Story Notes: 16 (Ploomette Part 2) · 5:15am Nov 26th, 2020
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2428647
Ploomette has a unique perspective, and I didn't want to lose the opportunity to go more into the background of this setting.
There's one more part yet to come, and it will feature Ploomette's time on Earth up to the arrival of the first bus (the one most of the rest of the cast is on).
There's also a sad lack of pictures of Ploom, so I'm conserving them for use next time around. Let's see some other ponies (and humans) instead.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1602402
To those of you in America, Happy Thanksgiving! For everyone else, uh, happy Thursday?
Thanksgiving also means it's the time of the year those who work the frontlines of retail dread... Black Friday.
For those of you willing to wait hours in a line for an ultra-cheap big screen TV, good luck. Personally, you can't get me to a retail store this weekend (technically, this Saturday is actually the busiest shopping day of the year). I did my running around yesterday & today, stocking up on the essentials.
To those of you in the retail trenches, my condolences. Good luck.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/979722
G1! 
Megan fishes Firefly out of a well in the very first MLP special, Rescue At Midnight Castle (also known as Firefly's Adventure). Applejack, Twilight, Spike, Scorpan, and Tirek (Tirac back then) are among the familiar faces from that very first special.
To clarify, G1 is canon to this story in as much that Firefly made contact with the Williams family. Ponies have been living on Earth since the late '70s (I bet Wind Whistler would totes rock a leisure suit). Bonnie Z. is a friend of the Williams' and well, MLP G1 is a thing that exists as a toyline and various works of fiction. Now that contact's been made, there are ponies from previous generations who are going to be wanting some royalties for use of their names and likenesses...
The images above and below are actually reference sheets for another G4/G1 crossover fic...
Source: https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/9/14/979726.jpeg
The third and final image of the above series: https://derpibooru.org/images/979735
These were originally done for the fic A Might Demon Slayer Grooms Some Ponies, a fic that was never* finished.
None of the ponies in the third image are (currently) scheduled to appear, but you never know. I love to shine the spotlight on ponies from G1 & G3.
*It was finished, but there was such a backlash about the final chapter that the author pulled it. Sadly, no replacement ever materialized.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/134542
Here we see the Williams family as they appeared in G1, or around the time of first contact, forty years ago (approximately 1979-1980). Keep in mind in terms of the story, the conference depicted in this chapter takes place sometime around 2015 or so.
We haven't seen the last of them just yet.
The G1 shall continue next chapter!
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1191147
In case it's not obvious, Heart Throb is in charge of gathering intelligence. She's the little pony spy. It's always the one you least expect. Also, Heart Throb and Surprise are both part of the current wave of Basic Fun G1 reissues (Gusty and Sparkler being the others). I found Surprise and the others, but Heart Throb eluded me until after part 1 of Ploomette's chapter was published (found her the next time I went hunting for her 
). I've been grabbing them all as they come out, and I'm really hoping they do more G3 reissues (like Minty and Star Catcher, for example) as well. Of the five G1 pegasi cameoing in this chapter, Firefly was done in a previous wave, Heart Throb and Surprise are available now, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get North Star and Wind Whistler eventually.
The next wave should be Cherries Jubilee, Lickety-Split, Posey, and Tootsie, and I understand they're hitting in Canada. So the four of them and the Mane 6 are the ones I'm still missing.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2176973
We've seen Tex before, way back in Mr. Jones Goes To Equestria. Sadly, he's just as incompetent in the past as he is in the present.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/808322
G3!
On the left, Ploomette's mom, Duchess Royal Rose. On the right, somepony who keeps a journal...
We got some answers to some questions this chapter, and we'll get even more answers next chapter.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/111442
Press 'A' to buck the smug off his face. Press 'B' to quit.
...Nopony ever presses 'B'.
Tartarus hath no fury like a mare scorned. So, who thinks Heart Throb should make him disappear?
I'm sure she'd like to, but 1. she's not a killer and 2. Blueblood is the only living descendant of Princess Platinum. Removing him from the equation would actually be worse, because then there'd be anarchy as the other unicorn nobles jostled for position to fill the gap.
For non USA residents, Thanksgiving is a national holiday, the fourth Tuesday in November.
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is the official start of the Christmas rush & the busiest shopping day of the year, even more than Christmas eve. These days, thanks to online shopping, it's not as bad as it was, say, 20 years ago.
It is called Black Friday because it is the day when stores supposedly cover their expenses. Supposedly, the rest of the year sales are pure profit.
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hmm...not a bad idea, but I still think that even IF a mare that could stand him for longer than a week the creme de la creme of Equestrian Society would still have a regular dust-up over the new station. Unless it was Celestia Sol Invictus herself who was carrying the foal, I get the distinct feeling that the Equestrian elite would have nothing but scorn and disbelief over any mare who tried, and the foal wouldn't get off any easier.
@AlwaysDressesInStyle
Have I mentioned lately that I simply love how much thought you've put into this story? I love many different genres, but one thing that if I had to pick a specific writing trait, it's that I LOVE worldbuilding, be it complex socio-political musings, a rich and detailed history, or spellbinding descriptions of the world itself. I think that it's fair to say that you've hit all three of these things right on the head at least once in this story.
In an unrelated tangent, If you like Firefly, there's a story all about her and at least one or two other G1 pones called "Before the Storm" which places her in a conflict between Equestria and their Griffon neighbors.
The depiction of the Williams siblings in the G1 crossover Hasbroverse fics is pretty good. The pic of the stained glass art of the generations was nice as well.
Oh, yes, Happy Thanksgiving, where applicable!
And thank you as usual for the additional information! :)
As I believe some others have mentioned, I've been enjoying the worldbuilding (both in these blog posts and in the story; sorry for not mentioning it in my comment there, but I'm in rather a hurry at the moment), among other things. :)
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Thank you! And I definitely love G1 (and G3). I'll have to check out Before the Storm!