I woke up Wednesday morning, soaring out of my balcony, headed down to the post office.
When I read the note that came with my giraffe fruit tree clipping I was a bit disappointed.
It was too late in the season. I needed to keep the sapling in a pot in my apartment until spring. I guess that wasn’t too bad.
I carefully brought the pot in and put it by the window to get some sun. I gave it a bit of water before going out for some flying practice. I wish I could meet those three funny fillies and go silly flying again.
Whatever I’ll be silly by myself.
I approached my farm site by a silly indirect path flying looping paths climbing up to the highest white clouds and diving into the small Hobby lake before shivering and drying off as I spiraled and shimmies to the site.
Today I just took a stick, marking out some idea of how I wanted to organize my farm. I didn’t want to grow just one thing, I wanted to collect several oddball things to grow.
With only one giraffe sapling to start it would take a long time to get many of those trees growing around here. Giraffe fruit would stay a rare delicacy for now.
I marked off other orchard areas and veggie and fruit area for bushy fruits and veggies. Potatoes too, I blocked off a section just for that. I blocked off some other sections.
I knew the dirt markings would be worn out over winter so I sketched the best representation I could have the lines I had made.
I would have Mr. Slumber come and cut down some of the trees that were in the way.
***
Just a Peach’s farm was beautiful. All the fruit had already been picked but I fly a couple laps around the orchard admiring the view,
I had never tried peach juice before coming to Hobby Bluffs but it was mixed with a bit of apple juice to give it a tart contrast. It was Very tasty.
I wanted to join up with the gardening, but Saber Artist and Cheery Tinsel convinced me to play capture the flag. Sodaglug made all the soft drinks in town out of his shop, and he was running the game.
This was one of my favorite games as a kid and even without being able to fly I did really well scoring 3 captures and rescuing our flag once.
We had dinner in Mrs. Peaches house. It was a nice place and the food was lovely too.
My before bed routine was to go out for a refreshing flight before bed, then brush my teeth, get into comfy clothes and get under the blankets and doze off.
Just one thing, I now had a silly habit of chatting with Saber in bed.
My tablet was old but easy to use in bed. And he had a lot of long boring hours at the police station.
Saber Artist: I gotta run, there’s some wild animals getting too close to town.
I should have fallen asleep, but I stayed up wait,
Saber Artist: back. Don’t know if you’re still awake.
Blue Yonder: I’m up, I’ll sleep in a bit kinda can’t wait till next spring to start my farm for real. What does everyone do all winter to keep busy?
Saber Artist: The mud winter season is the worst but before that the winter solstice is a big fun time to relax, bake and cook up awesome meals.
It’s nice to have some time of the year where you can wear the sweater auntie got you and stay inside with hot cocoa.
You should see the drinks people make up too.
Blue Yonder: fresh snow is nice too. The clear crisp air of a cold morning. I guess I don’t have to spend three months in classes without seeing anyone.
Before, we always had a great solstice, but after that my family left and it was lonely. I had a student last year who I chatted with a bit. He was into games too.
There was a game in the before where you could design your own village or town. Or maybe build a great big castle or pyramid. Most people used it to fight monsters , but i liked to build.
We talked about that game and some others. Otherwise I didn’t see anyone for 3-4 months except my coworkers, and students.
I used to be excited about my thesis, but it was all about revising it so the boring parts.
Saber Artist: sounds awful, but I still say I want to be a student. You should teach a class.
Anyway, I miss my parents and shield bay sometimes but I love this little town. We’ve got to plan next month’s hobbythons. Any ideas?”
Blue Yonder: it’s not main activity worthy but I think I’ve modified a game from before that would be fun. It’s a game but also you have to play a character as part of the game. It’s also kinda a mystery game.
There’s villagers, some of them can do something special at night to investigate. And then there’s one or two clowns that want to pull a prank on the town.
The clowns try to pretend they are a villager, and make people think someone else is a clown. And you take a card that determines clown or villager.
I want to be clown first, but I’m not going to tell anyone else. Then I can demonstrate how a good clown should be sneaky. It takes like 5 minutes per game so we could play a lot and laugh in between.
In the version before, we got so loud and carried away, but the clowns were werewolves. I don’t want to scare anyone with werewolves.
Oh I’m excited for thespian club on Mondays. I met Joy on Monday, and Song Scroll was there: we had a lot of fun.
Saber Artist: you should have dinner with me and auntie next week.
Blue Yonder: sounds good.
*
The next week excitement was really building for the End of Summer festival.
Song Scroll and I helped fly up to the top of flag poles and put banners up on Monday.
Pops Corn needed some help getting ready at his cornfields. They were pretty huge.
“Leave the ones the birds are picking over they can have em. I’ve gotta get the butter from Mrs. Moomoo. The corn butter station is key!”
Butterscotch showed up after a couple of hours. I had gathered up a row and a half of corn.
“Hey have you seen corn candy before? I’ve got some recipes. Or Caramel corn. That’s more Mrs. Corn’s thing though. But it’s so good.”
Pops showed back up after they were halfway done with the field. Both of them were exhausted but they kept cracking jokes to each other.
“I only asked for one row. This here Pops can do the rest. I’ll bring some over to you Butterscotch. And Blue Yonder, you just holler this spring and we’ll come help you get set up.”
Butterscotch agreed to go to Hopricot with me and then Saber Artist showed up so we had a nice group for the performing night.
“You know what Mr. apricot needs?” I said after a few drinks.
Song Scroll clicked her glass, “what’s that?”
“A karaoke machine!”
“Hmm. What is that?”
Saber Artist asked, “is this one of those things?”
“It’s a machine and you can pick from a ton of songs and I will put the words up on the screen so you can sing. And it includes the music, everything except the singing part so you can sing along.
It’s so much fun, do a duet or just challenge friends to do sillier songs.
Oh, or Rock Band. Is there anyone in town who sells electronics?”
“No one makes that stuff in town, most people just go to Canterlot, there’s the big stores there.”
“I need to save up some bits,” I grinned. Ideas a plenty.
“Maybe you’ll end up being a townie instead of a farmer.”
“After I claimed that field and everything?”
“Honey?” Song Scroll said. “I tried everything before I opened my music studio. I was going to be a farmer, a shopkeeper. Maybe a brewer. A toy maker. I went on a phase where I wanted to be like Butterscotch. It’s ok to spend some time figured out whatever it is that’s you.
You can still help people out and try other things, it’s good to the community to bring your own thing in.”
“I want to go patrolling with Saber artist again.”
Saber was singing, Shield City Guards, we make it right. All the cadets say hi! All the cadets say go… stop.
“Totally get it. This karaoke thing? Look into that.”
“Oh and I forgot, I didn’t show you the Pegasus challenge! Tomorrow!”
***
I walked down Main Street with Saber Artist. The small shops continued for a couple of blocks.
"I'm going to try both. I'm not going to let go of the farming idea, but Song Scroll has really encouraged me to try to explore and find my thing," I said.
"You can have more than one. Sherriff, fencing aficionado. Did you know, when I was a kid I wanted to be a mail pony?"
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