Bramble Rose

Sweetie Belle's face grew awed as the little chick hopped onto her head, her eyes rolling up as if she could see right into her mane where the little yellow fluffball was nestled into the thick pink-and-purple curls. She breathed slowly, scared of distrubing the chick, or hurting it, or making it fall off. "Oh, yes," she whispered. "I'd *love* to feed the chicks!" Her voice was quiet, but urgent, sharing her excitement at this task, but hopefully without distrubing the sweet lil' baby bird. "You really think I can?" Her little hooves fell one after the other in a slow pattern as she tried to follow after Apple Bumpkin ... this was like Rarity's deportment lessons, where she had to carry a book around on her head! But so much more important!

Rainbow Dash paused. Rarity wasn't supposed to accept! But she supposed she had walked into that one. And it was only fair - Rarity had just helped her, so she should help Rarity, right? But ... she couldn't just disappear for the rest of the day without letting the others know! They might be waiting for her! And Rarity's compliments made her uncertain, a red flush spreading over her cheeks. She was a daredevil, she didn't care about looking 'fetching,' she cared about looking *awesome*! ... right? "OK, well, first I have to go ... um ... tell my friend what I thought of. And then I can come right on back and help you out, promise! Will that work for you?" She gave a big innocent grin, a little "wheeeee" sounding in the background.

We'll be delighted to have you, Appliance! Your turn in Tropical Stylings, and of course if you wanted to join in Manehattan, we'd love to have you in one of the two Art Show threads!

Sweetie Belle blinked in surprise as her face was patted with a little puff of cloud, which .... pretty much felt like nothing but a tuft of cool dampness. Which was nice! She smiled sweetly up to the pegasus who was helping her, trying not to sniffle or cry too much. That really hurt! "Thank you," she said softly. Then he gave her the puff of cloud, so that he could go take off after the tiara. She watched helplessly as the cloud dissolved in her hooves, lacking the innate pegasus magic to be able to touch clouds without scattering them. And, of course, Diamond Tiara was yelling at her... Sweetie Belle let out a soft sigh... her lower lip trembling, and not entirely from the scratches, and followed after everypony else more slowly - not so much to catch the tiara as to go back to Ponyville and try to find somepony with a bandage she could use...

Purple Haze was, of course, glad that her brother liked her cooking - but he was her brother, he was required to like it! He seemed to think she couldn't cut carrot sticks without making them tastier! She was worried, however, about Dawn's reaction. He was eating very slowly, almost reluctantly, and his jaw seemed set ... he seemed almost ... upset! "If'n ye dinnae loik it," she said, nervous, a little sad, looking up to the colt with big eyes, "Ye dinnae need tae eat it all... Oi've some other nibbles ye kin eat instead... did Oi put too much spices in? Is th' garlic tae strong? Oi dinnae use enough sauce, is that it?" It never occured to her that he'd be grinding his teeth about anything else - after all, he said he wanted to help ponies, and that's what knights did!

Doctor Whooves frowned a bit. Oh, man... she hadn't forgotten it after all. "Really? I would have thought not living was more important than not dying..." he gave a little shrug. "Interesting philosophical topic, at any rate..." He doubted he would be able to distract her from the topic of romance. It always did sneak up on him when the mares fell in love with him... "I brought food with me, of course! Can never be sure where your next bit of nibbles is going to come from. Always prepared, that's me." He took a deep breath. "Wasn't really thinking of a *romantic* dinner ... I mean... " He paused, awkwardly. "Look, Trixie, you and I, we've just met ... I mean, it was only like, a week ago that you came by and picked up your stuff from my place. I don't know, um ... if a relationship between you and me would work out, just yet? Why don't we just, you know ... take our time, and be friends first, and see what happens from there? You might be reacting more to the fact that I'm dashing and handsome and very, very clever, and ever-so-heroic, instead of true love..." He gave an awkward little grin. "Don't want to rush into things, right?"

Honestly don't know. It's been so hard to get ponies to post into the event that I'm kinda letting things run ... as they will. Considering that the full show in Gallopocus hasn't been moving at all, and the Art Show's been slow, i'm hesitant to try to set a time to start the Manehattan show. I'd rather let the Gallopcus show make some movement first, before even trying to plan out how to make more threads.

There was, in fact, a party for the models and fashion designers to meet and mingle. It's the Ponywalk Luau event threads. Right now there's the Ponywalk Art Show threads going on, for mingling. Theoretically, the actual Ponywalk Gallopocus event is still going on .... but it kinda died just a little... You're not too late to join! You can write up a review of the Gallopocus event if you want, and join in at the Art Show in Manehattan!

Bramble Rose gives a soft laugh. "I'm not sure I'd term Manehattan 'quaint' - I think it's the biggest city in Equestria. Certainly the center of all business in Equestria! I'm afraid I'm not from around here, so I can't give you as good a tale as you gave me for your own home, but I did get here a few days ago and have been touring the city since!" Bramble brightened up as he got a chance to talk about his touring - travel, after all, was the whole reason he'd started this modelling tour in the first place! "The Manehattan Park holds one of the finest gardens in Equestria, second only to the Castle Gardens in Canterlot! Its selection of plantlife isn't as exotic or varied as the gardens I visited in the Gallopocus, but the layout is so much more open and mixes natural beauty with sculpted planning... a balance between order and chaos that is just so beautiful. One wouldn't think you could call a field of grass a 'garden', but when it's worked in amongst all the flower beds and climbing vines, the gorgeous maze of smooth stone walls and intricate ironwork, it acts to cleanse your visual palate before you move on to more of the brilliant colors!" He grinned eagerly. "And the architecture! Well, I don't need to tell you that the tallest building in Equestria is here, too! If you came by airship, you probably docked up there! It's not quite as impressive to be high up for me - not having grown up in Canterlot, which hangs out off of the side of a mountain - but to think of the ponypower that went into building that incredible sky-dock, well!" He was certainly getting into the swing of it, grinning eagerly - every inch the excited tourist. "And the food! I've never seen so many types of food! Itailian diners, which I'll be eager to compare to the real thing when we reach your homeland, and big floppy pizzas with all sorts of vegetables loaded on them! And little carts cooking up vegetables in a dozen different ways on every street corner! Little portable ovens! It's wonderful! There's even specialty restaurants for Gryphons and the like!" He gave a soft laugh, and tried to moderate his speech. "Sorry. *^_^* I've never done much travel before, and it's all very exciting to me!" He only belatedly wondered if perhaps he should have kept just a little bit of the careful reserve he'd tried to cultivate last show - but no. He had to be himself... he wasn't a professional model like he was pretending last time - and he had no desire to let anyone put two and two together! especially not the designer who had been only feet away from him the entire time he'd been getting made up!

Well, in our thread, I was waiting for our third to respond ... but I'm about ready to skip past that and just post.

Rainbow Dash flitted over the group as they walked into the fair, pondering the problem. "Hey, Spike, course I don't mind! I'm Rainbow Dash! And Rainbow Dash never lets down her friends!" She grinned happily. "I know *just* how to do this! I've got it all planned out! Trust me, Rarity won't have a clue what's actually happening!" She tapped her hoof to her forehead and then lifted up into the air, darting off in the general direction of the Carousel Boutique. (( Splitting off to this thread at Halide's request: back in a few rounds with the results of Rainbow Dash's 'genius idea' ! ))

Sweetie Belle's eyes opened up really wide at seeing that *adorable* little fluffy yellow chick! Sure, she'd seen chickens before, but they'd all been grown up ... none of them had been nearly as sweet and cute as that lil' fluffball! She hadn't really expected to see anything new, here ... after all, she hung out with Apple Bloom at Sweet Apple Acres all the time, but she couldn't think of having ever seen such a cute lil' fuzzy chick before, and tucked away in the kerchief like that! Well, it was just too much! Sure, she'd failed to get her cutie mark for chicken wrangling, but maybe those chickens had just been too old! She hurried forward to smile brightly up to Apple Bumpkin. "Hello there, Miss Bumpkin! Do you remember me? Can I see that chick? Oh my *gosh* she's so adorable! I've never handled a chick before, could you teach us how? Maybe that'll be my cutie mark, taking care of chicks! Then I can help you here at Apple Valley, taking care of chicks!"

Silk Scarf felt her cheeks turn a bit pink at Maximilian's flirting and his wink and everything. She glanced over Max's shoulder to Glitzen Glamour ... wasn't it about time for the business? "Well, darling" she said to Max, "I'd dare say one mustn't stop. Quite hard to get going again afterwards! but one can ... coast, a bit. Like when you're pulling a wagon up a hill, and you get to the top, and goign down you almost feel you could just hop into the wagon and let it go by itself. You keep your hooves on the ground, though, but just spring along, letting the wagon push you! That's rather fun. And then, when you hit the next hill, you just keep going, and that bit of fun makes things easier for a while, and you just cruise on up the first half of that hill. And when you're up near the top, and you lost that momentum, and you're struggling hard, then part of what keeps you going is looking forward to the bit of fun you have waiting on the way down the other side!" She giggled softly, and quickly amended that, "Not that I do a lot of wagon pulling, but it seems like a good way to explain it, doesn't it? I'm not much of a poet, I'm afraid. I suppose, darling, that what you said is true. The party helps you refresh and have fun, and makes tomorrow easier... and you can keep going to look forward to the next party, where you get to dance again!" She gives a firm nod. "Dancing through life is a lot better than trudging through, and either way you get where you're going."

Rainbow Dash grimaced a little as Rarity went on about Spike's gift. Yeah, that was certainly the gift to beat - Spike had been right about that. She let out a soft sigh. Ponyfeathers! Why was Rarity being so difficult about this? Was it that hard to come up with a gift that you'd want? Rainbow Dash could easily list off, like, a dozen things she wanted! Well, sorta. Gifts, yeah, but nothing like ... for Hearts and Hooves, she supposed. She tapped thoughtfully at her chin, chewing on her lower lip as she tried to run over Rarity's words in her mind. "Man," Dash groaned, "Is Hearts and Hooves always this hard?" Being a wingmare was way harder than Dash had thought it'd be. As much as she had a fan club and everything, as much as she'd bragged to Spike, she'd never really gotten anything for Hearts and Hooves, or had a special somepony. Even if Rarity admitted that a practical gift wasn't romantic ... that ruby was still a practical gift - she'd used it in her art. She made it into some gorgeous piece. And Rarity wanted something beautiful? But all the most beautiful things in town were made by Rarity! Even Rainbow Dash knew you couldn't give someone a gift that they'd made themselves! Rainbow Dash was really starting to fret. She was going to let everyone down again... she'd gone through all this, and she still didn't have a clue! What was she going to do? What was she going to - With a faint 'ding', the light went on for Dash, her wings flaring with a 'poomf' as inspiration hit. Only Rarity could make things beautiful enough for Rarity! Her face lit up with excitement. "Oh! Oh, that's it!" she cried happily, and even pranced in place with the excitement that the idea brought to her. "Oh, oh, oh! Thanks, Rarity! I think I figured it out!" She moved forward to give Rarity a quick, impulsive hug, grinning eagerly. "You're the best, Rarity!" she said, with absolute sincerity, then moderated it with a quick, teasing, "Well, right after me, anyway!" She turned quickly to leave, half-opening the door, then paused and looked back over her shoulder. "Ummm ... do you need my help with anything?" she asked. "Cause ... y'know I'm always there for ya! Even if I look goofy in half those outfits ya put me in!"

The forest of pine trees can stay snow-covered. The desert and the grassy hills can be cleared.

Doctor Whooves blinked in surprise, looking over to Trixie. "Didn't I mention that?" he asked, rather with a tone of wonder. "I was certain I had. Strange, usually I have such a good memory ... " He thought for a few more moments, then shrugged helplessly. "Ah well, it all worked out for the best, anyway! Can't let little things like dying possess your mind too much. Keeps you from the important stuff!" He thought for a few moments more. "I really feel like some apple slices. And custard. That'd be good. What do you think?" Thank goodness, she'd gotten distracted from her little crush on him. That had been getting really awkward!

Far away, on the far side of the long room, and round several corners, the two guards looked up in surprise at the far off echoes of noise. "Oh, hey, busy day, isn't it? Wonder who's visiting now.." "Shut up, you. You ever hear even a novice Librarian make that much noise?" "No, not really, man, they must be clumsy! Ha-ha!" The older mare looked down at him in disbelief. "Wait ... you mean they're intruders?!" the younger, awkward stallion said in eager surprise, his voice cracking on the last word. "Should we go stop them?!" "What we do is wait here till they come to us. We have our station. Honestly, next thing you'll be chasing off after a pebble clacking on the floor up the side stacks there and leave the entrance unguarded! Besides, they have yet to solve the maze - do you want to end up leading them through it?" She shook her head. The idiots the order brought in these days...

Sweetie Belle smiled to Dusk with relief. "I'm sure you will not be disappointed!" she assured him, then nodded with a perky little grin to Apple Bumpkin. "I'll be right back with a bit of apple juice for you, then!" she said happily, and turned to head back to the kitchen, but as she turned, there was Prince Blueblood! A quick smile brightened Sweetie Belle's face, and she quickly pulled out her little notebook and picked up her pencil. She flipped over a page and smiled up to Prince Blueblood. "Would 10 AM be late enough for you, your Highness?" she asked brightly. "That would give enough time for you to let your appointment run long and still not cut into your lunch!"

Sugarcubes! Sugarcubes?! Carrot would certainly have recognized the growing stormcloud boiling round the lil' filly, as she swelled up with indignation. Did he think she was just a lil' foal?! Sugarcubes indeed! Why, she'd give him a piece of her mind! Except that the one thing guaranteed to distract Purple Haze happened - someone asked her for the ingredients of one of her dishes! Her building tirade instantly vanished in an excited rush of words. "Aye, nae just carrots in'ere!" she confirmed merrily. "Oi've mainly got th' veggies from me own lil' garden out back! Oi've some standard carrots in'ere, an' some purple haze carrots, an' some tomatoes, 'cept tomatoes are fruits, an' got some potatoes in 'ere, an' some celery, an' some lettuce, an' a bit o' cress! Then Oi went tae town an' got some apples an' some green grapes tae add tae th' mix! Only neighbor Oi got any ingredients from was ye, Miss Applejack, th' other day!" She frowned, and tapped her hoof a few times against the floor, trying to count up what she said, but the words were already flitting away. Had she mentioned the celery? Yes, she thought so ... "Oi mighta missed listin' a couple things ... Oi usually sip at it an' add stuff till it tastes right. But ye've th' basic idea!"

Rainbow Dash glanced back over her shoulder from time to time, looking past her streaming rainbow tail to watch how Tobias was doing back there. He seemed a bit awkward in the air, and she circled around to watch him a bit. Her own wing felt sore, but fine - she couldn't imagine what he was going through. "Hey, you're gonna wear yourself out that way! You're flapping way too much! Don't worry about flying yet - just get back into the hang of gliding! You'll probably pull to the side a bit, so get used to that for a bit, first!"

That's the problem - it hasn't been wrapped up. The desert and surrounding hills are still covered in snow, Sweet Apple Acres still is half-covered in snow ... The only thing I've done whenever I logged in over the last few weeks was shovel snow and break ice. if someone starts handing me snow blocks and I don't see anything cleaned up around Ponyville, then no, I won't hand out rewards. the reason I'm being as generous as I am is because these two *are* the only two who helped me clean up. The ones who help out first get the best rewards.

ck12 chipped in to shovel a whole LOT of snow, turning in six whole stacks worth of snow blocks! For his efforts in helping the server, he was awarded: Iron Pickaxe of Unbreaking III, Fortune II, Efficiency III One stack of jungle saplings One bow of Infinity I, Power IV 16 powered rails One stack of bones And a music disc!

Rainbow Dash brightened at Rarity's enthusiastic declaration about the importance of following your heart. She forgot, briefly, why she was here, as her face just lit up. "Yeah, that's exactly it! How is it you and I are so different, but we keep thinkin' the same thing like that? 'cept you use the ten-bit words!" She laughed softly. "Never stop, never doubt," she declared, then lifted her hoof to punch the air. "Forward momentum!" She laughed softly, and shook her head. "Ideas for gifts? Oh, man, I don't even know. Someone suggested books ... and someone suggested flowers ... and someone suggested clothes ... " She laughs a bit. "Or apples, I'm sure!" She shook her head. "But I don't really have any ideas... I always thought this was a kinda stupid holiday. I never got any Hearts and Hooves gift, and I'm fine! But everypony makes such a big deal out of it." She rolled her eyes. "So, um ... my friend just isn't sure what to get. Just that it has to be something ... special. Something like... way, way awesome! At least 20% more romantic than anything else anypony ever got anypony! Which is why I'm here!" She rubbed her hoof over her chin thoughtfully. "Something to remind her of my friend ... like ... a photo? A signed photo? Or ... practical? Do practical gifts really work? I always thought that was one of those big mistake-gifts."