Double Diamond: From the time I coached Parcly with skiing in South Korea, I could tell that she isn’t accustomed to having swathes of snow around her despite Spindle at her side. I think it may be her initial struggle with the windigo and her home street in Canterlot, which is the same street leading to Celestia’s and Luna’s castle that is magically kept snow-free during winter.
 
Parcly Taxel: Swathes of snow were just what I got when I left the bed-and-breakfast. It was creaking softly under my hooves, exposing a thin film of firmer ice which melted soon afterwards. With daylight intensifying, this metamorphosis proceeded to transform my surroundings into a more comfortable scene - first the streets where carriages ran, then the pavements and finally the buildings. Yes, Diamond, I have this problem with bright lights and loud sounds.
 
Saddlebags packed, I then galloped my way to Lake Toya, some 170 kilometres away on the smoothest route along Hokkaido’s southern coast. My clopping hooves were set against a wonderful backdrop of rural Japan: forested hills with leafless trees, snow-capped volcanos, wind turbines and solar panels all co-existing.
 
Spindle: It is well-known that ponies tend to settle more in coastal or valley regions and less in mountainous regions. Japan is a rather extreme example where “mountainous” is almost synonymous with “interior”, forcing all the agriculture onto its densely populated coasts. Parcly was going on a wide road between these two environments but closer to the hills, where she could feel breezes of clean air through her slightly open feathers.
 
Parcly: Mesmerised by the landscape, I did not notice the lake itself until reaching the eponymous town of Toyako. The lake, which lies in a caldera (a hole formed from the collapse of a volcano’s magma chamber), has never frozen over, which allows a ferry to operate year-round between its shore and a large island in its middle. (There are a few smaller islands.)
 
Spindle: This topography was made all too clear at lunchtime where Parcly received a rice bowl with a small egg yolk in its middle representing the islands, beef strips around it arranged as circling water currents. “They only make ten of these a day,” I noted.
 
“But this restaurant has so few diners that it’s plausible they might not reach the tenth bowl,” Parcly replied. “In fact, there’s only a trickle of ponies visiting any particular place here on a given day.” We walked to the lakeshore and saw our reflections, then glimpsed a small ice cream house…
 
Parcly: …at which I dashed to without prior notice. Foodwise, Hokkaido is known within Japan for its dairy products, with lots of milked cows, and those visiting the island may buy such products as a souvenir. After finishing two double-scoop cones (and with Spindle feeling like a fireplace), the sky was already midnight blue, so we pulled into a lakeside resort.
 
Spindle: Here then is one of Japan’s most treasured venues, the onsen (public bath). I only need to elaborate on one of the pools Parcly entered, which is semicircular with floating apples; the condensing mist and apple scent are therefore mixed together to mimic the smell of burning wood.
 
Parcly: When I settled down with my hooves on the bottom, I felt as if my lower body was subliming, ready to be pulled through my bottle’s long and sensual neck. As long as my eyes were open, I remained solid; as soon as I closed them and sat back, I lost all control.
 
Stimulatory magic coursed through all my tissues, tightening them as a black hole accretes matter into a disc. I did not give resistance, and the burden of thought left me as a rocket to space. Denser and lighter, denser and lighter, these opposing forces persisted, until I was fully immersed in my dreamscape.
 
Spindle: You’ve just given a complete and accurate description of the bottling process, which is amazing! Back to reality: although your bottle wasn’t around, you conjured it in the hot water and pulled yourself in, so I released you in the resort’s buffet dinner.
 
Parcly: Ah, that’s where my memory returns. It’s convention that an onsen session is followed by a meal, so I brought myself back to earth with multiple servings of tasty treats from all over the world, including Japan. I do have a very high metabolic rate like Twilight, though, so after I was finished I teleported back into my bed, where I felt the same tingling of my hind legs…