From the Silly Ideas Bin, Part II · 2:28am Aug 25th, 2015
This particular notion owes quite a lot to Shinzakura's All-American Girl Universe andTotallynotabrony's Battleships Universe.
Follow: when I drew up my avatar on General Zoi's Pony Maker app, being a CSI for my state crime lab, I naturally hung a latent fingerprint on my avatar's butt for his Cutie Mark. When I read the stories in those 'Verses, I started to wonder about an Equestrian actually earning a Mark for Forensics - particularly, a discipline in the forensic sciences that is human-specific.
Such as fingerprints (that being my own specialty)...
So, I noodled out birth circumstances (Ridge Runner (tribe undetermined), by Pressure Ridge (Pegasus), Lieutenant, Equestrian Royal Guard; out of Leyline Runner (Unicorn), Investigator, Royal Equestrian Constabulary. Born at Branch Clinic, Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA, while husband and wife were on an exchange tour; he, with Marine Corps Combat Development and Educational Command, she with the FBI Academy, which is a tenant organization aboard MCB Quantico), giving him dual citizenship as an Equestrian Subject and a U. S. Citizen. Interesting aspects about such an origin might include whether he would identify more closely with ponies or people, and which subset of ponies or people he would identify with more closely (for example, if he were at an impressionable age on a repeat tour, I could see him imprinting on an FBI New Agent class that, if they didn't make him a mascot, at least "adopted" him unofficially). And, of course, how he got his Mark (I was initially leaning towards him being raised in the US school system, and they get a student tour of the FBI lab at Quantico, and he gets inspired by the experience...,). Then, he'd get a job Earthside and end up in a crime lab somewhere.
I even came up with an opener for his first court appearance:
Ridge Runner: Taking the Stand
The prosecutor didn't bat an eye, outwardly. "The People call Ridge Runner."
The bailiff stepped out and came back. The court was hushed as the witness entered the courtroom, his steps muffled by the carpeting. He reared up a precise six paces in front of the bench.
The judge had been carefully briefed, not only by the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, but the representatives of both the State Department and the Justice Department, and he had carefully schooled his expression of neutral disinterest. And yet, he stumbled for an instant. "Um, raise your right, er, forehoof." The witness did so, poker-faced. "Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"
The witness had been briefed, as well, by the Equestrian Legal Attache', the State Deputy Attorney General, the Secretary of the IAI Certification Board, and his boss. "I do."
"Please, be seated." The witness walked to the witness box and hopped up into the chair. He blinked, and looked at the prosecutor attentively.
"Please, state your name, and by whom you are employed, sir."
"Sir, I am Ridge Runner, and I am a Special Agent / Forensic Scientist for the State Bureau of Investigation Crime Laboratory."
Now, my problem is, what the hell do I do with this hot mess?!? I've mentioned elsewhere that I can't write it well enough to do it justice...
I would love to read this story.
3924334 Thanks, but... Sadly, I've discovered a couple of weak spots: I may have a fair ear for dialogue; I may be able to write a reasonably vivid description; I may even be able to show an entertaining vignette. But characterization is an arcane mystery, and I have no idea how to plot an actual story...
If you want it, it's yours.
3924362 Fixing problems are what editors are for
3924362 But naw, seriously, if you want this story to happen, I'll totally help.
3926990 I appreciate the offer. I've got an awful lot of spaghetti on my plate, though, so I don't know that I could devote enough undistracted time to make it happen. I'll PM if I manage to scrape together an outline, though...
And, thanks for your interest. That you think it'd be worth writing, that's quite a compliment.
I'd still totally help you write this story. Or another story.