale through the open balcony door, carrying the stack of papers Glimmer was carrying out and away. Right in time for a rainstorm. She spent most of what was left of the morning collecting errant papers from the field below and drying them flat. I think she got them all, but she was not a happy camper.

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How To Train Your Dragon (Step One, Buy A Ticket)

June 24: Spike left this evening for the Crystal Empire. It's a day early but he had been told to expect a rush of ponies to head to this week's event at the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. I went with him to the train station and sure enough, when the train pulled in I was amazed at the number of ponies packed on board. At the ticket booth we were told that there have been extra trains going north all day, all of them packed. So now I'm worried about tomorrow. Spike managed to get one of the last seats on this train. He squeezed in through the door just before the train started to lurch forward and I lost sight of him. I went round and alerted all my friends. Princess Cadence wrote back that she has a room for us at the castle and we're catching the first train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning. I hope.

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Off To The Places

June 25: We are off to the Crystal Empire Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival! I have to trot down to the station, we're taking the morning express. Hopefully at this hour the train won't be packed full. Rainbow Dash will be flying in this evening, like she did for the Ponyville fireworks. Starlight Glimmer will be minding the castle while we're gone.

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Brontotechnic Fireworks Spectacular

June 26: I'm back from our trip to see the Cloudsdale contribution to the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival and it was spectacular. Getting there was harder than I had planned.

We got to the train station in plenty of time yesterday morning, but when the train arrived and it was our turn to get aboard, we found out that there was only room for three more ponies! So I had to fly in. Applejack took on my saddle bags and I had to wing it all the way to the Crystal Empire. And the crowds! I haven't seen this many ponies in one place since the Equestria Games! I arrived before the train, which was fortunate. I rejoined my friends just as they stepped onto the platform at the Empire station and we waded as best we could through the throngs to the castle. There we stopped to find our rooms, to leave our bags, to have brunch, to chat with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence and to see my niece.

We learned that the Crystal Empire has expanded the stands this week at the fairgrounds. Even so, they were enough to accommodate most of the ponies in the crowd but not all. So Cloudsdale sent in extra clouds to make stands for pegasi. Thus the unicorn and earth pony spectators occupied the ground stands and the winged pony spectators had the overflow cloud stands. As a result, a good part of the fairgrounds was now looking like a stadium.

That afternoon the four of us strolled through town and around the fairgrounds, buying local treats and enjoying the festive atmosphere and activities. After supper (finding a table at a restaurant took forever, there were queues everywhere!) we went back to find a seat at the fairgrounds. There were so many ponies everywhere. Many had given up on sitting in the stands and had spread picnic blankets on the ground. Pinkie liked that idea (and she probably could have found a picnic blanket for us) but I had another idea.

There was room and a good view from the clouds, so I cast the cloudwalking spell on Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack and we walked up the cloud staircase to a spot where we could all sit together. That's where Rainbow Dash found us. Applejack had her lariat, so on Dash's recommendation we used that as a safety line, tethering ourselves together like mountain climbing ponies, in case one of us should fall into a cloud crevasse.

Away in Canterlot, Princess Celestia set the sun, and as Princess Luna's Moon rose into the evening twilight, Spike presented Cloudsdale, the city responsible for that evening's fireworks spectacle. Then, as the darkness rolled in and the stars began to twinkle, Cloudsdale's Brontotechnic Percussion Orchestra, the Blue Mare Group, drove their black thunderclouds high above the center of the field and started spinning them.

The black clouds started to come to life, flickering with lightning flashes. More blue-clad pegasi arrived with fluffy white clouds that they arranged in a regular pattern around and above the black clouds. The spinning thunderclouds began shooting lightning back and forth between them, like giant Catherine wheels, cracking and rumbling to a beat. In time with a series of particularly loud booms, the pegasi minding the white clouds set off colored sparklers, causing the white clouds to glow from within and to pulse in time with the music. From the ground, more ponies launched more fireworks that burst into gigantic burning flowers of flowing color, always in time with the music.

There were three movements, the lively first movement that set the tone for this fireworks concert, a quiet second movement with roving washes of abstract fires circling the pulsing, crackling clouds, and a roaring final movement of blinding flashes, giant sparkling flowers and deafening explosions that made every hair on my body vibrate. And then it was over. The Blue Mare Group and their crew took their bows while ponies pounded the ground, rocked the stands and beat their wings in applause. That was almost as loud as Blue Mare Group performance.

After the festival, the cloud stands were lifted, flattened and shaped into accommodations for pegasus ponies! Pretty neat idea, although it was mostly used by families with foals. Many of the pegasi flew home. The clouds were pushed up high into the sky to get above swarms of glowing luna moths that had slipped into the Crystal Empire after dark. They're very pretty but they're really big. It would be hard to sleep with hundreds of those fluttering about in the dark.

The earth ponies and unicorns without reserved accommodations but also staying the night didn't have to sleep with the moths on the fairgrounds (although many did). The Crystal Empire opened their Games stadium so ponies could pitch tents there, in a mostly moth free area.

We headed back to the castle, still half deaf from the fireworks and thunderclaps. I fell asleep just about as soon as my head touched my pillow.

The next day Dash flew off early to take care of her Wonderbolt duties, but as for the rest of us, it wasn't until the afternoon that we got seats on a train back to Ponyville. I was beginning to think we'd have to stay another night. But we took turns waiting in line and eventually we got our tickets. It's good to be back home.

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Wild For Strawberries

June 27: And suddenly, it's strawberry season. I went to the Ponyville market with Spike today, and along with the fresh silage, fresh baled hay, fresh cut bedstraw and many other early summer treats, there were ponies everywhere selling strawberries. We bought two big baskets full, which were a lot less full by the time we got home. We were eating them on the way back to the castle, and on the way to the kitchen, and for lunch, and for snacks. There are none left. I think I'll be going back to the bazaar again tomorrow.

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Tapping On My Roof And Walls

June 28: Cloudsdale sent us a fresh load of rain clouds and the weather ponies bucked them into action today. They got Ponyville good and drenched, washing the dust off everything and soaking our green fields. It was also a hot day, outdoors. Inside the castle it's always a bit cold, but outside it was like a steam bath in comparison. I went out, walked in the rain and got soaked. Water was running down my sides, slicking my mane to my neck and dragging my tail down until it trailed behind me in the mud. It felt great! I craned my head up and just let the drops patter and splash on my face. Eventually I went back inside, found a towel and dried off. But it's cold and silent in the castle. I picked up some of my reading material, a large cushion, a pot of tea and set myself up in the doorway to one of the smaller balconies. There I could read while enjoying the warm breeze, the smell of fresh rain, and the soothing drumming of the steady rain falling on the balcony.

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Hay It Ain't So

June 29: I stretched it as much as I could, but we are all out of last year's first cut hay. We're lucky that the Hay Board decided to push the harvest earlier, it means that I will be restocking with fresh hay. It's going to be quite the contrast in our plates, going from that really yellow and old stuff to fresh, fragrant and still green forage!

Last year I bought 30 bales and this year, with an extra pony in the castle, I was thinking 45 bales, but now I've decided 50 bales would be better. Applejack will be delivering 50 choice bales of bone dry first cut timothy hay to my door tomorrow. I kidded with her by telling her that they better be good because that's the hay she'll be eating next time she comes over. That's not really true, I usually serve third cut hay to guests.

Spike and I spent an hour or so today cleaning out the dust and shooing the star spiders out the balcony door of our impromptu first cut pantry. The planks are in place, it has been mopped down ceiling to floor and it is ready for that sweet, fresh timothy hay. Mmmmm!

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Dost Thou Even Loft?

June 30: My fifty bales of hay arrived in two carts late this morning. Like last year, Applejack and Big Mac left them on the castle grounds below the balcony of the room I use as a first cut hay pantry. While Starlight Glimmer and I fussed over lifting the hay in through the balcony door and placing them 'just so' on raised planks in the room, for maximum air circulation and free movement of ponies between the stacks, Spike went to the market to get strawberries. He came back with two baskets full of big strawberries that looked and tasted sweeter than the batch we ate two days ago, and he picked up some fresh alfalfa, about as much as he could carry. Fresh first cut hay, juicy strawberries and leafy green alfalfa, not even wilted! Now this is living.

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Author's Note

Humongulus: https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20141219 . Note the muscle clank's torso inscription. Beware! Girl Genius is addictive. Oops, too late.

Twilight ate and ate and ate, she did not miss a plate
How much do these suppers cost?
A fair bit and she will gain weight.

XIX July

Green Soup

July 1: We had a lot of leftover alfalfa so Spike decided to make a big batch of alfalfa cream soup before it wilts. I know it's hot outside, but not in the castle, and I think I could eat fresh alfalfa cream soup for breakfast, lunch and supper. With hay crackers, with fresh bread, with salted sesame seed snaps, with celery sticks... I think there might be some left.

It's been quite a while since the last time the Map Table activated and summoned any of us. I discussed this with Starlight Glimmer over a few bowls of alfalfa cream soup and she thinks she may have broken a few connections in getting it to let her time travel. Thus we have to re-establish our links to the Map Table. Somehow.

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The Colors Of The Rainbow So Pretty In The Sky

July 2: It's Manehattan's turn to light up the sky at the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival and Spike is there presiding.

Last week, when we brunched with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, Princess Cadence told me something interesting. She suspects that although it might not be the cause of the wild growth affecting the Crystal Empire, the accidental shattering of the Crystal Heart this spring may be what's behind the continued havoc in the flora and fauna that's been running amok all summer. She has noticed that while the Flurry Heart's crystalling helped repair the Crystal Heart, it's apparently not as strong as it was. It doesn't glow and pulse as brightly as it had before. On the bright side, the success of the Fireworks Festival has really boosted the moral of the crystal ponies and their combined joy each week has been pouring through the Crystal Heart. Each time it glows brighter and spins faster.

The crystal ponies are sure joyful tonight. The sky above Ponyville is alive with giant ribbons of colored light streaming in from the north and I'm feeling very peaceful.

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The Calm After The Swarm

July 3: Spike tells me that the green glowing luna moth swarm last week was the last big wave of invaders from the moors and spruce forests around the Crystal Empire. Since then there hasn't been anywhere near as many insects, small animals or drifts of pollen washing through the Crystal Empire streets as there had been up to now. Maybe Princess Cadence was right.

The weather has been great for a picnic and the pastures are still short following that first cut, but that can wait until Dash finishes her compound-cleaning stint. That will be in about five days, so, soon. Meanwhile, Spike and I could make some strawberry jam.

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Exotic Pony Dishes

July 4: Spike and I went to the bazaar to shop for strawberries to make jam. While we were there we met a few yaks shopping for exotic pony crops and wares. They were looking at strawberries too and wondering what to do with them. I told them we were planning on making jam but that they could just as easily make strawberry syrup and add that to other dishes. The strawberry stand keeper suggested strawberry shortcake and recited a recipe for them. They said that gave them ideas for a yak version and bought a few flats.

We bought our own flat of strawberries and wandered around a bit. Another pony had imported crystal berries from the Crystal Empire. We bought a couple of baskets of those.

Strawberry shortcake hadn't been in our plans, but Spike and I found a cow selling whipping cream, and... So when we got home, we made strawberry jam, crystal berry jam and strawberry shortcake. Starlight Glimmer helped us make, and eat, the shortcake. We finished it off while it was still warm.

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Squeaky Clean Gets The Oil

July 5: It has become dry, hot and dusty in Ponyville. Each time I step outside it hits me like a standing wave. In no time at all I get bathed in sweat. Then I go back inside, the sweat dries and I feel all itchy. This called for a trip to the spa.

I succeeded in dragging Starlight Glimmer, kicking and squealing, to the spa in time to meet up with Pinkie and Rarity. OK, she wasn't really kicking or squealing, but she may have been grumbling a bit. I did threaten to dump buckets of ice water on her until she put down her books and joined me. You're not going to learn about friendship through practical experience if you don't go out and talk to ponies every once in a while. By the time we'd walked all the way to the spa, in the sweltering heat, we were both feeling very grimy and Starlight had perked up.

We skipped the sauna since we'd just walked through a heat wave and our pores were quite open enough already, thank you very much. So after a thorough wash down, the four of us weighed the likely choices of seaweed wrap, fragrant oil whirlpool soak, or the Crystal Empire oil bath. Starlight Glimmer chose the seaweed, Pinkie jumped into the whirlpool and Rarity and I chose to get slathered in fragrant oil. I didn't get my feathers waxed this time. That would have been overdoing it.

Feeling much better, we stepped out of the spa and right back into oven. At least Rarity and I shone in the sun with our silky sleek fragrant fur, Starlight Glimmer looked totally relaxed and Pinkie... looked like Pinkie. We went looking for something cold to drink at Sugarcube Corner.

Over ice cold smoothies and fruit ices we chatted about this and that. Starlight Glimmer told us that she had two tickets to a Bridleway show next week, and would any of us be interested in going to see it with her. It's Little Shop Of Halters and she apologized for the short notice, but she had planned on going to see it with Trixie, but Trixie had to cancel. Rarity wants to see that show, so they'll be going to Manehattan together next week.

My mint hay smoothie kept me chilled long enough for the walk home and now that the sun has set, I've been out on the balcony stargazing and reading by candle light. And leaving pony shaped oil patches where I settle down. But I smell wonderful.

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Pot Luck Dessert

July 6: Pinkie has surprised us with an invitation to a pot luck supper with a twist. It's not supper, it's all dessert and every dish has to be strawberry themed. It's tonight at Sugarcube Corner, after closing time. I asked about how Rainbow Dash was going to know about this in time to bring something strawberry related but Pinkie said she'd told her early, before she left for the Wonderbolt compound, so she'll be there.

This was a good occasion to make strawberry short cakes and finish off our whipping cream. Spike bought fresh strawberries, Starlight Glimmer baked two short cakes, and I coordinated. The cakes are cooling, the strawberries are soaking in sugar and in about half an hour we'll have a light supper, then assemble the shortcake and trot off to Sugarcube Corner.

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Berried In Desserts

July 7: Our strawberry shortcakes were well appreciated last night. Rarity brought strawberry ice cream, which went well with our cakes and with the apple strawberry pie that Applejack brought. Rainbow Dash arrived just in time with strawberry punch to wash everything down and Fluttershy was there early so she could bake a strawberry custard somewhere where her orphaned and resident critters wouldn't eat all the strawberries before the dessert was cooked. It was still warm when we ate it. Pinkie's contribution was strawberries dipped in chocolate and covered in colorful sprinkles.

Dash told us that her moon of compound cleaning is almost over (the last day will be tomorrow)! She can't wait to be free of that chore. The Wonderbolt tour is still traveling from town to town and that has been going well. She says that it is lots of fun finding new coordinated stunts to try out with the team.

Speaking of team, I brought up the fact that nopony has been summoned by the table in a while and that it might need to be fixed, or woken up. Rainbow Dash suggests we zap the table with lightning. Applejack has offered to buck it. Fluttershy suggests that we've just run out of friendship problems in Equestria and nothing's wrong. Pinkie suggests we paint it. Rarity liked that idea and suggested glitter. That went through a fashion death spiral of table cloths, fringes, Gothic candles, seances, gambling... I put out that fire. It's a magic table. That might affect the roulette and the cards, then we'd have to pay everypony back. What a mess that would be. So no gambling.

We still have to do something.

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Big Book Of Special Snowflakes

July 8: I finally received The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them. I ordered that so long ago from Hoofton Muffin that I'd forgotten all about it. It's a beautiful book, organized for easy reference by snowflake type and not by region. There are so many kinds of snowflakes in it and they all just grow on their own! Now I'm wishing for winter weather so I can go prospecting for unnatural snowflakes in the Everfree Forest. That's over five moons away, but maybe if Rarity goes shopping for fabric in Yakyakistan I could tag along...

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Picnic In The Wide Green Yonder

July 9: Rainbow Dash's last day of compound cleaning for her Wonderbolt faux pas was yesterday! This of course calls for a celebration. Since it's been ages since we'd had a picnic together, we chose to go on a picnic. We all grabbed some food, mostly sandwiches and cookies, and the six of us trekked over to Saddle Lake. We spread our picnic blanket on the same grassy hill overlooking the lake that we'd chosen last fall and emptied our saddlebags. Applejack stamped out a pitch for a game of horseshoes.

We relaxed in the sunshine, supplemented our sandwiches with a little grazing, watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash battle it out at horseshoes, played tic tac toe, chatted and generally had a relaxing afternoon. It was a low key celebration. Fluttershy slept through most of it. Critter care is grueling in the early part of summer.

Spike and Starlight Glimmer didn't join us for the picnic. They both left this morning for the Crystal Empire, Spike for his honorary role at the fireworks (it's Trottingham's turn) and Starlight Glimmer to visit Sunburst. They'll be back tomorrow.

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Magical Consultant

July 10: When Starlight arrived back from the Crystal Empire today, she burst into the library to tell me that she and Sunburst had been working on the Table problem pretty much the entire time she was there. She believes they have a working theory on how to fix it! They think that the high backed chairs identified with our cutie marks, the ones arranged around the table, are key. Sunburst has a few more books to track down and consult and Starlight is being catty with the details until they've hammered it out a bit more. This could be good, Sunburst is really good at piecing together obscure incantations and generally fixing magical puzzles. They're going to work on it some more after Starlight gets back from Manehattan.

Tomorrow Starlight Glimmer will be leaving again, off to Manehattan where she and Rarity are going to a Bridleway show. Rarity will be staying a while longer on business, mostly taking care of her boutique there. She has mailed more clothes to Rarity For You and that's due to arrive there tomorrow or the next day.

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Serenity

July 11: It's just me and Spike in the castle tonight. By now Starlight Glimmer and Rarity will have had supper in Manehattan, seen Little Shop of Halters on Bridleway, admired Manehattan by night, stopped in a tearoom for a nightcap and returned to their hotel rooms. I hope I'll get a Friendship Report from Starlight Glimmer when she gets back.

It's quiet in the castle. Out on the balcony it's just me, a few books, my telescope and the night sky. I didn't see any meteors and the constellations are mostly still. Tonight they seem content to just be part of Luna's tableau, resting in a black velvet field of sparkling stars and watching the dance of the fireflies in the green fields below.

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Lunch With Canterlot Friends

July 12: Today I took a small trip of my own. I went to Canterlot, nominally to buy hoof powder from a specialty store for me and Rarity. Rarity was still in Manehattan for the day to look after Rarity For You and to see what else is in style in Manehattan first hoof. Starlight came back with the morning train. She said the show was excellent and then she dived into her books.

It's the same powder the Princesses use. I'm nearly always barefoot, but the Princesses wear their boots as a matter of course all year round and I don't know how bad your nails smell if you wear shoes or gloves a lot, but pony hoofs can really stink when sealed off in hoofwear. Like in the winter. I got an extra vanity jar for Rainbow Dash, I noticed that at home she really likes to wear slippers, and not just in the winter.

I went straight from the train station to the hoof powder store. It's an old apothecary in upper Canterlot, full of glass and porcelain containers of herbal concoctions, remedies and medicinal powders of all sorts. Zecora would love this place. It's right by Celestia's School, so with my (very expensive) sapphire jars of hoof powder sagely wrapped and stored in my saddle bag, I trotted down into the bowels of the Department of Physical Hippology and Archaeology to see if I could find Moondancer in her basement office. She was there in the research archives, working on a document in her crevice piled high with scrolls, artifact fragments and reference books. I tried to describe sunshine to her, but in the end I just dragged her out of her grotto and into the light.

She proposed lunch with our friends at a place off the beaten path. It has good food at reasonable prices and it's a favorite with the students. First we collected Lemon Hearts, Lyra Heartstrings, Minuette and Twinkleshine and we all had lunch together. We monopolized a table for a long time, chatting about old times and catching up with what every pony has been up to. Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine had gone to see the Baltimare fireworks in the Crystal Empire, so we compared notes with the ones I'd attended. Minuette said she might go cheer on Canterlot.

By the time we finished chatting, it was time for me to gallop to the station or I'd miss my train. I flew there instead, the Canterlot streets can be slippery and I didn't want to arrive in a lather. Or knock over ponies on the way. It would get into the gossip pages.

That was a fun trip but I didn't get any new books! At least I got the foot powder. I'll give those to Rarity and Dash next time I see them.

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Vanity Hoof Powder

July 13: I dropped in on Rainbow Dash during my morning stroll and caught her at home before she stepped out on cloud patrol. She was wearing her slippers. Aha! I told her that I had a surprise gift for her and she lit up, but when I told her the sapphire jar contained hoof powder, she didn't know what to make of it. So I told her that in the winter, when we wear our boots, the air gets cut off to our hooves, and they get wet and smelly. The brush that comes with it helps get the powder into those deep crevices and that cures the smell. I told her this is the good stuff, it's what the princesses use. She thought the idea of princesses with smelly hooves was hilarious. OK, so I guess she liked the gift anyway.

Rarity was more... enthused. She is familiar with hoof powder and delighted that I had thought to get her a fresh vanity jar of the good stuff. While I was there, I found out that she's decided to go to Yakyakistan five days from now to buy cloth and that Pinkie is going with her. I jumped on the occasion to invite myself along! Back at the castle I wrote to Princess Cadence to arrange for a place to stay for two nights for three ponies. Before I sent the letter, I managed to get hold of Moondancer via Haycartes and convince her to go on a snowflake safari with me. So I changed the letter to two nights accommodation for four ponies, and sent it.

I forgot to ask Rarity about the Bridleway musical.

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And Then We Were Five

July 14: Applejack got wind of our Yakyakistan trip and she let me know that she'd like to go along with us. So I sent another letter to Princess Cadence. I hope she doesn't mind.

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Cloud Clash

July 15: I got a reply from Princess Cadence for that first letter, she said she has room for the four of us. My second letter, where I added Applejack to our group, probably crossed paths with that reply in the mail.

Since I left Canterlot without stopping in a bookstore, I decided to go look for books in the Ponyville bazaar today. Instead of a worthy book, I found a Cloud Clash game instead. I had one once, but it got fried with the Golden Oak. Next game night I'll be able to include that game as an option.

It was really hot again. I went for ice cream at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie. We agreed it's about time that we had another ice cream confection party. Usually that means right now with Pinkie, but she must be booked solid for parties because we didn't set a date. She'll probably surprise us, as she is wont to do.

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Dutiful Spike

July 16: Spike caught the Friendship Express this morning for the Crystal Empire where he'll be welcomed back as Hero of the Empire and figurehead for the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. He'll get pampered and stuffed with gemstones and be back tomorrow. It's a hard life.

It's Canterlot that will be lighting up the sky there tonight. I considered going with Minuette, but I've been to the Ponyville show and the Cloudsdale brontotechnic display, and Minuette may have decided not to go. We'll be five heading for the Crystal Empire in a couple of days anyway. I'll get my fill of crowds there and in Yakyakistan then.

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Traveling Ponies

July 17: Spike is back with news that the wild growth and flash mobs of creatures has apparently ended in the Crystal Empire and surrounding area. It looks like they won't be needing the first cut hay Ponyville had set aside for them. If we still have a lot left over by next year, we might end up building with it.

He told me that the Canterlot fireworks were spectacular and that it's going to be hard for the judges to pick a winner. Oh, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were there to watch too. If I'd only known, I might have gone.

Starlight Glimmer left this morning for the Crystal Empire to see how Sunburst's research is going. Tomorrow afternoon it will be our turn to hop on the Friendship Express. First to the legendary home of the crystal ponies, and from there to the exotic lands of Yakyakistan! I have my winter gear all packed, a magnifying glass, my field notebook, and most importantly, my copy of The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them.

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Adventure Awaits!

July 18: I received a note from Princess Cadence in the morning mail: five ponies will be fine. We're good to go! Starlight still hasn't come back from the Crystal Empire. I hope that means progress! We leave for Crystal Empire this afternoon, and after a night's stay, we hike to Yakyakistan the following morning.

Moondancer got here this morning and since not much had changed since her overnight stay last year, we mostly explored this, my magic Treecastle link to a giant library in another universe, called "The Web". Haycartes doesn't work on the link (she tried). I told her it's just as well. She could get turned into a spider with no way back to Equestria!

We're off to the station. I'm taking my copy of The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them, of course. Rarity will be looking for fabric, Applejack for business opportunities and crop strains, and Pinkie apparently would like to find glacier-polished rocks as gifts for her family. Moondancer and I plan on a fun day out on the ice fields of Yakyakistan, prospecting for wild snowflakes. And tonight I'll show her the Crystal Empire Castle Library! Sunburst has been putting a lot of time into reshelving the books by subject and author (I'm so jealous) and I can't wait to see the result! It's going to be fun, fun, fun!

Time pull Moondancer out of my library and trot to the train station.

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(Dear Ponyville, your Princess has flown the stable again! Good luck catching her.)

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Traveling The Yak Felt Trail

July 20: We got back from the Yak capital in time to catch the afternoon train in the Crystal Empire. Rarity had us all saddled with bolt after bolt of the finest yak felt cloth in bright, dazzling patterns. We were probably quite the sight, trudging through the Crystal Empire outskirts on our way home. The bolts were amazingly light, but very bulky to carry. From afar, we probably looked like giant, luridly colored tortoises with tiny legs. The cloth rode in the baggage car; loaded like we were, we wouldn't have fit through the door. Rarity made arrangements for three times more cloth to get carted to Ponyville.

I'd bought a ton of books and a bunch that I've borrowed from the Crystal Castle Library were waiting for me at the station. Applejack and Pinkie didn't leave empty hoofed either. They are excited about some sticky, chewy Yak pastries they'd found there. Pinkie also came back with fermented yak milk1. That stuff stinks! Applejack carried her gift rocks and her pouch of wind-borne glacial till for her, so that they would retain that delicate alpine smell and not smell like sour milk. We double triple wax canvas sealed the jugs of milk so they wouldn't get on Rarity's cloth. The yak wax vendor assured us that the yak wax seal would be perfect and no yak milk would escape to harm the yak felt. Yaks are very particular about quality, although perfect sour milk is a difficult concept to grasp. Applejack also picked up some "winter wheat" seeds that she wants to try.

Moondancer is back in Canterlot by now, also saddled with books. I think she was happy that I got her out of her cramped basement office in the Department of Hippology for a fun day trip out on the ice fields of Yakyakistan. The downside was that it just wasn't the right season for snowflake collecting. We did spot a few fresh snowflakes in the higher elevations, but it's a dry period right now and most of what we found in the glacial crevasses had sublimed and fused. But the views were gorgeous2. On the sunny side of the mountains there were terraced yak paddies tucked out of the wind and irrigated with glacial melt. On the frozen north-facing slopes, bobsled runs (Pinkie just had to try that). Everywhere, bright fuzzy, ground hugging flowers and organic shapes carved out of the rocks by the action of wind, water and ice. Eerie and beautiful.

Starlight Glimmer got back before we did and I found her bursting with the news that she and Sunburst think they have come up with a working solution. I've read their proposal and it has all the hallmarks of Sunburst's methodology -- it takes two ponies to cast the spell and all six of us have to be there. Starlight is so keen to cast the spell that I bet if she could have done so on her own, she'd have already cast it. The spell looks complex, but doable. I asked Spike to invite everypony over tomorrow so we can give it a try.

1 Pinkie said the Cakes wanted the fermented yak milk. They have a few classic yak cake recipes they acquired through trade and they call for fermented yak milk. So Pinkie's primary mission in Yakyakistan was to acquire fermented yak milk and to scout for exotic specialty treats. Everything else was just clovers.

2 My legs ache from all those steep trails and my lips are chapped from the constant wind, but it was a lot of fun. Each of my friends brought something to the excursion that I would not have seen or done otherwise. Friendship broadens your horizons.

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A Stitch In Time

July 21 : Together Stalight and Sunburst have decided that our connection to the table is facilitated by the high-backed chairs that circle it. The chairs connect to the table and they are linked to us. They postulate that Star Swirl's time travel spell, as modified by Starlight, knocked the chairs out of time phase with table, but just slightly. There's enough overlap that we can still see both the chairs and the table, but somehow the chairs can't "see" the table. That says a lot about us1. Long story short, it takes Starlight and me working together to cast the spell, and all six of us had to be there so that all the connections get properly synchronized.

And it worked! Rarity and Pinkie got saddled with a job in Canterlot and they trotted out the door, leaving the rest of us mulling over this new turn of events. Applejack noted dryly that it's good we fixed the table soonish after it had gone off its rocker, otherwise we'd all be galloping in all directions like startled fillies. Dash said she half expected another chair to pop up, with Starlight Glimmer's mark on it, seeing as she was casting the fix-it spell with me. That would have been... something. You don't really know what to expect with the Tree of Harmony. I could wake up one day to find the whole Friendship Castle gone, or somepony else's cutie marks on the chairs. But for now, we're still connected to the Elements of Harmony.

The map evaporated and we went back to our routines. Fluttershy to her wards, Applejack to buck some early apples before it got dark, Dash... didn't say, but probably to reread some Daring Do to her tortoise, and I went back to my reading.

1 We apparently experience a fuzzy approximation of time. Remember that I said generally we see the world as the most common average of possibilities of distances, that we can choose which displacement from point 'A' to point 'B' we or an object we touch can take, but generally our Equestria defaults to a fuzzy steady state. Well, the chairs and the time travel demonstrate that we aren't quite tethered to quantum time. I'm going to have to rethink Pinkie Sense some more.

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Food For Thought

July 22: Rarity and Pinkie found and solved their quest and they're already back, so we had a Friendship Council meeting to receive their report. It was about strengthening the sire/filly bond in a family restaurant, although Rainbow Dash said the Map may have sent us there to improve pony nutrition in Canterlot. I glanced over to see what Fluttershy thought of that proposal and she didn't look like she thought that remark was entirely wrong. So, maybe the Tree does want us to eat right. The Griffonstone task was about food, and so was the Hooffields/McColt conflict, to a large extent. We ended up debating the importance of food in building friendships. Which made everypony hungry, so we adjourned to the kitchen where we all worked together to make a celebration feast for a successful Map Quest conclusion.

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Apple Cake Taster

July 23: After Spike left for the Crystal Empire Fireworks Festival, I wandered down to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack was busy in the kitchen cooking up some early tart apples. She was trying to emulate some yak cakes she'd tasted when we were in Yakyakistan a few days ago, but she was swapping in apples in lieu of the cranberries the yaks use. I got to sample several cakes, each was a variation on a white or shortbread cake with diced apples baked in as a middle layer and a topping. Applejack was playing with the icing and the spices as she searched for the best combination. They were all good, especially while still hot out of the oven.

The evening's fireworks are probably over in the Crystal Empire. It was Sea Cattle putting on the show this time. I couldn't see the flashes from my balcony, but all of Equestria can feel the happiness of the crystal ponies and see the tendrils of light flung across the sky by the Crystal Heart.

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Good Vibrations

July 24: Over that supper we had the other night, Pinkie, Spike and Rarity got to discussing rock culture. Rarity was interested in knowing why there are so many big and beautiful gems in the bat cave she has been spelunking (while trying valiantly to avoid getting covered in bat guano). Pinkie is mostly familiar with open-air rock farming and bat-free grottoes, but she and Spike were in agreement that a combination of the acoustics in the cave and the ultrasonic squeaks of the bats probably augmented the growth of the gems that were naturally there. Together they came up with the suggestion that Rarity should plant gem grit in the cave, thus seeding it for future gem crops. Fluttershy weighed in that they should also make sure that their bat population is stable and sustainable in the long term. She's going to go with Rarity next time to see the cave and survey the bats on their way out, with the goal of finding out which ecosystems they're exploiting.

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Spike's Green Rod

July 25: To my surprise, Spike has been keeping a few more of the gems from the lunches that the crystal ponies pack for him. The train ride home after the fireworks events is long and snacking on jewels while watching the scenery go by is just the thing Spike would do... until he ran out of jewels. But in an amazing feat of restraint, not only did he save some for later, he has been growing them. I knew that he had planned on growing an emerald and a sapphire, but I didn't know that he had followed through on that plan, although I should have guessed. Spike did grow a very nice fire ruby once, and it got quite large and attractive, so he seems to be skilled at this. The sapphire is from Rarity's bat cave, but the emerald was the first of the lunch gems that he successfully avoided eating on the train back from his Crystal Empire duties. He showed it to me today and it's pretty impressive. All the cracks and inclusions are gone and it has grown into a fat hexagonal rod as long as Spike's arm. He hasn't decided when or on what occasion to eat it yet. He's having too much fun growing the gems.

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Cold Treats

July 26: Pinkie sprang a surprise ice cream confection party on us today. I found out about it earlier than most because Pinkie decided the tree-chest castle is the best for an ice cream making party, but she had to be sure it was alright first. In case I'd spread my stamp collection all over the dining room table. I don't collect stamps. She announced that friendship is food and ice cream is the best food there is! I think she may have danced and sung while she made that proclamation... I was too busy wondering where I should file stamp collecting and ice cream in my Elements of Friendship : Resources, References and Results. Then she was gone, off to the races, leaving me with my ears ringing from a toy horn blast, in a cloud of confetti and with an invitation stuffed in my mouth. Mid afternoon! That was short notice. I didn't have to trot far with my pails and bowls but it meant that I did have to scramble for ingredients and flavors.

Not the mane ingredients. Pinkie had that covered: cream, milk, sugar and salt. She also was bringing the hoof-cranked churns. She had put Rainbow Dash in charge of the ice. That meant Dash had been the first in on the surprise. I rounded up Spike and Starlight Glimmer and together we worked out a plan of action. Our plan was to trot off to the bazaar to see what we could find there.

On the way I decided I wanted to make mint chocolate flake ice cream. Spike thought tourmaline ruby ice cream would be good but I told him he'd be the only one to eat it and good luck finding those gems in the bazaar. Turns out he had some tourmaline and ruby left over from his Crystal Empire lunches, so I suggested he spice it up with paprika. As for Starlight, she looked around the bazaar a bit and decided she wanted a practical ice cream. Hay and rolled oat. We already had those items in our pantry, so I suggested she mix it up a bit and add dandelion flowers. That was acceptable. We left the bazaar with dandelion flowers, spicy paprika, mint oil and big chunk of hard black chocolate. It wasn't our biggest haul.

Back at the castle, Spike ground up his two gems into sparkly grit, I lined up the bowls, pails, spoons, chopping and flaking tools on the dining room table, and Starlight put a few cups of chopped third cut hay to soften up in hot water.

Pinkie and Dash were the first to arrive. They set up the ice-maker and I placed Pinkie's three ice cream churns on the table. Spike put his ground up stones and his paprika on the table, I got out my ingredients and Starlight came in with her oats and a bowl of strained wet hay. Soon after that, everypony had arrived and we could get started.

We made three teams. I teamed up with Starlight Glimmer, Rarity teamed up with Fluttershy and Spike, and Pinkie, Dash and Applejack made up the third team. Rainbow Dash's ice-maker started cranking out the ice and chilling the room in the process. It's cool in the castle already, but with and ice-maker in the room, it quickly got frosty.

Everypony wanted their turn turning the crank on the ice cream churns, just to warm up. We were blowing great billowing gouts of vapor from our nostrils as we huffed over the churns. Frost was building up on the table and walls. I sent Spike to get blankets out of storage for everypony and after we'd strapped those on we felt better. There was no problem keeping the fresh ice cream from melting.

I made my mint chocolate ice cream first, Starlight and I took turns between grating the chocolate flakes into the mix and turning the crank. She wanted to churn the mix magically but I told her that sharing a task builds friendships. As will eating the ice cream together later on.

Spike made his gem ice cream last, to make sure no sparkly grit got into Rarity's chocolate saffron ice cream or Fluttershy's raspberry oat nut crunch ice cream. On Pinkie's team, Dash made orange sesame ice cream, Applejack made an apple cinnamon ice cream, and Pinkie's ice cream flavor was peppermint cherry swirl.

We'd finished by evening and eight big buckets of fresh ice cream graced the center of the frost-covered table. We went out on the balcony where is was a lot warmer and dined on hay and vegetable sticks washed down with hot tea. When we had warmed up we sampled each other's creations, except for Spike's, and traded scoops. All the flavors tasted wonderful, even Starlight's hay ice cream. It was like a meal and dessert rolled into one. I think it was the dandelions that made the difference. If nothing else, they made her creation look like a swirly field of wind blown grass and yellow flowers. Pretty and tasty.

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A Tale Of Two Cakes

July 27: The castle absorbed and redistributed the freezing cold from the ice cream making session we'd had yesterday, probably cooling the entire castle and the bedrock it sprang from, ever so slightly. Spike mopped up the puddles from the melted frost early this morning. Good thing there aren't any rugs, or books, in the dining room.

It's meteor shower season! According to my Astronomer's Almanac, the best time to watch them is in the hours before morning twilight, but there are always a frisky few itching to go galloping through the dark skies at all hours of the night. This calls for a shooting star picnic. I put Pinkie in charge of planning it and we'll be heading out to pasture tomorrow night to go sky watching.

It's also the start of blueberry season. Yesterday, when we were foraging for ice cream flavorings at the bazaar, I noticed that ponies were already selling blueberries. Today I thought we could try our hooves at baking a blueberry rolled oat cake. That would go great with the ice cream Applejack made. Fluttershy's too.

Spike went to the market for blueberries, butter, milk and eggs and I set out the recipe, mixing bowls, measuring spoons, measuring cup, strainer, baking pans, stirring spoons and dry ingredients. When Spike got back, I got Starlight Glimmer while he washed the blueberries. It looked like we had fewer blueberries when we arrived back in the kitchen, but there were still enough for a few cakes.

Starlight Glimmer took one look at the recipe, cast a cake-making spell and presto, produced a blue and white cake that looked fabulous. It didn't quite taste as good as it looked. Maybe it cooked too fast or wasn't mixed enough. What really was missing was the baking smells and the friendship bond that comes from cooking together. We started over.

Spike mixed and tasted, Starlight poured the ingredients and I organized the work flow. Soon we had the blueberry and cake batter mix cooking in the oven while we worked on the icing. It was a light butter lemon icing. We put that in the cooler, cleaned up and fixed lunch while the cake baked. The cake came out of the oven during lunch, and when it was cool, Spike applied the icing and we all licked the bowl and utensils. To friendship! Now we had two cakes. And then Fluttershy came over for ice cream.

What's left of our ice cream is safely stored in the pantry ice box, along with Fluttershy's pail. She didn't take all of her ice cream home since the critters would have eaten it all before she had another taste, but she does like to share a treat with them. So she took home what was left of her raspberry oat nut crunch ice cream and stored the flavors she'd traded scoops for here. It was another hot day in Ponyville and she was back to eat some today.

So she dropped in soon after we'd frosted our second blueberry rolled oat cake, and her timing could not have been better. We all had cake and ice cream together.

The second cake, I'll call it Spike's cake, was the better tasting cake.

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Picnic Under A Canopy Of Stars

July 28: It's meteor shower picnic night! We've packed our saddle bags, loaded our baskets and we're heading out to the western pasture any minute now. Even though there will be plenty of pasture to graze, everypony is bringing something to eat. We made another blueberry rolled oat cake, a big jug of chilled mint tea and a big bowl of oven crisped salted lettuce leaves. Of course I'm taking my almanac and my Double Bridle telescope. Gotta go! Everypony is probably waiting for me downstairs.

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On The Grass Below The Sea Of Stars

July 29: We had the western meadow to ourselves last night. It wasn't a spectacular shooting star event and I guess most ponies aren't as keen on star gazing as I am. Or they chose other places and times to look up at the boundless ocean of stars.

We set out the picnic blanket and the cushions on the big hill. There were fireflies everywhere, blinking and tracing dashed lines of phosphorescent light in the moonlit waves of grass below us. We unpacked the snacks, I set up my telescope and Rarity put out candles all around us, to fit the mood. It was like we were inside our own abstract, immobile constellation in a green sky of hyperactive, flashing stars. Like a crude facsimile of the sky above. I hoped the stars weren't insulted. But after drinking some of Pinkie's blueberry punch and eating a few of Fluttershy's sesame snap cookies, I got over that and I enjoyed the illusion of being adrift among the stars with my friends.

We lay down on the blanket and cushions and watched the antics of the constellations as they chased meteors that whisked by, trailing long sparkling tails and winking in and out like fireflies in the sky. It must be fun to be a shooting star. They look so playful and carefree, galloping and frisking about like that.

The meteors were few and far between and we took turns looking at the fainter stars through my telescope and chatting. Eventually we finished off the tea and the punch and we even ate all of the blueberry rolled oat cake. By the time the shooting stars were beginning to come out in larger numbers, everypony was ready to call it a night. We blew out the candles, collected our things, saddled up our bundles and made our way back through the fireflies and long grass, to Ponyville. Above, a few shooting stars seemed to be escorting us there.

Much later this morning, after I'd started my second pot of chocolate peppermint spice tea, I remembered how nice Spike looked after that time he had his scales waxed and his nails trimmed at the spa. Since tomorrow he'll be presiding over the final contest entry in the Fireworks Festival and the following day he'll be announcing the winner, it would be good that he looked his best. So we went to the spa today and ordered the wax.

I specified the glitter-free wax. Glittery wax would have been too much. We were looking for presence, not a circus act look. The spa ponies did a great job, polishing him up so much that he nearly has a mirror shine. It's pretty impressive. It's late now but I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't still preening and flexing while admiring his reflection a mirror. I'd better check. We were up really late watching the stars last night and while he fell asleep early on, he might have a slight sleep deficit today. He wouldn't want to spend the evening tomorrow fighting to stay awake.

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Excitement In The Air

July 30: Spike was just a little bleary-eyed when he left this morning for the Crystal Empire. He probably caught a nap on the train, or if not there, I'm sure his Crystal Empire fan club saw to it that he got a nap there before he was needed for the festival. Whinnyapolis will have lit up the sky there tonight.

With the Crystal Heart lights streaming down from the north, I can feel some of the excitement and anticipation of the crystal ponies. Whinnyapolis was the last of the festival participants and the winners will be announced tomorrow. The constellations look like they've caught some of that excitement too. The Ursa Minor is running around in circles and Leo and the Ursa Major are play wrestling. I bet that when the shooting stars start flying, it's going to be spectacular. I plan to take a short nap out on the balcony so I don't miss it.

Spike will get back some time next evening, which is later than usual. The official proclamation of festival judges should happen around midday. Next week Spike will take one last train ride to the Crystal Empire to be there for the awards ceremony and to close the festival. To finish with a bang, the top artificer will have the honor of launching the last firework display of the festival.

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Fattening the Flashy Glass

July 31: I successfully napped my way to the predawn peak of shooting star activity and woke up to a meteor party! They're small and faint meteors, but I saw quite a few zipping around, sometimes one every two minutes! Twice I saw a shooting star with a persistent tail, or it may have been the same one twice. Either way, that made my night. The Crystal Heart lights had faded away hours earlier, but I could still feel a faint, lingering echo of the excitement of the crystal ponies. I suspect that that was a factor in my enjoyment of the meteor shower.

Spike arrived back without incident. He knew we were champing at the bit to find out which city was chosen as having put on the best show of the festival, so he let us stew for a while. Finally he told us: it was Cloudsdale in first, Canterlot as runner up and Manehattan coming in third. I'm happy that I had decided to go to the Cloudsdale performance.

Spike was carrying one of those cloth bags with his likeness embroidered on it, the ones the crystal ponies fill with gems intended for his train ride lunch or snack. I could hear two rocks knocking together in it so I asked him what he'd kept this time. Turns out it was a small yellow diamond and a black opal. The diamond I get, but the opal, sure it's beautiful with its flashes of red, green and yellow, but it's just glass. Because it's amorphous, not crystalline, Spike says it's going to be harder to grow, but he's keen to try. He's going to grow it in a water bath and the tricky part is keeping the water content down in the stone. Too much water content and it will crack when he's finished growing it and he takes it out. Does that matter? Do the cracks change the flavor? I assume Spike going to eat his gem collection after he's fattened them up.

That sounded monstrous. OK, not fattened, but grown to prize picking size. There, that sounds awkward, but better.

Still, glass? Fancy glass, but still glass. Maybe I could write to Dragon Lord Ember and ask her if opal tastes better than a glass jar. Or maybe that would be insulting. I'll ask Spike instead.

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Author's Note

In Twilight's Blog here on the Net,
She writes in her journal after the sun has long set.
Half the summer gone and the short nights fly by,
Twilight ponders the wherefore's, the how's and the why.

Once upon a time, when I was hand raising orphaned deer, the fawns would help themselves to the ice cream I was trying to eat.

XX August

Best Of Glass

Aug 1: I got my answer. Spike doesn't expect the opal to taste all that good, which is why he chose to have fun trying to grow it instead. He has it soaking in a big jar with a lot of glass fragments.

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Through The Steady Rain

Aug 2: Ponyville hasn't been seeing many tourists this year. I think just gawking at the Friendship Castle has lost its luster and the place to see this summer has been the Crystal Empire with its Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival and flash mobs of every kind of small exotic animal. It's not like I hold Friendship Courts or like there was a Fun Fun Fun Land here. I think the citizens of Ponyville would flip if Mayor Mare was to have something like that built in our pastures. There's being friendly and there's bumping into too many tourists who are out to have fun at all hours of the day and night. Ponies here had enough trouble getting used to my castle popping up out of the ground and half-blocking the view of Canterlot.

It was raining steadily all day which has had me stabled indoors behind walls of books while drinking gallons of spiced teas. A slow, introspective day. Tomorrow, Ponyville will have been washed clean by the rain and the sunshine will make everything sparkle. It will also wash the dust off the grass in the pastures. I have a Hay Board meeting to attend tomorrow. The timothy grass has gotten lush and tall and I expect that the second cut will take place this week.

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Hay Board Strategies

Aug 3: I took part in the Hay Board meeting today. It is still our intention to push the harvests earlier to give the grass more time to recover before the winter. Our product planning strategists are confident that we will produce enough high quality second cut hay and bagged silage to meet demand. They worked together with the pasture tech ponies to map out which fields were best harvested as hay and which were best suited to be baled in polymer silage bags.

The pasture tech delegates reported that the grass is ready to be harvested, but they expressed concern about the moisture content of the soil. If the harvest was to start today, the lower parts of the fields would run the risk of getting churned into mud by the mowers. Hay left to dry on mud will become inedible. It will get moldy. But they expect, with a little earth pony help, that the ground will have absorbed the rain by tomorrow and be dry enough by that afternoon. Just to be sure, the harvest will start at the higher, dryer ground and make its way down slope over the next few days.

Ponyville is going to smell good!

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Grass Ponies

Aug 4: The second cut harvest has started and already the intoxicating smell of curing hay is wafting through Ponyville and in my balcony doors. I am expecting yaks to appear at any moment, pulled all the way from Yakyakistan by the aroma. I've been eating fresh bread slathered with generous amounts of apple butter to take my mind off of all that glorious fresh cut hay. It's not working. I'm not the only pony to whom the hay calls. Foals are out under the cover of darkness, rolling in the cut grass and leaving pony silhouette shapes in the fields. I can hear them giggling and whispering in the still night air. I can't see them, but I saw a few more shooting stars flash by silently in the southern part of the sky. They are remembering us as they pass, remembering that they were ponies, remembering the joy and freedom of galloping with the wind in your mane. I think mid-summer is my favorite time of year.

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Fancy Harvest Feast

Aug 5: Ponies were in the fields tedding yesterday's mow and cutting further downslope. By the light of day I could see the spread-eagled pony shapes of the grass ponies the foals had made by rolling and flailing in the cut grass last night. They'd also pushed through the trimmed fields to draw roadways and spirals. The tedding wiped out their patterns and replaced it with that of a roiling, troubled sea of grass. It could be three more days before the grass will be dry enough to be baled. Further afield, I can see some of our polymer-wrapped silage awaiting pick-up.

Pinkie called us to a harvest feast in Applejack's barn. She'd teamed up with the Cakes to bake up, stew, fry and generally prepare a mountain of mid-summer fare. Rarity had a hoof in this. She did the presentation of food, setting out a white tablecloth on a very long table, and populating it with china plates, crystal goblets and artistically arranged food. I especially liked her salad houses made from carrots and thatched with hay.

Dinner was after sundown so Applejack and her family could finish haying. They arrived famished and we got right down to eating. We started with a sweet white flour soup. Applejack and Big McIntosh were drinking their second bowls before I was halfway though my first serving. Next we carved into bouquets of wildflowers, miniature bales of alfalfa sprouts tied with fresh bedstraw, timber wolves built out of celery sticks, silage cascading down mounds of crispy fried hay, cakes shaped like mountains topped with white icing, and an ice cream dish with vanilla, lemon and apple ice cream flowers in a field of mint chocolate ice cream. Even the bread was carved into cloud shapes and the butter into little stars and moons. We somehow managed to eat just about everything. Whatever was left I think Applejack's family will probably polish off for breakfast before heading out to cut more hay.

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Cutting Through The Grassy Haze

Aug 6: Spike left this morning for the final night of the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. He'll be presiding over the award ceremony and attending the gala dinner. Since Cloudsdale won, it will be their honor to close the festival with one last pyrotechnic display. All the competitors are invited to the gala dinner, and I'd learned that Zecora declined the invitation. Ponyville is being represented by Mayor Mare and Amethyst Star. Pinkie also declined the dinner.

Pinkie and Rarity's elegant feast (in Applejack's barn! So funny!) helped take a bit of the edge off, but that smell of fresh cut hay drying in the sun is still making it hard to concentrate. I decided to pick up a tub of ice cream and visit Zecora.

There were a lot of ponies at Sugarcube Corner. They probably also had the same general idea, try to resist rushing out into the fields and galloping like mad mares through the intoxicating smell. Pinkie and the cakes were in high production, baking cupcakes, lemon poppy seed muffins, rock candy and cookies and selling them before they'd had a chance to cool down. I was lucky that there was a tub of dandelion orange ice cream left when I got my turn at the counter. I would have liked a couple of those lemon poppy seed muffins as well, but the cooked ones were already sold out. I thanked Pinkie and the Cakes for the delicious feast we'd had and trotted quickly out of the shop. Between the crowd and the nonstop baking, it was like an oven in there.

I see why Pinkie ended up not going to the fireworks dinner. Helping the Cakes spread comfort and joy in Ponyville is clearly a priority. I rewrapped the tub of ice cream in Ponyville newspapers and set off for the Everfree Forest.

Entering the Everfree was like a mixed blessing. I was out of the sun and the dank odor of the undergrowth blocked the smell of hay, but with the humidity it felt even hotter and the weird buzz of the Everfree buzzards had me slinking carefully through the shadows.

To my relief, Zecora was home. She usually is, but still, when you think you see timber wolves lurking in every pile of dead branches, you desperately hope you won't end up alone at your destination. Believe me.

Zecora graciously welcomed the ice cream and got out bowls and cookies. They were cinnamon swirls, the swirl pattern looking just like her cutie mark, and very good. We chatted about the fireworks and the Crystal Empire, about the discovery Moondancer is working on and how it will rewrite pony history and about maintaining focus when the air is full of the sweet smell of curing hay. After tea Zecora coached me through some breathing exercises. I felt well centered and clear after that. On my walk back home, filtering through the background noise and rustles of the Everfree and giving a manticore and a cockatrice a wide berth was foal's play.

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Hot Horse Hay

Aug 7: They've mowed the fields down to the lowest areas and most of the second cut has been baled. The fields look very pretty, so clean and dotted with long rectangular bales. The silage has already been picked up and moved to storage. I'd better buy my hay soon before the yak buyers cause the price to rocket.

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Keeping The Household Well Stocked

Aug 8: We burned through my supply of second cut hay much faster than I thought we would last year. We are again out of second cut hay, we just finished off the five bales I'd bought a few moons ago to tide us over to this harvest. So, instead of 15 bales, I decided to buy 30 bales of second cut hay. We'll see how that has gone when the third cut gets harvested. If I underestimated our hay consumption again, I'll just buy more third cut hay1.

I found Applejack at the Ponyville marketplace with a big cart full of freshly baled hay. I waited for my turn behind a pair of Yak buyers. They were haggling with Applejack and prodding the bales in her cart. No doubt looking for that perfect bale, but much more polite that Prince Rutherford in that regard. Smashing stuff is bad for business. I ordered my thirty bales and trotted home to prepare. Applejack hitched herself to her cart and headed off to deliver her load of hay to the train station.

With Spike's help I cleaned out the hay dust from the room that has been repurposed as a second and third cut pantry and straightened up the grid of wood planks. There are four bales of third cut hay left. I moved them closer to the door. Applejack is going to deliver my hay order tomorrow.

1 Before Starlight Glimmer joined us at the castle, our hay consumption was approximately one bale of first cut every 11 days, two bales of second cut every moon and one bale per moon for the third cut hay. Now we are two sedentary ponies and one dragon in residence here, and our staple diet is first cut hay. The second and third cut hays are mostly for guest dinners and as a treat. Since I don't expect more guests or potluck dinners this year, it stands to reason that my second and third cut consumption should remain mostly the same. But I expect a marked increase in first cut hay consumption. Originally, my first cut stores was going to last me until well past harvest. So, with Starlight Glimmer now in the equation, I roughly doubled what should have been a year's supply of first cut hay without her. My second cut hay was already getting consumed faster than I had originally projected, which is why I doubled my order from last year. My third cut hay consumption appears to be about what I had projected late last fall. I'll decide how much to get when the time comes.

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Second Cut Short Cut Straight Up

Aug 9: This afternoon, Big McIntosh and Applejack rolled up with two carts piled high with soft green bales of fragrant second cut hay. Applejack joked that she had selected the best bales, seeing as she was going to be obliged to eat them for all of the coming year. I fired back that this hay wasn't for eating, I was going to stuff mattresses with it. Starlight Glimmer, who was out with me to move the hay, looked shocked. I had to tell her it was a joke.

I waited and chatted with Applejack and Big McIntosh while Starlight went back inside and climbed the stairs to reach our impromptu "pantry'. She opened the balcony door and called down that she was ready. I levitated the hay.

I lifted the hay from the carts and sent the thirty bales rising in single file, like a string of giant beads, up and through the balcony door, where Starlight Glimmer recovered them. At her end she was in charge of stacking the bales. I let go of each bale as I lost sight of them, and Starlight picked them up from there, dropping them in well ordered rows and columns of small towers of hay. I think that was something she really enjoyed. A place for everything and everything in it's place. She did a good job too, we can easily walk around the stacks and that means air will circulate well too.

Rarity, Spike and Fluttershy went out to the gem cave at dusk to find out where the bats go at night. Spike got back a little while ago and he said it seems they like the marshy areas around Ponyville and Saddle lake. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are going to study the feasibility of establishing bat sanctuaries in those areas. Fluttershy also recommends a seasonal approach to gem collection in the caves, to avoid disturbing the roosts at critical times, such as when the bats are hibernating and when the pups are too young to fly.

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Hay Array

Aug 10: The first cut hay that I have in my pantry isn't all aging at the same rate. Even though it was all harvested from the same field on the same day, there are differences from one bale to the next. I'd already organized them by size; bigger bales on the bottom, smallest on top. By weight; heavier, probably not quite as dry hay closer to the door. By starch content; rougher, less leafy hay mostly in the center of the room where their turn will coincide with those cold winter days. Now I had a color gradient to add to the equation.

I had just started to sort through the hay when Starlight Glimmer came trotting down the corridor and looked in through the doorway. Her eyes lit up when I told her what I had in mind. She joined me and we spent a happy afternoon sorting, resorting and filing the first cut hay bales into what is probably an optimal utilitarian storage array. We stopped short of tagging each bale with a three dimensional Haycartesian coordinate sequence, but it sure was tempting. Anyway, the grid layout of the stacks is so obvious that locating, say, bale {0,0,3}, is a no-brainer1.

It seems almost a shame to eat them.

1 Before Glimmer's arrival, hay consumption was: me + Spike= 1 flake of hay (1st+2nd cut) per day, where 1 bale = 6 to 7 flakes. Now with Starlight added to the equation, consumption is up at around less than 50%. Thus, we should consume 10 flakes a week (not 7), but less because of grazing and summer crops. Last winter, for 1st cut alone, me+Spike = 1 bale in 11 days. Now we should be at 1 bale first cut per week and 3 flakes of second cut hay per week, except, must factor in grazing. Delivery was on June 30 when we'd completely run out. In six weeks four bales of that gone already, that leaves 46. So, the array: stacks of three in a four by four array (4x4x3=48). Two stacks nearest to the door actually two bales high. 50 bales for the year is cutting it close.

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To The Beautiful Night

Aug 11: My Astronomer's Almanac says that there will be a spectacular meteor shower tonight. There will be shooting stars about all night, but they will be extra numerous late tonight, especially with the other shooting star herd galloping about as well. I called on my friends to see who would be up for some sky gazing. Applejack declined the offer, the hay season and haggling with yaks has worn her out. Rainbow Dash has a Wonderbolt show to prepare for and Rarity is on a deadline for a client. But Spike will come along, Fluttershy said she'll be there, so will Pinkie and Starlight Glimmer. We've packed a picnic and we'll go to our favorite spot in the Western Pasture. Hopefully I won't get any hair in the food or in the drink. It's summer molt time.

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Deep Into The Night

Aug 12: We walked through the freshly shorn fields to our favorite hill in the Western Pasture, four ponies and a baby dragon under the starry skies. I saw four shooting stars on the way there. I would have seen more, but I had to watch where I was walking.

We spread our blanket and cushions and distributed the snacks by the light of the moon. I unpacked my Double Bridle telescope from its carrying case and focused it on the stars. Then Princess Luna, far away in Canterlot, set the moon. Show time!

In the pitch darkness the myriads of smaller, shyer stars came out as our eyes adjusted. More and more appeared. The sky was full of subtle glitter everywhere we looked, and in among the glitter, tiny streaks of light. Shooting stars! But so faint that the gentle light of the moon would have hidden them.

Then the big meteors came out to play. Starlight Glimmer had counted quite a few shooting stars earlier, at a rate of one every few minutes, but now there were bright streaks flying across the sky, especially in the southern edge, three, sometimes four at a time. There were fireballs! I tried to track them with my telescope, but they were just too fast.

I could have lain there watching the skies all night, but after an hour or so my friends were ready to go home. We gathered up our things and I gently picked Spike up to carry him back to the castle. He had fallen asleep early on. Above us the silent fireworks of the meteor shower carried on, too quiet and subtle for Spike this late at night. At this point it would have taken loud music and explosions to keep him awake.

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Shaking Out The Dust

Aug 13: Summer molt is making me itchy. I went out on the western balcony overlooking the mown fields and took a brush to my coat. From the hair bunnies rolling around in the wind eddies by the rail, I could see that Starlight Glimmer had been here doing just this earlier today. I stood by edge of the balcony while brushing out the short hairs and the dust. I think I'm overdue for a trip to the spa. Down below, the ever changing fields have gone from waves of dark green to a still yellow following the second cut. All the bales have been picked up and we're due for a visit from Cloudsdale.

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Ceci N'est Pas Un Spa

Aug 14: We got a hot and rainy day. The rain was of course from Cloudsdale, here to water our crops, wash the town and keep our river flowing. It felt good to walk in the warm downpour, but it's no substitute for the spa. Only two more days until spa day. Can I hold out? The spa is more fun with friends, especially during a miserable molt.

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Summer's Buffet

Aug 15: I went out for a stroll and came back from the Ponyville market with some of the summer's bounty. There was so many good things to choose from. Berries, fruits, leafy vegetables and root crops are fairly overflowing the stalls. Between this and grazing the green grass, I've put my summer weight back on. I could feel the bounce walking out to the Western Pasture hill top the other night. My friends also look sleek and healthy. Summer is good to us.

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Go With The Glow

Aug 16: It was finally spa day. I'd checked in with Rarity yesterday, just to be sure she'd be there and that I wasn't holding back for nothing. I showed up early and found Fluttershy waiting in the lobby. We chatted until Rarity arrived, at her usual time, followed by Starlight Glimmer and Applejack. Dash and Pinkie had gone yesterday, so it was just the five of us, although I hadn't been expecting Applejack.

Applejack has sold all the hay that she'd planned on selling and she's back to bucking the summer apples. She said that she feels like celebrating and getting all shiny at the spa fits the ticket. Those were her words, give or take a "countryism".

While getting scrubbed free of loose hair I wondered aloud what ponies did before there were spas. Rarity snorted and retorted that there surely had always been spas. Or at least brushes and baths. It would drive a pony mad to always be muddy and tangled. I had my doubts. Everything has a beginning.

I'd considered getting my feathers waxed again, but instead I asked for the Crystal Empire fragrant oil bath. The sleek, shiny look it gives a pony goes so well with this hot summer weather. And in my summer coat I leave less of an oil shadow everywhere I settle down. I feel so silky, it's a pleasure to toss my mane and feel it bounce back into place. Spa trip with friends, check!

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Balancing At The Center Of The Universe

Aug 17: It has been a hot summer but now the nights are starting to get chilly again. A slight breeze sent me in from the balcony to look for a blanket. But the stars drew me out again. The sky is so quiet and yet so alive and hot chocolate peppermint spice tea is wonderful under a cold canopy of twinkling stars.

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Restless

Aug 18: Last year around this time we were getting worried enough about Moondancer and Lemon Hearts that we were about ready to saddle up and go looking for them in the frozen north. This year Dash has her Wonderbolt shows, Rarity has three boutiques to keep her busy and I have a student to lead to Friendship. Most, if not all of Fluttershy's summer wards must have dispersed from her cottage by now. Since we don't have a quest lined up, maybe I could interest my friends in a camping trip?

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I Must Be Hungry

Aug 19: The Crystal Empire should have their second cut harvest soon. They're pretty far north, so their grass usually grows slower than ours. That means a later second cut and usually no third cut harvest. This year the crazy growing season they had for the first half of the summer probably changed their calendar, so I'm not sure when that second cut will happen. At least the clover hayworm moth infestation died back before it found all the stored hay. Cadence told me some farmers lost entire lofts to moths in just one night! Fun thing about Crystal Empire hay is that it looks nearly like normal hay except for the seed heads on the grasses. They're angular and the flat sides of the seeds catch the light. I should get a couple of bales of their first cut hay, just to add a little pizzazz and sparkle to a mixed hay salad!

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The Calm Before The Storm

Aug 20: I told Pinkie about my wanting to do a little camping. She was agog. I felt it necessary to remind her that the trip to rescue Moondancer and Lemon Hearts was one long camping trip. She said that was different. Unless I meant camping in a library. That sounded really tempting, but no and I hadn't chosen a destination.

I told her that we should plan that camping trip soon. Harvest season is cantering into our arena and before you know it, it'll be at full gallop, and it'll carry off Applejack. Same goes for fashion week. So long Rarity. It seems to me we just had one of those. How many fashion weeks are there in a year? So that would be two down for the count. Dash's schedule might be restrictive. Fluttershy has to write her summer reports and plan out this year's hibernation strategy sometime, probably soon. I'd like to go camping while the summer meteors are still playful and there are plenty of fauna and flora for Fluttershy to point out and tell us about. So now would be good.

Pinkie had to run, but she said she was going to consult with Applejack and work out the when and the where.

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Rain Delay

Aug 21: I wanted to see what Applejack had to say about my idea to go camping, but she was out delivering apple pies somewhere. Then Cloudsdale showed up and gave us a downpour so I stayed home all afternoon, getting lost in a few books. By the time I noticed that the rain had stopped, it was already late. I should have dropped in on Fluttershy instead. It's been ages since I've had a nice game of Piaffle with Fluttershy.

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Out Of The Blue

Aug 22: Applejack burst in the door to my study just a little while ago, but it was not what I expected. It was not about the camping trip. It's an invitation from Braeburn to a hoe down. Applejack assured me that unlike garden parties, there's no hoeing or agriculture involved. Just fun and dancing. She insisted we haven't lived until we've gone to a hoe down.

I extended the invitation to Spike and Starlight Glimmer but they shied away on the grounds that they had some emergency studying to do. I wished them happy studying and that I'd report on what this "living" thing was like.

The rest of us are catching the train to Appleoosa. If the train's not too slow, we should get there in time. Applejack told us that there will be food. She said that there's always plenty to eat at a hoe down. Living requires food. Check. I said I'd keep notes.

I had a thought: we can plan our camping trip together on the train! I'd better trot. My friends are probably all waiting for me at the station.

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Changeling Of Plans

Aug 23: I wasn't the last pony to get to the Ponyville train station. That would be Rainbow Dash. She hates waiting. But then, from my perspective, Pinkie had arrived after Dash. She had been at the station before I got there, but she had brought her cake cannon and Applejack had told her, repeatedly, that we're not the ones throwing the party, we're guests. No ifs, ands or buts. So no cake cannon. She'd gone back to Sugarcube Corner to put it away. The door to our car opened and we got on, sans Pinkie.

Pinkie got back at the last moment and hopped onto the train to join us. The conductor closed the doors and we were off! To discover life anew and frontier civilization. To boldly hoe where none of us had hoed before! Meanwhile I nudged Pinkie to start the great camping debate. Before the rattling train car rocked Rainbow Dash asleep.

Eventually the train rolled into Appleloosa. Nopony was in sight which meant everypony must be at the hoe down. Applejack lead the way with Pinkie practically pushing her from behind. We didn't want to miss the fun and Pinkie least of all. We burst in, all set to party and looking for Braeburn. Instead, at that moment, a bunch of changelings materialized right there in the room.

Fortunately there were only three of them and the six of us were able to catch and contain them quickly. They were experiencing a feeding frenzy or a sensory overload of some nature, apparently because several ponies were exchanging love letters at the same time. Regardless, they didn't see us coming until it was too late. Pinkie had packed her party canon and I saw her give Applejack an 'I told you so' look before knocking a changeling out of the air with a cloud of confetti. The rest of us rounded up, snagged and hog tied the three of them together before they could come to their senses. Nopony saw any others.

Since Spike wasn't with us, Rainbow dashed off to get the royal guard. Rarity and I took turns containing the changelings in another room and Pinkie and Fluttershy helped Braeburn get the hoe down restarted. They kept watch in case more changelings appeared.

By the time the royal guard arrived it was hours later and the hoe down was pretty much over. All that was left of the party were a few groups of ponies chatting and laughing over drinks and snacks. We handed over custody of the changelings and Applejack went off and found Braeburn. I was dead tired by then so the bedrooms Braeburn ushered us to were very welcome.

Then they got us up at the crack of dawn. Breakfast was hearty oats, apples and hay. Applejack stayed for the day to help in the orchard, but the rest of us caught the morning train back to Ponyville.

As for the camping trip, we've chosen a time and place. There's a spot called Hotwater Falls in the Blue Hills of the Unicorn Range. Rainbow Dash said she's flown over it a few times and it's very pretty. Rarity had heard that there is a natural mineral bath in the pools below the falls and Fluttershy says that it's a known overwintering destination for empress butterflies. It sounds like a winner! We set out in four days time.

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Planning

Aug 24: I'm mentally sorting through my camping gear and deciding on what to take. Some warm clothes because it gets cold at night in the mountains, even though we won't be that high up. A bed roll. Strap-on shoes with cleats. A bath towel. Alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. We should be able to graze in clearings pretty much anywhere we go. I'd like to take some guide books, but which ones? I have one on northern flora and an illustrated key to the insects of Equestria that I'll probably take even though Fluttershy has better books and an encyclopedic knowledge of all that grows, moves and crawls. It's heavy, but I just have to take my The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy. What's the point of having the preeminent tome on the night sky if you don't use it? I'll also need quills, ink, my field notebook, and a how-to book on summer camping. I'll go get a scroll and make a check list.

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Thorax

Aug 25: I'd decided that if I wanted that crystal hay, I was going to have to go to the Crystal Empire and get it myself. I've gone looking a few times but nopony at the bazaar has been selling any. It's an exotic specialty product and Ponyville is a small market. We export our own specialty products, like our hay and zap apple jam, but when it comes to imports, the stall owners mostly stick to the basics.

I announced that I was going to make a day trip to the Crystal Empire, and to my surprise, both Spike And Starlight Glimmer wanted to go. Starlight was a bit hesitant. Although she wanted to visit her friend Sunburst, she felt it was frivolous to do so when she wasn't there to get his help and advice. I told her she should go, some friendship lessons are best learned by living them, which she can do wherever she goes. She just has to keep an open mind and an attentive ear. Spike just wanted to be in on finding fun things to add to our pantry.

So off we went, to the Crystal Empire to buy hay. And corn and berries and fur-leaf tea leaves. The list got longer during the train ride. I was getting worried we might not be able to carry it all.

We stepped off the train at the Crystal Empire station and found the place oddly deserted. Even the streets of the Crystal Empire were empty. A few minutes later we stopped to debate whether we should go the the marketplace and see if that was deserted too, or go straight to the castle and try to get an answer there. What if everypony had something contagious? Just then, several crystal ponies galloped out of their houses and mobbed Spike. Spike's a local hero. We soon found out that they weren't sick, they were hiding from a changeling. Then, as if to illustrate just how bad the hysteria was, somepony suggested that maybe that wasn't Spike, maybe he was the changeling in disguise. They dashed back to the safety of their houses, leaving us sputtering in protest. So, to the castle it was. This is like the week of the changelings. I hope it's not the start of a new invasion.

At the castle we managed to prove that we weren't changelings (trivia questions were involved). Sunburst was there, so we set about researching changeling detection and repulsion spells. So much for Starlight learning about friendship in a relaxed atmosphere. Spike, as the local action hero, leaped into action and joined the changeling search group.

We had made some progress with a protection spell for my niece when Spike came back with a new friend. That new friend turned out to be, to our horror, the fugitive changeling. Who went into some weird frenzy and promptly fled. But Spike brought him back and convinced us that this changeling, who goes by the name of "Thorax", is friendly. It took a lot of convincing, and as the Princess of Friendship, I accepted Spike's judgement and thus Thorax's friendship. I'm not sure how or under what heading I'm going to file this friendship lesson. I think you'd have to pat a lot of timber wolves before you found the friendly one, and that doesn't sound like a wise thing to do.

Well, I got my hay, some fur-leaf tea for Zecora, and a few other items. Spike got a new and exotic friend, and Starlight Glimmer got to puzzle over a new friendship lesson. I also read I Met A Mare to my niece. She never tires of that book.

I didn't tell Thorax about the hoe down incident. That would have been awkward. As friend of the Court, Thorax is staying in the Crystal Empire Castle. Spike is there with him to help him get settled. It will take some time for the crystal citizens to get used to a friendly changeling in their midst, but their adulation of Spike should accelerate the process. I taught Thorax some of Zecora's breathing exercises to help him to better master his frenzy, but I don't know if that'll be enough next time the Crystal Ponies pour love and joy into the Crystal Heart. Without restraint, Thorax just might go into love coma that close to the Crystal Heart.

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Ready To Go

Aug 26: Spike is still in Crystal Empire, but he didn't want to go camping anyway. Neither does Starlight Glimmer, so she will be holding down the castle while we're gone. Not that anypony should come knocking. Ponies still come by to gawk at the Castle Of Friendship, more so now that the Crystal Empire Fireworks Festival is over, but few knock on the door.

We're going to get an early start tomorrow, to make the best of the day. The meetup will be here and we'll have breakfast together, the better to make sure we all have everything we need (but can still carry) before we hit the trail. Rainbow Dash told me that the weather will be clear and warm for the next three or four days, perfect for hiking and camping! I'd better get some sleep.

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Champing At The Bit

Aug 27: There's chaos in the kitchen! Organized chaos, Starlight Glimmer is there filing, finding and feeding ponies. But there are a lot of ponies arriving at different times, one after the other, and everypony needs her breakfast so we can go! Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are joining us so we will be nine on this hike. My saddlebags are packed, I've had my breakfast and I'm all set to go. I'll be back in a few days.

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(Gone grazing and camping.)
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Camping in a Natural Hothouse

Aug 30: I'm back! My hooves are still a bit sore, I think I lost some weight and my saddlebags were chaffing a lot toward the end, but I think this camping trip is the most fun I've had since that first overnight stay in the library in the Carerfilly Castle ruins.

It was a long walk to get there and we didn't want to push ourselves. We had the three fillies with us and we wanted to enjoy the stroll. We walked through Whitetail Woods and followed a winding trail that went north by northwest up the foothills and into the Unicorn Range. It was a bit slow for Rainbow Dash, but when she got bored, she'd scout ahead. By evening she'd mapped out several likely camping spots for us. We stopped for the night on a high plateau in a spot sheltered from the wind by a jumble of large boulders.

We got up early, had breakfast, broke camp and entered the Blue Hills. The trail we had chosen broke up and forked in all directions but Rainbow Dash flew back and forth and guided us down the easiest routes to our destination. We could already smell the minerals in the air before we crested the last rise. There we paused and looked out through the blue haze at the lush landscape we'd come to see. Hotwater Falls.

We scampered down the steep trail and plunged into a forest of lush green trees with abstract mottled bark patterns, spiky picture plants that dangled above our heads and the melodic calls of small brightly colored birds. Here and there I caught glimpses of a blue flash. It was the light catching on the wings of empress butterflies. They seemed to be everywhere.

Rainbow Dash led the way to the heated pools and from there through the rising mist we could see the Hotwater Falls pouring down from an unseen precipice far above. And then a geyser erupted, masking everything in a thick, hot fog.

We found a dry spot in a clearing upwind from the pools and set down our camping gear. First order of business, a soak in the mineral baths! We trotted back to the pools, and after gingerly testing the water, found some pools that wouldn't cook us.

That first soak felt wonderful. I was in the water for so long my hooves got soft. One by one we pulled ourselves out of the soft hot water and went to the falls to rinse off.

The Hotwater Falls are very curious. They pour down from a narrow gap between two tall precipices, like a giant crevasse, into an area that is protected from the wind by the surrounding hills. The water from the falls flows over hot rocks into the heated pools and into cracks that feed the geysers. Both send water vapor back up the gap to where it condenses on the cold high-altitude rocks above. The water then runs back down in rivulets that join to make the falls. The whole cycle gets replenished by snowmelt in the spring. Between the snowmelt and the condensed steam, the water in the falls is pure, perfect for drinking and rinsing off mineral salts. It's mostly the geysers that are providing the dissolved minerals in the hot water pools below the falls. Calcium deposits coat every little pebble and grain of sand until the stream and pool beds look like they're full of pearls. It feels so good to soak in that water, but after a while I would get just too hot and have to go rinse off in the cold water pouring down the falls.

All around in this hothouse environment there were exotic plants and animals. The trees release fragrant, volatile oils that give the air a blue tint. Ergo, the "Blue Hills". But up close, the vegetation there is lush and a brilliant green.

I wandered around with Fluttershy. She told me that this is the overwintering ground for empress butterflies from all over Equestria. We could see quite a few early arrivals flitting about. Empress butterflies are rare in Ponyville, they prefer a hot and wet climate, such as in the Hayseed Swamp region. A few came close and I admired their brilliant flashy blue wings, red tails and margins and dark blue bodies.

That night we made smores, played charades and the fillies ran around in the dark waving long sticks with glowing embers at one end. We were far enough upwind from the hot water pools and geysers that I had a clear view of the night sky between the crowded peaks. I borrowed Fluttershy's binoculars and waited for shooting stars. I did see one faint one flash by, but mostly I watched the Cygnus constellation preen before heading for my bedroll under the stars.

We all took it easy the next morning, having a leisurely breakfast, relaxing, getting one last mineral bath, enjoying the scenery, watching the geysers erupt and chatting. But all good things come to an end and by late morning we broke camp and started the long trek back. We camped that night in the foothills of the Unicorn Range and after a late start, we arrived, weary and worn, in Ponyville early this afternoon. We were all dusty, tired and sweaty from the trail, so despite having spent a day and a half soaking in hot mineral baths, we met up at the spa (I got a massage, a hooficure and a full body shampoo). Then we all went together to supper at Cafe Hay.

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Immobile

Aug 31: My body aches. All that walking while carrying my camping gear, warm clothes, reference books, extra books, collection jars full of hot springs water, rock specimens... I've draped myself over stacked soft cushions and got lost in a pile of books. Peppermint spice tea helps. It chases away the castle chill while I recover. I have a hankering for apple crumble.

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Author's Note

Where once I wrote of friendship in letters
Life lessons I'd learned and my world made better
Now I record what I understand
Of my life on a wall connected to a strange land
There archived where words are like sand
My message in a bottle from my hooves to your hand.

XXI September

Am I Blue?

Sept 1: The ache is mostly gone now. I get just a little reminder when I get up after a few hours of reading and when I climb the stairs. This "magical tree chest castle" has a lot of stairs. I also have a bit of bruising where my saddle bag strap was digging into my back and sides. Nothing to worry about.

I thought to keep my Haycartes' Treatise on Ponies open and nearby. Somepony keeps closing it and re-shelving it. Maybe Owlowiscious. I got lucky and Moondancer appeared today while I was nearby. Even as a moving illustration in the page margins I saw that she looked tired. She told me to keep an eye open for a news release from the Cultural Hippology Museum in the local 'papers. She, Professor Clarity Quest and staff from the museum have been working hard to set up the Epona exhibit and it's nearly ready. As for her research papers, they're still undergoing the peer review process.

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Beat The Heat

Sept 2: We had a scorcher today. It's probably one of the last truly hot days of the summer. The days are getting shorter as summer moves toward fall and the midday heats lose their intensity.

I knew it was going to be hot again today because it was already quite warm when I went out on my balcony to greet the dawn. Far away in Canterlot Princess Luna had lowered the moon and Princess Celestia was raising the sun. I decided to get an early start on my morning stroll and beat the heat.

My wandering led me through the fields of fresh grass glistening with dew. It is growing vigorously and now reaches halfway up my cannons. My passage left a wet trail of bent stems slowly springing back as I circled around to Ponyville. There the early morning streets were quiet except for a few other ponies out attending to their pursuits. The clip-clopping of my dew-softened hooves on the hoof-hardened ground and the muted mumbling of stabled ponies raiding the pantry in their cottages was all there was to hear.

Cafe Hay was just opening and I stopped for their specialty, a croissant and a tiny cup of coffee. I drank a few cups while reading about kleptoparasitism. Around me Ponyville was coming to life. Pinkie appeared like magic, suddenly at my table. I put down the article, ordered a few more croissants and we had breakfast together.

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A Hard Rain

Sept 3: We had heat and rain today. We were next on Cloudsdale's route and they sent us steady showers over the fields and a pounding rain in the middle of town. A hot rain downpour! That was just too much to resist.

I galloped through the drizzle into town to join the crowd frolicking in the rain. I slowed down to a hurried trot as I got near, to look a little more mature and to avoid slipping on the wet ground and landing on my face. It was quite a crowd too. Ponies of all ages giggling and splashing like colts and fillies, colts and fillies squealing with delight, and foals all eyes and ears, not making a sound at all. We all got soaked. We looked like wet mops of every color, wet mops with giant silly grins. The smell of wet ponies and mud was all around and it smelled wonderful.

The clouds drained quickly and snickering pegasi peeled them away, sending sunbeams and rainbows our way. Pinkie led the crowd in a cheer for Cloudsdale for this wonderful surprise, then the chattering crowd broke up as everypony headed for home and a towel, myself included. Out in the fields, a light rain was still falling.

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A Falling Star

Sept 4: Moondancer popped up in my open copy of Haycartes' Treatise on Ponies, looking more haggard than ever. She didn't stay long, but she told me that the Epona exhibit will open in little over a week from now and that she's sending me ten tickets. That will save me and nine other ponies from the lineup to get tickets, but not from the lineup to get in. She suggested that I should arrive early and be prepared to wait for hours in line. Then she vanished before I could ask her anything. I think she could use a vacation.

Ten tickets! Tomorrow I'll go around and see who wants to go with me. We should probably aim for the first day or so. I suspect that as more ponies realize just how important this is to us all, the lineup will only grow longer.

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Press Release

Sept 5: Sure enough, there was a press release from the Cultural Hippology Museum in Canterlot that was picked up and printed by the Ponyville Express today. The paper devoted the entire page three to it. It announced the opening of the exhibit next week, gave a taste of the historical importance of this find, with pictures, talked of the ongoing restoration, and to beat their own drum, the article stated that never have artifacts of such an important pony been on display since the traveling Star Swirl the Bearded exposition. What caught my eye was the caveat that due to the delicate nature of the artifacts, only 50 ponies will be allowed into the exhibit halls at a time. That must be why Moondancer thinks there could be lineups.

So far Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy are going with me to see this exhibit. Both Rarity and Rainbow Dash were out of town when I went calling. I'll try again tomorrow. Spike is unsure. What if there's dust and he sneezes? I'm not sure what to say to that. Starlight Glimmer is waffling. Moondancer will have given tickets to my Canterlot friends, so I'm not sure who else to invite.

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The Tickets

Sept 6: I saw both Rarity and Rainbow Dash today. They don't have any obligations scheduled for next week, so they're in! That makes six of us. I think Spike should come with us, but I can see his point about the dust. I remember what happened to my Astronomer's Almanac. I guess I'll have to see if the museum halls are dust free (and that the dragon sneeze trees aren't in bloom!) before encouraging him to soak up this important piece of pony history.

Starlight Glimmer isn't all that interested in ancient pony cultural history. Maybe if there was a Bridleway musical about Epona she'd consider going. This means I still have four extra tickets. I could send two to my parents and two to Princess Cadence and my brother. There's no expiration date.

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I’m Always In This Twilight, In The Shadow Of Your Heart

Sept 7: My ten tickets from Moondancer arrived in the mail this morning, just after I'd come back with the morning newspaper. I'd already started reading the latest report on the upcoming Epona exhibition. The paper stated that early sales of tickets has been brisk and that there are lineups stretching around the building. The exhibit doesn't open for another 5 days.

So the museum will be setting up more points of sale to keep up with demand. They remind ponies that the tickets are not day or time specific, that they'll still have to wait in line to get into the museum hall.

This morning I went and delivered a ticket to each of my friends and mailed two to my parents and two to Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Then this afternoon Spike burst in with a scroll and a ticket from Princess Celestia. Apparently there will be a vernissage the night before the exhibit opens. It's an exclusive affair, just for top patrons of the museum and members of state. That includes me.

That put me in a bit of a bind. Avoid the crowds and see these important historical artifacts in person with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, or brave the crowds and share this deeply bonding experience with my best friends. Or to put it another way, choose between Princess Celestia and my friends. Lose an opportunity to get closer to the Princesses or distance myself from my friends.

It was not an easy decision. I couldn't just cancel out. This is no party, no Grand Galloping Gala. I couldn't just walk away from the presence of the All Mare, especially after our escape from Winter with the help of what might have been her, in part or in spirit. I can't walk out on my friends after all we've been through. I can't. It hurts to say no to Princess Celestia.

I wrote back to Princess Celestia. I wrote that I've learned that I can't take my friends for granted. Keeping my friendship strong requires commitment and keeping close. I am the Princess of Friendship and without my friends, I am lost. I must walk the same path as my friends. Because it is hard. I have learned, time and again, that the hard path builds rapport, in a way that the easy way out doesn't. So I told her no.

I gave the scroll and the ticket to Spike and he sent them back to Princess Celestia. She wrote back almost immediately. She wrote that she understands my decision.

I went back to my study room and closed the door.

Not half an hour later, there was a tapping at my door. I looked over as it was gently pushed open, revealing the worried looks on several faces. Starlight Glimmer and Spike came through the door first, bearing a big pot of my favorite tea and a tray heaped with cups and cookies. Following them were Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Here to cheer me up and to plan ahead. The room brightened, the tea smelled good and I felt a little hungry. The hugs helped.

Before he turned in for the night, I gave my number one assistant an extra hug. What would I do without him.

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She's Got A Ticket To Ride

Sept 8: Dash wants to be the first in line, but it's too late for that. In the paper I read that some ponies had started to wait in line at the museum door as of yesterday. Five days early! That's just nuts.

I got a Haycartes call from Moondancer. She'd just learned of the VIP vernissage and she wanted to know if I was going to that. I told her of my difficult decision. Turns out she wasn't going to the vernissage either. That's reserved for Prof Quest, the head of Hippology and a few other bigwigs. She's going with our Canterlot gang, although they haven't decided when yet. The lineups are insane. The museum can't print tickets fast enough and if this keeps up, ponies will be holding onto tickets that they won't be able to use for months.

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There's A Star Mare Waiting In The Sky

Sept 9: I had a particularly lucid dream last night. I dreamed that Epona was watching over me while I slept. She walked silently toward me, and although my eyes were closed, I could see her approach. As she drew close, I could smell her sweet breath and I could feel her warmth. I heard a low rumble and I could taste warm milk. Although her lips didn't move and she didn't utter a sound, I could hear "I will always watch over you". The words wrapped me like a warm blanket. I opened my eyes and looked up from my bed. Her eyes were full of stars.

Back in Canterlot, it seems there are more nutty ponies there than I thought. They have now lined up in the hundreds. At 50 ponies an hour, I hope, it'll probably take all day just to process that crowd. That is unless the museum extends its hours, but even then, maybe we should wait until the first of the crowd goes through.

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Once In A Lifetime

Sept 10: I'm reading the newspaper a lot these days. Today it reports that the museum will be open for longer hours for the Epona exposition, but still not more than 50 ponies will be allowed into the halls at a time. Meanwhile the lineup has doubled.

Rainbow Dash is getting antsy. She landed on my balcony, out of the blue, and said we should get in line now. I told her that this isn't like Applejack's sweet cider, the museum isn't going to run out of artifacts to display. That earned me a well deserved hairy eyeball. From the looks of it, we're going to be camping in the streets of Canterlot. I thought only undergraduates did this type of thing. Maybe I should wear a hat and shawl to avoid attracting attention.

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We'll Be Dancing, Dancing In The Streets

Sept 11: Rarity is shutting down her Ponyville boutique for a few days and everypony else has made arrangements as well. Spike and Starlight Glimmer are watching over the castle, although it's not like it could catch fire or anything. I've packed my bedroll, books, candles, quills and ink, bits, my ticket... Best to make the best of this, tomorrow we're going to camp out in the streets of Canterlot like the silly fillies we are. Oh, but I can't wait to get to see the treasures Moondancer has been working on again, and to show them to my friends! I do feel like an undergraduate pony again, waiting for fresh new classes to start!

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It Doesn't Matter What You Wear, Just As Long As You Are There

Sept 12: I'm off to catch the morning train to Canterlot, to go wait in line for Celestia knows how long with all of my best friends. This is going to be an unusual friendship experience! It could be days before I get back.

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(To Canterlotward hadde she goon, to wenden on a pilgrimage she be foond. Tomorowe come again whan hoomward fro Canterlot she shal be, here in this place arreste.)

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Creature Comforts

Sept 14: We're back from Canterlot. We saw Epona after waiting in line for days. I'm feeling a bit drained. I'm going to hit the hay early. It's going to feel good to sleep in a bed again.

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The Serpentine Circus

Sept 15: When we arrived in Canterlot it was still morning and our train was packed. There were booths selling museum tickets there at the station and we had to push our way through the throngs to get out to the street. Then it took a while to find the end of the line. So many lines turned out to be ponies waiting to buy tickets or get into a restaurant or catch a taxi. Ponies with tickets would see a line going around a corner and stop there, and soon many more ponies would line up behind them. It was a madhouse! We almost got fooled a few times but fortunately there were palace guards everywhere and they told us where to find the end of the real line to the museum. They were out in full force, directing ponies, planning out the path of the line, keeping it from looping and overlapping, and controlling the flow of ponies at street corners and entrances to avoid blocking traffic. When we got to the end of the line, we sent Rainbow Dash out to follow it to make sure it was the right line. It was.

The line itself was like an enormous festival crossed with a picnic and a camp ground. Everypony knew that they were in for a very long wait, but that it would be worth it. Every so often, the guard ponies would let a number of ponies cross a street and catch up with the line segment on the other side. We'd pick up our blankets and bags and various items we'd scattered about and scramble to keep up until we reached the next stopping point where we'd settle down again. That'd happen about every hour while the museum was open, with a few surprise moves when the guards made other adjustments further up the line.

It's a good thing that there were six of us. That made it easy for one or two of us to skip out on errands and such the like without losing our place in line. We didn't have to skip out that often, some enterprising ponies had hitched themselves to carts laden with food and they were doing brisk business along the line. Pinkie dashed off to a restaurant she and Rarity had discovered and brought back some of the most amazing soup I'd ever tasted. We also bought doughnuts from Joe's cart.

Pinkie brought some board games and a miniature version of ring toss, Dash had a few volumes of her Daring Do collection, Rarity and Fluttershy debated fashion and came up with some pretty wild designs, I had a few books, including my copy of Treatise on Ponies in case Moondancer called, and Applejack made friends with all of our neighbors.

We slept out there on the street. The museum had extended its hours from eight in the morning to nine at night that first day, then from six in the morning to midnight on the next day. Even when the museum was closed, the line would keep moving for a few hours more as ponies gave up and went home and the guards filled the gaps. I didn't get much sleep that first night. Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie slept in their bedrolls on the pavement, but Rainbow Dash coaxed a few clouds down to street level and made beds for Fluttershy, me and herself. This was a new experience for me, I'd never slept on a cloud before. I was a bit worried I'd somehow fall through. I offered to cast the cloud walking spell on Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie and our neighbors, but they all said no. They'd rather sleep while safe on the ground.

The next morning we were still far from the museum. Everypony's spirits were still good, but we were all feeling surprised that we were still out in the streets with no end in sight. After breakfast we took turns going to my old residence to take a bath. I amused myself by looking up tidbits on the places the line was taking us in my Thornhoof's Brief History of Canterlot book. Rarity and Fluttershy took a quick trip to Rarity's boutique and came back in fresh hats, all the better for roughing it in the streets. Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were engaged in an all out ring toss war. We ate too much rich food from the passing carts. I took short naps when I could.

Celestia set the sun, and with the moon high in the sky, the line stopped for a few hours. Soon after sunrise we were moving again, usually about twenty paces, then we'd stop. Nap, sketch, read, chat, eat. Traveling musicians, acrobats, fire eaters, poets and other ponies looking for an audience found us, captives of the line. So did everypony with something to sell. It really was a circus out there in the streets of Canterlot. A circus and a fair rolled into one. I think Pinkie was taking notes.

While we were stopped and a blues band was serenading our street, Moondancer popped up in my open Treatise. I told her where we were and she said she was coming right over. I told her to bring tea. None of these food carts had hot tea of any description. I guess I was getting a little cranky after two days of going nowhere.

Moondancer found us, and she brought Minuette, Twinkleshine and enough tea and tea cups for everypony. I'm not sure who or which I was more happy to see, the tea or my foalhood friends. Moondancer and Minuette apologized for the lineup (which is not their fault) but they said we were getting close. We'd probably get in that same day. Or maybe not. But we were close! At least the tea was hot and soothing.

They stayed and chatted a while and Applejack introduced them to our impromptu neighbors. That way the ponies following us didn't get the impression these three were jumping into the line. Moondancer was mum about describing the exhibit to us, but she did say that some of the scrolls on display were getting perceptibly lighter and more legible already.

We ordered an early lunch from a few carts and had a picnic with Moondancer, Minuette and Twinkleshine before they left. Soon after, our part of the line turned a corner and we could see the museum steps down the street!

At six in the evening, we finally left the hubbub and hustle of the crowded steps and I stepped into the museum. The peace and quiet of the hall washed over me and I forgot the two and a half days of waiting I'd endured. We left our packs and bedrolls at the counter and with our street camping neighbors, left the silent carpet and stepped into the first room of the artifacts of the All Mare.

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In The Dark I Can Hear Your Heartbeat

Sept 16: The first room was made to look like the dry cave in the San Palomino Desert where Dr Clarity Quest had discovered the All Mare's tomb. It was dark with fake rock walls and scattered here and there were archaeologist's tools. We were drawn to the far end of this "cave" to where light was entering the room through a small doorway. The first artifacts were in there.

That next room was made to look like a replica of a chamber in Epona's living area and tomb. The ceiling was adorned with gently glowing swirls that cast light on white walls bearing a repeating motif of three red roses. There were photographs taken at the site, and protected by glass, artifacts such as an ink well, a wash basin, bowls cracked with age and use, and storage jars from the kitchen. Near the jars were fresh examples of what they had held so long ago. Spices, flour seeds and rolled oats. There were also planks and core samples from the planks compared with core samples from trees and wooden items of known age. The patterns matched up with tree ring growth patterns from over a thousand years ago!

We walked through another doorway into a room featuring reproductions of the murals from the site. In here were displayed furniture and cloth. There were decayed samples of textiles, carefully preserved, and recreations of what scholars thought the clothing, blankets and coverings looked like when they were new. Then there was the scroll room.

In there, the walls were lined with large excerpts of text, written in modern script but spelled out phonetically, verbatim as it had been gleaned from the scrolls. The first display was of a writing desk, magnifying eyewear and an inkwell. And then there were dozens of scrolls on display, on loan from the archives of ancient literature in the Royal Canterlot Library.

Some were partly unrolled, floating in delicate magic fields and catching the light so ponies could glimpse the faded writing on the brown cracked paper. Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack were attracted to the shining gold scrolls, one in fragments, showing how time had caused cold welding of gold on gold. Signs in big glowing letters read "do not disturb! Haycartes only!" A Haycartes spell has never been known to damage a book or scroll. I went over to the paper scrolls. I could see a few pony outlines wandering on the brown paper, looking faded and a bit lost. I concentrated on an unrolled scroll that looked less ravaged by time than the others and used the Haycartes' spell. It was like listening to rocks sliding in a strong wind! It was very hard to make out any words. I could only see a thick brown fog and a hoarse, jumble of words, like an old pony muttering under her breath. I took a few steps and the fog cleared slightly. I could see a small white mare nuzzling a newborn pegasus in a vast grassland. Her newborn pegasus. I heard a name whispered from behind my ear. Zephyr. Nopony was behind me. The pony coaxing the pegasus to her feet jingled as she moved. She had silver bells braided into her mane. Her flank was bare. Then the brown fog closed in on me and I felt that I could hardly breathe. It was like plowing through mud while somepony whispers in your ear but the accent is so thick you can't make out what they're saying. I had to get out. I left the scroll and trying not to choke on the dust that clung to me still, I went over to Rarity and the others to tell them what I had seen.

To move us along and make room for the next 50 ponies, doors were closing behind us. We followed the crowd though a doorway over which was painted stars and three white keys on a deep, midnight blue wall. This was the final chamber. There were just two exhibits on display here. The crystal light and Epona herself. The All Mother, resting as she had been found, on her bed of decayed cloth and straw, stretched out in repose. We barely glanced at the light, glittering brightly with the hearts and minds of so many ponies focused here. We all headed to join the herd crowded around Epona's glass chamber. The museum had placed her display case in a low spot with a mini-amphitheater all around. It was as if she was going to wake up at any moment and give us a lecture on pony history. I sat down, most of us sat down in the raised seats. Some ponies lay down on the floor by the display case so they could look up at her on her bed. It was so quiet I could hear ponies catching small breaths. Some were trying to stifle coughs. We all stared until our eyes watered. Scattered in the straw there were quite a few colored beads and I counted at least fifty little silver bells shaped like rose buds. At the edge of the bed were four small gold slippers. Here and there, a strand of pure white hair. All too soon, the museum guards announced that our time was up. We had to leave.

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Hello Silence My Old Friend

Sept 17: Oh, peace and quiet, how I missed it! After days on end of living in the streets with hundreds of ponies all around and still hundreds more in a stationary parade twisting off in either direction, I've had the echo of their voices and presence in my mind for days. I've felt like I could bump into a buzzing crowd of ponies just down the corridor every time I'd get up, or like there were hundreds of ponies waiting just outside my chamber door. I even got up to look a few times. That's just about gone now. Finally.

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Remembrance Of Things Past

September 18: My friends have been pretty quiet since we got back. They've been catching up on work for the most part, but I think that like me, they're still processing what we went through.

I went to the Everfree Forest to share what I had seen and learned with Zecora. She's not fond of crowds and it's not her All Mother who has been brought to light. It's unlikely that she'll go to see the Epona Exposition herself. But she has a keen interest in all things pony. I'd brought a couple of loaves of fresh baked oat bread, so we shared some toast and a few pots of tea. She listened patiently while I rambled on about the whole three day's experience.

Epona's bones still haunt me. She was so small. She died alone, and so long ago. She was Mother to us all.

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Harvest

Sept 19: I dropped in on Applejack this afternoon. She's bucking McIntosh apples now and I helped her bring in what she'd harvested. She thinks that the apple ripening trifecta needed to make sweet apple cider is due in about a week. I got treated to sweet corn, fresh alfalfa and apple pie hot out of the oven. Autumn isn't due for another three days but the early harvest is on. Tomorrow I should see what treats I can find at the market for my pantry.

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I'm Ready For A Trip

Sept 20: I need a distraction. Filling my pantry with lots of fresh produce that we now have to eat before it goes bad did not meet criteria. I think a hike through the Everfree and a picnic in the Carerfilly Castle ruins could give me focus and help clean out some of that surplus food. I'll see who wants to come with me. Maybe I'll find some exciting old books to borrow from the library in the ruins!

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Chagrin-lea

Sept 21: I received a letter in the mail from Moondancer. No, she still hasn't taken the Canterlot gang to see the Epona Exposition, the crowds are still daunting. She's doing restorative work on Epona's written artifacts, but while working on Epona's scrolls, Moondancer has branched off into research on fantasy and legends. Some of Epona's writing suggests a pony Chagrin-lea over the Western Sea, a lost grassland paradise somewhere, hidden by magic and populated by ponies.

This does not sound like Daring Do's discovery, but just the fact that Daring found such a pony civilization within our own borders makes the possibility there might be others all the more plausible. For instance, dare I ask, where are the Alicorns hiding? Perhaps across the Western Sea? Will the birth of Flurry Heart draw them out? Are they angry that Celestia and Luna left them? Would Luna's conversion into Nightmare Moon and the dangers of majesty confirm their desire to remain hidden away? So many questions! Yet another excuse to visit the library in the Carerfilly Castle ruins.

So far, Starlight Glimmer is joining me, as is Spike. I saw Pinkie and she's keen to go for the picnic and to play with the "Organ to the Outside". I'll see Rarity, Applejack and hopefully Dash tomorrow and I'll ask them then if they're up for a picnic.

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So Long Summer Surprise Supper

September 22: Pinkie sprang a So Long Summer Surprise Supper for all of us in Rarity's Carousel Boutique. Rarity had a grand time decorating her showroom in autumn colors with unfurled bolts of cloth hung like undulating waves along the ceiling and walls. She had all her manequins decked out in splendid fall outfits, posed like they were watching over and commenting on the supper. She set a long table for eight with her best dining ware and Pinkie and Applejack provided the feast. So for the three of them, it wasn't really a surprise, and for the rest of us, it was mostly a question of where and what Pinkie would do to welcome fall this year.

The food was excellent and abundant. Even Starlight Glimmer had too much to eat. Right now I think the picnic tomorrow will just be a light lunch, but I know that by then I'll be hungry again, so maybe not too light. Yes, the picnic is on! Rarity is coming with us, but not Applejack or Rainbow Dash. Dash has a prior commitment and Applejack has a harvest to keep up with and she has several dozen pies to bake. Rarity plans to pick up another tapestry to mend and study and Fluttershy wants to see the sporadic signs of fall as we walk through the Everfree. Earlier today I dropped in on Zecora to see if she would like to join us, but she wasn't in. I left her a note. I'll swing by there on our way tomorrow to see if she got my note.

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(Citizens of Ponyville, don't panic. Twilight has just stepped out. She should be back soon. We hope.)

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Through The Wringer

Sept 26: I'm home. I'm so very tired. Spike has been waiting on me from head to hoof. I just got out of subacute care in the Crystal Empire. I will write a journal entry about what happened later.

Applejack brought me a jug of sweet apple cider. The crab apples have ripened and I'm missing the harvest. It was very good. It takes three kinds of apples to make good apple cider. Sweet, tart and bitter. The apple family uses McIntosh, ambrosia and crab apples.

Zecora came by. She hadn't been with us on our picnic and she hadn't learned that I'd had vanished until a few days ago. She left me some teas to promote rest and to give me strength. I've been sleeping very well.

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Lost In Translation

Sept 27: I'm feeling better. My friends have all been over to see me today. They've told me of some of the panic and searching that happened when I disappeared. They didn't stay long. I'm still so very tired.

So what happened. We'd had a light picnic in the throne room of the Carerfilly ruins. It's our favorite spot, open to the sky, right below the twin thrones of Celestia and Luna, with the tapestries that Rarity had mended gleaming in the light. Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike were off selecting a tapestry to study and mend, Pinkie was serenading us on the Organ To The Outside, and Starlight Glimmer was nose deep in a book she'd pulled off the shelves with a dozen others piled to either side of her on her reading table. Zecora wasn't with us, she was still not home when we'd dropped by on the way to the castle ruins and my note was still on her door. So I took down my note. There would be other picnics.

I'd found a really faded and dogeared book in the Princess's hidden reading room. I discovered it behind some other books when I'd pulled a fat book on stone masonry off the shelf. I guess it had fallen down behind them and had been forgotten. Not only was it old, but it looked well loved! This could only mean it was worth reading. I sat down to see what it was about, but it was not easy. The text was hard to read and when I read the same passage twice, I seemed to get a different narrative. I figured that was because it was nearly illegible. Well, I know for a fact that faded texts can be read using the Haycartes spell! So I cast that.

I found myself in a yellowing, brightly lit plain of short grasses and wilting flowers. I couldn't see the sun but I could feel it beating down on me like it was midday. That was strange, but what struck me was how empty this book felt. Usually, with Haycartes you can feel the intent of the author. It's very useful for understanding the story and concepts they're writing about. Here there was none of that. Everything was vague and aimless.

From my spot among the bleached grasses and flowers, I could hear murmurs and the playful calls of young ponies, but they were muffled and nopony was in sight. I couldn't see more than three lengths in any direction and yet I felt like I was supposed to be in a wide open space. I took a step and found myself at a precipice, at the top of a narrow winding trail going down. I took another step and I was halfway down a cliff face. Below there was mist and the sound of crashing waves, to my right, a cave. I went in. I heard the rumble of falling rocks behind me and I leaped forward to avoid getting hit by an avalanche. I dove straight into the jaws of a dragon. I screamed as I got engulfed in flames, only to find myself panting and wild-eyed, cowering in a yellowing, brightly lit plain of short grasses and wilting brown flowers. Then I tried to get out of the book and couldn't. All around me was the sound of playing foals, far away and unseen in the yellow grey mist. I decided to settle down and wait.

As soon as my belly touched the ground, the light went out and the foal voices vanished. Instead, there was rustling noises in the grass. Could be mice. Could be a rabbit. Could be something a lot worse. I'd just been whisked out of a ball of fire and the fresh memory of sulfur and burning hair was suddenly almost all I could think of. I kept very still. I heard a deep rumbling and the sound of grass getting ripped out of the ground. Some rustling. A stop. Ripping. Deep, whistling breathing! Grinding teeth! Sniffing! A deep, grumbling growl and something gigantic loomed out of the murky air right behind me! I screamed and shot out of my crouch at a full gallop and straight into an orchard. I careened around a stand of gnarled apple trees, my heart in my teeth and looked back. Nothing was following me that I could see or hear. I smelled the air for clues, but if there was any spoor, it was masked by the sickly sweet smell of very ripe apples. Suddenly I was very hungry. Again I attempted to get out of this book, to no avail. I tried not to panic.

I'd found the book around mid afternoon, and while I was trapped in the book, my friends had decided it was time to go back to Ponyville. They soon found my saddle bags and the books I'd pulled from the shelves and taken into the reading room, but they didn't see me. They wandered the library, then the castle, then the castle grounds looking for me and calling my name. They couldn't find me. They kept searching until it got dark. They were so worried that Spike sent a message to Princess Celestia. The Everfree is a dangerous place. Princess Luna arrived with her personal guard and they took up the search. My friends collected my things and headed for home. They were sick with worry.

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A True True Friend Helps A Friend In Need

Sept 28: Picking up where I left off. Must document everything. I had fled in panic and I was suddenly in a gnarled, unkempt orchard that smelled of overripe apples and I was hungry even though I'd just eaten not long ago.

So I looked around for somewhere safe to stand or hide. Some high ground where I could see anything coming my way and that would have escape routes in all directions. All I could see were old, twisted apple trees. But no apples. I was really getting hungry. I was on sloping ground so I walked uphill, looking for a clearing. I reached the edge of the orchard, beyond that the ground continued to rise. At the top of the hill I could make out the shape of a tree, or trees, or a very large bush. A big bush at a top of a hill would make a good place to hide and see danger approach, so I moved toward it. The smell of apples was stronger here, the rising ground was littered with them.

I was stepping gingerly around the windfall of apples when a gentle creaking noise coming from the top of the hill brought me to a stop. I stared intently ahead. The tree at the top of the hill looked oddly familiar, like I'd seen it before, or something like it. I was sure it was some kind of willow. I stopped. It was moving, like in a breeze, except that there was no wind. Especially not enough wind to make it sway like that! It was a whipping willow! A really big one. As I turned to go back into the orchard I heard a hissing noise, I dug in my hooves to launch myself down the hill. I heard the crack and felt the lash across my back. A leafy tendril grabbed at my leg and sent me tumbling. I rolled, flailing and kicking down the hill as the tree sent more hissing branches after me. As I crashed back through the gnarled trees I felt a yank on my right wing and a flash of pain as the willow pulled away with half my flight feathers. A few dozen apples rolled past me and I followed them into a gully, out of reach, I hoped, of the willow. The pain was intense, but so was my hunger. So I ate an apple to distract myself from my bloodied wing. Suddenly it was day again and my wing was as good as new! I tried to get out of the book again, but to no avail. I was no longer hungry, but I was starting to feel the strain of maintaining a Haycartes' spell. I had to get out of this story.

By the light of day I could see long willowy branches feeling around among the trees in the orchard around me. That explained how the apples got up the hill. I didn't want to wait around until the willow found me again. I picked up a bunch of the apples that had rolled downhill with me and since I didn't have saddle bags, I tucked them under my wings. I went downhill. An orchard meant a farm, and there might be ponies with clues on what I should do. Hopefully fictional ponies, not trapped ponies. I wanted out. If I could figure out what this book was about, maybe I could make all the right decisions and get out.

I eventually found a farmhouse, or what was left of one. It was flickering in and out of sight, sometimes made of stone and peat, sometimes out of wood, sometimes looking like a smouldering ruin. I turned left and into a blinding fog. I was on a cobblestone road in a mountain pass and it was starting to rain. It was a dirty, stinging rain. I moved forward, hoping for shelter and a place to rest.

I'm not sure how time was passing in the real world or at what chapter of the trap I was in when Starlight Glimmer picked up my things and headed for Ponyville. If she hadn't, I shudder to think that I could have ended up as a line of smudged fading text in that book. "Here Lies Twilight Sparkle".

Moondancer came by today, all the way from Canterlot, just to visit me. She and Starlight Glimmer were waiting by my bedside around mid-morning with warm beet pulp soup and alfalfa crackers. Breakfast of champions. They each told me in turn their side of the search and rescue. Starlight went first.

Back at Carerfilly, when Starlight Glimmer and the others were looking for me, Starlight had first looked in the reading room that I had been using but did not find me in there. After wandering around the castle calling my name for a few hours, she came back and looked through the open books I had been reading for clues. She found the book in which, unbeknownst to her, I was trapped, but she soon gave up on trying to read the faint text. When the search party was called off, she gathered up the books I had selected, put them in my saddlebags and carried them back to Ponyville.

Spike had sent a message to Celestia who in turn sent Luna with a search party to the ruins to continue the search. That failed. Meanwhile, Starlight Glimmer felt that there had to be a clue to my disappearance in the books I was reading, perhaps some spell I might have found and tried. She opened them all in her room and spent all evening and a good part of the night looking for hidden writing, instructions, hidden pages, anything. That night she woke up with a start, fully expecting to see me standing by her bed. But nopony was there. Three more times she thought she heard my voice, but when she opened her eyes, there was only darkness and the stony silence of her castle room. What's worse, the voice was getting weaker.

The next morning Starlight Glimmer tried again to read the faint, smudged text. Even by the light of day it was hard on her eyes, the letters writhed across the page like they had been written by a pony who had been fighting to stay awake. The text kept changing so that flipping back and forth from the same two pages gave unlimited options. Forty pages in she saw my name in the wavering script, something about panting from exhaustion in a ruined underground maze. Starlight Glimmer realized that this book was key to getting me back. Either I had found a spell in the book that had sent me somewhere, or I somehow I had become trapped in the book, and since turning the page changed the text, she took the precaution to keep that page open and to not read further.

News of my disappearance in the ancient library of some castle ruins had reached Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and the ears of Moondancer. She caught the first train to Ponyville and galloped to the Friendship Castle to get the details from Spike's mouth. Instead she found Starlight packing her saddlebags with the intention of consulting with Sunburst in the Crystal Empire. If any pony could find out what it was about this book that caused me to vanish, she was sure it would be Sunburst. Moondancer went with her and carefully read through the legible books I had picked out at Carerfilly on the train ride there. At Sunburst's house Moondancer and Sunburst puzzled through the first few pages of the book while Starlight stared at the page where my name appeared. Sunburst recognized the writing style as a classic "Find Your Fate" storybook. Once you knew that, you could see that Find Your Fate was written on the spine. But this volume was special. It had been modified into a magical Find Your Fate book. Instead of having the reader skip ahead to a certain page number corresponding to a choice they'd made, the book changed to fit their mood and desires. It rewrote itself, page by page. Fortunately, every pony up to now wanted to find me. Unfortunately, they didn't expect it would be easy and they thought I was lost, or trapped, or both. So, I was. My expectation was that the book was hard to read and everything would be murky, so I got stuck in the murk.

Moondancer and Sunburst skipped ahead to the open page where Starlight had found me, and since that was what they wanted, I was still there, but sinking up to my belly in muck. They kept that page open and hoped I wouldn't go anywhere while the three of them came up with a plan. Moondancer guessed right in that the Haycartes' spell is what that put me into this mess. Sunburst put forward that we'd better pull me out before I reached one of the messy ends that are possible outcomes in the Find Your Fate story genre. Starlight suggested we continue reading while wishing the book-trapped me found herself refreshed and at an exit. Moondancer thought that was risky. The reason I was tired was because I was also trapped in a Haycartes' spell. The only way to fix that was to get me out of the book.

I'll finish telling this story, both stories, later.

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Abridged To Safety

Sept 29: I woke up this morning to find a hot pot of Zecora's tea by my bedside along with a big basket of fresh grasses, fruit and cupcakes, left for me by my friends. Everypony is still getting up earlier than I am. But I'm feeling stronger! Rarity decorated the basket and there was a big get well card signed by everypony. I think Pinkie had everypony in Ponyville sign that card. There are so many overlapping signatures and hoofprints on it that it looks like a stampede had run over it. I still slept most of the day away.

Back to what happened.

I didn't know whether to be annoyed or relieved to have lost that farmhouse. I probably wouldn't have dared to enter a building that was that erratic. At least I wasn't in the field of brown grass and flowers. I still couldn't see further than a dozen lengths in any direction and I was getting tired.

Even after months of practice, I can usually only do Haycartes for several minutes. Thirty minutes, tops. I wasn't feeling the usual effort involved in a Haycartes spell in this book, which I took to mean that I was getting better at it. But I was wet from the rain, getting tired and I couldn't exit the book! I couldn't keep this up forever.

At the top of the pass was an alcove carved into the cliff wall along the side of the road. There was a dry sandy area under that overhang, big enough for six ponies to take shelter. I went in there to get out of the rain which was now falling like sheets. A pair of rock lobsters scuttled out past me and opened their gill chambers to the falling rain. I felt my pasterns sagging from fatigue. I wanted to hunker down and rest on the dry sand but there might be other rock lobsters lurking here. They're hard to see against the rocks. Instead I pulled out an apple from under my wing and took a bite.

I nearly choked in fright. A rock wallaby hopped down from a nook it had gnawed in the rock wall under the ledge and it moved toward me. I wanted to bolt, but at the same time I was fascinated by how it moved. It walked with a curious pendulum gait, swinging its hind legs forward both at the same time between the tripod of its tail and front feet. It was followed by another rock lobster. "That's close enough", I managed to growl with my mouth full. It stopped, sat up and made grabby motions with its front paws. The claws looked diamond tipped and sharp. So I tossed my bitten apple to it. The rock wallaby grabbed that and gnawed it to pieces, attracting a swarm of rock lobsters. Alarmed, I tossed it another apple as I backed up into the rain. I swallowed the apple in my mouth and everything went black.

Not completely black. My eyes adjusted to a dim glow emanating from wet areas on the walls, ceiling and floor around me. I was in a corridor. There were no windows or doors and no signs indicating a direction to travel. Just rock. Wet rock. The air was stale. I decided that it was less stale in one direction, and I set off that way. The corridor turned sharply left, then right, then right again, the right a third time, then after a while, right again. I got to thinking, eating an apple has caused a scene change twice. What if I eat another apple? I had two left. I pulled one out, took a bite and swallowed.

I didn't see or smell any difference. I was still in a rock corridor with muck on the walls, and the muck was sticking to me. Every so often the corridor would branch and I'd chose left or right, by smell if I could. There were no dead ends. Just dank and darkness. I could feel myself fading still. I ate the rest of the apple, but that didn't help. The muck was getting worse. My hooves were making sucking sounds now with each step, and sticking. I stumbled a bit and where I touched the walls, heavy muck peeled off and clung to me. I couldn't shake it off. I dropped my last apple somewhere along the way. The muck was climbing up my legs and coating me from head to hoof, crusting over my legs until it was so thick that my legs rubbed together as I shuffled on. It was so heavy. I was so heavy. I had to rest. I had to keep moving. I was getting pulled down and I couldn't see where I was going. I knew I'd never get out. I stopped and cried out to Epona. I don't know if she heard me. I was so alone.

Sunburst tracked down an Editing Spell and a Friendship Bridge spell and suggested that they isolate the page I was on and use the Friendship Bridge as a lifeline. Moondancer, since she is adept with Haycartes', would go in after me, and when she'd extended the Friendship Bridge spell to me, they would both pull her out and me with her. They had to decide quickly, because even though they hadn't read further, I was nearly asleep on my feet and sinking deeper into the muck.

Moondancer and Starlight learned the Friendship Bridge spell, the three of them linked hooves, and Starlight cast the spell. Then Moondancer cast the Haycart's spell, subtly and gently, focusing tightly to the Friendship Bridge as she reached into the open page and out to me. The muck was closing in over my back by then and I was slipping in and out of consciousness. In a brief moment of lucidity I felt something pulling at my mane. I opened a bleary eye and saw Moondancer's ear flicking against a grey sky, then I felt the bridge. My friends! Here to pull me home.

Moondancer had my mane in her mouth and she hung on grimly as she pulled herself back out of the book, and me along with her. There was a wet sucking sound followed by a pop! and I fell out of the story and landed on top of three ponies, generously showering them in brown muck. Then I must have gone unconscious.

While Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst rushed me to the Crystal Empire Medical Center, Moondancer cantered to the Crystal Castle to tell Princess Cadence that I had been found and rescued. Moondancer took the book to the Canterlot archives to be studied. I'd been trapped in it for about twenty hours.

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Turning The Page

Sept 30: I was up with the dawn today. I was ready to get out of bed and get back to the fun things in life, so I started with my morning stroll. Even though it's only been a week, I could easily see that the grass is taller than when last I went for a morning stroll. There is less than a moon to go until the third cut harvest.

To get back into harness, I started with some light reading. Daring Do And The Eternal Flower, a safe, old favorite. Then I had a surprise visit from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! They had come to see me while I was in critical care and unconscious at the Crystal Empire Medical Center. I don't remember that, obviously. Now they were over to see how my recovery was going.

Princess Luna stated that there are some dangerous books in the old library, or potentially dangerous if read without knowing what you're getting into. Not all of them are locked away like the Inspiration Manifestation book that Spike had borrowed a while back, and subsequently destroyed by eating it. (Good riddance!)

Princess Celestia told me that the the book that had trapped me started out as a normal Find Your Fate book. It was a book that Luna and Celestia had both read many times. At some point, while they were still quite young, they decided to make it better. They combined a dreamreading spell with an elements of style spell, an editing spell and randomizing spell. That didn't work out so well. The magically enhanced book would unfold the story in a way that reflected the fears and dour moods of the readers, it did not make for a relaxing read anymore. So the princesses lost interest in it, shelved the book and forgot about it. Now it's in the enchanted book section of the Canterlot archives. That mix of spells hadn't aged well in the centuries that the book had lain forgotten. The book itself was not made of the best paper, and as it degraded, so did the enchantment, until it was in the faded mess that I had found it in. A fine trap for an inquisitive pony.

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Author's Note

In the land of Equestria, the garden of the Tree
Daughters of Epona is what they all be
She was once lost, entombed and forgotten
In death she returns to all that she'd begotten

In Canterlot, behind glass, now on display
Through Twilight's Blog you can read of that day
When Twilight and her friends go to Canterlot and stare
In the museum, in awe, at the bones of the All Mare

XXII October

Through The Looking Glass

Oct 1: A quillpal suggested in a comment a few days ago that my ordeal sounded like I was experiencing a nightmare. I discarded that possibility at first since I had been trapped in a book and I hadn't been dreaming. Then Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came by yesterday to see how I was doing and while they were here they described the spells they had combined in enchanting that book. The dreamwalking spell is what has me reconsidering the quillpal's suggestion that I was in fact in a nightmare. If it neighs, give it hay. It was still both a nightmare of my own making and tailored by the narrative of the book. With some practice, I think I could probably quash my fears and shape my expectations into a positive outlook. I suspect that would make the story bland and predictable.

That's all moot. The book is nearly illegible and using Haycartes to read it is asking for trouble.

Princess Cadence, my brother and my niece are coming to see me in two days time. I received a letter from them this morning. It will be the first time Flurry Heart will have left the Empire. My parents were over for a surprise visit today. They tired me out. I didn't get much done.

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The Shrine

Oct 2: When Moondancer came to visit a few days ago she had news to share about the Epona exposition. Its popularity is unabated and the lineup is so long that it will be a long time before my Canterlot friends use their tickets.

Every so often Moondancer meets with a museum curator to see how the scrolls are holding up and to evaluate the progress of their restoration. Apparently, there are still a fair number of ponies who try to read the scrolls using Haycartes. Moondancer is thinking of publishing short passages from the scrolls in the local paper in hopes of tempting more ponies to make the effort to read them for themselves.

The real draw is Epona. Every day, everypony who gets into the the museum stops at the glass cabinet that holds Epona's skeleton. They stare at The All Mother. Those up front reach over the barrier and touch the glass. Every time in every group. I know how they feel. It's just a skeleton of a small earth pony, but in my mind I do not see bones. I see the All Mother, sleeping peacefully. It is all too much for many ponies. They have to be helped to stand up and they need to be half carried out. Many go right back to the back of the line and wait days to see her again. The museum has extended their hours again to try and accommodate the crowds, they're now open from four in the morning to midnight. But maintenance of the rooms must be done and the 50 pony limit must be respected to maintain constant temperature and humidity. The artifacts are fragile, even with magic fields to protect and hold them together.

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Beet Pulp Soup

Oct 3: Princess Cadence and Shining Armor arrived in time for lunch with my niece in tow. The Fledgling's Forbearance spell is holding well, and although she was crawling about everywhere and getting into anything she could reach, she didn't blow any holes into the castle or shatter it with a hyper-sonic screech. She did keep my brother very occupied. I had gone with Spike to the bazaar yesterday to pick up some fresh produce and today Spike cooked up a sumptuous lunch for our guests. I was going to decorate the dining room and set the table but Starlight Glimmer beat me to it. I showed Cadence, Shining and Flurry Heart around while they put the food on the table, then we went down to eat.

We didn't really get into talking about my adventurous reading ordeal until after lunch and after Flurry Heart had been trotted off to her nap. They had galloped straight to the Crystal Empire Medical Center when Moondancer had told them what had happened. They found me just after I had been admitted into Emergency and I was getting rushed to Trauma.

Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer were there filling in the admission paperwork. By the time I had been carted to the Medical Center, I was sweating profusely while shaking and shivering. I remember that my ears and feet were cold and being told that my gums were turning blue. I was also showing signs of confusion. I don't remember arriving at the Medical Center. Moondancer, Princess Cadence and my brother sat down with Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer and waited for news of my recovery.

An hour or so later an intern came to see them. She said that at first my pulse was rapid and weak and that I was breathing in short shallow breaths. I had lost consciousness shortly after that. I had been administered oxygen while being rehydrated with large volumes of an intravenous salt solution. They gave me something to combat stress induced muscle degradation, and vitamin E. I was still in Critical Care, but I was doing better. They allowed my friends and family to stay with me while I slept, but only one at a time. Moondancer had to return to Canterlot and Sunburst went home, the rest took turns keeping a vigil overnight and into the next morning.

I apparently woke up a few times that night but did not recognize Cadence, Shining or Starlight Glimmer, who were there by turn at my bedside. I remember none of this. I had much improved by morning. I was sleeping peacefully and when I did wake up, there was beet pulp soup laced with fresh raw spinach and soothing herbs for me to eat. I could smell the chamomile. Chamomile is mildly toxic. There was probably valerian in there too. I was moved to sub-acute care later that morning for observation. I was discharged the next morning and Starlight took me home.

Flurry Heart awoke from her nap (we could hear her babbling in the next room) and Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, satisfied that I wasn't going to keel over, made me promise to be careful with strange books, and packed up Flurry Heart to leave for the Crystal Empire. I walked with them to the train station where their locomotive was waiting for them. They don't travel by pegasus-drawn chariot like Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.

So they left. So soon. Maybe we could go camping sometime. When Flurry Heart is older.

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Farewell Summer

Oct 4: It's spa day and I joined Rarity and Fluttershy with the intent to wash that enchanted book muck right out of my mane! No mud please, no slippery seaweed wrap or even fragrant oil. I want to feel clean again! I didn't even want to watch Rarity and Fluttershy sinking into the mud. I couldn't. I shudder now just to think of mud. We steamed together in the sauna, and then, while they got covered in mud, I had a bath, a full rub-down massage and a hooficure. By that time they were cleaned up and the three of us had a long soak in the fragrant hot tub. I could feel the heat driving away the last of the chills. I was warm at last.

After the spa I felt so fresh and we all smelled and looked fabulous! We celebrated with tea and cookies at Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie joined us. We are getting fluffy now. My winter coat hasn't fully grown in yet, but it's getting there. Summer has gone.

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Earthpony Magic

Oct 5: The leaves on the trees in Ponyville are changing color, responding to the touch of passing earth ponies. Applejack is really good at coaxing glowing yellows out of trees. Junebug has a knack for brilliant reds. Daisy gets trees to burst out in orange.

Of course that's on the right trees. Junebug is not going to be able to paint the poplars red, nor can Daisy turn the willows orange, although she did coax out a pretty warm orange on the Golden Oak that one year. For the most part, the trees, when they're ready, respond to ponies and burst into color without the pony doing anything but walk on by. It gives the woods the look of a beautiful patchwork quilt. Greens, yellows, oranges, browns and reds. With a touch of pink and magenta. The fall colors are especially beautiful in the morning and I'm making it a point of taking my first cup of tea out on the balcony with a view of the town. I drink in the view and I play spot the difference while I start my day.

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A Thousand Points of Light

Oct 6: The air is pretty chilly out on the balcony tonight, but the air is clear and still, great for star gazing. I have my Double Bridle refractor telescope set up but I've come in to warm up a little and get a blanket before I go back out to look at the stars some more.

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Streaks of Fire

Oct 7: Luna's canvas is full of shooting stars tonight. Soon after Princess Celestia set the sun, there were shooting stars and fireballs leaving persistent trails of light around the Draco the dragon constellation. Princess Luna delayed raising the moon, probably so we could see the fainter meteors better. The action has died down now and Princess Luna has raised the moon. My copy of the Astronomer's Almanac states that there will be more early evening meteor activity tomorrow. I'll be watching!

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Fireball Encore

Oct 8: It's getting dark now as Princess Celestia is putting her orb to bed. In the purple twilight the constellations are taking up their positions and the stronger stars are starting to twinkle. I've got a pot of hot cocoa, a smidgen of hay, my Double Bridle refractor is pointing at the sky and I've collected a few warm blankets to wear as I rest on my big cushion. Bring on the fireballs!

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Soft Light, Bright Colors

Oct 9: Cloudsdale sent us rain, so the entire day it was cold and drizzly. I put on a rain blanket and brought my umbrella for my walkabout. That didn't keep my hooves dry. I strayed into the fields and the long wet grass left me soaked up to my belly. But it was worth it for the soft light on the autumn leaves. The fall colors are really starting to spread.

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True Colors

Oct 10: Rainbow Dash is on Wonderbolt duty today so it was other weather ponies who cleared out what was left of the clouds from yesterday's rain. It was also a bit cold today so my morning walk was cold and damp. But the sun was shining brightly and making the dew drops glitter. The damp also deepened the colors of the streets and houses and intensified the autumn splendor in the trees.

I decided pack my Piaffle game and go see if Fluttershy was busy. She was home and we played Piaffle and drank hot cocoa. We got to talking about about waxing wing feathers, about glitter and this segued to Fluttershy talking at length about startle displays, misdirection, crypsis and many other fun things critters do. Maybe I'll forego getting glitter on my feathers, but if I get into a situation where I know I'm going to have to deal with pony-eating creatures, I'll keep getting glittered as a possibility.

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Fan Fair Do

Oct 11: In Newspaper today I saw an announcement for a Daring Do fan fair that's coming up. What's even better, A.K. Yearling herself will be there! I'd like to go to that. I bet Rainbow Dash would like to go to that too. I'll see if she will be free then.

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Friendship Summit

Oct 12: Spike coughed up a scroll from Princess Celestia during lunch today. The Princess wants me to attend a one day friendship summit in Griffonstone, of all places! I should be getting more details in the mail soon, but from what she wrote in the scroll, I gather that Princess Celestia wants to teach the benefits of cooperation to the griffons. Dash told me Griffonstone was pretty run down when she and Pinkie were there about two years ago. Princess Celestia said her envoy will be getting back to us shortly with a venue and dates. I hope it won't be in the middle of the winter.

Rainbow Dash can come to the Daring Do convention! We're both very excited at the prospect. A. K. Yearling never goes to fan conventions, this is an opportunity not to be missed! Hundreds of Daring Do fans, in the same convention center, discussing the books, and with A. K. Yearling! Wild horses couldn't keep us from this convention. We've already mailed our bits to buy our advance tickets, just to be sure. Rainbow Dash is going to dress up to look like Daring Do. I teasingly called her a nerd. She made a face, but she's still going to go in costume.

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Red Queen Dilemma

Oct 13: I received a communication book message from Sunset Shimmer. It's been so long between messages that it took me a while to find where that weird rattling and buzzing noise was coming from. I had to track it down by ear to the miscellaneous books shelf in the corner. She wrote to say that her school went on an organized spring camping trip. The Star Swirl reflections of me and my Ponyville friends all went, as did the alt-Celestia and alt-Luna entities. I'm almost jealous.

She said that she's bonding well with both the reflections of my friends and the alt-me. My doppelganger is feeling inadequate and introverted and Sunset is teaching her strength and confidence through friendship! She also wrote to tell me that the magic wielded by her and the reflections of me and my Ponyville friends is getting stronger and no longer requires music to be activated. This is not good.

What really struck me, even more than the rise of magic in a magic-free pocket universe, was the last sentence in Sunset's note. She wrote, "So far, it's been an eventful year". It's been way more than a year. Since that night when I woke up to find Sunset Shimmer stealing my Element of Harmony, nearly three years have gone by in Equestria. During that time, Sunset Shimmer has experienced six months. Time, in Star Swirl's mirror universe, is slowing down.

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Tasty Treat Maker

Oct 14: Applejack is bucking the last of the apples out of her orchard trees. She's still pretty busy baking and delivering pies, but she will be at a small lull in the harvest within the next few days. I think we should go on a fall picnic before the third cut haying kicks in, like we did last year, so I said as much, between mouthfuls of pie. It was delicious. I brought one home for Spike and Starlight Glimmer.

Applejack is all for a picnic. We'll probably go to the same place we went last year, Saddle Lake. It's so much fun seeing the colors change from lush summer green to the fiery fall finery as we walk by. I'll see what Pinkie has to say.

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Serial Prankster In The 'Hood

Oct 15: My morning started with Fluttershy knocking on my door and calling for an immediate Friendship Council Meeting. She was really worked up about something, so while Fluttershy stewed in the hallways, I sent Spike to get Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack and I went to find Dash. We all then rushed to the map table room to find out what was wrong. Well, I wouldn't call it an emergency meeting because there was no emergency. It was just urgent, for Fluttershy. She was furious with Rainbow Dash for having scared her witless last night.

While we got down to trying to explain to Dash that not all pranks are funny, I found out the hard way that she'd slipped a whoopee cushion onto my chair. Case in point: the whoopee cushion illustrates that simple pranks can be really lame. I mean, we're ponies. We have gas. I can't even remember the last time I'd seen a whoopee cushion. I would not be surprised if Dash had bought the cushion at deep discount at the bazaar, along with two other things she didn't want and the one thing that she did. Somehow, both Pinkie and Dash thought it was hilarious. They were the only ones.

Well, Fluttershy didn't get the apology she wanted, but she did get our sympathy (that's what friends are for), and as for Dash, I think we miscommunicated. She thought that we meant that a truly funny prank has to be big and elaborate. At least, she didn't get the message that the pony getting pranked has to find it funny too. Pinkie seems to know this at some level, but she didn't do a very good job of sharing that wisdom with Dash.

So Dash came up with a new prank today. She baked two cakes. One cake was a layered cake three ponies high! She succeeded in squeezing that gigantic cake into the Carousel Boutique undetected along with a second cake, one that looked exactly like a sewing machine. It fell to pieces when Rarity tried to sew with it. I think that if Rarity hadn't been annoyed with Dash in advance, she would at least have appreciated the artistry.

I hope that was the end of it. She demonstrated that (a) she can bake and (b) she can pull a big and elaborate prank. It wasn't funny, but it was big and planned out. Rarity is going to be eating cake for a while.

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Serial Prankster Redux: Her Just Desserts

Oct 16: That wasn't the end of it. During the night Rainbow Dash succeeded in moving Applejack, bed and all, out of her house and into the pigpen while she slept. Applejack had even taken the precaution of stringing up bells and trip wires all over her bedroom, just in case. Apparently, if we need a stealthy pony for some daring doing, we should send in Dash. Or, Applejack is just a very sound sleeper. It's probably a bit of both.

Rainbow Dash did not stop there either. She was off to the races, flooding the pranking void. She gave Pinkie a fright, switched Cranky's toupee for a skunk, hid a brick in Mr Cake's sandwich, swapped out Cheerilee's blackboard lesson with a crude drawing, pranked a number of other ponies in town and was generally very busy. I guess when we said "lazy pranks" weren't funny, her solution was not just to be ingenious, but to be industrious as well. Spike didn't find getting tricked into flooding Princess Celestia with scrolls, again, to be that funny. Not with the cramps he got when she sent them all back in quick succession.

Everypony came to see me, and so we went to see our resident expert on all things funny, Pinkie Pie. She was a bit perplexed as to how it could be that everypony had suddenly lost their sense of humor, but she agreed to go ask Dash to quit pranking. Then she came up with a better plan.

This was the evening that Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had set to sell Filly Guide cookies door to door in Ponyville and Dash had told Pinkie that she planned on swapping those cookies with joke cookies that leave a rainbow stain when bitten. This gave our Party Pony a unifying idea. Cool Rainbow's zest for pranks and build community at the same time. Through theater! It's a shame that Starlight Glimmer is out of town, she would have loved this, even though we didn't break out into song.

While Rainbow Dash was stealthily swapping the real Filly Guide cookies with her ersatz cookies, Pinkie was filling everypony in town in on what they had to do, and with amazing speed. Dash volunteered to help Rarity and Applejack escort the fillies door to door, just to watch the cookies get delivered and to be there when everypony had realized they'd been pranked. But it didn't quite work out that way.

Pinkie had instructed everypony to wait until nightfall, bite into a few cookies and then shuffle slowly outdoors like they had a high fever, looking for Rainbow Dash and moaning for COOKIES. It worked. Rainbow Dash panicked. She rounded up Applejack, Rarity and the fillies and hightailed it out of town and into Applejack's barn, with all of Ponyville moaning and shuffling after them. Barricaded in the barn, Applejack and the others bit into some cookies and did the plaintive moaning and shuffling act. Dash was frightened to tears and ruing that she had apparently unleashed some ghastly infection on all her friends. But she recovered after Pinkie explained the sting, enough to joke that she'd have to come up with an even bigger prank. That had better be a joke.

My friends were in no mood earlier in the day to think about planning a picnic together, but after the townsponies had gone home to sweep up the cookie crumbs they'd left everywhere and we'd helped the Apple family fix the mess made by barricading and breaking into the barn, everypony was ready to talk picnic. We'll go in three days, to Saddle Lake. It will be sunny and probably not too cold.

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Duty Calls

Oct 17: I received the date for the Friendship Summit in Griffonstone. It's on the same day as the Daring Do convention. As the Princess of Friendship, I can't not go. So I'm going to miss the fan fair.

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Getting Ready

Oct 18: Now that I have a deadline, I've been working hard on flash cards for the subjects we're going to cover. The theme of the summit is Building Bridges Through Cooperation and Friendship. A lot of it will be semi-informal round table discussions on trade, technology, and joint ventures. Princess Celestia aims to strengthen our ties with the griffins and where necessary, to give them the tools they need to rebuild their culture. So we're going to sit at a round table and talk. The event is the brainchild of Prince Blueblood, who will be the moderator during discussions. Apparently he's quite good at diplomacy, regardless of how boorish and self-absorbed he was with Rarity that first time we went to the Grand Galloping Gala.

I'm going to give a friendship workshop as well. I hope some griffins will attend that. I'm pretty much the only pony who has made a dedicated study on the subject of Friendship, so that severely limits the number of ponies I can call on to give dissertations. I think Princess Celestia's priority is the rebuilding of Griffonstone. That takes cooperation, and cooperation is integral to friendship. Ergo, I have to sell the concept of friendship as a valuable asset to the griffons.

Pinkie already gave them the key to baking good scones. That is something they can once again take pride in. Maybe I should find something else to build up that pride even more. Something to cheer for. Like a sport team, maybe. Cooperation, pride; friendship. It's worth a try. There were griffons competing at the Equestria Games, so they could conceivably build their own sports teams.

Tomorrow we hike to Saddle Lake for our fall foliage picnic! The weather will be warm and clear. In anticipation, Spike and I sliced a load of carrots into sticks and ground up a batch of sesame seeds into a paste. Tomorrow morning, before we go, we'll puree alfalfa sprouts, mix in the paste and some salt, and we'll have a fresh dip to go with the carrot sticks.

Starlight Glimmer isn't coming. She has decided to forego this picnic in order to study. A hike with friends is good for a pony. Maybe I should have insisted.

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Over The Fields And Through The Woods

Oct 19: My friends arrived a bit earlier than planned at the Friendship Castle, all saddled up and champing at the bit. Spike and I were in a bit of a panic as we finished up our carrot dip, tripping over Starlight Glimmer in the kitchen as we pureed the alfalfa spouts into a gooey mess, added quite a bit of salt, and succeeded somehow in stirring in the stiff sesame paste until it went from goop to dip. Food preparation is magic! Into empty jam jars it went, on with the lids, packed into my trusty saddle bags with the carrot sticks, blanket, guide books, survival kit, tea, tea kettle, cups, writing material, sample jars and magnifying glass (check, check, check-ity check check and check on my check list). One pony and her Number One Assistant, all set to go!

We headed east, walking single file through the long grass still heavy with dew, and veered south at the river to the nearest bridge. On the other side we continued east and into dappled sunlight in the deciduous forest, a herd of six chatty ponies and one baby dragon. We chose a forest trail that headed north toward our destination, the east side of Saddle Lake.

The trail was narrow and green with ungrazed grasses and as we progressed, fewer and fewer of the trees had changed into their fall finery. Six ponies walking together changed that. Reds, yellows and orange rushed into the leaves as we passed. We brushed through the grasses and now golden, they burst into seed. They'd only been waiting for this moment to arrive. Pony magic let the changes be.

Though dips and meadows, we set our little winding trail ablaze, and cresting a hill we looked back to see the fiery spread of our hoofwork being communicated by the mycelium network and working its way up to the higher branches. A river of autumn brilliance in the verdant sea of summer's bounty. Fall is Princess Celestia's favorite time of year, and I can see why. It's the sunset of the time of plenty.

Ahead, the blue waters of Saddle Lake shimmered in the sun and spurred us down the hill, through a final patch of forest and out to the lakeside prairie. We scouted about until we found our picnic hill from last time, a high, dry spot close enough to the lake to get a drink and with a good view of Canterlot, Foal Mountain and Rambling Rock Ridge.

Dash, Pinkie, Applejack and Spike galloped down to the water to splash in the shallows, kick up gouts of spray and generally get soaked. The rest of us watched from a safe distance as we spread out our picnic blankets and assembled the food items. Three wet ponies and a baby dragon climbed back up the hill to join us as we basked in sun before lunch.

After lunch we roasted marshmallows and Pinkie tried to write our names in the green meadow. That didn't work out so well as the golden hue spread so fast that soon there was no more green left. But where she had walked the wild asters bloomed, so there we were, our names inscribed in flowers for any passing bird to read.

Spike took a nap and I lounged in the sun, chatting with Rarity while watching Fluttershy collect a few big bouquets of asters, cattails and tall grasses to take home. Pinkie prospected for interesting rocks to send to her sister and Applejack had fun coaxing the trees into dazzling color. She found a few crabapples she liked and she collected some branches to graft onto her trees back at the farm.

All too soon it was late afternoon and time to return home. We collected our things, I helped carry one of Fluttershy's bouquets (resisting the urge to nibble on it), and we plunged into the warm cathedral of fall stained foliage that our journey this morning had wrought upon the forest.

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Call of Booty

Oct 20: The Map Table roused again! Unfortunately, it wasn't me that it called, it summoned Applejack and Fluttershy and it sent them to Las Pegasus. I've never been there, but I've read that it's a sort of stationary entertainment complex or town, built on clouds. It's supposed to be earth pony and unicorn accessible, so getting around shouldn't be a problem for Applejack. Neither Applejack nor Fluttershy looked at all pleased with the prospect of venturing into Las Pegasus, but if the Tree chose them, then they were the best team for the job.

It's a long train ride to Los Pegasus, and although they left this morning, it's little wonder I haven't heard back from them yet. They might be gone for days. Their train went through Whitetail Woods, so they should have had some nice scenery to look at on the way.

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Putting Out a Fire With a Pair of Matches

Oct 21: Los Pegasus held no charm for Applejack and Fluttershy. They caught the overnight train back to Ponyville after just spending the day among those bright lights and tourist attractions. But they found and fixed the problem the Map chose for them. Applejack came by to tell me how it went this afternoon.

They found a pony using lies and false friendship to take advantage of ponies in his employment. By pitting his employees one against each other, Gladmane kept them from developing their expertise and becoming superstars, in the way that Sapphire Shores is a superstar. Thus they felt compelled to remain as sideshow entertainment for Gladmane's hotel. The weird thing was how Fluttershy and Applejack solved this deception -- two of the employees being deceived were Flim and Flam, and they were encouraged to deceive the deceiver into revealing his means of operation. That healed the friendships of the deceived ponies, but left the hotel under the care of the two scoundrels, Flim and Flam. Applejack wasn't pleased with that outcome, but she was relieved to get away from "that wild vacation spot".

Was there a friendship lesson in this? If a friendly pony says your best friend is saying bad things about you behind your back, don't take their word for it. Go talk to that best friend to make things right once again.

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They Only Come Out At Night

Oct 22: I got up very early today, a few hours before the morning twilight. The nights are long this time of year and when it's dark, ponies that wake up before the twilight just roll over and go back to sleep. That makes for long periods of dark and quiet at night, a time where the constellations have settled down and the crystal ponies aren't sending ribbons of color down from the north. This is when the shooting stars come out to play.

My almanac predicted an early morning meteor shower, one of several that we get at this time of year, and that is why I was up and scanning the night sky this morning. Princess Luna had set her moon early, leaving just the night's stars and constellations to glitter like diamond dust up above. The meteors were shy and fleeting and I managed to see ten before the night ended. The constellations took their bows and reached down to touch the far horizon, hastening to exit as the early twilight spread across the sky like a playhouse curtain.

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Failing Marks

Oct 23: The trio of fillies, the ones with matching cutie marks and who call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, had me all excited about a griffon friend of theirs that they said had acquired a cutie mark. Turns out it was painted on. The griffin, named Gabriella, wanted to help the CMC succeed in giving her a cutie mark, and since that was impossible, she faked it.

I don't know when it was that I became so gullible. Griffons do not get cutie marks. I had researched that question earlier today since the CMC had come knocking to ask if griffon cutie marks were possible. No griffon cutie mark had been documented in the literature that I've seen. But when they came back to announce that they had succeeded in bringing out a griffon's cutie mark, I just wanted to believe it was true. Their special talent is helping ponies fathom their cutie marks (these fillies have cutie marks that match), which lent credence to their claim. It didn't help that there is that Griffonstone summit I'm preparing for. Teaching griffons about cutie marks, and demonstrating that we ponies can help make them happen, that would have been astounding. It was also too good to be true. I think I have griffons on the brain.

True to form, the CMC did succeed at what they excel at. They found out what Gabriella's special talent is. That talent is helping others and she is really good at it (but not good enough to help the CMC achieve the impossible). So they made her a Cutie Mark Crusader as well, and gave her a pair of wooden plaques carved and painted to match their cutie marks, but with a trophy in the middle to represent Gabriella's skill at being helpful. They even threw her a cute-ceañera, a party ponies have to celebrate when they acquire their cutie marks.

I'm going to write to her to see if she would like to help at the friendship summit in Griffonstone. I could really use the help of a local to help me navigate the do's and don't's of griffon society.

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Investing In Hay Futures

Oct 24: The third cut haying starts tomorrow, so I decided to get the jump on the yak buyers and order 18 bales from Applejack today. Since the yaks demand perfection, they inspect every bale before buying and they don't buy hay before it's been baled. I'm buying a few more bales than last year, just in case I have more guests.

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Specialty Hay

October 25: The weather is clear and bright and will remain so for several days, the time it takes for cut timothy grass to dry. Applejack and the hay specialist farmers were out after the morning dew had evaporated, mowing the fields. Dash had her team of pegasi coax a gentle breeze over the fields to help with the sun-drying. I get a great view of the mowers transforming the sea of green into rows and parallel lanes of cut stalks, following the contours of the hills, ponds and field edges. It looks very abstract.

This third cut harvest is happening two weeks earlier than it did last year. The whole point is to give the grass time recover and build up energy reserves before winter. There are still a few warm days in the weeks ahead and that will help.

Even though the third cut has barely begun, the bazaar is sporting a hay theme. I picked up a few bundles of fresh cut (not dried) timothy from one stand and a couple bales of specialty hay from another stand, which I had delivered. One bale was a second cut hay with a high alfalfa and clover content, and the other was a high fiber, extra low protein first cut bale that had dried to perfection to a faded green. As we chose a spot to store them in the pantry, I joked with Starlight Glimmer that I'd bought the high fiber bale to cure the bloat we were sure to get from eating too much of the high alfalfa bale. Starlight said she thought that was a good plan. It was a joke, not an invitation. I didn't take Starlight for a mare who binge eats rich food. Maybe I should buy another high fiber bale, just in case.

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Green Grass Soup

Oct 26: For lunch, Spike made green grass soup with some of the fresh cut timothy I bought yesterday and with some fresh cut alfalfa he picked up at the market today. That was delicious with oat crackers. Starlight Glimmer told me that today she was reading The Art of Invisibility Spells. I bought that book last year in Canterlot to replace the copy lost when the Golden Oak Library was destroyed. For dessert we had apple crumble.

In the hay fields around Ponyville, ponies are still mowing. We have more fields to mow this year due to the expansion. Since it was a warm sunny day, I opened a few of the smaller windows in my library room and let the sun shine in. It also let the aroma of curing hay waft in from the surrounding fields. Sunshine and the smell of hay makes this rock stable feel less like a cave. It's still cold and huge and prone to small hurricane drafts shooting up the staircase when the front door is open, but maybe Applejack was on to something when she tried to turn parts of the castle into a barnyard. She did go overboard with that idea. The thing that my friends did settle on, the tree root chandelier, has the fact that it's less intrusive going for it.

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Selling Friendship By The Pound

Oct 27: The cutie mark specialist fillies' griffon friend, Gabriella, burst into my library today. I see she got my letter. She's so enthusiastic about every little thing that she's hard to keep up with.

According to Gabriella, griffons can be a bit unfriendly and most griffons don't pay much attention to each other, except to squabble. Gabriella, who prefers to be called Gabby, is an atypically friendly griffon, and yet I wouldn't discount the capacity of most griffons for friendship too quickly. Dash has a strong friendship with Gilda, there was a griffon team at the Equestria Games, and instead of dispersing to the four corners of Equestria, griffons have chosen to continue living in close proximity in Griffonstone.

Ergo, Gabby might be too bubbly for the average griffon, but the capacity for cooperation and friendship is definitely there. Gabby brought me up to speed about the griffon gestalt of monetary worth. Anything worth sharing is worth paying for, or conversely, anything given freely is either worthless or it has a hidden cost.

This tells me several things. I am going to need to take a bag of bits to this summit. I am going to have to demand payment or no griffon will listen to anything I have to say. I am going to have to present friendship and cooperation as a cost/benefit balance and thus, I'm going to have to borrow heavily from Fluttershy's explanations of ecological and behavioral strategies as well as dipping into economic theory.

It's going to be a bit abstract, but with Gabby's help, together we should come up with talking points for the round table discussions and something to hold the attention of the griffon audience during my workshop. We're going to try and monetize friendship! I just hope griffons are at least half as good at math as Gabby says they are.

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Harvest

Oct 28: It has been three days since the start of the third cut and some of the grass has dried enough to be baled. It has been tedded, turned and raked into windrows and around midday ponies were out in the fields hard at work baling it. Some of those first bales went straight to market where they sold fast. The first yak buyers had arrived on the morning train and they were waiting in the bazaar. Yaks prefer "perfect" bales and they don't buy in advance, they pick and prod each bale before buying it. The best hay sold for three times the going rate for second cut hay, but there were plenty of takers for the hay that wasn't up to yak standards.

Applejack didn't take any hay to market today. Her strategy is to sell her hay in the early morning while the fields are drying and then she spends the rest of the day harvesting and baling with Big McIntosh. She says that dealing with yak buyers is slow and tiring. They haggle over every bale but they pay well. What with the field expansions and the chaotic marketplace, Braeburn is coming to Ponyville to help sell the Apple Acres hay, which will give Big Mac and Applejack more time for their chores and to work the fields. A pony can't be in two places at once.

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Harvest Picnic

Oct 29: I went on a picnic in the western pasture today with my friends. It was warm and sunny with a gentle breeze, intended to dry the last of the cut grass before it gets baled. Pinkie, with Gummy clinging to her tail, led us to a tall hill dotted with hay bales awaiting collection and a great view all around. The theme was harvest pet date, so Spike and I brought Owlowiscious and fresh alfalfa sandwiches. We spread out our blankets, put down our baskets and admired the autumn splendor in the trees while we waited for Applejack to arrive. We saw her approach from far afield, a tiny dot trotting straight to us, a smaller dot running circles around her and barking. Opal saw them too. She stopped trying to stalk Owlowiscious and found a nearby tree to climb. Applejack arrived, smelling of fresh hay, and we opened our baskets. Angel hopped right over the apple and carrot treats and helped himself to one of my alfalfa sandwiches.

Applejack should finish baling and storing her hay by tomorrow and then she'll help the neighbor with her hay. The harvest is going quite well and what with the extra volume from the first and second cuts, Ponyville's storage facilities are almost full. Fortunately, there are a lot of hay buyers from Yakyakistan, and most of Applejack's hay has been going straight to market where Braeburn has been selling it almost as fast as it arrives.

Applejack didn't stay long. As soon as she had finished eating, she was up and trotting back to the bazaar to give Braeburn a lunch break. We remained a while longer, enjoying the sun and the smells of the fall. The days are getting shorter and it won't be long before winter's blanket puts all the fresh greens to bed and we depend on our jams, pickled beets, silage, root cellars and dried stores to remind us of the summer past and the spring to come.

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Hay Train to Yakyakistan

Oct 30: There were Yak buyers everywhere today! The morning south bound train arrived jam packed with yaks, hay prices have skyrocketed and each train heading north for Crystal Empire left heavily burdened with hay. Around mid afternoon, after they had bought all the good hay they could afford, the yaks turned tourist and wandered around taking in the sights and posing for pictures in front of the Friendship Castle. They've all followed their purchases north now and I imagine there are long rows of hay carts getting slowly dragged up the steep trail to Yakyakistan. There could maybe eventually be an extension of the Equestrian rail line to Yakyakistan, or maybe not. It's a steep climb through deep snows and a constant danger of avalanches.

Applejack has sold all the third cut hay she's going to sell. She's kept a hundred mostly irregular bales in reserve, partly for her own consumption, partly to sell to ponies later in the year. Braeburn will be leaving for Appleoosa tomorrow morning with thirty bales of third cut hay. He'll be back later for some first and second cut hay as well. Like Applejack and Big McIntosh, he often requires the energy boost from the second and third cut hays for farm work. My 18 bales are to be delivered tomorrow. My pantry is ready.

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Can't Say Neigh to Freshly Harvested Hay

Oct 31: There were more hay buyers in town today, mostly yaks. The third cut is winding down, all the timothy grass has been baled and nearly all of the bales are out of the field. The fields look so clean and bare now. That was the last big harvest of the year for Ponyville, but there are still several other crops to be harvested, such as the alfalfa and the root crops.

My new batch of hay is permeating the castle with delicious odors. If I'm not paying attention, I've found that my hooves follow my nose to the guest room that serves as our third and second cut hay pantry. That's happened more than once. Starlight Glimmer isn't immune to the siren's call of fresh sun-dried hay either. On one of my distracted aroma following walks I found her with her head in the pantry door, taking deep whiffs. Naturally, we had third cut hay for lunch. Who could resist that?

We are due for rain soon. Rainbow Dash is expecting Cloudsdale to send us showers by tomorrow afternoon. The fields need it recover in time for winter.

Applejack is trying to grow crystal corn from the kernels she brought back from the Crystal Empire last year. She managed to get several plants to sprout, but they've remained stunted and they have yet to flower. There is something missing and Applejack hasn't figured out what just yet. On the other hoof, the Crystal Empire can't grow many of the apple varieties that Applejack farms.

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Author's Note

According to RiceWaffleFox, it's Twilight Sparkle's birthanniversary today, March 30th. Rice worked it out thus in 2017:

In the Equestria Girls' Friendship Games movie, 'Science' Twilight has a wall calendar planner with a birthday cake on day 30.
MLP:FiM S1 Sweet and Elite: Twilight's birthday celebration is concurrent with the Canterlot Garden Party and before the Grand Galloping Gala, suggesting spring.
MLP:FiM S1 Ticket Master: At the GG Gala all the flowers bloom and it is on the 21st of the month, thus March 21 or April 21 is likely, although it could be May 21. (April showers = May flowers, but in Equestria spring happens overnight).

see: https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:RiceWaffleFox/Twilight_Sparkle%27s_Birthday

My take: Spring equinox often falls on March 21st, so I'm not too hot for the claim that the GG Gala would happen when it could conflict with the finishing touches of the Winter Wrap Up ordeal. So for me, the GG Gala is unlikely to happen in March. That leaves March 30th as a strong contender for Twilight's birthanniversary date. This is two days before Spring Foals Day, right in the horse gestation period (315-388 days See Anim Reprod Sci. 2002 Dec 16;74(3-4):175-85; or for a tighter estimate, about 345 +/- 20 days for a late March birth) following mad mare season: Hearts and Hooves Day (April 24th). So, I'm OK with this. Let there be cake!

XXIII November

Supply and Demand

Nov 1: The day started cool and sunny, but by afternoon it turned cold, wet and dreary. I brewed a pot of chocolate peppermint tea and watched the sheets of rain splash patterns on the big balcony. The last hay bales have been cleared from the fields and either squeezed into storage somewhere or sent by train to markets elsewhere in Equestria and Yakyakistan. Now that the buying frenzy is over, prices should drop soon and stay that way for a while, at least until demand picks up again in midwinter. Most ponies can't store enough hay to last all year in their homes and they go to the markets to replenish their small larders. Not everypony lives on a farm or in a giant stone tree-shaped stable.

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Breathing Technique

Nov 2: I went to visit Zecora today and I found the Everfree looking especially dreary. I stepped through the edge into a forest cold and misty, where most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and the ferns and forbs are limp and brown. Just beyond the Everfree, in the fields of Ponyville, yesterday's clouds have been cleared and the sunshine is bright and cheery. By the time I reached Zecora's forest home I was wet, chilled and a little bit miserable. Zecora welcomed me in with a rhyme and led me to her table where she pushed something hot and nourishing in front of my nose. I felt much better.

It's harvest time for Zecora too. Although she will collect specific plants in bloom during the summer, or others as they emerge in the spring, many of the plants she selects are best harvested now, when they are at their most potent. I'd dropped in on her while she was in the middle of sorting and preparing extracts and powders from several medicinal plants. I lent a hoof, stirring the tincture, grinding seeds and filling jars. She had me practice gaining focus through controlled breathing while engaged in processing the plants. That's a very useful skill and I need to do that more.

On my way home, I continued to practice concentrating on the rhythm of my breathing. During the moments I got it just right, the muted, cluttered forest appeared clearer, intricate and interconnected. Time slowed down and my hoofsteps became silent but sure in the slippery wet leaf litter. The chill did not bother me anymore.

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Breathe

Nov 3: I spent a good part of the day trying to master Zecora's technique of rhythmic breathing while engaged in other tasks. It was easier to do while she was there coaching me. I kept breathing too fast and getting light headed and dry mouthed. Now I'm exhausted.

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An Eye on the Sky

Nov 4: There are meteors zipping across the sky tonight. I've already seen quite a few and I'm going back out with a fresh pot of Zecora's chocolate peppermint spice tea to watch for wandering fireballs.

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A Scattering of Stars

Nov 5: Last night, the antics of the stars were pretty funny. Shortly after midnight, the bulk of the Taurids began streaking through the sky, especially around the Taurus the bull constellation. I think Taurus was feeling a little impatient last night with these shooting stars, buzzing around him like astral parasprites. They're much too fast to get swatted by his tail, although he did come close to hitting a fireball. So he moved, climbing high up overhead in the sky, causing other, smaller constellations to scatter.

It's a lot warmer out tonight. I've been reading by candlelight on the balcony. It's hard to find fireflies at this time of year.

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Limited Participant

Nov 6: I had a visit today from Prince Blueblood's attaché, Volte Halt. He was here to fill me in on the etiquette side of the conference, such as where I'm to sit, when I should expect to speak and who is to cover which talking points. It's all very formal and again I get the feeling I'm going to be eye candy while the Big Ponies do all the talking. Prince Blueblood got wind of my plan to sell tickets to my workshop and was "perplexed". I told Halt that I'd been informed that this is key to generating interest and legitimacy in what I had to to offer in the minds of the griffon citizenry. Halt said he'd get back to me.

I've noticed that Starlight is reading a lot of advanced books on magic. From past experience, I know she's adept at learning new spells. I expect that she's getting a nice repertoire, I should ask her sometime to show me what she's got.

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Champing At The Bits

Nov 7: I'm fat and fluffy in my winter coat, and starving too. By the Tree, you'd think winter starts next week and that my body plans on hibernating! If Prince Blueblood expects me to just sit there and look pretty, they better feed us well at the summit.

I'm ready as I'll ever be for the summit. I have my talking points for the round table discussion written out on flash cards. Collated, color coded and correlated by relevance to friendship and griffon interests, of course. My workshop on The Economy of Friendship, Facilitating Supply and Creating Markets Through Mutual Interest is going to be a fun challenge! Gabby will be there to keep me from ruffling any feathers and Spike will help me with collecting the entry fee bits and redistributing them as I "pay" griffons in the audience for right answers. I'm bringing fifty bits along just in case I need more.

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Guest Lecturer Engagement

Nov 8: Princess Celestia sent me a scroll asking if I'd like be a guest lecturer at her school. She would like me to give her students a quick overview of the history of enchanted objects in Equestria. Would I? Oh yes! I aced that subject when I was in school. The lecture is to take place two days after I get back from the Friendship Summit in Griffonstone, so I have plenty of time to prepare.

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Riding Off To The Friendship Summit

Nov 9: I'm ready for the Friendship Summit in Griffonstone and I'm about to head out the door with Spike. Starlight won't be coming with us, she says she has a backlog of books on magic that she has master, and she has pulled some pleasure reading on the history of bridleway musicals too.

Earlier today I helped Dash pack for the Daring Do convention. I lent Dash my copy of Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone to get it signed by A. K. Yearling. She's very excited and I wish I could go with her.

It's a ways to Griffonstone so Spike and I are taking the overnight train. We will be meeting Prince Blueblood and Princess Celestia there. Prince Blueblood is already there orchestrating the preparation of the venue and Princess Celestia is flying in by chariot tomorrow. Gabby will meet me at the station and she will assist me and Spike at the summit. I hope I can handle her high energy optimism, but mare is she good at helping. I'll be back in three days.

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(The princess has gone to a summit. No, it does not involve skiing or tobogganing. It is not that kind of summit.)

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The Friendship Summit

Nov 12: Spike and I got back this afternoon from the two day Friendship Summit that was held in Griffonstone.

Day one we met Gabby on our arrival at the Griffonstone train station. We chose to take the scenic route and walk up Griffon Gorge to Griffonstone. We could have flown, with Gabby there to help carry our bags, but I wanted to savor the thrill of finally getting to see the fabled Griffonstone with my own eyes. Gabby said that griffons have been getting along better recently and that many have tidied up their nests, but I think Rainbow Dash was right, Griffonstone does look run down.

First we went to the old Griffonstone Palace, which is mostly in ruins. Spike and I left our bags in the room set aside for us and went to have breakfast with Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood. After breakfast, Spike and Gabby ran off to take care of my workshop business while I went with the others on a pre-summit guided tour of Griffonstone. That cost me five bits, plus the bit for the fresh baked griffon scone. There were dilapidated buildings everywhere we went and the view of the Griffonstone Library books scattered about, unloved, caused me to forget to taste the scone. If I could just slip away from the tour for a while, I could sort those books and maybe straighten the shelves... Some other time. Then it was time for Princess Celestia to inaugurate the summit and for Prince Blueblood to make the opening remarks. A few more speeches and it was time for lunch. It was a buffet, so ponies and griffons could mingle while we ate, but all the griffons I met were more interested in eating than talking.

After lunch, I spent the afternoon sitting at a conference table between two bored griffons while further down the table both Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood each appeared to be negotiating something with the griffons in their vicinity. I guess Ponyville and Friendship didn't hold much worth with those griffons. I didn't feel like paying for chitchat. So we sat in silence and waited for the next meal. I thought often of the Daring Do convention I was missing.

During supper, Spike and Gabby joined me at my table and brought me up to date on the state of my workshop. Gabby had already made a deal with Gilda and mailed an announcement advertising the workshop to every griffon household in Griffonstone. The deal was a joint venture: Gilda would sell the workshop tickets, keep twenty percent of the bits and honor the coupon for a discount on a scone for each ticket sold. That worked really well. Griffons apparently are attracted to discounts and Gilda sold a lot of scones, and a lot of tickets. So many tickets that the workshop is sold out. Gabby told me not to worry, all the sales are final, so, since the griffons can't get their money back for the tickets, they'll be at the workshop.

After supper, Prince Blueblood gave another speech, but nearly all of the griffons had gone home. Then I went to my room and reviewed my preparations for my workshop, but quietly, so Spike could sleep.

The next morning I was ready for my workshop and just as Gabby had predicted, every seat in the venue was filled. The workshop had a rough start. The griffons, not used to sitting so close together in an amphitheater, were squabbling so loudly I had trouble getting their attention. That was until I explained that there would be a quiz, that right answers were worth a bit, and wrong answers get you eliminated, which means you lose the chance at making any more bits. That got their attention. I gave my presentation, explained theory, cooperation, supply chain dynamics, mutualism, trust and friendship. The whole eight furlongs. Then I made them work for their bits. They had to get the theory right. They had to demonstrate their understanding by providing examples or hypothetical situations in which cooperation and friendship builds strength, opportunity and stability. When I finally "ran out of bits", the workshop was over. Class dismissed! It was a lot of fun, and I think the griffons got their money's worth.

Then it was back mingling, or in my case, being a wallflower, at the summit. Hopefully Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood achieved something concrete.

There was one final summit dinner, during which Prince Blueblood made a prepared speech underlying the mutual benefit of friendship to Griffonstone and Equestria. Then dessert was served and five minutes later every griffon had left the hall. After saying goodbye to Princess Celestia and goodnight to Prince Blueblood, I went out for a walk to indulge in star gazing. I found an open space away from the braziers and candles of the palace. The constellations are a bit of a different mix here, but just after midnight several constellations scattered to make way as Taurus came galloping through, several meteors and a fireball in hot pursuit. That made my night.

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Stuffed

Nov 13: The winter squash harvest is in full swing in Ponyville and there are pumpkins everywhere in the market. Spike bought a few small ones and decided to make stuffed pumpkins -- raw pumpkin, seeds and all, stuffed with fresh alfalfa for lunch. A rich and decadent feast for fattening up ponies for sure! At least the seeds are good for what ails you, so if anypony asks, we are not bingeing on squash, we're healing our bodies.

Since we were going to have heartburn and gurgling innards anyway, we topped it off an hour later with chocolate cake from Sugarcube Corner. So now I'm drinking my way through a pot of mint tea, in hope that I'll avoid waking up in the middle of the night, bloated and in dire need of trotting ten times around Ponyville to settle my stomach. So far so good.

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I Did Not Miss a Plate

Nov 14: I survived stuffing myself on stuffed pumpkin! The only lasting effect was that I was less hungry this morning, so I just had a light breakfast of first cut timothy. Then I got back to work searching the literature for examples of enchanted objects. And then, around noon, the aroma of baking wafted into the library. I discovered that I was, once again, as hungry as a horse. Spike had baked a pumpkin cake and whipped up an apple butter icing for it.

We had pumpkin soup followed by pumpkin pot pie and a pumpkin, hay, lentil and mushroom goulash, washed down with pumpkin spice hot chocolate milk. The pumpkin cake was for dessert. I ate too much, again. We all went for a long walk after lunch to settle our stomachs. We really ought to have another potluck supper soon.

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Polishing Up

Nov 15: I think I've finished my literature search for enchanted objects in Equestria. I've written a pile of flash cards for my presentation and I have a whole pile of reference books bookmarked at illustrations of notable enchanted objects and the ponies who made them. Spike will be in charge of placing them on the overhead projector.

I was overdue for a good hooficure so I joined Rarity and Fluttershy at the spa. I want to look my best in front of Celestia's students! I thought about getting a Crystal Empire oil bath, but I don't want to leave an oil slick everywhere I stop in Canterlot. So I had a fragrant soak and I got my feathers waxed instead, without the glitter. I will be leaving for Canterlot tomorrow morning with Spike, and we'll catch the afternoon train back. I was going to color code the cards and bookmarks according to time, place and object tonight, and then order the reference books to match, but I got distracted by Starlight Glimmer's new repertoire of spells she's been learning. She had made a list of them and I'm impressed! We're going to have a spell casting match first thing tomorrow morning so she can show them off. Then I'm going to sort and color code my cards and materials.

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Fear Of Failing

Nov 16: Ugh, this place is a mess. The kitchen is a disaster area, the entrance hall is a swamp, and there is the smell of burnt cake everywhere. Starlight Glimmer had a bit of a magical mishap. The good news is that nopony got hurt, although my friends are probably going to have some pretty bad headaches tomorrow. The day had started out so well.

This morning, bright and early, Starlight Glimmer and I had a fun magic duel as a way for her to show me the spells she had been studying the most. She's very strong, and although she lacks a little in the delicate tuning of her spells, she's very good at cranking them out in quick succession and she has even been experimenting in combining some rather obscure spells. For instance, she showed me an innovative spell combination that allowed her to oscillate positions so fast that she seemed to be two places at once. That last one looked tiring and probably too hard to control to be useful. Sadly, the one part of her magic studies that she has been neglecting is the study of Friendship. She had her list of the spells she had mastered on hoof and I noticed the lack of completed friendship exercises and summaries of lessons experienced. So before Spike and I left for Canterlot, I asked her to complete a practical friendship activity, with the understanding that we'd discuss how it went when I got back this evening. Starlight Glimmer decided that to impress me, she would not tackle just one friendship lesson. She'd tackle five.

She invited our five Ponyville friends over, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack, with the object being to do something each of our friends enjoys doing. So all five friends arrived at the Friendship Castle and Starlight found herself with the problem of participating in five different incompatible activities at once in four different areas of the castle. That counts as following the form of a friendship lesson but with no real understanding of the intent of the lesson. She decided to solve this problem with magic, but not with the magic of friendship.

The magic of Friendship is the magic of cooperation, of understanding and of trust. It's a magic of synergy and quite different from the usual forceful, manipulative magic that we are taught in magic kindergarten. It's subtle and not something that you can glean by having five friends start five different projects and then leave them pretty much alone. Long story short, Starlight Glimmer, to get everpony to agree with her on what she felt would be the most efficient path to getting all five tasks completed simultaneously, cast a combination compulsion spell on my friends, and made them act like model employees. Thus, she did not learn anything about friendship, but I do hope that she learned to not turn ponies into meat puppets.

I had hoped that friendship would give her the support and confidence she needs to do something that she can be passionate about. She's good at studying and keen to show me that she's adept at magic, but I still don't see that confidence. It's that confidence that would have allowed her to relax with her friends and learn her friendship lessons one at a time. Instead, she tried to approach friendship as a chore, and she tried to do five chores at once by taking cooperation and teamwork out of the equation.

So I got home to six sopping wet ponies, five of which were in a spellbound trance, with rain clouds and smoke drifting down the halls, and wet furniture, pictures, cloth and spiders everywhere. The kitchen looks like a tornado blew through it, and then it caught fire. I managed to undo the compulsion spell so my friends could go home. All that because Starlight Glimmer was afraid to be less than perfect at something she's not naturally good at. Like sewing. And baking. Tomorrow, Starlight Glimmer is going to have to learn how to apologize to her friends. Tonight, I'm going to go out to watch for shooting stars. Then I'm going to bed.

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The Morning After The Night Before

Nov 17: Before starting cleaning up the mess she caused in the castle, Starlight Glimmer went out to apologize to our friends for the mess she made of their friendship. Her apology was accepted and true to form, our friends forgave her and volunteered to help her clean up the mess. Well, Pinkie was still sore about the ruined cakes, so her contribution was to bake another. It's not like Pinkie never ruined a recipe before, but Pinkie is rarely easy to fathom. The silver lining to the whole affair was that Starlight Glimmer unintentionally achieved what she had attempted the day before. Each friend concentrated their energies on the tasks they did best -- Rarity repaired some torn tapestries, Fluttershy rounded up and repatriated various creepy crawly critters to their lurking crevices and castle corridors, Dash cleared out the clouds, Applejack collected and sorted through her family photos, and Pinkie baked. Starlight spent time helping each of them, strengthening their friendships, and finally winning Pinkie's forgiveness. It took all day to finish the clean up, round up, fix up, bake up and so on. So out of hardship, several lessons on friendship got driven home. The last lesson was Rainbow Dash's to give: how to "chill-ax". Starlight might not have quite mastered that one.

Now it's time for me to "chill-ax", I think. My Astronomer's Almanac says the meteors are going to be at their most frisky in less than an hour from now. They should be frolicking around the lion constellation, Leo. If watching for shooting stars is fun and exciting, does it count as "chill-axing"?

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Autumn Treats

Nov 18: For supper we ate spaghetti squash. Not straight, Spike chopped them in half, loosened up the filamentous pulp in the rind and filled the halves with oats, fresh ground green alfalfa sauce and cubed carrot chunks. The oats were boiled until so soft and juicy that they pop when you bite them. I ate three of these half squashes, along with the sweet third cut hay they were served on. That was probably two too many. The fattening season is at a full gallop.

Nightmare Night is a big thing in Ponyville and already ponies everywhere have been decorating their houses. Earlier today when Spike and I went shopping at the bazaar, we picked up candy for Nightmare Night as well. Even though the castle is just outside of Ponyville, quite a few fillies and colts come knock on my door. My plan was to beat the last minute rush when all that's left for Nightmare Night treats are baby carrots, apples and sugar cubes, but I didn't want to stock up on candy too early; Spike would eat it all. We got dried sweet and sour cherries, candied dried crabapples dipped in chocolate, peppermint oil alfalfa cubes, rock sugar and a big basket of Pinkie's rock candies from Sugarcube Corner. The dried sweet and sour cherries are the best of the lot. If I wasn't so very stuffed with squash, I'd be tempted to snack on a few.

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Feeding The Fire Of Friendship

Nov 19: It was spaghetti squash for supper again, but this time as part of a first cut hay goulash. We still have a lot of squash in the pantry.

While I was buying rock candy yesterday, Pinkie and I discussed having a pot-luck supper. Today I received my rain-spattered invitation from Pinkie and it's official. We're getting together for a pot-luck supper tomorrow night and it will be here at the castle. Maybe we can cook up another of our squashes.

The supper will be another friendship lesson for Starlight Glimmer -- sharing food and dinner conversation strengthens friendship. This is one friendship lesson she won't miss.

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Friendly Conversation

Nov 20: I held the pot luck supper in the dining room so we could all eat together at the table and talk. After the adventure they'd had getting compelled by Starlight Glimmer and cleaning up the mess the next day, the timing was perfect for building on the momentum of Starlight's apology. Everypony had a lot to say and Starlight joined in. Success! Although I did feel a little left out, like an outsider looking in. Like Starlight Glimmer probably does most of the time. But soon we started talking about other things, such as what to do tomorrow evening.

It's Nightmare Night tomorrow in Ponyville and Starlight plans on sitting it out, but so does Fluttershy, although not for the same reasons. The rest of us are meeting up here after nightfall before heading out into town and to the Sweet Apple Acres corn maze.

I'm all set for Nightmare Night. Rarity has made a costume for me. It's a replica of an over-the-top star-chart dress that I had had her make for me way back when. That dress was to be for that first time we went to the Grand Galloping Gala, but fortunately Rarity had designed a much nicer dress that I wore instead. The original got destroyed with the Golden Oak Library and it wouldn't still fit anyway. I've grown a little bit taller since then, and there are also my wings to accommodate. Spike is going to be disguised as a dragon lord.

Because the castle is so far to the outskirts of Ponyville, we don't get as many candy seeking foals as the houses in town, especially after twilight. But we have to have some candy at the ready for the hardy few who do make the trek and today I went shopping for more sweets. Spike had eaten most of what we'd bought.

It was a fun, simple potluck supper. No games, just good friends, good food and conversation. Before everypony went home, we packed Fluttershy up with the leftovers, as much as she could carry, plus some sweets, to tide her and her critters through Nightmare Night.

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Who Is Mare Number One?

Nov 21: I have a lot of genre fiction in my library thanks to the books Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence sent me after the destruction of the Golden Oak Library. Many of the books are Hanoverian Romance novels and books in the Hardy Bays series and the like. I decided to move them downstairs to the reference section along with old outdated reference books on fashion, architecture, annual almanacs and old issues of magical publications. This way, there is more room for new books in the main library and the old books are in a place where it will be easy to find them. Starlight and Spike were there to help me carry. They wanted to know what was getting shelved where and why, and helping me is the easiest way to find out.

While we were joyfully shelving books, a letter arrived for Starlight Glimmer. It was a letter from the ponies of her village out in the desert, inviting her to a week-long Sunset Festival. Does that village even have a name yet? I can see Starlight's point of not naming the village in her quest for pony equality, but now? It's probably a case of social inertia. No name then, no name now. It's not like, in the desert, there are any other ponies asking you to remember the name of your village. "The Village". That reminds me of a series I read once, a quirky spy novel series about a master spy trapped in fake town. The story revolved around the mind games the ponies played on her in an attempt to find out what she knew. It was a strange series of books. On the back cover of each, "I am not a number, I'm a free mare!" was written in large font. I wonder if Starlight has read that series? Well, I hope she goes to the Sunset Festival. There are sure to be friendship lessons to be learned there!

It was Nightmare Night in Ponyville. While Starlight took care of distributing candy to the hardy few that came knocking after dark, the rest of us took to the streets of Ponyville. Spike and Pinkie joined a small herd of candy-questers and managed to track down and collect candy of their own before heading out to sacrifice some to the Nightmare Moon statue. Pinkie had teased her mane and tail until she looked like a big pink hairy ball of fluff with just enough of her muzzle sticking out to carry her candy pail. I don't know how she could see where she was going. Rainbow Dash was disguised as a gruesome zombie pegasus and Applejack was an eggplant creature with hooves. I saw Trixie disguised as herself, trotting off in the direction of the Nightmare Moon statue. Mayor Mare told me that Trixie was helping with the annual retelling of the Nightmare Moon legend by providing smoke and fireworks. A short time later, there were some nice fireworks lighting up the night sky around there. We missed the show. Oh well.

In town, the party was just starting. Everypony was dressed up in disguise and lining up for Nightmare Night games and dancing. Rarity looked like a rag doll, with her mane in ponytails and bows, red lipstick and painted crow's feet by her eyes. She had on a lovely quilted dress. That's probably going to turn up in her winter wear lineup. My star-map dress wasn't really made for bobbing for apples, and although I calculated the optimum force and angle, I wasn't too good at flicking beanbag spiders into the web target. When Spike and Pinkie got back, we dragged Dash and Applejack away from the catapults and went to the Sweet Apple Acres Corn maze. Then it was back to Ponyville for more dancing and prancing until Spike had eaten all his candy and had fallen asleep. I carried him home to bed.

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A Trixie Turn Of Events

Nov 22: Starlight called all of us to the Map Room this morning. When all had arrived, we squatted as best we could on our stone chairs to hear what she had to say. She told us about her invitation to her Village's Sunset Festival and she went on to say that she was considering not going because she's afraid of being rejected. She said it had given her a nightmare and Princess Luna had suggested that she come to us for advice. She can't imagine the Village ponies would ever want to see her again after what she had done to them and she was petrified by the thought that once there, she might revert to the control freak she had been before. We urged her to go and we recommend that she take a friend to help her overcome her fears. I hoped that she would chose me but instead she chose Trixie! I had to bite my tongue. Trixie sure has a knack for being in or near Ponyville when Starlight needs the support of a friend. OK, it only happened twice, but Trixie just ruffles my wing feathers.

They have already left and they are hoofing it to the Village, so Trixie can take her wagon. That will probably take them three days to get there, in which case they'll arrive on the eve of the first day of the week-long Sunset Festival. They could have taken the train. I would have taken the train. I would have liked to see what the Sunset Festival was about, although not with Trixie. Certainly not on a three day walk across Equestria with Trixie.

Spike has turned in already and there's a cold wind blowing on the balcony, so I think I'll call it a night too.

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A Call To Books

Nov 23: With all the space I've freed up on my shelves in the mane library, I'm ready to get new books! I'd like to go to Canterlot tomorrow to shop for books with Moondancer, but it's too short notice for a letter. There's the Haycartes route, but that can take a while before she notices me in her Treatise On Ponies and frankly, I still get panicked when I use that spell. So I went to have tea with Fluttershy and to talk about reference books. Long story short, Fluttershy has agreed to come book shopping in Canterlot with me tomorrow!

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We Went, We Saw, We Did A Little Shopping

Nov 24: I met Fluttershy at the train station this morning and by late morning the Friendship Express dropped us off in Canterlot. Our first stop was the research archives of the Physical Hippology and Archaeology department of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns to find Moondancer, down in subbasement D. She was hard at work puzzling together fragments of a crumpled scroll and looking like she'd been rolling in dust. We pulled her away from her work and off we went to hunt for books. She guided us to an academic bookstore with a strong animal husbandry and environmental studies stack, near the Cultural Hippology Museum. I could see for myself that there were still very long lineups to see the Epona Exhibit. I picked up a book on the daytime habits and habitat of the constellations and Fluttershy bought some husbandry manuals on waterfowl, bats and horned toad care, plus a key to the spiders of Equestria. Next we trotted over to Moondancer's favorite bookseller to see what was new and to pick up the book she had ordered on the potshard glyphs of the paleopony period. I found a few Proceedings from various Canterlot Conferences on the Advancement of Magic. Then we stopped for lunch at the restaurant favored by students from Celestia's School. There were mostly students eating there, which was not surprising, but I noticed this one old mare who came in right after we did and who chose a table near ours. She only ordered tea and she barely drank it the whole time we were there. I was famished and the hot and spicy grass turnip korma braised in coconut milk was delicious and not too expensive.

After lunch Moondancer left us to return to her scrolls and we went to a large general interest bookshop. Fluttershy bought several illustrated books from Neighpon. They're like the comic books Spike reads, only longer with more dialog and epic style stories. I told her that I have a lot of Hanoverian Romance novels she could borrow, or even keep. I bought a few novels by Pasture Ffjord and some of Hairy Thatchet's flying plate world books too.

By then it was time to return to the train station, so we paid for our books and went to catch the Express back to Ponyville.

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Revenge Of The Hay Burger

Nov 25: I think we're getting into a warm spell in Ponyville, at least warmer than it has been for the last little while, and the sunshine helps. The woods are beautiful, the fields are short and green and the harvest is slowly winding down. Soon it will be winter and the land will rest.

I took Spike to the Hay Burger for lunch, as a treat. The food is oily and salty, but at this time of year, it calls me. Then, for the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening, it kept on calling me, from the depths of my gurgling stomach. It took two pots of mint tea to quench that fire. I don't know how some ponies can eat there frequently, they must have cast iron stomachs. Now I'm hungry again. I think I'll go get some first cut hay from the pantry.

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Chillaxing In The Fields

Nov 26: It was really nice and warm today, nearly summer weather. It was so nice that I picked up a picnic blanket, a couple of Plate World books and a Proceedings from the Advancement of Magic and I let a thermal updraft carry me most of the way to a grassy knoll in the Western Pasture. I'd been lazily reading, sunning, and snacking on fresh grass when Fluttershy joined me. That was a surprise. She asked if it was OK to join me, that is, if I didn't mind, and then she spread another picnic blanket. Without another word, she pulled out a book of her own, one of those Neighponese comic books, and settled down to read. I'd barely turned a page when Rarity arrived, wearing a straw summer hat, sunglasses and levitating a chaise lounge. She had a saddlebag full of fashion magazines, a pair of scissors and a scrapbook. Obviously, something was up. I put down my book and asked Rarity how she and Fluttershy came to join me here, in the middle of a pasture. Rarity batted her eyelashes innocently and said, why, research darling, naturally. And she pointed a hoof at her magazines. I was not fooled, but as I was about to retort, I saw Applejack come trotting our way. Well, Applejack will tell me what's going on, and I got up to wait for her, ignoring Fluttershy and Rarity's stifled giggles.

Applejack had a picnic blanket and a pile of seed catalogs and a new issue of Poplar Mechanics. I was not surprised. I asked her straight out how it was that so many of my friends had taken to reading this morning and how they knew where to find me. Not that I wanted to be alone, I was happy to see them, just puzzled. Applejack spilled the beans: Rainbow Dash had spotted me sunning and chillaxing out in the field and she went down and told Pinkie Pie. Together Dash and Pinkie decided to round up the others and join me, unannounced. They told everypony to bring something to read. Mystery solved. I looked up and sure enough, a Rainbow-colored dot was streaking through the blue sky, straight for us. Below her, a bouncing pink pony had entered the pasture.

Dash brought a few Daring Do books, Pinkie a Party Pony Supply catalog and a cookbook by Mulia Mild. And a few tubs of ice cream! We had to eat that before it melted. So it was a surprise chillax picnic in the sun, with the ice cream helping with the chill part of the chillax, according to Pinkie. Dash, the authority on all things chillax, said not quite, but close enough. The rest of us just ate the ice cream. Then we settled down to read and soak up the fall sunshine. Dash had brought my copy of Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone to return to me. She hadn't succeeded in getting it signed by A. K. Yearling for me, but that's understandable, what with her getting foalnapped by Dr. Caballeron and his henchponies while at the convention. That led her to tell us all again about her adventure with Daring Do and another fan pony, which is sure to be the subject of the next Daring Do book.

The evening chill starts early this time of year and since we weren't planning on camping out in the fields (I hadn't even planned on a "chillax" picnic), we picked up our things and headed home in the lengthening shadows of the afternoon. I made a detour to Sugarcube Corner to pick up a small tub of ice cream for Spike. Chocolate mint generously sprinkled with Pinkie's rock candy. Spike has probably already eaten the entire thing.

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Starless Night

Nov 27: We had another summery day today, even the insects seemed to feel like it was summer again. There were dragonflies flying every which way, bees buzzing around the purple asters and even butterflies swarming my balcony. It looked almost like they were trying to take off with my books, or at least read them. Hot weather, mad insects. Fluttershy must have been ecstatic.

Cloudsdale sent us a rain shower in the afternoon, and while that calmed the insects down, it was still warm out when the clouds ran dry. Ponyville is sparkling clean. The sky was still full of clouds this evening and even now they're still there. I don't know why Dash didn't clear them out before nightfall. Maybe she got called away for Wonderbolt duty. It's a shame about the clouds because Luna hasn't raised the moon yet. The night is so dark and peaceful, it would be perfect for looking at the fainter stars with my Double Bridle refractor telescope. It would be even better with the Lightbridle reflective telescope I saw in Canterlot in the scientific glassware boutique. The one with the trusstube Bobroanian "light bucket". A mare can own two telescopes, can't she? Well, Dash isn't going to go cloud busting after dark and I'm not going to clear them out. Somepony might need them for something. I'll find out what's up tomorrow. I left the balcony door open to let in the warm breeze. I won't be able to do that come winter.

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(Princess Twilight has no time for you right now. Come back later. Much later.)

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Foalnapped

Nov 30: My friends and the princesses were foalnapped by changelings while they slept! I was foalnapped from my bed here in the castle by changelings while I slept! My brother, my niece, Cadence, Spike... all twelve of us were paralyzed, restrained magically, cocooned and replaced, and nopony in Equestria was the wiser. Except for Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Spike's friend Thorax, Sunburst and Discord. Perhaps those butterflies that had been landing on my books knew as well. I don't know. I don't speak butterfly. I'm surprised that Owlowiscious didn't raise the alarm, or that Fluttershy's many animal companions didn't notice something was amiss, and that the changelings managed to catch all of us napping. Literally. I guess with Applejack that's not surprising, and I'm a pretty sound sleeper as well, I didn't hear a thing, but snatching Princess Luna without Princess Celestia noticing, that must have been tricky.

They smuggled us out of Equestria and into the Changeling Hive where Queen Chrysalis had us hung like trophies above her throne. I found myself powerless, fighting some kind of paralysis while floating upside down in green goo. I couldn't breath, I couldn't move, I could barely stay awake and I couldn't cast magic. It was hard to get my bearing in those brief moments of lucidity, but I could see that I was not the only cocooned pony there. Everything was too blurry to see who the other ponies were and I couldn't break free. I kept going unconscious.

We were trapped like that for at least thirty hours. Longer for Rainbow Dash, Princess Luna and Fluttershy. Meanwhile, changelings that looked and acted just like us had replaced all twelve of us. Apparently Queen Chrysalis and several of her drones worked together to raise and set the sun and moon. Unicorns, working in concert, did that task in the past. There are a lot of changelings and Queen Chrysalis's throne in the Hive absorbed pony magic, so that was probably a factor in their success. Queen Chrysalis's throne was carved out of an ancient stone monolith that had the property of neutralizing and absorbing pony magic, but that rock is no more, thanks to Starlight Glimmer and Thorax.

Smuggling us out of sleepy little Ponyville under the cover of darkness wasn't too hard for the changelings, but it was probably more of a challenge to smuggle Luna, Celestia, Cadence, Shining and Flurry Heart out of their cities. Starlight Glimmer said Luna succeeded in dreamwalking into her dream thanks to her recurring nightmare of being rejected by her Village ponies. Luna was probably in a transport to the changeling Hive at that point. It was Luna's warning that led Starlight and Trixie to peek through the door to the Map Room in time to see them using a grid of signature stones and to drop their disguises to talk to Queen Chrysalis. They were lucky to get away and even luckier to be found by the only friendly changeling in Equestria, Thorax. Then Discord joined them, which I guess was fortunate as well.

Discord, Trixie, Thorax and Starlight Glimmer, versus the changeling Hive, a throne that neutralizes and absorbs all but changeling magic, and its Queen. That was not an auspicious beginning. And they won! Thanks to teamwork, skill, some quick talking, Thorax's familiarity with the Hive and Starlight's long-shot deduction on the effect of sharing on changeling society, they made it. Queen Chrysalis and the throne got bombarded with so much love that the throne was smashed, the top of the hive was obliterated and we were broken free of the paralyzing goo-filled cocoons that held us.

Starlight and Thorax had reached the throne room only to get surrounded by Queen Chrysalis and a phalanx of drones. Discord and Trixie had already been cocooned. Neither Starlight nor Thorax had any idea on how to demolish, break or neutralize the ancient monolith throne. Starlight did try kicking it and hitting it with whatever she could find. That didn't work. She tried to undermine Queen Chrysalis' plan to rule Equestria by revealing that Thorax no longer starves now that he shares friendship freely. Starlight addressed the drones in the room, telling them that they could be free of starvation if they would just share love, like Thorax. Not surprisingly, Queen Chrysalis was not interested in fomenting dissent among her drones and no changeling volunteered to test the hypothesis. So that flopped. Queen Chrysalis turned her attention to Thorax, who was spit-glued to the floor. Queen Chrysalis proclaimed that she was going to drain Thorax to death (by starvation). Starlight came up with one last long-shot as she tried to at least buy some time. She told Thorax to give all his love to the Queen freely. Apparently no changeling has ever done such a thing in living memory. The blast of love knocked Queen Chrysalis back and Thorax underwent a metamorphosis into, well, something else. A higher form, an adult... regardless, it was impressive. Starlight jumped on the occasion to continue her pitch about how the changelings could become free from their insatiable hunger. This time there were takers. Or givers. A whole lot of giving. Queen Chrysalis was on her throne at that moment, and the intense blast of love from dozens of drones at once smashed the magic-sucking rock into rubble. We broke free of our paralyzing cells and found ourselves amid dozens of orange, green and blue changeling-sized entities. Only Queen Chrysalis was unchanged and not interested in metamorphosing. She ran off. Capturing her in her own lands without prior permission from the changeling governor(s) would have been bad for Equestrian diplomacy, so who knows where she ran off to.

We didn't go straight home. There were still quite a few changelings masquerading as us and other ponies in Equestria and we thought it best to give Thorax time to bring them in. Starlight had an idea where we could go in the meantime, and that was to her Village for the Sunset Festival that is still going on. We all spent the day there, having fun, eating (I was starving!) and catching up on what we missed. The royals left last evening, when it became clear that no changelings were moving the sun and moon, but the rest of us stayed in the Village overnight.

Discord snapped us home this morning, except for Starlight and Trixie. They're staying two more days until the end of festival. In Ponyville the changelings did a good job of fooling everypony and keeping our Ponyville tasks somewhat up to speed. Fluttershy's wards seemed to have been fed less than usual and they were frequently locked out of the cottage. Apparently Applejack burned a few pies while we were gone and Pinkie's sense of humor was off. Rarity is up to her haunches in overdue orders to fill. Dash was lucky that she wasn't on Wonderbolt duty while we were being replaced. The changelings left a mess behind here that we've mostly cleaned up. Before going to bed, Spike made sure all the doors and windows in the castle are shut.

It's good to be back.

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XXIV December

Changeling Roundup

Dec 1: There are no signs of changelings in Ponyville! Not that they're that easy to detect. At least nopony I met is acting strangely. There are probably still neotenic changlings roaming Equestria, not every changeling is going to believe Thorax's claim that freely giving up love triggers the metamorphosis to the adult changeling form. Still, Thorax's changelings will do a far better job than the Equestrian Guard could do in rounding up changelings. Thorax's friendly changelings is the best possible outcome we could have had under the circumstances. The changelings in the hive know who's in the field and who they were tasked to replace and who the couriers are. The couriers will return on their own to the hive, but Thorax's subjects will have to go out and fetch the dopplegangers themselves. I suspect that many will be resistant to metamorphosing and that many will have been collected by Queen Chrysalis. With the help of an unchanged neotenic entourage, she should be able to gather quite a few. It remains to be seen if her nymphs consider the advantage of metamorphosing or if she raises an army from the ground up. This is far from over.

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Restless Nights

Dec 2: I joined my friends for lunch at Café Hay today. Over hot, comforting plates of hay fries, winter squash and silage ratatouille, grated carrot and apple salad and oat bread slathered in apple butter, we talked about how we're all holding up after our ordeal. We're all a bit jumpy, and we've all had nightmares with some variation of being paralyzed or tied up or drowning in green goo and trying desperately to wake up. Since nightmares about being paralyzed are also a reflection of natural muscle atonia during sleep, having just been through the real deal is feeding that fear while we sleep. The good news is that we've been spared intruder hallucination nightmares and Princess Luna is on her toes and helping us pull ourselves out of these bad dreams. In Rainbow Dash's dreams, she is having trouble with friendly, metamorphosed changelings popping up and getting in the way of the old changelings she would like to kick, if she could only move. We all can't wait until these nightmares fade away. The fact that Queen Chrysalis is probably plotting something and gathering old guard changelings somewhere does not help in the least.

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Safety In Numbers

Dec 3: Spike has moved his cot into my room. He says it's to guard against foalnapping changelings. I did not protest. What's left unsaid is who's watching over who. Truth be said, we're watching over each other. It's been a while since we've slept in the same room like this but I find the sound of Spike's even breathing reassuring. I go to bed late and Owlowiscious has been timing his return from his night prowls to follow me when I go to turn in. He perches high up on a bookcase and spends the rest of the night watching over us.

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Getting Nervous Nellies To Chillax

Dec 4: The Ponyville Hay Board met today, so of course I went. By now most, if not all of Ponyville knows that I had been abducted by changelings. I think some ponies are giving me a wide berth, like I might attract changelings, or worse, that I might actually be a changeling. At the meeting, several members were looking askance at me, staring until I looked their way. Maybe they hoped to catch me dropping my disguise. Every time I shifted position or even just twitched, almost everypony there cringed and looked ready to bolt out the door. One pony was sweating heavily. I got fed up. I put my hooves on the table and told them in no uncertain terms that I was not a changeling, that I did not have changeling cooties, and that I would appreciate if everypony at the table would just chillax and get on with the meeting. There was a stunned silence. A few ponies cleared their throats, then one nervous voice chimed in, stuttering. What is a chillax? So I had to explain, as best could, through examples and etymology, Rainbow Dash's vague portmanteau term, how it isn't a contraction, and with a brief mention of Levade Corral's Harness In Wanderland, from whence originated the term "portmanteau". That took about seven minutes. Several ponies had glazed looks and one had to be nudged awake. But they stopped looking at me like I was going to sprout fangs and suck the love out of them.

As predicted, we have a fairly big surplus of first cut hay. The Crystal Empire recovered nicely from their wild growth problem and they didn't need the 20% of our harvest that we had set aside. We are going to wait until just before the first cut next year before going ahead with the plan to use that hay as building material. We'll probably use it to build the walls of a hay barn or a silage warehouse. The architecture would be quite different from what we usually see in Ponyville, so it will be tucked away out of sight in one of the new fields.

Overall, our early-cut strategy is working and we are getting good prices for our hay. If the grass grows faster and stronger in the spring, we plan on continuing with the same strategy next year.

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Dusty Travelers

Dec 5: Apparently, lecturing the Hay Board has quelled the fears of quite a few ponies. It looks like word has spread throughout Ponyville and ponies are acting normal again when I walk by. Many waved and looked happy to see me. They really did think I was a changeling. The ponies in this town are crazy.

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie are back from the Village. They only got back a short while ago, dusty and tired from the road. They had walked all the way back instead of taking the train, even though they didn't have Trixie's wagon to haul. It's next to the castle, right where Trixie had parked it before Discord whisked the four of them off to the Changeling border. After scaring up a late supper of hay and grated carrot salad, Starlight stumbled down the hall to her bed and Trixie let herself out to go sleep in her trailer. They both look like they could benefit from a trip to the spa.

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This Calls For A Party!

Dec 6: We had Trixie over for breakfast and it wasn't hard to convince both Starlight and Trixie to come join me at the spa. We arrived there around mid-morning, earlier than Rarity or Fluttershy, so we didn't wait for them. We had our hooficures together but after the massage we split up. They wanted a seaweed wrap with a mud facial and I was not ready for that yet. It reminds me too much of being trapped helpless in a cocoon and those scars are still fresh. Floating in a hot tub was out of the question and even the thought of the sauna made me claustrophobic. So instead I indulged in a Crystal Empire oil bath. That was a lot of work for the spa ponies because my winter coat has fully grown in. They were combing the fragrant oil out of my fur for quite a while before they were satisfied with the result. Now my body just shines with every hair, I smell great and I feel so clean! If a changeling tries to grab me, it will slide right off. Ha!

They told me that the Sunset Festival went very well and that they had had a great time. Trixie put on a magic show and directed the closing fireworks display. Trixie is a self-professed expert on fireworks.

We stepped out of the spa a few hours later, three fresh, relaxed ponies, all shiny and clean, and right into an open air surprise party for our two rescuers. Pinkie must have been planning this since we got back, but still, she works really fast. The party was for Discord too. He showed up fashionably late and proceeded to pretend, badly, that he didn't care for the adulation. Pinkie had sent an invitation to Thorax, but he's very busy figuring out how to be Hive Leader and how to keep Chrysalis from stealing the nymphs away before they're old enough to morph.

At the party, Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack each told me at different times over the course of the afternoon, that they had heard that I had given a particularly boring lecture on axes that had lasted the better part of an hour, that I had recited several chapters from some obscure book and that I had put the whole Hay Board to sleep. I did nothing of the sort! My explanation was short, succinct and to the point and had nothing to do with axes! Nopony seems to believe me. Next time I'm going to use a chalk board and distribute notes.

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Game Night With Trixie and Starlight

Dec 7: Well, I can't top the party Pinkie threw yesterday, but my friends and I thought a nice quiet game night with snacks together with Trixie and Starlight Glimmer would be a good way to say thanks for saving our hides. Pinkie said we had Trixie on board at "snacks" and Starlight thought it was a good idea too.

Spike and I picked up some peppermint sticks at the bazaar, along with a jar of apple butter and a few bunches of carrots. Back at the castle he baked a few dozen oatmeal cookies and two loaves of lemon poppy seed bread. I got a few flakes of third cut hay out of the larder and Starlight Glimmer set up the tables, the cushions and got out the games. By the time Applejack arrived, with a fresh apple pie, the bread was coming out of the oven, the carrots had been cut into sticks, the cookies were piled high on a platter and I was brewing a big pot of mint tea.

I helped Spike and Starlight Glimmer carry all the food down to the mane hall. Pinkie bounced in with eighteen muffins, then Rainbow Dash arrived with hay crackers and silage sesame seed paste dip. Starlight went out to get Trixie, and while she was gone Rarity arrived with a box of sesame seed snaps, accompanied by Fluttershy who was carrying a basket of dried apple slices. We piled all the food on the table and sat down on the cushions to wait. Trixie announced that she and Starlight had arrived by setting off a smoke bomb. I discretely blew the smoke out the door before we all choked, and we all went over to the food table to fill our plates with snacks.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack naturally gravitated to the Ring Fling game and soon they were groaning or nickering in turn as the sharp crack of colliding wooden rings meant somepony had been knocked off the target. I challenged Starlight Glimmer to a game of Bookchase. Meanwhile, Spike and Pinkie were playing the Rope Rings game and Trixie, Fluttershy and Rarity were testing their skills at Bundle of Sticks. Trixie is amazingly good at the steady eye, muzzle coordination needed for Bundle of Sticks! I think she won every round. It must be her traveling showmare magician skill that gives her the edge. I think she may even be good enough to beat Zecora.

Starlight Glimmer almost beat me at Bookchase. I caught her taking notes on which books to read... I might need to get an expanded edition with more obscure references to Star Swirl's lesser known scrolls if I don't want to get pummeled next game.

We all had a good time. I even played a round of Ring Fling against Starlight Glimmer. We're both very bad at it. Then Trixie played against Dash. That was intense. Trixie beat Dash and Dash couldn't believe her eyes, Trixie's throws were always right on the money. She's really nimble with her hooves. But it was high time for everypony to turn in, we were all still a bit worn from yesterday's party, so Dash did not get her chance for a best two out of three series.

Starlight thankfully convinced Trixie to not set off another smoke bomb on her way out.

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Decanting The Works Of Wordsmiths

Dec 8: Winter is only a few short weeks away and there was a light frost in the fields this morning, especially in between the hills where the chill settled into pockets of cold, still air. The whiteness sparkled in the morning light until the sun's rays melted it all into dew.

After two days of socializing and parties, I was ready for a break. I spent most of the day in my library with my books. Starlight Glimmer had much the same idea, making a few forays into the library and retreating to her room with stacks of reading material. The printed page holds so many wonders. Worlds distilled into words right at our hooftips.

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The Falling Leaves

Dec 9: At breakfast, Trixie announced herself rested up and ready to get back to traveling. She hitched herself to her wagon later this morning and set off down the road, heading for the Crystal Empire. Starlight Glimmer hastily packed her saddlebags and went with her, with the intention of visiting Sunburst. Pinkie sent a note to Princess Cadence so that the Crystal Empire can prepare to receive them when they get there.

The early frost was back again and it has spurred Fluttershy and Amethyst Star into action. They were busy all day inspecting and renovating hibernation dens, getting them ready for our local critters. The leaves on the trees are beginning to look a bit tired and brown. They're just waiting to be knocked down for winter. Already, many of the trees will drop leaves whenever a few ponies walk by together. It's quite pretty, really, walking through a wooded area with a friend and getting gently showered by leaves. It's not something you'd see in the streets of Canterlot. That may be why Trixie and Starlight Glimmer walked back from the Village together. It's also part of the reason why I was out in the woods today, tagging along with Fluttershy and Amethyst Star as they walked through the falling leaves.

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The Elements of Goodwill

Dec 10: Suddenly, we're off to Yakyakistan. This morning Spike coughed up a scroll from Princess Celestia inviting all six of us to an overnight goodwill tour of Yakyakistan. Hiking may be involved so we were told to dress for the cold and to bring sensible walking boots. We're to meet Princess Celestia late tomorrow morning near the Crystal Empire-Yakyakistan border and proceed from there. It's just a one day trip and we should be back the next day. Our job is to be retinue for Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood and to serve as gift bearers. Soon after I got all my friends around the Map Table to tell them the news, a courier arrived with the six specially wrapped boxes we are to carry. Rainbow Dash was itching to peek inside her box, but we convinced her to leave it sealed.

I have all my gear out on my reading table, organized, ready to wear and to be packed into my hiking saddlebags. Winter clothes, a purse of bits, bed roll, blanket, the wrapped box, boots, hiking saddlebags. Check! I also packed some light reading, just in case. I considered taking The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them, but I doubt I'll have time to go prospecting for snowflakes, and if I have the guide on hoof, not getting to use it will be more frustrating than anything else.

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The Early Morning Train

Dec 11: I'm off to catch the morning train to the Crystal Empire and the road to Yakyakistan. Spike is minding the castle while I'm gone.

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The Road To Goodwill Is Paved With An Iron Stomach

Dec 12: After a very full day in Yakyakistan yesterday, we caught the overnight train back to Ponyville and we were woken up by the conductor just in time to collect our things and to stumble sleepily out onto the Ponyville platform. We decided to go to castle to have breakfast before everypony went home. When we stepped in the door we surprised Big McIntosh, Discord and Spike in the mane entrance hall, engaged in a full immersion version of a combat role-playing game. They must have been at it all night. I was going to propose we go to the kitchen instead, or Cafe Hay, and leave Spike and his friends to their "secret" endeavor, but Dash and Pinkie thought it looked like so much fun that they jumped right in and joined them. Applejack and Fluttershy wanted to watch, so Rarity and I went to the kitchen and brought down breakfast for nine. The players reached an ending point in their game, about the time Big McIntosh got impaled by an arrow in his knee, and we all had breakfast right there in the hall.

So yesterday we met Princess Celestia in her official pegasus guard-drawn chariot outside of the Crystal Empire, and we proceeded to hike up the road to Yakyakistan. The road looks a lot more traveled now than it did when we were here last summer. There are lots of wagon ruts in the muddy parts from yaks hauling Ponyville hay and other Equestrian specialty items up the steep grade. There were sections that are beginning to get paved with rough-hewn stones, especially in the marshy sections. We passed several yaks on their way to Equestria, and a few passed us too, on their way home. The yaks are no strangers to walking up steep trails, they move quicker than we do. Pinkie had brought yeti food that she set out for the yeti on Frost Field Glacier, but we didn't see one. By early afternoon we reached the Yakyakistan gates where Prince Blueblood and several high ranking yak nobles were waiting to greet us.

While we discretely caught our breaths, we were serenaded by a choir of yak calves who chanted something atonal that resonated with the distant snow laden escarpments. From there Princess Celestia and her Royal Guard proceeded with Prince Blueblood and his retinue in matched chariots. We followed behind as Prince Blueblood directed us through the streets of Yakyakistan and the surrounding countryside. It was a lot of walking with several planned stops.

At six of those stops and we met a notable or a few notable yaks and one of us would be called forward to present the preplanned gift we each carried. All the gifts were lovely which the yaks delicately opened without tearing the wrapping paper. Prince Blueblood had personally selected each gift and he took care of presenting them. He put a positive spin on any shortcomings our hosts might find with the gifts.

Thanks to Rainbow Dash, Princess Celestia had revealed what was in the boxes before we delivered them. She told us that the reason for not unwrapping the boxes was to keep them pristine until given (the Yaks can be very touchy on perfection), not to keep the gift bearers in suspense. Pinkie protested about getting told what it was she was carrying on the grounds that it would spoil the surprise, but the surprise was not meant for us and Princess Celestia answered Dash's query anyway. She told us that each gift was meant to represent something special from six different regions in Equestria. She described the contents of each as we walked up the steep grade to Yakyakistan: Sparkling edible oils in crystal decanters from the Crystal Empire; a trio of pony dolls in felted pony fur and decked out in fine clothes and jewelry from Canterlot; a pair of tiny rainbow generating clouds trapped in a bell jar from Cloudsdale; a conch shell from Puerto Caballo (when that was opened, Pinkie demonstrated how to blow it like a horn and how to put it to your ear and hear the ocean); Chocolate covered cherries and a big cranberry glass medicinal bottle of sweet cherry extract from Dodge Junction; and from Ponyville, three jars of zapapple jam. Prince Blueblood was in charge of framing the value of the gifts, we were just the ponies carrying them, although I'm sure it helped that we each thought that the gift we carried was choice. Each item was given as an open invitation to come visit Equestria.

Apart from being gift bearers, it was our duty to drink a lot of fermented milk. It's yak tradition to offer fermented milk to important guests and alas, we were important. Fortunately there was solid food as well, although by the fourth stop were were all getting a bit full. The yaks still remember the lost explorers we rescued from Winter's clutches. At each stop, after unwrapping their gift, our hosts placed something of equal value (by their standards) into the box and carefully rewrapped it. Our plan, back at the castle, was to unwrap our boxes over breakfast and see what they had given us in return1.

By the time the sun was flirting with the horizon we were very full of goodwill and back at the curving gates of Yakyakistan. A very large crowd of yaks had gathered to see us go and to bid us farewell. Princess Celestia set the sun and she and Prince Blueblood launched their chariots into the twilight and flew home to Canterlot. We took the road down to the Crystal Empire and the train station. It got really cold after dark and it even started to snow! In autumn! Fortunately we had our winter clothes on and the brisk walk downhill kept us warm.

We didn't stop in the Crystal Empire this time and we didn't see either Trixie or Starlight Glimmer. They are probably already in the Crystal Empire now, visiting Sunburst (and getting a parade too, no doubt.) The Crystal Empire ribbons of light were carrying quite a bit of joy earlier. It's toned down to general contentment now, probably as the crystal ponies settle down to sleep.

1 Applejack's box was packed with flaky layered pastries topped with dried cranberries and dripping with honey, plus an ornate bottle of vanilla extract; Rainbow Dash received a very light but warm yak down scarf; Pinkie found an etched bronze hoof ring in her re-wrapped box; I got a few bags of fragrant exotic tea leaves; Rarity was gifted with a colorful stole with interlocking geometric figures; and for Fluttershy, in the box that she had been carrying the yaks had packed a small delicate whirligig wind-catcher.

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Games Ponies Play

Dec 13: Spike told me that his "secret" game night activity wasn't always this exciting. At least, nopony ever got an actual arrow in the knee before. It's that Discord joined them this time, and Discord, being Discord, made the game quite a bit more real. Usually Spike relies on weighted story elements in a fantasy setting that get propelled by decisions made by the players and outcomes dictated by rolls of dice. It's like that find your fate book I got trapped in, but with more decisions and with many random outcomes from each decision. I'm not touching that game.

Stargazing is the game for me and tonight the shooting stars are afoot. My Almanac promises that they will be bright and rambunctious. I'm going to brew one of the teas given to us in Yakyakistan and I'm going to sample that while wrapped in a warm blanket and watching the night sky.

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Pumpkin Soup

Dec 14: While out restocking the pantry with Spike I noticed a sure sign that harvest season is pretty much over: the fresh produce at the bazaar is scarce. There are still a fair number of squash and a lot of root vegetables, but many stalls are carrying only dry goods and preserves. We bumped into Rainbow Dash there, sporting her new yak down scarf, tied up smartly around her neck so it wouldn't get in the way while she's flying. She said that it's very warm. By then we'd filled Spike's baskets and my saddle bags and we were heading home so I invited Dash over for lunch. Spike made a pumpkin sesame soup while Dash and I made a grated carrot salad, fetched some second cut hay and got out the bread and apple butter. After lunch we played a few rounds Cloud Clash before Rainbow left to tend to her tortoise. The cool weather is making Tank lethargic and Dash is only too aware that her pet is going to be moving into a winter den very soon. They were going to scout out locations as soon as Tank wakes up from his nap. I suggested they consult with Fluttershy. Winter is just a week away.

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The Shut-Ins

Dec 15: It was cold, wet and miserable out today. I stayed inside under a horse blanket where it was warm, reading books and eating comfort foods like pumpkin beet pulp soup. Starlight Glimmer had caught the morning train and arrived in Ponyville around midday. She had a good time in the Crystal Empire but all the attention has worn her out. She's retired to her chambers with reading material and a big flake of hay. I guess she's had her fill of rich food for a while.

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Hot Chocolate

Dec 16: The weather is still brisk but the sun feels good. I went out looking for Fluttershy to see how her winter preparations were going. Unfortunately she was not home. She must be out in the field again with Amethyst Star. I'll try again tomorrow. Instead I had a hot chocolate at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie Pie. We're going to be on the same team for the Running of the Leaves, the one going through Whitetail Woods, and Pinkie wants go on a few practice runs around town over the next few days. I think that's a good idea, so I'm joining her for those.

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Born to Run

Dec 17: Pinkie came knocking at my door before breakfast, wearing legwarmers and a sports whistle (for sport related emergencies), all hot to trot. And gallop. Seeing her legwarmers, I felt a bit under-dressed. What would Rarity do? What would she wear? Not a hat, that would fall off. Ear muffs are too warm. Maybe a scarf. A breezy silk scarf. I invited Pinkie in and we picked out a fine scarlet scarf and I tied it on securely. All ready to go!

Pinkie's plan was to run once around Ponyville, crossing the river on the Saddle Lake bridge, along the riverside to the windmill bridge, around Ponyville again and back to the castle. From there it would be straight through town to Café Hay for breakfast. Sounds good to me. I tightened my scarf, Pinkie reared up on her hind legs and kicked the air, and we were off, through the fields towards the outskirts of town! We galloped at first to shake out the tickles and bursts of adrenaline and then I slowed down to a fast trot. Pinkie slowed down until I caught up and as we circled Ponyville I explained what I had read about pacing. Meanwhile, several ponies out grazing and taking a morning walk saw us gallop by, and as we slowed to a fast trot, a few came pronking and cantering up from behind to join us. Running is infectious.

Pinkie slowed down to confirm what they had guessed, that this was a fun run and a warm up for the Running of the Leaves. Pinkie caught up again with me as we crossed the first bridge. We were now five ponies pounding down the path, high tailed and blowing steam into the cool morning air. I asked Pinkie about the hoof ring from Yakyakistan, which she had managed to re-purpose as a ponytail ring at the base of her tail, holding it in place with knot and several long hairpins. It was bobbing around a lot and it looked to me that she could get jabbed by one of those hairpins at any moment. Pinkie said this was the only way she could think of wearing it, yak hooves are a lot thinner than pony hooves and there was no way she could wear it as a leg band unless she cut it and opened it a lot wider.

As we trotted toward the windmill bridge, a couple of foals had followed us on the Ponyville side of the river and had ended up waiting for us to cross the bridge. They knew one of the three mares that had joined us and they asked to run with us. Of course! Now we were seven circling Ponyville through the morning mists and long shadows, our pounding hooves turning heads. Here and there a pony out walking and taking in the air would watch us wide eyed as we rushed past, and if caught by the whirlwind in our wake, toss their manes and come barreling after us. Soon we were ten ponies feeling the thrill of the blood pounding through our veins, the rush of the air and the flexing of our hooves on the hard ground. Twelve ponies, we rounded a corner and there, down a straightaway, the castle! I pulled out all the stops and kicked into a straight, hard gallop, streaking down the road to the castle as fast as I could go, Pinkie right behind me practically breathing down my neck. Nearly there, I veered right and kept going, around the castle and slowing gradually to a canter as we got back to the entrance. The two foals were just then arriving at the castle and blowing hard. I was feeling a bit winded myself. Everypony caught up, and with a lot of giggling and snorting, we trotted slowly back in town. Most of them went back to whatever it was they had been doing before getting swept up in our little run, but the three that had joined us before the first bridge stayed with us. We had caught our breaths, cooled down and reined in our wild spirits by the time we reached Café Hay. We were ready for a civil breakfast.

By chance, Rarity walked by while we were waiting for our orders and she joined us. She didn't seem too keen to come running with us tomorrow, but watching us run by would be more her style. Talk of style led to fixing Pinkie's ersatz tail ring. Earlier, Pinkie had broken one of the hairpins and had poked herself with another when she sat down at Café Hay. Her high pitched squeak had led Rarity to look our way and spot us at the Café. Rarity pulled out the pins and replaced the ponytail knot with two infinity braids, one below and the other through the yak hoof ring, and tied the two braids together with ribbon under the tail. That ring is still too big for a pony tail. Maybe Pinkie should get it stretched.

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A Mare With Many Hats

Dec 18: This morning Applejack and Rainbow Dash joined us in our warm-up run. Following their suggestion, we ran a circuit around and through the orchards at Sweet Apple Acres, after which we had breakfast in the Apple family kitchen.

Dash has finally decided on the perfect den for Tank. It's in a high, well drained area, on a south-facing slope and protected by a grove of trees. It's quite near where Tank hibernated last year.

I went to see Fluttershy after breakfast to see how I can help after the Running of the Leaves. I noted that Dash had chosen a den for Tank and I asked Fluttershy how it went. She said that the den Dash chose had been one of the first dens Fluttershy suggested to her, if not the very first one. But Dash had to see all the other available dens, just in case. She may have driven Fluttershy just a little bit batty. Fluttershy tells me that Dash has started decorating Tank's winter lodgings and it's looking like a Daring Do shrine, with a few flying awards thrown in for variety. There's even a little Tank-sized bed. Tank wasn't present during the den renovation -- Rainbow wants it to be a surprise. Then Rarity arrived and we stopped gossiping. Rarity had her saddlebags full of warm knitted and felt hats for the hibernating critters, which she dumped out onto a table. I helped sort those and the ones Fluttershy had collected during Winter Wrap Up by size, type and species.

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Hotcakes

Dec 19: I got ready bright and early to meet Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash at the castle door for our morning run. Pinkie still arrived before I did, but at least I managed a few stretches before Applejack and Dash appeared. I was feeling quite pleased with myself (despite getting beat to my own front door by Pinkie), I'd found a headband to match my scarf. Pinkie wasn't wearing the yak hoof ring this time, but she did have a scarf to match her legwarmers. Dash was sporting a scarf too, the one that was one of the gifts the yaks gave us. Only Applejack braved our training run without any fancy garb whatsoever. Her hat doesn't count, she always wears that.

Pinkie's plan was to circle Ponyville again, but going the other way around and finishing at Sugarcube Corner for hotcakes. We were all itching to pound the ground so without further ado, we were off! Charging off across the nearest pasture with Pinkie in the lead.

It's getting quite cold at night now. The cold lingers late into the morning, leaving a touch of frost on the grass and shrouding the Ponyville river in a freezing mist that rises lazily and barely peeks above the sides of the riverbanks. The frost makes the grass slippery and brittle and as we thundered through the pasture in a sweeping curve toward the edge of town, I could hear the rattling grass stalks hiss as they shook in our wake. By the time we reached the edge of the field we'd burned off our excess adrenaline and we were blowing great gouts of hot steam. Pinkie eased onto the road at a distance-friendly fast trot.

We amused ourselves by synchronizing our hoofbeats, the four of us running as one. We were having a great time and just like the last time, several ponies that watched us trot by couldn't resist the pounding call. They kicked up their heels, dropped what they were doing and came galloping up to join us.

Crossing the bridges was a bit tricky. The mist rising from the river had left a heavy frost on the structure and the sun had not risen high enough yet to burn it off. My hooves were sliding in every direction and we came close to getting tangled and tripping, skidding over the bridge and back into better traction by virtue of luck more than out of skill. I stepped a lot lighter crossing back to Ponyville on the next bridge.

I think we were twenty ponies circling the castle at the end of the run. The frost was melting fast and Pinkie's legwarmers were soaked, so were my legs. We went straight from the castle to Sugarcube Corner and the promise of hotcakes. We slowed to a walk and entered -- a table was already set for us, so we rested our rumps on stools while Pinkie ran upstairs to remove her wet garments and Mr Cake fetched our reward.

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Extended Trot

Dec 20: This morning I practically sprinted out of bed, grabbed my scarf and headband, tumbled down the stairs, galloped through the cavernous entrance hall and burst out my front door with my cold weather wear in my mouth, only to nearly collide with five ponies waiting there. Pinkie and four others who wanted to join us. Still not the first to arrive at my own door, not by a long shot. Princess Celestia hadn't even raised the sun yet! Phooey.

When Applejack and Rainbow Dash got here, we were already fifteen ponies raring to go. By now all of Ponyville knows we're doing this morning run. For this last run before the real deal tomorrow, Pinkie took us across the fields at a full gallop, heading directly toward Canterlot as the pegasus flies. At the far end of the pasture she turned right, circling back in a wide arc to the river, which we followed toward Ponyville. I thought maybe she'd lead us to some place across the river, like maybe halfway to Rambling Rock Ridge? But no, we stuck to this side of the river and ran through the more sparsely populated areas in and around Ponyville, which is good since we wouldn't want to spoil the fun by knocking down the leaves that a Running of the Leaves team had planned on.

By the time we had crisscrossed Ponyville twice we'd become a small stampede of ponies, rattling windows and pulling a small gale behind us. We slowed down to a synchronized extended trot for the final leg back to the center of town, our hooves clapping to the ground in time, the rhythm making our hearts bounce and attracting everypony to come watch our parade. Then at last, breakfast, at Sugarcube Corner. Hot apple hay blintzes.

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Fall's Farewell

Dec 21: I got up bright and early this morning, "bright" in the figurative sense since Luna wasn't due to lower the moon for about another hour. I figured I'd have plenty of time to get some breakfast before heading out to join Pinkie and the rest of the ponies on the Whitetail Woods run. It's the Running of the Leaves day! I had a lot of running, raking and critter caring ahead of me and I figured a good breakfast would be essential to keeping me on an even trot. I left Spike undisturbed and still sound asleep in his basket, closed the bedroom door and headed to the kitchen. I heard the clatter of dishes down the hall and the sweet aroma of cooking pancakes. I wasn't expecting Starlight Glimmer to be up this early. Or to cook pancakes without burning a few. It wasn't her.

I entered the kitchen to find that Pinkie had let herself in and had cooked breakfast for both of us! The pancakes were stacked twelve high on the table and more were on the way. I guessed the extra pancakes would be in case of pancake emergencies. I was a bit sore that Pinkie had again beat me to my own front door again, and this time, even to my own kitchen! But those pancakes really smelled good, and after four days of morning runs, I found that I was ravenous! I got out the syrup, apple jelly, butter, plates for four, and I put on the kettle for tea. Pinkie flipped a pair of pancakes (she had two griddles going at once) and turned to say: "Alfalfa oat pancakes! Breakfast of champions!" So they were. My book on long distance running stated that a diet rich in alfalfa, third cut hay and oats was essential in offsetting the caloric and protein requirements of the long distance runner. I went to fetch a flake of third cut hay. On the way I bumped into a bleary eyed Starlight Glimmer. She mumbled that she thought she smelled pancakes, so I nudged her toward the kitchen.

Sated and full of pancakes, we left Starlight Glimmer with the dishes and I went to rouse Spike on our way out. He wouldn't want to miss out on a pancake breakfast. I packed a few cold pancakes and a bunch of oat bars in my saddle bags and left them by the door on our way out. Pinkie and I stepped out into the dawn light.

It wasn't as cold this morning as it had been a few mornings ago, but there was still a touch of frost on the ground. Pinkie was running au naturelle, so I left my scarf and headband at home. We trotted off into town and went to the town center for Mayor Mare's pep talk and to join our herd. There we saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack in with the north woods runners and Fluttershy, Amethyst Star and Rarity rallying the critter care team. It was well past sunup before we had our numbers pasted to our flanks and we had cantered over to the starting line. Spike was there to officiate the start of the race. All the teams started at the same time, but their finish was dictated by the length of the circuit they were running. The sheer number of ponies running together causes the deciduous effect to spread far and wide through the woodlots, but having a few teams on different paths ensures clearing all the trees around Ponyville. If the leaves don't fall, more winter snow gets trapped by the branches. The snow laden branches then get too heavy and they break. Spike gave us the ready, get set call, and we were off and running!

Pinkie and I ran by the book, pacing ourselves until the last two furlongs where we sped up to a full gallop and sprinted to the finish line. We passed a lot of ponies but there were some really good runners in our group. I came in fifth again. Pinkie came in fourth. It's still funny to see the looks of shock on the faces of the exhausted ponies we galloped past on our way to the finish.

After catching our breath, we went to join the ponies raking up the fallen leaves, swinging by the castle on the way so I could collect my saddle bags. Pinkie and I shared a few oat bars. The rest of the day was spent raking leaves, rounding up critters, distributing supplies to the animal care team, and checking checklists. Then Cloudsdale's clouds arrived, laden with snow. Our day was over, I invited all my friends over to the castle for an early supper and we got inside just before it started snowing really hard. White-out conditions.

After supper, full of rich Ponyville hay and hot chocolate, we stepped out into a world gone white. The weather ponies had already cleared the clouds so above our heads the stars twinkled and at our feet countless hoof-made snowflakes glittered in the moonlight. I called for a Winter Moon Festival, with just the six of us, to celebrate the beginning of three months of rest, and to celebrate our Princess of the Night. There are also meteors galloping the skies tonight. We got out the picnic blanket, a bunch of horse blankets, and some snacks. Rarity found some candles.

We found a good spot in a field and spread our picnic blanket. Rarity stamped holes in the snow to shelter the candles and we huddled together and passed the snacks. It was very peaceful. While the land slumbered under a blanket of white and Luna's sky sparkled, we counted shooting stars.

Autumn is over. Winter began today.

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Down The Path Of Little Resistance

Dec 22: Rainbow Dash came pounding on my bedroom door early this morning. Much too early this morning. I was happily sleeping in after yesterday's combo of cleaning out fall and watching for shooting stars until the wee hours. It's the holiday season, isn't it? Three months of holidays, as of now? But Rainbow Dash can be insistent and I stumbled groggily out of bed to find out what the ruckus was all about.

She'd already half dressed me in my scarf, hat and ear muffs by the time I'd pulled enough wool from between my ears to gather that she wanted me to go sledding. Spike was already there, on the hill. Everypony else was already there, except me. There's hot apple tea to drink, toboggans, muffins, an awesome jump! Rainbow had collected a few snow laden clouds yesterday and she had parked them right over the hill. It was now belly-deep in fresh, fluffy snow and getting slipperier with every pony that sledded down it. I had go. So I went.

The cold air woke me up and before long I was careening at break-neck speed down a white on white nigh cliff, seeing nothing but the ears and mane of the pony ahead of me, screaming in primal fear all the way down to the foot of the slope, only to get up and scramble back up the hill, collecting my stomach from where it had abandoned ship somewhere near the summit of the run. It was loads of fun but screaming that much in the cold air has made me a little hoarse.

I think I must have been shivering for an hour after I got home. Spike built a fire in the sitting room fireplace and I sat there under a warm blanket while nursing a big mug of hot chocolate peppermint spice tea and watching the flames. Brrr.

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Winter Ease

Dec 23: It's really cozy, lying on my cushion by the fire in the sitting room. A good book, a hot cup of chocolate peppermint spice tea and a crackling fire makes winter pleasant. I could use some fresh reading material. I should go see if Fluttershy would like to go to Canterlot with me and browse the bookstores. Now that we have sent the birds south and most of the critters into hibernation, she should have more time for reading.

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Appetite For Books

Dec 24: Fluttershy didn't want to brave the bookstore crowds this time and it was too short notice for Rarity. She's preparing her spring apparel line, so I went to Canterlot alone. By late morning I'd stepped off the train and I'd popped over to Celestia's School. I trotted downstairs to Physical Hippology and Archaeology and made my way through the maze of pony artifacts in subbasement D. I peeked into the workspace reserved for Prof Quest's research. There I found Moondancer up to her ears in manuscripts. The science of hippology does not pause for winter, but luckily for me, it will take a break to go book browsing with a good friend. Moondancer knows all the best stores for buying books.

It was snowing in Canterlot, but getting caught in a flurry while shopping in a city built into a mountainside lacks Ponyville's charm. The cobblestone streets are often steep and they get very slippery fast when it snows. I fell a few times.

We made it to the district where most of the booksellers have their shops. We got out of the weather and down to the serious business of selecting books. Just the best ones. I can't take the entire store home. A Shadow Spade novel. Some collections of scientific letters. Land of the Tapirs by Pier Biddet. A biography on Mare Cutie. The Cutie Mark of Dorein Bay by Ostler Wild. A Hairy Thatchet book. Another by Pasture Ffjord.

While we were in a big Barns and Pommel bookstore, we asked what was new and good in Neighponese illustrated books. I chose one I thought Fluttershy might like. It's risky buying books for somepony else. I really tend to buy things I'd like to read, and Neighponese illustrated literature is very low on my list of preferences. Barns and Pommel likes to make tempting display piles of half-priced books, placed right near the entrance where you can't miss them. I poked through the books and one was an illustrated joke book called 101 Uses For A Raw Carrot. Moondancer and I snickered over some of the illustrations showing ponies using carrots in silly, unlikely and even unsanitary ways. I bought that book for Pinkie. It was half price!

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Fir Ever Boughed

Dec 25: Happy winter tree festival, people of the "World Wide Web"! May your houses smell like fresh conifers, may your pastures grow as green and may your friendships be as bright as your candles!

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Stabling

Dec 26: I have no projects due and the Map Table doesn't spur us off on that many tasks, but I do have a library full of books and a pantry full of hay. I could go for a walk tomorrow.

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Braving The Restraints

Dec 27: It's Rarity's usual spa day today and since I was feeling a little long-hoofed and grimy, I packed my saddle bags, tossed a scarf on and trotted off to the spa. It has been ages since the last time I went, and it showed. I had been avoiding going there. But if Rarity and Fluttershy were there with me, I knew I'd manage better.

I arrived about the same time as Rarity and we found Fluttershy waiting for us in the lobby. Excellent! I gave Fluttershy the book I'd bought for her in Canterlot and we decided on what spa treatments we wanted. I had Pinkie's book too, but she wasn't at the spa at that moment. Together we decided to brave the sauna before getting shampoos, massages and hooficures. No mud baths or hot tubs this time. Maybe next week, at least for Rarity. She really likes what getting plastered in mud does for her complexion.

We only lasted about ten minutes in the sauna before busting out in a panic. We calmed down while rinsing off and I was only a bit antsy while getting my hooficure. Aloe spent a long time filing down the chips I'd picked up on my Leaf runs, both the practice ones and the real deal. I had a small rock wedged into my left hind hoof and I didn't even know it. She asked, teasingly, if I wanted to keep it. Meanwhile, Rarity and Fluttershy were already getting massaged. After the massage I was so relaxed I was wobbly on my hooves while getting the full body shampoo, conditioner, blow dry and wing wax. We stepped out of the spa into the crisp winter air shiny, clean and fluffed. Clean fur keeps out the cold, especially fluffy clean fur. This called for hot chocolate at Sugarcube Corner!

We found a table, ordered hot chocolate from Ms Cake, and a wild Pinkie appeared! We captured her with a mug of hot chocolate, and as she took her place at the table I pulled out the book I'd bought for her. Pinkie flipped through the pages and we looked in over her shoulder, giggling over the ridiculous raw carrot uses, none of which actually involved eating them.

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On With The Shows

Dec 28: I'd forgotten that Starlight Glimmer had bought tickets to the Bridleway show Manespray ages ago. Well, over lunch she told me that her reservation is for the end of next moon. You often have to get your tickets that far in advance if you want good seats, especially if it's as popular as Manespray. Trixie has agreed to go with her. I hope they take the train this time.

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White Out

Dec 29: Cloudsdale sent us snow today to build up our protective snow cover. If there are any ponies that don't go on holiday for three months in the winter, it's the weather ponies. It was a serious snow storm that they parked over Ponyville. I went out to admire and classify the snow flakes and I got plastered head to hoof in snow. It was light, insulating snow, but it was warm enough out that it stuck to everything. The windward side of the castle was completely white and the trees are very pretty. Ponies came out soon as the storm ended to clear the streets and walkways. That's a good thing because this snow quickly compacts into ice wherever we walk. For the castle's walkway, I have Spike. He blasts the snow away with dragon fire. He does a good job at that, even blasting away any weeds that may have taken hold in our walkway while he's at it.

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Bitter Cold

Dec 30: It got bitterly cold overnight. I went out for a trot this morning, warmly dressed and blowing steam from my nostrils. The air was still and the deep blanket of snow muffled my hoofsteps. I plodded through hock-deep snow drifts in a field, drawn by sharp retorts coming from the woods on the other side. As I got closer, the sound became clearer. The trees were making snaps and bangs as the sap under the bark froze, expanded, and made the wood crack. It was really cold. After a few minutes of listening to the random bangs, I had to turn around and head back to my warm fire in my tree-shaped stone stable, disturbing the pristine white blanket as I went. Below the snow, protected from the bitter cold, mice went about their business in the relative warmth of the subnivean crawl space.

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Canterlot Explorer's Society Talks

Dec 31: I'd received a letter from the Canterlot Explorer's Society a few weeks ago with a list of speakers for the upcoming series of In The Field lectures. As an honorary member for life, I don't have to pay to attend these lectures, and they include dinner. The due date for my reply is fast approaching so today I had another look through the list and there are a few I'd like to attend.

There's one, about cloud hopper conservation, that would be fun to go to with Fluttershy. I'll have to ask her if she'd go to that with me. In another lecture, Dr. Intrepid Tölt is back, this time talking about Griffonstone1. Since he was there centuries ago, before it fell into ruin, this should be very interesting. When Spike gets up I'll ask him to send a note to Princess Celestia asking if she's going to that one. I also need to clarify if honorary members get to invite a guest to sit at their table. I'd like to invite Moondancer.

1 Griffonstone, Then And Now. Rescued explorer Dr. Intrepid Tölt returns to Griffonstone following his harrowing release from being trapped in ice at the hooves of a windigo and relates what Griffonstone was like in its hayday and its outlook for the future.

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Author's Note

Yakyakistan, horsing around and 101 Uses For a Raw Carrot. A fun end to the year!

XXV January

Correspondence

Jan 1: Spike sent my query to Princess Celestia this morning, just like old times. I dictated, he wrote, and he sent it off in a flash of fire and smoke. I even signed it "Your faithful student". Then I wrote a note for Moondancer. My Treatise was open besides me, but Haycartes still has that lingering dread for me. Spike ran off to the letter office to mail that and when he got back, he had a scroll from the Princess. She won't be able to make it to that dinner.

After lunch I knocked on Fluttershy's door. With so many critters either flown south or hibernating, her cottage seemed unusually bare and silent. She did have neat piles of books here and there; winter must be the time she does most of her reading. I proposed going to the Cloud Hopper lecture, admitting that this was very short notice (the lecture is in two weeks time). She said yes! So I went back to my library to write to the Canterlot Explorer's Society. I reserved my seat for the cloud hopper conservation lecture and asked if honorary members could bring guests, and if so, how many and are there fees associated? Then Spike ran down to the letter office again.

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High Society

Jan 2: Rarity popped into my study today. She had heard from Fluttershy that we would be going to attend a Canterlot Explorer's Society In The Field lecture. She's excited for us, the dinner lectures are a very posh and sought after society affair. Very proper and well to do ponies attend them to be seen by their peers. I had to stifle a giggle thinking back on how much fun Pinkie and Lemon Heart's table had had the night I gave my lecture there. I had a vivid flashback of flying croutons getting batted with bread sticks. Some very proper ponies must have been aghast.

Rarity is threatening to drag us to her boutique to try on some appropriate evening gowns from her collection. With chapeaus, but not big chapeaus, that would be gauche. She explained a big hat could block the view of the lecturer from anypony sitting behind us. There would also be the risk that an extravagant chapeau might knock over our wine glasses as we looked around. Very embarrassing and very unprincess-like. Then she fairly pranced out the door and down the hall, off to brainstorm our outfits.

Rarity's high spirits spurred Fluttershy to drop by a little while later. She was looking conflicted by the posh aspect. What if it's very expensive for her seat? Last time it was free, but this time... I'm waiting for the reply from the society. It's just one dinner, with a lecture. It can't be that bad. I told her not to worry.

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Fashion Genius

Jan 3: It's Rarity and Fluttershy's usual spa day today, and although I wasn't feeling particularly in need of a trip to the spa, it was a good opportunity to relax with both Rarity and Fluttershy together and talk about going to the Canterlot Explorer's Society In The Field dinner. It turns out that soothing Fluttershy's worries and processing Rarity's ecstatic enumeration of the benefits of making an impression at that dinner was so much of a distraction that we sat for half an hour in the sauna, then we were wrapped in seaweed and none of us panicked or even batted an eye.

After exiting the spa as fresh, and slightly more intrepid, ponies, we went to Rarity's Carousel Boutique. There, over tea and cookies, we had a look at what Rarity had on hoof and brainstormed what kind of ensemble we could put together from that. Or rather, Rarity brainstormed, sketched and built outfits on her couture manequins while we made encouraging noises. Fortunately, Rarity has a deadline to meet for a client, and we were only too happy to escape before she switched to using us as manequins.

Whatever Rarity comes up with, I'm sure we will look stunning wearing it.

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Between The Bears

Jan 4: There was a very nice meteor shower in the pre-dawn hours of the night this morning. I had to get up really early, but it was worth it. Not only was it mild out, but there were many shooting stars dashing through the sky, and even a few fireballs. Most of them seemed to prefer the company of the big and little bear constellations, galloping forth from the space between the two. I watched the show for a few hours, but then the morning twilight heralded the start of a new day and the constellations withdrew from the sky. The shooting stars then went back to wherever it is that they take their repose between showers.

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Made To Measure

Jan 5: Rarity is still hard at work on that order of hers, but she said she needed a break, and for her, showing us what she has put together for our evening wear is a relaxing break. So Fluttershy and I answered the call. I brought some lemon poppy seed cupcakes, which sat on a table by the door to Rarity's sewing room. We didn't dare eat them for fear of soiling the dresses.

Rarity explained that she had selected our outfits in colors and styles that were meant to both complement our coats and manes and to look good together. She brought out a pair of manequins, each sporting a blouse, a floor-length gown, boots and cloak. The dominant colors were greens, blues and yellows for the gowns, blouses and boots. As for the cloaks, the one meant for Fluttershy is dusty rose. Mine is burgundy with a wide sky blue trim, the inside is midnight blue with a scattering of gold stars.

Fluttershy's blouse is baby blue with an embroidered metallic green vine pattern all over it, as well as simple flowers picked out in sequins, gold thread and red garnets. For Fluttershy's gown, Rarity had chosen a cloth with a pattern of mesmerizing swirls of grass and forest green, so light and airy that it looked like it could float away. Along the hem Rarity had started sewing in little sparkling sapphire flowers.

My blouse is gold yellow with lavender buttons and my gown is deep blue with several diamonds and quite a bit of glitter to emulate the night sky.

Rarity is providing us with boots to compliment our dresses. I was thinking that we might be a bit overdoing it, even if it is a high society dinner. Fluttershy probably had the same thought because when Rarity brought out a pile of hats for us to try, we quashed that idea. No hats, but Rarity did get us to promise to get an elegant hairdo for the occasion.

The clothes are not yet ready to wear, they're barely holding together with pins at the moment, so we did not try any of it on. Instead, we went to the kitchen where Rarity brewed a lavender tea to go with our cupcakes. There we chatted until Rarity felt she was once again refreshed, creative and ready to get back to work.

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Slip Sliding Away

Jan 6: Pinkie bounded into my study around mid-morning, dropped a card shaped like a giant snowflake (stellar dendrite) in front of me, and bounced back out and down the hall before I could utter a word. The card was an invitation to go sledding, courtesy of Dash and Pie. I thought it was probably snowing out, or at least when I went for my morning stroll, I saw the weather ponies assembling a fleet of snow clouds. My other clue was the trail of melting snow Pinkie had left in the corridor. I cracked open a window to see outside and I was rewarded with a face-full of fresh snow. So I went over to the nearest balcony.

Sure enough, the balcony, the fields and Ponyville were now whiter than whipped cream and looking like everything had been transformed into pillows and overstuffed furniture. I also noted that the snow storm was ending. I went to get my boots.

Snugly outfitted with my scarf, saddle and boots, I went to get my toboggan, only to find Spike looking for me. He'd fetched the toboggan out of storage right after he'd gotten his invitation and he'd already left it by the front door. He was raring to go. Starlight Glimmer chose to stay inside.

It was hard work pulling the sled through all that fresh powder between the castle and the sledding hill. All the harder since Spike was sitting on the sled. Dash and Pinkie were already sledding and we waved at them as they sped past us on Pinkie's party sled and plowed into a deep drift of fresh snow. By the time I reached the top, I was so hot I removed my saddle. Spike wanted to go down the hill right away but I wanted to wait for the others, so gave the sled a push and sent him hurtling down the trail Pinkie and Dash had carved out on their run. I could see Applejack trudging up the hill.

Applejack had her silly giant bowl-like sled, which is a lot more fun than it looks, and soon Rarity arrived, pulling her miniature sleigh-like sled. The snow was too powdery for anything other than a toboggan, so when Spike, Dash and Pinkie got back up the hill, we all climbed onto Pinkie's sled, held on to anything we could find (I had a mouthful of Applejack's mane) and we pushed off! Halfway down a snowbank threw us off balance and we tipped over into a snow drift. It's harder to stay upright in deep soft snow.

The weather was mild, so each time we sledded down the hill, we packed the snow down. That made it slippery enough for the sleds on skis and for Applejack's bowl. Of course Applejack and Rainbow Dash raced. At first Dash's racing sled had the advantage, but as the packed snow hardened further into white ice, the bowl was the superior vehicle, even though it was nearly impossible to steer. Anypony on the hill had better jump out of the way or get bowled over. (Ha ha! Punny me!)

We called it quits in the early afternoon. We were thoroughly soaked, nopony had had lunch and the slopes were crowded with sledding ponies. We went to Café Hay for hot soup and hay fries, and then to Sugarcube Corner for molten chocolate cakes. It was a good day, made all the better with friends.

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The Hay After The Rides Before

Jan 7: Since the weather ponies cleared away all the clouds before nightfall yesterday, the temperature dropped overnight and I found it a bit crisp out this morning, even dressed in my saddle, boots and scarf. The rising sun made the world painfully bright, and even though the glittering snow was very pretty, I had to quickly return to my rock, tree shaped stable. I ate too much chocolate yesterday and I've felt a little off all day. The aches from half a day of hair-raising bumpy rides on a plank of wood didn't help. Not so Spike. Spike had borrowed Rainbow Dash's racing sled and after a hasty breakfast, he ran off to the toboggan run to spend the day going up and down, up and down, up... oh, my queasy stomach. I stayed indoors in my library, only venturing as far as the kitchen for another flake of the blandest first cut hay and some more weak mint tea. At supper, Spike said that the hill had been awesome, so slippery that he really had to dig in his claws to climb back up through the icy patches. For most of the day he had the hill mostly to himself. Small wonder. If half the ponies that were there yesterday feel the bruises I feel today, and if the other half couldn't walk up the hill without ice-climbing gear, I'd say Spike is going to have that hill to himself right up until the next storm.

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A Fleeting Glimpse of the Vastness

Jan 8: It's been two years now that I've kept this written record of my everyday life. It's a fun little project and a small window into another universe. Like a telescope pointed at the stars.

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Art Of The Dressmaker

Jan 9: Rarity has finished the order she was working on and she shipped that off to her boutique in Manehattan this morning. So this afternoon she invited Fluttershy and me over to try on the outfits she has put together for us. The boots and cloaks fit but the gowns aren't ready. We spent a good hour playing the part of living manequins while Rarity pinned the unfinished cloth every which way to get our gowns to drape elegantly from our withers to our haunches and tail. She'll have sewn that before we try the dresses on again. She adjusted the blouses as well so that they're snug but not tight. She said that she has more flowers and stars to sew into the cloth as well. I think we are going to look stunning.

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Clothes Horse Sense

Jan 10: No fitting for us today. Rarity has trotted off to Manehattan to unpack her client's order. If all went well, it will have arrived at her boutique around the same time as she did. Her plan is to hang the order and take it to the client for approval. She'll be back tomorrow, which is when she expects to finish our outfits. It's pretty clear that Rarity is living that dinner vicariously through us, although she tries to tell us it will be good for her business. Word gets around, she says.

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Mare About Town

Jan 11: Rarity was busy sewing today. I knocked on her door, but she didn't need us to try on the clothes again just yet and I could see that she was quite busy. I went to the bazaar instead and picked up a few jars of sweet and sour silage, and then on the way home I stopped by Sugarcube Corner for a bag of rock candy for Spike. I was wearing my "folly" red cape with the gold trim, the one Rarity gave me a few years ago, but it really was too warm out for a cape. So I wore it loose and open, with the hood down, enjoying the warm winter sunshine as I stepped lightly down the road to the Friendship Castle.

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Mares To Measure

Jan 12: Rarity was ready for us try on the outfits again today. We tried them on and I thought mine was perfect, but Rarity put in a few more pins to get just the right fold and flow. It's like she's working on a spell. Fluttershy looks stunning in her glittering green vines and red garnets on her blue blouse and in that mesmerizing pattern of interlocking curves and spirals of green on her gown. My gown sparkles like rainbows with all the tiny diamonds Rarity sewed to it. I recognized several constellations. Rarity knows how much I love the night sky.

The boots are adjustable to accommodate hoof growth and the cloaks fit loosely and don't need to be tailored. The cloaks are crushed velvet, plush and soft and similar to the cloaks Rarity gave us last year, but more plain, apart from the hidden clusters of tiny gold stars inside mine. They're meant to hide the dazzling gown and blouse underneath, thereby increasing the impact they will have when we remove our cloaks at the dinner. Only our boots1 hint at what's secreted under our cloaks. It's all in the presentation says Rarity.

Rarity calls my outfit Golden Nightfall and Fluttershy's ensemble, Summer Song.

1 My boots are a deep blue with lavender laces and a gold trim, Fluttershy's boots are forest green with metalic green laces and a grass green trim.

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The Glitterati

Jan 13: Rarity dragged me away from my books and Fluttershy from her study of the ecological implications of the increase in hay field area in the region in and around Ponyville, to one last fitting. We tried on our ensembles, from boots to gown and blouse to cloaks and at last Rarity was satisfied. She had us parade around the boutique while she admired us. Our ensembles are so dazzling, it's like they have Made By Rarity stamped all over them. The dinner is in four days and she made it clear that she expects us to join her at the spa on the morning of the dinner, to get us looking our best. Fashion is serious business.

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Special Delivery

Jan 14: Rarity had finished sewing our ensembles yesterday but she didn't let us take them home yet. Instead, she packed them carefully in boxes and today she shipped our outfits to her boutique in Canterlot. She's afraid we'll crush, stain, step on or otherwise wrinkle the fabric on the train before we even arrive in Canterlot. Sassy Saddles will have the outfits ready, pristine and waiting for us at Canterlot Carousel. Now I'm almost afraid to consider eating at the dinner. What would Rarity think if I splashed salsa on my blouse? I wouldn't get away with asking for a bib, would I? It would be in all the papers and Rarity would fall over in shock. Then she'd pound a bee-line to my door in her haste to give me a crash course in dining etiquette. I'm going to see if I can find a non-stick spell that I can cast on my clothes.

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Winter in the Wild Woods

Jan 15: It was a nice day for a walk today and since it's been a while since the last time I spoke to Zecora, I decided to drop by her place. While it was mild and sunny in Ponyville, the Everfree Forest has its own rhythm. As I walked from Ponyville's influence to the Everfree, the air got noticeably colder. I was prepared for this. I had brought winter garments.

The Everfree is quiet in the winter. The whipping willows, the fillyhair trees and the running oaks are leafless and motionless. The only tracks I saw were those of timberwolves and manticores. The parasprites and unstable flies are snug in their crevices under the leaf litter, the cragadiles are submerged in the mud and the cockatrices are snoozing deep inside of rock piles. The forest seems barren and disturbed only by the wind, but that makes it only harder for a pony to hide.

I was adopting a crystal hare survival strategy by wearing white. I had on my long white hooded cloak which covered my head, my saddle bags and nearly everything else on down to my tail. For my feet, I had white boots. White, quiet and stealthy, I stepped carefully in my soft padded boots. I froze at every snap and every new creak and moan from the slumbering trees. The poison joke is safely blanketed with snow, but here and there the hooked seedheads of dragon claw burrs lurked in the undergrowth. I stuck to the wider trails to avoid those as best I could. They really cling to fur and cloth and the spines sting when you try to pull them off with your teeth.

I passed through a marshy area where I found sheets of ice in and around the trail I was on. It looks like there had been a rain shower on a milder day recently. The temperature must have had plunged afterward, causing the puddles to freeze on top before the liquid water could soak into the ground. That had left these crusts of ice that crunched underhoof. Walking on it could have been fun, but the sound was so loud that I was afraid of attracting unwanted attention. I picked my way around the ice and kept to the snow on higher ground.

I could smell the smoke from Zecora's hearth before I could see her hut. She lives in a giant, hollow, squat tree and I a felt a sharp jab of regret as I remembered the Golden Oak Library, my first home in Ponyville. My funk was washed away when the door opened and she welcomed me inside, ushering me over to a table where we were soon chatting and drinking one of her delicious herbal teas. Zecora's hut is so warm and bright and full of intriguing scents and smartly sorted herbs and vials. The hours just flew by.

All things have to end sometime and I bid Zecora farewell. My saddle bags slightly heavier with tea and spices, I stepped back out into the wild wood and made my way home through the lengthening shadows. White on white and wary.

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Pomp And Circumstances

Jan 16: Spike has been saddled with pet sitting Owlowiscious and Angel while we're gone tomorrow. Since it's a dinner and I have a place where we can stay in Canterlot, we're going to stay overnight. Owlowiscious isn't much trouble, but Angel will probably keep Spike on his toes.

Spike is going to be busy soon. The Crystal Winter Festival is coming up and Spike has already received a request to appear at both the opening and the closing ceremonies. I might take a day trip to the festival this year. I'll see what my friends have planned.

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(Gone to Canterlot. Leave queries with the dragon in charge.)

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Posh Evening in Canterlot

Jan 18: I'm back! Did you miss me? I think Spike was happy to see us, especially Fluttershy. He told me later that Angel took great pleasure in hiding in the castle and leading him on merry chases through the corridors and staircases, drumming his feet to keep Spike running and guessing where he was hiding. Spike said Owlowiscious wouldn't stop hooting, but I think the owl was trying to be helpful. It's just that Spike doesn't understand him, even at the best of times. So Spike was looking a bit rattled and very tired when we got back this morning. Fluttershy and I, on the other hoof, had a wonderful time.

We started our day yesterday with a trip to the spa, me, Fluttershy and Rarity. We were the first ponies there. We had our manes done, our hooves trimmed and shined, and we had our feathers waxed, with just a touch of glitter on mine. Rarity insisted the glitter would look fabulous with my gown. I think that the more something sparkles, the more Rarity likes it.

After about an hour and a half, I was feeling about as lovely as Fluttershy looked, all soft and shiny with a bit of bounce in our styled manes, and smelling of peppermint and lavender. Before we headed to the train station to catch the Friendship Express to Canterlot, Rarity led us to her boutique. She had a couple of surprises for us that she had picked up in Manehattan, just for this occasion. It was jewelry that she'd picked up in a Saddle Row boutique when she was in Manehattan last week. She had a green wire and gem daisy-chain tiara for Fluttershy and a string of stars choker necklace for me. She reminded us that we had insisted that our ensembles should not include hats, so instead of hats, she wanted us to have these beautiful sparkling accents, and to wear them this evening. How could anypony say no to that? We put them back in their boxes, packed them into our saddle bags, and we were ready to catch our train.

Rarity walked us to the station and on the way she told us that she has been hard at work making copies of our dinner ensembles. They're almost finished and she hopes take them to Canterlot tomorrow herself, to place them on display in her Canterlot Boutique.

We caught our train and arrived in Canterlot in the early afternoon. We went immediately to the Canterlot Carousel Boutique to pick up our gowns, boots and cloaks, after which we ambled over to my old Canterlot apartment to get changed. We found Moondancer there, reading. She had gone over to consult some reference books, but, one thing led to another and she was lost in another book. I totally understand. You can loose all track of time while reading a good book.

We chatted with Moondancer for a while until it started to get late. We quickly donned our ensembles and the jewelry Rarity gave us, left our saddlebags and travel wear there for the evening, and rushed off to Canterlot Explorer's Society dinner.

They had us sit at the VIP table. We were the only VIP guests, so I think the chairpony was happy to not be the only pony sitting with the guest speaker at the VIP table. It might have been the subject matter didn't appeal to the crème of Canterlot. Their loss. We also looked stunning, thanks to Rarity, so we didn't look too out of place up there on display at the VIP table.

I didn't give these things much thought because soon after we arrived, the chairpony introduced Dr. Lek DeGraas to the diners and the lecture started.

We learned that in south eastern Equestria, a unique population of cloud hoppers that thrives on fertile waste clouds had established itself on a permanent cloudbank trapped in an eddy in the lower Horseshoe Valley breeze. Located over the Neighver Moor in the Hayseed swamps, this cloudbank had been fed by a steady stream of waste clouds and surfing clouds dropped into the lower Horseshoe Valley breeze by the residents of the pegasus town of Weathers. The formally popular pastime of breeze surfing on stratiform clouds has fallen out of fashion in Weathers and the local council had decided to move the town into a wind shadow high above the turbulent breeze. Thus, fewer waste clouds were getting dumped into the breeze at an altitude that would have sent them to the Neighver Moor. As a result, waste clouds were no longer getting dispersed over the Hayseed swamps and the density of the cloud cover in what had been prime cloud hopper habitat had fallen drastically. As their habitat fragmented and became poor in nutrients, the cloud hopper population crashed.

Enter Dr DeGraas. Thanks to a grant from The Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures and support from the Pan Equestria Aeronautics and Aerographical Society and the Canterlot Explorer's Society, DeGraas and his team of masters students, local volunteers and weather specialist consultant ponies, was able to piece together what had caused the cloud hopper habitat to degrade and what steps could be taken to reverse cloud hopper loss of habitat.

Since moving Weathers back to the turbulent area where it had been was not a popular option, Dr Degrass and the weather ponies undertook the task of mapping the flow of the lower Horseshoe valley breeze. They were able to locate other eddies in the Hayseed Swamps area that could be fed waste clouds from Weathers near its present position without moving the town out of the placid wind shadow it now enjoys. The council approved the move and since then pegasi have rounded up the remaining cloud hoppers and pushed them, clouds and all, to one of the newly fertile eddies. The animal specialist ponies are hoping that the population will grow to the point that they can move some cloud hoppers to other eddies over the Hayseed swamps and perhaps even downwind from other cloud cities.

After the lecture, small herds of waiters trotted out hot platters and we were soon dining in the company of Dr DeGraas. He and Fluttershy discussed rare creatures, habitat fragmentation, assessment protocols and sanctuary viability. At one point a photographer took some pictures of our table for the society newsletter.

The dinner finished too late for us to take anything other than an overnight train back, so we stayed the night at my old place. This morning we had breakfast in a Canterlot café and then we caught the early Friendship Express back to Ponyville.

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Day Tripper Roundup

Jan 19: I went around to see who wanted to go with me to the Crystal Empire Winter Festival this year. I proposed a day trip, perhaps on the third day, in hopes that the train won't be packed.

Pinkie said yes of course, she wouldn't miss a party if she can help it. She might go back a few times during the two week festival. Applejack wants to see what treats are being sold and which ones are the most popular, so that's a yes. Rarity isn't sure yet. She'd like to scout the crowds and stalls for new fashion ideas and material, but she also has her spring collection to finish. Maybe if we go to the costume ball. Rainbow Dash thinks it's worth going back this year, she particularly liked the events like the snowshoe races and the ice archery, so she's in too. Fluttershy would rather avoid the crowds, so she's staying put in Ponyville. That makes four of us for sure, maybe five.

Rarity wanted to know all about our high society dinner at the In The Field lecture. Fluttershy had come with me when I went to the Carousel Boutique to see Rarity but alas for Rarity, we had only really socialized with the chairpony and Dr DeGraas. Neither of us had noticed if we'd caught the eye of the other ponies present. We were happy to tell her all about cloud hoppers (Dr DeGraas had shown us several pictures that he hadn't included in his lecture, they're very cute, even if they like to eat unsavory pony waste). Rarity was mollified that our pictures had been taken. She hopes some mention of our attire will appear in one of the gossip columns in the Canterlot papers.

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Fashion

Jan 20: Rarity rushed breathless and almost prancing into my study today, a Canterlot newspaper bobbing merrily in a levitation spell behind her. Our attire had been mentioned in a gossip column. In summary, it stated that Princess Twilight Sparkle and a fashion model1 had appeared at a Canterlot Explorer's Society dinner lavishly attired in a pair of ensembles designed by the haut couturière, Rarity, just for this occasion.

I don't recall anypony asking us about our outfits that evening, but somehow somepony had figured it out. I suspect that Sassy Saddles, Rarity's boutique manager in Canterlot, had a hoof in this. Regardless, getting a moment of fame in the Canterlot society pages made Rarity's day.

1 That's not entirely inaccurate. Fluttershy was a fashion model for a while, thanks to a photographer named Photo Finish. You can't really expect to get to proofread a journalist's column for accuracy at the best of times, and even if you do, they still manage to make mistakes or to exaggerate some things. I guess for Fluttershy, fashion model sounded more appealing than wild animal care specialist, even though the latter makes more sense in the context of the subject of the lecture that evening.

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Cookies And Tea

Jan 21: Fluttershy came knocking on my door today. She brought some homemade carrot chip peppermint cookies, those that she could keep out of reach of Angel. They were really very good, I imagined Angel back at Fluttershy's cottage, snoring in his cot in a carrot cookie coma. I made some jasmine tea to go with the cookies and as we chatted, Fluttershy revealed what it was that had spurred her to drop by.

After Rarity's excitement over the mention of our evening wear in the society pages, it occurred to Fluttershy that maybe the other ponies at the dinner had paid a lot to be there. She wondered how much her seat at the dinner cost, she hoped that it had been free, she didn't want to be a burden. Well, it wasn't free, but I just told her it was way, way less than the usual price, which is true. It was about what a normal, good dinner and a show should cost, divided by two since we both had dinner. Thus, a very good deal for a fancy dinner and an interesting lecture, made all the better by going with a friend. Truth be told, the dinner itself was spare and more interesting to look at than to eat, but that meant we spent more time talking with Dr DeGraas and less time being distracted by food. So we touched tea cups and toasted to friendship and good food and I ate another cookie. By the time Fluttershy left, we'd eaten them all. Don't tell Spike.

I had paid for Fluttershy's seat before we'd left, of course. When I had first inquired, the Society had written back to tell me that seating at an In The Field dinner is very limited, especially at the VIP table, so yes I can bring guests and no it is not free. One guest at my table will cost me thirty bits and my guest and I might have to sit at one of the regular tables if the VIP table is full. Any subsequent guests will have to reserve their own seating at the usual rate of three hundred bits and the reservations fill up weeks before the lecture. That's a lot of bits.

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A Spike in Transit

Jan 22 The Crystal Empire Winter Festival has begun! Spike is there now, no doubt looking important, waving to the crowds and helping out with the announcements and such. He left on the train this morning and we all went with him to see him off safely. I was surprised to see just how packed the train to the Crystal Empire was this morning, even with two engines and twice as many passenger cars! Spike managed to squeeze in through the forest of legs and find a perch in one corner (I could just make him out through the fogged windows). I hope that the trains won't be as packed a few days from now, when some of us plan to go. Rarity looked doubtful and I'm near certain she's not going if the trains are crowded. Dash says she'll just fly there when we go. As for Fluttershy, she's happy that she's staying home, where it's quiet. Spike will be back in a few days.

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Witness The Wandering Weaves That Waft And Waver

Jan 23: The streams of light floating south from the Crystal Empire have been breathtaking and soothing. The crystal ponies are enjoying sharing their winter festival with the throngs of ponies that have ventured their way. I can feel it in the night air when one of the Crystal Heart's ribbons of light drifts over Ponyville. I hope Cloudsdale sends some more snow our way soon.

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The Train Less Traveled

Jan 24: Spike got back today from the Crystal Empire via the late morning train. There was enough time for him to get to the station on time for the train following the evening parade, but it was packed with returning ponies last night and by the time the train reached Ponyville, it would have been so late that he could easily have slept through the Ponyville stop. Today the trains headed to the Crystal Empire are full, but not packed. I bought our round trip tickets for tomorrow's day trip.

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Crystal Empire Calling

Jan 25: The early train to the Crystal Empire had extra cars and it was full but we all found somewhere to rest our hooves. We didn't have to stand the whole way there like we did last year. Rarity and Fluttershy stayed behind, but Spike was with us, in disguise. It's still hard to believe that a hat, coat and sunglasses are enough to fool the crystal ponies. He was walking on two legs and his dragon tail was sticking out from under his coat! It still worked and Spike didn't get hauled off to light any fireworks or sign autographs.

We headed straight for the fairgrounds on arrival. We had an early lunch in the market area where we wandered from stand to stand picking out tasty treats. Of course we all ate big sticky gobs of ice flower nectar on the snow. Then Rainbow Dash and Pinkie practically dragged us to the giant ice slide and I screamed most of the way down. On the bigger jump my wings opened by reflex and nearly sent me sailing off my toboggan and out of my groove. I closed them and belly flopped back on my toboggan with a bump. Ouch.

There were some really impressive ice sculptures, more of them than last year and still more getting carved. There was an Ursa major (not life sized), a giant bust of singer Sapphire Shores in a feather headdress, a timber wolf, a dragon, a miniature replica of Canterlot Castle, a caribou explorer (looked somewhat like Leaf Hairrakesson), lots of ponies, a manticore, fish... Most were in an ice sculpture section of the fairgrounds, next to the Festival Ice Castle, but there were many others scattered here and there, like treasures to be discovered. The Masquerade is to be held in the Ice Castle, which is also used for the Festival dinners. While we were there I bought two tickets to the Masquerade for Rarity.

We grabbed some more treats and followed the crowds to the ice archery semi finals and the speed skating competition in the Crystal Empire stadium. It was like Equestria Games all over again. Dash was impressed with how fast the skaters were going and Pinkie wants a set of those special speed skates. I was a bit alarmed at how long it took the skater who fell down to stop sliding on her side. She hit a rail pretty hard and it looks like she gave herself quite the gash with one of her skates.

After the winning speed skaters had climbed onto the podium to receive their medallions we headed back to the fairgrounds to go to the open air concert. On our way we passed through the market section of the fairgrounds. It was late afternoon and the food and souvenir stands were closing. Pinkie still managed to score a big bag of crystal popcorn and Spike bought a snow globe, with his statue inside it. The vendor didn't even bat an eye. The crystal popcorn was strangely sparkly and faceted but it still tasted like popcorn.

We found the open air bandstand and a spot where all five of us could stand together with a good view of the stage. The sun set, fugelhorns sounded, a master of ceremonies trotted out on stage. He was proud to announce... he turned while a curtain parted, The Beach Bays! The entire audience squealed and whinnied, except maybe Spike. Rainbow Dash was grinning ear to ear and nudging Applejack. The Beach Bays is one of her favorite harmony groups. They played a forty minute set. Behind us, the spinning Crystal Heart sent streaks of colored joy up through the clouds.

After the concert had ended we crossed through the darkened fairgrounds, our way illuminated by ice sculptures. As we reached the street leading to the train station, it started to snow. This time we knew what to expect and we stopped and looked up. A wave of crystal pony happiness hit the Crystal Heart many streets away and rebounded tenfold through the falling snow. As we turned crystal, the falling snowflakes began to spin, sparkling like tiny diamonds, whirling in time with the crystal heart and drifting slowly to the ground. The air was full of rainbows.

I was a little apprehensive when we turned crystal and I stole a few glances at my friends, but unlike last time, we didn't cause a flash. I think it's because Rarity and Fluttershy weren't there with us.

We had a train to catch, so I nudged my friends along. We walked in awed silence through the sparkling snow to take our seats in the Friendship Express, Ponyville bound.

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Tickets

Jan 26: I gave Rarity the pair of tickets to the masquerade ball. Why two? So she could take a friend. She doesn't know yet who she'll take. She asked me if I wanted to go, but no. None of us that were at the festival yesterday wanted to go to the masquerade, or we would have bought tickets. Not even Pinkie. She has a prior commitment for that day. But somepony might change her mind, or Rarity will think of somepony else. Rarity told me that while we where at the festival, she learned that Princess Luna has purchased a Golden Nightfall ensemble. Rarity is headed to Canterlot tomorrow to take Luna's measurements and start tailoring the blouse and gown. I think it will look beautiful on Princess Luna.

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A Second Helping

Jan 27: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash went back to the Crystal Empire today. What drew them back so soon was that today in the stadium the events were snowshoe races and jousting. They probably stayed for the concert too (Bronco Beat on stage), and of course for the always impressive geyser of light and goodwill shooting skyward from the Crystal Heart. Especially since the nightly snowfall brings that amazing synergy between the delicate ice crystal snowflakes and the spinning Heart of the Crystal Empire.

I wrote a letter to Princess Cadence telling her that Rarity and a friend will be attending the Winter Festival masquerade and asking if they could stay overnight at the castle. I know that would make Rarity's masquerade trip more enjoyable.

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Barklava

Jan 28: Pinkie found a vendor selling speed skates at the Winter Festival yesterday and she bought a set. She brought them over today so I could admire them close up. I'm a terrible skater, so I certainly am not tempted to try them out. She also brought me a few bags of crystal corn soup mix, with instructions on the bags. It looks simple enough, but I'll ask Spike to make the soup. She also brought me an ancient specialty dessert that the crystal ponies have revived. It's called barklava, but it's not hot, it's sweet. We ate it for dessert after supper and it's something different. As far as I can tell, it's mostly layers of birch bark (the inner bark), ice flower nectar and pine nuts. It's good but very rich and chewy with a strong minty, wintergreen smell.

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On The Ball

Jan 29: Rarity is back. Tailoring Luna's ensemble took two long days. The Princess is so tall! Rarity had to sew her ensemble from scratch, it wasn't like she could just let out the hems. Now that she's back, she's working on her masquerade dress. Sassy Saddles will be going with her. I didn't tell her that I'd written to Princess Cadence to see if she and Sassy Saddles could stay at the castle overnight. I'm waiting for a reply and I don't want to give her false hope.

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Loose Ends

Jan 30: Castle accommodation for Rarity and Sassy Saddles, achieved! I got the letter this morning and I trotted all the way to the Carousel Boutique to give Rarity the good news. She was having a late breakfast after staying up late working on her masquerade getup, so I followed her back to the kitchen and delivered the news over a cup of jasmine tea. Rarity was ecstatic! She hadn't attacked the accommodations aspect of her Crystal Empire trip and she didn't relish the thought of having no place to get changed and being obliged to hunt for rooms before going to the ball. The last thing she wanted to do was rush to the train station to catch the last train to Ponyville while the masquerade was still in full swing.

She didn't let me look at her outfit yet, it's still a work in progress. But she did tell me that it would be very glittery. I was not surprised.

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Thick Blanket of Snow

Jan 31: Starlight Glimmer and Trixie caught the morning train to Manehattan to see Manespray on Bridleway where they will be staying overnight. I think Trixie looked reluctant to leave without her wagon.

Soon after they left, Cloudsdale's weather ponies sent us a snow storm. It's been a while since the last snowfall and Dash told me they were playing catch-up on our snow cover. They over did it a bit. Many of the snow drifts were withers-deep! Fortunately it's cold today and the snow is very light and fluffy. Ponies have been able to barrel through it, although maybe not the foals, not at first, not until most of the streets had been partly cleared. It's been like a mini Winter Wrap Up with everypony shoveling or pushing snow plows. Spike was in charge of clearing our walkways. With careful blasts of flame, he melted us free and then did the same for Rarity's place, without setting anything on fire. Then he melted his way to the top of the tobogganing hill and went sledding until dark.

I wonder if Trixie has skis for her wagon.

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Author's Note

399 views! Today we hit 400! And in the "bookshelf" corner, the sum of 'bookshelved' and 'tracked' is now at ninety-nine. 99 copies of Blog on the wall, 99 copies of Blog! Take one down and pass it around, still 99 copies of Blog on the wall!

Good Day, eh and welcome to year three. Cue atonal yak calf choir. On the third year of blogging my Twilight gave to me: three Mary Sue's, two total dreks and a book, in a tree.

OK, I just enjoyed a 24 hour migraine. I think I'm better now. Happy happy, joy joy. :derpytongue2:

XXVI February

Hayboard

Feb 1: We had a boisterous Hayboard meeting today. The room was packed and everypony was in high spirits and very chatty. I think it's because of the snowstorm. Clearing the streets and trotways (they're called 'trottoirs' in Fancy) was a surprise community event that drew everypony together and left us with lots of fresh white snow to play with. There are snow banks everywhere along the streets, some carved into snow forts, into arches and into really big snow ponies. All day ponies have been running snowball battles, sledding and carving out snow mazes, race tracks and steeplechases in the fields. A lot of ponies were letting off a lot of steam today, and that energy and good cheer was making Mayor Mare's job of manetaining the decorum of the room difficult. Still, ponies managed to give their reports.

Well, we're not going to starve for lack of hay this winter. Our third cut hay stores should last us. While there were more yak buyers at the harvest market than the previous year, they were as picky as ever, avoiding what were irregular bales of perfectly good third cut hay. During the harvest the pegasi were in a panic, afraid that the yaks would buy all the third cut hay, but in the end our farmers had kept the usual numbers in their lofts, even though it was very tempting to cash in on the inflated prices. That demand translated into a boost in the reputation of our hay and increased sales of our surplus first and second cut hay. We might not have to use it as building material after all.

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Two For The Crystal Ball

Feb 2: Sassy Saddles was due to arrive in Ponyville yesterday evening and to spend the night at Rarity's place so that they both could leave for the Winter Festival Masquerade Ball together. Rarity told me that the plan was to go to the spa first thing in the morning, then catch the train.

I think it's the first time Sassy Saddles has been to Ponyville. With the fresh snow piled high everywhere, she probably got the impression that we get more snow than the Crystal Empire. Rarity had reserved their spots at the spa days in advance. She said that she knows that the Crystal Empire has an excellent spa, having been there, but why risk getting there and finding it closed or booked solid? She wants to look her best. I don't know how late the Masquerade goes, they may well still be there at this hour.

Rarity had made a little frilly froufrou outfit for Flurry Heart, with snap buttons so it's easy to take on and off. It's very sparkly, of course, and lined in soft fleece and silk. Princess Cadence was probably thrilled.

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Together We Will Always Shine

Feb 3: It's mid-winter tomorrow! While I've been holed up in my bookfort refuge, Pinkie has been planning out the Mid-Winter Party, rounding up the entertainment, getting the posters and fliers printed and distributed and splitting the cooking duties with Applejack. I found her in the Sugarcube Corner kitchen juggling hot cookies and muffin mix and generally getting splattered with batter. I asked if I could help and she gave me a bag that was full of crumpled bills and I.O.U.'s and quite a bit of flour. I went into the dinning hall part of Sugarcube Corner, found myself a table, and got down to the business of sorting the bills, dusting off the flour, and writing invoices in order to get municipal funds to pay the bills. Fortunately, I always carry quills, scrolls and ink in my saddle bags.

I wrote Pinkie's invoices, dropped them off at Town Hall and went to Sweet Apple Acres. There Applejack and Granny Smith were baking pastries and Apple Bloom was helping Big McIntosh set them out to cool and packing the pies and bread into their baked goods buggies. I got Applejack and Apple Bloom to calculate their costs and I found myself a place to write invoices for that as well.

When I went to drop off those invoices, I found Rarity and Sassy Saddles hard at work decorating the Town Hall. They had only returned from the Crystal Empire an hour earlier and the next train to Canterlot wasn't due for another two hours, so Sassy Saddles had offered to lend a hoof. I was making an itemized list of the things the two of them had repaired, improved or added to the decor when Pinkie arrived with a cart full of noisemakers, balloons, streamers and confetti. She also had a few more bills that required invoices. I got out my scrolls and ink and promptly wore out my last quill. On my way to Quills and Sofas for fresh stationary supplies, I saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flying overhead, their bags full of posters.

By early evening, most of the preparations were finished and it was time for a break. Rainbow Dash flew off to Sweet Apple Acres to get Applejack and we converged on Café Hay for dinner.

Over plates heaped high with winter squash, hay, lentil and mushroom goulash, hay tourtière, beet pulp and hay casserole spiced with saffron, and grated apple and carrot salad sprinkled with pine nuts, Rarity told us all about the masquerade ball.

In the Ice Castle they had a lovely String Quartet and smartly dressed waiters carrying platters of canapes and hors d'oeuvres. Rarity and Sassy Saddles wandered through the crowd together, chatting with masked strangers and admiring the many delightful costumes they wore. Rarity's contribution was a dazzling plumed headdress that trailed down her back and legs and dangled over a shimmering blue jumpsuit covered in sequins layered like dragon scales. And a mask, of course. Sassy Saddles wore a grande robe to compliment her commanding height, with her mane up, curled and layered to match, and a lacy mask. Rarity has both outfits on display in her boutique and after dinner we all went over to her place to see them for ourselves. Rarity plans to send them on to Canterlot next week. She is thinking of maybe making a Mare Day Grass inspired line, something vivacious and bright.

She told us that as the evening wore on, the masquerade spilled out of the Ice Castle and in among the illuminated ice sculptures where another musician was playing minuets, nocturnes and the like on a piano. Rarity said the highlight of the evening was when it began to snow and everypony there turned crystalline, surrounded by the rainbow flashes of the whirling snowflakes, dreamily drifting to the ground.

This morning Princess Cadence and Flurry Heart had come to see them off while they were having breakfast in the guest dining room. Flurry Heart was fussing a bit. She was wearing the froufrou outfit Rarity had made and as soon as Princess Cadence put her down, Flurry Heart kicked off the dress and ran off giggling with Princess Cadence in hot pursuit. When she got back, Princess Cadence admitted that Flurry Heart wasn't keen on wearing clothes... unless she put them on herself. Flurry Heart was amusing herself by wearing the dress on her head like a hat.

After admiring Rarity's and Saddle's masquerade outfits, we all called it a night. Tomorrow, Pinkie has a party to throw, and we are of course going to help.

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Feasting And Feting The Middle of Winter

Feb 4: We had our Mid-Winter Party in Town Hall. It was much like last year's party, with a few differences such as Trixie's fireworks spectacular in lieu of Dash's Wonderbolt acrobatics, and the addition of glowsticks for everypony for the dance. We helped Pinkie with the details, like moving the tables, giving out sparklers, fetching water and lighting the lanterns. By the time the music started getting loud, I was ready to call it a night. Starlight Glimmer had already left to help Trixie pick up her things and take them back to her wagon and Applejack and Apple Bloom had gone home as well. I had helped Zecora pack her pots and ladles into her sleigh, so I pulled that and a sleepy Spike to the castle. Zecora will be by later to spend the night. Her guest room is ready for her. I gave her directions, but just to be sure she finds it, I stuck notes and arrows on the walls and doorways pointing the way. Nopony wants to get lost in a maze when they're tired.

Earlier today after I'd helped Zecora pull her sleigh through the Everfree and into town, I saw Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane and Cloudchaser pulling banners through the sky announcing the Ponyville Mid Winter Party. They even flew loops and patterns for a while. That was fun to watch, although it looked like they came close to getting their banners tangled a few times.

At two o'clock all was ready. Pinkie fired her party cannons, raining party hats, confetti and noise makers over the crowd waiting in the square. The party started, we threw open the Town Hall doors and let everypony in. Zecora was in charge of hot beverages and soups, Applejack, Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom had pastries and apples and the Cakes had set up a chocolate fountain. At three the Ponytones sang, at four Pinkie dropped hundreds of balloons into the hall. At five Mayor Mare gave a speech, then Rarity pulled back a long curtain to reveal buffet tables piled high with food and drink. Pinkie's DJ played dinner music and as the sun set, we lit dozens of paper lanterns. At six Pinkie climbed on stage to invite us to step outside for the Great and Powerful Trixie's fireworks display. On their way out the door, everypony got a sparkler. While nearly everypony was watching the fireworks, we consolidated what was left of the buffet to just two tables, cleared to floor near the DJ's podium for dancing and brought the boxes of glowsticks by the door.

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Time Off From Work To Play

Feb 5: After breakfast, Zecora and I accompanied Spike to the train station where he caught the mid morning train to the Crystal Empire. The train was packed with ponies again. It's the last day of the Crystal Empire Winter Festival, and Spike is presiding over the closing ceremonies. And lighting the fireworks, no doubt. Thus ends another successful Winter Festival. The ice statues will remain but the events are over and the ice castle will get dismantled so that it doesn't fall on anypony when it melts in the spring.

Half the winter is over. Before you know it, it will be time to wrap up winter and wake up the critters. I plan to enjoy the peace and stillness the cold brings us while I can.

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A Tale Of Fire And Ice

Feb 6: Spike said that the Festival organizers asked him to melt a ceremonial arch that had been carved out of ice especially for the festival. He said it was tricky because there were several ice sculptures near it, but he managed to reduce it to a large puddle without knocking over any of the sculptures. One of the organizers told him that they plan on adding more water and turning the area into a winter ice statue garden and ice rink. That sounds really nice, I should see with Pinkie if we could do something like that here.

A wind from the north picked up this afternoon, around the time Spike got home, and by evening the air was decidedly colder. I joked with Spike that the Winter Festival followed him home and it wanted its arch back. Spike just rolled his eyes.

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Cold Snap

Feb 7: It's cold today. So cold that the snow squeaks when I walk on it and my breath is like twin geysers of steam. Everypony I saw was trotting by fast while hunched in their horse blankets, scarves and saddles, trying to get quickly to somewhere warm. I could feel the pinch of the cold on my flanks right through my cloak and my hooves were like blocks of ice. I was still shivering for quite a while after I got back inside. All three of us at the castle are spending a lot of time warming our flanks by the fire in the sitting room. There is even frost on the inside of the window panes.

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Snow On The Brain

Feb 8: The cold snap hasn't broken yet and I think the cold is influencing my dreams. I usually forget my dreams about as soon as I wake up but this one stood out. I dreamed of snow, light, fluffy snow, blowing in a cold breeze, with the musical tinkling sound of ice crystals knocking together. In my dream it was mesmerizing, but strange. I like snow, but in that dream it was like I couldn't think of anything else. I think my sleep wasn't restful because I've felt irritable all day.

The next In The Field Dinner (Griffonstone, Then And Now) is in two days but I've decided not to go. If attending these dinners means getting all dressed up in a new outfit each time, I think I'll pass. I prefer written, cross referenced and peer reviewed material anyway.

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Chamomile

Feb 9: It's been really cold for days and I'm getting rather tired of it. I can't seem to remember the last time I felt hot, like really hot. Outdoors the wind is like a live thing, nipping at your ears and biting you in the hocks and belly. When I go out, I've taken to wearing a horse blanket under my cloak and lining my boots with straw. I'm going out as little as possible and staying away from everypony else. I feel snappish. It must be the cold. Again I had that annoying dream about snow and wind blown snow. I think my hay is contaminated with chamomile and it's affecting my mind, especially my sleep. Applejack should know better than to sell hay contaminated with chamomile. It's a toxic weed. I'm cold and cranky. Fortunately, I haven't seen Spike or Starlight Glimmer all day. They seem to be keeping mostly to their rooms.

I received a letter from Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. They wrote that the wild weather north of the Crystal Empire is acting up. There are icy cold winds blowing right up to the city limits. A party of crystal ponies out for a stroll got caught in a gust and nearly froze to death. All along the horizon to the north there's a wall of dark wild clouds. Everypony in the Crystal Empire castle seems to be withdrawn and on edge, but so far the Crystal Heart is keeping the wild weather at bay.

I went out for a few minutes late this evening, well after dark. Less of a chance to bump into anypony then. The cloudless sky was inky black and the stars stood out like pinpricks, sharp and distant. There were no streams of light from the Crystal Empire. In fact, I don't recall seeing or feeling anything from the Crystal Heart since the Winter Festival ended.

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Frostbite and Brawls

Feb 10: It's so cold. I just had to get warm somehow. The streets of Ponyville are deserted. I found myself by the spa and as if by programmed reflex, I could only think of the sauna. The hot, steamy sauna. I didn't want to see anypony, but I went in anyway. The sauna compelled me. Nopony was at the reception, I had to ring the bell, several times. Just when I was about to give up and go let myself into the sauna regardless, Lotus appeared. She was unusually gruff and short. Well, I just wanted get into the sauna and remember what warmth feels like. I didn't want anypony touching me or engaging me in idle chitchat, so when she didn't suggest a hooficure or a massage, I didn't mind. I got into the sauna and stayed there until I was sweating heavily. And yet I still didn't quite feel warm. It was very strange. I left and went home.

When I got home I picked up my mail, what there was of it. The Ponyville Express was only two pages, mostly saying it's cold (well duh!) in rambling, smudged articles that read like they had all been written by the same, sleep deprived pony. There was also a report of a fight over a bunch of carrots in the freezing cold and another about the hospital treating ponies for frostbite.

I'd better not dream about snow again. I spent hours going through my hay, stem by stem, leaf by leaf, flower by flower. I couldn't find even a trace of chamomile but that doesn't mean it's not there!

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The Biting, Bucking Cold

Feb 11: The wind is really howling and I think it's snowing, again! There are dark clouds spinning in the sky and there are drifts of hard packed snow blocking the paths. I haven't seen snow like this since trekking north of Yakyakistan. What's with Cloudsdale to be sending us all this snow, so soon after burying us the last time? It's freezing out! Can't they just stay in their cloud stables like sensible ponies? Has the snow factory gone berserk? If I see Rainbow Dash, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind.

I went to the kitchen to make myself a big pot of hot beet pulp stew. We're almost out of beet pulp and the bit of warmth I got out of it didn't last long. I just felt full and cold. I brought what was left with me back to my room. In the hallway, in front of my door, somepony had carelessly dropped a scroll. I bucked my door open, kicked the scroll so hard it bounced off the ceiling and landed on my bed, and slammed the door shut behind me. I was too full eat any more of the beet pulp yet, and it was no longer hot anyway. I wrapped myself tightly in more blankets and picked up the scroll. It was a letter from Princess Celestia. It seems that they're having cold weather and snow in Canterlot too. The weather ponies can't control it. And there was something about frozen ponies and I didn't read the rest.

I'm still feeling sleepy all day and it seems that as soon as I shut my eyes, I dream of ice, cold and snow. It's giving me migraines and I'm sick of it! I can't seem to think straight. The last bunch of days has become a blur. One minute I just want to kick holes in the walls, the next I'm burying myself under a mound of blankets and books.

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I Think I'm Losing My Mind

Feb 12: I can't take it. The wind is howling, howling. There is frost everywhere, on my walls, on my books, on my covers. I can't sleep, I can't stay awake. Nothing seems real. I think there are strangers walking the halls.

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The Cold Serves The Insensate

Feb 13: I'm in Tartarus. A frozen, howling Tartarus. My chattering teeth fascinate me.

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Things Are In The Saddle And Ride Ponykind

Feb 14: I woke up dazed and confused to the sound of somepony knocking on my chamber door. It was Zecora. I didn't want to see her, but she insisted. I opened the door and I was about to buck her from here all the way back to the Everfree, the hard way, when, without a word she held up a cup of something warm, liquid and green and with a smell. An indescribable smell.

I was drawn to that liquid. The smell filled my nostrils and my mind. I reached out with my telekinesis. (My hooves were buried under five layers of horse blankets and fleece, I was like a walking rug with just a small gap for my muzzle, to breathe and to see what was just beyond my nose.) I drank what Zecora offered me. First just a sip, then a gulp, then I drained the cup. I felt warmth pouring down my throat and spreading throughout my body. I felt days of sour moods and growing paranoia melting away. I was happy to see my friend Zecora, standing there, watching me, with a twinkle in her eye and a hint of concern. I dropped my cocoon of blankets, stepped into the corridor and I gave her a hug.

She told me that there was no time to waste, everypony must drink the green brew and do so with haste. We started with Spike. We had to dodge balls of fire until we got close enough to offer the brew. Starlight Glimmer hurled books and insults. It was a good thing that she was sobbing too hard to cast anything more lethal. With Starlight warmed up and sane, we set out to cure Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Fortunately, the wonderful, fresh and warm smell of the brew attracted everypony as much as it attracted me, it wasn't long until we had many ponies helping prepare and distribute the brew.

Zecora got to us just in time, but many ponies throughout Equestria also need to be reached, and some of them are in dire straights. I remembered reading somewhere about ponies getting frozen where they stood or as they slept throughout Equestria, and now that I was thinking straight, I reread Princess Celestia's letter, plus a few more that were in Spike's room. "Several ponies found frozen into a trance inside blocks of solid ice. Only the Hearth's Warming spell revived them." I realized what was happening, why it has been so cold and why I couldn't seem to stop dreaming about snow and ice, night after night. Winter. The ancient windigo from beyond the eternal twilight had come south, and he was laying claim to Equestria.

This time there was no Epona, no mare named Summer to save us. We had to save ourselves, Zecora's green brew only lasts so long. And I knew just the pony for the job. That pony, of course, is our Party Pony supreme, the Element of Laughter herself, Pinkie Pie. What we need to drive back Winter, to send him back to his castle of blue ice, is a pan-Equestrian party. The party to end all parties. I've put Pinkie to the task of setting up round-the-clock Hearth's Warming spell parties, starting with Ponyville.

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Taking Back Equestria

Feb 15: There are a dozen Hearth's Warming spell parties in progress all around Ponyville. Pinkie has been setting the mood, lighting bonfires, getting ponies to share stories, sing songs, tell jokes and believe or not, to play Tangle. My job has been to cast the Hearth's Warming spell, to check in to make sure it's still strong at each group, and to set up a rotating schedule for the ponies Pinkie picks for each group. This party must not end until Winter goes home!

There are also three flying wagon borne parties tasked with rescuing Dodge City, Appleoosa and Las Pegasus. We also hope they find Cheese Sandwich. They go equipped with sealed kegs of Zecora's reviving brew and they have the tricky task keeping the Hearth's Warming spell going on the fly.

Mail delivery has stopped, so have the trains. It's dangerous to travel alone, so everypony leaving town goes with friends and takes flasks of Zecora's green brew; the fire of friendship burning in their hearts and Zecora's marvelous elixir in their bellies. Tomorrow we'll be sending out pony parties traveling by hoof, charged with spreading magical cheer to small towns, farms and homesteads in all directions.

I received news from Canterlot -- I contacted Moondancer via Haycartes. Moondancer is spearheading Hearth's Warming Spell parties in Canterlot with the help of Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts and Lyra Heartstrings. Lemon Hearts is a Canterlot palace event organizer so she has been a big help. She was a little slow out of the gate, because of the dreams. She remembered only too well getting trapped by Winter the first time and her losing struggle to help Moondancer to ward off the windigo with the Hearth's Warming spell. The return of those dreams had led her into a panic. But organizing Hearth's Warming spell parties has allowed her to regain her self control by doing what she does best. The spell parties are strategically scattered throughout the city as all of Canterlot is affected equally. Some ponies warm up and join the parties slower than others, but eventually the giant flaming heart gets everypony to shake off Winter's influence. Thus, we won't need to revive Canterlot, but Canterlot should be able to send parties by train to Baltimare and Manehattan soon.

I hope the Crystal Empire is weathering this attack. If any ponies are adept at turning back wild winter weather, it's the crystal ponies and their Crystal Heart.

Getting trapped and helpless like this, time and again, is getting old. Maybe if I'd chosen a different line of research, something a bit more academic, like gravity waves and quantum mechanics...

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For Friendship's And Harmony's Behoof

Feb 16: I felt an immense burst of happiness and contentment this evening, about an hour after dark. It was so intense that I galloped out onto the nearest balcony, nearly colliding with Spike and Starlight Glimmer on the way. Outside, through the thin veil of clouds overhead, I could make out the rainbow colored glow of something immense racing toward us from the north at tremendous speed. I felt giddy with happiness. Spike was dancing in circles and Starlight had burst into tears. A first wave passed overhead, clearing away the clouds and we were hit by a blast of mild air. The frost that had covered the castle blew right off and evaporated into a thick mist. Then a second ring brought another blast of mild air and that sent the mist flying off into the night. The third ring was slower. It brought a feeling of peace and as it passed, the wind died down until all was still. I looked toward town and I could see dozens of ponies in the streets, standing stock still and looking up at the Crystal Empire lights. It struck me then just how much I had missed them.

In the still air I could hear ponies singing Circle Of Friends, the Hearth's Warming Carol.

A dozen Hearth's Warming hearts were floating in the air in Ponyville, glowing brightly with the fire of friendship. From the north, the familiar glowing ribbons of colored light were once again spreading happiness all over Equestria.

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There's A Star Mare Waiting In The Sky

Feb 17: I heard a train pulling into Ponyville so I trotted down to the station to chat with the conductor. He told me that a few trains are running again and things should get back to normal as soon as the Canterlot office straightens out which trains ended up where. Meanwhile they are traveling slowly and on a limited schedule. Ditto for mail service by rail. This train was heading for the Crystal Empire so I pulled out a scroll and ink and wrote a letter to Princess Cadence asking what had happened. About right after I had mailed that, I met Pinkie, then Rainbow Dash and finally Rarity who all told me various versions of rumors that somepony had heard from somepony else who had flown in from the north that a star pony had come to the aid of the Crystal Empire. This, if it's true, is very exciting news. We know of one such star pony, we met her before. The constellation we called Summer.

Our scouts have been coming back to say that last night's light show has wiped away Winter's influence. One group had been trying to revive a frozen family when the waves hit. It thawed them right out. The party stated that the family was confused but in high spirits.

It's fortunate that the Crystal Empire was able to pull off that triple burst of joy (a sonic joy boom?) or we would have been fighting a long, slow battle pushing back on Winter. As it is, we've called off the Hearth's Warming spell parties, but we've left stacks of wood over the ashes of the bonfires so we can start them up at a moment's notice.

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Clear Skies

Feb 18: It's been so bright and sunny out today! And mild! It was nearly too warm for my scarf. I passed a lot of ponies out sunbathing by their homes. The stars this evening were so bright it's like they were closer to the ground. That may well be, those bursts of power from The Crystal Empire rolled like waves through the sky and pretty much jostled all the constellations out of position. They look like they're all back to their usual spots now. Our pegasus and foal constellations are up tonight, but not Summer. I think she keeps vigil somewhere in the skies of the icy north.

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If We Can Sparkle

Feb 19: Cadence wrote back, sending her scroll by airmail since mail delivery by rail is still sporadic. She wrote that things had been getting pretty dire in the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Heart was keeping Winter at bay, but a week of unrelenting pressure was grating. It was taking everything the crystal ponies had, and they were starting to falter. Most of them are still traumatized by having been enslaved by Sombra and it doesn't take much for them to become withdrawn. Then this enormous pegasus constellation just walked in out of the north.

This colossal being of connected stars walked right up to the center of town, taking care to avoid stepping on any buildings. She was almost as tall as the castle. There she stopped and gave a nicker so deep that Cadence could feel it through the castle stones and through her hooves. It was so warm, so comforting that everypony in the city came tumbling out of their stables and galloped up to stand beneath her. The mother's call. Irresistible.

Cadence and Shining grabbed Flurry Heart, heeded the call and came out of the castle to stand with everypony else, looking up at and through the belly of the constellation. The star mare looked down and Cadence said she felt as wobbly legged and as energetic as a foal. Then the constellation spread her wings and as one, everypony held their breath. All were in awe. She nickered again and everypony laid down with a collective sigh right were they had been standing and touched the ground, like in a Crystalling ceremony. Love and happiness poured forth from everypony and flowed up the four giant pillar-like legs of the constellation, jumping from star to star, rising through her body and climbing up her neck and finally to the brilliant star on her forehead. She bent toward the Crystal Heart and beamed all the power of the crystal ponies straight at it. The crystal heart sped up until it was spinning so fast that it was a chevron-shaped blur of light. It shot rainbows back at the constellation where they collected, the pegasus became a crystal pegasus and blindingly bright, Cadence wrote that it was like looking at the sun. The constellation then reared up and beat her wings. The first beat lifted her off the ground and blew everypony flat. The second beat took her higher and Cadence opened her eyes in time to see that with each wing beat, a brilliant flash radiated out of the star mare in all directions. The constellation beat her wings a third and final time, sending a third expanding ring of crystal pony power racing across the sky.

She glided down, far enough away to avoid stepping on anypony, gave one last reassuring nicker, then she walked out of the city, to the north and into the night. Cadence finished her letter by writing that they all slept like newborn foals that night and everypony woke up in very good spirits.

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Bouncing Back

Feb 20: Ponies have been taking advantage of the mild winter weather to start decorating their homes for Hearth's Warming, which is less than a week away. That means it will be spring in just one moon. This year we may not need to be reminded just how real the danger of a ice-bound Equestria can be, but everypony looks eager to celebrate our victory. The snow has been perfect for building snowponies and whole herds of snowponies are adorning yards and nooks all around Ponyville. There is a certain satirical theater aspect to these happy white sculptures, mocking the fate that we so recently escaped. There are garlands on the doors, bows on the snowponies, ribbons on the trees and more to come. I think I should do something extra this year.

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Pinkie On Ice

Feb 21: That long spell of severe cold and high winds has left Ponyville with an unforeseen gift. It swept away the snow off Saddle Lake and thickened the ice. Then four days of mild and sunny weather brought on by the Crystal Empire's triple blast has caused the surface of the ice to melt during the day and to freeze over again at night. As a result, Saddle Lake is now a giant skating rink with a mirror finish. That warm spell seems to have run its course and it was too cold for the ice surface to melt today. This had ponies running for their skates.

Pinkie announced that she was going to break in her spiffy new speed skates and with that much perfect ice, she hoped to go very fast. We made an outing out of it, packing a picnic and following Pinkie to a spot by the lake far from where most of the skating ponies were, to avoid collisions. Pinkie went down to the shore to tie on her new speed skates and we found a high, snow covered embankment which gave us a commanding, and safe, view of Pinkie's corner of the rink. We spread out a few picnic blankets over the snow, and since it was cold, we all had horse blankets. We combined them and nestled together while we cheered Pinkie on. Pinkie remembered how the speed skaters at the Crystal Empire Winter Festival propelled themselves with long smooth strokes and she had picked up a few pointers when she bought the skates as well. After a few false starts, she was starting to pick up speed. We got the apple juice with cinnamon out of Applejack's basket which Spike heated up to steaming and I served to everypony. We sipped our spicy drinks and tried not to spill them when Pinkie slipped and crashed into a snowbank. She did that several times, climbing out back onto the ice, giving us the diver's OK (bonking herself on the head with her skate) and having yet another go at speed skating. Pinkie has a masochistic streak.

After eating yet another snowbank, Pinkie was feeling the chill. Skating that fast is like dancing in a cold wind and usually speed skaters wear a kind of warm jumpsuit. Pinkie had just her scarf, tuque and ear muffs, and the dives into the snow weren't helping. She hopped out of her skates and jumped right into the middle of our horse blanket pile. Brrr. There was ice stuck in her fur which melted as we all pushed up closer to share our warmth and hot apple juice with her. Rarity promised to sew her a speed-skater's jumpsuit. Pinkie said the new skates were really stiff and chaffing. She's going to wait until her hooves are a little less sore before practicing some more. Rainbow Dash looked like she was toying with the idea of trying them out, but probably not tomorrow. Tomorrow we decorate the castle.

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Hearth's Warming Spirit

Feb 22: This morning after breakfast we got to work decorating the Friendship Castle for Hearth's Warming. Together we retrieved the decorations from storage and sorted it for easy deployment on the larger balcony. Fortunately, everything had been folded neatly and packed away in a dry upper story room, well away from the flood we'd had last year. Rainbow Dash and I took care of the wreaths and draping the gigantic ribbon around the top spire. Rarity ironed out the wrinkles on both bows and stiffened them up with magic so that they would hold their shape. Pinkie and Fluttershy started stringing up the lights and Applejack and Spike set up the star-shaped lamp posts.

It looks like word got around about Saddle Lake. While we were wrestling with bolts of cloth and untangling strings of lights in the frosty morning air, half the town walked by headed that way, carrying picnic baskets, horse hockey equipment and the like. The horse hockey equipment was especially distracting for Rainbow Dash.

We stopped for lunch and to warm up, then we got right back into the saddle. Dash and I wrapped the lower part of the castle with the extra wide bolt which Rarity stiffened to hold while we held it in place, then we lifted the giant bows to their positions. Rarity took care of getting the lower bow to stick to where the ribbon crossed and we tied the upper bow to the pinnacle of the castle spire. While we did that, Applejack, Pinkie, Spike and Fluttershy finished hanging all the strings of lights. It was hard work but we finished by late afternoon. Then Applejack and Rainbow Dash galloped off to play horse hockey on the lake. Pinkie bounced off after them. Her hooves are still sore from breaking in her new skates so she just went to cheer them on.

The cold has brought a halt to building and rebuilding snowponies in Ponyville but in their stead several ponies are carving big blocks of ice into pony-sized ice sculptures. They get their oversized ice blocks from the ponies who carve ice-box blocks out of a small spring-fed lake in the winter. That gives them clear clean ice that they store underground packed with wood shavings and straw to keep it all from melting in the summer. They take care to collect clean ice so that as the ice melts in an icebox, it doesn't release stuff that can clog the drain.

I was talking with Pinkie after we'd gone over the castle decorations checklist one last time (before she left to catch up with Applejack and Dash) and we decided that the entrance hall to the castle would be a great place to throw a Hearth's Warming party for all of Ponyville. Pinkie is going to make sure it doesn't interfere with any last minute plans from town hall and that our friends are on board with this. Hearth's Warming has been made very real and personal for everypony this winter and it's probably about time we entertained more than just ourselves here. It should go better than that reception we prepared for the yak Prince, Rutherford. What a disaster that was.

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Decking The Hall

Feb 23: Pinkie bounced into my library while I was reshelving the 'm's (should Making Magnifying Optics from Magnetic Materials be under optics, magnets or levitation?). The Hearth's Warming party is a go! She's already started to put up posters. I finished up shelving the 'm's and I went to find Rarity. Together we went to Town Hall to see what we could borrow to decorate the entrance hall of the castle.

We signed out quite a few decorations, probably more than enough to make that cavernous lobby festive looking. While Rarity sorted and stacked the lights, ornaments and bolts of cloth she was going to borrow, I went to Sweet Apple Acres to fetch Applejack and her cart. Applejack was too busy going through her pie tins, lining up her bags of flour and getting apples out of storage to pull a cart at the moment, so Big McIntosh came back with me instead. By the time we got to Town Hall, Rarity had built up quite a pile. She was especially enthusiastic about the sleigh bells she'd found and the shiny gold streamers. It all barely fit into the cart.

Pinkie caught up with us as Big McIntosh gingerly pulled Rarity's mountain of decorations toward the castle. Applejack is in charge of pies, the Cakes are baking pastries, there is going to be a big cauldron of hot cinnamon spiced apple juice for everypony, as well as candy canes and Chancellor Puddinghead plum pudding. Then Pinkie galloped off to round up the candy and start juicing apples.

We got to the castle and unloaded the cart, and while we were doing that Rarity recruited Big McIntosh to bring her a big fir tree and several small ones, as many as he could fit in the cart. She is going to set up a tree and make a lot of wreaths. So far she has wrapped ribbons around everything.

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Finishing Touches

Feb 24: Rarity and Fluttershy arrived early today and continued the task of stringing up the lights, putting up the tree, making half-wreaths to fit over the doorways, hanging more bows and draping swags of colorful fabrics from the ceiling. I transformed an alcove in the hall into a large hearth for the party. I then brought down firewood and a cauldron and set it up in the hearth so it would be ready for the hot apple juice tomorrow. There wasn't much I could do to help Rarity and Fluttershy except to make sure that they take breaks. Spike was keeping them supplied with tea and food. Rainbow Dash has gone to Cloudsdale to get some clouds packed with festive snowflakes for tomorrow.

I got a letter from Cadence and there were some details I knew would interest Fluttershy. So during lunch I read part of it to her. Ancient beasts thought to be extinct, pronghorns and mammoths, have been spotted wandering the snow-covered tundra outside the Crystal Empire. Cadence thinks Summer's Crystal Heart blasts may have attracted them from Celestia knows where, or even revived them from Winter's sleep. No pony has been able to approach them. The mammoths are terrifying to behold and the Y horned pronghorns run like the wind.

Rarity and Fluttershy had just finished decorating the entrance hall by lunch time, so after lunch Rarity headed to her boutique to make winter hats. She has the crazy idea that she wants to give out at least a dozen tuques to our guests. They will be able to keep those, unlike the sleigh bells which we will have to return to the Town Hall storage.

Spike and I decorated the sitting room as we do every Hearth's Warming, and we put our dolls up on the mantle. There's one for Starlight Glimmer, although she doesn't seem to be too enthusiastic about this tradition.

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Hearth's Warming Eve

Feb 25: Late this afternoon Spike and I opened presents. We don't wait until Hearth's Warming Day for that, unlike most ponies. I think my best gift for Spike was a book on How To Draw Comics The Mare Vale Way, by Stall Lead. Spike reads a lot of comics and with this book, now he can draw his own!

Starlight didn't want to participate in the gift exchange so it was just me and Spike opening gifts in the sitting room and eating Chancellor Puddinghead pudding. After sundown Spike and I went to the Hearth's Warming Pageant, again without Starlight. She preferred to stay home and study. After the pageant, Pinkie recruited everypony to form a parade through town. Everypony has had so much practice keeping the Hearth's Warming spell going, we made it part of the parade. Rainbow Dash and some Cloudsdale pegasi had parked some snow clouds over the parade route, and as the parade wound through the streets below, Dash bumped the clouds into action. And so, there were dozens of hearts glowing above a procession of happily singing ponies parading through the gently falling snow as they followed Pinkie through the streets. It was quality snow too, big fluffy stellar dendrites. And finally, there was the party in the castle foyer.

I tried to get Starlight to put down her studies for a while and come join us down in the lobby, but she didn't see the point of the whole Hearth's Warming exercise. She was turned off by what she took for a frivolous excuse to wallow in the exchange of material goods and eat sweets. She missed how sharing strengthens the bonds of friendship and how that helps strengthen community. I offered to read A Hearth's Warming Tail to her, a story in which the protagonist also rejects the waste and conspicuous consumption of Hearth's Warming and decides to magically excise the day from the calendar. If Starlight has a weakness, it's morality plays. Well, except for the Hearth's Warming pageant. In the end, the story opened her up to the concept that Hearth's Warming, by drawing ponies together in friendship, is essential to maintaining Equestria, and not just by keeping windigos away. As we experienced recently, Hearth's Warming on its own won't keep windigos away. Starlight did join the party after that, probably not from a fear of windigos, but for the spirit of friendship.

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Hearth's Warming Day

Feb 26: Hearth's Warming Day is over and between the caroling and house hopping today and the party in the castle last night, I think I'm all partied out. At least Starlight Glimmer joined us as Spike and I shared stories of fun and happy things that we experienced this year. We pulled up a bunch of cushions by the (temporary) hearth in the castle lobby and offered treats to ponies who came knocking. Although we had quite a bit left over from last night, it's all gone now. Starlight Glimmer had a few pleasant experiences to choose from for her contribution, like going to Manehattan with Trixie to see a Bridleway show. She drew the line at going caroling, so this afternoon when Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo dropped in to pick us up, we went into town without her. Tomorrow Rarity will be coming over help me and Spike take down and pack the lobby decorations. We have to return all the things we borrowed to Town Hall.

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Return To Lender

Feb 27: Taking down all those decorations, folding and stacking it all neatly and counting everything before packing it was a big job. Starlight Glimmer helped a lot, and Applejack came by with her cart in the afternoon to help us take it back to Town Hall. The wreaths and the tree are still in the lobby. I'll remove them tomorrow, along with the hearth.

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Winter Break

Feb 28: Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash where down at Saddle Lake again today, taking turns trying their hooves at speed skating. Spike and Fluttershy went to watch but I stayed home. After six days straight of decorating, celebrating and undecorating, I was overdue for a book break. I picked out a few scrolls and a pile of reference books and settled in the sitting room by the fire, some hot cocoa within easy reach. Starlight Glimmer came in to join me for a few hours with her own collection of scrolls. She needed to consult a few of the books I'd pulled from the library too. We had a nice, quiet winter's day.

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Author's Note

"Starmare"

I lost track of time in the uncommon old, poled, cold
My sleep restless I was certain I'd been rolled, sold, mold
Shut my door I had only myself to hold...
In bed

Then through my hallucinations I heard a profound, drowned, sound
Pounding on my door trying to bring me 'round, to, ground
I wasn't hiding and yet now, I had been found

(chorus:)
There's a star mare waiting in the sky
She'd like to come and meet us
But she thinks she'd be devined
There's a star mare waiting in the sky
She's told us not to throw it
'Cause she knows it's all worthwhile
She told me:
Let the ponies lose it
Let the ponies use it
Let all the ponies forget
(end chorus)

I had to tell somepony so I wrote to you, who, knew
While sipping on Zecora's reviving gnu, yew, brew
Look out the window she might be,
Watching you

She only comes down from the heights at night, right, bright
If we can sparkle she may alight tonight, al-right
Don't tell the others
You'll give them all a fright

-- repeat chorus x2 --

I tried to draw David Bowie as a pony once.

XXVII March

Spur Of The Moment

March 1: Spike and I went to the Bazaar today to shop for a few essentials. The kitchen larder was getting a little bare. We chanced on Fluttershy and Rarity at Golden Harvest's carrot stand and we trotted over to say hi and to buy some carrots too. Just as we got there Pinkie Pie appeared and we all got to chatting about food and how hungry we were during the worst of the Winter ordeal. Golden Harvest uttered a little impatient whinny about then (we were standing in the way of anypony else who may have wanted to buy carrots) so we quickly picked out the bunches of carrots we needed and after paying, moved a little to the side to chat some more.

My friends think we're overdue for a game night and a potluck supper and I agree. The Winter ordeal we went through has left all of us on the thin side and not only is a potluck supper fun, a feast sounds really good right now. I suggested we invite the Cakes too, especially after they helped make our Hearth's Warming Eve party a success. So Spike, Starlight and I have to come up with a few dishes for the night after next. Pinkie is taking care of alerting Rainbow Dash and Applejack and she's going to see if the Cakes can come too.

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Cakes For Supper

March 2: Pinkie dropped by to tell me that the Cakes said yes, but they'll be bringing the twins (Pinkie told them that would be fine). They'll be bringing their own toys, which is good to know. I don't think I have anything that could keep them entertained.

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Hot and Sour Silage Soup

March 3: This morning I went to the market with Spike and Starlight Glimmer. Starlight still isn't used to having so many friendly ponies wishing her well and waving hello, even though she did save all of us from a Changeling invasion. But before long we arrived at the food kiosks where we looked around at what was available and debated what dishes we could prepare for the pot luck. We picked up a few jars of second cut hay silage, some butter, rolled oats, fresh alfalfa sprouts, poppy seeds, dried lemon zest, dried spearmint, raisins, turnips, wide whole wheat noodles, alfalfa cubes, dried apple slices, sesame seed snaps, pickled beets, pine nuts, beet jam and hot sauce. We settled on making a hot and sour silage sour with whole wheat noodles and pine nuts, as well as a few loaves of lemon poppy seed bread, served with butter, beet jam and apple butter. Plus a grated turnip, alfalfa sprout and sunflower seeds salad. Since we're the hosts, we of course served plenty of third cut hay.

We bought all that and headed back to the castle. Spike cooked while Starlight and I moved furniture to the lobby, got out the games and brought down a few flakes of third cut hay. The Hearth's Warming decor has all been removed, including the tree and the wreaths. By the time that the two loaves of fresh bread were cool enough to slice, all our guests had arrived and were filling their bowls and plates from the assortment of dishes everypony had brought. The twins turned up their noses at the hot and sour soup but everpony else liked it. The bread went so well with the soup that I don't think anypony touched the beet jam.

We ate and played games. The foals ran around with Owlowiscious keeping a close eye on them until they grew cranky and tired. The Cakes left early with as much of the leftovers that we could get them to take. Eventually it got late and we called it a night. We left everything down in the lobby. We'll sort through the spoils and put away the games, dishes and cushions tomorrow.

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Leftovers

March 4: Everything has been put away from the potluck supper. We are going to be eating leftovers for a while, starting with the hot and sour hay silage soup. Heating the silage to make soup stopped the microbial action but it can still go bad quickly.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash wanted speed skates like Pinkie's so they went to the Crystal Empire today with Pinkie so she could show them where she had bought hers. I bet they're waiting for the sun to come up to gallop down to Saddle Lake tomorrow and break them in.

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Best Out Of Three

March 5: Sure enough, Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were down by the lake lacing their skates up right after breakfast. Pinkie had dropped in on the way to urge us to come watch, so around mid morning Spike, Starlight Glimmer and I joined Rarity and Fluttershy on our usual embankment overlooking the action. It's high up and well out of the way of crashing ponies. By the look of the snow stuck in their manes, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had had a few splashdowns in the snow already. We settled down on blankets spread out on the snow and got down to watching the three of them zip across the ice. Most everypony loves speed and these ponies were nearly flying on their blades of steel. Pinkie looked like a pro in the form-hugging jumpsuit Rarity had made for her. It's white with turquoise racing stripes and leggings that fade to golden yellow. Her mane was held flat to her head by the hood, for decreased wind resistance, but her tail poked out the end. The skaters we saw racing at the Winter festival had their tails either braided or trimmed short. Tails are important for maintaining balance and control during turns, although Dash was using her wings.

Pinkie skated up to right below us and announced that they were all warmed up and ready to race! We whinnied in approval. They marked out a line on the ice to serve as both start and finish. A tree limb sticking out of the ice at the far end of the lake marked the halfway point. Spike has good traction on ice so he went out, and on the count of three, started the race, Then he scampered back up to the safety of our embankment. On that first race, Applejack slipped and fell down hard on the way out, sliding a long ways on her side before she could scramble back up on her skates. Rainbow Dash went down in the turn and it looked like she had to dig her way out of a snowbank. Pinkie won that race. The next two races went about the same, and even though Pinkie fell in the third race, sliding upside down across the finish line, she won all three. She does have the advantage of being a practiced skater and her speed skates are broken in. Dash and Applejack's brand new skates are more than a little stiff. After the third race they called it a day and we went to Sugarcube Corner for victory hot chocolates, with extra marshmallows for Pinkie. On the walk back to town, it looked like both Dash and Applejack had pretty sore hooves from all that skating.

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Rest and Recovery

March 6: I had planned on taking down the gigantic Hearth's Warming ribbons and bows adorning the castle today, but Dash and Applejack are still sore from breaking in their speed skates and crashing repeatedly. We'll take them down tomorrow.

Suddenly, I want ice cream. Chocolate peppermint spice. In the middle of winter and in the middle of the night.

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Undressing The Castle

March 7: We may have been the last ponies in Ponyville to take down our Hearth's Warming decorations. Oh, there are several ice sculptures and a few snow ponies scattered about town, but the wreaths, festive lights and over-sized candy canes have been put away, except on the treecastle. Well, we didn't wait until spring, we got together and took it all down today.

Taking down those giant ribbons is easier than putting them up. They're pretty heavy but Dash and I managed to unfasten them and lift them one at a time off the building and then slowly lower them while Rarity rolled them back into bolts for storage. We may have to wash them as well next year. Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie took care of gathering the lights into big orderly loops, rounding up the star-shaped lamps and bringing the bolts and bows inside as we finished rolling and folding them. Spike showed them the way to the room where we store our Hearth's Warming decorations (the castle is a maze) and then went off to fix lunch. Starlight Glimmer kept an inventory of everything as it came in. We paused for lunch, then got back in the saddle, taking down the last of the lights and the big bow over the front door. By mid afternoon we had finished de-gift wrapping the castle. We collapsed on the mane balcony and Spike and Starlight brought us victory hot chocolates. Spring is only two weeks away. Applejack and Rainbow Dash trotted off to go speed skating while it was still light out.

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Should I Stay Or Should I Go

March 8: I know I said I was going to forego the In The Field dinners, but the next one is being given by A.K. Yearling. I missed the Daring Do fan fair last fall, and in a sense, Dash missed some of it as well. I wrote to see if there's room for me and a guest. It's probably sold out.

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Oil, Wax and Trim

March 9: I have royal duty tomorrow, starting bright and early when Celestia's Royal Flying Guard will pick me up to take me to Canterlot for the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs. I won't be wearing anything fancy, this isn't a ball or gala, it's strictly administrative and a ceremonial presence. During the proceedings, I'll just be wearing my crown. So today I went to the spa.

The Crystal Empire oil bath may leave a pony with a bit of excess oil but it really makes me feel, and look radiant. Thus, I had that, plus a hooficure, feather waxing (no glitter) and a heat soak in the sauna. Not in that order, the sauna came first and the oil bath came last. After the strigil combing, I asked them to try and soak a bit more of the oil out of my fur with towels as I don't want to leave a pony-shaped oil-print in Princess Celestia's chariot tomorrow. Right now I'm again wrapped in towels, just to wick a bit more of the oil out. Otherwise, the oil bath is so worth it.

I told Rainbow Dash about the In The Field dinner and she's pretty excited, even though I haven't heard back from the Explorer's Society yet. I told Rarity that I didn't want to get quite so dressed up this time. I hope she's not too disappointed.

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Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs

March 10: Royal duty called me out of bed a few hours before sunrise today. I would like to say that my silky smooth coat of shiny and perfumed fur made slipping out of bed easier, but that would be untrue. It did make brushing easier. It was so early that Starlight Glimmer was just on her way to bed when I met her in the hall on my way to the kitchen for something to snack on. By twilight I was the only pony awake in the castle. I collected my crown and packed it with the last two issues of the Canterlot Explorer's Society quarterly journal into my saddlebag. I didn't expect to have time to read, but just in case I did, it felt good to be prepared. In the lobby I put on a scarf and my deep red winter cloak with the sparkling dragon-cut gems in the hem. As I stepped out into the predawn light, two pegasi pulling Celestia's chariot landed right in front of me. The sun rose.

I had breakfast with the princesses and I had a refresher on today's protocol (no changes had been made), then it was off to the Grand Hall. There, Luna gave the speech from the throne and then each municipality gave their report. Since all the talking was done by chairpony Flax Bit, the Royal Committee on Equestrian Finance and Civic Affairs and the municipal representatives, I had lots of time to practice on remaining focused. But not on my breathing. Practicing breathing exercises while being ceremonially addressed by municipally appointed representatives is right out. So is napping.

Lunch break was a relief. My left haunch had gone to sleep and I resisted the temptation to stretch until we had been escorted out of the hall. I requested a thicker cushion for the afternoon session.

By supper time the accumulated written reports submitted by each representative after their oral reports were in three tall piles on the table in front of the Royal Committee. I fantasized sorting the reports and using a rainbow array of colored stickers to cross reference common trends.

The last representative submitted her report just before sunset. We retired and while the committee deliberated, Princess Celestia lowered the sun and Princess Luna raised the moon. I remembered what a shaky job of that I'd done during the Tirek affair. Soon we were back in the Grand Hall to receive the closing remarks and to sign and seal the register. Ceremonial duty, check.

Luna's winged guard whisked me home in Luna's chariot, away from Canterlot and the chatter of small talk in the palace garden and ballroom. Home to quiet Ponyville and to my front door, to my closest friends and to the company of my books.

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Dressing Up Without The Dress

March 11: I received a reply from the Canterlot Explorer's Society and yes, there is room for me and a guest at the next In The Field dinner. I sent a mailed confirmation to the Society and went to tell Rainbow Dash. She was pretty excited, which helped perk up my enthusiasm as well. Happiness is infectious between friends. She plans on wearing her Wonderbolts dress jacket, without the goggles.

Winter Wrap Up is galloping up fast. I tried on my all-team-organizer vest and sure enough, it was a bit tight. I took it to Rarity to see if I could get it adjusted. She wanted to know what I planned on wearing to the dinner. I told her that I didn't want to get dressed up again. Well, maybe just a little dressed up, but I really don't want to be known as the Princess Who Always Dresses in Style. In the end, I'll be wearing a shear high collar button-down dinner jacket and matching turtleneck from Rarity's winter collection, the string of stars choker necklace that Rarity gave me, and my blue and burgundy crushed velvet cloak. No boots, no dress.

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The Last Snowfall

March 12: Cloudsdale sent us a fresh blanket of snow this morning. It's true that it had been a while since the last snowfall and Fluttershy pointed out that the mice need the snow to be thick enough to keep their subnivean playground from getting exposed to the colder surface air, but Winter Wrap Up is just a week away. Even though it seems strange to get fresh snow this late, it's about this time every year that Cloudsdale gets down to clearing out their snow flake bins. Rainbow Dash says that Ponyville was near the end of Cloudsdale's route this time around, but we're not the last. The snowflakes they left us are mostly a jumble of bits and pieces. They don't glitter much, but for Dash and Pinkie, they spell one last chance to go sledding in fresh powder before spring. So after lunch, Spike and I got out our gear and plowed our way through the white stuff to join our friends for a few hours of wild rides down the sledding hill.

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Stitching It Together

March 13: I went to pick up my all-team-organizer vest at the Carousel Boutique and found Rarity surrounded by anxious ponies carrying Winter Wrap Up team vests that need mending. There were more vests awaiting repair next to her, piled withers high, pinned, identified and awaiting repair. The finished vests were on a rack in the back. I waited my turn. After Rarity came back with my altered vest, I asked her if she needed anything for her bird's nests. She said that she has all the ribbons she needs, but I could check with the Plant Team to see that they had collected enough sticks, graded by size and ready for delivery. So I put my folded up vest into my saddle bag and trotted off to see Applejack.

I found Applejack and Big McIntosh lining up snow plows for inspection and repair. I told her that I was here on Rarity's behalf to see if her order of nest sticks was ready. Applejack brought me round to the storage area of her barn and pointed to 8 bales of straw and a giant, graded and neatly stacked tower of nest-sized sticks. Fresh, green and flexible, enough for several hundred nests. I started my checklist. Nest-making supplies, check. Inspection of snow plows, check. I added an item -- consult last year's checklist for items to add to my Pre-Winter Wrap Up checklist. I will need that when I make the rounds with the team leaders in a few days.

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Grooming

March 14: Tomorrow's posh In The Field dinner called for another trip to the spa. I may have had a Crystal Empire oil bath quite recently, but my winter coat is looking a little ragged and in need of a little spa pony magic. I didn't have another oil bath this time, I don't want oil on my fancy clothes. But I did get my feathers waxed, with a touch of glitter. Speaking of clothes, I've carefully packed my new dinner jacket and turtleneck, as well as my necklace and cloak for the train ride. This whole posh aspect to the evening has me worrying that I'll somehow ruin my clothes and have nothing to wear. I'll get dressed in Canterlot. I've also packed my copy of Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone. I hope to get it signed by A.K. Yearling.

Rainbow Dash and I are going to catch the midday train to Canterlot tomorrow. We'll arrive in plenty of time to get changed at my old place and go to the dinner. Then we'll stay the night in Canterlot and return the next day. When I get back I'll check with Mayor Mare to make sure everything is on track for Winter Wrap Up and go through my checklists again.

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(It's a wonder Twilight doesn't come home to find lost ponies wandering the halls.)

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Back In The Saddle

March 16: We're back from Canterlot. I liked the talk. A.K. Yearling recounted how three villages live in the warm shadow of an active volcano and cooperate through the use of magical artifacts to keep the volcano from blowing its top. Of course I've read the book, but that was written as a mystery to be solved, whereas last night it was more like a Friendship lesson. I think Dash was bored, but she perked up when A.K. Yearling joined us at the VIP table. We got to talking about the Idol of Boreas of Griffonstone, our trek through the eternal night of the frozen North to rescue Moondancer and Lemon Hearts, and Professor Quest's Epona discovery. Yearling wouldn't say much of Daring Do's new standing as a member of the Magical Counsel of the Ancients and her quest to find all twenty-two Enchanted Artifacts of the Ancients. We'll have to wait for the book. And I got my copy of Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone signed!

I spoke with Mayor Mare today. The team leaders are busy getting prepared, making sure every pony knows what their jobs will be. Dash has wasted no time rounding up her pegasi and handing out assignments. And a compass for Ditsy Do. Ditsy is good with birds, not so good with directions.

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Champing At The Bit

March 17: Lots of ponies are keeping Rarity busy mending their team vests. We all tend to want to do the same things at the same time. I'm glad I got in early.

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Before The Starting Gate

March 18: Winter Wrap is tomorrow! Everypony in Ponyville is going to be up with the dawn and ready to change the season. Good bye winter, hello spring! In my role as All-Team-Organizer I made a final round with Mayor Mare, checking in with all three team leaders and making sure we have everything we need. Everything checks out, we are as ready as we'll ever be. Rarity even finished mending all the vests and took a well deserved break at the spa. I'd better get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and then some.

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(Winter Wrap Up, too busy planting crops to write.)

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That's A Wrap

March 20: Winter Wrap Up is a big job. It's like we held on to winter until the last possible moment and then ran around in circles trying to meet the spring deadline. Maybe I should propose that next year we start a few days earlier.

Everything went as planned. Mayor Mare got us hot to trot with her Winter Wrap Up speech, the team leaders made sure eveypony knew their assignments and waited for their cues, and everypony got to work. Snow was knocked out of the trees and shoveled away, teams of ponies cleared, plowed and planted the fields, the skies cleared, the lake ice was scored and the animals awakened. I checked items off my list as tasks were completed and made sure nopony skipped the signals. Tank dug his way out of his hibernation burrow into the bright sunshine and rested, blinking, by a big basket of food Dash had prepared.

The animal team finished rousing all the hibernating critters and with the help of pegasi, installed Rarity's bird's nests in the trees. By nightfall, everypony was in the fields, planting and watering and keeping everypony fed. We were still at it at sunrise. By late morning the southern birds arrived and Mayor Mare declared winter wrapped up. Overnight, we'd gone from the silent snows and whistling winds of winter to the buzzing and warbling of spring. Then we all went home to rest.

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Spring Has Sprung

March 21: I woke up late this morning to the smell of warm damp earth and fresh green growth. I went out on my balcony into bright sunshine, to blue skies and the battle cries of song birds. It really is spring. And since it's the first full day of spring, Pinkie fired her cannons and threw Ponyville a party. It was probably the bangs that woke me up.

I went downstairs and into town to join the fun. The early ponies were just finishing helping Pinkie hang up the banners. Of course there were balloons and confetti everywhere, and cake. Punch, cookies and lots of cake. Pinkie brought out piñatas and party games and Rarity rounded up the Ponytones for a sing-a-long concert.

In the afternoon the foals amused us with a six-legged race and a steeplechase event. After dark, my friends and I stood together to watch the final event of the Spring Has Sprung party -- fireworks, blooming like brilliant flowers overhead. Soon the ground will reply with a carpet of flowers of its own.

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Spring Harvest

March 22: Another sure sign that it really is spring -- I'm shedding again. I'm so itchy, and every time I scratch I get a hoof full of loose winter hair. If only there was a winter wrap up for winter coats. Or maybe not. I can imagine now hordes of mice and small birds singing spring songs1 while tugging out my hair and leaving me bald. No, it's better this way. Nice and slow so my summer coat has time to grow in. I'm still itchy.

Since there's no escaping the molt, I went to see if Rarity wanted to try her hoof at felt dolls again. She said they sell well, and since she has some felting competition in Canterlot, all the more reason to make more. She has time since during the spring molt she closes down the Boutique. Otherwise, unsightly molted hair gets on everything. So today I went to the spa with Fluttershy and Rarity. I washed off the Winter Wrap Up grime and I'm feeling quite fluffy. No oils or perfumes this time. Tomorrow Fluttershy and I are going over to the Carousel Boutique where Rarity is going to give us a good brushing. It's the new spring harvest!

1 The Equine Haircut song! It would go like this:

Mice: Three months of subnivean parties
Birds: And southern getaways!
Mice: We kept out of the storms and cold
Birds: In the tropics we stayed
Mice: But our earthen burrows are getting bare
Birds: And our nests let in the cold
Mice: Although the spring has warmed the roots
Birds: It's time to be bold...

Equine haircut, equine haircut!
Yank out tufts by the roots!
Equine haircut, equine haircut!
Watch out for those stamping boots, watch out for the stomping boots.

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That's What I Shed

March 23: There are lilac colored hair bunnies lurking under the furniture and wispy fine hairs floating in the sunbeams in the castle. Even though I'm getting harvested every day by Rarity, it doesn't seem to put a dent into how much hair I leave everywhere. My favorite reading cushion in the library looks like it needs to be sheared. Starlight Glimmer isn't exempt from this rite of spring, there are halos of light pink-purple everywhere she has stopped to scratch. We're keeping Spike very busy.

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Shedding To The Scoldies

March 24: Rarity had us stand in her kitchen to get brushed, well away from where her garments and workshop await the end of the spring molt. She scolded us for being sweaty, oily ponies, as if we could just shut off our sebaceous glands. I noticed that the kitchen was immaculately clean and that Rarity was wearing a full body shawl. She also swept up every last fallen hair with a feather duster between brushing Fluttershy and proceeding to harvest me. Collecting hair is serious business.

While we were shedding for the cause, we had an idea. At this time of year, the spa ponies insist that everypony gets well brushed before using the mud, oil bath or hot tub. That means Rarity could pick up a lot of fine molted insulating hairs of every color for her felting project. Rarity said she would go inquire. And she said that it could help if we bathed more often.

My feathers are starting to drop too. That means I'll have a fresh supply of quills that match my coat!

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Sheds Who?

March 25: This itchiness is getting very distracting. I can't wait for spring molt to end. I want to go wallowing in some soothing mud, but Rarity needs me to stay clean. After Rarity's harvest, I went to the spa to swelter in the sauna, get a full body shampoo and then soak in the hot tub. I had a nice break from the itchiness while I was at the spa, but now my skin is dry, my ratty coat is all poofy and I'm still itchy. I have blood feathers growing in too. I have to be extra careful not to bump my wings into anything.

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Spring Is In The Hair

March 26: After getting brushed some more by Rarity in her clean room, also known as her kitchen, I collected a picnic blanket and a few books and I went out to get some sun in the eastern meadow. I found a quiet spot, far from where a small herd of foals were frolicking and rolling in the dust. They have spring molt off from school. Teaching class is not easy when everypony, including the teacher, is scratching all the time and leaving floating wisps of hair everywhere. The birds are having a field day chasing down the eddies of hair clinging to fences and bushes and using our winter coats to line their nests.

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Stay Out Of The Shed

March 27: Rarity has a room off the kitchen where she has collected quite a few bags of hair now, many of which she got from the spa. They're graded by color and they're mostly ready for felting. She calls the room "her shed". Ha ha, I think that was a pun. Fluttershy and I were allowed to peer in through the doorway but Rarity wouldn't allow us to go in. Soon as this molt ends, classes resume, Rarity's boutique opens and Dash heads off for spring training with the Wonderbolts. It has been ages since the Tree has sent any of us on a mission. I imagine that if the Map Table did activate this week, it would have something to do with ponies having a messy mane day. I guess that would call for Rarity and Fluttershy.

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Looking Back

March 28: Starlight Glimmer has been my student for an entire year now. While her path has been bumpy at times, like when she tried to compel her way through her friendship studies... that happened at least twice. She got past that and she has kindled some strong friendships. She has also combined forces with her friends to solve problems she would not have been able overcome on her own.

Friendship has given her the confidence to accept her village's welcome. Through her rekindled friendship with Sunburst, she helped heal the Crystal Heart, and by working with Trixie and her new friends Thorax and Discord, she showed the changelings a new path and saved Equestria. I think she has mastered friendship, as far as anypony can do so. Friendship also needs to be nurtured and that's a lifelong task, one that doesn't require a mentor or a guide. It just requires true friends, which Starlight now has.

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Into Thin Hair

March 29: The molt is winding down and about half of my new feathers have grown in. My wings still feel pretty tender. Fortunately the nights have been mild and I've not really needed blankets, so the sensitive blood feathers haven't been chaffing and waking me up as they do when I cover them. So while I'm still shedding, I'm just not shedding as fast. It's mostly the long guard hairs that are dropping now. That's not as useful for Rarity's felting project. At the same time, some of my summer coat has begun to grow in. Between that and the patchy leftovers of my winter coat, I'm still looking ratty.

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Felting

March 30: Rarity has started felting, most of the molted insulating hair that she has recovered from us and from the spa has been picked through and cleaned. She also needs mane hair, for the manes and tails. That's taking longer to collect.

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Edible Green

March 31: The pastures around Ponyville have that lovely light spring green color now, and there are long rows of green sprouting in the plowed fields as well. Some of that green is back on the menu. For lunch we had dandelion greens, trout lilies and early timothy grass shoots mixed into our hay. Delicious!

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Author's Note

The March 15 In The Field dinner (Canterlot Explorer's Society): Taming The Volcano. A.K. Yearling recounts how three villages live in the warm shadow of an active volcano and cooperate through the use of magical artifacts to keep the volcano from blowing its top. See http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Daring_Do_and_the_Marked_Thief_of_Marapore

After I hit "publish" last chapter and my word count climbed to 200,024, there were 1,559 stories longer than this behemoth. You are crazy people. That works out to 311,837,416 words, and much more than that. There are 14 of those that weigh in at over 2 million words each, if you include "mature" fics. 52 stories one million words or longer. Let's say it takes 400,000 words to fill one thousand pages. That would mean that those 1,559 fics would fill at least 780 thousand pages. Like, as thick as 550 copies of Fallout: Equestria. But much thicker since the last 1% are ten times longer than the first 1%. Soooo, with an average length somewhere around 300,000 for those 1,559 stories, add half again as many pages. Say a total of 800 copies of Fallout: Equestria. About 3,600 pounds of book. 1.6 metric tonnes. Right. And there you have it. The solution to Climate Change. Carbon sequestration in printed MLP fan fiction. Book forts for every pony. Genius.

XXVIII April

Fresh

April 1: On my morning stroll I saw a pony trot by with a full basket of spring flowers, jams, bread and treats. It's Spring Foal's Day, so maybe she was on her way to give them to a friend who's expecting. I don't know any expectant mares this year.

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A Tale Of Two Climates

April 2: It was about time I visited Zecora. In Ponyville spring is in full swing, but you don't know what to expect in the Everfree Forest. I packed two cloaks, a white one and grey one, just in case. Then I went to the market to find something fresh to take to Zecora. Everything green is still in short supply. I found some alfalfa sprouts, some fresh cut timothy grass greens and some dandelion greens. That was a bit disappointing so I bought a lemon poppy seed bread, some apple butter and four different cupcakes. Then I made my way to the Everfree Forest.

Sure enough, it looks like it snowed recently in the forest. I stepped out of the bright sunshine and warm spring smells of the Ponyville meadow and into the gloomy moldering smell of the Everfree. I put on the white cloak, but I left it open. The air was warm and even with most of my winter coat molted, I felt hot in the cloak. The heat was causing the snow to sublime in higher elevations in the forest and a temperature inversion was driving that moisture laden air down to where I was walking, making fog. The clouds of the Everfree move on their own. I don't think I'll ever get used to that.

With the fog on my path, I could only see a little ways in any direction. That was not at all reassuring. The forest was so quiet, like a deathly silence broken only by the snow crunching under my hooves. I tried to walk stealthily. I felt like some dire creature would surely hear me coming long before I could see them. At least my white cloak made me harder to see in the fog.

Eventually I found Zecora's house, and to my relief, she was home. Zecora is already looking all shiny and new in her summer coat. She never gets as fluffy as us ponies in the winter, but she does grow a winter undercoat. I told her about Rarity's felting project and my doubts at being useful in advancing Starlight Glimmer's studies any further. Zecora is a good listener.

I headed back home a few hours later. The fog had dissipated and it even looked like the sun might peek through the gloom. I think I could hear the chirp of an early spring peeker. They usually chirp at night. They're mostly harmless creatures with big eyes. Back in Ponyville at last, I took off my camouflage cloak. I wonder if Rarity could make Zecora a Hearth's Warming doll? I think I'll ask her, before she runs out of raw material.

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Coat Changeover

April 3: The winter shed is over! To celebrate, Rarity reserved a time slot for the seven of us at the spa. First off, before entering the spa proper, we were vigorously brushed to get the last of the old coat out of our hair. The spa ponies are relieved the molt is over. It's always a chore to try and keep everything, the sauna, the mud baths, the hot tub especially, clear of molted hair. It doesn't help that the spa is especially popular during the itchy winter molt period.

After getting brushed and declared fit to proceed, we went into the sauna to sweat and chat. Rarity has completed two dozen felted pony dolls already. She's mailed ten to Manehattan, ten to Canterlot, and she has four on display in her Ponyville boutique. I asked her if she could make a felted Hearth's Warming doll for Zecora. She said that pony hair in black or white is hard to find, especially black pony hair, but that can be fixed with a little dye. Fluttershy is keen to go to the Biome Management Conference next week with Amethyst Star. The excursion for this year's conference is to see cloud hopper colonies by balloon. Now that everypegasus's wing feathers have grown in, Rainbow Dash will be heading off to Spring Training with the Wonderbolts bright and early tomorrow. Starlight Glimmer is considering visiting Sunburst for a few days to discuss some advanced magic spells.

After the sauna, we split up into smaller groups. Rarity hit the mud, Dash went for an aromatic oil massage and feather waxing, I soaked in the hot tub with Pinkie and Applejack, and Fluttershy and Starlight tried the seaweed wrap. We met in the lobby and stepped out together into bright sunshine. We concluded our coat changeover celebration by going to Sugar Cube Corner for fresh baked cookies.

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Fashion Felt

April 4: Rarity's Carousel Boutique was open for business once again so I dropped in to see her felted pony dolls. She's gone all out this year. There were only four on display, but they were intricately coiffed and wearing miniature versions of Rarity's fashion dresses, right down to the gemstones. They were also quite expensive. Rarity heard me come in. She told me that she plans on making more dolls than last year, but that it's going to take a lot longer since each one is going to have a tailor-made dress. There also the fact that now that the spring molt is over, she can't spend all day on making felt ponies. Right then she was working on the tricky problem of felting black and white pony hair together into zebra stripes while trying to get something that looks like Zecora's coat pattern. For that, she's borrowed Pinkie's Surprise Picnic Party Scrapbook, it has a few pictures of Zecora in it from when she was at the surprise party we sprang on Pinkie. The Zecora felt figure won't be wearing a dress, it is to be strictly a Hearth's Warming doll.

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Sorting Books

April 5: Starlight Glimmer left this afternoon for the Crystal Empire just before we got a light spring rain. She's off to spend a few days discussing magic synergy with Sunburst. Spike and I have the castle to ourselves. Time to do some reshelving!

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Mares Of The World

April 6: Fluttershy and Amethyst Star have finished writing and tabulating their part in the pan-Equestria hibernation and migration survey for the annual Biome Management Conference in Baltimare. As usual, Fluttershy is torn between the thrill of being with so many ponies that share her gift with animals and the horror of being lost in such a huge noisy crowd of so many ponies.

Rarity is out of town for a few days to trot the fashion districts of Canterlot and Manehattan to see what's hot and what's not.

I've sorted stacks Fantastic Critters through Principles of Dendrology. I should lend that last one to Fluttershy.

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Z is for Zephyrs: The Art and Ergonomics of Breeze Management

April 7: I've finished sorting all the books in my personal library. Twenty thousand is a lot of books to sort. I pulled quite a few books while I was at it and now I have a table full of books to read.

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Spike The Multi Talented

April 8: Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are leaving tomorrow afternoon for the annual Biome Management Conference in Baltimare. It's a full two day conference with registration starting the night before and activities bright and early on the first day. They don't want to miss the morning talks.

Fluttershy has recruited Spike to take care of her menagerie while she's away. Today Spike was at Fluttershy's cottage getting up to speed on all the things he will have to do. That will include Dash's tortoise, Tank, but just for a short while. Rainbow Dash is due to return from Wonderbolts Spring Training in a couple of days.

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Dream Castle

April 9: Starlight Glimmer got back this evening from researching spell synergies with Sunburst. She seemed to be pretty tired. She pretty much knocked on my reading room door, announced that she was back, and went to her room. A while later, Spike got back from Fluttershy's cottage. He said that her critters are demanding. He's managing, but he's not staying with them overnight. Spike needs his sleep. So everypony is sleeping, except Owlowiscious. I bet Starlight Glimmer will tell me what she and Sunburst cooked up tomorrow.

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Friendship Task At Last!

April 10: I have to rush off for a bit! The Map Table activated and I have been summoned to the Wonderbolt Academy training field, along with Rainbow Dash. Dash has gone to drop off her saddle bags, get a bite of lunch and drop in at Fluttershy's cottage to make sure Spike has all he needs to take care of Tank while she's gone. I'm leaving the castle in the care of Starlight Glimmer and Spike while I'm away. Dash should be back at any moment now.

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April 11 to 13: No posts. Come on Twily, let's go flying! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

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Team Work

April 14: I'm back from the Wonderbolt Academy. It took all week but we found the Friendship task and solved it. It was pretty tricky, it involved two ponies; we were juggling a fragile inflated ego on one hoof, and a delicate underdeveloped ego on the other. It was like we were surgically separating two conjoined ponies and then putting them back together again as a team. It was perhaps made easier in that they didn't fully realize that they were conjoined. That gave us the chance to work on them as individuals before teaching them to work as a pair.

I came back to find Spike looking very tired and to find that Sunset Shimmer had mirror-hopped over from the Canterlot High world. She had just about run out of pages in the communication journal Princess Celestia had given her and I had written her to tell her I had a new one for her. So she dropped into the library room while Starlight Glimmer was there and the two of them hit it off. Starlight Glimmer followed Sunset Shimmer back to the Canterlot High 'verse, probably to see this place for herself, or perhaps she's curious about the rapid increase in magical incidents that have been occurring in this magic-free pocket universe. I see Sunset left me another vague message about that. Well, I hope she has fun! Another successful friendship for Starlight!

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Pink Hearts of Courage

April 15: While I was off at Wonderbolt Academy, Rarity finished Zecora's doll and the Advisory Council of Equestria has decided to award the Equestrian Pink Heart of Courage to Starlight, Trixie, Thorax and Discord, in light of their outstanding achievement and distinguished service to Equestria in their rescue of our Princesses from the clutches of Queen Chrysalis. This morning I received a scroll from Princess Celestia and she would like the ceremony to take place at the Friendship Castle. This is a great honor! I wrote back to Celestia to confirm and to see when she and Princess Luna would be available, and I got down to writing letters to Thorax, Trixie, Discord, Mayor Mare, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor to see when would be the best date for everypony. I proposed a date at least six days from now to give everypony time to get ready and to give Starlight Glimmer time to get back from visiting the Canterlot High world. I also tasked Fluttershy with contacting Discord, just in case the mail pony has difficulty delivering Discord's mail. I'll get Pinkie to coordinate with Starlight with sending out invitations, just as soon as she gets back and we can establish a date. Even with the relative difference in time flow between here and Star Swirl's mirror-verse, I don't expect it to be much longer.

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Against The Clock

April 16: Princess Celestia wrote back to say that the day I chose will be fine for her and Princess Luna. I'm still waiting for Starlight Glimmer to get back. I'm also waiting for letters back from the Crystal Empire and Thorax. They aren't equipped with dragon-breath post! I did send them by pony-express post. Mayor Mare says she will clear time for the ceremony and if need be, she can reschedule. It's five days now. I hope that will give everypony time to make arrangements to come. There are so many unknowns to try and factor in. Somepony could be too sick to come, or the zap apples could ripen the day of the ceremony, or there could be a Wonderbolt emergency calling Dash away.

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Off To The Races

April 17: Lots of mail today, most of it RSVP's for the ceremony. Fluttershy confirmed for Discord, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor will be there, I got a yes from Thorax and this afternoon Trixie replied in person. I offered her a room in the castle, but she still prefers her wagon. Thorax's letter was written on a scroll of rough, grayish paper with faint, random zigzags running through it. Curious.

Starlight got back late last night, and now with the date fixed, Pinkie and Starlight have been sending out invitations left and right! I hope everypony fits into the hall I have planned. Pinkie is in charge of the party and decorations. I think I should get Starlight a surprise gift for the occasion.

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Call Of The Wild

April 18: Applejack popped in this morning to tell me that timber wolves were heard howling before the dawn in the wood out by the Apple family farm. Ergo, zap apple season has begun. Applejack says not to worry, she'll find time to come to the award ceremony and party. Then she went back to help set up the heavy wooden tubs they'll be using in the mad rush to harvest the zap apples. That will happen in five days. On the day of the ceremony the zap apple trees will be in bloom. At that point, they will only be requiring water, which Apple Bloom and Big McIntosh should be able to handle while Applejack attends the ceremony.

I am stumped as to what to get Starlight Glimmer... a book about friendship? A monogrammed hairbrush? A Hearth's Warming doll?

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Friendship Mirror

April 19: I have an idea for a gift! Instead of a book that she's already read, or a Hearth's Warming doll that might just remind her of the frivolous aspect of Hearth's Warming, I'm going to get her something useful! That isn't a book. I'll get her a mirror like the one I have over the bookcase by the window in my room. It's great, I stuck several pictures of my friends in the gap where the mirror meets the frame on mine, and I'll do the same for hers. That way she'll be reminded of her friendships each time she looks in the mirror! It's perfect! There's a store in Ponyville with several sizes in stock. I picked one out, but I just have to check that it will fit above her dresser. Somehow I'll have to get into her room to measure that space while she's out. Pinkie gave me several pictures I can use and the store is open early tomorrow. I just need that measure.

I have received an impressive pile of letters from ponies confirming that they will be here tomorrow for the ceremony. Pinkie snapped them up and galloped off with them. She has folder for everypony in her party planner room. I guess she going to file them each away and plan the ceremony party in light of who and how many ponies are coming. I suspect that there will be ponies that will get here before their reply RSVP's get through the mail system.

Spike let me know that the zap apple trees now have leaves.

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A New Chapter

April 20: The award ceremony was this afternoon. After all the guests arrived, I gave a short speech outlining the amazing achievement of these four, of how they saved Equestria, freed the Princesses, and opened the Changelings to a world of new possibilities, all while becoming fast friends. Then Princess Celestia and Princess Luna bestowed on each an Equestrian Pink Heart of Courage, which is a medal of honor that is suspended from a ribbon and worn like a necklace. Then there was a reception and party where all the invitees could mingle.

During the reception, Discord pestered me as he often does, with a dilemma. The dilemma being, what lies ahead for Starlight Glimmer. I was going to continue with her lessons (Friendship is such a broad topic, we could go on for years!) but Discord is right, Starlight has proven that she no longer needs to be led to water. Of course Discord, just to make me sweat like a horse, suggested I come up with a "master plan" for Starlight that would somehow snowball into launching her into some impressive career or other. As if I had Celestia-level Pinkie sense. I don't. But, eventually, Starlight Glimmer needs to find her own way, and the way that she and her friends rescued us from Queen Chrysalis' clutches demonstrates that she's able. So, I got the attention of the assembled guests at the reception and I declared her graduated.

I was resigned to the fact that Starlight Glimmer would leave. There are so many great libraries to visit, interesting places to go to in Equestria, other things to do than stay in a mostly empty castle in a small town. But to my surprise, Starlight has decided she wants to stay here!

I gave her the mirror to put over her dresser. I'm so happy that she's staying.

Trixie is also staying here for a while. Starlight tells me that Trixie wants to learn magic. I would have thought that Trixie's specialty was magic, so I'm surprised that she needs help. But, what are friends for, if it isn't to help each other? It will be interesting to watch this develop.

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Down Pour

April 21: At sundown I was on my balcony, my Double Bridle night and day refractor telescope pointed out to the sky above Sweet Apple Acres, fresh quills, scrolls and ink on a table at my side. A fresh pot of Zecora's chocolate peppermint tea too. It's day four of the zap apple season and I was not going to miss the shooting stars!

Earlier today I picked up the Hearth's Warming doll that Rarity had made for Zecora, packed it along with some fur-leaf tea Starlight Glimmer had bought for me last time she was in the Crystal Empire, and trotted off into the Everfree Forest. There I ran right into a downpour.

About this time last year I stumbled into one of the Everfree's psychotropic spring rains, a light drizzle that had me feeling a little too carefree for my own good in an environment teeming with dangers. This time the rain did not give me euphoria. Instead, this downpour was a real downer. I was soon berating myself for not bringing an umbrella (into a forest!), then I became sad that my mane was wet and droopy, I was sure that the puddles were ruining my hooves and I was going to end up lame. What a terrible excuse of an academic. I slowed down to sulk, but there were spring peekers everywhere. Watching me, judging me, making comments on my worth in their bell-like chirps. That drove me forward until I fairly stumbled into Zecora cottage. I nearly turned tail but before I could bolt, Zecora opened her door and called me in. She parked me in front of the hearth where I stood like a sad wet mop, staring at the flames and dripping. Eventually Zecora got me to drink something hot and zingy and my mind crawled back to the land of the living. Then I noticed the lingering stench of skunk cabbage.

So I didn't stay long. Over some more of that hot sharp tea, I shared some Ponyville gossip and news with Zecora. I gave her the fur-leaf tea and the doll, both kept perfectly dry by my saddle bags. Zecora put the miniature Zecora doll up on a shelf to watch over her, a little bit of pony culture to keep her company. Then, chewing on peppermint sticks to ward off whatever mood the Everfree weather might throw at me, I left Zecora and walked back home through the rising mists and the occasional chirp of a spring peeker.

In the dusk that followed Princess Celestia's sun to bed, the shooting stars streaked over Sweet Apple Acres. Right on schedule.

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Manehattan Project

April 22: I walked over to Sweet Apple Acres to see the zap apples. They won't be ripe for at least two days. Right now they're grey and not very appealing.

I'd read about a fun activity to do with friends in Manehatten that I think we'd all enjoy, so I proposed this Manehattan getaway to Applejack, as something fun to do before the summer arrives and everypony gets really busy. She said she'd be all for it after zap apple season. Then I went around to see how my other friends felt about a friendship retreat trip and everypony is keen to go! So I've written to reserve a spot for the six of us in five days.

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Careful Harvest

April 23: It was zap apple harvest day! After an early breakfast, I was joined by Spike and Starlight Glimmer on the balcony to watch the morning sky above Sweet Apple Acres. We got there in time to see a thunderstorm collect above the trees all by itself, dissipate and leave a brilliant rainbow that reflected down on the zap apple trees. That was the zap apple ripening chain-reaction. I love chain reactions! Time to lend the Apple family a hoof.

When the three of us arrived, Applejack, Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom were hard at work. Spike teamed up with Apple Bloom and made a short apple-tossing brigade from the pickers to the apple tubs. I picked apples from the higher branches while the others concentrated on the fruit they could reach. I'm still getting better at flying, but it's hard not to brush up against the branches. I got a few shocks. So did Starlight Glimmer. Only Spike was spared.

Picking apples by hoof is slow and tiring, and after one too many jolts, my muscles were getting twitchy. By lunch time Pinkie and Fluttershy had arrived and Spike was still going strong. Starlight Glimmer and I were ready to call it quits, so we bid good luck to the relief team, picked up a small basket of two dozen zap apples for later and left Spike to continue on until he was ready to leave. We went home to get some rest. I skipped lunch and I took a long nap.

I was pretty tired, I was up half the night watching the meteors racing across the starry skies last night, right up until the wee hours. My twitching wings woke me up mid afternoon, so I went down to the kitchen. Spike was back so we ate together and shared a zap apple for dessert. He said the harvest was going well and that Rainbow Dash and Rarity arrived shortly after we left, but Rarity didn't last long. Picking apples off of electric trees isn't really her forte.

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Creature Comforts

April 24: I woke up sore and tired this morning. Between the star gazing at all hours and those brushes against the zap apple trees that sent me careening wildly to the ground, I think I over did it. That afternoon nap yesterday was not enough. So I went back to sleep for a few hours. When I finally got up, I was still sore and feeling a bit weak from not eating breakfast on time. A plain breakfast of first cut hay and beet pulp soup helped stoke my metabolic fires but I was still sore. For that, a massage usually helps. I collected Spike and Starlight Glimmer, who brought Trixie, and the four of us walked into the spa. I got a deep tissue massage, a long fragrant soak in the hot tub and finally a good brushing and spritzing with peppermint and lavender. I felt so mellow after that. Or as Spike called it, mellow smellow. Spike the beat poet. He beat it before I could beat him.

I found Spike waiting for me in the spa lobby. He was looking content and I could feel him radiating heat from a good ways away. He'd curled up on the hot rocks in the sauna until he was hot enough to leave smoking claw prints on wood. After he cooled down a bit, he got a massage. The masseuse had to pile three towels on him to keep from getting burned.

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie had already left and gone to Sugarcube Corner. They'd settled for the sauna followed by a seaweed wrap and a pulsating pressure shower. I should try that some time. We found the two of them still at Sugarcube Corner sharing a sundae and giggling about something. Fast friends.

There were a few other couples at tables at Sugarcube Corner, and come to think of it, at the spa too. I realized that it's Hearts and Hooves day today. A trip to the spa makes for a good bonding experience, I've noted that in my reference book on Friendship (The Magic of Friendship, a Reference Manual, chapter on Building Friendships, Pair Bonding section, sub section Mate Selection and Vetting).

Well, I feel much better.

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A Ponyville Delicacy

April 25: Applejack dropped by earlier today with seven jars of zap apple jam for us. She didn't stay long since she was on her way to Fluttershy's cottage to give her a few jars of the jam as well. Spike baked up a small batch of biscuits for lunch and we spread zap apple jam on those while they were still hot. Granny Smith hasn't lost her touch, it's still the best jam ever.

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Zap Harvest Brunch

April 26: Pinkie and Applejack invited all of us over for a down home zap apple brunch in the barn today, so I rounded up Spike and Starlight Glimmer and we trotted down to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack and Big McIntosh had already brought down enough straw from the loft to make tables and seats for everypony and Pinkie had festooned the place with enough balloons, banners and streamers to make it look more like a celebration than a brunch. Except we had a record player instead of a DJ. There were tablecloths on the bales, and on that, baskets of zap apples, zap apple jam and plates. While we took it all in, Apple Bloom and Pinkie came in through the door carrying fresh baked bread and a big serving bowl of spring grass and dandelion salad. Then Apple Bloom dashed back out and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash walked in with mint tea and fresh biscuits. They put that down on the table and came over to join us. Finally Big McIntosh came in with a tray of cups, Apple Bloom was back with a pitcher of water, and Rarity arrived, flanked by Applejack and Granny Smith. It was time to eat!

Pinkie put "brunch music" on the record player (it sounded like the Pasture Symphony by Beathooven) and we all found a place to sit and fill our plates.

After lunch we helped clean up the dishes and hoist the bales back into the loft, then the Apple family went back to making jam, Apple Bloom ran back to class and Starlight and I headed on back to the castle.

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Great Escape

April 27: We met up at the train station this morning, all hot to trot for this friendship retreat I'd booked for us. We were off to have fun, fun fun!

Spike, Starlight Glimmer and Trixie had the castle to themselves for the day. They saw us off as we boarded the train and Starlight Glimmer thoughtfully gave us a bag of salty pretzels before the train left. So the first thing we looked for when we arrived was a water fountain. Then, following the directions that Manehattan Escapes had sent me, we checked in and got locked into our room! It was loads of fun solving all the puzzles that eventually gave us the key to the door. We would have cracked it faster but we stalled before turning the key. We missed beating the record for that room by a few seconds. Rainbow Dash was a little disappointed by that, but it wasn't like we were going to win an award. Maybe we'll go back some day and try another of their locked rooms.

It was a fun challenge that called on each of us in one way or another, like Fluttershy's delicate precision, Rarity's eye for jewels and Rainbow Dash's speed. But it wasn't what everypony imagined a "retreat" to be. I think Rarity expected something called "Manehattan Escapes" to be more like a resort hotel.

It was still early when we disembarked back in Ponyville and Rarity suggested we go to spa. We all agreed that going to the spa was a good idea and a great way to end a fun day. So after telling Starlight that we were back and going to the spa, we followed Rarity to her favorite retreat. Ponyville held together while we were gone and I couldn't help noting that the castle was neither on fire nor in ruins. Well, maybe the spa ponies looked a little lost, Aloe saying something about missing a massage table they'd don't remember having. Otherwise, same old peaceful Ponyville.

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Spring Rain

April 28: It was really warm out today, almost summer-like, with blue skies and bright sunshine and only a light breeze. I decided that it was too nice to stay indoors in our cold rock castle when I could take my reading outside. I set up a parasol on the bigger balcony in such a way that I could soak up the sunshine with my hind quarters while soaking up literature in the shade with my eyes. Starlight Glimmer and Trixie joined me on the balcony, each with their own reading material. I saw that Starlight was having Trixie read The Art of Invisibility Spells. From the grumbling and the number of times that she whispered questions to Starlight, I gather that Trixie was finding that book a slow wallow.

By late morning Cloudsdale drifted in over Ponyville's fields and several squads of weather ponies arrived, pulling in flotillas of rain clouds. While they set up, we collected our books and brought them inside. I went back out to watch the weather ponies at work. The cloud layer was just a bit lower than the top spire of the castle, so I had a good view as the pegasi knitted the clouds together. Then, as I watched, there was a wave of rain that started at one end of the cloud bank and ran all the way to the other end. On top of the clouds and out of sight, pegasi galloped and bounded across the fluffy stratocumulus field they had made, triggering the clouds to release a light spring rain. It was still very warm and it really felt good to stand there in the rain with my head down, feeling the warm water run in rivulets down my neck, back and sides.

The light rain cooled the air, but the ground below was still warm from the morning sun. That created updrafts of warm air, some of which followed the castle walls and flowed onto the balcony. The air currents brought with them the delicious smells of spring. Fresh green growth, small spring flowers and catkins, the wet embrace of mist, and the rich odor of loam. I closed my eyes and drank in the moment. I think spring is my favorite time of year.

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Two Axis Alignment

April 29: The map table looks like it may have shifted slightly. Maybe somepony tried pushing on it, just to see if it could be moved.

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The Eating of Greens Is A Special Treat

April 30: Those showers we had a few days ago has spurred the plants into a burst of fresh growth. Spike went to the market today and came back with his basket piled high with dandelion, trout lily, cattail and alfalfa. Lunch was a real treat!

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Author's Note

Well, I'm happy to see that my gloom and doom scenario for the Equestria Girls thing has not been disproved. I predicted that this school-model mirrorverse would have a catastrophic break down were it ever to continue running until the graduation of the mirror entities. It looks like six years or more went by in the real MLP:FiM world while little over a year has crawled by in Canterlot High. That year has been worse than the epic four 'F's of British Columbia's 2021: Fire, Flood, Flu and Freeze. Canterlot High has had three sirens, at least four demons, a mirror trap within the mirror trap and a mind-wiping stone in one school year. How bad does it have to get before the mirror entities grab Sunset Shimmer's texting books and toss them out the mirror?

XXIX May

Peace and Quiet

May 1st: I had a quiet day in the castle today. I don't know where Starlight Glimmer and Trixie have trotted off to. I had a silage soup with my hay for lunch. I didn't realize we had quite so many tea cups and I couldn't find the salt shaker.

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In Transit

May 2: I guess no one answered the door yesterday when the mail pony came knocking with a parcel for us. So today I went down to the mail office to pick it up. I was hoping it was a stack of books I'd ordered from Random Horse but instead it was a selection of starter gems for Spike's gem garden. He grows them. The box was small enough that the mailmare could just have left it in the mailbox with the letters.

While I was out I dropped by the market to buy some specialty oats and molasses chunk cereal. It's made by a pony with a grain stand here in Ponyville. He was still out of that mix, cold stone rolled oats are in short supply this time of year, so no oat chunk cereal for me. Maybe next week. I'll just make do with regular oats in the meantime.

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Hot Food

May 3: Spike and I went into town together this morning to restock our pantry. In our travels we bought a tub of vanilla oat swirl ice cream at Sugarcube Corner and apples from Applejack's stand at the market. These are apples that had been in storage since last year, so they were a bit wrinkled. Spike combined those with some of the oats I'd bought yesterday and made an oat apple crumble in time for lunch. Ice cream and apple crumble hot out of the oven is hard to beat. We also picked up some winter squash and jar of really spicy pickled carrots. We had some dried mushrooms so Spike put together a very spicy goulash for our supper. I've downed three pots of mint tea since supper to wash that down.

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Relax in the Grass

May 4: I felt like stretching my legs a bit this afternoon, I just needed an excuse to get out. So I packed my saddle bags with my Piaffle game and my trusty Whinnypiafficon on one side and half a tub of vanilla oat swirl ice cream on the other and I went to see if I could tempt Fluttershy into playing a game. It turned out that not only was Fluttershy in a mood to play Piaffle, she proposed we find a spot in the western pasture to play. It was a warm day with just a slight breeze, a good day to relax in the grass. Fluttershy took a few minutes to gather up a picnic blanket, her tea set, a few bowls and her pet bunny, then we set off for the western pasture.

We'd barely walked a dozen paces when Pinkie leaped of nowhere and near made us bolt right out of our skins. Long story short, we ended up being three ponies, and a bunny, out soaking up the sun around a Piaffle game, drinking tea, nibbling the grass and eating half melted ice cream. It was a fun game, Pinkie managed to bridge two triple word scores with one word! After that, Pinkie's win was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Pinkie told us that her sister was due to finish her dissertation soon and earn a Rocktorate. I hadn't known that Maud was that close to finishing. Pinkie is very proud of her sister and excited. But then, when is Pinkie not excited?

It's going to be a good night for watching shooting stars tonight. The best time, according to the Astronomer's Almanac, will be about an hour or so before the dawn. I'm either going to pull an all night vigil, or get up well before Celestia raises the sun. I think I'll get up early.

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Hear Now The Song Of My People

May 5: It was rough getting up early to watch the meteors dash across the sky, but worth it. There were a few frisky ones that streaked quite high overhead, but most stuck to the horizon. When the twilight brightened the skies, sending the shooting stars and the constellations scooting to their daytime haunts, I picked myself up and descended the flights of stairs out into the morning mists. I walked alone through the green fields of growing timothy grass, Ponyville's finest, wet and silvery with dew. The southern birds were awake too, singing their claims of virility and territorial ownership, ready and willing to take on any that dared challenge either. I lay claim to a patch of tall wet grass, and ate it. My song was the rhythmic ripping and chewing of the green stems I harvested. Breakfast.

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Traveling Pony, Stay Awhile

May 6: Rarity is in Manehattan today, renewing the lease for her shop. She's a very busy pony, on the train several times a moon, going to Canterlot and Manehattan to restock her boutiques and keep abreast of the trends and successes in the clothes industry. Perhaps she should hire somepony to manage her Ponyville boutique while she's traveling.

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Between The Covers

May 7: Another pleasant day well spent, reading in my library.

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Song And Dance

May 8: During lunch Starlight Glimmer told me that she had been in Manehattan last week looking for tickets to more Bridleway shows. She succeeded in getting good seats to An Equestrian in Prance and A Capriole Line. The first one, An Equestrian in Prance, has music by Gorse Girthwinch and a lot of dancing. A Capriole Line is all about dancing. I suggested she branch out to ballet and try to catch a show by the Royal Lipizzaner Ballet in Canterlot.

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There Was That One Thyme

May 9: I had tea and hay biscuits with Applejack today at Sweet Apple Acres. The Apple family is pretty busy this time of year, watering and weeding and Applejack told me of the time, when she was still a little filly, when she expanded their herb garden and she decided to grow thyme for the first time. She was determined to do it all herself, like a big filly, from tilling the ground, to weeding, all the way to harvest.

The expansion took over some of the old field part of the garden spot by the barn, an area the Apple family would mow from time to time, but which was mostly left to grow wild. It was pretty weedy and most of the plants that sprouted there were only fit for goats and sheep. Applejack squared out her work area, tilled those weeds under, broke up the soil, spread fertilizer and adjusted the pH of the soil. It was hard work for a little filly, but Applejack was a stubborn little filly. She planted her thyme seeds in raised rows and watered them dutifully. Soon there were plants growing.

Since she hadn't grown thyme before, she was a little unsure which plants were thyme and which were weeds. She tried to sort them by taste but she wasn't sure what thyme tasted like, or wild carrot either. So she ate quite a few of the sprouts as she weeded. Turns out that the thyme was growing well, but so were the giant asters and the wild carrots. Wild carrots are mildly toxic, and even as young plants they can make a pony feel nervous. Not the best thing for a filly to sample when she's already worried she'll fail at gardening thyme for the first time. She was well on her way to ripping out all the thyme and turning her project into a wild carrot garden when she finally straightened out what was thyme and what was weed. She ended up transplanting a lot of thyme before, she hoped, anypony had noticed.

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Convection

May 10: I was roused this afternoon from a chapter on nutritional deficiencies and related pathologies in Baabaaraa Blaack's book on sheep wellbeing, All About Ewe, From Flock to Fleece, when a quire of loose paper burst out onto the balcony on a gust of wind, Starlight Glimmer in hot pursuit. Somepony had left the front door open and a whirlwind of rising air was racing up the stairway again. I went down to close a few doors before this Treecastle sucked all of Ponyville clean of dust, dirt and anything that wasn't nailed down. Spike is going to be grumbling for a week.

Down in the entrance lobby I found Applejack and Rainbow Dash engaged in a lively game of Ring Fling, the castle doors wide open to let in the warm spring air. It was a close game and they hadn't noticed the dull roar of air rushing up the stairs at the far end of the lobby or the vortex of debris merrily sailing in past them. The satisfying crack of wood on wood of a well flung ring and keeping score had all their attention. That and the grit on the floor that was making rings grind to a halt well short of the goal. I shut the doors and gave them brooms.

This place was not made to stable a herd.

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Picnic

May 11: Posters inviting all Ponyville residents to this year's Picnic in the Fields have gone up on official buildings and in shop windows. There was also an official announcement in the Ponyville Express that invited all to hear what Mayor Mare had to say about it this afternoon. So I went and I learned that the event will take place in six days and that the Wonderbolts, including our Rainbow Dash will give us an aerial show. There are more surprises in store, but Mayor Mare is keeping us in suspense, saying that there will be a new official announcement on each day leading up to the picnic.

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The Drinking Sage

May 12: There are five more days to go until Ponyville's Picnic in the Fields and Mayor Mare gave us another announcement from the top of the Town Hall stairs. This year there will be a punch and beverage contest. There will be tables, glasses and awnings set up to allow twenty contestants enter up to three beverages each. There will be judging and ribbons awarded in four categories: hot, cold, juice and slurry. There must be enough of each beverage to serve 50 ponies a small glass of each. She had entry forms on a table at the foot of the stairs and I picked up three, one for each of the beverage making ponies I know, Applejack, Pinkie and Zecora. Pinkie was out, apparently meeting with ponies in preparation for the picnic. She probably already had a form and she might be too busy to make punch, but I left one with Mrs Cake to give to her, just in case. Applejack was out too. I left her a form on her kitchen table. Then I packed a jar of zap apple jam and trotted off to Zecora's house in the Everfree.

The Everfree is looking as dreary as ever, but sprinkled in among the brilliant green skunk cabbage leaves and unfurling ferns are little forest flowers, white, pink, yellow and shocking blood red. Pretty but wild. The forest smells of wet, rotting wood, decaying leaves and dangerous beasts. I longed for wide open spaces where I could see danger in plenty of time to flee.

To my relief, Zecora was home. I told her about Mayor Mare's announcements and I gave her the third entry form for the beverage contest. Zecora is an expert in liquid refreshments and I soon convinced her to enter. We filled out the form right there so I could drop it off at Town Hall on my way back. I didn't stay long, just enough to have a cup of tea and to give Zecora the jar of zap apple jam. Then I headed home, picking some Everfree trout-lily leaves on the way.

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Crystal City of Lights

May 13: The summer Fireworks Festival is again taking place in the Crystal Empire. Spike left this morning to attend to his role there as celebrity and hero. He'll be presiding over the events, lighting the first rocket, but he's not judging the events. It's a nice low pressure job with lots of attention. Spike isn't complaining.

Mayor Mare teased us with a fresh announcement from Town Hall. The Ponytones will serenade us with fifteen favorites during the picnic. Assembly of a temporary bandstand has already begun. I went to look and I was amused to see that it's getting built at about the same location where we put down our picnic blankets for the picnic surprise party we sprang on Pinkie. The acoustics are good there, it's a low spot and the topography of the rolling hills in the field there make for a natural amphitheater.

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Rock Candy

May 14: As part of the buildup to the picnic, Mayor Mare was giving away rock candy necklaces and throwing balloon animals into the crowd today. That probably explains the roped-off areas near the bandstand. It's clear now that this picnic is going to be a big deal. Mayor Mare may be going overboard.

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Pony Games

May 15: Cloudsdale sent us a little spring shower today, but that didn't slow Mayor Mare down one whit. She was out at the top of the Town Hall steps under a big red umbrella and revealing the next teaser with much enthusiasm: the picnic will include a steeple chase event, six legged races, and a dozen balls and nets so ponies can play netball. The races will be fun to watch! I wonder if I can convince Starlight Glimmer to run the six legged race while tied to Trixie. Hee hee hee!

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Out With a Bang

May 16: The Picnic in the Fields extravaganza is tomorrow, ergo this was the last day of teasers from Mayor Mare. For her last big reveal, she told us that there will be fireworks over the East Pasture. I hadn't really planned on staying all day at the picnic but with everything there will be to do and see, I guess I should pack extra food. Or leave mid afternoon and watch the fireworks from the castle. We'll see.

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Picnic In The Fields Day

May 17: Spike got back from the Crystal Empire in time to join us at the town picnic event. I went down to the train station to pick him up. He looked pretty tired when he arrived so it was no surprise when he flopped down on our picnic blanket and fell asleep. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had already picked out a spot for us near the grandstand and they took off as soon as we arrived. There were ponies everywhere scouting about for a flat spot with a view and the field about me was filling up fast with picnic blankets. Fortunately, Rarity and Fluttershy arrived soon after I'd spread my blanket and I didn't have to explain to anypony why I was taking up so much space. Rarity had Applejack's blanket as well as her own. Applejack was already setting up her beverages at the contest area in a part of the pasture reserved for most of activities that Mayor Mare had promised us. From our picnic blanket, we could wave to Applejack and see Pinkie too as she unpacked a cart laden with sparkling rock candy. We couldn't see Rainbow Dash anywhere, she was probably suiting up with her Wonderbolt cohorts.

I was starting to get hungry, so I opened my picnic basket. The picnic I'd packed was utilitarian. With Spike out of town, I didn't embark on any fancy preparations. Hay chips, carrot sticks, some hay, peppermint tea, a few cupcakes. La haute gastronomie. I swapped a few bites with Rarity and Fluttershy. Spike woke up long enough to eat a few of the gems that the Crystal Empire fireworks organizers had given him as a thank you. We had Pinkie and Dash's baskets too, but we resisted the temptation to see what they contained.

By now the East Pasture was pretty full of picnicking ponies, all riding cloth rafts in the sea of grass. Pinkie bounded in, gave each of us a rock candy necklace and proceeded to dump out the contents of her basket into the mix that was what Rarity, Fluttershy and I had brought to eat. Downslope from us, Mayor Mare climbed up onto the bandstand, unfurled a Picnic In The Fields banner, recapped all the events that were in store today and declared the picnic begun. The stomping applause, muted since we were all standing on blankets on grass, was the cue for the Wonderbolts' precision flying routine. When that was over, we remembered we had food to eat and down on the bandstand, the Ponytones began to sing. Pinkie had bounded back to her rock candy stand to make sure everpony had enough string and to replenish candy where she could. Rainbow Dash had still not returned, but as the Ponytones sang, I noticed several pegasi pulling a bunch of clouds to somewhere by the edge of the picnic area. Rainbow Dash was with them and I could see that they were sculpting the clouds into an obstacle course. I'd wondered how winged ponies were going to compete in the steeple chase. Jumping over the ditches, hay bales and fences is just too easy with a few wing beats.

After the concert, Mayor Mare announced the winners for the beverage contest. Zecora got a blue ribbon in the hot category, Applejack won in the juice category, and two other ponies got top honors in the slurry and cold categories. None of us had gone down to try the drinks, there were just too many ponies there already. Applejack and Zecora, their blue ribbons tied to their manes and picnic baskets in their mouths, made their way up the hill to join us. They'd barely taken a few mouthfuls of hay when Mayor Mare announced the sporting events: the six legged races, the steeplechase (ground then aerial) and the round robin netball tournament. Applejack, as the local rodeo champion, was one of the judges for the ground event. She told us that Rainbow Dash was on the panel for the aerial event, so we wouldn't see her until that was over. We packed a light lunch in a saddlebag for Applejack and wished her luck. Then we toasted her after she had trotted off by eating the apple pie she had brought to the picnic.

Pinkie came back and we watched all the sporting events while we polished off all the food. Mayor Mare awarded more blue ribbons and Rainbow Dash and Applejack came back from their stint at judging. Pinkie had rock candy necklaces for them, but otherwise, there was nothing to eat. So I invited everypony to the castle for supper. We fixed up a hot meal and took it out to the balcony overlooking the East Pasture. Apart from a few games of netball, most everypony had collected their things and gone home for supper. As Celestia lowered the sun, ponies were returning to watch the last event, the fireworks. We could just see Mayor Mare on the bandstand, addressing the crowds one last time, but we were too far to hear her. Then darkness fell and fireworks bloomed in the sky.

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Picnic Hoofprint

May 18: Some parts of the east pasture are looking a little worse for wear this morning, especially from the view from the castle balcony. All those thundering hooves running the steeplechase and the six-legged race churned up the ground quite a bit. There were pasture specialist ponies out trying to smooth out the damage today.

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Aunting Time Of The Foals

May 19: I had a pretty wild day today. It started out sane enough with Nurse Redheart trotting up to my door. She has a whole classroom of sick foals who have wound up in hospital with the horsey hives. According to her, something happened to them during the Picnic in the Fields. Since it fell on a school day, they went to the picnic as a class. All the foals had a great time picnicking with their classmates, but the next day, the foals started looking a little bleary. That afternoon had been set aside for the class picture, and by then it was apparent that the entire class was breaking out with urticaria. It turns out that the class, in a fit of high spirits, had gone rolling in a sandy area during the picnic. There may have been ants there or all the foals may have become overheated in the sunshine. Whatever the cause, 24 hours later they looked lumpy and miserable, just in time for the class picture. So now they're recovering in a hospital ward. Most of them are feeling either itchy, feverish or both, and all of them are feeling down about the whole ordeal. At least this urticaria isn't contagious. So this morning Nurse Redheart had the idea that a visit from me could cheer them up. I thought that was a great idea and after she returned with a time for my visit (lunch time), I made plans with Spike to sweeten the deal with cupcakes, read them a story, and give them each a small gift.

Then Shining Armor and Princess Cadence showed up with Flurry Heart and asked me if I could look after her for the day. Of course! I could run all my errands with Spike and my niece, she would get nice long walk through Ponyville, meet a bunch of foals and I would read a story to everypony! What could be simpler?

It turns out that keeping an eye on a highly mobile foal while running errands and holding conversations isn't quite that easy. I found out the hard way that I wasn't giving Flurry Heart enough attention. I guess my first clue should have been when she knocked over a few too many things in the shops I went to. Before I realized what was happening she had erased Cheerilee's notes off her blackboard and caused havoc in the hospital. I learned my lesson, next time I foalsit my niece I will give her my undivided attention the whole time.

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Growing Things

May 20: Already the East Pasture is starting to recover from the pounding it got on Picnic Day. Those pasture specialists are good at what they do. This evening we got another spring shower delivered by Cloudsdale, which should help.

It's just me and Starlight Glimmer in the castle tonight. Spike is in the Crystal Empire again, hard at work as a Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival VIP, and Trixie is out touring. Starlight said she wanted to try out the new and improved magic show she's developing. I think she said Trixie had a stop in Appleloosa planned. I hope they like tea cups.

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Spike The Brave and Glorious

May 21: Spike is back from Crystal Empire fireworks festival, none the worse for wear and toting a fresh bag of mixed gems to snack on. From the look of the lights and the wash of joy coming down from the north, it seems Spike wasn't the only one who enjoyed the fireworks festival yesterday.

It's Spike's hatchday in three days. While I was putting together my checklist for the hospital visit, on the day I also foalsat Flurry, Spike dropped a few hints about how cake and presents cheer him up when he's down. Spike isn't exactly subtle. So I think I'll get him a book. Maybe a biography of a comic book artist? I should be able to find one of those in Canterlot. Moondancer would know where to look.

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Book Acquired

May 22: I went biography hunting in Canterlot today. Moondancer is quite busy at the moment but she gave me a list of booksellers to try. For Spike's hatchday gift, I found a biography called The Astounding Stall Lead, and because books, I picked up a new book on spells. Transformations and Transportations, The Magic Of Being Two Places At Once. I started reading it on the way back. The technique promises to allow a pony to throw all five senses at once into a remote object, but I don't think it gives you a better understanding of that object, unlike the Haycartes spell. This could be useful should I need to, say, accompany Spike to the Dragon Lands, incognito. Better than going disguised as a rock or a dragon.

I passed a long line of ponies waiting to enter the Epona Exposition at the Canterlot Cultural Hippology Museum. The lineup still stretches around the corner. The exposition was to be moved to Manehattan in the fall, but with the persistence of the crowds in Canterlot, that plan has been put on hold.

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Eat And Trot

May 23: I'd thought that maybe I wouldn't be writing an entry tonight in this universe-spanning journal, but here I am. There was a chance that dinner with my brother's family in the Crystal Empire would finish too late for Spike and me to come home. They had invited us over when I'd foalsat Flurry Heart so Spike and I caught the Friendship Express to the Crystal Empire early this afternoon.

Dinner was at 7. Flurry Heart started her dinner at 6:30 and by the time the kitchen sent up our entrees to the royal dining room, both Cadence and Shining were coated in mashed peas. Flurry got cranky halfway through the mane course, so Spike and I waited while Shining and Cadence lulled her to sleep. Flurry's crib was right near the dining room table. Dinner finished at 8:30 and we moved to the sitting room for tea and cookies. At 9 PM it looked like Cadence and Shining were going to fall asleep on their feet. There was a train at 9:30, so we beat a hasty exit and trotted to the station just in time.

The Crystal Empire streets are so lovely at night. Quiet and clean and with the geyser of light from the Crystal Heart washing everything with a flood of contentment. An "air of contentment" is a real thing in the Crystal Empire. That's why I didn't gallop in a panic to the Train station, we were just feeling too mellow. We made it anyway, and the conductor was happy to see us, even as we hopped in through the door as the train was starting to move.

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Make A Wish

May 24: It was Spike's hatchday today and we played it safe by celebrating it with a low-key lunch at Sugarcube Corner. All six of us were there at lunch and there was sparkly rock cake (the Cakes used Pinkie's rock candy so that we could eat some too with out breaking any teeth) but no gifts. Just a good time with good food and friends, and a wobbly rendition of It's Your Birthday which, had we sung all the verses, surely would have sent everypony seated in Sugarcube Corner fleeing for the exits.

Later I gave Spike the biography I'd purchased for him in Canterlot. He gave me a strange look after he opened it up. Maybe he had been hoping for something more practical, like a Pony Latin dictionary of his very own? I could get him that next year.

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High And Dry

May 25: Cloudsdale sent us a chilly wind from the north this morning and then parked a whole bank of rain clouds across the entire sky over Ponyville. It was a good day to stay inside. I didn't have anywhere to go, my kitchen pantry is stocked, and Spike baked two loaves of oat bread and made some sweet and sour silage soup. Warm food, good company and a quiet library full of books. The day just flew by.

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Roctorate

May 26: Pinkie a bit more excited than usual today. As she bounced off the walls in my library, and the ceiling too, come to think of it, I was able to piece together that her sister Maud has earned her doctorate in rock studies. Then she just about flew out the door and down the hall, apparently to catch the Friendship Express to the Equestrian Institute of Rockology to join her family and celebrate Maud's achievement. Rockology is a very specialized field, I wonder how many ponies will be receiving degrees alongside Maud at her Commencement Ceremony.

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Busy

May 27: Spike is away at the Fireworks Festival. Rarity and Dash are away too, following their careers. Applejack and Fluttershy are very busy and even Pinkie Pie is preoccupied with something today.

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Dragon-Grown Gems

May 28: Spike is back, tired and full of sparkly rocks, except for the few he kept for his rock garden. He has a bi-colored tourmaline rod that he has grown to almost the length of a Spike-sized walking stick. He plans on helping Rarity go gem hunting in her favorite gem cave tomorrow, just outside of Ponyville.

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A Friend Will Be There To Help You See

May 29: Spike went prospecting for gems in the gem cave with Rarity this morning, as planned, but he came back early. He told me that while they were picking gems and keeping a weather eye out for some chartreuse, they met Maud and Pinkie in the cave. Rarity became distraught and abruptly left, leaving Spike holding the basket, after Maud told her that all the gems in the cave were common. So Spike came to get me.

We went over to the Carousel Boutique to see Rarity. We found her eating a lot of peppermint chocolate chunk ice cream. She had planned on enhancing a gown design with chartreuse and wearing it to Countess Coloratura's next album release party, but with Maud's statement that chartreuse, like all the other gems in the cave, were not rare, Rarity was having an existential crisis. Much of Rarity's inspirations revolved around gems, and the rarer the gems the better. So being told that these sparkly crystalline rocks were common, even though she had trouble obtaining them, was a blow to her muse. If chartreuse isn't rare, how could she call it, or a gown adorned with it, a Rarity? Ergo, she was drowning her sorrow in ice cream. Spike quipped that rare or not, they still taste about the same. I don't think that helped much.

I pointed out that what a specialist like Maud considers a rare rock might not line up with what most ponies consider rare. Furthermore, it's not the materials that matter, but what you made with them. For instance, those Hearth's Warming dolls she had made with our shed winter fluff and I reminded her of how she had created a whole line of chic wear out of hotel curtains, bed linens and such the like. That cheered her up. And there you go, a Friendship Lesson!

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For Truth's and Harmony's Behoof

May 30: Another day, another friendship puzzle, this time from Pinkie Pie. Her sister, Maud, was looking for a place to move to, preferably somewhere near interesting rock strata to study. She also told Pinkie that having a friend living nearby would be a factor in choosing where to live. Since Pinkie wants her favorite sister to live in Ponyville, she set about trying to find a friend for her. Thus the friendship puzzle, with a complication.

In true Pinkie-style clairvoyance, Pinkie found a friend for Maud, or if I understood the sequence of events properly, she put Maud in a path where Maud literally collided with her friend to be. That friend, surprisingly enough, is Starlight Glimmer. The complication in this affair is that Pinkie decided she would study the pair, evaluate their progress and influence the outcome. That's not quite good science. It's not good anything that I can think of. I mean, she gave them no space to breathe, she hounded them with questionnaires, she even went so far as to put cow bells on them so she could track their movements! It's like observer-expectancy effect gone mad. The effect was that the test subjects fled and were more interested in getting away from Pinkie's scrutiny than exploring their potential friendship.

But Pinkie wised up, backed off, and fortunately for her, Starlight Glimmer has become Maud's friend. So, Maud has moved to a cavern just outside of Ponyville and Pinkie has (hopefully) learned a Friendship Lesson. To wit, you can lead a pony to a partner, but you can't make them link.

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Firefly Talk

May 31: It's a warm spring night out here on the edge of Ponyville. The air is very still with not even a breezie-strength breeze to cloak the croaks and trills of the amphibians drifting up from the wet areas near the river. Above me is the slow dance of the stars and below, the fields blink here and there with the question and answer flashes of the early fireflies.

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Author's Note

The one and only downvote I'd had has vanished. Had it been an act of vandalism by a serial downvoter? Did somepony change their mind on their downvote? It's a mystery. (Anthropology!)

Meanwhile, milestone ahoy! Over 500 readers! Where do they all come from?

I January

My Name is Twilight Sparkle

Jan 8: Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and... This is so neat! A journal in an alternate universe! What fun! All I had to figure out was how to get "e-mail address" (e for Earth?) and find an Earth journal that works well with my magic. This Dream Width looks good and oh! Comments and replies! Maybe I can make some friends here! For science!

Dream Width. Is there an Earth version of Princess Luna running this? Somehow many of you speak Equuish, at least in written form.

Selecting "Post Entry", now.

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Success!

Jan 9: That worked! Hoofston*, we have a new journal, in another universe! Whee!

So how did I get here? Well, my new Ponyville castle, the Friendship Tree-Castle that sprang from the box of locks after we got all six keys (and fixed the mess made by Tirek), has a lot of bare rock walls and not many windows. I was upstairs the other day and I decided to cast my graphical display grid spell to show Pinkie that zebras are black with white stripes, not white with black stripes. It reacted with the rock wall and I got a window into another universe! ...It, your universe, looks like a letter-writing universe. Or a giant atheneum. A book universe! Now, for a bookworm, that's irresistible.

The bridge is not perfect, there is some stuff that's coming through garbled. Probably illustrations.

* Hoofston is the home of earth pony aviation, where they make dirigibles, balloons and pony-powered whirlygigs. And they're big on exploration.

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Rock Solid Safety

Jan 10: Exploring the thoughts and literary works of a new universe from the safety of a rock-solid castle in Ponyville! This is so exciting! See? *taps display* Rock wall! Words on a rock wall! Nothing gets through except ideas. What could possibly go wrong? This calls for a pot of lavender tea and a timothy/clover hay sandwich! Party time!

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Introductions Are In Order

Jan 10: Well, since this Earth-Journal seems to be holding together and not evaporating in a puff of smoke, despite it not being written on anything corporeal that I can see, I should introduce myself... in case anyone is reading this besides me.

Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle... well, Princess Twilight Sparkle now. Princess of Friendship. I don't rule over anyplace, but I do have a castle! A brand new castle for me and my best friends... and this is getting dull. OK, let's try bullet points.

My name is Twilight Sparkle.
I am a princess.
I am a pony.
I live in the magical land of Equestria.
My special talent is magic, all types of magic but especially the magic of Friendship.
I have a light mauve* coloured coat, dark purple eyes, a short and practical liberty (blue) mane and tail with dark purple and tickle me pink highlights.
I like books. A lot. And studying. Studying books makes me very happy.

That's it.

* or if you prefer, a bright lilac

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Snowflakes

Jan 11: It was a cold day today in Ponyville. I was still up when Princess Luna set the moon and ushered the constellations away from their playground in the sky. As Princess Celestia nudged the sun into the heavens, I stepped out on a small balcony and watched the weather ponies push big grey clouds into the pink sky. They gave us a snow storm and the snow flakes were beautiful! Around mid-day they returned to clear the sky and the ground sparkled like diamonds in the sunshine. Most of the snow was made of stellar dendrites, principally fern-like stellar dendrites, and the sparkle came from the sunlight reflecting off of stellar plate snowflakes. I found some examples of scrolls on stellar plates! That made my day. No needles or hollow columns that I could find this time around. A few weeks ago there was a snowfall that was almost all needles and hollow columns. I had never seen so many hollow columns at once. That probably cleared out Cloudsdale's inventory.

The sun has gone down now but it isn't dark. The white snow sparkles in the moonlight in harmony with the twinkling of the stars above. Walking through the quiet streets, it's like Ponyville has taken leave of the ground and floated off to join the constellations of Princess Luna's night.

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Golden Oaks

Jan 12: This rock castle is a bit cold and sterile. I miss the Golden Oak Library.

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Chaotic Mail

Jan 13: I have Earth Mail! Actually, several E-Mail letters. But I think they all got the wrong address. I don't want more hair, I'm not interested in "low interest", I don't know what I'd do with a "check" for "5M dollars", and my password to my credit card can't be lost if I don't have a "credit card". I think Discord has an Earth Mail account. I should ask Fluttershy. Or maybe I should just ignore the E-Mail. Discord will get bored and go bother somepony else.

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Cold Snap

Jan 14: Cold snap! It's so cold that I've been donning my boots, scarf and that nice blanket Rarity made for me when I step out. It's a beautiful red with a gold trim and it has a hood for extra warmth. Rarity says the exact color is "folly"... not crimson or even electric crimson. Folly. Folly it may be, but I love it. It's so warm and bright!

The snow squeaks underhoof and throwing a bucket of water into the air causes it to evaporate and condense into a miniature cloud in the blink of an eye. It's fascinating! Spike* is running in and out of the castle and giggling. He's been clearing the snow and ice from the walk with dragon fire, raising big clouds of steam. He finds that very funny. The steam has been condensing as frost on every surface it touches. The trees, the bushes, the castle walls... it's all fuzzy white now and ponies have been stopping by to stare in admiration. It's very pretty and stark under the midday sun.

*Spike is a baby dragon whom I hatched from an egg as part of my entrance exam into Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. He's now my Number One Assistant.

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Dragon Pride

Jan 15: I received another shipment of books today from the Crystal Empire Library. Big McIntosh was kind enough to cart them up from the train station. Spike and I spent the morning sorting and shelving them. It was hard work on the poor fellow, he's taking a nap. But he wouldn't stop until every last book was shelved. Dragon pride.

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Carerfilly Castle

Jan 16: Rarity, Spike, Pinkie and I went on a day trip to the Carerfilly Castle ruins, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's old home deep in what is now the Everfree Forest. I wanted to borrow a few books on transdimensional compatibility theory, Rarity is fascinated by the tapestries, and Pinkie... well Pinkie wanted to gallop through the halls and try all the traps and slides, over and over again. I think she's going to build an amusement complex in Ponyville, as part of the fairgrounds. I'd better ask Applejack to help with the engineering... if she's planning another rock slide, it would be better that this time it's the ponies that slide on the rocks, and not the other way around.

By evening I'd found two promising books, Pinkie had donned a mustache and a cape (she's plotting for sure) and Rarity had Spike lugging four rolled-up tapestries that she plans on mending. Pinkie dashed back to Ponyville ahead of us as we strolled through the gloom of the Everfree Forest, Rarity practically dancing with excitement at how she was going to spruce up our Friendship Castle in Ponyville, Spike hanging on to her every word.

It feels wonderful to be back on my cushion by the fire. A perfect day -- an excursion with some of my best friends to a place we all love, great plans for the future, and two new books to study. Life is good.

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Twilight Time

Jan 17: It was "Twilight Time" again for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Scootaloo found and rebuilt the crank-action scarf loom I'd conveniently broken after getting my tail caught in it one time too many. A gift from my brother. I'll have to find a darker corner in the basement to "store" it. Apple Bloom's latest growth potion carpeted the halls with grass... that promptly died. And then caught fire. Sweetie Belle then caused a water bucket brigade to spring to life and douse the flames. By the time I found a counter-spell for this potion-based magic fire the hallways were filled with black sludge and we were all coughing and hacking. If only the fire had spread to the scarf loom. The three foals were mostly sad that they didn't get fire-fighting cutie marks.

Now to crack open that tome again to the chapter on Euclydean fixed distance lithography of static illusions. I was just at the part on adjusting for the quantum wobble in pony photographic prints. This could be very useful!

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Stretchy Changy Scroll

Jan 18: This Dream Width scroll has a weird quirk. While the text reads from left to right, top to bottom, each journal entry is like on its own patch and stacked on top of all the previous patches with the last, latest one on top. So, it's like a stack of patches all in one scroll. A patchwork scroll that stretches every time you add a patch. Or it's like reading a staircase where the bottom step is the beginning and the top stair is the most recent past. At least it's organized. I put a "tag" on the beginning entry at the bottom so I won't have to dig to find that first step in this staircase.

The journal gets "news" delivered to it on another page called "reading". News was delivered today and it's about changes to how this system works, mostly things I don't use or haven't used yet. The little arrows that appeared next to that "beginning" tag are new. So very odd that these things can change, but I am writing on someone* else's paper, or paper shared by many "people". It's like living in a TreeCastle, you make do with what you're given. I almost left a query as to whether Equestria could be included in the list of countries. Then I thought better of it. There's no point being on a list of countries if you're the only pony from there who is on Dream Width. I did put Ponyville, Equestria in my profile sheet, but in "region" and "city", not "country". As such, it didn't light up, but it's there, if you look!

* This appears to be the Dream Width equivalent for 'somepony'. I'm tempted to use 'somecreature' or 'somentity', but 'someone' works.

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Illuminating the Manuscripts

Jan 19: Fixed the illustrations problem... somewhat. The illustrations coming back to me via Dream Width look kind of grainy and melted. And I think they're imported from another wing of this Earth atheneum thing. Except for some really tiny illustrations (or decorations?) that are housed in the Dream Width... paragraph ornamentation, I think. Sometimes they reflect what is written, sometimes they seem to be like a signature or personal seal. The ponies... people here look mostly like the anthropoid beings where Sunset Shimmer is studying. Only with small eyes, hardly any color variety and not quite so spindly. OK, so this journal I'm writing in is part of something like a community writer's workshop with a paper supply, a quill supply, an illustration archive... that you have to organize to work together. The illustration archive is the missing piece from my journal scroll. I can fix that! I'll need to cobble together a magi-tech image transfer spell that I can integrate into my Earth/Equestria interface matrix. Hmmm, from what I was reading, Star Swirl was working on "Euclydean"-compatible interpretation and organization of visual data as rows of colored dots... To the Canterlot Archives for more research! Huzzah!

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Starving For Knowledge

Jan 20: I got lost in the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing of the Canterlot Archives. Not literally lost, I just lost track of the time... for the entire day and late into the evening. So much knowledge! So many unfinished projects! I think I forgot to eat. I can hear the hay in the pantry calling me.

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Short Introduction to the Non-Euclydean Equestrian Universe

Jan 21: Lecturing is something I do best!

Equestria appears flat but that's an illusion. Equestria is more like a bag with the edges connected. If Ponyville was all there was of Equestria, you could walk past a building on the edge of town and end up passing a house at the opposite end of town and find yourself heading for the town center. So Fluttershy's cottage could end up next to Rarity's Boutique even if they are at the opposite ends of town. Ergo, there is no sky and the frozen north and the frozen south are one and the same. Straight lines are mostly curves with variable lengths. This introduces uncertainty into getting from here to there. It all depends on which path you take, and there are an infinite number of paths. This could make travel across Equestria a gamble, as the time it will take changes, even if you take the train. The slightest shake will change your path. But this is all second nature to us ponies. We're born with a sense as to where to go and how long it will take. It would be very strange if the distance from your house to the bakery was always the same. If that were to happen to me I'd know I was dreaming.

The appearance of the sky over Equestria is dependent on velocity. Einstallion worked out the relation between velocity, mass and energy, but understanding the math behind his theories is a bit of a hard slog. It goes like this: because ponies move quite a bit slower than the speed of light, we don't see the curve of the land, we see a gap, and that gap is the sky. Plus the moon, which is a dollop of Equestria that somehow got pinched off. Pony philosophers are still working on that. It might just be a shiny pebble that got tossed into the air at just the right time and place, thousands of years ago. So anyway, we see a gap, a gap that doesn't exist if you move at the speed of light. A gap peppered with stars and stuff.

It gets weirder.

The sun and the stars are borrowed light, extracted here and there, visible to us as stars only because we aren't traveling at the speed of light. The light can be borrowed because at the speed of light, there is no distance and it takes no time to go nowhere -- it's borrowed and paid back in the same instant. The sun is just a really big loan from the nothingness of space that Princess Celestia pushes up from the edge each morning. She's really good at easing it into a track that crosses the sky. Since the sky is an illusion and the "edge" is a single point, it looks like she is pushing the sun up from the same place each day. Anyway, it's a good thing that the entire sky doesn't belch light -- Equestria would burn to a crisp! Some philosophers speculate that that is happening to Luna's moon, which is why it glows, right through the rock! It's like a failed Equestria, floating right above our heads. *shudder*

But what magic makes the stars in the first place? Many ponies believe that after they die, their magic lives on as a star... or part of the sun. They believe that they don't really die completely. And so it goes for the stars that came together to form the constellations, constellations that are very much alive and that step down from the sky to rest and play. Astronomy is such a fascinating field of study! I must get more books on the subject.

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Space Travel

Jan 22: Space exploration is a thing in Earth, as in traveling in a direction perpendicular to the ground and beyond the constellations? That is not possible in Equestria, at least not in a Euclydean sense. What we can do is move orthogonal to the Equestrian _universe_ and cross over into a parallel universe. That's what the Breezies do, by way of tunneling through the fabric of our perceived reality. But just flying straight up here does not get you out of Equestria. Should you try to fly much higher than the constellations, you will find the edge of Equestria rushing up to meet you. As such, to step down to the ground, the constellations need just step up.

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Safest Way to Travel

Jan 23: Viewing Earth through a projection is the safest way to visit, really. Who knows what the subtle differences in the laws of physics would do to a pony if we were to cross universes.

I think I might have to drop the Science Daily "feed" from my Dream Width reading material, he or she posts entries so often that it drowns out any other journals that may be posting too.

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Testing Picture Transfer

Jan 24: OK, I cobbled together an illumination transfer protocol spell from Star Swirl's theory. Tricky, but so far it looks like it's working! I used it to send a vision of a picture of Spike to a "gallery" and I selected a "HTML" print spell from the gallery and I glued that into my Dream Width scroll here.

...

It worked! What fun!

Meet Spike, my most valuable assistant. We've been together since he first hatched. See, he's not a pony, he's a dragon (ponies have hooves, not claws). Spike has a mauve body with a grass green crest and eyes. He's also quite the ham, it's hard to catch him not striking a pose when he sees a camera pointed at him, but Pinkie got a good snapshot of him here. Pinkie's pretty clever with that camera of hers.

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Log Entry "Icons"

Jan 25: I should make at least one log entry image for my Dream Width journal scroll. A picture of the Golden Oak Library, how it used to look, would do nicely.

I can store 16 different "icon" images in the Dream Width... 16 kinds of journal entries, or 16 different subject matters. I should make a list. Winter, spring, summer, fall. Food, leisure, work, rest. Canterlot, Crystal Empire. Friendship.

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Picnic at Carerfilly Castle

Jan 26: The air has warmed up from the cold snap, not enough to melt the snow, but enough for a nice walk with friends. Since Rarity has finished repairing and washing the tapestries she'd borrowed and I have two books to return, we decided to all go for a picnic at the Carerfilly Castle. "We" is me, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Spike. We decided against using Applejack's cart and instead lugged the tapestries and supplies on our backs. It's best to be light on your feet in the Everfree Forest and to be set to flee in any direction at a moment's notice. Applejack brought a fresh batch of apple chips and pies to go with the lunch Spike packed for us. We planned to have the picnic in the throne room where most of the tapestries fixed by Rarity hang.

The walk through the Everfree was beautiful. It snows there too and this time the snow was particularly sticky, adhering to every twig and bough. The usually grey and dreary forest turned soft, white and fluffy, almost cheery with a carpet of pure white at our hooves and the smell of fresh snow in the air. The air was still and quiet, disturbed only by the crunching of wet snow under our hooves and the occasional creak and groan of the boughs shifting under their heavy white burdens. Pinkie had brought her camera. Rarity had asked her to take a few pictures of the tapestries once they had been returned to their proper places. While we were walking through a more open stretch of the path, Dash borrowed Pinkie's camera and flew a few paces ahead to snap a candid picture of our procession through the white woods.

On the way we met the river serpent, preening in the mist rising off the water. He was very happy to see us again, showing off his gleaming scales and his moustache. It has mostly grown back, I was surprised to see that some strands of Rarity's tail remain mixed in the serpent's whiskers. She really is skilled in these things.

At the castle ruins, Spike and I went to the library to return the books, Rarity had Dash and Fluttershy's help to lift and hook the tapestries, and Applejack and Pinkie prepared lunch. The books shelved and the tapestries hung, the highlight of our day was the picnic. Sprawled out on a big bright blanket in the snowy hall, open to the sky, we were surrounded by good food and gorgeous tapestries so bright and colorful they practically glowed. Our laughter filled the grand hall with cheer and echoed down the corridors. I could almost see the Princesses, young and proud, gazing down at us from their twin thrones. One day the castle will be rebuilt and ponies will return to the Everfree.

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Requiem For an Old Friend

Jan 27: Walking back from the train station today I stopped by the Golden Oak Library, or what's left of it. I could smell hints of home hiding in the strong musk of charred wood. The falling snow has settled like a shroud, transforming the shattered and fallen timbers into gentle mounds. My warm, beautiful library now has white flowing drifts covering the stairs and piling up in the empty gaping shelves. We've already scavenged what we could from the wreck and now a demolition crew will finish Tirek's work. The library was a living thing. Failsafe spells can't bring back the dead.

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Multiverse Possibility

Jan 28: If there's an infinite multiverse, which there may well be, I've visited two, it is possible that there are alternate universe Twilight Sparkles writing in journals in this labyrinthian tangle of webs.

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Casting Spells

Jan 29: Like in the mirror-verse created by Star Swirl, the one Sunset Shimmer is studying, it looks like there isn't much use of magic in Earth. At least not in a casual, pony way. Maybe the physics aren't right in Earth? If there was magic in Earth, it wouldn't just lie dormant, some body would practice it, just like we do. Casting a spell is like learning to put on a winter scarf. Grab, throw, grab, throw, pull through and there you go! Nice and snug, just like your mother taught you. Like putting on the scarf, spell casting when we were little was tough and you had to take it slow the first few times, but once you got the hang of it, the combo becomes automatic. With a spell, since the combo is in your head, you can cast that spell faster and faster as you get better and better at it. Like Cadence's sneeze guard spell. She's faster than a sneeze!

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Ponies in the Machine

Jan 30: Unlike what appears to be the case in the Earth realm, we can't do without magic or let magic lapse, forgotten and unused. Almost everything in Equestria depends on pony magic to function properly. Right at the top of the list is keeping the day and night cycle on time. Then there's the seasons, the weather, managing the fauna and getting the plants to grow. All of it requires magical intervention from ponies. Mostly from specialists, but all ponies are magical and all ponies help in some way. Sure the animals are bright enough to share ideas and feelings with ponies (or at least with Fluttershy, I don't speak 'squirrel') but they require a helping hoof to plan far enough ahead to build their own nests, migrate or find food in the spring. It has always been thus, it's how things work in Equestria. Except in the Everfree Forest, where it is always gloomy and nothing is run by ponies.

It's odd that the ancient Tree of Harmony exists in the middle of the Everfree. Such a strange and powerful tree, made of rock and gems, leafless, existing in a grotto and somehow responsive to our needs. Perhaps it is shaping the Everfree and its inhabitants. It is so powerful, it may even shape or have shaped all of Equestria. Which came first, ponies or the Tree? Perhaps the tree is the manifestation of the combined will and magic of the ponies of Equestria? No that wouldn't fit, Tirek had consumed the entire sum of the magic of all the ponies and we easily defeated him with magic afforded us by the Tree.

We find it spooky when things happen on their own, like there are ghosts in the machine. It's very reassuring to know that clouds stay where you put them and that if they move, it's because a pony pushed them. There would be so much chaos if everything just did as it pleased! There would be floods and droughts! Bunnies would eat everything! Like when Discord broke free that first time and took over Equestria. I think Discord would feel right at home on Earth. How do Earth denizens remain sane? I think I'm beginning to see why this E-Athenaeum is such a jumble. It's Discorded!

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Hay Loft Accounting

Jan 31: I'm still mystified by the Tree of Harmony.

The Hay Board meeting is tomorrow at Town Hall. We don't want to ship out too much of our stores; what we have has to last us at least to first cut or ponies will be grazing through our first harvest before it's reaped. That could easily snowball into an all-out famine. Everything has to be planned out just so.

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Author's Note

Never done this before.

XV March

Catch Winter By The Tail

March 1: It's high time we had a winter picnic! Tomorrow I'm going to gather up my friends and plan this out! We need a mild, sunny day (Dash will be able to pick that). We need a location. I'm going to propose the Canterlot Falls! We should discuss what to bring, like food and guide books, sample jars and binoculars. Since I'm still low on snacks, and everypony else too, we should probably meet at Sugarcube Corner.

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Planning It Out

March 2: We met up at Sugarcube Corner for hot chocolate and desserts in the early afternoon. After we'd claimed a table and settled in, we got to planning our winter picnic. First item, when? Rainbow Dash said that the mild weather will continue for a few more days and she can clear the sky so we'll get lots of sun. So we'll go tomorrow. Next, where? There's the Carerfilly Castle ruins, Whitetail Woods, the western pasture (with a good view of Ponyville) and the Canterlot Falls. We chose the falls. They're half frozen and spectacular in the winter, and it drains into Saddle lake which will give us a nice big flat area to horse around on.

Then there's food. Spike and I volunteered to bring hay (third cut), Applejack is covering pies, Pinkie will provide cookies, or cake, or ice cream, or whatever she can whip up. Fluttershy will bring breads and jam. Dash has soup covered (beet and carrot). And Rarity will bring an assortment of teas.

We meet up at Applejack's place tomorrow, around mid morning.

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Picnic On The Snow

March 3: It was a long hike through the snow to reach Saddle Lake and the Canterlot Falls. We were all carrying a fair bit in our saddle bags. The food, a game of horseshoes, ice skates, a few picnic blankets, a ball, Rarity's tea set, my books, a pot and bowls... But the scenery was beautiful, and we chatted up a storm as we clattered through fields, down trails and through woods to our destination. We crossed most of Saddle Lake to get close to the falls, but we stayed far enough away to avoid the thin ice. The spray from the falls had built huge pillars of ice, definitely worth the trip. Then Rainbow Dash cleared out the clouds, and in the bright sunshine, the ice pillars glistened and sparkled.

While I helped Rarity and Fluttershy spread our blankets on the snow, Applejack and Dash set up the game of horseshoes and Pinkie had Spike clear a large area for skating. Spike carefully blasted the snow off the lake ice, leaving a surface seared mirror-smooth. Before lunch we had a game of hoof ball on an uncleared part of the lake, three on three with Spike as referee. We banned Applejack from punting the ball. She kicks it too far, right out of the field! We played the "touch" version. You have to get past the defense ponies to touch the pony rolling the ball to stop the play. If you catch the ball in mid pass you can steal it, and if you can keep the other team from advancing more than ten pony-lengths in three tries, the ball is yours. We played that for an hour before breaking for lunch.

The picnic was delicious. I especially liked the hot soup and Rarity's teas, out there on the frozen lake and surrounded by snow. After lunch I soaked up the sun with Rarity and Fluttershy while we watched Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Spike play horseshoes (and search for them in the snow after wild throws). We also watched Pinkie Pie skate and spin.

The snow on the lake was fairly hard, so I tried to cut out blocks to make a snow stable like the one Leaf Hairrakesson had built on our way back from Winter's home. It didn't work, the blocks kept crumbling. Maybe it wasn't the right snow.

Late afternoon, it was time to head back. We collected our things and we followed our tracks back the way we came. In the woods again, Fluttershy called for a stop. She asked us all to be as quiet as possible and to tell her what we could hear. The sun was still shining, there was hardly any wind, and the snow muffled all of the sound. At first we could only hear silence. But then, little by little, we tuned in to small subtle noises. Like the soft 'woomph' of snow falling off a tree branch, the drip-drip-drip of melting snow. The sharp crack of a tree under the influence of expanding ice. And the tinkle of icicles colliding. And the grumbling of Spike's stomach. We moved on.

It was shortly after sunset when we got back to Ponyville and we all went home.

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It's Cold Outside

March 4: Yesterday's picnic was a great outing, but it felt good to snuggle up on my couch with a pile of books in my reading room today. I haven't received word lately from Moondancer, I bet she's up to her eyeballs in scrolls from the cave dwelling. Rainbow Dash wants us all to go sledding soon. The weather has become colder and she says Cloudsdale is on its way with a fresh load of snow, maybe the last big one before spring. Depending on how long it takes to drop the snow, Dash may be rounding us up as early as tomorrow afternoon, but probably the day after.

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The Silence of the Snow

March 5: There's a nip in the air today, like a surprise pinch on the nose or on an inner thigh where the winter fur has been worn thin. Cloudsdale has arrived. The weather ponies shepherded in a fleet of great big clouds loaded with snow, moved them into position over town, field and orchard, and bucked them into action. It snowed all afternoon.

I put on my warm winter cloak, my red ("folly" colored) scarf, and my white boots. I looked for my old white and dusty rose scarf at first, then I remembered it had gone up in smoke along with the Golden Oak Library. I went out to enjoy the flurries.

The wind was very light and the falling snow made everything seem distant and foreign. Standing still, I could hear bits and snatches of ponies calling or laughing, but mostly I heard the sound of snow landing on my hood. I went to find Fluttershy.

I found her at home, packing a small awning, a blanket, some string and a tea set. Tea in the snow sounded like a great plan, so she added another cup for me. We walked for a while in the new Ponyville hay fields, getting blanketed in fresh snow until her green cloak looked as white as my red one, our breath steamy and frost building up on our scarves.

Fluttershy chose a spot among the new hibernation dens to set up the tarp. She bent and tied some young willows together to make a few arches, and draped and tied the tarp over top. I put the blanket down in the sheltered space below the tarp. Then we melted snow, heated the water and made tea.

Behind us was a jumble of muted shapes and winter-bare branches cradling snow. In front of us, a hypnotizing dance of white on white that seemed to go on forever. In our small shelter we drank tea in silence and stared out into the white shimmering void. Somehow, it's very satisfying to be in a safe spot and just watch and listen for danger that never arrives. We shall live to see another day!

As the light began to fade, the clouds ran out of snow. The air cleared and before us were untrammeled fields of white fading into the misty distance. We packed up our things, tightened our boots and stepped out into the fresh powder. I'd walked through a lot of snow on the northern expedition, but this held one thing over that trek. Here, home, hearth and books are just a short walk away.

I left Fluttershy at her cottage, and by the time I got home, I found that Spike had already blasted the castle walkway free of snow. It's cold enough that the vaporized snow condensed as frost all around the walkway, making every nearby tree, bush and castle wall white, fuzzy and sparkly. I bet Spike had a great time doing that.

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Running Up That Hill

March 6: True to her word, Rainbow Dash rounded us all up and herded us to a tall hill just outside of Ponyville for a day of sledding. Fortunately for us, this is Dash. She slept in long enough for us to have breakfast and do our morning routines before she began pounding on our doors. Spike came but Fluttershy declined the invitation, so there were six of us ploughing our way up that hill. Sledding, especially on a hill this steep and with this many trees is more excitement than Fluttershy can easily bear. She stayed home to play checkers with Angel and a few mice overwintering at her cottage.

Cloudsdale has moved on to snow on another region and the air has warmed up. I could see my breath but I was fine in just my scarf, boots and saddle. Rainbow Dash was pulling a racing sled, the raised kind on runners, with a steering bar connected to two small skis. Applejack was wearing hers as she climbed the hill, it was some sort of giant salad bowl. At least it was bowl shaped, and big enough to fit one big or two small ponies in it. Pinkie was dragging a party toboggan. Rarity's sled was like a box on skis, with a cushioned seat and reins. I had a two-pony toboggan, big enough for me and Spike.

We were the first to arrive at this hill and we went up and down a few times before anypony else from Ponyville arrived. Rainbow Dash had to abandon her racing sled at first, it just wasn't picking up speed in the fresh deep snow. The same went for Applejack's bowl and Rarity's seat on skis. But Pinkie's Party Sled had room for everypony. We all climbed onto that.

To fit, first you put the nuttiest pony in a crouch in the front. We let Pinkie, Dash and Applejack fight it out as to which was the nuttiest of the bunch. That pony does the steering. The rest of us get on one at a time, laying down with our heads on the back of the pony ahead of us and holding on to their hindquarters and the sled ropes for dear life. A little push, and we become a multicolored meteor plummeting down the side of a dangerously steep slope, kicking up gouts of powder at every turn, screaming and wild-eyed while some nut in the driver's seat sets a path zigzagging through the trees. This is why Fluttershy stayed home.

We did that all morning long.

By noon, we were all raspy and dry in the throat. It might have been from the screaming. We picked up our gear and stopped for a hot lunch at Café Hay.

Café Hay offers a complementary copy of the Ponyville Express to patrons, and while we were waiting for our table, the headline on the top of the fold caught my eye. It was news about professor Clarity Quest's cave discovery. I picked it up and brought it with us so we could all read the news. Dr Clarity Quest was one of the ponies we had rescued from Winter's clutches and I knew my friends would be interested in her discovery.

The paper claimed that Dr Quest had discovered a treasure trove of ancient pony writings on scrolls in a desert cave, along with the remains of a lone pony scholar who had died thousands of years ago. The newspaper claimed that the collection of scrolls told legends that had long ago been forgotten and that the small earth pony skeleton may have been the last direct descendant of Epona, The All Mother. To avoid disturbing the site, the newspaper said Dr Clarity is keeping the location of her dig under wraps for the time being. On page two there were a few pictures of the finds, including the same picture Moondancer had shown me of the pony skeleton. I showed them the picture and they all froze. I fought the urge to see if my mother was near and I noticed all my friends, except Spike, were doing the same. I put away the paper, and we all ordered something warm to drink.

After lunch we went back to the hill to sled some more. By now several packed trails snaked their way down the slope, perfect for the smaller sleds. Rarity did her best to zoom down the hill in elegance and style on her cushioned seat on skis. Rainbow Dash pitted her racing sled against Applejack's slippery bowl, and Pinkie squeezed in with me and Spike on our sled. Our combined weight gave us an advantage. We beat Rainbow Dash and Applejack even though we weren't really racing them. That annoyed Rainbow Dash.

Mid afternoon I called it a day. The hill was now swarming with ponies and the trails were getting icy. We stopped to drink a hot chocolate at Sugarcube Corner, raising our mugs in toast to Epona, The All Mother, before going home to rest.

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Down Time

March 7: I pulled a pile of books off my library shelves and settled into my reading couch to spend the day recouping from all that sledding I did yesterday. That was fortunate because Moondancer dropped into my open copy of Treatise On Ponies. She asked if I'd read the newspaper article and she told me to expect a scroll of her notes. It's a vernacular transcription of what she has pulled from the gold scrolls thus far. She has been to the dig site herself now and she told me it was an experience. She also told me that what she sent me is still not published yet, that the first paper is in progress.

Tomorrow my friends and I take the Hearth's Warming decorations down. I think the castle is the last building in Ponyville that still has them up.

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Unwrapping The Castle

March 8: Today we took down the castle's Hearth's Warming decorations. Everypony else in Ponyville has already stored away their Hearth's Warming decorations, and it's high time we took down ours too. It was a group effort. Things went faster since we didn't have to fabricate the ribbons as we went along but it still took most of the day. Fortunately, I don't lack for empty rooms in the castle, so they won't be in the way. Only 10 days left until spring!

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Call to Duty

March 9: I took the time to go to the Ponyville Spa today. Tomorrow I'm expected in Canterlot for the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs, so today I got shined up for royal duty. I don't want to sit up on display while looking like I've been horsing around on a do-it-yourself castle makeover project.

On top of the usual hooficure and manestyling, I had the oil bath, the one where the spa ponies use a strigil comb to get the excess oil out. It is so worth it. I smell heavenly and my mane and fur is like silk. I'm wrapped in towels for the night to soak up the last of the excess oil. Tomorrow morning Celestia is having a chariot pick me up to take me to Canterlot. I'll be gone all day.

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The Official Glue

March 10: It's been a long day. I had to get up early to be ready for my dawn pickup. Celestia's chariot, pulled by two of the castle guard pegasi, landed on the cleared walk in front of my door just before sunrise. I was wearing the winter cloak with the sparkling hem that Rarity gave me, but in the chariot there was a travel blanket and I threw that on too for extra warmth. As Celestia's sun painted the morning sky, we too rose to heed the call of Canterlot.

After a speedy ride through brightening skies we touched down in the castle courtyard in Canterlot. There a livery pony waited to lead me inside to where I put on my crown and an attendant then took my cloak and saddle bag. No books or checklists for the rest of the day. I was led down to the hall to where I had breakfast with Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. It was the same procedure as last year, but we went over the protocol of presence anyway.

We finished in time to make our entrance in the Grand Hall before the assembled mayors and officials of Equestria. This was the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs. We took our seats, then they took theirs, then Princess Luna gave the Speech From the Throne. Chairpony Flax Bit then proceeded to call each mayor and official in turn to submit their reports, and each was received by the Royal Committee on Equestrian Finance and Civic Affairs, seated just below us. We didn't speak, the Royal Committee asked all the questions. We just made the proceedings official and important.

Running Equestria is important, but everypony needs to be reminded of that importance every so often. So we sat and watched. All day long. I concentrated on my breathing.

Lunch break was all too brief. I'd barely managed to work the stiffness out of my rump when recess was over and we were back in our thrones. I wondered how Princess Cadence was doing. She must be as big as a whale by now. Trying to keep a straight face kept me busy for several minutes. It wouldn't do to burst out laughing while the Mayor of Vanhoover recounted how they had sawflies invade their orchards this year (they brought in extra rain and the rust cleared out the sawflies before they had cut down too many branches). It was a long afternoon. Each official had a written report as well and by evening the table in front of the committee was piled high with papers. Papers I could have read.

Supper break, still a few towns to go.

At last. We retired, giving the committee time to deliberate and the princesses time to lower the sun raise the moon and for me to stretch my legs. Then it was back to the thrones for the committee's closing remarks and for us to sign and seal the register. Then everypony rose one last time as we filed out the room. Princess duty: check.

I got my saddle bags back, stashed my crown away, put on my cloak and stepped out into the Canterlot night. In the courtyard, Princess Luna had provided me with her chariot and two of her guard. I climbed in, settled under a black velvet blanket, and we launched into the moonlight. Way down below the assembled mayors we letting their manes down, hobnobbing in the garden and milling about in the ballroom. I was going home. Home to a warm hearth, a comfortable couch, and a few chapters in a good book.

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A Time Before Ponies

March 11: While I was gone, Moondancer's scroll had arrived. This is a really unusual origin story she's been piecing together. She's been hard at work translating the old pony writings and idioms on the gold scrolls into something easier to understand. I think she may have taken liberties in including some modern concepts into the narrative, but then she's been not just reading these gold scrolls, she been living them for months now. So far, it looks like this:

In the time before ponies, there was only rock. The sky was black, no water flowed and all was desolate and freezing cold. In the center of all this stood the Tree.

The Tree had control of all that we call home. Its roots tapped into the endless underground, its branches embraced the bubble of limited sky, it was one with the rock. But rocks are slow and the Tree could feel time passing and it grew bored. It had drawn on power from the depths and built gardens of stone and ice, but that too had grown old and stale. It wanted more. It could feel the presence of other realities, other universes. Some of those realities were frantic with activity. The Tree decided to make a new garden.

Opening up a mirrored rift to another reality, the Tree found something fascinating. Entities that, working together, could extract sustenance from rock, water and air. They moved, lived and died incredibly quickly, but not so quickly that the Tree couldn't appreciate the ebb and flow of their activities. To better appreciate how they worked together and what their motivations were to do so, the Tree took a sample home.

They were delicate, far more delicate than the smooth ice fields, the carved rocky peaks and the combed sand plains the Tree was used to playing with. But the Tree discovered genetics.

As the living things stumbled about under the sparkling lights of their domed habitat, the Tree tinkered with their genes. It learned through trial and error, creating new organisms, making new combinations. All this took time, but time is what the Tree had the most of, and this was fun. While the tree was building better beings in its way, natural selection was acting on serendipitous changes to the genomes, producing creatures that by virtue of unforeseen mutations were better able to navigate this strange new universe's physics and to see in the glimmer of the Tree's sparkling lights. While they didn't reproduce well, they still out-bred their ancestors and became the new fauna and flora in the Tree's habitat. At long last, the Tree's new garden was flourishing.

Drawing up energy from the ground, the Tree set about changing its world. It funneled power through a hole in the sky to light the world and heat the ground. That light was much brighter that what the Tree's garden was used to, but the denizens there adapted quickly. The warmth melted the ice which flowed into the sandy plains and started up a water cycle. The Tree carefully transplanted a pioneer community of rugged plants and was rewarded with green growth that spread all over the land, breaking through the rocks and building the first soils as the old plants died and were replaced. Next the Tree seeded the larger plants, including the big plants that looked like exotic versions of itself, but delicate and ephemeral. When all was ready, the Tree tore down the dome.

Of all the delicate things the Tree had in its garden, the ones that it liked the most were the ponies. It had tinkered long and often with their genes, making them stronger, faster and smarter than the archaic ponies that the Tree had brought here. The prize pony in the Tree's small herd was a white maned mare named Epona. The Tree had unraveled the mechanism by which ponies naturally grow old and die, and in Epona the Tree instituted a work-around, keeping her young. From Epona, the Tree spawned three breeds of pony. Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi. Like Epona, they were fast, they were smart, and they were perfectly adapted to this new garden in this strange universe. They were also, by nature, social. The Tree built on that to make them natural stewards of the more delicate species. The Tree made them gardeners and rested on its roots to watch the result.

There are more bits and pieces, but that looks like the beginning. It's not as romantic as saying ponies arose from grass that wanted to catch the wind, or from shapes made in the mud by the hooves of passing constellation ponies, or coaxed out of the sea by rabbits.

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The Dream Mare

March 12: In Moondancer's notes there is more to the story... it's mostly about Epona. The gist of it is that Epona was the lead mare and mother of all. This I take is a result of being long lived and from the Tree shaping her offspring.

From Moondancer's translation: All ponies looked up to Epona and she cherished them. The ponies in turn loved and cherished the land they lived in and all that shared it with them. It wasn't long before the ponies developed a system to keep themselves comfortable and to help the plants and animals they cherished thrive.

Weather control started with pegasi gathering and herding naturally forming clouds and taking them to where they were needed. The technology for making clouds came later, and with that came the possibility of building stable cloud banks on which pegasi could construct buildings.

The earth ponies found that they could influence the growth of plants and they soon took to agriculture and to using pegasi weather control to their advantage. Ponies stopped wandering the grasslands.

With the advent of unicorns, ponies took over the day and night cycle to fit with their natural activity rhythm. Eventually they extended this rest and work cycle into seasons of growth, productivity and rest. It just felt right, as did the saddles, bridles, clothes, and houses that were developed by settled ponies. Or maybe it was the Tree whispering in their ears as they slept.

By now, Epona was a very old mare. She didn't look it, she was as sound of body as she had ever been, but her mind was old. She could dimly recall the old garden, when they were wild and still wobbly on their hooves. The old herd was gone, she was the only old pony left. All around her were her children's children's children, many generations removed. They had been changed and Epona felt alone. Only in her dreams did Epona still gallop the old fields under the eternal sun. Only in her dreams did she still feel relevant. And it was in her dreams that the Tree gave Epona a new gift.

The Tree showed her how to become a dreamwalker. This in turn became the greatest gift of the All Mother. In the collective dreamscape her vast experience made her radiate strength and warmth. She was to be followed without question and she protected her magical children from their nightmares. She kept them sane so that they could in turn remain the sane stewards of this, the Tree's green garden.

Epona retired from the jostle and nipping of pony settlement, choosing at first to return to the nomadic ways of her youth. But there were winters now and piaffing deep snows for dried yellow grass grew tedious for an old pony. She had favorites that would tend to her needs, proving her with fresh horse blankets against the cold, delivering hay to her when they could find her, coaxing her to move into a stable.

Eventually she relented and she moved into an isolated stable built by her followers. They chose a cave near the original garden, the dispersal point of all plant and animal life released by the Tree, now wiped off the face of the land by wind and shifting sands. The cave was dark and far from all pony settlements, and the stable itself was magically lit by a crystal that was fed by the spirit of ponies everywhere. Epona approved of this as it reflected the dreamscape that resides in the darkness of sleep, when everypony is alone. Here she could concentrate on nurturing ponies in their dreams.

But Epona was not getting any younger and ponies don't always dream of cooperation and the common good. Epona took up reliving her distant past, as best she could, tracing her memories in ink on scrolls, spending less and less time in the dreamscape and more time on the esoteric art of fixing words to paper. Her words. She looked inward and backward. She didn't notice her magic light dimming until it went out.

Outside the cave Epona found deep white snows and howling winds. Her hay larder was nearly bare. She had long ago stopped paying attention to the seasons so she didn't know what season to expect when she looked outside. What troubled her was the dreamscape. Everywhere ponies were dreaming of winter and ice. Ponies seemed to be fading away and their dreams were weak and angry. Epona threw herself into the task of bringing them back. She gave the dreaming ponies her strength, she bid them to follow her and she dreamed of spring.

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Her Final Gift Of Life

March 13: Moondancer's notes are hard to follow at times. Since she's piecing together fragments and fused bits, not everything is transcribed in narrative order. It's more in the order of what part of the scroll or scrolls that she was working on at the time. I remember how tired she was coming out of a Haycartes session. She probably experienced the easiest, clearest parts first and built up the content from there. Buried in the middle is a description of what I take is the end of Epona's story, about where she was trying to pull everypony out of their icy dreams.

Epona collected as many weak, dreaming ponies as she could and she led them to dream grasslands to play. She couldn't leave them for long and go collect more sleeping ponies because many would slip back into dreaming of strife, cold and snow. Nor would they wake up. But Epona would not give up. She dug in her hooves and led them on romps through tall grass wet with dew, to dust baths under a warm sun and games of tag. They grew stronger and she led them on gallops through the dreamscape to draw in more sleeping ponies and break them out of this nightmare.

Everypony would she nuzzle and to everypony she would give strength though it taxed her, for she had nary a thing to eat nor waking moment in which to do so. She grew gaunt, her years caught up with her body as her mind fought on. But ponies began to awake. At first just a few, and remembering joy and the warmth of the All Mother, they raised the others from their slumber. The crystal light in Epona's stable flickered and glowed anew.

Epona rested on her bed, a withered shadow of the eternal youth she had been. The snows melted as ponies brought Epona's harmony to the waking world. Epona had given her all to her herd, to everypony she could reach. She slipped into eternal sleep. She has joined the stars but her body is here still, in her last home and her final resting place.

That's it so far.

OK, who wrote the gold scrolls? Was it Epona? Was it a caretaker pony? Was it merely finished by the ponies who sealed the tomb, leaving it as a final chapter to Epona's story? Moondancer should be able to tell when one author ends and another picks up the story in a written work. Unless the whole thing was transcribed from the paper scrolls. Or if Epona somehow dictated most of the final chapter to a dreaming pony as she lay dying.

Well, Moondancer and professor Quest are still working on unraveling this find. I expect many other scholars will be studying it for years to come as well.

The All Mother. They found the All Mother! This is big. I see now why Moondancer sent me a copy of her notes. For safe keeping. I think I'm going to go hug a dragon now.

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The Beacon

March 14: I'm still shaken by Moondancer's notes. Compared to finding Epona, and with her a story that claims ponies, and life, was brought to what is now Equestria by the Tree of Harmony... compared to that, discovering a giant windigo in the far north was just a merry jaunt in the snow.

I want to see her for myself. I want to be sure that it's her.

I don't know what I want.

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Winter Grime Blues

March 15: Winter Wrap Up is only days away. The snows are getting grimy with the soot of hearth fires and I was feeling a bit grimy myself. I joined Fluttershy and Rarity at the spa. In the sauna, while I sweated out my anxieties and lingering sadness at the thought of Epona saving everypony while dying of starvation, I told them some of what I'd read in Moondancer's notes. All on the QT, as it is unpublished research.

We managed to steer the conversation to preparing for Winter Wrap Up. Rarity is ready with her bird's nest ribbons. She has mended all the team vests that ponies have brought to her boutique and she has made a few new ones besides. I tried on my vest when I got home and it still fits. My growth has slowed down, I won't need my vest to be adjusted again this year. Fluttershy is hard at work with Amethyst Star, filling food baskets for the critters. They're stored at Amethyst Star's home to keep Angel and Fluttershy's mice from running off with all the choice bits.

After a long fragrant, refreshing soak at the spa, I dropped by Quills and Sofas and a few other shops to top up my supply of quills, ink and scrolls. I just need to check through my check list again and I should be ready to prepare for Winter Wrap Up too.

I think we should have another game night here before we wrap up winter and everypony gets really busy. I bet Pinkie would be up for that.

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I'm Invited

March 16: I went to Sugarcube Corner with Spike, Pinkie was behind the counter. She took one look at me and said, all in one breath, we should totally have a game night at the Treecastle before Winter Wrap Up and bring food dishes and have a party before everypony gets busy with the spring and she'll go invite everypony and here's my invitation and one for Spike and everypony's dish will be a secret because it's a surprise and she zipped out the door. Mrs. Cake stepped out from the back of the shop and asked if I wanted anything. So I bought some oatmeal, chocolate and peppermint cookies. And a tourmaline cupcake for Spike.

My invitation is for tomorrow night.

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Food, Friends and Fun

March 17: Game night began around sundown. We were seven ponies, one zebra and a dragon. Pinkie invited Zecora and Lyra too! I'd already helped Spike lug down lots of cushions, a few tables, all the games, and the cookies we'd bought. Also some third cut hay, as a digestif. Then everypony began to arrive, carrying food.

Zecora arrived early. She decided to travel light and bring dried ingredients for a spicy stew. We set her up in the kitchen with a big pot and I helped stir while she dropped things one after the other into the boiling water. Spike took care of the door and making our guests welcome downstairs. I'm not sure what all Zecora put in that stew, but it was delicious! I recognized dried dandelion, sugar beet pulp (as a thickener), sesame seeds, dried rough bedstraw and sweet potato. There were hot and savory spices I couldn't identify, but they really gave that stew some zing! By the time it was ready, everypony else had arrived.

They were helping themselves at the food table, lounging on the cushions and chatting. I felt a surge of warmth. These were my friends! Spike dashed off to get bowls for the stew and Zecora and I went to see what surprises were to be found at the food bar. Carrot pies, dried celery sticks and sesame silage dip, punch, raisin bread and apple butter, baked hay casserole and chocolate cupcakes. We filled our plates and found ourselves some cushions.

I suggested Piaffle, but there were no takers. Anyway, the runes reminded me of the final gift of Epona and I let it drop. I challenged Rainbow Dash to Ring Fling instead. I had been reading about strategy and I wanted to try it out. Dash had to pick herself up off the floor, she was laughing so hard. I lost anyway. Getting those rings to slide and stop where you want them is hard. Running is easier.

I played a few rounds of Bulls and Cows with Lyra while I waited for the next game of Bundle of Sticks to start. Zecora won that again and Rarity challenged Lyra to Rope Rings. So I got in with Zecora, Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy in a game of Bundle of Sticks. We got to talking about Winter Wrap Up, which is the day after tomorrow! Hello spring! At least in most of Equestria. In the Everfree, it's been raining already.

Pinkie has been sharpening all the skates in Ponyville. She started with the Winter Wrap Up supply at Town Hall, but ponies just kept bringing her more. They're all sharp sharp sharp when she's finished with them. She said she'd danced with them on over a pile of carrots and made diced carrot salad in no time. Watch out ice!

Zecora will be there to lend her hooves, helping ponies push snow off the roofs and helping remove snow. Applejack has been getting everything ready, seeds, watering cans, snow plows and carts. Making sure everything is quick to find and in good repair. Everything should be ready tomorrow and I'll be able to go round and tick them off my checklist. Maybe I'll buy a few more quills too. And ink and scrolls. Just in case.

Zecora won again. I came in dead last.

We chatted and ate some more and cheered on the ponies playing Tangle (Pinkie is unbeatable at Tangle) until it got late and everypony went home. We'll pick up the hall and clean the dishes tomorrow.

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All Set To Go

March 18: I'm off early to bed, Winter Wrap Up starts at dawn! Today I gathered up the three team leaders and together we made the rounds, checking to make sure all is ready for Winter Wrap Up. Spike ticked all the boxes on my checklist. Pre-Winter Wrap Up inventory achieved! We're officially ready! The day after tomorrow, spring will be here!

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Breakfast Of Champions

Mar 19: It will be dawn soon. I've had a good flake of hay, oats and a bowl of beet pulp. Breakfast of champions! I dragged Spike out of bed and he should be getting his breakfast now too. I've got my boots on as well as my scarf and my All-Team Organizer vest. My projected optimal workflow sheet is ready. Got to go! It's Winter Wrap Up Day!

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Buzzing, Bustling, Burbling and Budding

March 20: It's been a long couple of days. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Nopony did. We were plowing and seeding the fields until the break of day. There are more fields to sow this year with the new hay fields that were cleared last fall. Hopefully we won't have to resow them next year.

I was out of the gate a bit early this year. We arrived at the steps of Town Hall before sunup. Spike was not amused. But we had a front row view when Mayor Mare arrived and gave us a motivational speech. Then everypony went to their team leaders to get their assignments, ordered and timed as I'd planned it. Winter Wrap Up was underway!

Spike and I trotted from team leader to team leader, checking off activities when they started and when they finished, making sure everything was getting done in order and on time. I even had Rainbow Dash's tortoise in my itinerary. It wouldn't do to have the leader of the weather team hovering over Tank's hibernation den, waiting for him to wake up and dig himself out, instead of dispatching the weather ponies. Rainbow Dash had a special food basket that she had prepared for Tank, as well as a beach towel and chaise long on which Tank could sun himself as he woke up. The Daring Do books would wait. Thus, I worked out when Tank's denning mound would be clear of snow, which would be when the weather crew was helping Pinkie skate straight cracks into the ponds and lakes. Right then, Dash could stop by to set up the beach towel and chair and leave the food basket.

Next, I calculated when the sun would warm that spot, rousing him enough to respond to calls. Dash would want to do that, and since by then the skies would be clear, she'd be free for a while and could spare the time. So Tank was the last animal to be roused from hibernation, but it worked out well. Tank had chosen a high spot that stayed dry while the sun melted the snow.

We were an efficient team. Everything got done in order and on time. We plowed and seeded the fields all night, watering everything in the morning. The southern birds arrived to open water and fresh nests... It's the first day of spring and Ponyville is buzzing, bustling, burbling and budding with life. Even the new pastures are sending up little tender shoots. Tempting, tasty, tender shoots of grass. Must resist!

I was so tired. Around midday, after Mayor Mare had declared winter all wrapped up, I went and took a long nap. I slept until late afternoon.

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Spreading the Spring Spirit

March 21: Pinkie didn't miss a beat. It's the first full day of spring after wrapping up winter and that means one thing. A party! She sprang into action to fete all of Ponyville with a Spring Has Sprung party. Some ponies bounce back from a sleepless Winter Wrap Up really quickly.

She fired all her party canons, launching balloons, streamers and confetti. This time her cake canon worked too, although I liked the cakes baked by the Cakes better. Pinkie says the Cakes have better batter, it's all in the butter. Pinkie had ponies hang up banners and pinatas and she brought out games like kick the can of treats and pin the tail on the pony. There was also a six-legged race, which was run by the foals. Everypony else was still a little tired from working hard all Winter Wrap Up. But it was even more fun just to watch and cheer on the foals.

It was so wonderful out today. The blue skies, blooming flowers, singing birds everywhere. Only two days ago there was snow, gloomy skies and just the sound of the wind whistling through bare tree branches.

The Ponytones gave us a concert while dressed in colorful and airy spring garb on top of their shaggy winter coats. I was too hot to even think of wearing a hat. Many of the ponies watching and singing along were visibly shedding. Another sure sign that spring is here.

I saw Tank buzzing around, and Gummy splayed out on a hot rock in the sun. A whole bunch of butterflies descended on a mare at one point. She was standing in the sun, wearing a spring hat and dress and probably getting quite sweaty. She didn't even notice at first. Butterflies are light and she was intently watching the six-legged race.

After dark, Pinkie launched fireworks in a field at the edge of town. I followed my friends to a spot upwind where we settled in to watch the fire flowers blossom in the sky and sparklers spray sparks on the ground. It got a little chilly after that and we all went home. It really is spring.

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

March 22: My spring molt has definitely begun, I'm shedding my winter coat everywhere I stop. Now I realize why there was a hall free for my lecture. Spring Molt Break officially starts in three days, and most ponies manage to clear out before then. I hope somepony attends my lecture.

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The Hair Master

March 23: My spring harvest of lilac writing quills has begun. Yes, I have once again become one with a writing desk. Maybe this time I should set aside some of my nicer primaries for special occasions... or maybe not. What if using your own flight feathers as quills is a social faux pas? Rarity would know. Well, faux pas or not, I'm putting these feathers to good use.

I did see Rarity today, although I didn't ask her the quill question. The Carousel Boutique was closed and I had to pound hard on the door to get her to come down and let me in. You see, Rarity is shedding too. She's keeping mostly to one room, far away from her dresses and bolts of cloth, in an effort to avoid getting hair all over them and all over the boutique. Since everypony else is molting too, the boutique is closed until spring molt has ended. You can't have a parade of shedding ponies trying on all Rarity's creations and carpeting everything with wispy hair! Well, you could, but Rarity will have none of that.

I was there to see if Rarity wanted to collect some of my winter coat to make some more needle felted dolls. Yes, she did! She had forgotten all about doing that last year, but since I brought it up, she was all hot to trot. She brushed out quite a bit of lilac insulating hair from my coat and we managed to coax it all into a cloth bag for easy retrieval. Then I returned the favor and she had a second bag of fine white hair to work on. I let myself out as she got going with her felting tool. She was in the zone. I don't think she noticed I'd left.

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Primped and Preened

March 24: I took a trip to the spa this afternoon so I wouldn't look too ratty tomorrow while standing at the lectern. I am feeling really clean and refreshed after all the brushing, the sauna, the seaweed wrap and the long soak in the hot tub. I took home some bath salts and bath oil for a last minute refresher tomorrow morning. That should keep me from getting all itchy, I hope. It wouldn't do be scratching while giving my talk. Spike offered to shave me. Ha ha, Spike. No.

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Moments in Time

March 25: It's been a crazy, topsy turvy day. It started out as planned. I got up early, took a bath, with bath oil so I'd feel fresh and not itchy. I caught the morning train to Canterlot with Spike, and we made our way to the auditorium reserved for my talk. Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns seemed mostly deserted. Like I thought, Spring Molt Break.

I had 150 flash cards and 50 transparencies. I practiced giving my talk five times (Spike insists it was twenty even though that's impossible). The scheduled time arrived and the auditorium filled up! Even my Canterlot friends were there, including Moondancer, taking a break from her research. Also present was Starlight Glimmer.

I only caught a glimpse of her in the auditorium, so I wasn't sure it was her at the time or just my imagination playing tricks on me, but it did throw a horseshoe into my pacing. Fortunately, I had 150 flash cards to keep me on track.

Starlight Glimmer is a unicorn that my friends and I had met on our first map-driven Friendship quest. More than just met, she took us captive and stripped us of our cutie marks. Starlight Glimmer had a whole town in the middle of nowhere full of ponies who had been convinced or coerced to have their cutie marks magically removed. She had them believing that happiness lay in being ordinary and that special talents leads to strife. Or they were fervently pretending so. Apparently the Tree sent all six of us to restore the cutie marks to everypony somehow. As a consequence of our helping the townsponies shake off Starlight's influence and regain their identities, Starlight Glimmer was run out of town. Or she ran herself out of town. Either way Starlight Glimmer was not a happy camper. This put a damper on her plans of spreading her magic of being mediocre.

Spike and I didn't stay in Canterlot after the lecture, we headed right back to Ponyville, where my intuition was proven right. Starlight Glimmer was stalking me. We got home, and there she was in the map room, waiting for me, as sassy as you please. She was prepared for this. I was not.

Starlight Glimmer had found a way to use the Tree's Map Table in conjunction with a modified version of Star Swirl's time travel spell to get enough power to go back in time all the way to where Rainbow Dash, as a filly, had challenged two colts to a race. Why then? Starlight had attended my lecture on the Magic of Friendship earlier today. I had explained that during a race, Rainbow Dash had created her first Sonic Rainboom and that Sonic Rainboom had been critical in shaping our destinies and eventually bringing us together as friends. Starlight Glimmer had understood that if she could prevent that key event, I would probably be friendless. She also knew me well enough that I would follow her given half the chance, and that way I would leave this reality and get dropped into a new one that she would shape by preventing Dash from making a Sonic Rainboom.

This leaves me to wonder, now that it's all over, what reality am I in now? Everything so far seems the same as it had been. I'm relieved to find the connection to this e-journal is not broken.

Starlight Glimmer was waiting for me in Cloudsdale (and self levitating!). There she foiled me and foiled Rainbow Dash's race. Spike and I ended up in some sort of Equestria gone horribly wrong. So we went back, and she was waiting for us, a smirk on her face and with new way to defeat me and keep Rainbow Dash from finding her need for speed. That ended with Spike and I returning to a different present timeline with a bad outcome for Equestria. She wasn't just breaking the chain of events that led to me making friends in Ponyville, she was sending all of Equestria into turmoil. This happened over and over again.

So many changes to the time stream happened, who knows what may be different now. Spike, Starlight Glimmer and I are the only constants in this outcome. I'm still not sure why the Tree let all of this happen in the first place.

Back to late this afternoon. Spike and I got back from Canterlot to find Starlight Glimmer sitting at the map table. It was not a pleasant surprise to see her there, and it was even less of a nice surprise when she cast a spell that created a temporary wormhole in time and space, right then and there. It turns out she had been studying hard that whole time between when she escaped her markless town and her sudden appearance in this castle. She had been studying us and time travel, maybe self defense, probably self levitation, cloud-walking, and I think the final, important lesson she had learned, was at my lecture on the Magic of Friendship. She probably had already learned of what had been my first big break in magic, the magic burst at my entrance exam that had pushed me onto the path to being noticed by Princess Celestia. That eventually led to me making friends in Ponyville at just the right moment. But at my lecture today, she found _the_ key event. She had studied hard and well. I have to give her that.

So Spike and I found ourselves face to face with a pony we had written off long ago, and now, like Trixie, she was back to buck us and buck us hard. She opened a wormhole, stared at us with a smirk and let herself get sucked into it like she was boarding the Friendship Express to a sunny destination. She had waited for us, or specifically, for me, to return before casting that spell. Wherever it was that she went, it wasn't just to escape, she had something nefarious in mind, and I had to find out what. The scroll she had used to make the wormhole had fallen to the floor and I did the impulsive thing. I did not call on my friends to go after her together. I cast the spell. In hindsight, it was better that it was just Spike and I that went after her. Had we been seven or six, staying together would have been complicated. We ended up in Cloudsdale.

Now I can walk on clouds now, but not Spike, nor half my friends, without magical preparation. I had none, and Starlight Glimmer was waiting for me. We were in the past and at that crucial moment when Rainbow Dash, filly Rainbow Dash, gets presented with the opportunity and then the motivation, to fly fast enough to make her very first Sonic Rainboom. Thus, it was also the day Spike hatched and all my friends got our cutie marks.

Starlight Glimmer is a very good student. Too good. She managed to keep from falling to earth, to avoid me and to thwart Rainbow Dash from picking up enough speed several times! Each time, the reverse worm hole would manifest and pull me "back" to a _new_ present time, next to the Map Table. In each instance, it would be a timeline in which I had never made friends in Ponyville.

When we'd come back to the new "present", we'd come back to an open area, oddly deserted, except for the map table. Was the Tree in on this? How many dimensions does the Tree "see"? Well, thanks to Starlight Glimmer, we knew what went wrong and what it was we had to correct. Blank flank filly Rainbow Dash had to complete that race unfettered. We still had the scroll and we went back. Again and again. Fortunately to the same moment _before_ Rainbow challenged her two colt rivals to that pivotal race. Unfortunately, Starlight Glimmer had a whole arsenal of ideas on how to both beat me and keep Rainbow Dash from making a Rainboom then and there. I study Friendship, she studied dueling. Did I mention that she's really good at her studies? I had a lot of spells thrown at me that I had to learn how to emulate and counter on the fly. It was not going well.

Each time I failed, Spike and I got dropped into a new timeline. Every timeline was different except for one common element. Without the Elements of Harmony, without me and my friends standing together, working together, giving the right push at key moments to change the tide, Spike and I would come back to find Equestria in the clutches of one disaster or another. Nightmare Moon as sole ruler of Equestria (the little of which I saw was doing surprisingly well, but I didn't stay long enough to see much more than the completely renovated Everfree castle). Discord's mad Equestria running ponies ragged. King Sombra revived and at war with Equestria. Queen Chrysalis' conquered Equestria, hunting down the last of the pony resistance. One change to the past, many different presents, and none of them good. But always the Map Table, Starlight Glimmer's scroll and the three of us remembering our original, lost timeline. OK, the Map Table indicates that the Tree makes for four who/that remembered.

The last stop took us to a timeline where all around the Map Table, as far as I could see, was a lifeless wasteland of rock and desiccated ground. That time I had succeeded in grabbing Starlight Glimmer (small victory! yay) just in time to drag her with us into the worm hole. I couldn't out duel her, but maybe I could still teach her. After all, she's a quick... Well, I had nothing else to lose.

Friendship Reference Manual; chapter: Starting Friendships; header: Making friends with enemies; subheader: Find out what motivates your enemy. Summary: Solve or salve that motivation first before any headway can be made into finding a common interest.

The inhospitable, grey, windswept desertscape wasn't enough to change her mind. Instead, to try and change my mind, she took us back in time to her past to teach me. There we saw her and a foal friend just as that foal friend experienced a surge of magic while catching an avalanche of books. The friend got his cutie mark right there and then and ran out to tell his parents. He moved away without saying goodbye. Starlight Glimmer never made another friend. Since that moment her mantra has been that cutie marks break friendships. Then she took us back to Cloudsdale where she snatched the scroll from Spike and proceeded to slowly rip it so I wouldn't be able to use it again.

But I hadn't finished. I explained that all friendships are important, that everypony's friendships keep all of Equestria strong. I slowly convinced her to give friendship a chance. Meanwhile, filly Dash created her first Sonic Rainboom, the worm hole opened and we got sucked back to the present, this time inside an intact castle. I guess I'm getting a little better at the magic of persuasion.

Then something strange happened. The Map Table pulled the scroll from Spike's grasp (he'd grabbed it after Starlight had relented) created a new worm hole and sent the scroll through it, alone! Then there was a blinding flash. It could be that the Tree has dropped us back into our original timeline, although how would I know? If so, I hope it also stopped all those disastrous timelines somehow1.

The blast of light had all my friends running for the castle, which was perfect, we had a lot to discuss. While Starlight Glimmer waited in the hall, we sat around the Map Table at a meeting that morphed into a Friendship Council with Starlight Glimmer as the topic of discussion. We decided to pull the cart that we had pledged to pull, that of spreading Friendship all across Equestria. So we gave Starlight Glimmer our friendship. Thus, we found a new pony inside.

1 Each trip to Cloudsdale and the past had to be to a new and different timeline, not to a point where my present timeline forked. If it had been a fork there would have been dozens of Twilights, Spikes and Starlight Glimmers all battling it out at the same time. With all that action, filly Dash would never had created her first Sonic Rainboom.

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The Guest

March 26: I'm dropping feathers left and right. Starlight Glimmer is staying here in the castle. She burned all her bridges in her vendetta against me and she didn't plan past it. In other words, she doesn't really have any other place to stay. The castle has a lot of unused rooms.

Over breakfast this morning it became clear just how directionless she has become. Directionless, essentially friendless (besides us), maybe a bit listless and very uncomfortable with the harm that she's done. Where have I seen something like this before? Well, there's nothing a little friendship can't heal! I talked her into catching the train and into going with her to the town she founded, to make amends with the ponies there. We'll go tomorrow. As a primer, I had her read my Friendship Reports. Not the originals, those I had Spike send back to Princess Celestia after we'd defeated Discord, but copies, written from memory into a field notebook. She was happy for something to do.

I went today to see if Rarity wants more pony molt to felt into dolls while the molt is abundant. I got brushed. A lot.

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Those First Wobbly Steps

March 27: Go to Equal Town with Starlight Glimmer to make amends, check! We caught the early train, rode it to the end of the line and around midday, walked into the town Starlight Glimmer had founded. Fortunately, the ponies there had had a lot of time to think over what Starlight Glimmer had done to them, how it had brought them together into a tight-knit community and how it had kindled a greater appreciation for their special talents. Long story short, while what Starlight had done to them was wrong, they'd mostly forgiven her, and they accepted her apology. So while I wouldn't call them Starlight's best friends, at least we left on friendly terms. Progress!

Now, what next?

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Do I share my mind? Do I dare to teach?

March 28: I called another Friendship Council meeting today. Yesterday's trip to Starlight Glimmer's old town got me thinking. In the friendship department, Starlight Glimmer is a blank slate. Helping her make new friends could be great for my research! She could be my student, just as I was Princess Celestia's student for all those years! What's more, reports from her on friendship should be better than what I'd get through my other idea: publishing a royal request.

That idea went well in council. Nopony objected, everypony thought it was a good idea. I got the impression that they all looked relieved somehow. Rainbow Dash said it's good that I'd have something to do, then she quickly added that I should go easy on the flash cards and lectures, not to scare Starlight Glimmer off. Before I could get her to tell me what was wrong with my flash cards, Pinkie chimed in that Starlight should totally live here, in the castle. Then everypony was talking at once about what a great idea that was. So that was that.

Starlight Glimmer accepted the invitation and now I have a student and lessons to plan! That's great, and nerve wracking. Lecturing is one thing, nurturing a pupil is another. I have some books on teaching to read.

After council, we had tea on the big balcony overlooking Ponyville. It's a lovely spring day, and us being outside means less shed hair indoors for Spike to clean up. Rarity took the opportunity to harvest that loose winter fluff off of all of us for her felting project. She'd brought a bunch of bags with just that in mind. So we had a brushing party, Starlight Glimmer included. It's a fun way to strengthen friendships.

It's hours later and already I'm leaving lilac colored hair everywhere I stop. My growing blood feathers itch!

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Working Out The Curriculum

March 29: Bright sunshine, warm spring air and small patches of tenacious winter fur that still need to fall off. Perfect for going out into the western pasture with a picnic blanket and saddlebags full of books, quills, ink and scrolls. I took a brush too.

It's usually about this time that Rarity and Fluttershy go to the spa, but with the spring molt, the spa is packed. Rarity has reserved seven spots for us in two days time.

I found a sunny spot that was sheltered from the breeze and settled in. First order of business, brush! Out, out, itchy hair that drives me to distraction! Go line a bird's nest somewhere.

I might have nibbled some of the fresh spring grass.

Next order of business, read books on teaching. I condensed those into a checklist of steps to follow: Concepts, objective, materials, evaluation, introductory reading, models, practical exercise, review, analysis, written summary, continuity, gestalt. That should get the ball rolling!

Next, plan easy friendship lessons then work on up. For instance, building friendships with colleagues and people you will deal with regularly. I'll have Starlight Glimmer run errands with Spike so she can make friends with the shop keepers. She could also make friends with Owlowiscious. I could send her over to Fluttershy's cottage to learn about altruism. That will have to wait a bit. Fluttershy is probably very busy getting ready for the annual Biome Management Conference.

Starlight Glimmer did attend at least part of my lecture on the magic of Friendship and she's read my early Friendship Reports, so the concepts are probably becoming clear to her. The objective, to make friends and come to realize the importance of friendship, that will be an abstraction for her at first. Materials are at her hoof tips here in the castle. Evaluating what kind of grasp she has on the subject of friendship will be a bit hard. But introductory reading I can provide! She can read my notes on all types of friendships.

With fresh lists in my saddlebags, a plan of action and an afternoon soaking up the spring sunshine, I feel refreshed!

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Fresh Dandelion Greens

March 30: I'd ordered a book to give to Cadence for Spring Foals Day and it arrived in the mail today. It's an old favorite of mine, I Met A Mare1. I had a copy when I was a foal and my mare and Cadence would read it to me time and time again. It's probably on a shelf in my Canterlot loft.

Starlight Glimmer went with Spike to pick up supplies at the market. Apparently Starlight is a bit shy, like she's worried somepony is going to berate her for what she's done. It's going to take a while for her to get conversational with the shop ponies.

Now that we're two ponies and a dragon living in this castle, I'm going to have to plan to buy more hay this year. Meanwhile, I still think we'll make it to the first cut harvest with what we've got.

They came back from the market with the first dandelion leaves of the year! They were so good.

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1 As best as I can recall, here's one of the rhyming metaphorical puzzles that I liked the most from I Met A Mare:

I met a mare who's mane was green
A pretty color as ever I'd seen
It flowed in waves and grew so fast
She'd cut it short but that wouldn't last
Two summer trims, then in the fall
Her mane growth slowed down to a crawl
One last trim, and with the moon above her
She fell asleep under a white winter cover
Long nights rolled by, peaceful and unnumbered
Her mane turned golden there as she slumbered
She dreams of warm days, of rain and dew
When her mane will turn green and grow anew
Sleep now until spring, wake refreshed and grow faster
And welcome the sun, my little pasture.

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Groom Room Graduates

March 31: At long last, that's about it for the spring molt. To celebrate, all seven of us went for an end of molt spa trip. To be sure we could get in, Rarity had made our reservations in advance. Ponyville is full of itchy, molting ponies yearning for a mud bath, seaweed wrap, a sauna sweat and generally to not look and feel so ratty.

Our appointment was in the early afternoon. We waited our turn in the crowded lobby. There were dust bunnies made of pony hair lurking under the chairs and tables. Rainbow Dash was uneasy at the prospect at getting brushed by the spa ponies, but the promise of sweating in the sauna and soaking in the fragrant hot tub was just too alluring. During spring molt, all the spa customers get brushed and brushed hard. Otherwise the spa would have to shut down half the soaks. Who wants to wallow in mud that is full of shed hair?

Finally Lotus stuck her head through the window of the booth in the lobby and called for 'Rarity Unicorn, party of seven'. That was us! We were ushered into a bare room where a team of ponies stored our things in a chest (Applejack and Rarity's hats, my saddle bag of books, Pinkie's various party supplies) and brushed us all down. Rainbow Dash brushed her own fetlocks and belly. Nothing was left unbrushed. They even brushed out the inside of our ears. It was hard to keep still for that! There was a lot of giggling. Getting scoured with all your friends makes it easier to tolerate.

At last they let us out of the brushing room and into the spa! Aloe took our orders. Rarity thought she looked a little tired. Aloe said it's always tough when everypony is molting heavily. Rainbow Dash made a bee line for the sauna, Fluttershy and Starlight Glimmer decided on a seaweed wrap, and the rest of us decided to start with a massage and a hooficure.

We all ended up in the hot tub together, except for Starlight Glimmer. She decided that, to go with her new life, it was time to change her mane style. It had been in a tight, no-nonsense roll, but now it's more like a loose scroll. I wonder if she'll keep this new look. I think it looks good.

After the spa we went to have tea and cookies at Sugarcube Corner. Rarity told us she'd made three dozen felted pony doll bodies so far. She'd resorted to dyeing some of the felt during the process to get a wider range of colors. But she needed hair for manes and tails, so after tea we went over to her boutique where she collected lengths of our freshly washed manes and tails. Rarity reopens her boutique tomorrow.

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Author's Note

I Met A Mare is in the style of I Met A Man by John Ciardi, see https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368748.I_Met_a_Man

I got a "down vote"! It's good to see people have opinions, although I don't see what warrants a down vote. (You could tell me. I don't bite. Hard. Just a nibble really.) I notice that for those who like more interactivity, there is also a Twilight's Vlog. I was intrigued! Was there really video? Alas, no, just a transcript of the action and dialog. I liked Sketchbook Twilight more. Nostalgia intensifies Meanwhile, back here in the magical land of FiMFiction, I've learned something, namely why some months, like chapter XI (November), get more "views" -- it's not the content, it's the length! About a quarter of the people stop reading in the middle of that 8,000 word chapter and come back later. It's similar for July and September. So, I'm expecting another wobble in the graph for the 9,500 word February. As for the one downvote, it pushed the "ranking" rating back about 20,000 to 100,000th. Cool!

New this chapter, I'm swapping out the Golden Oak in autumn that I used as a cover image' for a Twilight in a red cowled horse blanket image. She's playing with winter breath vapor, because it's fun and interesting, and she's talking, uttering lots of convoluted interconnected lore and plotlines. Yes, I drew that too. Did the change confuse anyone? Did anyone think for a moment that this was a new Twilight's Blog? Hee hee hee. So, why? you ask. To attract eyes. Red Shirt School of Photography. Yes, the tree was red too, but this is more red. It's also less abstract. It might work!

Oh snap! This month is over 11,600 words long.

XXX June

Kites

June 1: I haven't seen kites that often in the Ponyville skies, but today there were two of them taking advantage of a stiff breeze that Cloudsdale had sent us. I couldn't see who was flying the kites, some trees blocked the view, but the kites were close together. I've read about competitions were the kite strings are equipped with blades and the kite flyers try to cut the strings on the other kites. That could be exciting to watch.

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Sea Of Green

June 2: The grass in Ponyville's hay fields is starting to get high. A few more spring showers and we'll be ready for that first cut, so that should be in a week or so. Cloudsdale sent us one of those showers this morning and I almost go a drenching myself. I had my nose buried in a book and I hadn't noticed that the clouds had thickened. The book is fine, I kept it dry as I galloped home. My hay larder is running low on first cut hay and some fresh hay will be nice.

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Peace and Quiet

June 3: This day just flew by.

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Kites Of Passage

June 4: I saw two ponies out in the western pasture flying kites. They were pretty far away so I couldn't see who they were, but the kites were flying close together so I thought maybe they were battling kites, like I had read about! I swung my telescope around to get a closer look and to my surprise, the ponies flying the kites were Starlight Glimmer and Maud Pie. I hadn't known either of them were interested in kite flying. Maybe this is how they became friends?

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Hobby Horse

June 5: I didn't tell Starlight Glimmer that I'd seen her and Maud Pie flying kites yesterday. She hasn't mentioned it to me either. I think maybe she feels self-conscious about engaging in a frivolous activity like kite flying.

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La Haute Grasstronomy

June 6: There's this stall in the market that sells these amazing little bundles of spiced spring grass. It's fresh picked, tender bunches of grass, artfully tied and spiced. Some bunches are spiced with peppermint, others with cinnamon, or vanilla, chocolate, salt and pepper, licorice, lemon, alfalfa, dandelions... dozens of flavors and variations. They're so delicious, I could eat them all day... except they're very expensive. I only bought a few.

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Working Hard

June 7: Rainbow Dash is off Wonderbolting, Rarity is either up to her eyeballs in designs or trotting the fashion districts of Manehatten and Canterlot, Fluttershy is very busy with her spring orphans, Pinkie always has shop duty or a party on the go, and Sweet Apple Acres keeps Applejack busy. I went down to Sweet Apple Acres to see Applejack in action this morning. I found her out in the corn field, weeding. I helped her lug a few baskets full of weeds over to the compost heap and we stopped for a mid morning snack in the kitchen. First cut harvest is to happen very soon and she's looking forward to getting those fresh bales to market.

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De Grass Is High

June 8: I thought I might grab a few books and a few dandelion and bedstraw sandwiches and spend the afternoon on a blanket in the western pasture. But the grass has grown so high that I felt like I was caught in a well every time I settled down. It's almost time for the first cut, so the stems are tall and thick. Good for hay, good for ponies, not so good for having a view during a picnic. So I went back to my balcony. The balcony is closer to my library and to my kitchen and we have oat peppermint swirl ice cream in the ice box.

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Mare Gone Wild

June 9: Earlier today Cloudsdale sent us a sprinkle. After that cleared I went out to stretch my legs and get in a little grazing. Of course the belly-deep grass was wet and I got soaked everywhere except along my back, but I don't care, I wanted to feel wild, free and rebellious. Nopony was watching so I got away with it! Now I've brewed a pot of Zecora's chocolate peppermint spice tea and I'm going to read a few articles in the latest issue of the Journal of Cultural Hippology and Magic, before Starlight borrows it. Then I'm going out to watch the Crystal Heart lights drift overhead until the wee hours. The Crystal Ponies, they get me.

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Graze Anatomy

June 10: I attended the Ponyville Hayboard meeting today and the conclusion we came to was that demand for our hay has dropped off and we may have to reduce production or risk creating a hay glut. When the yaks of Yakyakistan started buying from us it artificially inflated demand for our hay. Everypony wanted some of what was suddenly perceived as a rare commodity, which in turn made our hay sell so fast that it did become a rare commodity. Now we hear that our buyers have more hay than they can eat, and that's going to drive prices down. Thus, the big question was, do we let some of the new fields lay fallow this year, or do we harvest the grass and use it to build hay lofts? In the end, we chose to leave most of the new pastures unharvested. This pleased our wildlife representative, Amethyst Star. A fallow field is different from a harvested field in which critters flourish there. Ergo, an old field ecosystem will boost Ponyville's biodiversity.

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Unusual Map Quest

June 11: The map table activated this afternoon, shortly after Spike got back from the Crystal Empire. He was passing by the throne room on his way to get a late lunch and he saw the table transform into a topographic map of Equestria. He ran to get me and I got there just after Starlight Glimmer. It was her cutie mark that was circling a spot on the map, and that spot was Canterlot. I can still hardly believe it, The map called a pony who doesn't have a throne in the castle and sent them to Canterlot. What's even more unnerving is that the Friendship Problem is probably between the two royal princesses. That's like the worse case scenario. While the three of us were staring at the map I tried to believe it was something else, two cooks disagreeing on a recipe, or the royal hairdressers arguing over combs, but now Starlight has told me she thinks there is something eating at the friendship between the two princesses. She went to see them when she got to Canterlot this evening, seeing that she was on a Friendship task and sent there by the map itself, all of which is very unusual and worth telling the princesses. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna claimed that everything was fine in the royal household but Starlight Glimmer thinks they may be in denial. I found out all this because I cast a spell that I'd learned not long ago in Transformations and Transportations, The Magic Of Being Two Places At Once. It allows you to appear as a wind-up music box figure halfway across Equestria where you can talk to anypony in the room. It's like Moondancer's Haycartes spell variant, only better. The Princesses have provided a room for Starlight while she's in Canterlot. Starlight has decided she's going start tomorrow morning by accompanying the princesses during their routines, she wants to see if there is any merit to her gut feeling that something is not right in the royal sisters' friendship.

I'm nearly walleyed with worry. What if she's right? What if Princess Luna has a new nervous breakdown, so soon after returning from one thousand years of exile? That could be disastrous! The Tree sent Starlight Glimmer to solve this?! Maybe the table has still not recovered from the time Starlight Glimmer used it as a catalyst for a modified Star Swirl time travel spell. What's next, the Map summons the Cutie Mark Crusaders? Or Zecora? Or even Trixie? I'd ask Starlight Glimmer more questions but she's gone to sleep. How can anypony sleep in a time like this?

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Breathe

June 12: I spoke to Starlight Glimmer again this evening after she had spent time with the princesses and had looked around just in case this wasn't the conflict she had been sent to resolve. Unfortunately, Starlight still thinks that there is some kind of resentment between the Royal Pony Sisters. She thought that she could see the tension during breakfast, which is one of the few times a day that Princess Luna and Princess Celestia cross paths. So, Starlight made arrangements to join Princess Luna for a while on her night shift to gather more data. What she found makes her think that she's on the right track. She thinks that each princess is feeling unappreciated by the other and that that is fostering resentment in both of them. So, what to do about it? Starlight plans on confronting both princesses with her view in the morning! I can tell you I'm shocked. Meanwhile, I'm still stabled here in this rock tree-castle and I can only champ at the bit and wait. I've been doing a lot of breathing exercises. I'd go visit Zecora or something but I've been casting the music box spell all day in hopes that Starlight will walk in and give me some good news.

So, ha ha, read any good books lately?

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Playing With Fire

June 13: Starlight Glimmer switched the cutie marks on the Royal Pony Sisters!! I can't believe she would do such a thing, on our monarchs! Responsible for all of Equestria, day and night! She's nuts! The Map is nuts! I'm going nuts! I've been casting and recasting the music box spell but she's been moving all day and I couldn't get a fix until nightfall. Now she's back in her room but she's fast asleep and I don't know what's happening! I have a stack of back issues of Poplar Mechanics, Equine and Saddlebagger magazines to leaf through to distract me, but I think I've left bite marks on a lot of them.

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Hail Maree Strategy

June 14: I was having trouble sleeping last night so I checked in a few times to see if Starlight Glimmer was up too. OK, maybe more than a few times, but all I could see was that Starlight was thrashing about a bit and muttering in her sleep. I couldn't make out what she was saying. I must have nodded off because suddenly it was sunrise and by the time I cast the music box spell again I had just missed her. She was no longer in bed but I caught a glimpse of her walking out onto the balcony and I could hear her talking with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The Friendship problem had been solved! Her "gut feeling" plan to make the princesses experience each others duties for a day had worked! I grabbed a toothbrush and teleported straight over so Starlight Glimmer could tell me all about it in person.

She told me that Princess Luna had had a rough day in Princess Celestia's hoofboots and that it had been very tiring following her all day. Starlight said that she had become so exhausted that she wasn't able to accompany Princess Celestia like she had planned, so Princess Celestia went alone as she assumed Princess Luna's role of Princess Of The Night. But the stress of hoping that her strategy would work gave Starlight one tartarus tier of a nightmare, a nightmare that involved both princesses and their evil counterparts fighting it out until Princess Celestia succeeded in vaporizing both evil alicorns. And then she woke up to find the Royal Sisters reconciled.

We celebrated by having breakfast at Joe's Doughnut Shop and browsing in a few bookshops before catching the train back to Ponyville. Starlight Glimmer also bought some lavender blooms for her room. She said Princess Luna recommends them for lending ponies a restful sleep, and after that nightmare she had had, a lavender bouquet sounded like a good idea.

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Hay Harvest Feast

June 15: The timothy grass swaying gently in the breeze all around Ponyville is tall and ready to be harvested. Naturally, Pinkie invited us all to her annual 'Surprise Hay Harvest Make Way For The New Harvest Feast And Party Party' at Sugarcube Corner. Starlight Glimmer was there with the six of us, Spike and way too much to eat. By now the temporary role switch between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna was all over the local papers, including the Foal Free Press, and since Starlight Glimmer had been there in the thick of it, all my friends plied her with questions. Starlight was still tired from all the stress of solving the royal Friendship problem and I admit that I was nodding off as well. I haven't had much sleep lately and stuffing myself silly with all the dishes Pinkie and the Cakes cooked up didn't help. We had to leave early, and Applejack too. She's going to be up early harvesting the first cut tomorrow.

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Patterns

June 16: As soon as the dew was off the grass this morning, ponies have been pulling their clattering sickle bar mowers through the timothy fields all around Ponyville, carving out steadily diminishing rectangles in the sea of green and enveloping the castle in the aroma of fresh cut grass. From the commanding view of my balcony, the slow crawl of the harvesters is hypnotic. The heady, delicious smell that wafts up in the warm air has had me salivating all day. I can't wait for the hay to cure and get baled. Further away, I can see a field dotted with rolls of hay fermenting in starch polymer bags. It's pretty, but it doesn't have the allure of drying hay.

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Market Horses

June 17: The fields are dotted with hay alicorns left by ponies under the cover of the night. Probably young ponies, some things never change, a little harmless midnight mischief builds friendships for ponies young and old. I can see a few hay forts on some of the higher hills and a few hay race tracks. I'm probably going to find reports in tomorrow's paper about grumbling farmers grinding their teeth over having to spend extra time tedding those forts and hay clumps so the hay can dry properly.

It was not a good day to go to the market to buy fresh dandelions and oat sprouts. With every able hoofed farm pony out in the pastures mowing and tedding, there were precious few stalls open with fresh food to sell. Naturally, everypony in Ponyville felt the urge to stock up and panic buying was stripping the market of everything. I took one look at the throngs, turned heel and went home. My larder is not bare and I should be finishing off last year's hay instead of pining for what's curing in the sun in the fields.

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A Feast For Pony Eyes

June 18: The swaths are drying nicely. The fields that were the first to get mowed are now the first fields to be raked and baled. By evening the field below my balcony had been transformed into an abstract tableau of subtle parallel lines punctuated with rectangular dots. As the sun set, the bales cast long shadows. It was very pretty.

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Checked Check List, Check!

June 19: Ponyville's Summer Sun Celebration event is just days away and Pinkie has dozens of ponies hard at work making fresh paper lanterns and poles to replace a few that were lost or broken last year. I'm helping Pinkie keep on top of organizing all her helping hooves. Rarity has been at Town Hall all day putting up the decorations. She also had a look at the Summer Sun streamers she'd made and she said that the streamers are still looking good. So she just went and refreshed the spells that make the cloth float in the breeze. She added more glitter too, so the streamers will sparkle like fireflies gone mad when the morning sun hits them. Fluttershy has been having rehearsals with her dawn chorus birds. She's also going to recruit her fleet of fireflies for the event, but not until tomorrow night. Insects have short memories. Meanwhile, Mayor Mare can't wait for the party to start. I think the Summer Sun Celebration party and lantern procession has become her favorite event of the year. She even went and checked my check list on the preparations!

The ponies working the pastures have finished mowing. Some have already started to put the baled hay into their lofts. In two days, all the first cut hay will either be baled or in silage. They've already cleared the Western Pasture, just in time for everypony to enjoy the party.

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Farewell to Spring

June 20: The all night Summer Sun Celebration party is in full swing at Town Hall. I'm taking a breather from all the ponies line-stomping to the loud music. A few yaks have decided to join us this year and they seem to like Pinkie's balloon avalanche and stomping in time to the music. I'll go back soon for some more of Pinkie's punch and then the pre-dawn lantern procession, it's the highlight of the Summer Sun Celebration now here in Ponyville. Maybe there are some of those crispy peppermint hay cookies left. On my way home I stopped for a while to watch Fluttershy coax a whole bunch of fireflies to follow her from the pastures to Town Hall for the procession. It's amazing how she connects with so many critters.

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Post Party Peace and Tranquility

June 21: The party lasted until well past dawn. The field ponies were the first to break away from the galloping herd and trot home for a few hours of rest before heading back out to loft some more of Ponyville's finest bales. After breakfast at Town Hall, I helped clear the tables. Everypony is pretty tired, so we'll do a proper clean up tomorrow. The market and the entire town was very quiet all day, most of the shops were closed. The clouds that had been sculpted into giant effigies of the Royal Princess Sisters are still there in the sky over the Western Pasture. From my vantage point of my high balcony, they seem to be gazing down upon the churned up ground and the few dropped streamers and lanterns left where the town's ponies had frolicked and stamped in approval of the lowering moon and rising sun. I brought my lantern home and I've hung it in the library near last year's lantern. They're bookending the doorway. Maybe I could ask Rarity to make me a Summer Sun Celebration tapestry to hang in the entrance hall. I think that would be appropriate for a Friendship Castle.

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Fields of Sparkles

June 22: Ponies have been hard at work all day carting bales of hay out of the pastures and either sending them to the lofts or straight to market. The ground is getting dry and Cloudsdale should be dowsing us with showers tomorrow. Meanwhile the pastures are still. The stiff stems of the trimmed timothy grass have yellowed and the ground is crisscrossed here and there where the hay wagons have passed, and trampled where the Summer Sun Celebrants pronked and paraded. After Celestia had lowered the sun to rest and the long summer's day gave way to a warm summer's night, the fireflies awoke and filled the fields with lights.

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A Rock For Hard Times

June 23: Cloudsdale sent sheets of rain to Ponyville today, a downpour to make up for the dry spell we'd had for the harvest. Now that the clouds have cleared, everything looks so clean and fresh. I hadn't noticed the dust before the rain washed it away, but the dry soil had started to blow around and the short grass in the pastures wasn't holding it back. I gathered my books near the door to the balcony where I could hear the waves of rain wash across the stones and smell the mist and spray. Starlight Glimmer retired to the silence and isolation of the library.

Starlight Glimmer told me something odd today. She told me that Maud had mentioned that with the right rock you could rule all of Equestria. Maud may have been jesting, it's hard to say with her, but then she may have been serious. I've seen a few magic-channeling rocks here in Equestria, such as the one that used to be in the heart of the Changeling Hive, so "the right rock", for the right kind of magic, is not far fetched. What dangers would such a rock entail? If I got that desperate, would I dare look for this rock? Could it be tuned to the Magic of Friendship? If Maud knows this, there could already be ponies out looking for such a stone.

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Ponyville's Highest Hay Loft

June 24: Spike is off on Fireworks Duty in the Crystal Empire overnight. I've been out watching the play of light streaming down from the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies are content and so am I. I've made arrangements with Applejack to cart my first cut hay to the castle in a few days and I will have Starlight Glimmer's help to hoist it. When Spike gets back, we'll give the hay pantry one last cleaning, just in time to store the fresh hay there. It's already pretty clean, Spike has been diligent and I tend to stack the unused hay racks in a corner when I go there.

One of my journal quillpals had me debating the merits of a magic-channeling rock powerful enough to grant one pony absolute rein over all of Equestria and if that would be a corrupting influence. It's true that time and again we did use the Elements of Harmony to impose our collective will on an entity bent on ruling Equestria. We wielded immense power and used it to restore the Royal Pony Sisters to the throne, but that does not mean that we are motivated to be rulers ourselves. We have a castle here in Ponyville that is an extension of the Tree of Harmony and in it, six thrones made for us. But we rarely sit there and we have no desire to proclaim ourselves the sovereigns over Ponyville or of Equestria. Friendship is not about ruling, it is about mutual support. By extension, Friendship Castle offers support to Equestria, not laws or litigation. Yes, with the right spell the map table may well be the rock by which to rule Equestria. Starlight Glimmer already used it to change the past and she thereby revealed that peace in Equestria is a fragile thing. But we have a regime in place that has given us a thousand years of peace and stability. I am a fan of systems that work and as far as I can tell, being ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is a system that works. I would not trade that in to become the pony who has to have her nose in everypony else's business. I may love to organize things so that everything fits together as an efficient whole, but I do not like to wrangle ponies into doing something they don't want to do. Dealing with ponies in that way would drive me crazy.

I guess I've been a bit of a boring pony lately. My friends have their demanding careers that take them out of town or which generally keep them busy. I'm just holding down the stable here and reading my books. It could be worse, I could be ruling Equestria. Then when would I find time to read?

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Haggard Hero Of The Crystal Empire

June 25: Spike was looking pretty haggard when he got back from the train station this afternoon. The fireworks had a late start and he probably pushed himself a little too hard to keep going for the entire event. He disappeared into his room and I only saw him again for a brief period this evening. We'll tidy up the hay pantry first thing tomorrow morning. I have the brooms, mops and dust bins all lined up and we'll use the same initial bale stacking plan I used last year. It will be a breeze!

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The Fruits Of Summer

June 26: Spike and I had the hay pantry sparkling clean in plenty of time before Big McIntosh and Applejack arrived with my order of first cut hay. Starlight Glimmer lifted the bales, one at a time, up to the hay-room balcony and I moved them into an array that allowed a pony or baby dragon to easily walk through the room and for good air flow as well. Once all the bales were in, Starlight Glimmer teleported up and the two of us graded all the bales by size, weight and colour. We placed the greenest bales near the door so that we'd eat those first. Then Spike and I went to the market to get something special to have with our lunch. We found that strawberries are in season. We brought home a few baskets full of those. They didn't last long.

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The Haycartes Ffjordian Book Club

June 27: I read an article today in the Journal of Cultural Hippology and Magic about a new book club called the Panequestrian Haycartes Society. It's not at all what I thought it was. This book club doesn't discuss books, they get books to interact! Somepony has found a way to expand Moondancer's Haycartes variant to include not only other editions of the same book, but other unrelated books simultaneously. Initially it was supposed to be an academic tool to aid in cross referencing books for research purposes, but a group of students seized on this as a way to create a Ffjordian bookverse and apparently this new book network has become quite popular. The article appends a thorough description of the spell and how to cast it. I'm a bit leery of variants on Haycartes after that time I got trapped in a corrupted enchanted book but this sounds tempting. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow.

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Reaching Out

June 28: I was still hesitant about trying this new cross referencing Haycartes spell, I still have flashes of what it was like to be trapped in a book for days, but around midmorning I put one hoof on my nose and took the plunge. I chose an old favorite, Thornhoof's Brief History of Canterlot and I tried to connect it to the books activated by the Panequestrian Haycartes Society.

I had no success this morning. Either nopony was connecting books at that hour in Canterlot or my timid first attempt wasn't strong enough to bridge the distance from Ponyville to Canterlot. I decided to connect to a book in my own library instead; I chose Samule Lawnson's Whinnypiafficon of the Equestrian Language. It was not a happy marriage. Samule tore into Thornhoof, criticizing and trying to change every little bit of the latter's upstart New Equestrian spelling and sentence structure. Thornhoof was getting a little indignant at being interrupted every time he opened his mouth. Between the flattened ears and Samule winding up his hindquarters to buck his way through Thornhoof's Canterlot, I could see where this was going. I dropped the link. OK, lesson learned: no dictionaries. Not a great start.

This afternoon I tried again to link to the Panequestrian ponies through my Thornhoof. Success! I managed to establish a link, somepony was cross referencing a Hardy Bays book with what was probably a Shadow Spade novel. They seemed to be getting along better than my earlier attempt with the dictionary. I didn't meet whoever it was who was casting the spell in Canterlot, but the historical figures in my book wandered out into the expanded landscape and vice versa for the fictional characters activated by the pony or ponies in Canterlot. The historical characters were more interested in telling anypony who would listen all about themselves than they were in having a real conversation with the fictional characters walking through the streets of old Canterlot. It probably didn't help that none of the characters looked to be all there, and then they vanished. I think maybe the pony or ponies activating the Canterlot books was/were having trouble holding the Haycartes spell stable. I tried again to link up but most of the links broke the instant I reached out to them. It could have been from the added strain that I caused by casting all the way from Ponyville. Suffice to say, it wasn't much of a Ffjordian book-world experience for me.

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Jam Session

June 29: I haven't talked to Moondancer in ages. I wonder what she could tell me about this new cross referencing Haycartes spell? I'd bet she'd know all about it. I tried to see if I could find her through her Treatise On Ponies book but I think her copy was closed, so I sent her a letter instead.

We had fresh strawberry jam on oat bread hot out of the oven for lunch, along with fresh, still green first cut hay. To top it all off, strawberry ice cream. Summertime, and the living is easy.

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Surprise Picnic

June 30: This morning we received a singing picnic invitation from Pinkie, right at our breakfast table. How Pinkie knew when exactly we'd all be having breakfast I'll never know, it's rarely at the same time from one day to the next and most days we're not all three there at the same time. But Pinkie burst in in a spray of confetti (I splashed tea everywhere, I think Starlight Glimmer choked on hers) and started singing. At least she gave us plenty of time to plan on what to take. After she left we had a look through our pantry and decided on alfalfa cream soup, hay crackers, oat bread and strawberry jam. I made a big jug of iced mint tea too, that was my contribution to the actual preparation. I usually don't ruin tea. Starlight Glimmer and I left the real cooking to Spike.

I think Pinkie chose today because everypony was in town. Rainbow Dash has some time off Wonderbolt duty, Rarity is in between orders, Fluttershy's orphans are grown enough that she can get away for a few hours and Applejack's farm chores have settled down to something manageable. So there were eight of us out on our usual hill in the Western Pasture, surrounded by the gold and green stems of regrowing timothy grass and with a great view of both Ponyville and Canterlot. We could have gone to Saddle Lake, but we'll save that for another picnic when Fluttershy's protégés are a bit more independent.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash arrived first. They were already playing horseshoes by the time we crested the hill. We put down our picnic blankets next to theirs and unpacked our contribution to the feast. Rarity and Fluttershy were the last to arrive and as soon as they'd unpacked, Applejack and Rainbow Dash put down their horseshoes and we had lunch. We ate a lot. We had to take breaks, there was so much to eat, but Starlight and I came prepared with books, Rarity and Fluttershy soaked up the sun, and Spike and Pinkie teamed up against Applejack and Dash at horseshoes. It was a nice way to spend a summer afternoon.

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Author's Note

Next month might be slow in getting done. After two and a half years of few pan-dimensional alien connections, very little interactivity and no other ponies jumping into the blog game, Twilight grew tired of it all. As she was just about going nowhere in show, no Land of the Alicorns, no fabled Chagrin-lea grasslands, no Western Sea, no transformation of her empty Castle Hideous into something useful, no rebuilding of the Carerfilly Castle ruins in the Everfree, no voyages to Zebrica, no projects in the making, she's apparently tied to an empty castle in a small town and bound to her friends. She has no compass, no direction in which to go, in which to grow. Well, those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. She could try teaching formal classes. Come to Ponyville! Study the Magic of Friendship! That or foalsitting.