twilightpony | Nine For Supper

Moondancer had stayed overnight and we got up early for tea and hay on toast for breakfast before she caught the morning train back to Canterlot. We made arrangements to meet up and go shopping for books in Canterlot three days from now.

Yesterday I left off at where we were fixing to make our way back to Ponyville and an evening supper cooked by Spike. We put back the books we'd pulled off the shelves, which isn't easy when you keep seeing yet another book you'd like to read. (I could have brought Owlowiscious, but then he usually sleeps during the day.) Eventually we each had a small pile of books we were borrowing and everything else had been re-shelved. We bid farewell to the castle, crossed the plank bridge and headed back through the Everfree in the evening light.

We were the last to arrive at the Treecastle. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already sitting at the table and getting served soup by Spike. Pinkie knew we'd almost arrived. Zecora, Moondancer and I drew up our cushion chairs and sat down to Spike's pumpkin sesame soup. Spike had prepared bowls of fresh chopped alfalfa to sprinkle on top of the soup, and we passed these around. Yellow-orange soup and green bits, very colorful, and tasty.

We talked of the expedition and of Moondancer's paper on her findings, to be published in the prestigious Journal of Cultural Equinology and Magic, pending approval of her third draft revision. These things usually go through a few revisions, the peer reviewers are pretty picky.

Moondancer had not understood to what degree Friendship was key to the strength of the Hearth's Warming spell. In Winter's compelled dream state she was goaded to anger and away from the cheer she needed to feed the spell. It flickered and waned, it was never strong enough. With each passing day the spell was ebbing, fading down to that small spark that was all Moondancer could maintain by the time we had arrived. Friendship is my area of expertise. That gave me an edge, and my friends gave me the power we needed. All the other, smaller exploration and research parties were doomed the moment they set hoof (or paw) into Winter's grotto.

We were lucky that we had surprised Winter with our strength. It gave us time to free all the explorers and to recruit them into feeding more cheer into the spell. Had Winter hammered us as he had on our trek home, we'd still be trapped there.

Spike kept the food coming, all very delicious, except the cheese quesadillas. Quel horreur. Pinkie and Spike ate those. For dessert there was apple pie and Spike had found a large tub of dandelion and daisy ice cream. A last taste of summer, frozen but still fresh. An analog to our most recent adventure.