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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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