Story Notes: Mr. Jones Goes To Equestria · 6:34am Dec 1st, 2019
Source: https://derpibooru.org/164899
The first sequel to Business Trip, consider this a teaser for what's to come. There's more coming with Snowcatcher & friends. Much, much more.
Last December, I gave myself one simple goal for 2019: complete & release one new story each month. I had hoped to finish a number of older stories that have been sitting on my harddrive for years, but ultimately the only old stories to get completed were Crash And Burn & Owner Of A Lonely Heart. Other older stories posted since December were released previously on DeviantArt but never released here. And I have just one more month to go, and I'm hoping to complete several stories (including one started a year ago as a tribute to a friend who killed himself, and another two I started this month). If I can pull that off, it clears my plate for...
The news everyone's been waiting for. I promised a sequel, and while this is, in fact, a sequel, it's not the one I intended to write, but rather a stopgap to set the scene for what's coming (and to place Mr. Jones on a bus for a while). Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of him just yet.
So I'm upping the ante for 2020. I intend to write about Snowcatcher and her friends nearly exclusively. There's a story that needs to be told. Actually, to be more accurate, there are sixteen stories to be told. We're going to meet all of the mares behind the Mareiott. We'll see them working at the hotel, we'll see their motivations for leaving Equestria behind, and we'll even glance into the near future to see what awaits them short term. Expect world-building.
I'm roughly estimating this to be at least 150,000 words, and quite possibly over 200,000. That's more than double the longest story I've written to date (61,000+ words, coincidentally, also more than twice as long as anything else I've ever written before or since). I'm a little intimidated by the prospect, but it's a logical next step for my writing. And more importantly, their stories need to be told. Partly because they're in my head and want to get out, and partly because so many of you have requested to see more of them. And you will! As it stands, we get to meet a few more of them this time around. Honestly, I hadn't intended for any of them to even be in this fic. Nor was Mr. Jones' sister supposed to be anything more than a plot device to give him a set time to leave Earth. She insisted on becoming a character. And once I realized that the nearest Equestrian consulate to Ohio was the one in New York City, I knew the Mareiott was coming back into play.
As for romance, I know a few people are really hoping to see Mr. Jones and Snowcatcher become a couple. I'm not ruling it out, and that's why Mr. Jones has gone to Equestria for the time being. He won't be a character in the next sequel, as we explore the ponies instead. Let's get through the next sequel and then, after all the cards are out on the table, we'll see if romance makes sense.
While I've been to Texas, I've never made it to any of the major Texan cities (Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, or most notably for this story, neither San Antonio nor Houston). So if any locals spot anything that doesn't seem right, please let me know and I'll be happy to revise accordingly. Likewise, I've only been to Canton once, and that was to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/447153
Tex & Truly are G1 ponies, and their cameos here are a follow-up to a story (The Valley Road) I wrote years ago starring them. A rather sad romance that's taken them nearly six years to get a happy ending for. Consider this story a sequel for that one as well. I've slightly altered Tex's cutie mark to be more in line with G4 by adding a third cactus to it.
Gertrude Hawk chocolates are popular in the Northeast, especially for fundraisers: https://www.gertrudehawkchocolates.com/index.cfm
Snowcatcher had to drive past half a dozen other parks to visit Sunnybank. Mostly because none of the other ones have nearly as interesting a background. In case it wasn't obvious in the first story, Snowcatcher's a bit of a history buff. Lad: A Dog was based on a real dog owned by author Albert Payson Terhune, though his exploits in the various novels were complete works of fiction. Terhune's estate, Sunnybank, overlooked Pompton Lake (body of water) and is located in Wayne, across the river from Pompton Lakes (town adjacent to said body of water). Terhune was a noted breeder of Rough Collies, and his Sunnybank Kennels lines remain in today's descendants of the breed. Sadly, Terhune's works were very much a product of their era and are notable for their racism, particularly against the Ramapo Mountain Indians. Still, they're beloved by millions for portraying the 'perfect dog'. Clippings from Lad's coat are held by the Library of Congress, having been donated by Albert's widow, Anice Terhune. Sadly, much of the original estate is gone, sold to a housing developer. And as weird as this is, Terhune is mentioned in A Boy and His Dog (the titular dog refers to his 'master' as Albert), a movie cited as one of the influences of the Fallout series of video games.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/816893
I've given Rainbow Flash G3 Rainbow Dash's personality. Rainbow Flash always dresses in style... To be fair, Rainbow Flash was also a G3 pony (nearly identical to the G4 in design), her name rhymes with Rainbow Dash, and AlwaysDressesInStyle is my screen name. There was no way this wasn't going to happen.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/908343
I'm an only child and have no siblings. I hope I managed to create a believable brother-sister dynamic. He's protective of her, while she hasn't entirely grown out of the bratty teenager phase just yet. They like embarrassing one another, but care a lot for one another and always have each other's backs.
I'm only fluent in decimal (base-10/denary/decanary), so if any mathematics experts out there are reading this and you notice any errors, please send me a PM letting me know so I can fix them. I kept things intentionally vague here, partly because I'm not an expert on the subject, and also because going deeper into the subject is well beyond the scope of this story. Still, I don't like errors.
Checker offered limousines for airports (both sedans and wagons), though this one has been retrofitted to be more luxurious with interior bits from a Winkoff. Winkoff was a dealer in Florida who ordered scores of Checkers and pimped them out. These cars even had vinyl roofs with oval opera windows.
The Jersey Devil is a real myth associated with the New Jersey Pine Barrens: https://weirdnj.com/stories/jersey-devil/
Dude, I am down for a 200k word story of this, that sounds like a great idea! looking forward to it, and good luck!
Well, that's two stories in and I'm loving them both. It will be a great pleasure to see you expanding on this little corner of the multiverse.
Nice to know we'll see more of them, they seem like an interesting bunch
I'm sort of hoping that this ends up being set in the same world as Celefin's series.
One thing that comes to mind: Given how incredibly powerful unicorn magic is, are ponies inherently far less prone to savage impulses than humans? One unethical archmage-level unicorn would be the worst terrorist threat Earth has ever seen, or could likely be in charge of a world-spanning crime network in a very short time.
Consider me a follower. I certainly want more tales about these ponies.
Excellent.
As for the base-four stuff, it seemed fine to me. It was really too vague for any problems to creep in. Of course, this is coming from a guy who uses octal implicitly in a fic about Derpy hunting monsters, so take that as you will.
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Sometimes keeping it simple really is the best solution. I did some research on the matter, but didn't feel that I 1. was strong enough with the concept to not make major mistakes or 2. had enough grasp on it to explain it casually in a fanfic. I wanted there to be some major cultural differences, so it wouldn't be a simple matter of 'cross into Equestria, carry on as normal' - with all the existing similarities between ponies and people, I felt there needed to be something more than just magic and a different language. Thankfully, the first wave of settlers on both sides have blazed those trails, making it easier for those who follow in their footsteps/hoofbeats.
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That's when you call in the Equestrian archmages trained for such situatons.