noise."Story Notes: An Unexpected Journey · 11:33am Dec 29th, 2022
A Jinglemas fic for Comma Typer
Jinglemas is an annual FimFic tradition, a Secret Santa for writers. Basically, you toss your hat into the ring, pick some characters you'd like to see, a genre, and it all gets shuffled around and some other author has the honor of writing a fic just for you. Comma Typer had an interesting list of characters; besides the ones you see in the story there was Terramar and Grubber and Gloriosa Daisy. A lot of choices, but also characters from a few episodes or movies I hadn't seen. Still, that's the fun of it; we all got a story that nopony expected!
Before I get too deep into the blog, I gotta give a big shout-out to AlwaysDressesInStyle. I had an idea, I wrote a lot of it, and then I decided it wasn't gonna work like I wanted it to, so I started over, which meant I pressed him into pre-reading right up against the deadline. Treasure your pre-readers and editors, folks, they give their all especially when deadlines are tight.
As I often do, most of the village names have meaning. Seven Top is a variety of turnip, a good name for Hayseed's village. Forelle is named for a variety of pear, and we all know that pears are the natural enemy of the Apple clan.
Mustangia is canon; that's where Ms. Peachbottom lives.
Some of y'all may remember Haywards Heath from The Haunting. It's a couple of stops away from Ponyville--now you know. In the words of one of my former co-workers, "Everything's got to be somewhere."
Also, for what it's worth, my Kirin enthusiast friends on Discord all agree that the Kirin village is never named. Maybe it doesn't have a name.
Train facts!
A wye is a triangle with tails.
It's a track arrangement that allows for an entire train to be turned. A loop is also an option, although because trains aren't good at turns, a loop takes up more room and generally isn't used.
Whistle Stop Stations are train stations where the train only stops if somebody wants to board or disembark.
Trains in the US traditionally had a pair of red lights to mark the rear (these days on freights it's one flashing red light from the FRED) and passenger trains still do.
Dramaturge!
Rain Shine:
Source
She's the leader of the Kirin, and while it wound up not factoring in this story, her crown would most likely be considered a diadem.
Hayseed Turnip Truck:
Source
One of the Apple Clan, he's got a good heart, possibly no sense of object permanence, and in the IDW canon became a successful businessman complete with a suit and slicked-back hair.
Summer Chills
Source
She's a student at the School of Friendship
Ms. Peachbottom
Source
She's a midwestern tourist with a heart of gold
Blackthorn
Source
Second-in-command of the deer; he's the reason you were right to fear the forest.
Before there were cars with their smooth-riding tires that aren't good on snow, there were horses who were good on snow. Drifts weren't great for them, so instead of plowing the snow like we do these days, it was just compacted by means of a horse-drawn roller.
Bonus!
In the story there are a number of movie references . . . I'm not gonna tell you how many there are, 'cause that would take all the fun out of it! One free internet to the first person to get each one
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Comma Typer wrote Pamasak-Butas, don't you know?
- MLP: FiM
- Drama
- Slice of Life
Macario used to stop by Mang Fermin's stall for a quick bite on the way to work. Fermin has since passed away. In his place, another vendor sells snacks at the corner. He's also out of this world, but that shouldn't matter much.I was going to comment on wye thinking it was a typo for way. The more you know.
I'd love to try my hand at Jinglemas if I could just remember to send in my request before the deadline.
I have to agree with Hayseed about how while I appreciate the fact that I can chat with people like you on a whim and get physical copies of pony words relatively easily, there's definitely something to be said about the community aspect of Ponyville's 19th century aesthetic..
I also somewhat agree with his eyebrows raising regarding the school of friendship, at least if we take the name literally. I seem to recall Celestia saying to Twilight that friendship could not be learned from a book, and then Twilight turns around making a whole curriculum on the subject.
Fellowship of the Ring, obviously.
Peter Jackson really screwed Glorfindel over, giving his CMOA away.
"Snow never bothered me anyway.” - Frozen
“If you want him,” she muttered, ‘Come and get him.” - Fellowship of the Ring
There are probably others I didn't notice
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I think that's why I missed it last year
There certainly is. That having been said, I feel that you can still have the local community aspect, it's just that a lot of places don't. There are probably a lot of reasons for that.
Yeah, that's just like Twilight to do, isn't it? I don't think that the goal is so much to have classes where somepony gives instructions in how to make friends, I think that having a bunch of students together would do the trick. The fact that there are a lot of different species would also be a good thing . . . I can tell you that there was a difference in the people I knew in school when I lived in a small town, versus college, versus the people I've met online (and in many cases, also in person).
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Correct, you win an internet!
And Tom Bombadil . . . Still liked the movies a lot.
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Correct! You win an internet!
Also correct, but Dan got it first.
There are. There's one that's going to be very difficult to find, 'cause it's not an exact quote and it's from an early 80s movie . . . we'll see if any readers find it.
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One take I've seen in various fan fictions is that the School of Friendship isn't a literal "This is how you share" "This is how you drink tea" school, but rather a secondary school/boarding school.
I recognized Peachbottom in the story but did not remember her name.
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Yeah, that's what I think, too. The 'Friendship' in the name might be more alluding to all the other non-pony students who attend; the literal friendship is just a beneficial side effect.
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Now you know
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Perhaps they'll be the next generation of diplomats