//------------------------------// // XIV February // Story: Twilight's Blog // by Frith //------------------------------// 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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! °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`° 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. °Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°Øo.¸¸.•*´¯`°