I will only say one thing now...

...I can hardly believe I’ve had this blog for 10 whole years!!

Slices of Life #3: The Everything Club

Hello, this is Starlight again with a new issue of our very irregular life story journal. The following is less a story and more a collection of anecdotes, but I felt it was worth including here. It is about a time long gone but not forgotten, when Jasmine and I were both fillies. As many of you may know, Jasmine Leaf and I went to school together. I vividly remember arriving at school for the first time, full of hopes and excitement, although somewhat afraid of not making any friends. I looked around at my new classmates and was relieved to see that everypony looked more or less like me: all blank-flanks, all excited and nervous at the same time. I figured they were all dreaming of being the first in the class to get their cutie marks. I did not aim that high, but thought not being the last would be nice - in the end, being second-to-last turned out to be a bitter-sweet surprise, but that’s a whole other story. As time went by, everypony started showing some talents. Some were not quite cutie mark-worthy, like being slightly better than others at reading, making calculations or playing ball, but were enough to make little ponies proud nonetheless - even those which should have caused shame rather than pride, like the ability a few colts had of turning the whole classroom into a mess before the break was over, and which caused the teacher to force us all to leave the classroom during breaks. And slowly, one by one, everypony started getting their cutie marks. Well… almost everypony. I must admit I was upset the day I walked into the classroom and saw cutie marks all over the place, but I still didn’t have one. So upset, in fact, that I became lost in thought and the teacher had to come over and point out that we were on break, reminding me that I was supposed to leave. I slowly stood up and walked away, dragging my feet, still thinking of what my talent might be, or if I even had one at all. Then, as I walked through the door, I nearly bumped into the pony who was standing on the other side, looking at me. Luckily, my senses alerted me in time to avoid the collision: bumping into a unicorn can be painful. I looked up to meet an inquisitive face. “Are you OK?” the unicorn asked me. She was Jasmine Leaf. I knew that she was in my class and also her name, but little more. “Yeah, I guess…” I replied. “You don’t sound OK,” she said. “What’s wrong?” I thought for a moment, unsure of whether or not to tell the truth, but the fact that I had no cutie mark was evident, so I decided to tell her. “Oh… is that a problem?” was her response. “Of course it is!” I protested. “Everypony else has a cutie mark.” “I don’t,” she said, showing me her flank. Only then did I notice that she didn’t have one either. “Oh…” I said. “And doesn’t that bother you?” “At first it did,” she replied. “I was hoping to be the first to get one, but I was the first to count to 100 and recite the alphabet, so that’s OK.” “But none of those things gave you a cutie mark… What if we don’t have any real talents?” “And what if we have no cutie mark because we like so many things that we can’t decide?” Jasmine countered. “Huh… Wouldn’t that be a bad thing too?” “How could it be bad?! We can be good at many things!” And then she thought for a moment, and said the phase that would mark my life for the following years: “The good thing about being undecided is that you can try everything without having to settle for just one thing.” “You know…” I told her. “I’d never looked at it that way. I’m not sure anypony has. Maybe we could start something completely new!” “Of course! We can… I know! Why don’t we start a club? We can call it the Everything Club. A club for ponies who want to do a bit of everything.” “Sounds great! And that phrase you said could be our motto!” I suggested. “Which phrase?” “The good thing about being undecided… is that you can try everything without having to settle for just one thing.” “Oh, wow, you have a great memory!” she praised me. “That’s a good start! Remembering things is one of the many things we can be good at, and yes, that can be our motto. I wonder if anypony else will join.” In the end, the Everything Club turned out to be just the two of us, but that was OK. From that day on, we tried to find all the things we liked and I enjoyed many things I wouldn’t have dared to try without Jasmine’s encouragement - like barberry ice-cream with sheep milk. In fact, ice-cream became a recurring feature in our outings, because… well, we had to try all the flavors. We were the everything club after all! In retrospect, forming that club may have delayed the discovery of our true talents. But who can take away all the good experiences we had? Without noticing, we evolved into more than a club: we became best friends. One day, near the end of that year, I noticed Jasmine was having trouble concentrating at school. I worried, because she was often the first to answer the teacher’s questions and now her mind seemed to be in another world. I waited until the break to ask her what was wrong and she said that she’d spent the whole night awake. “Why?” I asked her. “Just to see if I could,” she replied. “It felt weird… but fun. I don’t think I’ll do it again, but it was good to do it once.” Again, my friend had left me baffled. Doing something just to see if you can was a new concept for me. I toyed with the idea in my mind, wondering if I could do anything like that. Not the same thing, though. It would have to be something new. I kept turning the idea around in my mind until it took shape. By the time I got home that day, I had decided I would write a song. Now, by song I mean a stand-alone composition with music and lyrics which make actual sense and which anypony can sing. It is different from just singing out your feelings, which is something anypony can do, and it is also different from musicalizing some gibberish, which I had done for my family’s pet canary when I was 3. My first actual song turned out to have only four verses and be no better than a nursery rhyme, but considering my age at the time I guess it was a decent effort. I initially wasn’t planning to share it here, but Jasmine has dared me to do it in exchange for posting hers, so you will get to see the lyrics of both our first songs. In doing so, please keep in mind that they were written by little fillies. So, the next day I introduced Jasmine to the following piece, which I called Clouds. In the sky were many clouds; pretty, bright, colorful clouds. Soon, when the night came about, a sky full of light it found. I was not sure of what Jasmine’s reaction would be, but she actually liked it! And she decided she would try to write a song herself. That was how the Everything Club challenges were born. By the time the class was over, she had composed her first musical work: The Muffin Plate. There was a muffin-muffin-muffin on a pla-ate. And then another-other-other-other ca-ame. And so together-gether-gether they beca-ame A pair of muffins-muffins-muffins on a pla-ate. I laughed when I heard it - in a good way. It was silly, but I liked the echo effect. We wrote a few more songs withing the next few years, but after a while I started feeling writing songs was not enough. I wanted to do more… I just didn’t know how, nor what exactly it was that I wanted to achieve. I just knew I was having trouble getting my words to rhyme and be meaningful at the same time. I didn’t know it then, but those silly little songs were probably the seed that eventually bloomed into my real talent. I must admit Jasmine challenged herself a lot more than I did. I always had the feeling that I wouldn’t be able to do anything hard or really unusual, so the challenges I came up with were really not that great. Still, they were my challenges and I enjoyed them. Even though sometimes they did end in failure, like the first time I challenged myself to fly alone at night. I waited until I was sure that my parents were sleeping, then I quietly left the house through the window. I didn’t think there would be any real danger, but the thought of doing something behind my parents’ hindquarters made me feel both thrilled and uneasy at the same time. Still harboring some doubts, I took off and soared into the nocturnal sky. Then all my doubts disappeared. The night sky was beautiful! As soon as I’d flown past the first cloud, I felt like I had arrived at a secret party held by the stars. Small dots of different colors sparkled around me, and for a moment I felt like I was one of them myself. A cool breeze tickled my cheeks and my feathers, and for a brief time which promised to last forever, everything was perfect. Until something hit me from behind and I started plummeting down. I was scared. It took me a second to realize I had been thrown off-balance by another pegasus. It must have taken another second to realize he didn’t even know what he’d crashed into: sadly, the color of my coat looked too much like that of the night sky! Then there was no more time to think of what had happened: I had to save myself from crashing into the ground! I shook my wings with all my strength, moving my legs to shift my body’s weight and regain balance. For a moment, I feared I wouldn’t make it, but I finally managed to get upright and slow my fall. I sighed with relief. Then, I looked up and was glad to see the other pegasus was fine. He was looking around, probably trying to find me. I thought of going back up to tell him I was OK, but that meant having to explain what I was doing alone and night, so I chose to save myself the trouble. Whoever he was, and also mom and dad, if you’re reading this, please forgive me. Another thing Jas and I did together as the Everything Club was attend every fair that cropped up in Ponyville. They were always fun, with their games and talent shows, and, as the Everything Club, we had to try them all. I especially remember the one where our club grew in size for one day. It was also worthy of notice because it was held during the time when my parents were away: they had won two tickets to Fillydelphia and left me with Jasmine and her family. By then, I had already gathered the strength to tell them I wished to fly at night but was afraid of others bumping into me due to my unfortunate color scheme. They had said they’d think of something and left it at that. Now they were both gone and, as fun as spending time with Jasmine was, I missed them. I was hoping the fair would cheer me up. We played some fun games which almost took my mind away from my parents, and then moved on to the shows. There was a rodeo show which caught our interest for a while, as some of the ponies were showing amazing skills which neither of us could hope to imitate. But soon, my attention shifted to a member of the audience. He was a yellow colt - an earth pony - roughly about our age. He was looking at the show with interest, but what caught my interest was the fact that, like us, he had no cutie mark. I told Jasmine about him and together we approached him. We introduced ourselves and talked for a while. We told him about our club and he said it sounded cool, so we offered him to join. He said ‘yes’, and so the three of us went through the rest of the shows together. When the fair began to close, we said goodbye and agreed to meet again when we had the chance. Sadly, we never did. I wish I remembered what his name was… I just know he was from out of town. It would be nice to see him again someday and learn what became of him. He must have found his cutie mark by now. To wrap things up, although it is unrelated to the club, I will tell you this: my parents came back from their trip with a great surprise. It was magical flashlight. More precisely, a set of four small torches with elastic strips to bind them to my head, tail and wings, and which I could turn on and off with a simple gesture as long as they were on me. I still wear it to this day, and have been enjoying nocturnal flights ever since. As for our cutie marks… We found them eventually, of course. But as I said before, that’s another story.

Mistaken identities

Hello... This is Starlight. It has taken me some time to post this, because I did not know how to react at first. I have received some hate-mail accusing me of doing horrible things. Things which I do not have the ability to do, but even if I did, it would be unthinkable for me to commit such attrocities. I hope the pony who sent me that mail reads this. I will not reveal his identity: he knows who he is, but he clearly does not know who I am.

I have done some research during the last few days, and found out that there is in fact another pony named Starlight. That by itself is not surprising, I am aware that my name is not the most original, and our last names are different. Hers is Glimmer and mine is Quill. I do not sign my work with my last name because I feel Starlight has a nicer ring to it than Starlight Quill, but I may start using it if it stops ponies from associating me with a power-hungry egomaniac who somehow managed to not only strip a whole village of everypony's individual talents, but also convince them that it was for their own good. And that was the shocking part.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not commit nor do I condone such heinous actions. I must also note, since some of you may not know what I look like, that I am a blue pegasus, while Starlight Glimmer is a pink unicorn; so it should not be hard to tell us apart.

~~

On a lighter note, this situation reminds me of another identity mixup I have experienced in the past, although that one was of a much friendlier nature and was in fact quite flattering. Somepony once believed I was the author of the Daring Do novels. While this pony at least got my race and profession right, the actual author is A.K. Yearling. I have read her work and would certainly recommend it. I have not yet had the honor of meeting her face to face, although I hope that I will... someday.

I've been told good things come to those who like. What good things exactly? Is it those same things they like?

Slices of life #2: anti-adventure in the forest

Hello again, everypony! I apologize for the delay in the publishing of this edition. Both Jasmine and I have been occupied with different projects, and it has taken us some time to put this together. But here it is, as promised: the story of our Everfree Forest escapade, or, as we like to call it, our anti-adventure. This marks number 2 out of 3 stories we have set out to write for our little experiment. Number 3 will be published... at some point.

       Into the Everfree Forest (and back again)

It all began when I returned from my trip to Dodge Junction a few years ago, just a few months after Jasmine opened her Tea House. As some of you may know, I like to travel around Equestria in search of inspiration for new stories, and also because I find excitement in learning about other places and ways of living. I often fly to nearby towns when I am on my own, but trips are generally long and tiring, so I usually return by train. That way, I can just sit down and relax on my way back. Besides, trains usually have tables which I can use to write down some of my ideas. This time, like many others, Jasmine came to fetch me at the train station. "Hey there!" I greeted her as she was still looking around for me. "Oh, hi! Sorry, I was trying to spot you among the crowd, but..." "It's OK. I'm not as easy to spot as you are." As I said this, Jasmine raised an eyebrow, so I quickly added: "due my lack of bright colors." "Oh. Right. So... How was your trip?" "Much more exciting than I had expected! Even if the train was a bit too full for comfort. Next time I go to Dodge Junction, I'll time my visit to make sure it doesn't collide with the Harvest Festival. Nor any other festival. It was fun, though. But right now I would love some peace and quiet." "I think I can provide that. The Tea House isn't open yet, but I can always make an exception for a special guest. As long as you don't mind me setting the tables while you sit down and enjoy a cup of tea." "No problem at all. In fact... If I can get some energy back, I'll help you with the tables." "Thanks, but I'm fine. You should just relax. You've just set hoof in Ponyville after an exciting trip and a train packed full of ponies. If you're up to it, you can tell me about your trip while I get ready to open. I would love that. But don't go straining yourself until you've rested enough." "Yes, mom," I said. "Sorry, did I sound bossy? I was just trying to help." "You always are, and I appreciate it. It's just that your advice sounded motherly to me. But yes, I do feel tired. I will gladly accept your offer and tell you about my trip." And so, we headed over to the Tea House. As soon as I could sit down, I gave Jasmine a present I had brought from my trip: a box of sweet cherry tea. She did not waste any time and offered me the first cup of it. After a brief negotiation, we agreed to try it both at the same time. We did, and she tried to put all the empty chairs in their respective places while she drank, but her divided attention caused her to spill her tea. I remember it because that was the reason her critique was delayed. She hurried to clean up and put everything in order while I told her about my experiences in Dodge Junction - beautiful little town, full of story material but I would still need to see it at a quieter time in order to fully experience the town's daily life. Once the Tea House was ready to open its doors, Jas took the chance to sit down and drink a cup of the cherry tea before the first customers arrived. "Lovely," she said. "You can really taste the cherries in it. And it's not sour at all! It's sweet, but not cloying. I really like it!" "That's great to hear! I thought you would like it, it's the most popular tea in Dodge Junction, or at least that's what I was told. There was another tea I wish I could have brought you, though, but it was not for sale. It's so rare that they reserve it for special occasions and you can only drink it at the saloon." "They have a saloon?" "Oh... yes, they do. Didn't I mention it? Interesting place... a bit like a bar, but with a rather unique ambiance. They have some nice musical shows in there." "Nice. So... what was this rare tea called? What was it like?" "It's called Dreamrose tea. It tasted really good... a bit like rose tea but slightly different... there was something to it which gave it a great taste, but I'm afraid that's as far as my description can do. My taste buds are not as sensitive as yours." "Consider it a fair compensation for all your other senses being so well-developed." I chuckled. "A writer must be ready to spot inspiration at any time." "So... this Dreamrose... I assume it's a flower? I'd never heard of it before." "It's a flower, indeed. And that flower is story material by itself." "Really? How so?" "Well... It grows in the Everfree Forest, and while it usually looks roughly like a rose, it can take different shapes and colors without changing its taste. In order to identify it, you have to dream about it first. If you really want to find it, the flower will reveal its form in a dream, and it will tell you where to find it. That's why it's called Dreamrose." "Wow... A flower can do that? That's amazing. It almost makes me want to go looking for it. I wonder how a flower can tell when you really want it." "I don't know how it works... Perhaps it's emitting some strange waves all the time and you can only catch them if you're dreaming and looking for it? But that is just a guess. I'm not sure I want to know, sometimes it's best to let some things remain a mystery, so it can work in many possible ways. Once you know the real answer, all the other options are scratched out." "But I recall you've wanted to get to the bottom of a lot of things, Miss Chief Editor of the school newspaper." "I haven't engaged in journalism since I was a filly!" I protested. "But yes, there are a lot of things for which I do want to find the answer. Things that matter, or things which really puzzle me. But I don't think this is one of them, I'd rather enjoy the flower as it comes than have somepony dissect it and study it. That is... if I could enjoy the flower as it comes. Too bad it only grows in the Everfree Forest." "Hmm... That's a problem, yes, but..." "But what?" "Haven't you ever wondered what the Everfree Forest is really like? We'd have to be extra careful, but we could make it if we went together. It would be an adventure!" "A dangerous adventure," I remarked. "Don't all adventures involve some danger? You should know it, you write about them all the time. Wouldn't it be nice to live them once in a while?" "It certainly would... as long as we can get back home in one piece." "Oh, we will! We can go in during the day when most scary creatures are sleeping." "It will still be dark in there." "I can cast a light spell, remember? And you have that dazzling flashlight of yours." "Wouldn't too much light wake up the scary creatures?" "Then we won't use too much. Just enough to light our way." "You make it all sound so easy." "I know it won't be, but the only way to get anything done is to believe you can do it. Other ponies have been to the Everfree Forest and returned safely. Somepony picked that flower in the first place, so that you could drink it. We can do it too." "One of us still has to dream about it," I reminded her. "Do you think that will be a problem?" "Not really..." I said with a smile. "I guess it'll be more a question of which one of us gets to dream about it first." "Then it's settled," she decided. "As soon as one of us dreams of the Dreamrose, we get together and head for the forest in the morning. I'll have a supply of cookies ready." "Only you would think of cookies as the first thing to take on an adventure." "Hey! Cookies are great for adventures. They're lightweight, compact and filling. And if anything goes wrong, we can use them as defensive weapons." "I hope we don't have to put that to the test," I laughed.  There is a story behind the cookie idea. We and some friends did some role-playing once upon a time. It didn't last long, but we had some fun. While I played a regular elf unicorn which, in hindsight, was really unoriginal, Jasmine played a magical fox who carried around a bag of infinite cookies. And a jar of super-glue. The game was far removed from reality, but Jasmine liked the concept of cookies as an adventuring item. It did not come as a surprise when my friend came knocking at my door the next morning with a bag around her neck. Her coming up to knock might have been surprising - and dangerous, considering my house is on a tree - if I hadn't had a small platform built in front of my door for unicorns who might want to blink up and stand there; but Jasmine didn't like pulling the rope to ring the bell and waiting at ground level, so I was prepared. "Let me guess," I said. "You've already seen the flower in your dreams." "Does that mean you haven't?" she asked. "Not really... Not that I'm not looking forward to finding it, but... you know how dreams work, you can't really decide what to dream about." "Usually not, but... Like you said, if you really want it, the flower will show itself. And while you have had your chance to taste it, I haven't, and I'd really love to find out what that tea is like. I already have some water and honey cookies packed, let's do it!" "OK, I've already said 'yes'. Just let me get my things, please. I'll be down in a few minutes." Soon, we headed towards the forest. I was rather scared, but also excited. I was going to do something which very few ponies had done, and I was going to help my best friend get something she really wanted. Besides, having Jasmine by my side always instilled some confidence into me. Once we arrived, we stopped for a moment to take in the sight of the forest in front of us, took a deep breath in unison and stepped in. The vegetation was as dense as I had expected. Few sunbeams managed to breach through the mantle of branches and leaves above us, and it seemed to get darker the deeper we went. Still, nothing attacked us right away, and for that I was grateful. The first strange thing I spotted was a group of oddly-shaped plants, whose flowers looked like purple tentacles curled inwards. They were covered with spots of different colors. "Do you have any idea what these are?" I asked Jasmine, struck with curiosity. "Never seen them before... I think it's best to leave them alone. You never know what strange plants can do to you, especially here." "Of course," I said, turning away from the plants. "It would be great if we could find out what they do without actually having them do it, wouldn't it?" "Maybe someday we'll find them in a book or something. Wait... could that be it?" "Have you found the flower?" "Looks like it! Strange, this doesn't look like the place I dreamed about." "Are you sure it's the right one?" I tried to make sure. "I think s... no, sorry. The flower I dreamed about looked like a blue rose surrounded by two rows of pointy white petals. This one looks almost the same, but it has only one row of white petals." "Oh... close call. Another strange plant for us to avoid, then." "Yeah..." Jasmine sighed. "Let's keep going." "Do you have any idea where it is? The bartender said the ones they had were found near the river, but if they're somewhere else now..." "No, it's by the river. That part of my dream was clear," Jasmine assured. "Oh... Then we should be listening for the sound of water." "I wonder if there are any monsters in the river," Jasmine said. She seemed a bit less confident now. "I think there many strange creatures in the river - as well as on land -, but I've heard rumors that not all of them are dangerous." "Oh, good. Then we'll be partially safe. We can almost relax." "Hey, I'm trying to be positive here," I told her. "If you're scared, imagine how scared I am. But we've already made it this far. The river shouldn't be any more dangerous than the rest of the forest..." I sighed. "Sorry, I really fail at lifting our spirits. I'm not even sure of what I'm doing. Perhaps we should go back. Perhaps we shouldn't have come at all." "Easy there, Starlight," Jasmine moved closer and rubbed my left wing with her muzzle. It tickled a bit, but it felt comforting. "Just calm down, we'll be fine. Let's just be careful. Once we get back I'll put the flowers to dry, and then we'll be able to enjoy a delicious tea and we'll have a real-life adventure story to tell." "You're right... I hope we do find it. The river is long, though." "We will find it. You help me find the river, I help you find the right spot." "Right! I'm on it!" I said with renewed hopes. I listened carefully for the sound of water, until I finally found it. It was faint, but I knew I could follow it. "I got it," I told Jasmine, as I pointed with my hoof. "It's coming from that direction." "Nice job! Let's go, then." As we walked, the sound became louder and louder, until it finally sounded like the river was right in front of us. However, we couldn't see it. "How is this possible?" Jasmine wondered. "Is the river invisible or something? No, even then we'd see a hole or a riverbed, not just more forest!" "There has to be an explanation," I said, looking around. "There's something strange about that sound... It sounds like running water, but if it were so then it would come from the whole river, staring from the spring and going all the way down to the river mouth." "You're right! This sound is coming from a much smaller area!" "Rather from just one spot," I said, pointing at a hollow tree trunk. "That's where the sound is coming from. There must be a creature sleeping inside that tree trunk, and for some reason its snoring sounds like flowing water." "OK... Weird, but this is the Everfree Forest, we can expect to find weirder things. Let's get away from here and avoid waking it up." "Of course," I nodded. We walked away just until we were far enough from the mysterious creature to make sure we wouldn't wake it, then we discussed our options. "So... the sound of running water is not enough to find the river," Jasmine remarked. "There must be another way." "There is," I said. "Even in this forest, trees can't possibly grow on top of the river. I should be able to spot it from above." "Oh, of course! But will you be able to find your way back here once you've found it?" "You just keep your light spell on. I trust my navigation skills enough to get back to this general area. If I'm a bit off where I land, your light will guide me back to you." "Great! I'll wait for you here, then. Thanks!" I took off and flew past the leaves which obscured the view. Since it was day, I didn't even need my flashlight to search. I just flew a bit deeper into the forest above the treetops until I could hear the water, then looked around until I was able to see it. Finally, I went back to Jasmine's side. The light coming from the tip of her horn made her easy to find once I was close enough. "I've found it!" I announced. "I've found the river. It's straight that way!" "Great! Walking straight is not an option in a forest, but I'm sure we can walk in that general direction and then we'll find it." "Such fine details aren't really relevant," I pointed out. "Uh?... OK, then let's just ignore them and look for the river." Jasmine Leaf is my best friend and she means a lot to me, but sometimes she can get quite irritating without even noticing. I sometimes worry because other ponies who know her less than I do may think she's correcting them or criticizing them and could get mad at her. But this time, the subject really was irrelevant. I decided to let it go and focus on our goal. I rubbed the head piece of my flashlight with my hoof to turn it back on, and then led the march to the river. After a blissfully uneventful walk - well, we did find the beginning of a cliff but we just took the lower path -, we finally made it to the river. Once there, Jasmine looked around to find the place she had seen in her dream. While she was searching, I noticed something moving in the water. Every now and then small parts of it would come to the surface. The emerging parts looked round, and had many different colors. The water was too muddy to see what was below. I slowly approached Jasmine. "I don't mean to scare you or anything, but it's very likely that I have found one of those strange water creatures, and I think it would be best to walk away from it before we find out if it's dangerous." "It would be nice if it were a kind creature who was willing to show us where the flower is," she said. "It would be fantastic, but what are the odds? And even then, it would have to have dreamed of the flower first. You're the only one who can find it." "Alright... Just looking around isn't helping, but the Dreamrose called to me in my dream last night. Perhaps if I close my eyes and focus, I can feel its call again." I nodded, and let her try. I'm not sure if what she did was magic or just meditation. The light on her horn twitched slightly and assumed a greener tint for a moment, but then it went back to normal - normal being the sphere of white light which her spell usually creates. "I know where it is," Jasmine announced. "Follow me, we're not too far." I followed her past a small meander and around a few large rocks, and then finally saw a plant with flowers just like the ones Jasmine had described. The stems had thorns, but the leaves were soft. The flowers had two concentric rows of small, pointed white petals, and a spiral of blue rose-like petals inside. "Here we are, we've finally made it!" Jasmine beamed. "Yay!" I cheered. "And only after a small number of potentially dangerous developments which almost happened but not quite." Jasmine chuckled. "Yeah. Let's try to keep it that way. These thorns don't look poisonous, but just in case I'll use telekinesis to pick the flowers. Unless they react badly to magic?" "That would have been a pretty important detail. I doubt the bartender would have left it out if that were the case." "Unless he didn't know about it. Did a unicorn pick the flowers to take them to Dodge Junction?" "Don't the flowers themselves have magic in them? How else would they appear in the dreams of ponies who look for them?" "Good point. Umm... Mixing different types of magic can be dangerous. I'll just pick them with my mouth very carefully." I nodded, and let her pick the flowers and put them in her bag. It didn't seem too difficult for her to avoid the thorns. She left a few on the plant, to help new plants grow. "OK..." Jasmine said. "This should be enough for a few special occasions, starting with the celebration we will have tomorrow once these flowers are dry." "Great!" I cheered. My cheer may have been too loud, as I heard a deep growl as soon as I uttered it. "Run!" I told Jasmine. We ran away from the growling sound as fast as we could, and only stopped once we could no longer hear it and there were enough trees between us and the river to shield us from the sight of any amphibious monster who might live there. After we stopped, Jasmine looked around, confused. "We haven't been here before," she said. "I'm afraid I don't know where we are. Are we lost?" "Not yet," I said. "While I'm not sure about where we are either, you're not lost if you know where you're going and how to get there. I'll take off again, it shouldn't be hard to find the way out of the forest and we haven't gone deep enough to risk going out on the wrong end. If things get confusing again, I can keep flying up and down until we leave the forest." "Sounds like a plan," Jasmine smiled. The plan worked. The edge of the forest was much easier to find than the river had been. Once I was high enough, I could even see Ponyville ahead. I guided Jasmine towards the exit, and everything went well until we could see the daylight ahead. We laughed, feeling accomplished. But then, we heard a muffled cry. It was high-pitched, like the cry of a small creature who was hurt or scared. "Should we avoid this one too?" I asked, unsure of what to do. "Not this time," Jasmine decided. "This one doesn't sound dangerous, it sounds like it needs help." "But what if it's a trap and that's how it attracts its prey?" "I don't think a species who did that could survive for too long," Jasmine stated. "If they killed those willing to help them, then soon no creatures would go near them." "I suppose you're right... And we're close enough to the edge of the forest to run away to the open if anything goes wrong." "Of course. And if it insists on chasing us, we can distract it with some cookies. Do you think it likes honey cookies?" "You and your cookies," I laughed. "OK, let's check it out."  The sound came from within a bush. Jasmine walked towards the bush and used her magic to move the branches apart. As soon as she did, a small light brown puppy jumped out of the bush and started licking Jasmine's hoof. "Look!" Jas exclaimed. "It was just a little puppy! It must have got lost and somehow got caught among the branches of that bush. Are you OK, little puppy?" "I think it's hungry," I remarked. "It's going for your bag. She is going for your bag," I specified upon noticing she was a girl. "Oh... Poor girl, I wonder how long she's been lost. I wish I had something healthier to give her than honey cookies. Sweets aren't good for dogs." "I know, but I'm afraid you've moved too slow. She's already eating them." "Whoa! She's fast! I can't scold her for that, though, she must be really hungry. I should bring her home and give her something to eat. Then we can start looking for her owner, if she has one." "Sounds good. But what will you do if she doesn't have one?" "Well..." Jasmine looked at the puppy and, as the little dog looked back, the origin of the phrase 'puppy eyes' became evident. "To be honest, I've always wanted a pet," she confessed. "We had a dog at home when I was a filly, and I'd love to have one again. Besides, she wouldn't be my parents' dog, she'd be my dog. My responsibility. It would be great to be able to take care of her. But only if there isn't somepony looking for her. Anypony's heart would be broken if they lost such a lovely pet." "We'll help her either way," I assured. "Let's go to your place and take it from there."  In the end, as you may have known if you have read our previous story, nopony claimed the little dog even though we posted signs all over Ponyville. That's how Hunny got to stay with Jasmine. The name came both from her color, and from the honey cookies she ate when we first met her. The spelling was intentionally altered because Jasmine didn't want to think of her dog as something edible - even though lots of ponies are named after foods, and even Jasmine herself is named after a flower she often puts in her teas, but as she will say, she doesn't eat nor drink jasmine leaves, only the flowers.  Since then, Jasmine and Hunny have become like family. As with any family, there have been ups and downs: potty training required some time and patience, and Hunny would eat not only cookies and food in general, but everything she could find, like clothes, plants, wood, boots, books and especially little ornaments. But after a while she learned to tell right from wrong, and she has proven to be a smart and adorable little dog. As for the Dreamrose, Jasmine put the flowers to dry as soon as we got home. The process ended up taking a couple of days, but in the end we were able to enjoy a delicious tea. She's been using just a few petals at the time, and has been serving the tea on her birthday ever since. What she will do once it runs out, I am not sure. But if she's up for another adventure - or, let's be honest, another anti-adventure - I'll be glad to help.

Note about our previous post

Hi, everypony! This is Jasmine Leaf reporting in to clarify something about the Colors Story. Starlight did a good job reporting the events as I described them, but right after we submitted the story for publication, she mentioned to me that there is in fact more than one magic school in Canterlot! Yes, there are at least two magic schools over there - I'm a bit jealous now, but just a bit since Ponyville is great in many ways. My friend Starlight has been to Canterlot a couple of times and has heard about not only the Canterlot Academy, but also Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, a renowned magic school which has become even more renowned this year since our new Princess Twilight Sparkle is said to have attended. So... sorry for the omission, and if anypony from Canterlot is reading this bulletin and finds any mistakes on this note or knows about any other schools which should be mentioned here, please let us know. I wonder why Silverflame never mentioned there was more than one magic school... Perhaps he just assumed I was talking about the one where he worked. Or maybe he didn't want to correct me... some ponies feel offended when others correct them. That is not my case, so please, if anypony notices a mistake here, let me know and I will do what I can to fix it. Oh, and you can send us comments at any time! Not just corrections, but reactions, thoughts, or anything you'd like to share with us. No offensive content or junk mail, though.

Slices of Life #1: The Colors Story

Hello again! I'm Starlight and I'm bringing you the first installment of Slices of Life. For those who have read my books, expect this and the following stories in this segment to be more informal and less spectacular, as they are accounts of real life events and I have chosen to remain true to the facts rather than embellish them by taking artistic licenses. Anyway, here it is! The Colors Story, a.k.a. The Teacher and the Tea Blender. Prologue This story took place last summer. I was on cloud herding duty - if you're a pegasus, you will be called to herd clouds sooner or later - and was getting quite tired because a lot of clouds were out of place, and pushing those things around is not really my forte.  Suddenly, I saw something below that caused me to stop and lower myself to look closer. It was a unicorn - a female unicorn - trotting so happily you could almost mistake her for Pinkie Pie; except... she looked a lot more like somepony else. What was so odd about this unicorn? Well, at first glance you could see she had a yellow coat and a dark green mane. Nothing unusual so far, other than the fact that I had never met a unicorn with those colors, and seeing a stranger trotting cheerfully in my area is quite unusual. But there was more. As I got closer, I could see that - other than her colors - she looked exactly like my friend Jasmine Leaf! Same mane style, same body type, same facial features - even down to the 3 white spots on each cheek - and, when I saw her flank, I realized that she had almost the same cutie mark! The only difference was that the flower of Jasmine's teapot had a creamy color, while this one was a rosy red. I was clearly not very stealthy, as she stopped her happy trotting and looked at me. Her eyes were a slightly darker blue than Jasmine's eyes, but they had the exact same shape. She was still grinning from ear to ear. "Er... hi!" I ventured. "Hi back at you!" she replied, and then she chuckled. Now she was the one who was observing me. I felt like I was going through some kind of test. I wanted to say something, but what can you say to a pony who looks like a color-changed version of your best friend, and even has the same voice?! I began to wonder whether I was dreaming, or whether there was something wrong with my eyes. I looked at my own hoof; it was still the usual dark blue. My mane had the same two shades of purple as ever, the grass below was still green, and the sky and clouds hadn't changed either. "Don't worry, it's just me," she said, as if reading my mind. "Jasmine!" I exclaimed as I touched the ground, still confused but now slightly less so. "What happened to you?!" "Relax, it only lasts for an hour," my friend assured. "I was inspired by that old colored photo I had taken years ago, the one that had all the colors wrong. The flower was my personal touch, though. I guess you can call me Rose Leaf while I'm like this... Nah, Jasmine sounds better." "Okaay..." I walked one step back. "You're still you, right? Since when can you change colors?" "Since last night. It's an interesting story, I think. And yes, of course I'm still me. I'm just having a little fun with a harmless spell." "Are you sure it's harmless?" "I got it from a reliable source." "OK, then. Please tell me the story! I want to hear it." "Weren't you busy with those clouds?" "I work better after I've heard a good story. Don't make me beg you!" Jasmine laughed. "OK, OK, I'll tell you! I was planning to tell you anyway." And so, she told me. And now I shall retell it for you.

The Teacher and the Tea Blender

The sun had begun to set; the last few customers were finishing their teas, and Jasmine Leaf was getting ready to close the Tea House when the door suddenly opened. As if on cue, thunder rolled, and a cloaked figure appeared behind the now open door, a silvery beard showing under the dark blue cloak. Jasmine Leaf, an avid reader, felt like she was experiencing the beginning of an adventure story. She had never expected to witness such a scene with her own eyes. Her first thought was: "I have to tell Starlight about this!" Her next thoughts were: <Wait, the poor stallion is soaked! He's probably coming here for shelter and a cup of tea. I have to assist him! When did the storm begin? I'm pretty sure there was no storm scheduled for this evening. Wait, I can't hear the rainfall and there was only one thunder. What's going on here? Focus, pony! Do your job first, ask questions later.> The young mare slowly approached the mysterious stallion as he walked in. "Can I help you?" she asked. The newcomer lifted his hood, revealing a royal blue face, with a horn sticking out of a rather messy silver-colored mane, and two magenta eyes which looked younger than Jasmine had expected. He was not, as she had envisioned, an old pony, but a middle-aged stallion with a silvery mane. As it turned out, she was not the only one who was surprised. "You're..." the Stallion began to speak, but then stopped. "I'm what?" Jasmine asked, wondering whether the mysterious guest knew anything about her. "Oh, sorry..." he replied. "I was going to say you're a unicorn, but that's just stating the obvious." "Uh... yes," said Jas, a little frustrated. "So are you." "Of course, of course. It's just... I didn't expect to find a unicorn working at a tea house; I always thought of it as an earth pony job, but it seems that I was prejudiced. Just forget I said anything." "Ookay? Let's start over. Is there anything I can do for you? Would you like some tea? Something to eat? Or maybe a combination of both, I made tea muffins today and there are still a few left." "You mean you're the cook too?" "Er... not exactly. There is no cook here, but I do bake some stuff and serve it here. Some things, sorry. Usually muffins, sometimes cookies. But I buy the cakes from... well, the Cakes. Some of them are custom-made. And I buy the apple pie from the Apples, I can make my own but it's not nearly as good." "And you tell that to your customers? Aren't you worried they may go and buy it straight from the source?" "Oh! That's not a problem. Selling apple pies is not my business. If you want to take one home, you can buy it at Sweet Apple Acres. But if you want to sit down and enjoy it with a cup of your favorite tea, this is the right place. And I do make my own blends." "Sounds tempting. What kinds of tea do you have?" "I'll bring you the list." Jasmine turned round to look at the bar, where the menus were neatly piled up - something you can only see when the tea house is either closing or just opened - and used her unicorn powers to levitate one in her guest's direction. After a brief exchange which consisted mostly of the stallion asking for recommendations and Jasmine trying to figure out what he would like, the choice was set to cinnamon tea and apple pie. Once these were served and all other guests had left, my friend tried to learn more about this mysterious pony. "So... you must have had a rough day," she began. "Rough indeed! I never thought Ponyville would be so... wild. No offense meant." "Wild?" "It looked like your average town when I got off the train, but then after a few minutes the houses became scarcer, and before I knew it I found myself in an open field. I realized I must have taken a wrong turn and tried to look at my map, but then I heard a booming noise and I was suddenly caught in a downpour. A one pony downpour, since no other clouds were in sight, only the one on top of me. My map was ruined, I was soaked, with mud all over my hooves and I had to find my way back to Ponyville on my own."  "Oh!" Jasmine exclaimed. "So that's how you got wet! I'm sorry, a pegasus must have had an accident with that cloud, I don't think anypony would do that to a stranger on purpose. Didn't you try looking up to see if there was somepony on the cloud?" "I... didn't think of it. That's not the way we handle clouds in Canterlot." "So you're from Canterlot? My mother was born there, but she moved to Ponyville when she was 3. There was an outbreak of Cutie Pox and my grandparents were afraid she could catch it."  "Oh, yes, I remember hearing about that. Many little colts and fillies were affected, but luckily it was contained. Have you ever been to Canterlot?" "Not yet, but I'd like to visit someday. There is one place in Canterlot I've always dreamed of seeing." "The Royal Castle?" "No... although I'm sure that must be a great sight. I mean the magic school." "The magic school, really?! Why?" "Because... There is no magic school in Ponyville. I've always wondered what it would be like to be in one, and to learn about magic from professionals. I can do some basic spells like levitating objects and creating light with my horn, but I've always wanted to learn more." "I'm sorry, I can't do that. You're very nice, but I need to get going. It's late and I haven't found the library yet." "I can walk you to the library," Jasmine offered. "I was about to close anyway. Just... what is it that you can't do?" "Pardon?" "You just said 'I can't do that'. What were you talking about?" "Huh? Oh... I mean I can't teach you spells. I'm sorry, but you don't have much magical training and I don't know you well enough to know if you would use magic responsibly. Things are already bad enough as they are." "Wait... Are you saying you're a magic teacher?" "Yes. My name is Silverflame, and I'm a teacher at the Canterlot Academy. I am also one of the ponies in charge of reviewing and updating spell books when new spells are created or old ones are improved. The former rarely happens, but the latter happens all the time, so we have to do a lot of research to stay up to date with the most effective and efficient ways to cast our spells." "That sounds great! But..." "But what?" "Why come to Ponyville? Our library does have some spell books, but I don't think there's anything you don't have in Canterlot. I've heard rumors that Twilight Sparkle has been experimenting with different ways to cast spells, but she reports all her findings to Princess Celestia, so you can still learn about them without having to travel here." "It's more complicated than that." "What is it?" "Er... it's a bit embarrassing." "It's OK. You don't have to explain if you don't want to. I'll walk you to the library and then show you the way back to the station." "I guess you'll learn about it anyway, if you're coming to the library with me. I might as well tell you now. I made a mistake when I was copying the latest version of a spell for a book. I got distracted for a moment and wrote a word wrong. I didn't even take a second look at it until a few days later, when I decided to clean my desk and found the original spell. By then, the book was already in the school's library, and a copy had been shipped to Ponyville. Fixing the one at our library was easy, but then I was sent here to fix my mistake before somepony used the spell and ended up looking like a kaleidoscope or something." "Looking like a kaleidoscope?" "Yes, you know, one of those cylinders with mirrors and loose colored objects which you can turn and..." "Yes, yes, I know what a kaleidoscope is, but what kind of spell can make a pony look like one?" "A color change spell gone wrong. This spell is meant to let you change the color of specific areas of an object, a creature, or even your own body. But if you cast it the wrong way, you have no control over which areas change, nor what colors they change into." "The change isn't permanent, is it?" "No, of course not. It lasts for a few hours at most. A very experienced wizard could make it last for a day, but in no case would the effect be permanent." "Oh... then it's not so serious, is it? I mean... there's no real danger." "No real danger... except to my pride and my reputation." "Don't worry, we'll be there before your reputation gets hurt," Jasmine assured as she levitated the used tableware into the kitchen, and down into the sink full of water, where they would wait until the next morning to be washed properly. At that moment, a bark was heard coming from upstairs. "You have a dog at a tea house?" Silverflame questioned Jasmine. "She's not really at the tea house, she's upstairs in my room. She's calling my attention because she knows it's time for her walk. Is it OK if she comes with us?" "Oh... OK, I suppose." "Thanks," Jasmine said as she opened the door to her room. Immediately, a honey-colored blur zoomed down the stairs and collided with her, only then taking the visible form of a small brown dog, standing on her hind legs and with her fore legs wrapped around my friend's elbow. When she saw Silverflame, however, she took cover under Jasmine's barrel. "Silverflame, this is Hunny. She's usually shy around strangers, but she's a bundle of love once she warms up to you. Come on, Hunny! Let's go out for a walk!" Having heard her favorite phrase, Hunny rushed towards the front door, barking and wagging her tail. While they walked towards the library, Jasmine and Silverflame talked about what life was like in Ponyville and Canterlot. Jasmine also told him the story of how she - or, rather, we - had found Hunny; a story which I may tell someday, once I've found the way around the fact that I have already spoiled the ending. The ending of this story, however, was a surprise to me when Jasmine told me about it. It turns out that, by the time they reached the library, Twilight Sparkle - who was not yet a Princess - had already found the mistake in the spell and corrected it, so there was nothing to worry about after all, and Silverflame had traveled all this way for nothing. I could add it to my list of anti-adventures, if not for the fact that the journey itself had been a bit of an adventure for poor Silverflame. And also because it only took some coaxing on Jasmine's behalf to convince him that it wouldn't do any harm if he taught her that spell. She had been very nice to him, she already had some experience with light magic, and it was a pretty harmless spell in any case, so in the end he accepted, and that's how I found the color-changed Jasmine Leaf the following day. And that, fillies and gentlecolts, is it for our first Slices of Life story. The experiment has been fun so far. I wonder what will happen when we write our next story.

Slices of life

Hello, everypony! This is Starlight speaking. Or, rather, typing. I have an announcement to make. Jasmine Leaf and I are working on a joint project called "Slices of Life". It all boils down to this: we pick some interesting anecdotes we would like to share, and then I write them in story format and post them here. If it's something from my life, I will write it in first person. If it's from Jasmine's, I will use the 3rd person and try to be as faithful as possible to the details. However, it may take a while before the stories start coming. This is for 2 reasons: first, we're both quite busy right now and we'll be doing this in our free time, so it may take us some time to put a story together. And second, I normally write fantasy stories - as in stories about things that have not happened and are not likely to happen in real life. It will be my first time describing real events as if they were stories, and I want to do it right, so that will also take some time. In any case, it will be an interesting challenge. We have 2 stories planned so far: 1. The colors story (I know I'm being vague but saying more at this time would be a spoiler). This was a fairly recent event. 2. The story of how we got our cutie marks. This, of course, was not recent (although perhaps more recent than we would have liked).

So... see you around!