Story Notes: Onto the Pony Planet Chapter 32 · 7:32pm Sep 3rd, 2018
First off, let me thank my pre-readers! AShadowOfCygnus, metallusionismagic, MSPiper, and MrZJunior!
South Fox, North Fox, and Beaver Island (bottom to top), as seen out the window of my Delta flight to EFNW.
According to the comics, crackers is a mild swear that ponies use.
From the comic
At least, I assume a mild swear, since Sweetie Belle uses it.
Gold Lily—former ambassador—has only appeared as a toy, to my knowledge. Of course, the toy doesn't exactly say what Gold Lily does, and despite M.A. Larson's twitter claims, she never showed up.
I figured since she the toy was an alicorn, she probably does something princess-like.
Also, before you get out your pitchforks, I clipped her wings in the story, and she's just a unicorn (although that's never specifically mentioned in the text).
In the movie Flight of the Phoenix (the 2004 version), one of the characters says this:
“I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can't give him that, give him something to hope for. If you can't give him that, just give him something to do.”
Hrimfaxi, Nightgazer's roostmate, is named after a horse from Norse mythology. Hrimfaxi was the horse of the night, counterpart to Skinfaxi, who pulled the sun across the sky.
Their names are in two parts: -faxi means mane. Hrim means rime or frost; skin means shining.
Some of you might be noticing a parallel here with another famous horse, Shadowfax. And in fact, this is where Shadowfax's name came from. His name means “Shadow Mane.”
Kate is in fact a gunner's mate, and as such would have been trained to operate the M240, a belt-fed machine gun that is mounted on some of the RB-S fleet.
Since 9/11, the Coast Guard has been somewhat folded into the Department of Homeland Security, and as such has been tasked with performing drug interdictions as well as other counter-terrorism missions. This is not their primary purpose, of course, and from what I've heard, the Coast Guard isn't exactly happy with that task.
Government being what it is, all the RB-S boats have a gun mount; however, most of them do not actually have the gun mounted unless they think they'll actually need it. While I'll concede it's certainly possible that people are smuggling drugs from Wisconsin to Michigan across Lake Michigan (or the other way around), in general I'd assume that those guns are left down in the basement of the Coast Guard station, and I'd further bet that a lot of the traditional Coasties are embarrassed that they even have them.
There are of course giant moths in real life—some with wingspans of over a foot. For all I know, some of my readers who live in tropical locations think of those as normal moths.
But there are giant moths, and then there are giant moths who steal Applejack's hat.
Anyone who's been following along for any amount of time won't be surprised to know that Plumber's Helper Charter Service really exists in Petoskey, MI. Their boat (they only have one) is a 43 foot Tiara with twin Detroit Diesel motors and a 90hp trolling motor.
That's a very capable boat for the Great Lakes. It can sleep six, and has a top speed of around 41 mph. A six hundred gallon fuel tank gives it a respectable range, as long as you don't keep the throttles wide open (at 600 rpm, it's got a 1600 mile range; at 2500 rpm, the range drops to 300 miles (yes, at full speed it consumes 2 gallons per mile). Its most efficient cruising speed, outside of idle, is about 20mph, which would make it an hour and a half to two hours from Petoskey to North Fox (roughly 37 miles).
Incidentally, I didn't call the charter service to find out how much it would cost to rent the boat, but in fuel costs alone, the trip would be over $300, and I'd assume that Captain Jim is smart enough to factor in both his time and upkeep on his boat (43' Tiaras cost over a million dollars new).
One of the disadvantages to having a global audience for a story is that people don't always know abbreviations and whatnot that are common knowledge to virtually all Americans, and I occasionally have pre-readers ask me what a particular agency is. So, for those of you who don't know, DNR is the Department of Natural Resources. EDIT: Most states have them; there isn’t a federal one.
In Michigan, when anybody says DNR, they mean Michigan DNR.
And since North Fox Island is owned by the State of Michigan, Michigan DNR oversees it.
The Arthur M. Anderson was built in 1952.
By today’s standards, she’s pretty small.
That’s actually the Philip Clark (on the left) and the Roger Blough (on the right). I couldn’t find any pictures of the Anderson and the Blough together (or any good pictures of the Anderson and any thousand-footer together). The Clark is about the same size as the Anderson.
She's most famous for being the last ship in contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald—she was several miles behind the Fitzgerald when it sank.
Captain Jim's story about a man being adrift on Lake Michigan and nearly dying of dehydration because he didn't know he could drink the water is, unfortunately, true. While it might not be the best idea to drink the water right out of the lake close to the Michigan shoreline, out in open water the lakes are so big that the water's pretty darn pure.
I couldn’t find that specific story, but I did find one about a man who was stranded on North Fox Island after kayacking there from Leelenau State Park, and he was suffering from dehydration.
Finally, we're going to talk a bit about the image at the top. I've gotten some criticism in the past from people who think that you ought to be able to see the shore of Michigan from North Fox Island. And sometimes you can, if the weather's right. Other times you can't, because of the haze off the lake, if nothing else. I know for a fact that you cannot see North Fox island from Leelenau State Park; I've been there and taken pictures for research. (You can see South Fox and Beaver Island, since they're higher.)
On my way to Seattle this year, my flight went north before turning west—I'd assume that the air was more favorable; that wasn't the route we'd taken the year before (in fact, the year before the flight passed almost directly over my house, and just north of Kalamazoo, so I got to see lots of landmarks that Silver Glow had remarked on).
We passed just south of the Fox Islands, and that picture at the header is the one I took out my window . . . and I want y'all to notice that you can't see the shore of Michigan at all.
I was also out in a sailboat last fall, and we went seven miles out of harbor, and from there you could barely see the shore at all.
Furthermore, when I lived in the Thumb of Michigan, we'd go to Lexington a lot, and from the jetty you could look across Lake Huron and not see Canada, which was about 25 miles away. I don't remember ever seeing Canada, despite always looking for it.
So the nutshell version is that when conditions are right, you can see the shore of Michigan from North Fox island. At night, I'd imagine that you can see lights sometimes (although to be honest, there's not a lot up there). But most of the time, you almost certainly can't.
There’s much neat to take from this but regarding crackers: I have now decided that ponies may also use ‘tarts’ as a swear word, as a direct equivalent to ‘heck’.
The Lake Michigan Coast Guard needs those guns to stop those dastardly oleo smugglers from reaching Wisconsin.
The Kansas Department of Natural Resources is called the (takes breath) KDWP or Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, which recently turned into KDWPT (which is a lot more difficult to rattle off than Kay-Dee-Doubleyou-Pee for some reason) adding "Tourism" to the end there. So meetings have these rough guys who spend most of their lives out in the field with prairie plantings and quail habitat together with a number of Suits who can't even grow a houseplant. Quills and Sofas indeed.
You never would have seen Canada at 25 miles.
Due to the curvature of the Earth, the horizon is no more than three miles away- looking out across open water (a perfectly level surface) you will never see anything further than three miles that isn't taller than the curve of the Earth at whatever distance it is from you.
Why are the megafreighters painted in Dazzle Camoflage Id ahve thought painting them in reflective Whiteline paint or something given their radar reflecting angled fronts wouldve been more appropiate to being seen by things that want to get out of their way?
4930954
It's not dazzle camouflage at all. That's actually the paint scheme of the US Great Lakes fleet. There's a big stripe down the front of the boat, but the rest is a solid red.
4930974
There is a big red stripe on the front, but the sides are water, haze grey. Makes the hull look half the width and so twice as far as it should be.
Cheese and crackers was an old time substitute for Jesus Christ (as were Jeez Louis & Jiminy Crickets) when you were sort of cursing
4931021
Doesn't really seem like we're talking about a "large" ship here. Actually looks like he's referring to small to midsize craft. In order to make a difference in horizon-distance you need to be really fucking high up. This is how trigonometry works.
4931025
Yeah, I realized that just after I hit the button! You comment is correct... and appropriate. But I'm not sure what you mean by really high; 25' isn't all that high for a ship's bridge, and that nearly triples the apparent horizon.
4931027
No, it would only be 6 miles at 25' elevation. In order for the horizon point to be about 22 miles away, you'd need to be looking at a sea-level point from an elevation of 300'.
Aircraft carriers, some of the tallest ships in existence and larger than anything on Lake Michigan, top out at 64' above the waterline for a Kittyhawk-class.
4931030
With your eyeballs on the deck, huh? Okay.
4931033
It's simple trig. Draw a right trangle with angle C at the Earth's core. A is the horizon, and B is you. Solve for side AB.
Shouldn't we be able to see Canterlot Castle through the aperture from that height?
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/acecombat/images/a/a3/Hrimfaxi.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151202092607
Hrimfaxi, you say? Oh, it'll bring the snow all right.
(So that's why they named a nuclear sub after the pair. And here I thought they were just making up more pseudo-mythology.)
Sounds familiar.
If I were a Coastie I wouldn't be knocking the chance to shoot the 240. It's super fun!
Reading this chapter I was keeping an eye out for Bob Seger references but I couldn't find any
4930925
‘Tarts’ is good (in fact, they might have an entire collection of food-related swears, thinking of it).
I do still like ‘heck’ though; it’s just so adorable.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/3/23/1688027__safe_artist-colon-dsp2003_oc_oc+only_oc-colon-panne_bat+pony_bat+pony+oc_blep_bust_chest+fluff_cute_cute+little+fangs_ear+fluff_fangs_female_h.png
4930933
Smuggle oleo one way, and cheese back?
4930949
Those actually sound like really interesting meetings, just for the juxtaposition factor. Reminds me of the one time I saw a guy in a three piece suit (looked like an insurance agent, just to help you picture him) hanging out with a couple of typical-looking Harley bikers, fringe jackets and all.
4930953
Yeah, the taller-than-the-horizon is obviously one of the deciding factors (and of course, the observer’s altitude as well). That part of Ontario is probably low enough that there was no way it was going to be seen, regardless of haze over the lake or not (I think; I don’t know that for fact); I could and often did see into Port Huron from the jetty in Lexington, especially at night when the lights on the Blue Water Bridge were visible. Obviously, it was very close to the horizon at that distance.
Not to mention that there are often all sorts of weird mirages and ways that light bends over water, occasionally letting you see things that you shouldn’t be able to at that distance; this is apparently a concept that flat-earthers have real difficulty with.
Regardless, I can personally attest to the fact that if there isn’t lake haze, I have seen both South Fox island and Beaver Island from the Leelenau Peninsula; I have not seen North Fox since I don’t think it’s high enough above the water. The sand dunes on the west coast of Michigan are generally high enough that I think you could see them if there isn’t any haze over the lake; however, I have not been to any of those islands, so I can’t say that for sure.
4930974
Huh, I’d never though of that, but in a way they kind of are, at least when viewed bow-on. As 4930954 said, that’s the paint scheme of the Great Lakes fleet, and aside from the grey and black stripes on the bow, and the topsides painted white, the rest of the hull is that red-oxide color.
duluthshippingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/20130608_9116.jpg
I assume they use the red paint either because it’s cheap, or because it hides rust stains. I know that a lot of railroads that primarily hauled coal painted their equipment black; the Great Lakes Fleet is most known for hauling iron ore and taconite.
4931000
I always preferred “Cheese and rice!”
One of the department heads at Meijer (where I used to work) had trained herself to say “Merry Christmas” instead of cursing.
4931033 4931030
The formula for distance across water that I’ve seen is 1.17 * square root of the height of you eye is the distance to the horizon--in nautical miles (0.87 nautical miles = 1 statute mile). However, you then have to remember that whatever you’re looking at will have a height above the horizon; in the case of North Fox, I’d guess anywhere from 60 feet to 100 feet, maybe even more, depending on the topography of the island and the height of the trees (AOPA says that the trees on either side of the runway are 60 feet tall; I can’t find good numbers for the highest point on the island).
In my experience on the Great Lakes, haze is often the biggest factor for sight distance, limiting things that you ought to be able to see. In the picture from the sailboat above, you can see (faintly) how much of the dunes are still above the horizon, and yet it’s obvious by how faint they are that they’re going to be lost from sight long before they’ll vanish over the horizon.
4931038
Probably not--that’s not how it works in my headcanon (although having said that, that would have been an interesting twist).
4931102
There’s no need to make up mythology when there’s plenty of it out there to draw from.
4931148
Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? They could have named the Royal Sisters that.
4931177
I’m sure it is . . . I can’t think of any reason why you’d pass up shooting a machine gun if the opportunity presented itself.
Nevertheless, since its founding, the Coast Guard’s mission has been saving sailors from the wrath of Mother Nature, and you can’t do that with a machine gun.
4931627
I’m reasonably certain that there aren’t any besides the title.
4931666
ummm... ah dunno bout that...
"
"I swear, Admiral! I saw that tornado pull out a .45 and pointed it at the ship! So I gave 'im a full belt!
There is no federal DNR. The closest thing we've got is Interior.
4931720
4931746
I kinda thought so, but I wasn’t sure.
Regarding the last panel in the comic, I can easily imagine the cmc going all atomic boyscout given the slightest opportunity. No wonder their parents leave Sweetie Belle with Rarity whenever possible.
4947462
Yeah, the idea of Sweetie Belle--possibly a pyromaniac (the comics strongly imply it)--trying to get a cutie mark in thermodynamics is a very good reason to pawn her off on anypony else whenever possible.
Oh yeah, that big one pops up at my house roughly every couple of years. They aren't very common.
4973858
Probably for the best . . . speaking as someone who’s never seen one, they seem really cool. I suppose I’d sing a different tune if I had to fight my way through a cloud of them to get to my front door, though.