Green Soup
July 1: We had a lot of leftover alfalfa so Spike decided to make a big batch of alfalfa cream soup before it wilts. I know it's hot outside, but not in the castle, and I think I could eat fresh alfalfa cream soup for breakfast, lunch and supper. With hay crackers, with fresh bread, with salted sesame seed snaps, with celery sticks... I think there might be some left.
It's been quite a while since the last time the Map Table activated and summoned any of us. I discussed this with Starlight Glimmer over a few bowls of alfalfa cream soup and she thinks she may have broken a few connections in getting it to let her time travel. Thus we have to re-establish our links to the Map Table. Somehow.
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The Colors Of The Rainbow So Pretty In The Sky
July 2: It's Manehattan's turn to light up the sky at the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival and Spike is there presiding.
Last week, when we brunched with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, Princess Cadence told me something interesting. She suspects that although it might not be the cause of the wild growth affecting the Crystal Empire, the accidental shattering of the Crystal Heart this spring may be what's behind the continued havoc in the flora and fauna that's been running amok all summer. She has noticed that while the Flurry Heart's crystalling helped repair the Crystal Heart, it's apparently not as strong as it was. It doesn't glow and pulse as brightly as it had before. On the bright side, the success of the Fireworks Festival has really boosted the moral of the crystal ponies and their combined joy each week has been pouring through the Crystal Heart. Each time it glows brighter and spins faster.
The crystal ponies are sure joyful tonight. The sky above Ponyville is alive with giant ribbons of colored light streaming in from the north and I'm feeling very peaceful.
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The Calm After The Swarm
July 3: Spike tells me that the green glowing luna moth swarm last week was the last big wave of invaders from the moors and spruce forests around the Crystal Empire. Since then there hasn't been anywhere near as many insects, small animals or drifts of pollen washing through the Crystal Empire streets as there had been up to now. Maybe Princess Cadence was right.
The weather has been great for a picnic and the pastures are still short following that first cut, but that can wait until Dash finishes her compound-cleaning stint. That will be in about five days, so, soon. Meanwhile, Spike and I could make some strawberry jam.
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Exotic Pony Dishes
July 4: Spike and I went to the bazaar to shop for strawberries to make jam. While we were there we met a few yaks shopping for exotic pony crops and wares. They were looking at strawberries too and wondering what to do with them. I told them we were planning on making jam but that they could just as easily make strawberry syrup and add that to other dishes. The strawberry stand keeper suggested strawberry shortcake and recited a recipe for them. They said that gave them ideas for a yak version and bought a few flats.
We bought our own flat of strawberries and wandered around a bit. Another pony had imported crystal berries from the Crystal Empire. We bought a couple of baskets of those.
Strawberry shortcake hadn't been in our plans, but Spike and I found a cow selling whipping cream, and... So when we got home, we made strawberry jam, crystal berry jam and strawberry shortcake. Starlight Glimmer helped us make, and eat, the shortcake. We finished it off while it was still warm.
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Squeaky Clean Gets The Oil
July 5: It has become dry, hot and dusty in Ponyville. Each time I step outside it hits me like a standing wave. In no time at all I get bathed in sweat. Then I go back inside, the sweat dries and I feel all itchy. This called for a trip to the spa.
I succeeded in dragging Starlight Glimmer, kicking and squealing, to the spa in time to meet up with Pinkie and Rarity. OK, she wasn't really kicking or squealing, but she may have been grumbling a bit. I did threaten to dump buckets of ice water on her until she put down her books and joined me. You're not going to learn about friendship through practical experience if you don't go out and talk to ponies every once in a while. By the time we'd walked all the way to the spa, in the sweltering heat, we were both feeling very grimy and Starlight had perked up.
We skipped the sauna since we'd just walked through a heat wave and our pores were quite open enough already, thank you very much. So after a thorough wash down, the four of us weighed the likely choices of seaweed wrap, fragrant oil whirlpool soak, or the Crystal Empire oil bath. Starlight Glimmer chose the seaweed, Pinkie jumped into the whirlpool and Rarity and I chose to get slathered in fragrant oil. I didn't get my feathers waxed this time. That would have been overdoing it.
Feeling much better, we stepped out of the spa and right back into oven. At least Rarity and I shone in the sun with our silky sleek fragrant fur, Starlight Glimmer looked totally relaxed and Pinkie... looked like Pinkie. We went looking for something cold to drink at Sugarcube Corner.
Over ice cold smoothies and fruit ices we chatted about this and that. Starlight Glimmer told us that she had two tickets to a Bridleway show next week, and would any of us be interested in going to see it with her. It's Little Shop Of Halters and she apologized for the short notice, but she had planned on going to see it with Trixie, but Trixie had to cancel. Rarity wants to see that show, so they'll be going to Manehattan together next week.
My mint hay smoothie kept me chilled long enough for the walk home and now that the sun has set, I've been out on the balcony stargazing and reading by candle light. And leaving pony shaped oil patches where I settle down. But I smell wonderful.
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Pot Luck Dessert
July 6: Pinkie has surprised us with an invitation to a pot luck supper with a twist. It's not supper, it's all dessert and every dish has to be strawberry themed. It's tonight at Sugarcube Corner, after closing time. I asked about how Rainbow Dash was going to know about this in time to bring something strawberry related but Pinkie said she'd told her early, before she left for the Wonderbolt compound, so she'll be there.
This was a good occasion to make strawberry short cakes and finish off our whipping cream. Spike bought fresh strawberries, Starlight Glimmer baked two short cakes, and I coordinated. The cakes are cooling, the strawberries are soaking in sugar and in about half an hour we'll have a light supper, then assemble the shortcake and trot off to Sugarcube Corner.
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Berried In Desserts
July 7: Our strawberry shortcakes were well appreciated last night. Rarity brought strawberry ice cream, which went well with our cakes and with the apple strawberry pie that Applejack brought. Rainbow Dash arrived just in time with strawberry punch to wash everything down and Fluttershy was there early so she could bake a strawberry custard somewhere where her orphaned and resident critters wouldn't eat all the strawberries before the dessert was cooked. It was still warm when we ate it. Pinkie's contribution was strawberries dipped in chocolate and covered in colorful sprinkles.
Dash told us that her moon of compound cleaning is almost over (the last day will be tomorrow)! She can't wait to be free of that chore. The Wonderbolt tour is still traveling from town to town and that has been going well. She says that it is lots of fun finding new coordinated stunts to try out with the team.
Speaking of team, I brought up the fact that nopony has been summoned by the table in a while and that it might need to be fixed, or woken up. Rainbow Dash suggests we zap the table with lightning. Applejack has offered to buck it. Fluttershy suggests that we've just run out of friendship problems in Equestria and nothing's wrong. Pinkie suggests we paint it. Rarity liked that idea and suggested glitter. That went through a fashion death spiral of table cloths, fringes, Gothic candles, seances, gambling... I put out that fire. It's a magic table. That might affect the roulette and the cards, then we'd have to pay everypony back. What a mess that would be. So no gambling.
We still have to do something.
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Big Book Of Special Snowflakes
July 8: I finally received The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them. I ordered that so long ago from Hoofton Muffin that I'd forgotten all about it. It's a beautiful book, organized for easy reference by snowflake type and not by region. There are so many kinds of snowflakes in it and they all just grow on their own! Now I'm wishing for winter weather so I can go prospecting for unnatural snowflakes in the Everfree Forest. That's over five moons away, but maybe if Rarity goes shopping for fabric in Yakyakistan I could tag along...
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Picnic In The Wide Green Yonder
July 9: Rainbow Dash's last day of compound cleaning for her Wonderbolt faux pas was yesterday! This of course calls for a celebration. Since it's been ages since we'd had a picnic together, we chose to go on a picnic. We all grabbed some food, mostly sandwiches and cookies, and the six of us trekked over to Saddle Lake. We spread our picnic blanket on the same grassy hill overlooking the lake that we'd chosen last fall and emptied our saddlebags. Applejack stamped out a pitch for a game of horseshoes.
We relaxed in the sunshine, supplemented our sandwiches with a little grazing, watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash battle it out at horseshoes, played tic tac toe, chatted and generally had a relaxing afternoon. It was a low key celebration. Fluttershy slept through most of it. Critter care is grueling in the early part of summer.
Spike and Starlight Glimmer didn't join us for the picnic. They both left this morning for the Crystal Empire, Spike for his honorary role at the fireworks (it's Trottingham's turn) and Starlight Glimmer to visit Sunburst. They'll be back tomorrow.
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Magical Consultant
July 10: When Starlight arrived back from the Crystal Empire today, she burst into the library to tell me that she and Sunburst had been working on the Table problem pretty much the entire time she was there. She believes they have a working theory on how to fix it! They think that the high backed chairs identified with our cutie marks, the ones arranged around the table, are key. Sunburst has a few more books to track down and consult and Starlight is being catty with the details until they've hammered it out a bit more. This could be good, Sunburst is really good at piecing together obscure incantations and generally fixing magical puzzles. They're going to work on it some more after Starlight gets back from Manehattan.
Tomorrow Starlight Glimmer will be leaving again, off to Manehattan where she and Rarity are going to a Bridleway show. Rarity will be staying a while longer on business, mostly taking care of her boutique there. She has mailed more clothes to Rarity For You and that's due to arrive there tomorrow or the next day.
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Serenity
July 11: It's just me and Spike in the castle tonight. By now Starlight Glimmer and Rarity will have had supper in Manehattan, seen Little Shop of Halters on Bridleway, admired Manehattan by night, stopped in a tearoom for a nightcap and returned to their hotel rooms. I hope I'll get a Friendship Report from Starlight Glimmer when she gets back.
It's quiet in the castle. Out on the balcony it's just me, a few books, my telescope and the night sky. I didn't see any meteors and the constellations are mostly still. Tonight they seem content to just be part of Luna's tableau, resting in a black velvet field of sparkling stars and watching the dance of the fireflies in the green fields below.
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Lunch With Canterlot Friends
July 12: Today I took a small trip of my own. I went to Canterlot, nominally to buy hoof powder from a specialty store for me and Rarity. Rarity was still in Manehattan for the day to look after Rarity For You and to see what else is in style in Manehattan first hoof. Starlight came back with the morning train. She said the show was excellent and then she dived into her books.
It's the same powder the Princesses use. I'm nearly always barefoot, but the Princesses wear their boots as a matter of course all year round and I don't know how bad your nails smell if you wear shoes or gloves a lot, but pony hoofs can really stink when sealed off in hoofwear. Like in the winter. I got an extra vanity jar for Rainbow Dash, I noticed that at home she really likes to wear slippers, and not just in the winter.
I went straight from the train station to the hoof powder store. It's an old apothecary in upper Canterlot, full of glass and porcelain containers of herbal concoctions, remedies and medicinal powders of all sorts. Zecora would love this place. It's right by Celestia's School, so with my (very expensive) sapphire jars of hoof powder sagely wrapped and stored in my saddle bag, I trotted down into the bowels of the Department of Physical Hippology and Archaeology to see if I could find Moondancer in her basement office. She was there in the research archives, working on a document in her crevice piled high with scrolls, artifact fragments and reference books. I tried to describe sunshine to her, but in the end I just dragged her out of her grotto and into the light.
She proposed lunch with our friends at a place off the beaten path. It has good food at reasonable prices and it's a favorite with the students. First we collected Lemon Hearts, Lyra Heartstrings, Minuette and Twinkleshine and we all had lunch together. We monopolized a table for a long time, chatting about old times and catching up with what every pony has been up to. Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine had gone to see the Baltimare fireworks in the Crystal Empire, so we compared notes with the ones I'd attended. Minuette said she might go cheer on Canterlot.
By the time we finished chatting, it was time for me to gallop to the station or I'd miss my train. I flew there instead, the Canterlot streets can be slippery and I didn't want to arrive in a lather. Or knock over ponies on the way. It would get into the gossip pages.
That was a fun trip but I didn't get any new books! At least I got the foot powder. I'll give those to Rarity and Dash next time I see them.
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Vanity Hoof Powder
July 13: I dropped in on Rainbow Dash during my morning stroll and caught her at home before she stepped out on cloud patrol. She was wearing her slippers. Aha! I told her that I had a surprise gift for her and she lit up, but when I told her the sapphire jar contained hoof powder, she didn't know what to make of it. So I told her that in the winter, when we wear our boots, the air gets cut off to our hooves, and they get wet and smelly. The brush that comes with it helps get the powder into those deep crevices and that cures the smell. I told her this is the good stuff, it's what the princesses use. She thought the idea of princesses with smelly hooves was hilarious. OK, so I guess she liked the gift anyway.
Rarity was more... enthused. She is familiar with hoof powder and delighted that I had thought to get her a fresh vanity jar of the good stuff. While I was there, I found out that she's decided to go to Yakyakistan five days from now to buy cloth and that Pinkie is going with her. I jumped on the occasion to invite myself along! Back at the castle I wrote to Princess Cadence to arrange for a place to stay for two nights for three ponies. Before I sent the letter, I managed to get hold of Moondancer via Haycartes and convince her to go on a snowflake safari with me. So I changed the letter to two nights accommodation for four ponies, and sent it.
I forgot to ask Rarity about the Bridleway musical.
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And Then We Were Five
July 14: Applejack got wind of our Yakyakistan trip and she let me know that she'd like to go along with us. So I sent another letter to Princess Cadence. I hope she doesn't mind.
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Cloud Clash
July 15: I got a reply from Princess Cadence for that first letter, she said she has room for the four of us. My second letter, where I added Applejack to our group, probably crossed paths with that reply in the mail.
Since I left Canterlot without stopping in a bookstore, I decided to go look for books in the Ponyville bazaar today. Instead of a worthy book, I found a Cloud Clash game instead. I had one once, but it got fried with the Golden Oak. Next game night I'll be able to include that game as an option.
It was really hot again. I went for ice cream at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie. We agreed it's about time that we had another ice cream confection party. Usually that means right now with Pinkie, but she must be booked solid for parties because we didn't set a date. She'll probably surprise us, as she is wont to do.
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Dutiful Spike
July 16: Spike caught the Friendship Express this morning for the Crystal Empire where he'll be welcomed back as Hero of the Empire and figurehead for the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. He'll get pampered and stuffed with gemstones and be back tomorrow. It's a hard life.
It's Canterlot that will be lighting up the sky there tonight. I considered going with Minuette, but I've been to the Ponyville show and the Cloudsdale brontotechnic display, and Minuette may have decided not to go. We'll be five heading for the Crystal Empire in a couple of days anyway. I'll get my fill of crowds there and in Yakyakistan then.
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Traveling Ponies
July 17: Spike is back with news that the wild growth and flash mobs of creatures has apparently ended in the Crystal Empire and surrounding area. It looks like they won't be needing the first cut hay Ponyville had set aside for them. If we still have a lot left over by next year, we might end up building with it.
He told me that the Canterlot fireworks were spectacular and that it's going to be hard for the judges to pick a winner. Oh, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were there to watch too. If I'd only known, I might have gone.
Starlight Glimmer left this morning for the Crystal Empire to see how Sunburst's research is going. Tomorrow afternoon it will be our turn to hop on the Friendship Express. First to the legendary home of the crystal ponies, and from there to the exotic lands of Yakyakistan! I have my winter gear all packed, a magnifying glass, my field notebook, and most importantly, my copy of The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them.
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Adventure Awaits!
July 18: I received a note from Princess Cadence in the morning mail: five ponies will be fine. We're good to go! Starlight still hasn't come back from the Crystal Empire. I hope that means progress! We leave for Crystal Empire this afternoon, and after a night's stay, we hike to Yakyakistan the following morning.
Moondancer got here this morning and since not much had changed since her overnight stay last year, we mostly explored this, my magic Treecastle link to a giant library in another universe, called "The Web". Haycartes doesn't work on the link (she tried). I told her it's just as well. She could get turned into a spider with no way back to Equestria!
We're off to the station. I'm taking my copy of The Illustrated Book On Unnatural Snowflakes And Where To Find Them, of course. Rarity will be looking for fabric, Applejack for business opportunities and crop strains, and Pinkie apparently would like to find glacier-polished rocks as gifts for her family. Moondancer and I plan on a fun day out on the ice fields of Yakyakistan, prospecting for wild snowflakes. And tonight I'll show her the Crystal Empire Castle Library! Sunburst has been putting a lot of time into reshelving the books by subject and author (I'm so jealous) and I can't wait to see the result! It's going to be fun, fun, fun!
Time pull Moondancer out of my library and trot to the train station.
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(Dear Ponyville, your Princess has flown the stable again! Good luck catching her.)
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Traveling The Yak Felt Trail
July 20: We got back from the Yak capital in time to catch the afternoon train in the Crystal Empire. Rarity had us all saddled with bolt after bolt of the finest yak felt cloth in bright, dazzling patterns. We were probably quite the sight, trudging through the Crystal Empire outskirts on our way home. The bolts were amazingly light, but very bulky to carry. From afar, we probably looked like giant, luridly colored tortoises with tiny legs. The cloth rode in the baggage car; loaded like we were, we wouldn't have fit through the door. Rarity made arrangements for three times more cloth to get carted to Ponyville.
I'd bought a ton of books and a bunch that I've borrowed from the Crystal Castle Library were waiting for me at the station. Applejack and Pinkie didn't leave empty hoofed either. They are excited about some sticky, chewy Yak pastries they'd found there. Pinkie also came back with fermented yak milk1. That stuff stinks! Applejack carried her gift rocks and her pouch of wind-borne glacial till for her, so that they would retain that delicate alpine smell and not smell like sour milk. We double triple wax canvas sealed the jugs of milk so they wouldn't get on Rarity's cloth. The yak wax vendor assured us that the yak wax seal would be perfect and no yak milk would escape to harm the yak felt. Yaks are very particular about quality, although perfect sour milk is a difficult concept to grasp. Applejack also picked up some "winter wheat" seeds that she wants to try.
Moondancer is back in Canterlot by now, also saddled with books. I think she was happy that I got her out of her cramped basement office in the Department of Hippology for a fun day trip out on the ice fields of Yakyakistan. The downside was that it just wasn't the right season for snowflake collecting. We did spot a few fresh snowflakes in the higher elevations, but it's a dry period right now and most of what we found in the glacial crevasses had sublimed and fused. But the views were gorgeous2. On the sunny side of the mountains there were terraced yak paddies tucked out of the wind and irrigated with glacial melt. On the frozen north-facing slopes, bobsled runs (Pinkie just had to try that). Everywhere, bright fuzzy, ground hugging flowers and organic shapes carved out of the rocks by the action of wind, water and ice. Eerie and beautiful.
Starlight Glimmer got back before we did and I found her bursting with the news that she and Sunburst think they have come up with a working solution. I've read their proposal and it has all the hallmarks of Sunburst's methodology -- it takes two ponies to cast the spell and all six of us have to be there. Starlight is so keen to cast the spell that I bet if she could have done so on her own, she'd have already cast it. The spell looks complex, but doable. I asked Spike to invite everypony over tomorrow so we can give it a try.
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1 Pinkie said the Cakes wanted the fermented yak milk. They have a few classic yak cake recipes they acquired through trade and they call for fermented yak milk. So Pinkie's primary mission in Yakyakistan was to acquire fermented yak milk and to scout for exotic specialty treats. Everything else was just clovers.
2 My legs ache from all those steep trails and my lips are chapped from the constant wind, but it was a lot of fun. Each of my friends brought something to the excursion that I would not have seen or done otherwise. Friendship broadens your horizons.
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A Stitch In Time
July 21 : Together Stalight and Sunburst have decided that our connection to the table is facilitated by the high-backed chairs that circle it. The chairs connect to the table and they are linked to us. They postulate that Star Swirl's time travel spell, as modified by Starlight, knocked the chairs out of time phase with table, but just slightly. There's enough overlap that we can still see both the chairs and the table, but somehow the chairs can't "see" the table. That says a lot about us1. Long story short, it takes Starlight and me working together to cast the spell, and all six of us had to be there so that all the connections get properly synchronized.
And it worked! Rarity and Pinkie got saddled with a job in Canterlot and they trotted out the door, leaving the rest of us mulling over this new turn of events. Applejack noted dryly that it's good we fixed the table soonish after it had gone off its rocker, otherwise we'd all be galloping in all directions like startled fillies. Dash said she half expected another chair to pop up, with Starlight Glimmer's mark on it, seeing as she was casting the fix-it spell with me. That would have been... something. You don't really know what to expect with the Tree of Harmony. I could wake up one day to find the whole Friendship Castle gone, or somepony else's cutie marks on the chairs. But for now, we're still connected to the Elements of Harmony.
The map evaporated and we went back to our routines. Fluttershy to her wards, Applejack to buck some early apples before it got dark, Dash... didn't say, but probably to reread some Daring Do to her tortoise, and I went back to my reading.
1 We apparently experience a fuzzy approximation of time. Remember that I said generally we see the world as the most common average of possibilities of distances, that we can choose which displacement from point 'A' to point 'B' we or an object we touch can take, but generally our Equestria defaults to a fuzzy steady state. Well, the chairs and the time travel demonstrate that we aren't quite tethered to quantum time. I'm going to have to rethink Pinkie Sense some more.
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Food For Thought
July 22: Rarity and Pinkie found and solved their quest and they're already back, so we had a Friendship Council meeting to receive their report. It was about strengthening the sire/filly bond in a family restaurant, although Rainbow Dash said the Map may have sent us there to improve pony nutrition in Canterlot. I glanced over to see what Fluttershy thought of that proposal and she didn't look like she thought that remark was entirely wrong. So, maybe the Tree does want us to eat right. The Griffonstone task was about food, and so was the Hooffields/McColt conflict, to a large extent. We ended up debating the importance of food in building friendships. Which made everypony hungry, so we adjourned to the kitchen where we all worked together to make a celebration feast for a successful Map Quest conclusion.
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Apple Cake Taster
July 23: After Spike left for the Crystal Empire Fireworks Festival, I wandered down to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack was busy in the kitchen cooking up some early tart apples. She was trying to emulate some yak cakes she'd tasted when we were in Yakyakistan a few days ago, but she was swapping in apples in lieu of the cranberries the yaks use. I got to sample several cakes, each was a variation on a white or shortbread cake with diced apples baked in as a middle layer and a topping. Applejack was playing with the icing and the spices as she searched for the best combination. They were all good, especially while still hot out of the oven.
The evening's fireworks are probably over in the Crystal Empire. It was Sea Cattle putting on the show this time. I couldn't see the flashes from my balcony, but all of Equestria can feel the happiness of the crystal ponies and see the tendrils of light flung across the sky by the Crystal Heart.
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Good Vibrations
July 24: Over that supper we had the other night, Pinkie, Spike and Rarity got to discussing rock culture. Rarity was interested in knowing why there are so many big and beautiful gems in the bat cave she has been spelunking (while trying valiantly to avoid getting covered in bat guano). Pinkie is mostly familiar with open-air rock farming and bat-free grottoes, but she and Spike were in agreement that a combination of the acoustics in the cave and the ultrasonic squeaks of the bats probably augmented the growth of the gems that were naturally there. Together they came up with the suggestion that Rarity should plant gem grit in the cave, thus seeding it for future gem crops. Fluttershy weighed in that they should also make sure that their bat population is stable and sustainable in the long term. She's going to go with Rarity next time to see the cave and survey the bats on their way out, with the goal of finding out which ecosystems they're exploiting.
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Spike's Green Rod
July 25: To my surprise, Spike has been keeping a few more of the gems from the lunches that the crystal ponies pack for him. The train ride home after the fireworks events is long and snacking on jewels while watching the scenery go by is just the thing Spike would do... until he ran out of jewels. But in an amazing feat of restraint, not only did he save some for later, he has been growing them. I knew that he had planned on growing an emerald and a sapphire, but I didn't know that he had followed through on that plan, although I should have guessed. Spike did grow a very nice fire ruby once, and it got quite large and attractive, so he seems to be skilled at this. The sapphire is from Rarity's bat cave, but the emerald was the first of the lunch gems that he successfully avoided eating on the train back from his Crystal Empire duties. He showed it to me today and it's pretty impressive. All the cracks and inclusions are gone and it has grown into a fat hexagonal rod as long as Spike's arm. He hasn't decided when or on what occasion to eat it yet. He's having too much fun growing the gems.
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Cold Treats
July 26: Pinkie sprang a surprise ice cream confection party on us today. I found out about it earlier than most because Pinkie decided the tree-chest castle is the best for an ice cream making party, but she had to be sure it was alright first. In case I'd spread my stamp collection all over the dining room table. I don't collect stamps. She announced that friendship is food and ice cream is the best food there is! I think she may have danced and sung while she made that proclamation... I was too busy wondering where I should file stamp collecting and ice cream in my Elements of Friendship : Resources, References and Results. Then she was gone, off to the races, leaving me with my ears ringing from a toy horn blast, in a cloud of confetti and with an invitation stuffed in my mouth. Mid afternoon! That was short notice. I didn't have to trot far with my pails and bowls but it meant that I did have to scramble for ingredients and flavors.
Not the mane ingredients. Pinkie had that covered: cream, milk, sugar and salt. She also was bringing the hoof-cranked churns. She had put Rainbow Dash in charge of the ice. That meant Dash had been the first in on the surprise. I rounded up Spike and Starlight Glimmer and together we worked out a plan of action. Our plan was to trot off to the bazaar to see what we could find there.
On the way I decided I wanted to make mint chocolate flake ice cream. Spike thought tourmaline ruby ice cream would be good but I told him he'd be the only one to eat it and good luck finding those gems in the bazaar. Turns out he had some tourmaline and ruby left over from his Crystal Empire lunches, so I suggested he spice it up with paprika. As for Starlight, she looked around the bazaar a bit and decided she wanted a practical ice cream. Hay and rolled oat. We already had those items in our pantry, so I suggested she mix it up a bit and add dandelion flowers. That was acceptable. We left the bazaar with dandelion flowers, spicy paprika, mint oil and big chunk of hard black chocolate. It wasn't our biggest haul.
Back at the castle, Spike ground up his two gems into sparkly grit, I lined up the bowls, pails, spoons, chopping and flaking tools on the dining room table, and Starlight put a few cups of chopped third cut hay to soften up in hot water.
Pinkie and Dash were the first to arrive. They set up the ice-maker and I placed Pinkie's three ice cream churns on the table. Spike put his ground up stones and his paprika on the table, I got out my ingredients and Starlight came in with her oats and a bowl of strained wet hay. Soon after that, everypony had arrived and we could get started.
We made three teams. I teamed up with Starlight Glimmer, Rarity teamed up with Fluttershy and Spike, and Pinkie, Dash and Applejack made up the third team. Rainbow Dash's ice-maker started cranking out the ice and chilling the room in the process. It's cool in the castle already, but with and ice-maker in the room, it quickly got frosty.
Everypony wanted their turn turning the crank on the ice cream churns, just to warm up. We were blowing great billowing gouts of vapor from our nostrils as we huffed over the churns. Frost was building up on the table and walls. I sent Spike to get blankets out of storage for everypony and after we'd strapped those on we felt better. There was no problem keeping the fresh ice cream from melting.
I made my mint chocolate ice cream first, Starlight and I took turns between grating the chocolate flakes into the mix and turning the crank. She wanted to churn the mix magically but I told her that sharing a task builds friendships. As will eating the ice cream together later on.
Spike made his gem ice cream last, to make sure no sparkly grit got into Rarity's chocolate saffron ice cream or Fluttershy's raspberry oat nut crunch ice cream. On Pinkie's team, Dash made orange sesame ice cream, Applejack made an apple cinnamon ice cream, and Pinkie's ice cream flavor was peppermint cherry swirl.
We'd finished by evening and eight big buckets of fresh ice cream graced the center of the frost-covered table. We went out on the balcony where is was a lot warmer and dined on hay and vegetable sticks washed down with hot tea. When we had warmed up we sampled each other's creations, except for Spike's, and traded scoops. All the flavors tasted wonderful, even Starlight's hay ice cream. It was like a meal and dessert rolled into one. I think it was the dandelions that made the difference. If nothing else, they made her creation look like a swirly field of wind blown grass and yellow flowers. Pretty and tasty.
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A Tale Of Two Cakes
July 27: The castle absorbed and redistributed the freezing cold from the ice cream making session we'd had yesterday, probably cooling the entire castle and the bedrock it sprang from, ever so slightly. Spike mopped up the puddles from the melted frost early this morning. Good thing there aren't any rugs, or books, in the dining room.
It's meteor shower season! According to my Astronomer's Almanac, the best time to watch them is in the hours before morning twilight, but there are always a frisky few itching to go galloping through the dark skies at all hours of the night. This calls for a shooting star picnic. I put Pinkie in charge of planning it and we'll be heading out to pasture tomorrow night to go sky watching.
It's also the start of blueberry season. Yesterday, when we were foraging for ice cream flavorings at the bazaar, I noticed that ponies were already selling blueberries. Today I thought we could try our hooves at baking a blueberry rolled oat cake. That would go great with the ice cream Applejack made. Fluttershy's too.
Spike went to the market for blueberries, butter, milk and eggs and I set out the recipe, mixing bowls, measuring spoons, measuring cup, strainer, baking pans, stirring spoons and dry ingredients. When Spike got back, I got Starlight Glimmer while he washed the blueberries. It looked like we had fewer blueberries when we arrived back in the kitchen, but there were still enough for a few cakes.
Starlight Glimmer took one look at the recipe, cast a cake-making spell and presto, produced a blue and white cake that looked fabulous. It didn't quite taste as good as it looked. Maybe it cooked too fast or wasn't mixed enough. What really was missing was the baking smells and the friendship bond that comes from cooking together. We started over.
Spike mixed and tasted, Starlight poured the ingredients and I organized the work flow. Soon we had the blueberry and cake batter mix cooking in the oven while we worked on the icing. It was a light butter lemon icing. We put that in the cooler, cleaned up and fixed lunch while the cake baked. The cake came out of the oven during lunch, and when it was cool, Spike applied the icing and we all licked the bowl and utensils. To friendship! Now we had two cakes. And then Fluttershy came over for ice cream.
What's left of our ice cream is safely stored in the pantry ice box, along with Fluttershy's pail. She didn't take all of her ice cream home since the critters would have eaten it all before she had another taste, but she does like to share a treat with them. So she took home what was left of her raspberry oat nut crunch ice cream and stored the flavors she'd traded scoops for here. It was another hot day in Ponyville and she was back to eat some today.
So she dropped in soon after we'd frosted our second blueberry rolled oat cake, and her timing could not have been better. We all had cake and ice cream together.
The second cake, I'll call it Spike's cake, was the better tasting cake.
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Picnic Under A Canopy Of Stars
July 28: It's meteor shower picnic night! We've packed our saddle bags, loaded our baskets and we're heading out to the western pasture any minute now. Even though there will be plenty of pasture to graze, everypony is bringing something to eat. We made another blueberry rolled oat cake, a big jug of chilled mint tea and a big bowl of oven crisped salted lettuce leaves. Of course I'm taking my almanac and my Double Bridle telescope. Gotta go! Everypony is probably waiting for me downstairs.
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On The Grass Below The Sea Of Stars
July 29: We had the western meadow to ourselves last night. It wasn't a spectacular shooting star event and I guess most ponies aren't as keen on star gazing as I am. Or they chose other places and times to look up at the boundless ocean of stars.
We set out the picnic blanket and the cushions on the big hill. There were fireflies everywhere, blinking and tracing dashed lines of phosphorescent light in the moonlit waves of grass below us. We unpacked the snacks, I set up my telescope and Rarity put out candles all around us, to fit the mood. It was like we were inside our own abstract, immobile constellation in a green sky of hyperactive, flashing stars. Like a crude facsimile of the sky above. I hoped the stars weren't insulted. But after drinking some of Pinkie's blueberry punch and eating a few of Fluttershy's sesame snap cookies, I got over that and I enjoyed the illusion of being adrift among the stars with my friends.
We lay down on the blanket and cushions and watched the antics of the constellations as they chased meteors that whisked by, trailing long sparkling tails and winking in and out like fireflies in the sky. It must be fun to be a shooting star. They look so playful and carefree, galloping and frisking about like that.
The meteors were few and far between and we took turns looking at the fainter stars through my telescope and chatting. Eventually we finished off the tea and the punch and we even ate all of the blueberry rolled oat cake. By the time the shooting stars were beginning to come out in larger numbers, everypony was ready to call it a night. We blew out the candles, collected our things, saddled up our bundles and made our way back through the fireflies and long grass, to Ponyville. Above, a few shooting stars seemed to be escorting us there.
Much later this morning, after I'd started my second pot of chocolate peppermint spice tea, I remembered how nice Spike looked after that time he had his scales waxed and his nails trimmed at the spa. Since tomorrow he'll be presiding over the final contest entry in the Fireworks Festival and the following day he'll be announcing the winner, it would be good that he looked his best. So we went to the spa today and ordered the wax.
I specified the glitter-free wax. Glittery wax would have been too much. We were looking for presence, not a circus act look. The spa ponies did a great job, polishing him up so much that he nearly has a mirror shine. It's pretty impressive. It's late now but I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't still preening and flexing while admiring his reflection a mirror. I'd better check. We were up really late watching the stars last night and while he fell asleep early on, he might have a slight sleep deficit today. He wouldn't want to spend the evening tomorrow fighting to stay awake.
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Excitement In The Air
July 30: Spike was just a little bleary-eyed when he left this morning for the Crystal Empire. He probably caught a nap on the train, or if not there, I'm sure his Crystal Empire fan club saw to it that he got a nap there before he was needed for the festival. Whinnyapolis will have lit up the sky there tonight.
With the Crystal Heart lights streaming down from the north, I can feel some of the excitement and anticipation of the crystal ponies. Whinnyapolis was the last of the festival participants and the winners will be announced tomorrow. The constellations look like they've caught some of that excitement too. The Ursa Minor is running around in circles and Leo and the Ursa Major are play wrestling. I bet that when the shooting stars start flying, it's going to be spectacular. I plan to take a short nap out on the balcony so I don't miss it.
Spike will get back some time next evening, which is later than usual. The official proclamation of festival judges should happen around midday. Next week Spike will take one last train ride to the Crystal Empire to be there for the awards ceremony and to close the festival. To finish with a bang, the top artificer will have the honor of launching the last firework display of the festival.
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Fattening the Flashy Glass
July 31: I successfully napped my way to the predawn peak of shooting star activity and woke up to a meteor party! They're small and faint meteors, but I saw quite a few zipping around, sometimes one every two minutes! Twice I saw a shooting star with a persistent tail, or it may have been the same one twice. Either way, that made my night. The Crystal Heart lights had faded away hours earlier, but I could still feel a faint, lingering echo of the excitement of the crystal ponies. I suspect that that was a factor in my enjoyment of the meteor shower.
Spike arrived back without incident. He knew we were champing at the bit to find out which city was chosen as having put on the best show of the festival, so he let us stew for a while. Finally he told us: it was Cloudsdale in first, Canterlot as runner up and Manehattan coming in third. I'm happy that I had decided to go to the Cloudsdale performance.
Spike was carrying one of those cloth bags with his likeness embroidered on it, the ones the crystal ponies fill with gems intended for his train ride lunch or snack. I could hear two rocks knocking together in it so I asked him what he'd kept this time. Turns out it was a small yellow diamond and a black opal. The diamond I get, but the opal, sure it's beautiful with its flashes of red, green and yellow, but it's just glass. Because it's amorphous, not crystalline, Spike says it's going to be harder to grow, but he's keen to try. He's going to grow it in a water bath and the tricky part is keeping the water content down in the stone. Too much water content and it will crack when he's finished growing it and he takes it out. Does that matter? Do the cracks change the flavor? I assume Spike going to eat his gem collection after he's fattened them up.
That sounded monstrous. OK, not fattened, but grown to prize picking size. There, that sounds awkward, but better.
Still, glass? Fancy glass, but still glass. Maybe I could write to Dragon Lord Ember and ask her if opal tastes better than a glass jar. Or maybe that would be insulting. I'll ask Spike instead.
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