I used to be a stranger

Quaint little midwest Americana sort of town, except it's hotter and drier, and on the foothills of some mountains. It's about the same size as Ponyville, except a greater proportion are farmers. Most foodstuffs grown are varieties that like arid climates better; peaches, tomatoes, grapes and various kinds of peppers and root-nuts, like Peanuts. The local flora resembles western pine forests that would be native to that kind of climate; tamarack, birch and cedar.

It's closer to Los Pegasus than anywhere else, but that's still a bit of a trek there and back. An average sort of day most months of the year starts out a tad cool in the morning, with fog and morning dew, but by late morning it's already scorching hot and bone dry. The solution to that, all the townfolk agree, is to head down to the river and stay cool for an hour or two while you have your lunch--maybe float down the river with an inflatable tube or floaty-foam matress-- and th...

and return to work late in the afternoon or evening before suppertime, when the sun is lower in the sky and the air begins to cool. Unless you're up in the mountains and valleys, the sun doesn't set until hours after suppertime.

The town gets its name from a clear spring that feeds a large lake in a valley north of the town, serving as the local aquifer. The Sasparilla family owns the land where the spring is by deed, but the lake itself is called Rootbottom Lake, which is narrow...