Negligent, inattentive, apathetic, lethargic, tardy, torpid, thoughtless, shiftless, feckless, careless, aberrant, injudicious, unstable, irrational, and "A stupid, mean, bad teacher." Before that last one, I quite honestly had to start consulting my CCMI's on-board dictionary application to understand exactly what Dawnstar has been calling me this whole season. I can feel her pain. I have had quite a few similar thoughts about Celestia when it came to how I felt about her lessons. I simply believe I happened to express my thoughts with a bit more grace than Dawnstar has shown. Perhaps I am a "stupid, mean, bad teacher," but that is not my problem. Not until I am back in my position.

Allow me to explain: I have taken the season to recuperate after the repeated difficulties of my position as Development Coordinator here in Songring. Last spring's transgressions left me in a very poor state: Having to witness Riverscar's misfortune and inform her of Glory's unfortunate demise; having to then dismiss her to go for some help with recovery; and lastly, having to say goodbye to someone I had come to enjoy as a friend and a reminder that not everything has to be as difficult as I make it.

I had to give up little Hyacinth.

When the time came for Inutile and Riverscar to head back to their family in Stalliongrad, Hyacinth came into my office. I did not realize she had entered at first, as my face was turned down. I was drafting up the paperwork that I thought might be necessary to give to Riverscar and Inutile allowing for the transfer of the bodies at a later date for proper burial in their home town, instead of remaining in the tombs here at Songring. I was quite upset as I reviewed the documentation, and was only called out of it by the sound of my door slamming shut with a grunt of effort from Hyacinth, who was too weak to gently close the heavy door of my office. She had one of her stuffed toys in her mouth, which struck me as curious because she was holding the plush toy image of Flip the Unicorn, instead of the Gi doll that I was used to seeing her tote around. I watched her for a bit, waiting for her to speak to me, while I tried my damndest to wipe away the grimness that lingered in my features from my work.

She wandered up to my desk (needing to stand on her hind legs and prop herself against the top of it for her face to still be visible to me), and set the doll down before me gently. It took her a few tries to reposition Flip so that the doll stood upright and looked at me before Hyacinth was satisfied. It was then that she looked at me in earnest, but I could see she was trying to be strong and hide what I could perceive to be a bitter sadness. "You've gotta make a promise."

With that I set down my pen and folded my hands across my desk, observing the filly's peculiarity. "What promise is that, Hyacinth?"

The violet pelted pony across from me then did her best to slide the velvet toy across the desk without toppling it, asserting that she meant for me to take it. "Momma and Dad say that we're going to go back to live with Gramma for a while. They say that you can't come with us... and that I can't stay." She bit her lip then, doing her best to hide a small snivel and whispering to herself, from what I could hear, that big girls like Flip don't cry. "So I'm gonna make you promise that you're gonna let Gi see his friend again someday."

I reached out to gently accept the toy as Hyacinth watched, and I began to pet the thin yarn mane beneath the bright red hat in thought. I was choked up, unable to answer her as I looked down at the embroidered eyes of the doll and the gentle smile stitched onto its muzzle.

"You've gotta take good care of her, Mr. Ben. Mr. Bullion would be really upset if you let anything happen to her... and I wouldn't forgive you." Tapping her hoof against the desk to get me to look up again, her brow was set low as she steeled herself to tell me once again, "You have to promise."

As much as I dreaded to say it, I felt my head shift in a nod and I uttered for her. "I promise, Hyacinth. I'll take good care of Flip and bring her back to Gi someday."

Hyacinth approved of my answer, but uneasily glanced around from across my desk, unsure of how to leave. It seemed that she decided to simply silently walk away, turning away from me, and trudging back towards the closed door. Halfway across my office she began to whimper, and I was sure she would not make it to the door without breaking down.

"Is that all you wanted while you were here? Is there anything else you wanted to tell me, Hyacinth?" I offered, giving her the chance to let it out as I stood up from my desk to approach her. As soon as I knelt beside her on the floor, her front legs leapt from the ground and circled around my neck, trying to speak through quieted sobs.

"I'm gonna miss you, Mr. Ben."

I stroked her head and waited for her to calm down before informing her that I would feel the same way. "I'll miss you too. I promise that this is for the best, so we will both just have to be strong and accept that we will see each other again someday."

"I don't wanna be strong, I wanna stay here," she told me, still upset and hiding her face in my shirt.

I wanted her to stay here too. So badly did I want her to stay here so I could ensure that she got the care and the attention she needed. It simply could not be though. I, myself, do not have the time or means to care for a child, and it is no longer safe here for her. I would rather lose her to the safety of another city than chance losing her to tragedy here. The most I could do for now was just to try to keep my promise. I waited for Hyacinth to get it out of her system and release me. We both agreed that we would not say goodbye, as it would break our promise of reuniting the Cavaliers.

Another promise for me to keep... I really have to stop making those.

It was a few days after they had left that I received another caller to my little cubbyhole, which I had begun to recluse myself in. I had been refusing to leave my bedroom, dining, and office space at the time, most days lacking the will to even get out of my bed. I believe it was a Sunday when I slept for about nineteen hours, and was only awake long enough to look out of my window, hand Dawnstar a few work orders, eat something halfheartedly, and go back to bed. The day that I received a visitor, I was drawing on a piece of parchment idly, simply wasting the hours pointlessly with my Flip doll propped up on my desk next to me. The intruder did not immediately call my name, merely silently watched me from the doorway and waited for me to look up. I soon grew irritated that they would not simply assert whatever they wished to tell me and leave me to my own devices, but that soon faded when I realized it was Silence, her pelt wet from having just washed herself after coming out of the mines. "What is it?"

"It's Monday and getting rather late, Benjamen. Tall Tale and Smoke Stack are wondering if you will show up today to oversee the smelting," she telepathically informed me, curiosity and concern lighting her features as she approached my desk.

"No, I won't be showing up. We can miss a day of smelting. Not like the investors will know the difference anyways."

Silence shot me a glance as she looked away from my doodles, one brow rising warily. "Then you will be ready tomorrow for the smelting?"

I did not answer her at that time, knowing well enough that I probably would not be up to the task then either. I let the quiet drag on, until something shocking caught my attention. I felt the sensation of lips pressed against mine, and of a warm breath passing over the front of my face and across my cheeks. Startled, I looked up to see what was happening and saw that Silence was still across the desk from me, watching me with worry outlining her face, her horn softly glowing with a familiar aura.

"Please stop, Ben."

That is all I heard at the time, causing me to catch my breath and readjust myself as I came to grips with the fact that there was no one close enough to me to touch me in that way. That it was merely a figment of my imagination. Or that it was merely... sentiment, perhaps? "Stop what? I'm not doing anything at all recently, so I have stopped pretty much everything that I can."

"I don't want to lose you," I heard, prompting me to look up from studying my hands that lay folded on my desk. "You're slipping. Please stop... please, let somepony help you."

"I can't just stop, Silence. I've still got lots of stuff that needs my attention. Important things. Things that it is my duty to see through." I was muddled, unable to compose a compelling argument. I resigned myself to just rubbing my face and closing my eyes for a bit to try to regroup. That is when I felt arms wrap around my shoulders as though someone grasped me affectionately from behind, and I looked up to see Silence's horn glowing a bit more brightly as she continued to watch me.. "What do you expect me to do? Just drop everything and stop working? Stop being Development Coordinator?"

"How long have you been doing this?"

Looking at my hands again to begin counting, and flipping back through the pages of this journal to view the dates, I finally came to agree on the number of four years. I have been acting as Development Coordinator of Songring for four years now. I'm 19? Two years on Terriel has passed already? While I was even more befuddled as I tried to grasp the concept of time having passed so much since I first opened this journal, Silence took the chance to explain her point to me.

"In four years, I have only known you to take one day off a season for the specific reason of writing in that journal. Benjamen... you need to stop. Please take a bit to clear your head. We're so close to losing you to the one thing we cannot save you from. Will you at least consider it?"

"How am I just going to drop what I'm doing and take a break, Silence? I hate to say it, but I am the brain of the organism known as Songring. Without my guidance, I shudder to think what will become of it."

"Perhaps we could get a temporary brain to replace you?"

"Oh really? Who could that possibly be? Salmon will turn it into some sort of old-world recreation as he reminisces about how things used to be back in his day. Springfield would have us all picking weeds and trimming bushes. Absinthe is a goddamn Bartender. If I really wanted to just stop, I could hand the reigns over to Willow! At that point, we could all just watch Songring go up in flames, and not feel a bit of guilt knowing that it could not have possibly been our fault that he crashed it into the ground. Who could you possibly present to me to take my place while I was off smelling roses and lying about in hammocks or whatever else you would suggest?"

"Mr. Prodder, I came to request your presence at the mines. The smelting is far behind schedule, and you had mentioned wanting to get more silver ingots cast for Onyx Culet and Teardrop to use for rings and jewelry."

My question was answered then as Dawnstar walked through the door with Songring's roster (now considered to be her own personal notepad), floating in front of her, quickly marking the page in frantic swipes with a quill while she wrote and walked.

"... You do it then," I told her as I picked up my Flip doll and retrieved my journal, nodding to Silence who beamed in relief to lead the way. "It's settled. You're in charge, Dawnstar. I'm heading out. My vacation starts now."

"What?" gawked Dawnstar as she mumbled a few more questions uncertainly while I walked past her and towards the door. "What do you mean by that?"

"Did I stutter? You: Development Coordinator. Me: On vacation. Need me to write it down for you too?"

"You... you can't do that! You can't just walk away and go on vacation! You have to stay here in Songring! R-remember? You're on probation!" she stammered in disbelief as I continued to try to walk away, rushing into the hall after me to grab me by the shoulders and halt my leaving.

"Aw, hell, you're right! I can't leave Songring! Well, guess I'll vacation here then. Nice forestry, a beautiful river, and colorful folks. It sounds like a pretty nice place to relax."

"That's not what I meant, Mr. Prodder!"

"Too bad."

"What are you going to do!?"

"Whatever I feel like. I'm on vacation! Perhaps I should write up a work order requesting one of those floral pattern shirts to lounge in. Oh wait! That's your job now! Well, hop to it; my ensemble isn't getting anymore leisurely while we prattle away here."

"This has to be the most half-brained, nonsensical, irrational thing I have ever witnessed you suggest, Mr. Prodder!"

"Damn, it is, isn't it? Well good thing I'm not in charge then. Who knows what would happen if someone as irresponsible as me was left to watch over everyone here in Songring? I guess that's why you're Development Coordinator then! Glad to have you here. Maybe you should think of this as a learning experience?"

Dawnstar had a few more choice things to call me as I walked out of the apartment halls. It devolved into her screaming at me while I wandered through the fields of Songring with my doll and my journal still tucked under my arm. I wondered to myself where I would spend my first day on vacation.

"I'm glad you saw reason, Benjamen," Silence projected to me with a pleased smile, stepping close to brush her nose against my shoulder and let me know how happy she was, "How about you just take your seat back when autumn comes?"

So I have done just that. This whole season has been spent with me taking what almost everyone here considers to be a well-deserved rest. Days on the Charmedsmile next to Salmon as he spins tales of the days when he was exploring the jungles of the Summersail Hotlands with a band of tourists that got stranded when their hot air balloon ran aground, nights in the dining hall getting to listen to songs and drunken bets, mornings speaking with Absinthe as she readies the ice and cleans the dishes, and afternoons wandering about with absolutely nothing to concern myself with.

Is this what it is like for the rest of the settlers here? I wish I could always be one of them.

I happen to be a poor influence on some of the residents it seems, as one day Maple came to see me while I was resting in a lawn chair that I had Willow make me when he lost a bet. (I told him he could not lick his own elbow. I will admit that it was a bit dishonest of me, but when he took my bet, I informed him that what he was licking was his knee, and that he did not have an elbow. Thus, he could not possibly lick his own elbow.)

"Hey there, my little bossman. What's with the getup?"

She must have been referring to the floral pattern button-up shirt and the pants, which I had cut the legs off of to make shorts, that I was wearing. I looked down from my wooden mug and shrugged. "I thought this was the universal sign of a vacationer. Do I look "chill"?"

"You look pretty tasteless, but not sure about chill. What do you mean vacation? Is that why Dawnstar's been handing out all the work orders this week?"

"How to define vacation... Noun: An extended period of recreation. To put it more in your words, however: Not working."

"Hey!" she raised her voice at me indignantly. "How come you get to slack off then? Why don't I get to take a vacation? Every time I try to take an “extended period of recreation”, you jump all over my ass and tell me to get back to work." Folding her legs in front of her, she tapped her hoof on her shoulder to await my answer.

"... Why don't you take a vacation?" I asked her back, raising a brow questioningly.

"... Is that okay with you?" she requested, cocking her head warily.

"Pfft, I don't care," I chuckled, "I'm not in charge! Do whatever you want. It's not my problem!"

"Fine, then move over not-bossman. I'm starting my vacation right now." With that she spread her wings out and reclined in my lounge chair next to me, prepared to waste the rest of the day with me on the banks of the Charmedsmile underneath the summer sun.

Needless to say, Dawnstar finding us lounging together was not something that set well with her. "Maple! I requested that you haul some logs to the carpentry workshop hours ago. Willow says he has yet to receive a single log and has instead entertained himself by seeing how fast he can get tank calves to roll down the mountainside. Do you have an explanation for this?"

"Yeah, Willow's just a colt in a moron's body. What does that have to do with me?" Maple retorted, pulling her leg away from her eyes to shoot Dawnstar a glance.

"How fast can they roll?” I asked curiously.

"Fairly quickly, Mr. Prodder. Your little Abeo clocked in at roughly ten miles per hour at the base of the mountain." Shaking her head after answering my stupid question, she returned to barking at Maple. "He would not be torturing the young pets of Songring if you had followed my instructions and gave him the means to be a productive worker instead of a delinquent. What are you doing here?"

"I'm on vacation!"

Dawnstar slapped her hoof to her nose at that and screwed her eyes shut with a growl. "Vacation!? Not you too! Maple, stop this insolence right now and get back to work, or else I will have to reprimand you!"

"What kind of reprimand are we talking about here?" Maple asked, nudging me in the side to try to get me to listen in. Her cheeky grin made me wonder if she was just pushing her luck as far as she could now.

"I... you... I'll have you fired! You'll be sent home: that's what kind of reprimand I'm talking about!" Dawnstar barked, stamping her hoof angrily.

"Can you fire me?" Maple asked quizzically.

"Can I fire you? Well of course I can! I can fire you... can't I, Mr. Prodder?" Dawnstar directed the latter to me, pleading for some confirmation.

"Can you fire her, Dawnstar?" I asked back.

"I don't know! Can I?" she began to shout.

"Can she?" Maple piped in.

"Shit, I don't know, I'm not the Development Coordinator here," I finally admitted, once again putting my arm over my eyes to block out the sun and try to drift back into a sunbathed nap. It was difficult to relax hearing Dawnstar as she threw her head back and gave an infuriated roar, but I still managed to ignore her complaints about my lack of assistance until she wandered back to the apartment halls to check on something that she claimed was of the utmost importance.

I also was rather unhelpful in handling a scene in the dining hall at a later time. Lunch was being served as I watched from the bar, drinking more juice from my masterwork wooden mug. What caught my eye was Maple and Daggersides sitting at the same table, one of which was enjoying the power of no longer having me act as the law in this place. Maple anchored a bit of mashed potato on a spoon and held the tip under her hoof until she stressed the metal. She then released the projectile, watching as the lump of buttered spud flicked past and whizzed over Daggerside's face as she was trying to eat. Another blob of starchy goodness soon sailed over in Daggerside's direction and splattered against the table next to her food while the unicorn continued to ignore the invasion. It was not until the third one smeared itself all over Daggerside's nose that she finally looked up and snapped at Maple. "What are you doing, you boozed-up floozy?"

"Trying to land one in your mouth, Daggersides. Putting food in piggy's trough the old fashioned way is just so boring, so figured I'd spice it up. Now hold still, I think I've almost got it." Maple responded, closing one eye as she readjusted her aim.

"You better cut it out, you worthless little sponge, before I-" Her threat was cut short as the wad of whisked vegetable shot right into her open mouth, causing her to gag and spit it out onto the table.

"Bull’s-eye."

"Oh that is it!" Daggersides screamed as she used her horn to toss not only the remainder of her meal, but also the contents of Willow's and Tye Dye's, who were sitting on either side of her. Maple's quick thinking let her duck beneath the cruising cuisine and scurry under the table, with a slightly drunken cackle. The three plates instead landed right against Salmon's back, causing him to bellow in surprise.

"Hey! I was eating that!" Willow shouted at Daggersides, reaching to his other side to grab hold of the pony's plate next to him and whip it around to slap her in the face with it. Particles of food exploded in all directions from the contact, causing Willow to laugh boisterously before he looked to his opposite side to see Springfield glaring at him for taking his plate. A gulp sounded from the carpenter as Springfield's own grasp reached for a loaf of bread and pulled it close, letting Willow know he had a three second head start. Like a bullet, the chocolate-colored stallion darted from his seat, trying to find somewhere to avoid the lilac farmpony, and scrambled over other patrons clumsily as he was being pursued.

Realizing that he had been clobbered in the back with the daily special, and that what was dripping down his sides was merely stew and not his blood , Salmon gave a cheery guffaw and slammed his own hooves against his plate, causing it to flip into the air and shower everyone around him in a cascade of consumables. It seemed he was the first to recognize the outburst for what it was, as his voice was the first I heard ring out those iconic words throughout the dining hall.

"Food fight!"

It was at this point, while projectile potatoes were being launched clear across the room, cake mortars were going off in an explosion of frosting and crumbs, and fencing duels with carrots and pickles raged around me, that Absinthe tapped me on the shoulder and chuckled heartily. "Well, Sweets, maybe you should do something about this? Looks like a good time and all, but aren't you worried about the waste this little scene is going to cause?"

"Why should I worry?" I responded as I leaned back and leisurely watched a cheese-coated bagel scream past me, "It's not my problem. I'm just an average Joe. Not like they'd listen to what I have to say."

Amused with my answer, Absinthe merely shrugged and rested her head on the bar next to me to watch, staying under the arc of incoming edibles. "Suit yourself then. If making your point is worth this much to you, then so be it. I won't be helping clean this up though."

"Dawnstar's problem," I reminded her.

"How devious," she admired in return.

Overcast dejectedly sat alone at a table as he repeatedly got hit with flying foodstuffs. A muffin ricocheted off of his nose, multiple globs of peanut butter and cream cheese splattered over his body and left him a sticky and matted mess, his sight was impaired by the chocolate syrup dripping down in front of his eyes, and vegetables of all kinds continued to assail him as he complained very softly and tried to keep his head low and continue eating. Teardrop approached him with her hoof covered in frosting and wiped it across his face with an amused giggle. His only response was to reach for his cheesecake and press it down on top of her head so that it squished around her ears and got stuck in her mane.

"Mon Dieu! What has happened?!" I heard someone exclaim as my eyes fell on the rather familiar, frighteningly buff, unicorn mare as she wandered up from the kitchen below. In her horn's grasp, she held a whisk and a kettle filled with some sort of viscous dessert that she was mixing. As she came up the stairwell, her surprised inquiry was answered by a handful of peas colliding with the side of her face, their juice splattering over her pristine pelt as she gasped for breath through the shock. The whole dining hall grew quiet as she looked around at the delicious destruction left in the wake of their battle, speechless and covered in peas. The peace did not last, however, as the whisk began to spin like a turbine and she shrieked her own battle cry into the crowd while slinging pudding around the room like flak. Julienne Spice had joined the fray, and was subduing the combatants with an onslaught of chocolate confection.

Laughing and clapping at the delightful show, I felt my head grabbed and shaken violently as someone tried to get my attention, shouting at me to help. "Mr. Prodder! They've all gone mad! I can't get them to stop! All of this waste, all of this mess, and they still will not stop!" Dawnstar pleaded with me to assist her, begging me to step in and make the madness end.

Looking back at the scene, Machina now held a makeshift launcher that rested in her hooves and back over her shoulder as she stood on a table and chortled insanely. A whole pie fired from the spring-loaded contraption and burst in a cloudberry shower that rained down over a whole squad of spud-armed soldiers. "Yes, this does seem to be a problem," I told Dawnstar, before picking up my journal and tucking it in my shirt to make sure it would stay clean. "Your problem that is. Not mine. I'm on vacation."

"What do I do though!? I can't make them stop!" Dawnstar shouted after me.

"Fight or run, the choice is yours!" I called back as I stepped out of the door, miraculously untouched. That was until Dawnstar exited behind me covered in pudding and stew, and I made the mistake of laughing at her. She head butted me in the chest and sent me to the ground with my shirt covered in a medley of mashed meals. It did not hurt, and only made me laugh harder as I watched her stumble back to the apartment halls to wait out the war. I believe Overcast has already begun engraving the tale of this epic battle on the outside of the dining hall for future settlers to enjoy.

I will be sad to give up my vacation next week, but I suppose it has been long enough now. This time off has been very therapeutic, and has helped me recover from the many terrors that we in Songring have endured most recently. I feel truly ready to take the burdens of leadership back. I will admit to feeling a bit bad about subjecting Dawnstar to the task of keeping such a difficult group of individuals under control, but I am hoping it taught her what she truly needs to start doing: Learning how to approach ponies. In every example, threats and commands rarely got her point across to the citizens of Songring. I feel that perhaps it is because she does not have their respect that they do not listen to her. I had hoped that this experience would help her learn how to earn the respect of others, but it seems she was not able to grasp the concept through trial and error. I will go over it with her personally at a later time.

I think overall it was a worthwhile learning experience for her, as now she should understand that just because things are not going your way does not mean that things are going to fall apart beneath you. True, our productivity was nearly 0% this past season, but that does not mean Songring will crumble. Things will have to be whipped back into shape, but this time I will include Dawnstar in the process.

I do hope she has learned something though. All this relaxation was taxing to endure while she was earning leadership experience.