Short summaries of things I need to post but its fairly late so I'll be brief · 5:31am Jan 19th, 2018
Letters From a Little Princess Monster has started delivering a four-chapter arc detailing the fun times of Summer Wrap-Up in Ponyville.
The Barcast could use a little help on YouTube. Go follow! Save the beer!
Kris Overstreet's The Maretian is holding me in suspense. Go read!
Ditto for Celestia-XVII (Celestia the Teenaged Brat is wonderful) and I Think It's Called Ponytown is a delightful romp into the world of knock-off Chinese pony clones.
Now, all that's left is the decision: Do I release Her Royal Coffee Colt (19 chapters) now or when I have another larger story to bracket with it? After all, I've spoiled so much of it I don't know what I haven't posted. So, I'll post a chunk of Chapter 8 out of Farmer Bruner Has Some Ponies, a EiH story I'm working my way slowly through. Enjoy!
Time: 3:32 P.M. Central Standard Time, June 19, 2015
Facebook is a wonderful thing.
So is YouTube.
In minutes, a video can be uploaded and watched by anybody in the entire world.
Literally.
Admittedly, there are certain restrictions in some countries. Some content may be blocked. Some users filtered.
Of course, those restrictions do not restrict the restrictors, which is why the Federal Security Service for the Russian Federation had a flawless internet connection to Facebook while the Central Council watched a video in stunned silence, narrated by the voice of an interpreter with the highest of security clearances.
“Good afternoon.” A dusky young woman of indeterminate ancestry strode into the hospital room and nodded, first to the person doing the filming, then to the nurse at the side of a bed. The contents of the bed were blurred by motion, but several still images of the horse-creature had been captured beforehand and held in freeze-frames on secondary screens around the room. It looked to be an odd pink horse with a horn on its head, like some sort of American practical joke, but the humor of the situation was rapidly turning serious.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to quit filming,” said the young woman, after which the cameraperson shook her head (and camera).
“No, ma’am. I’m fully within my rights to film here. It’s a public place.”
The young woman in the professional blazer looked as if she were going to argue for a moment, then turned to the nurse, who was checking the bandages on the horse-creature, in particular, the large bundle of elastic bandage around one foreleg. “Nurse, I’m Agent Anacostia of the FBI. How soon can the patient be prepared for travel?”
“She’s too injured to be moved,” said the nurse. “Miss Widget nearly lost a leg before surgery. You’re going to have to leave the room now, Agent Anacostia. We’ve got a second pony even worse off who is being moved in, and she’s not going to be transported anywhere either.”
“I have my orders,” said the FBI agent. “The patients are to be transferred to Walter Reed Medical center where they’ll get the finest care on the planet.”
The nurse looked as if she were going to give a sharp retort, but several nurses and doctors came into the room with a blanket-covered pony on another hospital bed, spending a minute or two arranging it on the other side of the room before one of the doctors came over at the nurse’s signal.
“This is Agent Anacostia,” said the nurse. “She wants to move our patients to Walter Reed.”
“Not a chance in hell,” scoffed the curly-haired doctor. “Is that all you want, because if so, we’re very busy here, and I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
The FBI agent nodded, then walked out of the hospital room while the camera panned back over to the nurses arranging the elderly green pony and making sure her oxygen was set up just right. Then the camera operator turned off the video, obviously to upload it.
There was absolute dead silence around the room with the last frame of the video still frozen on screen, then one of the council asked, “Has President Putin seen this yet?”
“Da,” said the council chairman. “Combined with the other videos and recordings out of the Kansas, we believe the aliens are real, although their claims of having reached our planet by some sort of dimensional portal are dubious, at best. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has tasked several satellites for greater coverage of the area so that we may be able to spot their landing craft, and radar surveillance records are being reviewed. The Americans cannot be permitted to gain access to alien technology of this level.”
“I for one am not that certain of your theory.” One councilmember brought up a video in which several of the younger pony aliens were playing with the flashing lights of a fire truck, along with an adult green alien of the ‘unicorn’ type, who expressed a childish glee in pushing the button and watching the bright flashing and hooting that resulted. “Does this look like the actions of a superior spacefaring civilization?”
His point was only boosted by the way a fluttering grey ‘pegasus’ seemed to be entranced by the flashing lights and flew directly into the fire truck windshield with a solid thud and a spray of letters from her postal bag.
“Perhaps… they are just faking it,” said the first councilmember. He watched along with his Russian peers as the pegasus was straightened up and sent on her way, only to loop around and wind up head first into the windshield again, only this time leaving a noticeable crack across the glass.
“They are exceedingly good actors, then,” said the second councilmember.
H-hey... thanks for that shoutout for the Barcast. We really appreciate it.
Ooh, neat-looking stories. They're on the top of my Read Later list as of now.
Also, I say release Coffee Colt if it's ready.
As for the matter of first contact... This may be one of the rare cases where Best Pony can help lessen international tension.