Dear Bonne Voyage,
Thank you for your last letter, especially the photos you made. Vanhoover Lake at sunset looks amazing! I can't wait to see it myself.
Right now, I'm watching the sunset at Sweet Apple Acres. It's usually a wonderful sight as well, but this late in fall the trees already lost their leaves and the orchard looks sombre and dull. It kind of reminds me of the sunsets we had in the Crystal Empire all those years ago. There weren't any bright colours either and I remember being sad a lot, mostly because I ended up being stuck home most of the time.
Home. It's a strange word for me these days. Remember the morning when we met on the train and you showed me sunrise over the Crystal Empire? I felt like coming home that day. Just a week later, I had the same feeling when I walked to Sweet Apple Acres and Big Mac and Apple Bloom greeted me at the front door with smiles.
Coming home should feel good and special, I think. But for me, it's always bittersweet to come home. When I'm in Ponyville, I'm surrounded by friends and happy ponies, but I can't help but miss the familiar streets I grew up in, the crispy and clean air of the north and that feeling when you get out of the cold, back into the warmth of your home. In the Crystal Empire, I have all that but I can't enjoy any of it, because of the stares.
I don't really fit in either place, but the stares in the Crystal Empire are always filled with fear and make me feel like running away.
It's like I can't stay in any place for long before I feel that itch again that makes me long for any other place. Do you feel that way sometimes? I guess with your job as a train hostess, travelling is so natural to you that you're used to it. I bet you enjoy coming home to Vanhoover a lot more than I do.
Sometimes I envy you for that, you get to see so many places and meet so many ponies, but you still have that certainty of home waiting for you.
But I'm rambling again. Sorry about that.
I've been working of a few new songs, but mostly I'm playing the old ones these days. It's not like I'm not inspired, I just feel more like reminiscing at the moment. Rarity (the designer friend I told you about in the last letter) helped me get another job. She knows the ponies who run the local spa and she proposed to them that I would provide some background tunes while their costumers enjoy their treatments. Basically it means I get to play my music all day long, and they'll even pay me for it! I feel like I'm making the far better deal of this. They asked me to come for the first time the day after tomorrow, if the costumers like it, they might hire me more often.
Between the spa job, the work at Sweet Apple Acres and some odd jobs I can get here and there, I should have the bits for a ticket to Vanhoover soon. I'll definitely keep you in the loop for that.
I can already hear Apple Bloom calling me for dinner, so I better finish this off now.
Please send my best wishes to your brother and sister as well, I hope I can meet them in pony soon!
Eagerly awaiting your next letter,
Your friend Crystal Note