The Purloined Pony Easter Egg Hunt and Book Giveaway · 4:55am Aug 29th, 2019
You might recall that one of Ponyfeather Publishing's first titles was The Purloined Pony, by Chris. He and I were both very pleased by its reception at the BronyCon bookstore, and I hope everyone who purchased it there or online is enjoying their copy.
I spent the better part of last year working on TPP in my free time amongst other projects, poring over a remaindered copy of Chris' favorite original book in that classic series, Inside UFO 54-40, to duplicate its style, format, and layout as closely as possible.
A lot of time went into stuff that's easily overlooked, especially in the front and back matter, but I thought it was important to really nail that authenticity, and I can be a very, uh, detail-oriented person. I had a lot of fun "ponifying" the original book's content; for example, "Bantam Books" became "Buckskin Books," with a horsehead silhouette logo instead of a rooster.
So, that's all well and good, you may be saying to yourself. But so what?
Well, while I was working on producing TPP, I included an Easter egg that even Chris doesn't know about; he'll find out it exists when he reads this blog along with the rest of you. (Hi, Chris!) I thought it might be fun to run a little contest to see who can find the secret I embedded in the book!
The first person to DM me the answer (do not comment it here!) will earn any one Ponyfeather Publishing volume of their choice,* free of charge, shipping included.**
Now, I don't think it would be fair to do this if only people who had actually purchased the physical book could participate. Luckily, I have a fully functional digital edition of the book available for download right here in PDF format, which includes the embedded Easter egg. And if the winner is working off the digital edition because they don't already own the print edition, I will throw in a print copy of TPP on top of whichever other volume they choose as their prize!
- If you put two and two together, you might realize the fact that the Easter egg is equally discoverable in both the physical and digital editions means there's no silliness with JPG steganography or other tricks that only work in a digital file; the secret is in plain sight, whether you're holding the book in your hands or looking at it on your screen. Just trying to keep the digital folks from going down dead ends...
- Nobody else was involved in embedding the Easter egg in the book. For example, I didn't make any alterations to Chris' words for the sake of the Easter egg -- it's not embedded in the body of the text.
- A copy of Inside UFO 54-40 (or prior knowledge of any books from that series) isn't necessary to find it; that wouldn't be fair. All you need is a copy of TPP and puzzle-solving skills.
- It's hiding in plain sight, but it is hiding -- if your guess is something like "there's an order form on the last page!", you haven't found it.
- It is not page 91. (See point 2!)
Here's hoping I don't regret this! Remember it's all in good fun.
Happy hunting!
*That's volume, not title; if you're a Cynewulf fan, I regret that I can't give away a full three-volume set just for fun; I'm not made of money. Of course, if you wanted to get started reading The Night Is Passing, volume I is the largest and most expensive, so that wouldn't be a bad way to go...
**Obviously, you have to be comfortable giving me a mailing address (which I would of course keep confidential) to receive your prize. If you aren't comfortable with that but still want bragging rights, you can still PM me the solution -- just promise to not share it with anyone else, so the next person to figure it out can claim the prize, and I'll credit you in the blog post announcing the winner.
That taglist has the real big dick energy of all this
Do I need to be familiar with Inside UFO 54-50? I hope not...
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No! That wouldn't be very fair at all.
That list of previously published stories. :D
I really appreciate such attention to detail! I don't have any other CYOA books, but I might have to buy a couple to put on the shelf alongside Chris's!
Entirely appropriate, considering that Inside UFO 54-40 has its own Easter egg. A nice homage!
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I actually had to add that last bullet point because multiple people contacted me thinking they'd found it, when they'd actually found Chris' own homage to Inside UFO 54-40.
This is clearly misdirection. The clue isn't that the page exists, so we shouldn't look at the page, right? Wrong! The clue must be on the page and we're not supposed to look at it because he wants to draw this out to attract more views.
Look at the numbers on the left. They're not in ascending numerical order! Up down down down up up up down up up down. It's morse code. .---...-..- is ”invalid” according to my morse translator. Clearly, it's a reference to the ongoing boar invasion reported this week on Cody's Showdy.
The reporting that linked the Trump family to the boar invasion is invalid, because it's part of the Q-anon conspiracy. The Trump family is feigning an alliance with the boars to draw them into the open.
The page lists Buffalo as the mailing location for the form. That's where the fight against the boar invasion begins. And when? The offer expired on 7/82, which clearly means the seventy-eighth day of Trump's second term.
Sorry for stealing your thunder all. I'll claim my prize now of mono words. Thanks.
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The "cheater ending". Gotta give Chris credit for that one.
I've found something that is blatantly easter-eggy (in the sense that it is obviously out of place once you look at it the right way), but I'm not sure I'm interpreting what I found quite right. Sent in an oblique guess, regardless.
I’m thrilled that you based so many details on an actual CYOA book! It’s been a while since I last perused one, but this felt like a very authentic homage. Guess it was!