The summer breeze blew through Ponyville, lifting the spirits of everypony it touched, the sound of hooves on the hot cobble streets echoed all around as well as the sounds of splashing as many sought to escape the heat in the rivers and lakes, while others shopped and some dined at little cafes. Spearmint was doing her shopping, carrying her basket in her teeth and having her saddlebags on her sides. She was greeted by many ponies and waved to them in turn. Her last stop before heading home was Sugar Cube Corner. She entered and was greeted by Mr. Cake “hullo there Spearmint, tell me do you have any mint to sell today?” Spearmint shook her head no “I’m afraid not Mr. Cake, but I might have some later this week.” Mr. Cake nods “alrighty then, what would you like?” Spearmint looked at the various treats and points “I’d like one of those lemon cupcakes please!” Mr. Cake chuckles and takes one out and holds it out. Spearmint takes the cupcake and sets down some bits and trots out, taking a bite of the cake as she did “mmmm I love lemon cupcakes.” She trots to her modest home near the edge of town and heads inside, carefully putting her groceries away and then heading to the backyard. She opened the door and took a deep breath of the scent of mint rising from her garden. Spearmint smiles and heads out into her garden and sniffs around the plants, pulling out the ripe ones and carefully placing them into her gardening saddlebag. Spearmint moved around sniffing at her mint plants and she picked one and started to chew it “mmmm fresh mint tastes good” she smiles and sniffs around some more, the ripe mint leaves seeming to lift up to her and she picks them, tucking them away “some of these I will use to make tea later.” Spearmint smiles and giggles to herself and petted the mint plants, some of them sprouting upward toward her hoof. She trots over to her small gardening tool box and digs around in it and grabs a trowel and starts to dig up some weeds “stupid weeds messing up my pretty mint plants.” As she dug she couldn’t resist getting down and sniffing at the mint leaves some more, giggling at the plants tickled her nose. The warm sunlight
She tossed the weeds over the edge of the fence into a small pile of compost that she used to keep her mint plants fertilized and happy. Spearmint trotted over to a nice patch of sunshine in the corner of the yard and laid out to take a nice long nap after a good few hours of gardening, surrounded by her mint plants, most of which reached toward her and some and cover her a little bit. As the sun began to set Spearmint woke up and stretched out “mmmm a good nap oooh my babies kept me safe!” a small hut of mint vines had risen around her and she giggles, petting them as the vines retreated. She picked up her sack and after nosing around in the mint a little more and picking more of the ripe leaves and then headed inside. Inside the kitchen she removed her saddlebags and began to sort out the mint leaves, setting some aside for tea while placing the larger leaves into a small pile. A third smaller pile was made of the mid-sized leaves and set to the side. Spearmint took the large leaves over to a string hanging over the window and hung them up to dry in the fading sun, taking the time to take down some already dried leaves, which she set in a small bowl. The smaller leaves she placed half into a pan and began to cook the juices out of while the other half she began to chop into pieces, inhaling the scent of the mint and smiling to herself “nothing smells better then freshly chopped mint!” she giggles and slowly adds the mid-sized mint leaves to the pan and adding a little bit of water to it. As the leaves and water bubbled, releasing the scent of mint she turned and began to crunch up the dried mint leaves, adding them to a small tin of crunched tea leaves. The earth pony mare worked over her mint for several hours, creating some very fine mint jellies, mint tea, which she bagged herself, mine soap and some mint scented mane shampoo. She made her way up to her bedroom as the last of the mint was canned and put away, heading into the bathroom and turning on the shower “mmm a nice shower after a long day will feel nice.” She stepped into the warm water and sat, singing a little song to the mint plant growing in her bathroom window as she bathed and washed off, using some of her own mint soap and shampoo. “oh I was a little mare in Prance and what did my eye spy but a stallion coming up to me!” she giggled to herself as she rinsed off and then stepped out of the shower and dried herself, taking the time to brush her mane and teeth. Before trotting into the bedroom and settling in for the night. She snuggled under her vine patterned covers and laid her head on the pillow and took a deep breath. A fresh breeze blew the scent of mint in through her open window and she smiled, drifting off into deep minty fresh dreams.