noise."Jinglemas 2017 · 2:36am Dec 31st, 2017
Petricord did a thing!
In honor of Obs' Jinglemas 2015, Petricord decided to revive the tradition, and a bunch of us volunteered to be secret Santas for some other author.
We got to choose which ponies we wanted to see, and then Petricord used some kind of magic to shuffle everything around, and presently I was writing a story for TheBandBrony.
First off, I owe a big debt of thanks to theRedBrony and Brumby_Run for pre-reading. I'm not real big on Gilda (120 stories, and I think this is the first one she's been in), so they were very helpful in making sure that I got her character right. Especially theRedBrony, who basically re-wrote the entire dialogue between Twilight and Gilda, because it sucked (in his words, "I rewrote the whole section with Gilda because it was clunky as hell. Like they were each having a different conversation").
I also had to watch the episode with Gabby, and re-watch the one with Pinkie and RD in Griffonstone.
The only other researchy thing worth mentioning is that Feldflüchter is the German word for a type of pigeon, which is a very sideways reference to B.F. Skinner and Jean Piaget. Very sideways.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that a wye is a triangle of track with legs off each point which is used to turn trains around. Each leg and tail must be as long as the train in question. It's not the only way, but balloon tracks (basically, a loop) take up a lot of space. The most famous wye is probably Keddie Wye, on WP's old Feather River Route--some of it is on a bridge.
I also forgot to mention ube. Fetch mentions in the comments below "Ube =http://www.colorhexa.com/8878c3
It is also the name of a purple sweet potato from the Philippines." which is all correct. See, some birds (and other animals as well) can see either more of the spectrum than we can (IR, UV, or they have more color receptors and can see extra colors [some people are born that way; too]); ponies probably don't see more of the visual spectrum than we humans do (and IRL, horses are of course dichromatic, which means that they see even less). Hence Gilda saying "I forgot you ponies can't see those colors."
It's difficult sometimes to describe a color that people can't see, so after watching a couple videos on vision and on color/number synesthesia and even looking at a sample image that can sometimes induce the brief ability to 'see' colors you eyes can't actually register, I finally settled on going through various color name charts for lavender things and ultimately came across the sweet potato, which is what I derived the name from.
And in case you're wondering what I got (because of course you are) . . . this is what I asked for:
"For myself, I don't have any ponies in particular that I'd prefer.
Truth is, I love stories about background ponies, so if someone were to surprise me with a fic featuring a commonly seen but rarely written about background pony, or even an earlier gen pony, that would be super awesome."
And what I got?
Trick Question's brilliant Candy Mane's Almost-Epic Slice-of-Life Adventure. Which y'all should totally read, 'cause it's hilarious.
TQ's story really is a fun little piece. I hope y'all read it.
:3
Okay, I'll bite, there's so many of these in my RIL already. Where's the full list of entries?
4763167
Here is the group; not all the stories are in there yet.
4763177
Hopefully they will be by the time I get to it, then! :D
4762851
Heartily seconded.
4762915
4763114
I loved your story so much. I've read it three or four times already, and it makes me chuckle every time.