XV March
Catch Winter By The Tail
March 1: It's high time we had a winter picnic! Tomorrow I'm going to gather up my friends and plan this out! We need a mild, sunny day (Dash will be able to pick that). We need a location. I'm going to propose the Canterlot Falls! We should discuss what to bring, like food and guide books, sample jars and binoculars. Since I'm still low on snacks, and everypony else too, we should probably meet at Sugarcube Corner.
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Planning It Out
March 2: We met up at Sugarcube Corner for hot chocolate and desserts in the early afternoon. After we'd claimed a table and settled in, we got to planning our winter picnic. First item, when? Rainbow Dash said that the mild weather will continue for a few more days and she can clear the sky so we'll get lots of sun. So we'll go tomorrow. Next, where? There's the Carerfilly Castle ruins, Whitetail Woods, the western pasture (with a good view of Ponyville) and the Canterlot Falls. We chose the falls. They're half frozen and spectacular in the winter, and it drains into Saddle lake which will give us a nice big flat area to horse around on.
Then there's food. Spike and I volunteered to bring hay (third cut), Applejack is covering pies, Pinkie will provide cookies, or cake, or ice cream, or whatever she can whip up. Fluttershy will bring breads and jam. Dash has soup covered (beet and carrot). And Rarity will bring an assortment of teas.
We meet up at Applejack's place tomorrow, around mid morning.
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Picnic On The Snow
March 3: It was a long hike through the snow to reach Saddle Lake and the Canterlot Falls. We were all carrying a fair bit in our saddle bags. The food, a game of horseshoes, ice skates, a few picnic blankets, a ball, Rarity's tea set, my books, a pot and bowls... But the scenery was beautiful, and we chatted up a storm as we clattered through fields, down trails and through woods to our destination. We crossed most of Saddle Lake to get close to the falls, but we stayed far enough away to avoid the thin ice. The spray from the falls had built huge pillars of ice, definitely worth the trip. Then Rainbow Dash cleared out the clouds, and in the bright sunshine, the ice pillars glistened and sparkled.
While I helped Rarity and Fluttershy spread our blankets on the snow, Applejack and Dash set up the game of horseshoes and Pinkie had Spike clear a large area for skating. Spike carefully blasted the snow off the lake ice, leaving a surface seared mirror-smooth. Before lunch we had a game of hoof ball on an uncleared part of the lake, three on three with Spike as referee. We banned Applejack from punting the ball. She kicks it too far, right out of the field! We played the "touch" version. You have to get past the defense ponies to touch the pony rolling the ball to stop the play. If you catch the ball in mid pass you can steal it, and if you can keep the other team from advancing more than ten pony-lengths in three tries, the ball is yours. We played that for an hour before breaking for lunch.
The picnic was delicious. I especially liked the hot soup and Rarity's teas, out there on the frozen lake and surrounded by snow. After lunch I soaked up the sun with Rarity and Fluttershy while we watched Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Spike play horseshoes (and search for them in the snow after wild throws). We also watched Pinkie Pie skate and spin.
The snow on the lake was fairly hard, so I tried to cut out blocks to make a snow stable like the one Leaf Hairrakesson had built on our way back from Winter's home. It didn't work, the blocks kept crumbling. Maybe it wasn't the right snow.
Late afternoon, it was time to head back. We collected our things and we followed our tracks back the way we came. In the woods again, Fluttershy called for a stop. She asked us all to be as quiet as possible and to tell her what we could hear. The sun was still shining, there was hardly any wind, and the snow muffled all of the sound. At first we could only hear silence. But then, little by little, we tuned in to small subtle noises. Like the soft 'woomph' of snow falling off a tree branch, the drip-drip-drip of melting snow. The sharp crack of a tree under the influence of expanding ice. And the tinkle of icicles colliding. And the grumbling of Spike's stomach. We moved on.
It was shortly after sunset when we got back to Ponyville and we all went home.
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It's Cold Outside
March 4: Yesterday's picnic was a great outing, but it felt good to snuggle up on my couch with a pile of books in my reading room today. I haven't received word lately from Moondancer, I bet she's up to her eyeballs in scrolls from the cave dwelling. Rainbow Dash wants us all to go sledding soon. The weather has become colder and she says Cloudsdale is on its way with a fresh load of snow, maybe the last big one before spring. Depending on how long it takes to drop the snow, Dash may be rounding us up as early as tomorrow afternoon, but probably the day after.
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The Silence of the Snow
March 5: There's a nip in the air today, like a surprise pinch on the nose or on an inner thigh where the winter fur has been worn thin. Cloudsdale has arrived. The weather ponies shepherded in a fleet of great big clouds loaded with snow, moved them into position over town, field and orchard, and bucked them into action. It snowed all afternoon.
I put on my warm winter cloak, my red ("folly" colored) scarf, and my white boots. I looked for my old white and dusty rose scarf at first, then I remembered it had gone up in smoke along with the Golden Oak Library. I went out to enjoy the flurries.
The wind was very light and the falling snow made everything seem distant and foreign. Standing still, I could hear bits and snatches of ponies calling or laughing, but mostly I heard the sound of snow landing on my hood. I went to find Fluttershy.
I found her at home, packing a small awning, a blanket, some string and a tea set. Tea in the snow sounded like a great plan, so she added another cup for me. We walked for a while in the new Ponyville hay fields, getting blanketed in fresh snow until her green cloak looked as white as my red one, our breath steamy and frost building up on our scarves.
Fluttershy chose a spot among the new hibernation dens to set up the tarp. She bent and tied some young willows together to make a few arches, and draped and tied the tarp over top. I put the blanket down in the sheltered space below the tarp. Then we melted snow, heated the water and made tea.
Behind us was a jumble of muted shapes and winter-bare branches cradling snow. In front of us, a hypnotizing dance of white on white that seemed to go on forever. In our small shelter we drank tea in silence and stared out into the white shimmering void. Somehow, it's very satisfying to be in a safe spot and just watch and listen for danger that never arrives. We shall live to see another day!
As the light began to fade, the clouds ran out of snow. The air cleared and before us were untrammeled fields of white fading into the misty distance. We packed up our things, tightened our boots and stepped out into the fresh powder. I'd walked through a lot of snow on the northern expedition, but this held one thing over that trek. Here, home, hearth and books are just a short walk away.
I left Fluttershy at her cottage, and by the time I got home, I found that Spike had already blasted the castle walkway free of snow. It's cold enough that the vaporized snow condensed as frost all around the walkway, making every nearby tree, bush and castle wall white, fuzzy and sparkly. I bet Spike had a great time doing that.
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Running Up That Hill
March 6: True to her word, Rainbow Dash rounded us all up and herded us to a tall hill just outside of Ponyville for a day of sledding. Fortunately for us, this is Dash. She slept in long enough for us to have breakfast and do our morning routines before she began pounding on our doors. Spike came but Fluttershy declined the invitation, so there were six of us ploughing our way up that hill. Sledding, especially on a hill this steep and with this many trees is more excitement than Fluttershy can easily bear. She stayed home to play checkers with Angel and a few mice overwintering at her cottage.
Cloudsdale has moved on to snow on another region and the air has warmed up. I could see my breath but I was fine in just my scarf, boots and saddle. Rainbow Dash was pulling a racing sled, the raised kind on runners, with a steering bar connected to two small skis. Applejack was wearing hers as she climbed the hill, it was some sort of giant salad bowl. At least it was bowl shaped, and big enough to fit one big or two small ponies in it. Pinkie was dragging a party toboggan. Rarity's sled was like a box on skis, with a cushioned seat and reins. I had a two-pony toboggan, big enough for me and Spike.
We were the first to arrive at this hill and we went up and down a few times before anypony else from Ponyville arrived. Rainbow Dash had to abandon her racing sled at first, it just wasn't picking up speed in the fresh deep snow. The same went for Applejack's bowl and Rarity's seat on skis. But Pinkie's Party Sled had room for everypony. We all climbed onto that.
To fit, first you put the nuttiest pony in a crouch in the front. We let Pinkie, Dash and Applejack fight it out as to which was the nuttiest of the bunch. That pony does the steering. The rest of us get on one at a time, laying down with our heads on the back of the pony ahead of us and holding on to their hindquarters and the sled ropes for dear life. A little push, and we become a multicolored meteor plummeting down the side of a dangerously steep slope, kicking up gouts of powder at every turn, screaming and wild-eyed while some nut in the driver's seat sets a path zigzagging through the trees. This is why Fluttershy stayed home.
We did that all morning long.
By noon, we were all raspy and dry in the throat. It might have been from the screaming. We picked up our gear and stopped for a hot lunch at Café Hay.
Café Hay offers a complementary copy of the Ponyville Express to patrons, and while we were waiting for our table, the headline on the top of the fold caught my eye. It was news about professor Clarity Quest's cave discovery. I picked it up and brought it with us so we could all read the news. Dr Clarity Quest was one of the ponies we had rescued from Winter's clutches and I knew my friends would be interested in her discovery.
The paper claimed that Dr Quest had discovered a treasure trove of ancient pony writings on scrolls in a desert cave, along with the remains of a lone pony scholar who had died thousands of years ago. The newspaper claimed that the collection of scrolls told legends that had long ago been forgotten and that the small earth pony skeleton may have been the last direct descendant of Epona, The All Mother. To avoid disturbing the site, the newspaper said Dr Clarity is keeping the location of her dig under wraps for the time being. On page two there were a few pictures of the finds, including the same picture Moondancer had shown me of the pony skeleton. I showed them the picture and they all froze. I fought the urge to see if my mother was near and I noticed all my friends, except Spike, were doing the same. I put away the paper, and we all ordered something warm to drink.
After lunch we went back to the hill to sled some more. By now several packed trails snaked their way down the slope, perfect for the smaller sleds. Rarity did her best to zoom down the hill in elegance and style on her cushioned seat on skis. Rainbow Dash pitted her racing sled against Applejack's slippery bowl, and Pinkie squeezed in with me and Spike on our sled. Our combined weight gave us an advantage. We beat Rainbow Dash and Applejack even though we weren't really racing them. That annoyed Rainbow Dash.
Mid afternoon I called it a day. The hill was now swarming with ponies and the trails were getting icy. We stopped to drink a hot chocolate at Sugarcube Corner, raising our mugs in toast to Epona, The All Mother, before going home to rest.
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Down Time
March 7: I pulled a pile of books off my library shelves and settled into my reading couch to spend the day recouping from all that sledding I did yesterday. That was fortunate because Moondancer dropped into my open copy of Treatise On Ponies. She asked if I'd read the newspaper article and she told me to expect a scroll of her notes. It's a vernacular transcription of what she has pulled from the gold scrolls thus far. She has been to the dig site herself now and she told me it was an experience. She also told me that what she sent me is still not published yet, that the first paper is in progress.
Tomorrow my friends and I take the Hearth's Warming decorations down. I think the castle is the last building in Ponyville that still has them up.
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Unwrapping The Castle
March 8: Today we took down the castle's Hearth's Warming decorations. Everypony else in Ponyville has already stored away their Hearth's Warming decorations, and it's high time we took down ours too. It was a group effort. Things went faster since we didn't have to fabricate the ribbons as we went along but it still took most of the day. Fortunately, I don't lack for empty rooms in the castle, so they won't be in the way. Only 10 days left until spring!
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Call to Duty
March 9: I took the time to go to the Ponyville Spa today. Tomorrow I'm expected in Canterlot for the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs, so today I got shined up for royal duty. I don't want to sit up on display while looking like I've been horsing around on a do-it-yourself castle makeover project.
On top of the usual hooficure and manestyling, I had the oil bath, the one where the spa ponies use a strigil comb to get the excess oil out. It is so worth it. I smell heavenly and my mane and fur is like silk. I'm wrapped in towels for the night to soak up the last of the excess oil. Tomorrow morning Celestia is having a chariot pick me up to take me to Canterlot. I'll be gone all day.
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The Official Glue
March 10: It's been a long day. I had to get up early to be ready for my dawn pickup. Celestia's chariot, pulled by two of the castle guard pegasi, landed on the cleared walk in front of my door just before sunrise. I was wearing the winter cloak with the sparkling hem that Rarity gave me, but in the chariot there was a travel blanket and I threw that on too for extra warmth. As Celestia's sun painted the morning sky, we too rose to heed the call of Canterlot.
After a speedy ride through brightening skies we touched down in the castle courtyard in Canterlot. There a livery pony waited to lead me inside to where I put on my crown and an attendant then took my cloak and saddle bag. No books or checklists for the rest of the day. I was led down to the hall to where I had breakfast with Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. It was the same procedure as last year, but we went over the protocol of presence anyway.
We finished in time to make our entrance in the Grand Hall before the assembled mayors and officials of Equestria. This was the Annual Assembly of Equestrian Municipal Affairs. We took our seats, then they took theirs, then Princess Luna gave the Speech From the Throne. Chairpony Flax Bit then proceeded to call each mayor and official in turn to submit their reports, and each was received by the Royal Committee on Equestrian Finance and Civic Affairs, seated just below us. We didn't speak, the Royal Committee asked all the questions. We just made the proceedings official and important.
Running Equestria is important, but everypony needs to be reminded of that importance every so often. So we sat and watched. All day long. I concentrated on my breathing.
Lunch break was all too brief. I'd barely managed to work the stiffness out of my rump when recess was over and we were back in our thrones. I wondered how Princess Cadence was doing. She must be as big as a whale by now. Trying to keep a straight face kept me busy for several minutes. It wouldn't do to burst out laughing while the Mayor of Vanhoover recounted how they had sawflies invade their orchards this year (they brought in extra rain and the rust cleared out the sawflies before they had cut down too many branches). It was a long afternoon. Each official had a written report as well and by evening the table in front of the committee was piled high with papers. Papers I could have read.
Supper break, still a few towns to go.
At last. We retired, giving the committee time to deliberate and the princesses time to lower the sun raise the moon and for me to stretch my legs. Then it was back to the thrones for the committee's closing remarks and for us to sign and seal the register. Then everypony rose one last time as we filed out the room. Princess duty: check.
I got my saddle bags back, stashed my crown away, put on my cloak and stepped out into the Canterlot night. In the courtyard, Princess Luna had provided me with her chariot and two of her guard. I climbed in, settled under a black velvet blanket, and we launched into the moonlight. Way down below the assembled mayors we letting their manes down, hobnobbing in the garden and milling about in the ballroom. I was going home. Home to a warm hearth, a comfortable couch, and a few chapters in a good book.
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A Time Before Ponies
March 11: While I was gone, Moondancer's scroll had arrived. This is a really unusual origin story she's been piecing together. She's been hard at work translating the old pony writings and idioms on the gold scrolls into something easier to understand. I think she may have taken liberties in including some modern concepts into the narrative, but then she's been not just reading these gold scrolls, she been living them for months now. So far, it looks like this:
In the time before ponies, there was only rock. The sky was black, no water flowed and all was desolate and freezing cold. In the center of all this stood the Tree.
The Tree had control of all that we call home. Its roots tapped into the endless underground, its branches embraced the bubble of limited sky, it was one with the rock. But rocks are slow and the Tree could feel time passing and it grew bored. It had drawn on power from the depths and built gardens of stone and ice, but that too had grown old and stale. It wanted more. It could feel the presence of other realities, other universes. Some of those realities were frantic with activity. The Tree decided to make a new garden.
Opening up a mirrored rift to another reality, the Tree found something fascinating. Entities that, working together, could extract sustenance from rock, water and air. They moved, lived and died incredibly quickly, but not so quickly that the Tree couldn't appreciate the ebb and flow of their activities. To better appreciate how they worked together and what their motivations were to do so, the Tree took a sample home.
They were delicate, far more delicate than the smooth ice fields, the carved rocky peaks and the combed sand plains the Tree was used to playing with. But the Tree discovered genetics.
As the living things stumbled about under the sparkling lights of their domed habitat, the Tree tinkered with their genes. It learned through trial and error, creating new organisms, making new combinations. All this took time, but time is what the Tree had the most of, and this was fun. While the tree was building better beings in its way, natural selection was acting on serendipitous changes to the genomes, producing creatures that by virtue of unforeseen mutations were better able to navigate this strange new universe's physics and to see in the glimmer of the Tree's sparkling lights. While they didn't reproduce well, they still out-bred their ancestors and became the new fauna and flora in the Tree's habitat. At long last, the Tree's new garden was flourishing.
Drawing up energy from the ground, the Tree set about changing its world. It funneled power through a hole in the sky to light the world and heat the ground. That light was much brighter that what the Tree's garden was used to, but the denizens there adapted quickly. The warmth melted the ice which flowed into the sandy plains and started up a water cycle. The Tree carefully transplanted a pioneer community of rugged plants and was rewarded with green growth that spread all over the land, breaking through the rocks and building the first soils as the old plants died and were replaced. Next the Tree seeded the larger plants, including the big plants that looked like exotic versions of itself, but delicate and ephemeral. When all was ready, the Tree tore down the dome.
Of all the delicate things the Tree had in its garden, the ones that it liked the most were the ponies. It had tinkered long and often with their genes, making them stronger, faster and smarter than the archaic ponies that the Tree had brought here. The prize pony in the Tree's small herd was a white maned mare named Epona. The Tree had unraveled the mechanism by which ponies naturally grow old and die, and in Epona the Tree instituted a work-around, keeping her young. From Epona, the Tree spawned three breeds of pony. Earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi. Like Epona, they were fast, they were smart, and they were perfectly adapted to this new garden in this strange universe. They were also, by nature, social. The Tree built on that to make them natural stewards of the more delicate species. The Tree made them gardeners and rested on its roots to watch the result.
There are more bits and pieces, but that looks like the beginning. It's not as romantic as saying ponies arose from grass that wanted to catch the wind, or from shapes made in the mud by the hooves of passing constellation ponies, or coaxed out of the sea by rabbits.
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The Dream Mare
March 12: In Moondancer's notes there is more to the story... it's mostly about Epona. The gist of it is that Epona was the lead mare and mother of all. This I take is a result of being long lived and from the Tree shaping her offspring.
From Moondancer's translation: All ponies looked up to Epona and she cherished them. The ponies in turn loved and cherished the land they lived in and all that shared it with them. It wasn't long before the ponies developed a system to keep themselves comfortable and to help the plants and animals they cherished thrive.
Weather control started with pegasi gathering and herding naturally forming clouds and taking them to where they were needed. The technology for making clouds came later, and with that came the possibility of building stable cloud banks on which pegasi could construct buildings.
The earth ponies found that they could influence the growth of plants and they soon took to agriculture and to using pegasi weather control to their advantage. Ponies stopped wandering the grasslands.
With the advent of unicorns, ponies took over the day and night cycle to fit with their natural activity rhythm. Eventually they extended this rest and work cycle into seasons of growth, productivity and rest. It just felt right, as did the saddles, bridles, clothes, and houses that were developed by settled ponies. Or maybe it was the Tree whispering in their ears as they slept.
By now, Epona was a very old mare. She didn't look it, she was as sound of body as she had ever been, but her mind was old. She could dimly recall the old garden, when they were wild and still wobbly on their hooves. The old herd was gone, she was the only old pony left. All around her were her children's children's children, many generations removed. They had been changed and Epona felt alone. Only in her dreams did Epona still gallop the old fields under the eternal sun. Only in her dreams did she still feel relevant. And it was in her dreams that the Tree gave Epona a new gift.
The Tree showed her how to become a dreamwalker. This in turn became the greatest gift of the All Mother. In the collective dreamscape her vast experience made her radiate strength and warmth. She was to be followed without question and she protected her magical children from their nightmares. She kept them sane so that they could in turn remain the sane stewards of this, the Tree's green garden.
Epona retired from the jostle and nipping of pony settlement, choosing at first to return to the nomadic ways of her youth. But there were winters now and piaffing deep snows for dried yellow grass grew tedious for an old pony. She had favorites that would tend to her needs, proving her with fresh horse blankets against the cold, delivering hay to her when they could find her, coaxing her to move into a stable.
Eventually she relented and she moved into an isolated stable built by her followers. They chose a cave near the original garden, the dispersal point of all plant and animal life released by the Tree, now wiped off the face of the land by wind and shifting sands. The cave was dark and far from all pony settlements, and the stable itself was magically lit by a crystal that was fed by the spirit of ponies everywhere. Epona approved of this as it reflected the dreamscape that resides in the darkness of sleep, when everypony is alone. Here she could concentrate on nurturing ponies in their dreams.
But Epona was not getting any younger and ponies don't always dream of cooperation and the common good. Epona took up reliving her distant past, as best she could, tracing her memories in ink on scrolls, spending less and less time in the dreamscape and more time on the esoteric art of fixing words to paper. Her words. She looked inward and backward. She didn't notice her magic light dimming until it went out.
Outside the cave Epona found deep white snows and howling winds. Her hay larder was nearly bare. She had long ago stopped paying attention to the seasons so she didn't know what season to expect when she looked outside. What troubled her was the dreamscape. Everywhere ponies were dreaming of winter and ice. Ponies seemed to be fading away and their dreams were weak and angry. Epona threw herself into the task of bringing them back. She gave the dreaming ponies her strength, she bid them to follow her and she dreamed of spring.
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Her Final Gift Of Life
March 13: Moondancer's notes are hard to follow at times. Since she's piecing together fragments and fused bits, not everything is transcribed in narrative order. It's more in the order of what part of the scroll or scrolls that she was working on at the time. I remember how tired she was coming out of a Haycartes session. She probably experienced the easiest, clearest parts first and built up the content from there. Buried in the middle is a description of what I take is the end of Epona's story, about where she was trying to pull everypony out of their icy dreams.
Epona collected as many weak, dreaming ponies as she could and she led them to dream grasslands to play. She couldn't leave them for long and go collect more sleeping ponies because many would slip back into dreaming of strife, cold and snow. Nor would they wake up. But Epona would not give up. She dug in her hooves and led them on romps through tall grass wet with dew, to dust baths under a warm sun and games of tag. They grew stronger and she led them on gallops through the dreamscape to draw in more sleeping ponies and break them out of this nightmare.
Everypony would she nuzzle and to everypony she would give strength though it taxed her, for she had nary a thing to eat nor waking moment in which to do so. She grew gaunt, her years caught up with her body as her mind fought on. But ponies began to awake. At first just a few, and remembering joy and the warmth of the All Mother, they raised the others from their slumber. The crystal light in Epona's stable flickered and glowed anew.
Epona rested on her bed, a withered shadow of the eternal youth she had been. The snows melted as ponies brought Epona's harmony to the waking world. Epona had given her all to her herd, to everypony she could reach. She slipped into eternal sleep. She has joined the stars but her body is here still, in her last home and her final resting place.
That's it so far.
OK, who wrote the gold scrolls? Was it Epona? Was it a caretaker pony? Was it merely finished by the ponies who sealed the tomb, leaving it as a final chapter to Epona's story? Moondancer should be able to tell when one author ends and another picks up the story in a written work. Unless the whole thing was transcribed from the paper scrolls. Or if Epona somehow dictated most of the final chapter to a dreaming pony as she lay dying.
Well, Moondancer and professor Quest are still working on unraveling this find. I expect many other scholars will be studying it for years to come as well.
The All Mother. They found the All Mother! This is big. I see now why Moondancer sent me a copy of her notes. For safe keeping. I think I'm going to go hug a dragon now.
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The Beacon
March 14: I'm still shaken by Moondancer's notes. Compared to finding Epona, and with her a story that claims ponies, and life, was brought to what is now Equestria by the Tree of Harmony... compared to that, discovering a giant windigo in the far north was just a merry jaunt in the snow.
I want to see her for myself. I want to be sure that it's her.
I don't know what I want.
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Winter Grime Blues
March 15: Winter Wrap Up is only days away. The snows are getting grimy with the soot of hearth fires and I was feeling a bit grimy myself. I joined Fluttershy and Rarity at the spa. In the sauna, while I sweated out my anxieties and lingering sadness at the thought of Epona saving everypony while dying of starvation, I told them some of what I'd read in Moondancer's notes. All on the QT, as it is unpublished research.
We managed to steer the conversation to preparing for Winter Wrap Up. Rarity is ready with her bird's nest ribbons. She has mended all the team vests that ponies have brought to her boutique and she has made a few new ones besides. I tried on my vest when I got home and it still fits. My growth has slowed down, I won't need my vest to be adjusted again this year. Fluttershy is hard at work with Amethyst Star, filling food baskets for the critters. They're stored at Amethyst Star's home to keep Angel and Fluttershy's mice from running off with all the choice bits.
After a long fragrant, refreshing soak at the spa, I dropped by Quills and Sofas and a few other shops to top up my supply of quills, ink and scrolls. I just need to check through my check list again and I should be ready to prepare for Winter Wrap Up too.
I think we should have another game night here before we wrap up winter and everypony gets really busy. I bet Pinkie would be up for that.
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I'm Invited
March 16: I went to Sugarcube Corner with Spike, Pinkie was behind the counter. She took one look at me and said, all in one breath, we should totally have a game night at the Treecastle before Winter Wrap Up and bring food dishes and have a party before everypony gets busy with the spring and she'll go invite everypony and here's my invitation and one for Spike and everypony's dish will be a secret because it's a surprise and she zipped out the door. Mrs. Cake stepped out from the back of the shop and asked if I wanted anything. So I bought some oatmeal, chocolate and peppermint cookies. And a tourmaline cupcake for Spike.
My invitation is for tomorrow night.
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Food, Friends and Fun
March 17: Game night began around sundown. We were seven ponies, one zebra and a dragon. Pinkie invited Zecora and Lyra too! I'd already helped Spike lug down lots of cushions, a few tables, all the games, and the cookies we'd bought. Also some third cut hay, as a digestif. Then everypony began to arrive, carrying food.
Zecora arrived early. She decided to travel light and bring dried ingredients for a spicy stew. We set her up in the kitchen with a big pot and I helped stir while she dropped things one after the other into the boiling water. Spike took care of the door and making our guests welcome downstairs. I'm not sure what all Zecora put in that stew, but it was delicious! I recognized dried dandelion, sugar beet pulp (as a thickener), sesame seeds, dried rough bedstraw and sweet potato. There were hot and savory spices I couldn't identify, but they really gave that stew some zing! By the time it was ready, everypony else had arrived.
They were helping themselves at the food table, lounging on the cushions and chatting. I felt a surge of warmth. These were my friends! Spike dashed off to get bowls for the stew and Zecora and I went to see what surprises were to be found at the food bar. Carrot pies, dried celery sticks and sesame silage dip, punch, raisin bread and apple butter, baked hay casserole and chocolate cupcakes. We filled our plates and found ourselves some cushions.
I suggested Piaffle, but there were no takers. Anyway, the runes reminded me of the final gift of Epona and I let it drop. I challenged Rainbow Dash to Ring Fling instead. I had been reading about strategy and I wanted to try it out. Dash had to pick herself up off the floor, she was laughing so hard. I lost anyway. Getting those rings to slide and stop where you want them is hard. Running is easier.
I played a few rounds of Bulls and Cows with Lyra while I waited for the next game of Bundle of Sticks to start. Zecora won that again and Rarity challenged Lyra to Rope Rings. So I got in with Zecora, Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy in a game of Bundle of Sticks. We got to talking about Winter Wrap Up, which is the day after tomorrow! Hello spring! At least in most of Equestria. In the Everfree, it's been raining already.
Pinkie has been sharpening all the skates in Ponyville. She started with the Winter Wrap Up supply at Town Hall, but ponies just kept bringing her more. They're all sharp sharp sharp when she's finished with them. She said she'd danced with them on over a pile of carrots and made diced carrot salad in no time. Watch out ice!
Zecora will be there to lend her hooves, helping ponies push snow off the roofs and helping remove snow. Applejack has been getting everything ready, seeds, watering cans, snow plows and carts. Making sure everything is quick to find and in good repair. Everything should be ready tomorrow and I'll be able to go round and tick them off my checklist. Maybe I'll buy a few more quills too. And ink and scrolls. Just in case.
Zecora won again. I came in dead last.
We chatted and ate some more and cheered on the ponies playing Tangle (Pinkie is unbeatable at Tangle) until it got late and everypony went home. We'll pick up the hall and clean the dishes tomorrow.
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All Set To Go
March 18: I'm off early to bed, Winter Wrap Up starts at dawn! Today I gathered up the three team leaders and together we made the rounds, checking to make sure all is ready for Winter Wrap Up. Spike ticked all the boxes on my checklist. Pre-Winter Wrap Up inventory achieved! We're officially ready! The day after tomorrow, spring will be here!
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Breakfast Of Champions
Mar 19: It will be dawn soon. I've had a good flake of hay, oats and a bowl of beet pulp. Breakfast of champions! I dragged Spike out of bed and he should be getting his breakfast now too. I've got my boots on as well as my scarf and my All-Team Organizer vest. My projected optimal workflow sheet is ready. Got to go! It's Winter Wrap Up Day!
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Buzzing, Bustling, Burbling and Budding
March 20: It's been a long couple of days. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Nopony did. We were plowing and seeding the fields until the break of day. There are more fields to sow this year with the new hay fields that were cleared last fall. Hopefully we won't have to resow them next year.
I was out of the gate a bit early this year. We arrived at the steps of Town Hall before sunup. Spike was not amused. But we had a front row view when Mayor Mare arrived and gave us a motivational speech. Then everypony went to their team leaders to get their assignments, ordered and timed as I'd planned it. Winter Wrap Up was underway!
Spike and I trotted from team leader to team leader, checking off activities when they started and when they finished, making sure everything was getting done in order and on time. I even had Rainbow Dash's tortoise in my itinerary. It wouldn't do to have the leader of the weather team hovering over Tank's hibernation den, waiting for him to wake up and dig himself out, instead of dispatching the weather ponies. Rainbow Dash had a special food basket that she had prepared for Tank, as well as a beach towel and chaise long on which Tank could sun himself as he woke up. The Daring Do books would wait. Thus, I worked out when Tank's denning mound would be clear of snow, which would be when the weather crew was helping Pinkie skate straight cracks into the ponds and lakes. Right then, Dash could stop by to set up the beach towel and chair and leave the food basket.
Next, I calculated when the sun would warm that spot, rousing him enough to respond to calls. Dash would want to do that, and since by then the skies would be clear, she'd be free for a while and could spare the time. So Tank was the last animal to be roused from hibernation, but it worked out well. Tank had chosen a high spot that stayed dry while the sun melted the snow.
We were an efficient team. Everything got done in order and on time. We plowed and seeded the fields all night, watering everything in the morning. The southern birds arrived to open water and fresh nests... It's the first day of spring and Ponyville is buzzing, bustling, burbling and budding with life. Even the new pastures are sending up little tender shoots. Tempting, tasty, tender shoots of grass. Must resist!
I was so tired. Around midday, after Mayor Mare had declared winter all wrapped up, I went and took a long nap. I slept until late afternoon.
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Spreading the Spring Spirit
March 21: Pinkie didn't miss a beat. It's the first full day of spring after wrapping up winter and that means one thing. A party! She sprang into action to fete all of Ponyville with a Spring Has Sprung party. Some ponies bounce back from a sleepless Winter Wrap Up really quickly.
She fired all her party canons, launching balloons, streamers and confetti. This time her cake canon worked too, although I liked the cakes baked by the Cakes better. Pinkie says the Cakes have better batter, it's all in the butter. Pinkie had ponies hang up banners and pinatas and she brought out games like kick the can of treats and pin the tail on the pony. There was also a six-legged race, which was run by the foals. Everypony else was still a little tired from working hard all Winter Wrap Up. But it was even more fun just to watch and cheer on the foals.
It was so wonderful out today. The blue skies, blooming flowers, singing birds everywhere. Only two days ago there was snow, gloomy skies and just the sound of the wind whistling through bare tree branches.
The Ponytones gave us a concert while dressed in colorful and airy spring garb on top of their shaggy winter coats. I was too hot to even think of wearing a hat. Many of the ponies watching and singing along were visibly shedding. Another sure sign that spring is here.
I saw Tank buzzing around, and Gummy splayed out on a hot rock in the sun. A whole bunch of butterflies descended on a mare at one point. She was standing in the sun, wearing a spring hat and dress and probably getting quite sweaty. She didn't even notice at first. Butterflies are light and she was intently watching the six-legged race.
After dark, Pinkie launched fireworks in a field at the edge of town. I followed my friends to a spot upwind where we settled in to watch the fire flowers blossom in the sky and sparklers spray sparks on the ground. It got a little chilly after that and we all went home. It really is spring.
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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
March 22: My spring molt has definitely begun, I'm shedding my winter coat everywhere I stop. Now I realize why there was a hall free for my lecture. Spring Molt Break officially starts in three days, and most ponies manage to clear out before then. I hope somepony attends my lecture.
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The Hair Master
March 23: My spring harvest of lilac writing quills has begun. Yes, I have once again become one with a writing desk. Maybe this time I should set aside some of my nicer primaries for special occasions... or maybe not. What if using your own flight feathers as quills is a social faux pas? Rarity would know. Well, faux pas or not, I'm putting these feathers to good use.
I did see Rarity today, although I didn't ask her the quill question. The Carousel Boutique was closed and I had to pound hard on the door to get her to come down and let me in. You see, Rarity is shedding too. She's keeping mostly to one room, far away from her dresses and bolts of cloth, in an effort to avoid getting hair all over them and all over the boutique. Since everypony else is molting too, the boutique is closed until spring molt has ended. You can't have a parade of shedding ponies trying on all Rarity's creations and carpeting everything with wispy hair! Well, you could, but Rarity will have none of that.
I was there to see if Rarity wanted to collect some of my winter coat to make some more needle felted dolls. Yes, she did! She had forgotten all about doing that last year, but since I brought it up, she was all hot to trot. She brushed out quite a bit of lilac insulating hair from my coat and we managed to coax it all into a cloth bag for easy retrieval. Then I returned the favor and she had a second bag of fine white hair to work on. I let myself out as she got going with her felting tool. She was in the zone. I don't think she noticed I'd left.
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Primped and Preened
March 24: I took a trip to the spa this afternoon so I wouldn't look too ratty tomorrow while standing at the lectern. I am feeling really clean and refreshed after all the brushing, the sauna, the seaweed wrap and the long soak in the hot tub. I took home some bath salts and bath oil for a last minute refresher tomorrow morning. That should keep me from getting all itchy, I hope. It wouldn't do be scratching while giving my talk. Spike offered to shave me. Ha ha, Spike. No.
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Moments in Time
March 25: It's been a crazy, topsy turvy day. It started out as planned. I got up early, took a bath, with bath oil so I'd feel fresh and not itchy. I caught the morning train to Canterlot with Spike, and we made our way to the auditorium reserved for my talk. Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns seemed mostly deserted. Like I thought, Spring Molt Break.
I had 150 flash cards and 50 transparencies. I practiced giving my talk five times (Spike insists it was twenty even though that's impossible). The scheduled time arrived and the auditorium filled up! Even my Canterlot friends were there, including Moondancer, taking a break from her research. Also present was Starlight Glimmer.
I only caught a glimpse of her in the auditorium, so I wasn't sure it was her at the time or just my imagination playing tricks on me, but it did throw a horseshoe into my pacing. Fortunately, I had 150 flash cards to keep me on track.
Starlight Glimmer is a unicorn that my friends and I had met on our first map-driven Friendship quest. More than just met, she took us captive and stripped us of our cutie marks. Starlight Glimmer had a whole town in the middle of nowhere full of ponies who had been convinced or coerced to have their cutie marks magically removed. She had them believing that happiness lay in being ordinary and that special talents leads to strife. Or they were fervently pretending so. Apparently the Tree sent all six of us to restore the cutie marks to everypony somehow. As a consequence of our helping the townsponies shake off Starlight's influence and regain their identities, Starlight Glimmer was run out of town. Or she ran herself out of town. Either way Starlight Glimmer was not a happy camper. This put a damper on her plans of spreading her magic of being mediocre.
Spike and I didn't stay in Canterlot after the lecture, we headed right back to Ponyville, where my intuition was proven right. Starlight Glimmer was stalking me. We got home, and there she was in the map room, waiting for me, as sassy as you please. She was prepared for this. I was not.
Starlight Glimmer had found a way to use the Tree's Map Table in conjunction with a modified version of Star Swirl's time travel spell to get enough power to go back in time all the way to where Rainbow Dash, as a filly, had challenged two colts to a race. Why then? Starlight had attended my lecture on the Magic of Friendship earlier today. I had explained that during a race, Rainbow Dash had created her first Sonic Rainboom and that Sonic Rainboom had been critical in shaping our destinies and eventually bringing us together as friends. Starlight Glimmer had understood that if she could prevent that key event, I would probably be friendless. She also knew me well enough that I would follow her given half the chance, and that way I would leave this reality and get dropped into a new one that she would shape by preventing Dash from making a Sonic Rainboom.
This leaves me to wonder, now that it's all over, what reality am I in now? Everything so far seems the same as it had been. I'm relieved to find the connection to this e-journal is not broken.
Starlight Glimmer was waiting for me in Cloudsdale (and self levitating!). There she foiled me and foiled Rainbow Dash's race. Spike and I ended up in some sort of Equestria gone horribly wrong. So we went back, and she was waiting for us, a smirk on her face and with new way to defeat me and keep Rainbow Dash from finding her need for speed. That ended with Spike and I returning to a different present timeline with a bad outcome for Equestria. She wasn't just breaking the chain of events that led to me making friends in Ponyville, she was sending all of Equestria into turmoil. This happened over and over again.
So many changes to the time stream happened, who knows what may be different now. Spike, Starlight Glimmer and I are the only constants in this outcome. I'm still not sure why the Tree let all of this happen in the first place.
Back to late this afternoon. Spike and I got back from Canterlot to find Starlight Glimmer sitting at the map table. It was not a pleasant surprise to see her there, and it was even less of a nice surprise when she cast a spell that created a temporary wormhole in time and space, right then and there. It turns out she had been studying hard that whole time between when she escaped her markless town and her sudden appearance in this castle. She had been studying us and time travel, maybe self defense, probably self levitation, cloud-walking, and I think the final, important lesson she had learned, was at my lecture on the Magic of Friendship. She probably had already learned of what had been my first big break in magic, the magic burst at my entrance exam that had pushed me onto the path to being noticed by Princess Celestia. That eventually led to me making friends in Ponyville at just the right moment. But at my lecture today, she found _the_ key event. She had studied hard and well. I have to give her that.
So Spike and I found ourselves face to face with a pony we had written off long ago, and now, like Trixie, she was back to buck us and buck us hard. She opened a wormhole, stared at us with a smirk and let herself get sucked into it like she was boarding the Friendship Express to a sunny destination. She had waited for us, or specifically, for me, to return before casting that spell. Wherever it was that she went, it wasn't just to escape, she had something nefarious in mind, and I had to find out what. The scroll she had used to make the wormhole had fallen to the floor and I did the impulsive thing. I did not call on my friends to go after her together. I cast the spell. In hindsight, it was better that it was just Spike and I that went after her. Had we been seven or six, staying together would have been complicated. We ended up in Cloudsdale.
Now I can walk on clouds now, but not Spike, nor half my friends, without magical preparation. I had none, and Starlight Glimmer was waiting for me. We were in the past and at that crucial moment when Rainbow Dash, filly Rainbow Dash, gets presented with the opportunity and then the motivation, to fly fast enough to make her very first Sonic Rainboom. Thus, it was also the day Spike hatched and all my friends got our cutie marks.
Starlight Glimmer is a very good student. Too good. She managed to keep from falling to earth, to avoid me and to thwart Rainbow Dash from picking up enough speed several times! Each time, the reverse worm hole would manifest and pull me "back" to a _new_ present time, next to the Map Table. In each instance, it would be a timeline in which I had never made friends in Ponyville.
When we'd come back to the new "present", we'd come back to an open area, oddly deserted, except for the map table. Was the Tree in on this? How many dimensions does the Tree "see"? Well, thanks to Starlight Glimmer, we knew what went wrong and what it was we had to correct. Blank flank filly Rainbow Dash had to complete that race unfettered. We still had the scroll and we went back. Again and again. Fortunately to the same moment _before_ Rainbow challenged her two colt rivals to that pivotal race. Unfortunately, Starlight Glimmer had a whole arsenal of ideas on how to both beat me and keep Rainbow Dash from making a Rainboom then and there. I study Friendship, she studied dueling. Did I mention that she's really good at her studies? I had a lot of spells thrown at me that I had to learn how to emulate and counter on the fly. It was not going well.
Each time I failed, Spike and I got dropped into a new timeline. Every timeline was different except for one common element. Without the Elements of Harmony, without me and my friends standing together, working together, giving the right push at key moments to change the tide, Spike and I would come back to find Equestria in the clutches of one disaster or another. Nightmare Moon as sole ruler of Equestria (the little of which I saw was doing surprisingly well, but I didn't stay long enough to see much more than the completely renovated Everfree castle). Discord's mad Equestria running ponies ragged. King Sombra revived and at war with Equestria. Queen Chrysalis' conquered Equestria, hunting down the last of the pony resistance. One change to the past, many different presents, and none of them good. But always the Map Table, Starlight Glimmer's scroll and the three of us remembering our original, lost timeline. OK, the Map Table indicates that the Tree makes for four who/that remembered.
The last stop took us to a timeline where all around the Map Table, as far as I could see, was a lifeless wasteland of rock and desiccated ground. That time I had succeeded in grabbing Starlight Glimmer (small victory! yay) just in time to drag her with us into the worm hole. I couldn't out duel her, but maybe I could still teach her. After all, she's a quick... Well, I had nothing else to lose.
Friendship Reference Manual; chapter: Starting Friendships; header: Making friends with enemies; subheader: Find out what motivates your enemy. Summary: Solve or salve that motivation first before any headway can be made into finding a common interest.
The inhospitable, grey, windswept desertscape wasn't enough to change her mind. Instead, to try and change my mind, she took us back in time to her past to teach me. There we saw her and a foal friend just as that foal friend experienced a surge of magic while catching an avalanche of books. The friend got his cutie mark right there and then and ran out to tell his parents. He moved away without saying goodbye. Starlight Glimmer never made another friend. Since that moment her mantra has been that cutie marks break friendships. Then she took us back to Cloudsdale where she snatched the scroll from Spike and proceeded to slowly rip it so I wouldn't be able to use it again.
But I hadn't finished. I explained that all friendships are important, that everypony's friendships keep all of Equestria strong. I slowly convinced her to give friendship a chance. Meanwhile, filly Dash created her first Sonic Rainboom, the worm hole opened and we got sucked back to the present, this time inside an intact castle. I guess I'm getting a little better at the magic of persuasion.
Then something strange happened. The Map Table pulled the scroll from Spike's grasp (he'd grabbed it after Starlight had relented) created a new worm hole and sent the scroll through it, alone! Then there was a blinding flash. It could be that the Tree has dropped us back into our original timeline, although how would I know? If so, I hope it also stopped all those disastrous timelines somehow1.
The blast of light had all my friends running for the castle, which was perfect, we had a lot to discuss. While Starlight Glimmer waited in the hall, we sat around the Map Table at a meeting that morphed into a Friendship Council with Starlight Glimmer as the topic of discussion. We decided to pull the cart that we had pledged to pull, that of spreading Friendship all across Equestria. So we gave Starlight Glimmer our friendship. Thus, we found a new pony inside.
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1 Each trip to Cloudsdale and the past had to be to a new and different timeline, not to a point where my present timeline forked. If it had been a fork there would have been dozens of Twilights, Spikes and Starlight Glimmers all battling it out at the same time. With all that action, filly Dash would never had created her first Sonic Rainboom.
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The Guest
March 26: I'm dropping feathers left and right. Starlight Glimmer is staying here in the castle. She burned all her bridges in her vendetta against me and she didn't plan past it. In other words, she doesn't really have any other place to stay. The castle has a lot of unused rooms.
Over breakfast this morning it became clear just how directionless she has become. Directionless, essentially friendless (besides us), maybe a bit listless and very uncomfortable with the harm that she's done. Where have I seen something like this before? Well, there's nothing a little friendship can't heal! I talked her into catching the train and into going with her to the town she founded, to make amends with the ponies there. We'll go tomorrow. As a primer, I had her read my Friendship Reports. Not the originals, those I had Spike send back to Princess Celestia after we'd defeated Discord, but copies, written from memory into a field notebook. She was happy for something to do.
I went today to see if Rarity wants more pony molt to felt into dolls while the molt is abundant. I got brushed. A lot.
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Those First Wobbly Steps
March 27: Go to Equal Town with Starlight Glimmer to make amends, check! We caught the early train, rode it to the end of the line and around midday, walked into the town Starlight Glimmer had founded. Fortunately, the ponies there had had a lot of time to think over what Starlight Glimmer had done to them, how it had brought them together into a tight-knit community and how it had kindled a greater appreciation for their special talents. Long story short, while what Starlight had done to them was wrong, they'd mostly forgiven her, and they accepted her apology. So while I wouldn't call them Starlight's best friends, at least we left on friendly terms. Progress!
Now, what next?
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Do I share my mind? Do I dare to teach?
March 28: I called another Friendship Council meeting today. Yesterday's trip to Starlight Glimmer's old town got me thinking. In the friendship department, Starlight Glimmer is a blank slate. Helping her make new friends could be great for my research! She could be my student, just as I was Princess Celestia's student for all those years! What's more, reports from her on friendship should be better than what I'd get through my other idea: publishing a royal request.
That idea went well in council. Nopony objected, everypony thought it was a good idea. I got the impression that they all looked relieved somehow. Rainbow Dash said it's good that I'd have something to do, then she quickly added that I should go easy on the flash cards and lectures, not to scare Starlight Glimmer off. Before I could get her to tell me what was wrong with my flash cards, Pinkie chimed in that Starlight should totally live here, in the castle. Then everypony was talking at once about what a great idea that was. So that was that.
Starlight Glimmer accepted the invitation and now I have a student and lessons to plan! That's great, and nerve wracking. Lecturing is one thing, nurturing a pupil is another. I have some books on teaching to read.
After council, we had tea on the big balcony overlooking Ponyville. It's a lovely spring day, and us being outside means less shed hair indoors for Spike to clean up. Rarity took the opportunity to harvest that loose winter fluff off of all of us for her felting project. She'd brought a bunch of bags with just that in mind. So we had a brushing party, Starlight Glimmer included. It's a fun way to strengthen friendships.
It's hours later and already I'm leaving lilac colored hair everywhere I stop. My growing blood feathers itch!
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Working Out The Curriculum
March 29: Bright sunshine, warm spring air and small patches of tenacious winter fur that still need to fall off. Perfect for going out into the western pasture with a picnic blanket and saddlebags full of books, quills, ink and scrolls. I took a brush too.
It's usually about this time that Rarity and Fluttershy go to the spa, but with the spring molt, the spa is packed. Rarity has reserved seven spots for us in two days time.
I found a sunny spot that was sheltered from the breeze and settled in. First order of business, brush! Out, out, itchy hair that drives me to distraction! Go line a bird's nest somewhere.
I might have nibbled some of the fresh spring grass.
Next order of business, read books on teaching. I condensed those into a checklist of steps to follow: Concepts, objective, materials, evaluation, introductory reading, models, practical exercise, review, analysis, written summary, continuity, gestalt. That should get the ball rolling!
Next, plan easy friendship lessons then work on up. For instance, building friendships with colleagues and people you will deal with regularly. I'll have Starlight Glimmer run errands with Spike so she can make friends with the shop keepers. She could also make friends with Owlowiscious. I could send her over to Fluttershy's cottage to learn about altruism. That will have to wait a bit. Fluttershy is probably very busy getting ready for the annual Biome Management Conference.
Starlight Glimmer did attend at least part of my lecture on the magic of Friendship and she's read my early Friendship Reports, so the concepts are probably becoming clear to her. The objective, to make friends and come to realize the importance of friendship, that will be an abstraction for her at first. Materials are at her hoof tips here in the castle. Evaluating what kind of grasp she has on the subject of friendship will be a bit hard. But introductory reading I can provide! She can read my notes on all types of friendships.
With fresh lists in my saddlebags, a plan of action and an afternoon soaking up the spring sunshine, I feel refreshed!
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Fresh Dandelion Greens
March 30: I'd ordered a book to give to Cadence for Spring Foals Day and it arrived in the mail today. It's an old favorite of mine, I Met A Mare1. I had a copy when I was a foal and my mare and Cadence would read it to me time and time again. It's probably on a shelf in my Canterlot loft.
Starlight Glimmer went with Spike to pick up supplies at the market. Apparently Starlight is a bit shy, like she's worried somepony is going to berate her for what she's done. It's going to take a while for her to get conversational with the shop ponies.
Now that we're two ponies and a dragon living in this castle, I'm going to have to plan to buy more hay this year. Meanwhile, I still think we'll make it to the first cut harvest with what we've got.
They came back from the market with the first dandelion leaves of the year! They were so good.
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1 As best as I can recall, here's one of the rhyming metaphorical puzzles that I liked the most from I Met A Mare:
I met a mare who's mane was green
A pretty color as ever I'd seen
It flowed in waves and grew so fast
She'd cut it short but that wouldn't last
Two summer trims, then in the fall
Her mane growth slowed down to a crawl
One last trim, and with the moon above her
She fell asleep under a white winter cover
Long nights rolled by, peaceful and unnumbered
Her mane turned golden there as she slumbered
She dreams of warm days, of rain and dew
When her mane will turn green and grow anew
Sleep now until spring, wake refreshed and grow faster
And welcome the sun, my little pasture.
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Groom Room Graduates
March 31: At long last, that's about it for the spring molt. To celebrate, all seven of us went for an end of molt spa trip. To be sure we could get in, Rarity had made our reservations in advance. Ponyville is full of itchy, molting ponies yearning for a mud bath, seaweed wrap, a sauna sweat and generally to not look and feel so ratty.
Our appointment was in the early afternoon. We waited our turn in the crowded lobby. There were dust bunnies made of pony hair lurking under the chairs and tables. Rainbow Dash was uneasy at the prospect at getting brushed by the spa ponies, but the promise of sweating in the sauna and soaking in the fragrant hot tub was just too alluring. During spring molt, all the spa customers get brushed and brushed hard. Otherwise the spa would have to shut down half the soaks. Who wants to wallow in mud that is full of shed hair?
Finally Lotus stuck her head through the window of the booth in the lobby and called for 'Rarity Unicorn, party of seven'. That was us! We were ushered into a bare room where a team of ponies stored our things in a chest (Applejack and Rarity's hats, my saddle bag of books, Pinkie's various party supplies) and brushed us all down. Rainbow Dash brushed her own fetlocks and belly. Nothing was left unbrushed. They even brushed out the inside of our ears. It was hard to keep still for that! There was a lot of giggling. Getting scoured with all your friends makes it easier to tolerate.
At last they let us out of the brushing room and into the spa! Aloe took our orders. Rarity thought she looked a little tired. Aloe said it's always tough when everypony is molting heavily. Rainbow Dash made a bee line for the sauna, Fluttershy and Starlight Glimmer decided on a seaweed wrap, and the rest of us decided to start with a massage and a hooficure.
We all ended up in the hot tub together, except for Starlight Glimmer. She decided that, to go with her new life, it was time to change her mane style. It had been in a tight, no-nonsense roll, but now it's more like a loose scroll. I wonder if she'll keep this new look. I think it looks good.
After the spa we went to have tea and cookies at Sugarcube Corner. Rarity told us she'd made three dozen felted pony doll bodies so far. She'd resorted to dyeing some of the felt during the process to get a wider range of colors. But she needed hair for manes and tails, so after tea we went over to her boutique where she collected lengths of our freshly washed manes and tails. Rarity reopens her boutique tomorrow.
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...But, doesn't the way they go change, even when the destination is the same? Do their old tracks magically shift to the new way as well, even when the distance (and number of hoofprints) wasn't the same as before?
The scene following where they stop and enjoy the sounds of nature was beautiful, by the way.
Shh! Not so loud, they'll hear you!
No, no; Fluttershy can handle bears just fine. Just ask Harry.
Brilliant!
I think that last one would apply to Fluttershy.
Umm...wouldn't it be the other way around? They'd already evolved for countless generations under the current day/night cycle, so their bodies would've already been adjusted to that. Changing it would've caused problems. ...Unless the Tree influenced their genetics to want a day/night cycle that was different than the one that was currently in-use for eons, but that would seem like alotta work for no discernable reason?
Aww!
Huh, sooo, here the Harmony Tree is portrayed by Twilight to be more of a deity figure. I wonder how this will factor into later when you get to the part where the Pillars are the ones to have planted the seed for the Tree? Also, in reference to that adorable dragon she just hugged, it would appear that the Tree prefers ponies over other sapient beings (or is that author's bias on the part of Epona?) Would that make the Tree speciesest? Sounds kinda petty for a Tree of Harmony.
It's the little filler moments like these that make your story truly shine! The way you capture Twilight's heart-felt emotions.
I love the fact that you thought out of all the trouble Twilight went through to ensure that Tank and Rainbow could spend time together like this. To my knowledge, you're the only author who has ever done this. It's brilliant, shows Twilight's organizing skills, and her thoughtfulness for her friends and their loved ones.
"Let" it happen? Yeah, she's got a case of deity-worship. I don't think the Tree is fully omnipotent, Twilight. Things happen beyond its control.
...On the other hand, if it was omnipotent, you could argue that the Tree "allowed" this so that you would become friends with Starlight.
Also, didn't we...skip a few episodes? This happens rather suddenly? I think? Though the build-up with the friendship lecture was good foreshadowing, even if I didn't make the connection. I distinctly remember Starlight hiding in the bushes and spying on them when Twilight goes Twilinanas over the inside joke he had with her friends in that one episode, and I don't remember that here? In fact, I'm not sure you've mentioned Discord much at all?
Hmm, I can't recall, but I don't think that you've mentioned Trixie before now.
In most official media, it was called Our Town. Not really that much more original than Equal Town, granted, but still.
Later, they found out that several spa ponies who had presumably quit and just left the job had, in fact, been swallowed by Pinkie's mane while brushing her and spent an inordinate amount of time in another dimension, where they lived off of unconfiscated party supplies and cakes.
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Oh yeah, non-euclydean space. It's like trying to grab jello with your mind. You make a good point about what to consider in following your own tracks back to your point of origin. There are two things at play: one, the fixed points which are the hoofprints that constitute the trail in the snow; and two, the movement of the ponies navigating along the trail. The path the moving ponies chose while following that trail is what will determine how long it will take. This is the same navigation that can turn a 30 minute train trip into a trip that takes all night. Like on the train, the destination stays the same and the way is just an infinite number of destinations that the traveler must navigate. Did I cover quantum entanglement or objects as a fuzzy probability cloud yet?
I get the feeling that Harry the bear is not keen on daredevil sports.
I'm figuring that the Tree plucked ponies (and other Tree garden accessories) from an euclidean Earth-like parallel universe. Since the Tree issued from whatever it was the Pillars did (I'm blanking on the details), I think the Tree has an inherent pony bias. It's also a self-fulfilling bias. No pony bias, no pillars, no Tree, no Equestria. It's like Lazarus Long: he is his own father. The Tree essentially created the ponies that planted it.
Ergo, Earth type ponies would need to sleep and have the urge to get a regular day/night cycle going. Warning, this is a deep rabbit hole.
Hee hee hee, rusty sawflies!
I think perhaps other authors see romantic entanglements as the primary reason why one character might thoughtfully tend to the emotional needs of another character? That might eclipse the desire of other authors to paint the friendships with greater clarity.
The Tree does have an agenda. The Cutie Map Quests, the Box of Locks quests, the Elements of Harmony rocks and later, the tests and guidance of the Student Six all point to a Tree with a mission. Note that in every Equestria, there was always a Map Table, regardless of anything else. So, the Tree is in every outcome and is unstuck in time. Kind of like Twilight in Hard Reset, but with more opportunity to shape events and see how they turn out. Perhaps more like the film Next.
I started Twilight's Blog late into Season 5, around S5 E15. It was early winter (very few episodes happen in the winter in MLP:FiM) and my motivation was to explore how magic, Equestria and variable travel times worked in a story framework that made sense. That framework was Twilight setting up and filling a blog via an information portal to a parallel (euclidean) universe, extending Friendship to bookish aliens. Like a ham radio connection from Winnipeg to Dubai in the 1950's: explaining snow shoeing and ice fishing to the Bedouin. So I stuffed most of Season 5 into the past and filled most of the year with all the stuff that must be happening in Ponyville but is mostly not well fleshed out. So, by that first January, the Stoner Pony had already been introduced, the Smooze/Discord and Gala was last year, same for Griffinstone quest for Dash/Pinkie, ditto Moondancer, Luna's Tantabus, Canterlot Boutique and the mountain pony feud. I think I just missed slipping in the pregnancy announcement (oops). I only get back on track with Tank's hibernation and the Fluttershy Nightmare Night thing. So any Season 5 episodes and Discord appearances are pretty much not happening until chapter 11 (November XI). Twilight is mostly going to blog about what she has experienced on that day (or in the past few days) plus lecture about magic, friendship and science. Discord is Fluttershy's companion and I get the feeling he mostly just 'dimension-hops' over to her cottage for tea. Thinking about Discord is way low on Twilight's priority list. So, very little Discord content in Twilight's Blog.
Edit! Would you believe it? I had not watched S5 E22 What About Discord. Don't know how I missed that one. It would not have added much to Twilight's inner dialog, she wasting days chasing after an in-joke elixir only for it to turn into a lesson about accepting jealousy and how it can be used as a weapon. Not a very proud moment for either Twilight or Discord. Glass houses for everypony.
Because it's a blog, a snapshot of the moment and not a autobiography, Twilight will name-drop ponies and events without explanation. If anypony wonders who Trixie is, they can ask. I looked back at March 25th and I see I had comments from two 'quill pals' and neither asked about Trixie. So I did not elucidate.
Our Town. Hmmm, that was in the song the equal ponies sang. Tempting, but I keep seeing fanfics where the town has no name, so I'm torn. Equal Town describes it better. Less confusion when talking to aliens. Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third...
Brushed! As in hair! No cavity searches were involved! Spa, not airport security.