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Clarity writes up the events of the defeat and reform of Nightmare Moon, including the fact that her crown is apparently continuing to exist, and makes two copies - the original in personal notebook stash, one tucked into the back of "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide", and one sent to Princess Celestia via mailing spell with the suggestion that it could be published in its own volume especially if either Princess would care to add notes on the parts Clarity didn't personally witness.
And she sets about settling into Ponyville.
She learns her way around - here's where she can buy carrots and bunched dandelions and clover sprouts; here's where she can get a case for her crown and cases for everpony else's necklace so they don't have to wear them or leave them lying around loose; here's a shortcut between Guiding's house and the tower the twins live in together. This is when this little town wakes up in the morning and this is when everything closes at night. This is what her friends do all day: Cherry Cordial farms and looks after critters. Brightblaze tinkers with gadgets kind of singlemindedly (though she also flies). Silver Streak plays violin and and reads and wanders around looking at things. Guiding Star does fortune-telling for spare bits and belongs to a dance group and volunteers for anything going on in town that could use amateur decorating (Joy is often with her when she does this). Joy also wanders around being sociable and helpful and cooks, itinerantly, for anypony who'll spare him kitchen space.
And Clarity learns the organizational system of the library, with Blueberry's considerable help, and she studies and explores.
And when she's been in residence for just shy of a week, she gets a letter from the Princess, which contains six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. Aww, that's thoughtful. Clarity's never been before.
She goes out to see which of her friends she'll run into first if she takes a meandering path through town.
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allcomplete
ipso-amore
"Great! Then sure, you can come along."
She loads up the muffins into a basket, which she balances on her back with earth pony ease, and then she sets off.
She loads up the muffins into a basket, which she balances on her back with earth pony ease, and then she sets off.
ipso-amore
"Various things that they eat, or nothing if they prefer to get their own food."
allcomplete
"Makes sense. What kinds of things live around Ponyville, anyway?"
ipso-amore
"Hummingbirds, butterflies, bats - fruit bats especially; they have a whole section of the old apple orchard to themselves - bears, mice, squirrels, beavers, raccoons, bunnies... that's most of the common things. Plus a few hawks and an eagle."
ipso-amore
"Yeah, before my family moved here, it was called Sweet Apple Acres. Crash started planting cherry trees before I was born, and helped them along with magic, and now the working parts are mostly cherries except for the zap-apples and one regular apple field that had some of the best trees. But the west orchard was full of fruit bats when we got here and it seemed like a waste to chase them out, so we just let them have it."
ipso-amore
"They're a kind of magic apple. The zap-apple trees bear fruit at unpredictable times, and you have to get it all off the trees in a single day or the remaining apples just disappear, but they make the most amazing jam if you know the recipe. Which we do."
allcomplete
"I didn't know there were magic apples. How unpredictable is unpredictable?"
ipso-amore
"There's no pattern to it at all, you just have to pay attention to the signs so you know when to get ready for the harvest - they usually don't grow during winter, but it's been known to happen."
allcomplete
"I'd like to see them, if there's enough time to let ponies know when they're coming."
ipso-amore
"You can even help with the next harvest, if you want! We usually hire anypony who wants to help, because we'd never be able to get it done with only the two of us."
allcomplete
"Sounds like fun! Especially if they don't, I don't know, explode when levitated; I'm not nearly coordinated enough to buck a tree."
allcomplete
"Good, I wouldn't be much help if they did. Unless exploding them is part of the jam recipe."
ipso-amore
"The jam recipe is admittedly pretty weird, but it doesn't involve explosions. Ooh, there he is! Hey, Seb!"
She waves to the raccoon, then comes up alongside the sign so he can climb it and jump onto her back from there. He grabs a muffin from the basket and starts nibbling on it as Cordy keeps walking.
She waves to the raccoon, then comes up alongside the sign so he can climb it and jump onto her back from there. He grabs a muffin from the basket and starts nibbling on it as Cordy keeps walking.
allcomplete
"Hi, Seb," echoes Clarity. "What's weird about the jam recipe?"
ipso-amore
"I think the part that stands out the most is painting polka dots all over the kitchen."
ipso-amore
"Beats me. Something about the magic. Makes a noticeable difference, though - no-polka-dot batches have less kick, and the colours aren't as bright."
allcomplete
"I am really curious about the technical functionality of this magic apple and will probably not be much help actually harvesting them after all, I'm going to be magically poking them if you'll let me."
ipso-amore
"You can go look at the trees anytime you want when they're not bearing ripe fruit. When they are bearing ripe fruit, I'd rather you help harvest if you're going to be on the field at all. But if you want to buy some zap-apples to magically poke, or even grow your own zap-apple trees somewhere that's not the main zap-apple field so you can experiment on them in peace, I won't stop you."