Best Of Glass
Aug 1: I got my answer. Spike doesn't expect the opal to taste all that good, which is why he chose to have fun trying to grow it instead. He has it soaking in a big jar with a lot of glass fragments.
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Through The Steady Rain
Aug 2: Ponyville hasn't been seeing many tourists this year. I think just gawking at the Friendship Castle has lost its luster and the place to see this summer has been the Crystal Empire with its Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival and flash mobs of every kind of small exotic animal. It's not like I hold Friendship Courts or like there was a Fun Fun Fun Land here. I think the citizens of Ponyville would flip if Mayor Mare was to have something like that built in our pastures. There's being friendly and there's bumping into too many tourists who are out to have fun at all hours of the day and night. Ponies here had enough trouble getting used to my castle popping up out of the ground and half-blocking the view of Canterlot.
It was raining steadily all day which has had me stabled indoors behind walls of books while drinking gallons of spiced teas. A slow, introspective day. Tomorrow, Ponyville will have been washed clean by the rain and the sunshine will make everything sparkle. It will also wash the dust off the grass in the pastures. I have a Hay Board meeting to attend tomorrow. The timothy grass has gotten lush and tall and I expect that the second cut will take place this week.
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Hay Board Strategies
Aug 3: I took part in the Hay Board meeting today. It is still our intention to push the harvests earlier to give the grass more time to recover before the winter. Our product planning strategists are confident that we will produce enough high quality second cut hay and bagged silage to meet demand. They worked together with the pasture tech ponies to map out which fields were best harvested as hay and which were best suited to be baled in polymer silage bags.
The pasture tech delegates reported that the grass is ready to be harvested, but they expressed concern about the moisture content of the soil. If the harvest was to start today, the lower parts of the fields would run the risk of getting churned into mud by the mowers. Hay left to dry on mud will become inedible. It will get moldy. But they expect, with a little earth pony help, that the ground will have absorbed the rain by tomorrow and be dry enough by that afternoon. Just to be sure, the harvest will start at the higher, dryer ground and make its way down slope over the next few days.
Ponyville is going to smell good!
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Grass Ponies
Aug 4: The second cut harvest has started and already the intoxicating smell of curing hay is wafting through Ponyville and in my balcony doors. I am expecting yaks to appear at any moment, pulled all the way from Yakyakistan by the aroma. I've been eating fresh bread slathered with generous amounts of apple butter to take my mind off of all that glorious fresh cut hay. It's not working. I'm not the only pony to whom the hay calls. Foals are out under the cover of darkness, rolling in the cut grass and leaving pony silhouette shapes in the fields. I can hear them giggling and whispering in the still night air. I can't see them, but I saw a few more shooting stars flash by silently in the southern part of the sky. They are remembering us as they pass, remembering that they were ponies, remembering the joy and freedom of galloping with the wind in your mane. I think mid-summer is my favorite time of year.
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Fancy Harvest Feast
Aug 5: Ponies were in the fields tedding yesterday's mow and cutting further downslope. By the light of day I could see the spread-eagled pony shapes of the grass ponies the foals had made by rolling and flailing in the cut grass last night. They'd also pushed through the trimmed fields to draw roadways and spirals. The tedding wiped out their patterns and replaced it with that of a roiling, troubled sea of grass. It could be three more days before the grass will be dry enough to be baled. Further afield, I can see some of our polymer-wrapped silage awaiting pick-up.
Pinkie called us to a harvest feast in Applejack's barn. She'd teamed up with the Cakes to bake up, stew, fry and generally prepare a mountain of mid-summer fare. Rarity had a hoof in this. She did the presentation of food, setting out a white tablecloth on a very long table, and populating it with china plates, crystal goblets and artistically arranged food. I especially liked her salad houses made from carrots and thatched with hay.
Dinner was after sundown so Applejack and her family could finish haying. They arrived famished and we got right down to eating. We started with a sweet white flour soup. Applejack and Big McIntosh were drinking their second bowls before I was halfway though my first serving. Next we carved into bouquets of wildflowers, miniature bales of alfalfa sprouts tied with fresh bedstraw, timber wolves built out of celery sticks, silage cascading down mounds of crispy fried hay, cakes shaped like mountains topped with white icing, and an ice cream dish with vanilla, lemon and apple ice cream flowers in a field of mint chocolate ice cream. Even the bread was carved into cloud shapes and the butter into little stars and moons. We somehow managed to eat just about everything. Whatever was left I think Applejack's family will probably polish off for breakfast before heading out to cut more hay.
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Cutting Through The Grassy Haze
Aug 6: Spike left this morning for the final night of the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. He'll be presiding over the award ceremony and attending the gala dinner. Since Cloudsdale won, it will be their honor to close the festival with one last pyrotechnic display. All the competitors are invited to the gala dinner, and I'd learned that Zecora declined the invitation. Ponyville is being represented by Mayor Mare and Amethyst Star. Pinkie also declined the dinner.
Pinkie and Rarity's elegant feast (in Applejack's barn! So funny!) helped take a bit of the edge off, but that smell of fresh cut hay drying in the sun is still making it hard to concentrate. I decided to pick up a tub of ice cream and visit Zecora.
There were a lot of ponies at Sugarcube Corner. They probably also had the same general idea, try to resist rushing out into the fields and galloping like mad mares through the intoxicating smell. Pinkie and the cakes were in high production, baking cupcakes, lemon poppy seed muffins, rock candy and cookies and selling them before they'd had a chance to cool down. I was lucky that there was a tub of dandelion orange ice cream left when I got my turn at the counter. I would have liked a couple of those lemon poppy seed muffins as well, but the cooked ones were already sold out. I thanked Pinkie and the Cakes for the delicious feast we'd had and trotted quickly out of the shop. Between the crowd and the nonstop baking, it was like an oven in there.
I see why Pinkie ended up not going to the fireworks dinner. Helping the Cakes spread comfort and joy in Ponyville is clearly a priority. I rewrapped the tub of ice cream in Ponyville newspapers and set off for the Everfree Forest.
Entering the Everfree was like a mixed blessing. I was out of the sun and the dank odor of the undergrowth blocked the smell of hay, but with the humidity it felt even hotter and the weird buzz of the Everfree buzzards had me slinking carefully through the shadows.
To my relief, Zecora was home. She usually is, but still, when you think you see timber wolves lurking in every pile of dead branches, you desperately hope you won't end up alone at your destination. Believe me.
Zecora graciously welcomed the ice cream and got out bowls and cookies. They were cinnamon swirls, the swirl pattern looking just like her cutie mark, and very good. We chatted about the fireworks and the Crystal Empire, about the discovery Moondancer is working on and how it will rewrite pony history and about maintaining focus when the air is full of the sweet smell of curing hay. After tea Zecora coached me through some breathing exercises. I felt well centered and clear after that. On my walk back home, filtering through the background noise and rustles of the Everfree and giving a manticore and a cockatrice a wide berth was foal's play.
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Hot Horse Hay
Aug 7: They've mowed the fields down to the lowest areas and most of the second cut has been baled. The fields look very pretty, so clean and dotted with long rectangular bales. The silage has already been picked up and moved to storage. I'd better buy my hay soon before the yak buyers cause the price to rocket.
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Keeping The Household Well Stocked
Aug 8: We burned through my supply of second cut hay much faster than I thought we would last year. We are again out of second cut hay, we just finished off the five bales I'd bought a few moons ago to tide us over to this harvest. So, instead of 15 bales, I decided to buy 30 bales of second cut hay. We'll see how that has gone when the third cut gets harvested. If I underestimated our hay consumption again, I'll just buy more third cut hay1.
I found Applejack at the Ponyville marketplace with a big cart full of freshly baled hay. I waited for my turn behind a pair of Yak buyers. They were haggling with Applejack and prodding the bales in her cart. No doubt looking for that perfect bale, but much more polite that Prince Rutherford in that regard. Smashing stuff is bad for business. I ordered my thirty bales and trotted home to prepare. Applejack hitched herself to her cart and headed off to deliver her load of hay to the train station.
With Spike's help I cleaned out the hay dust from the room that has been repurposed as a second and third cut pantry and straightened up the grid of wood planks. There are four bales of third cut hay left. I moved them closer to the door. Applejack is going to deliver my hay order tomorrow.
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1 Before Starlight Glimmer joined us at the castle, our hay consumption was approximately one bale of first cut every 11 days, two bales of second cut every moon and one bale per moon for the third cut hay. Now we are two sedentary ponies and one dragon in residence here, and our staple diet is first cut hay. The second and third cut hays are mostly for guest dinners and as a treat. Since I don't expect more guests or potluck dinners this year, it stands to reason that my second and third cut consumption should remain mostly the same. But I expect a marked increase in first cut hay consumption. Originally, my first cut stores was going to last me until well past harvest. So, with Starlight Glimmer now in the equation, I roughly doubled what should have been a year's supply of first cut hay without her. My second cut hay was already getting consumed faster than I had originally projected, which is why I doubled my order from last year. My third cut hay consumption appears to be about what I had projected late last fall. I'll decide how much to get when the time comes.
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Second Cut Short Cut Straight Up
Aug 9: This afternoon, Big McIntosh and Applejack rolled up with two carts piled high with soft green bales of fragrant second cut hay. Applejack joked that she had selected the best bales, seeing as she was going to be obliged to eat them for all of the coming year. I fired back that this hay wasn't for eating, I was going to stuff mattresses with it. Starlight Glimmer, who was out with me to move the hay, looked shocked. I had to tell her it was a joke.
I waited and chatted with Applejack and Big McIntosh while Starlight went back inside and climbed the stairs to reach our impromptu "pantry'. She opened the balcony door and called down that she was ready. I levitated the hay.
I lifted the hay from the carts and sent the thirty bales rising in single file, like a string of giant beads, up and through the balcony door, where Starlight Glimmer recovered them. At her end she was in charge of stacking the bales. I let go of each bale as I lost sight of them, and Starlight picked them up from there, dropping them in well ordered rows and columns of small towers of hay. I think that was something she really enjoyed. A place for everything and everything in it's place. She did a good job too, we can easily walk around the stacks and that means air will circulate well too.
Rarity, Spike and Fluttershy went out to the gem cave at dusk to find out where the bats go at night. Spike got back a little while ago and he said it seems they like the marshy areas around Ponyville and Saddle lake. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star are going to study the feasibility of establishing bat sanctuaries in those areas. Fluttershy also recommends a seasonal approach to gem collection in the caves, to avoid disturbing the roosts at critical times, such as when the bats are hibernating and when the pups are too young to fly.
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Hay Array
Aug 10: The first cut hay that I have in my pantry isn't all aging at the same rate. Even though it was all harvested from the same field on the same day, there are differences from one bale to the next. I'd already organized them by size; bigger bales on the bottom, smallest on top. By weight; heavier, probably not quite as dry hay closer to the door. By starch content; rougher, less leafy hay mostly in the center of the room where their turn will coincide with those cold winter days. Now I had a color gradient to add to the equation.
I had just started to sort through the hay when Starlight Glimmer came trotting down the corridor and looked in through the doorway. Her eyes lit up when I told her what I had in mind. She joined me and we spent a happy afternoon sorting, resorting and filing the first cut hay bales into what is probably an optimal utilitarian storage array. We stopped short of tagging each bale with a three dimensional Haycartesian coordinate sequence, but it sure was tempting. Anyway, the grid layout of the stacks is so obvious that locating, say, bale {0,0,3}, is a no-brainer1.
It seems almost a shame to eat them.
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1 Before Glimmer's arrival, hay consumption was: me + Spike= 1 flake of hay (1st+2nd cut) per day, where 1 bale = 6 to 7 flakes. Now with Starlight added to the equation, consumption is up at around less than 50%. Thus, we should consume 10 flakes a week (not 7), but less because of grazing and summer crops. Last winter, for 1st cut alone, me+Spike = 1 bale in 11 days. Now we should be at 1 bale first cut per week and 3 flakes of second cut hay per week, except, must factor in grazing. Delivery was on June 30 when we'd completely run out. In six weeks four bales of that gone already, that leaves 46. So, the array: stacks of three in a four by four array (4x4x3=48). Two stacks nearest to the door actually two bales high. 50 bales for the year is cutting it close.
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To The Beautiful Night
Aug 11: My Astronomer's Almanac says that there will be a spectacular meteor shower tonight. There will be shooting stars about all night, but they will be extra numerous late tonight, especially with the other shooting star herd galloping about as well. I called on my friends to see who would be up for some sky gazing. Applejack declined the offer, the hay season and haggling with yaks has worn her out. Rainbow Dash has a Wonderbolt show to prepare for and Rarity is on a deadline for a client. But Spike will come along, Fluttershy said she'll be there, so will Pinkie and Starlight Glimmer. We've packed a picnic and we'll go to our favorite spot in the Western Pasture. Hopefully I won't get any hair in the food or in the drink. It's summer molt time.
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Deep Into The Night
Aug 12: We walked through the freshly shorn fields to our favorite hill in the Western Pasture, four ponies and a baby dragon under the starry skies. I saw four shooting stars on the way there. I would have seen more, but I had to watch where I was walking.
We spread our blanket and cushions and distributed the snacks by the light of the moon. I unpacked my Double Bridle telescope from its carrying case and focused it on the stars. Then Princess Luna, far away in Canterlot, set the moon. Show time!
In the pitch darkness the myriads of smaller, shyer stars came out as our eyes adjusted. More and more appeared. The sky was full of subtle glitter everywhere we looked, and in among the glitter, tiny streaks of light. Shooting stars! But so faint that the gentle light of the moon would have hidden them.
Then the big meteors came out to play. Starlight Glimmer had counted quite a few shooting stars earlier, at a rate of one every few minutes, but now there were bright streaks flying across the sky, especially in the southern edge, three, sometimes four at a time. There were fireballs! I tried to track them with my telescope, but they were just too fast.
I could have lain there watching the skies all night, but after an hour or so my friends were ready to go home. We gathered up our things and I gently picked Spike up to carry him back to the castle. He had fallen asleep early on. Above us the silent fireworks of the meteor shower carried on, too quiet and subtle for Spike this late at night. At this point it would have taken loud music and explosions to keep him awake.
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Shaking Out The Dust
Aug 13: Summer molt is making me itchy. I went out on the western balcony overlooking the mown fields and took a brush to my coat. From the hair bunnies rolling around in the wind eddies by the rail, I could see that Starlight Glimmer had been here doing just this earlier today. I stood by edge of the balcony while brushing out the short hairs and the dust. I think I'm overdue for a trip to the spa. Down below, the ever changing fields have gone from waves of dark green to a still yellow following the second cut. All the bales have been picked up and we're due for a visit from Cloudsdale.
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Ceci N'est Pas Un Spa
Aug 14: We got a hot and rainy day. The rain was of course from Cloudsdale, here to water our crops, wash the town and keep our river flowing. It felt good to walk in the warm downpour, but it's no substitute for the spa. Only two more days until spa day. Can I hold out? The spa is more fun with friends, especially during a miserable molt.
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Summer's Buffet
Aug 15: I went out for a stroll and came back from the Ponyville market with some of the summer's bounty. There was so many good things to choose from. Berries, fruits, leafy vegetables and root crops are fairly overflowing the stalls. Between this and grazing the green grass, I've put my summer weight back on. I could feel the bounce walking out to the Western Pasture hill top the other night. My friends also look sleek and healthy. Summer is good to us.
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Go With The Glow
Aug 16: It was finally spa day. I'd checked in with Rarity yesterday, just to be sure she'd be there and that I wasn't holding back for nothing. I showed up early and found Fluttershy waiting in the lobby. We chatted until Rarity arrived, at her usual time, followed by Starlight Glimmer and Applejack. Dash and Pinkie had gone yesterday, so it was just the five of us, although I hadn't been expecting Applejack.
Applejack has sold all the hay that she'd planned on selling and she's back to bucking the summer apples. She said that she feels like celebrating and getting all shiny at the spa fits the ticket. Those were her words, give or take a "countryism".
While getting scrubbed free of loose hair I wondered aloud what ponies did before there were spas. Rarity snorted and retorted that there surely had always been spas. Or at least brushes and baths. It would drive a pony mad to always be muddy and tangled. I had my doubts. Everything has a beginning.
I'd considered getting my feathers waxed again, but instead I asked for the Crystal Empire fragrant oil bath. The sleek, shiny look it gives a pony goes so well with this hot summer weather. And in my summer coat I leave less of an oil shadow everywhere I settle down. I feel so silky, it's a pleasure to toss my mane and feel it bounce back into place. Spa trip with friends, check!
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Balancing At The Center Of The Universe
Aug 17: It has been a hot summer but now the nights are starting to get chilly again. A slight breeze sent me in from the balcony to look for a blanket. But the stars drew me out again. The sky is so quiet and yet so alive and hot chocolate peppermint spice tea is wonderful under a cold canopy of twinkling stars.
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Restless
Aug 18: Last year around this time we were getting worried enough about Moondancer and Lemon Hearts that we were about ready to saddle up and go looking for them in the frozen north. This year Dash has her Wonderbolt shows, Rarity has three boutiques to keep her busy and I have a student to lead to Friendship. Most, if not all of Fluttershy's summer wards must have dispersed from her cottage by now. Since we don't have a quest lined up, maybe I could interest my friends in a camping trip?
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I Must Be Hungry
Aug 19: The Crystal Empire should have their second cut harvest soon. They're pretty far north, so their grass usually grows slower than ours. That means a later second cut and usually no third cut harvest. This year the crazy growing season they had for the first half of the summer probably changed their calendar, so I'm not sure when that second cut will happen. At least the clover hayworm moth infestation died back before it found all the stored hay. Cadence told me some farmers lost entire lofts to moths in just one night! Fun thing about Crystal Empire hay is that it looks nearly like normal hay except for the seed heads on the grasses. They're angular and the flat sides of the seeds catch the light. I should get a couple of bales of their first cut hay, just to add a little pizzazz and sparkle to a mixed hay salad!
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The Calm Before The Storm
Aug 20: I told Pinkie about my wanting to do a little camping. She was agog. I felt it necessary to remind her that the trip to rescue Moondancer and Lemon Hearts was one long camping trip. She said that was different. Unless I meant camping in a library. That sounded really tempting, but no and I hadn't chosen a destination.
I told her that we should plan that camping trip soon. Harvest season is cantering into our arena and before you know it, it'll be at full gallop, and it'll carry off Applejack. Same goes for fashion week. So long Rarity. It seems to me we just had one of those. How many fashion weeks are there in a year? So that would be two down for the count. Dash's schedule might be restrictive. Fluttershy has to write her summer reports and plan out this year's hibernation strategy sometime, probably soon. I'd like to go camping while the summer meteors are still playful and there are plenty of fauna and flora for Fluttershy to point out and tell us about. So now would be good.
Pinkie had to run, but she said she was going to consult with Applejack and work out the when and the where.
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Rain Delay
Aug 21: I wanted to see what Applejack had to say about my idea to go camping, but she was out delivering apple pies somewhere. Then Cloudsdale showed up and gave us a downpour so I stayed home all afternoon, getting lost in a few books. By the time I noticed that the rain had stopped, it was already late. I should have dropped in on Fluttershy instead. It's been ages since I've had a nice game of Piaffle with Fluttershy.
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Out Of The Blue
Aug 22: Applejack burst in the door to my study just a little while ago, but it was not what I expected. It was not about the camping trip. It's an invitation from Braeburn to a hoe down. Applejack assured me that unlike garden parties, there's no hoeing or agriculture involved. Just fun and dancing. She insisted we haven't lived until we've gone to a hoe down.
I extended the invitation to Spike and Starlight Glimmer but they shied away on the grounds that they had some emergency studying to do. I wished them happy studying and that I'd report on what this "living" thing was like.
The rest of us are catching the train to Appleoosa. If the train's not too slow, we should get there in time. Applejack told us that there will be food. She said that there's always plenty to eat at a hoe down. Living requires food. Check. I said I'd keep notes.
I had a thought: we can plan our camping trip together on the train! I'd better trot. My friends are probably all waiting for me at the station.
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Changeling Of Plans
Aug 23: I wasn't the last pony to get to the Ponyville train station. That would be Rainbow Dash. She hates waiting. But then, from my perspective, Pinkie had arrived after Dash. She had been at the station before I got there, but she had brought her cake cannon and Applejack had told her, repeatedly, that we're not the ones throwing the party, we're guests. No ifs, ands or buts. So no cake cannon. She'd gone back to Sugarcube Corner to put it away. The door to our car opened and we got on, sans Pinkie.
Pinkie got back at the last moment and hopped onto the train to join us. The conductor closed the doors and we were off! To discover life anew and frontier civilization. To boldly hoe where none of us had hoed before! Meanwhile I nudged Pinkie to start the great camping debate. Before the rattling train car rocked Rainbow Dash asleep.
Eventually the train rolled into Appleloosa. Nopony was in sight which meant everypony must be at the hoe down. Applejack lead the way with Pinkie practically pushing her from behind. We didn't want to miss the fun and Pinkie least of all. We burst in, all set to party and looking for Braeburn. Instead, at that moment, a bunch of changelings materialized right there in the room.
Fortunately there were only three of them and the six of us were able to catch and contain them quickly. They were experiencing a feeding frenzy or a sensory overload of some nature, apparently because several ponies were exchanging love letters at the same time. Regardless, they didn't see us coming until it was too late. Pinkie had packed her party canon and I saw her give Applejack an 'I told you so' look before knocking a changeling out of the air with a cloud of confetti. The rest of us rounded up, snagged and hog tied the three of them together before they could come to their senses. Nopony saw any others.
Since Spike wasn't with us, Rainbow dashed off to get the royal guard. Rarity and I took turns containing the changelings in another room and Pinkie and Fluttershy helped Braeburn get the hoe down restarted. They kept watch in case more changelings appeared.
By the time the royal guard arrived it was hours later and the hoe down was pretty much over. All that was left of the party were a few groups of ponies chatting and laughing over drinks and snacks. We handed over custody of the changelings and Applejack went off and found Braeburn. I was dead tired by then so the bedrooms Braeburn ushered us to were very welcome.
Then they got us up at the crack of dawn. Breakfast was hearty oats, apples and hay. Applejack stayed for the day to help in the orchard, but the rest of us caught the morning train back to Ponyville.
As for the camping trip, we've chosen a time and place. There's a spot called Hotwater Falls in the Blue Hills of the Unicorn Range. Rainbow Dash said she's flown over it a few times and it's very pretty. Rarity had heard that there is a natural mineral bath in the pools below the falls and Fluttershy says that it's a known overwintering destination for empress butterflies. It sounds like a winner! We set out in four days time.
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Planning
Aug 24: I'm mentally sorting through my camping gear and deciding on what to take. Some warm clothes because it gets cold at night in the mountains, even though we won't be that high up. A bed roll. Strap-on shoes with cleats. A bath towel. Alfalfa-oat-nut-honey power cubes. We should be able to graze in clearings pretty much anywhere we go. I'd like to take some guide books, but which ones? I have one on northern flora and an illustrated key to the insects of Equestria that I'll probably take even though Fluttershy has better books and an encyclopedic knowledge of all that grows, moves and crawls. It's heavy, but I just have to take my The Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy. What's the point of having the preeminent tome on the night sky if you don't use it? I'll also need quills, ink, my field notebook, and a how-to book on summer camping. I'll go get a scroll and make a check list.
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Thorax
Aug 25: I'd decided that if I wanted that crystal hay, I was going to have to go to the Crystal Empire and get it myself. I've gone looking a few times but nopony at the bazaar has been selling any. It's an exotic specialty product and Ponyville is a small market. We export our own specialty products, like our hay and zap apple jam, but when it comes to imports, the stall owners mostly stick to the basics.
I announced that I was going to make a day trip to the Crystal Empire, and to my surprise, both Spike And Starlight Glimmer wanted to go. Starlight was a bit hesitant. Although she wanted to visit her friend Sunburst, she felt it was frivolous to do so when she wasn't there to get his help and advice. I told her she should go, some friendship lessons are best learned by living them, which she can do wherever she goes. She just has to keep an open mind and an attentive ear. Spike just wanted to be in on finding fun things to add to our pantry.
So off we went, to the Crystal Empire to buy hay. And corn and berries and fur-leaf tea leaves. The list got longer during the train ride. I was getting worried we might not be able to carry it all.
We stepped off the train at the Crystal Empire station and found the place oddly deserted. Even the streets of the Crystal Empire were empty. A few minutes later we stopped to debate whether we should go the the marketplace and see if that was deserted too, or go straight to the castle and try to get an answer there. What if everypony had something contagious? Just then, several crystal ponies galloped out of their houses and mobbed Spike. Spike's a local hero. We soon found out that they weren't sick, they were hiding from a changeling. Then, as if to illustrate just how bad the hysteria was, somepony suggested that maybe that wasn't Spike, maybe he was the changeling in disguise. They dashed back to the safety of their houses, leaving us sputtering in protest. So, to the castle it was. This is like the week of the changelings. I hope it's not the start of a new invasion.
At the castle we managed to prove that we weren't changelings (trivia questions were involved). Sunburst was there, so we set about researching changeling detection and repulsion spells. So much for Starlight learning about friendship in a relaxed atmosphere. Spike, as the local action hero, leaped into action and joined the changeling search group.
We had made some progress with a protection spell for my niece when Spike came back with a new friend. That new friend turned out to be, to our horror, the fugitive changeling. Who went into some weird frenzy and promptly fled. But Spike brought him back and convinced us that this changeling, who goes by the name of "Thorax", is friendly. It took a lot of convincing, and as the Princess of Friendship, I accepted Spike's judgement and thus Thorax's friendship. I'm not sure how or under what heading I'm going to file this friendship lesson. I think you'd have to pat a lot of timber wolves before you found the friendly one, and that doesn't sound like a wise thing to do.
Well, I got my hay, some fur-leaf tea for Zecora, and a few other items. Spike got a new and exotic friend, and Starlight Glimmer got to puzzle over a new friendship lesson. I also read I Met A Mare to my niece. She never tires of that book.
I didn't tell Thorax about the hoe down incident. That would have been awkward. As friend of the Court, Thorax is staying in the Crystal Empire Castle. Spike is there with him to help him get settled. It will take some time for the crystal citizens to get used to a friendly changeling in their midst, but their adulation of Spike should accelerate the process. I taught Thorax some of Zecora's breathing exercises to help him to better master his frenzy, but I don't know if that'll be enough next time the Crystal Ponies pour love and joy into the Crystal Heart. Without restraint, Thorax just might go into love coma that close to the Crystal Heart.
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Ready To Go
Aug 26: Spike is still in Crystal Empire, but he didn't want to go camping anyway. Neither does Starlight Glimmer, so she will be holding down the castle while we're gone. Not that anypony should come knocking. Ponies still come by to gawk at the Castle Of Friendship, more so now that the Crystal Empire Fireworks Festival is over, but few knock on the door.
We're going to get an early start tomorrow, to make the best of the day. The meetup will be here and we'll have breakfast together, the better to make sure we all have everything we need (but can still carry) before we hit the trail. Rainbow Dash told me that the weather will be clear and warm for the next three or four days, perfect for hiking and camping! I'd better get some sleep.
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Champing At The Bit
Aug 27: There's chaos in the kitchen! Organized chaos, Starlight Glimmer is there filing, finding and feeding ponies. But there are a lot of ponies arriving at different times, one after the other, and everypony needs her breakfast so we can go! Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are joining us so we will be nine on this hike. My saddlebags are packed, I've had my breakfast and I'm all set to go. I'll be back in a few days.
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(Gone grazing and camping.)
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Camping in a Natural Hothouse
Aug 30: I'm back! My hooves are still a bit sore, I think I lost some weight and my saddlebags were chaffing a lot toward the end, but I think this camping trip is the most fun I've had since that first overnight stay in the library in the Carerfilly Castle ruins.
It was a long walk to get there and we didn't want to push ourselves. We had the three fillies with us and we wanted to enjoy the stroll. We walked through Whitetail Woods and followed a winding trail that went north by northwest up the foothills and into the Unicorn Range. It was a bit slow for Rainbow Dash, but when she got bored, she'd scout ahead. By evening she'd mapped out several likely camping spots for us. We stopped for the night on a high plateau in a spot sheltered from the wind by a jumble of large boulders.
We got up early, had breakfast, broke camp and entered the Blue Hills. The trail we had chosen broke up and forked in all directions but Rainbow Dash flew back and forth and guided us down the easiest routes to our destination. We could already smell the minerals in the air before we crested the last rise. There we paused and looked out through the blue haze at the lush landscape we'd come to see. Hotwater Falls.
We scampered down the steep trail and plunged into a forest of lush green trees with abstract mottled bark patterns, spiky picture plants that dangled above our heads and the melodic calls of small brightly colored birds. Here and there I caught glimpses of a blue flash. It was the light catching on the wings of empress butterflies. They seemed to be everywhere.
Rainbow Dash led the way to the heated pools and from there through the rising mist we could see the Hotwater Falls pouring down from an unseen precipice far above. And then a geyser erupted, masking everything in a thick, hot fog.
We found a dry spot in a clearing upwind from the pools and set down our camping gear. First order of business, a soak in the mineral baths! We trotted back to the pools, and after gingerly testing the water, found some pools that wouldn't cook us.
That first soak felt wonderful. I was in the water for so long my hooves got soft. One by one we pulled ourselves out of the soft hot water and went to the falls to rinse off.
The Hotwater Falls are very curious. They pour down from a narrow gap between two tall precipices, like a giant crevasse, into an area that is protected from the wind by the surrounding hills. The water from the falls flows over hot rocks into the heated pools and into cracks that feed the geysers. Both send water vapor back up the gap to where it condenses on the cold high-altitude rocks above. The water then runs back down in rivulets that join to make the falls. The whole cycle gets replenished by snowmelt in the spring. Between the snowmelt and the condensed steam, the water in the falls is pure, perfect for drinking and rinsing off mineral salts. It's mostly the geysers that are providing the dissolved minerals in the hot water pools below the falls. Calcium deposits coat every little pebble and grain of sand until the stream and pool beds look like they're full of pearls. It feels so good to soak in that water, but after a while I would get just too hot and have to go rinse off in the cold water pouring down the falls.
All around in this hothouse environment there were exotic plants and animals. The trees release fragrant, volatile oils that give the air a blue tint. Ergo, the "Blue Hills". But up close, the vegetation there is lush and a brilliant green.
I wandered around with Fluttershy. She told me that this is the overwintering ground for empress butterflies from all over Equestria. We could see quite a few early arrivals flitting about. Empress butterflies are rare in Ponyville, they prefer a hot and wet climate, such as in the Hayseed Swamp region. A few came close and I admired their brilliant flashy blue wings, red tails and margins and dark blue bodies.
That night we made smores, played charades and the fillies ran around in the dark waving long sticks with glowing embers at one end. We were far enough upwind from the hot water pools and geysers that I had a clear view of the night sky between the crowded peaks. I borrowed Fluttershy's binoculars and waited for shooting stars. I did see one faint one flash by, but mostly I watched the Cygnus constellation preen before heading for my bedroll under the stars.
We all took it easy the next morning, having a leisurely breakfast, relaxing, getting one last mineral bath, enjoying the scenery, watching the geysers erupt and chatting. But all good things come to an end and by late morning we broke camp and started the long trek back. We camped that night in the foothills of the Unicorn Range and after a late start, we arrived, weary and worn, in Ponyville early this afternoon. We were all dusty, tired and sweaty from the trail, so despite having spent a day and a half soaking in hot mineral baths, we met up at the spa (I got a massage, a hooficure and a full body shampoo). Then we all went together to supper at Cafe Hay.
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Immobile
Aug 31: My body aches. All that walking while carrying my camping gear, warm clothes, reference books, extra books, collection jars full of hot springs water, rock specimens... I've draped myself over stacked soft cushions and got lost in a pile of books. Peppermint spice tea helps. It chases away the castle chill while I recover. I have a hankering for apple crumble.
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