The Campus (last update 2 March 2022) · 6:59am Nov 20th, 2019
The Everfree Satellite Campus of the Foreign Service Institute stands in the midst of a sprawling parcel of otherwise undeveloped land outside Canterlot City limits. This tract lies off the same highway serving the pre-existing summer camp of the same name and borders the extensive wilderness parklands north of the metropolitan area.
An extensive shuttle-bus service connects the outlying location with neighborhoods and park-and-ride points in the northern parts of the city. Some developments are new, built either as part of general expansion or to serve the Campus specifically, while others are existing districts in which commuters have settled individually or in groups.
“Everfree” is a common place-name in the region, attached to a variety of sites—especially the wilderness park surrounding the easements on which the Campus and the summer camp are located. In the former case, the park provides a buffer zone that simplifies security and presents a favorable impression to visitors from Equestria. In the latter, the camp pre-dates the park, so is grandfathered.
Background
The Campus is presented as a general-use setting for Equestria Girls and Friendship Is Magic fan fiction, especially slice-of-life stories rated for everyone or for teens. Nominally it begins some fifteen years after HRH Princess Twilight Sparkle accedes to the throne in Equestria, more than sixteen years after the Rainbooms graduate from CHS, and five years after the Campus opens for operation, though “flashback” stories set during the interim are possible. NB: the fundamental elements of the setting are the time period and the course of the characters’ lives—stories are not required to take place on the grounds of the Campus itself! The information below is updated as needed.
For purposes of this description, terminology and references are borrowed from US Department of State practices. As much as possible, however, these are or should be genericized or glossed over in actual storytelling to avoid specific mention of actual nations or other place names, following the lead laid down by the scriptwriters for the Equestria Girls franchise.
Available evidence points to Vancouver, British Columbia as the model for Canterlot City. The animation house that produced the episodes is located there. Bus livery of white with red midline stripe shown in “Friendship Games” is or was used by the Vancouver transit authority. Landforms, habitats, and wildlife are consistent with the coastal Pacific Northwest, and several provincial and regional wilderness parks extend to the north and east.
Thanks to several readers, notably TCC56 and BoredAuthor817, for suggestions that helped bring some elements into focus.
A PDF file of the information in this post, along with exterior and interior plan views, can be downloaded from Deviantart. Be aware it currently is a work in progress, as landscaping is yet to be placed.
Site Exterior Plan
The Campus—as it is nicknamed by almost everyone who has spent significant time there—is bounded and divided by sturdy security fences into a foursquare diamond pattern. Each quadrant is at a major compass point and labeled with the corresponding initial letter as part of local addressing for orientation and mail routing.
- North (N) is a consulate for the Principality of Equestria, including the local terminus of the interdimensional portal and hospitality capacity for cross-portal staff and visitors.
- West (W) contains offices for host-nation agencies and bureaux with mandates related to the adjacent port of entry, including a chancery housing the embassy to Equestria and hospitality capacity for staff and visitors.
- South and east (S and E) are the FSI satellite campus itself, along with the Transition Center’s facilities.
Quadrant Details
Every quadrant consists of a lavishly landscaped central courtyard surrounded by a half-dozen three-story brick-faced buildings laid out in a standardized pattern to reduce costs and to ease orientation for pedestrians. A pair of buildings stand end to end on each of the northwest and southeast sides, defining the overall shape of the quadrant. A single building fills each of the square’s remaining sides, and includes a small pair of wings projecting from the middle; a gable-roofed cupola adds another story to this cruciform projection. Each quadrant’s buildings are numbered, in general running from southwest to northeast, as part of the local addressing schema.
- Building 1 (SW): in all quadrants, administration and services, such as offices, canteen, and assembly spaces.
- Buildings 2 and 3 (NW): N, consular offices; W, port-of-entry offices; S and E, classrooms and instructor offices.
- Buildings 4 and 5 (SE): N, cross-portal staff and visitor accommodations; W, host-nation visitor accommodations; S and E, classrooms and instructor offices.
- Building 6 (NE): in all quadrants, support and maintenance such as canteen, shops, janitorial and housekeeping facilities, and management offices.
- Additional outbuildings include guard booths, equipment and tool sheds, electrical substation, firehouse, barracks, and other ancillary structures. Most of the larger and more important buildings cluster in a fenced area adjoining north and east quadrants, with “quadrant” letters of A (closer to the main complex) and B.
Building Details
Building footprints are 65 by 175 feet, with small extensions for the cruciform plans. Design and construction are thoroughly modern, with interiors ranging from basic industrial to low-level executive, as appropriate to each building’s function. Exterior and vestibule glazing are insulated double panes of heavy-duty polycarbonate and restroom windows are frosted clerestory fittings. To the extent feasible, structural elements are reinforced to minimize interior blast or other damage. Egress paths exceed minimum code requirements where possible, especially in aggregate width.
The local addressing schema continues after a hyphen as floor number (1–4) followed by two digits for the individual room, which are consistent for a corresponding room in every building sharing the same plan. A leading zero is inserted before a single-digit room number, generally reserved to service functions such as restrooms and supply closets (the latter labeled as “SC” on the plan views). An example of a complete room address would be W1-314: quadrant W, building 1, floor 3, room 14—the office of Colonel Rose Brass, senior military attaché assigned to the embassy.
Exterior doors, roof-access doors, and outdoor- or corridor-facing sides of elevator shafts and cars are glazed for safety through visibility. Restrooms include locked supply cabinets and additional acoustic insulation to isolate them from neighboring rooms. Most doors are equipped for key-card control, though the type and degree of access varies.
- Administration and support: exterior and suite doors can be set to require key-cards for entry, though often are not except during security alerts or drills.
- Offices: exterior doors and suite doors in west quadrant generally are set to require key-cards for entry; in north quadrant they can be but usually are not, in view of Equestria being a pre-electronic culture.
- Classrooms: exterior and classroom doors can be set to require key-cards for entry, but are not except during security alerts or drills.
- Accommodations: exterior and guest-room doors are set to require key-cards for entry under all circumstances.
- Supply closets and similar service rooms: restricted in all buildings to staff of appropriate departments.
Building Interior Plans
Administration
Building 1 in each quadrant is the nerve center directing and overseeing all operations within its purview; building S1 is the overall headquarters for the Campus. In addition, each administration building provides the quadrant’s interface for visitors and guests. In view of these varied functions, design and décor ranges from basic modern office suites to low-level executive quality.
Occupancy varies with different spaces in the building. Office workers number 160. The canteen has room for 160 diners and the adjoining kitchen is staffed by 12 foodservice personnel. The auditorium seats 200. Rooms described as “definable” serve varying purposes, such as library, lounge, or exercise gym, so their occupancy limits are set by code for the specific functions being filled. The mix of uses also varies by quadrant, especially in the consulate.
Offices
Buildings N2, N3, W2, and W3 host day-to-day operations for the Equestrian consulate and the neighboring host-nation port-of-entry facilities. Design and décor are no different from millions of modern office buildings throughout the country. Visitors generally are directed to the quadrant’s building 1 aside from the rare, specialized sort who has some specific business with the departments therein.
Each building contains 12 suites able to support 18 workers apiece—6 in offices, 12 in carrels. The latter are five-foot-square (1.5-m) enclosures with open backs and five-foot-tall (1.5-m) partitions. In general, every suite is assigned to a different agency or bureau, though it is possible for multiple entities to share one, and in total, up to 216 office workers are supported.
Accommodations
Buildings N4, N5, W4, and W5 provide short-term housing resembling high-end motel or mid-range convention-hotel wings. In the Equestrian consulate, rooms are occupied by cross-portal visitors and especially staff who otherwise would commute through the portal, addressing concerns over congestion and possible long-term physical or psychological effects of frequent transformations. In the adjacent host-nation port-of-entry facilities, they are reserved to official or VIP visitors and quick-response staff such as security or on-call IT specialists.
Each building contains 60 guest rooms of 340 sf (31.6 m²) each including vestibule and bathroom, with a total occupancy of 150. Two room configurations are available—king-size bed plus a seating group, or a pair of queen-size beds—with three of the former to one of the latter. Eighty percent of rooms are connected in adjoining pairs with suite doors. Communications and other small-format accessibility features are available in every room, and accessible bathrooms with pocket doors adjoin four rooms on floor 1. Amenities other than those offered in-room are found in buildings 1 and 6.
Classrooms
Buildings E2, E3, E4, E5, S2, S3, S4, and S5 contain the site’s raison d’être: the classrooms that make up the FSI satellite campus itself. The plan view shown applies to buildings 2 and 3; in buildings 4 and 5 it is mirror-imaged except for classroom numbering. Décor combines elements of university and mid-range convention-hotel function space.
Interior doors are set with code-maximum 10-inch (25-cm) square glazing, and their swing arcs are marked on flooring. Each classroom includes a closet of supplies accessed through lockable pocket doors, permitted through waiver. Since every occupant, student or instructor, is an adult with a security clearance, the usual safety and security concerns over such closets were deemed inapplicable.
Two buildings are devoted to each of FSI’s four schools. Every building contains 24 classrooms, 8 sized for 20 students and 16 sized for 15 students, for a total of 400 students and up to 80 instructors, aides, and guests. At maximum occupancy, classroom space is 25 sf (2.32 m²) per student.
Support
Building 6 in each quadrant houses maintenance and upkeep facilities. Its emphasis on industrial jobs and equipment requires a no-nonsense bare-bones environment, including such touches as floor markings to show door swing arcs. Visitors generally are directed to the quadrant’s building 1 aside from the rare, specialized sort who has some specific business with the departments therein.
Occupancy varies with different spaces in the building. Office and shop workers number 160. The canteen has room for 160 diners and the adjoining kitchen is staffed by 12 foodservice personnel. Rooms described as “services” include janitorial and housekeeping facilities—for example, at least one of them is a laundry—limited to a couple of dozen workers total on a rotating basis. “Staging” refers to a warehousing chamber for temporary storage of incoming supplies; exterior access is via an 8-foot roll-up door.
Other Details
Infrastructure
Isolated as the Campus is, significant additional construction was required to support and facilitate its function. A road around the entire compound accommodates motor vehicles including delivery trucks, providing access in several places to loading docks, side entrances, and parking—a lot surrounding three sides for visitors, a pair of multi-level garages for commuters, and a small heliport. This ring road, the gated two-lane road running more or less eastward from it to the nearest highway, and an additional spur extending to outlying structures are rated for a tractor with a forty-foot trailer, albeit barely.
- Services and utilities are self-contained to the extent feasible, even where that drove up costs. Security, minimizing disturbance of the existing environment, and reducing long-distance construction of piping and wiring, with attendant difficulties, all figured into this decision.
- Water is pumped from a nearby cluster of cisterns, which in turn are supplied from the same mains that lead out to Camp Everfree, ranger stations, and other facilities within the park’s boundaries, expanded for the additional demand.
- Sewage is dealt with through a combination of septic tanks, on-site treatment, and outflow to the same carry-off serving Camp Everfree, ranger stations, and other facilities within the park’s boundaries.
- Power is tapped from the nearest high-tension lines and stepped down in a transformer station, though on-site back-up generators and battery banks will run the entire complex on low-power mode for several days if necessary.
- Bandwidth including television and telephony is provided by satellite; the trade-off in lag time was considered acceptable, though it does create the occasional moment of frustration for video gamers during off hours.
Courtyards and Portal
At the center of each quadrant’s courtyard stands a large domed gazebo of ashlar stonework, floored with pavers; a pergola-covered walkway extends from its southwest edge to building 1. For west, east, and south quadrants it serves mostly as space for al fresco dining and other outdoor events. In addition, while not a serious security measure, it does go some way to hamper possible intelligence-gathering via overhead imagery.
In north quadrant, however, it shelters the portal plinth, removed from Canterlot High School during the construction of the Campus and translocated with due care to stand near the gazebo’s northeast edge. (A new rearing-horse statue replaced it, generously funded through an “anonymous” donation from HRH’s privy purse.)
Travelers through the portal emerge from the plinth facing southwest, toward the gazebo’s center, ensuring they are sheltered from any rain or snow. Outdoor placement was chosen despite potential weather-related discomfort to cushion the immediate impact of digital-age technology, and the resulting culture shock, on first-time visitors from a world in the midst of its Industrial Revolution.
Landscaping differs from one half of the Campus to the other. South and east quadrants feature indigenous plants in pseudo-naturalistic arrangements. North and west quadrants favor more formal flower gardens with shade trees, especially plants common to both worlds.
Canterlot City
The establishment and development of what amounts to a small university at the periphery of the metropolitan area has created a minor but measurable impact on the latter’s economic, political, and social scenes. For diplomatic and practical reasons, relocating the portal terminus was out of the question; chief among the latter was the existing limited public knowledge of matters related to it and the desire not to spread that to a new locale. The local populace who are in on the portal secret generally understand and abide by the need to minimize information leaks—if nothing else, the effects of widespread attention might well not be beneficial to the city and its neighborhoods, let alone to them personally. The FSI satellite school was conceived as a means to provide partial camouflage for the portal facilities while serving a genuine need for expanded and dispersed training capacity.
Staff
The faculty, staff, and students at the Campus represent many civilian and military agencies. For that reason it was designed to host some six thousand people from both sides of the portal, though as yet it has not reached its capacity. More than half of that capacity is allotted to foreign-service professionals engaged in coursework at FSI’s schools or being processed through the Transition Center.
The Equestrian consulate currently employs about four hundred staff, about half its maximum limit, to fulfill its function of overseeing the portal and serving as a central coordination and communication hub for all its nation’s diplomatic missions in the human world. Many individuals are on tours of duty from the other side of the portal, but others are local specialists in jobs Equestria or its neighbors would find difficult or impossible to fill.
Following is a list of the most senior individuals currently serving at the Campus.
- Administrator Cookie Pusher, newly appointed head of the Campus, is at age forty-eight a veteran foreign service officer. Shortish and slight, with only a minor case of middle-age spread, Cook is handsome in a leading-man way, sporting short crisp dark hair, disconcertingly pale eyes, and a stone-gray complexion. He is married to a professional photographer, Wide Angle, and the two men have adopted a young daughter [who currently is a cipher without even a name]. When he visits Equestria, which he has been invited to do for guest lectures at the School for Gifted Unicorns and the School of Friendship, he is a unicorn. Office location: S1-411.
- Ambassador Ember, the current chief of mission to Equestria, is a third-generation foreign service officer and granddaughter of retired legendary FSO Pin Stripes. Though similar to Sunset Shimmer in age, height, and build, her coloration is radically different, featuring indigo hair and a cyan complexion. In spite of a native confidence and assertive personality, she covertly harbors some uncertainty over holding such a senior and responsible position, especially so early in her career. No one was more surprised than she when, upon emerging from the portal in Equestria for the first time, her alternate form turned out to be a dragon. Office location: W1-411.
- Colonel Rose Brass, senior military attaché at the embassy since it opened, technically is in charge of the Marine Corps security detachment—which as an Army officer amuses her and annoys them. Even at age sixty-three Rose remains tall and wiry, in taut shape for a woman nearing retirement. She has buzz-cut age-silvered hair and a brass complexion; the scarring on her face has been reduced by recent advances in cosmetic repairs, and a limited-function prosthetic in the shape of a cabochon has replaced her missing left eyeball. The latter’s dark-ruby coloration more or less matches her remaining eye. Her artificial right arm has been updated a few times, but retains a sleek, postmodern industrial appearance. She is and has been single, though a persistent rumor claims she still carries a torch for Tempest Shadow after a year-long detached duty as bodyguard, minder, and counselor during the renegade unicorn’s struggle to reintegrate into civilian pony society. On the rare occasion she addresses the rumor, she denies its validity. When she visits Equestria, she is a pegasus with a prosthetic right wing of enchanted clockworks. Office location: W1-314.
- Consul Sunset Shimmer, head of the Equestrian consulate since the Campus opened, bears not only the usual consular responsibilities but oversight of the portal terminus and its immediate surroundings. Now age thirty-six, Sunset is of moderate height and good physical condition, and balances her professional duties against a career as an award-winning artist. On the job she favors trim business wear strongly influenced by Rose Brass’s wardrobe during the older woman’s years as a youth social worker, and has cut her unruly red and yellow hair to shoulder length. When “off the clock” she still enjoys dressing down or gussying up, as appropriate. She and Twilight Sparkle long ago settled, somewhat by default and a bit unexpectedly even to them, into a long-term relationship. Office location: N1-411.
- Vice-Consul Raven Inkwell, seconded from the royal court in one of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s first official acts, helped to set up the consulate during the construction of the Campus and currently “holds the fort” when Sunset is absent for whatever reason. Experienced and quietly efficient, the middle-aged Raven is an excellent foil for her younger superior’s more fiery temperament and exhibits a deft touch in her interactions with her foreign neighbors. She is curious about the human world but, aside from a few official travels, generally tends to stray no farther from the portal than the nearby Canterlot City. Office location: N1-433.
Related Matters
The Campus does not exist in a vacuum, of course—other people, places, and things have a bearing on its operation or vice versa.
The Rainbooms
Now around age thirty-four, the Rainbooms remain close-knit even if not always together, and play at local music venues when they can. Once in a while they still have to chase down wild magic, and as often as not “pony up” in the process, but over the years it has waned—if nothing else, their efforts have cleaned up most of the magical clutter by now. Some mirror-pairs track more or less together, while others differ markedly.
- Applejack, needless to say, helps to run Sweet Apple Acres. She and Rarity have married and live in a detached bungalow some distance from the main house.
- Doctor Fluttershy (DVM) is one of the region’s leading veterinarians. She is married to a rather disreputable older man who seems suspiciously familiar to Princess Twilight and Raven Inkwell.
- Pinkie Pie is in the catering business and has a family essentially identical to her counterpart’s, which delights both of them.
- Captain Rainbow Dash is an Air Force officer who has spent most of her career to date at an air base a few tens of miles (or kilometers) away thanks to superiors who are read in on Eloptic Machine. She has left a trail of relationships behind her, though to her credit they generally ended amicably.
- Rarity is a rising fashion designer, thanks in part to Prim Hemline and to a smaller degree Vignette Valencia. Her spouse’s devotion to the family farm and the whole group’s magical responsibilities are why she hasn’t moved away, though she does take frequent business trips.
- Spike, his life extended by the same magic that gave him sapience, spends a lot of time with the other Rainbooms as well as with his dearest friend Twilight. He endures the occasional poking and prodding, usually under Fluttershy’s firm supervision, but as he has gained citizenship thanks to Cook’s tireless efforts and Princess Twilight’s formal request through diplomatic channels, there is a strict limit.
- Doctor Twilight Sparkle (PhD) is a scientist and engineer working for a small government office dedicated to advanced research projects, and has a long list of patents to her name. She and Sunset Shimmer seem to be together for the long haul, but as yet they have not formalized it in marriage.
Eloptic Machine
The security classification of the Eloptic Machine compartment, which covers all matters related to the portal, was downgraded from secret to confidential after the Campus opened. Equestria’s security protocols are less formal, but have been relaxed in similar fashion. This has cleared the way for a limited exchange of research and support between the two nations, notably in assisting with the magical clean-up most frequently pursued by Sunset Shimmer and her friends. Moreover, the Campus enjoys an informal “sister school” relationship with the School of Friendship in Ponyville and, to a lesser extent, the School for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot.
Equestria
HRH, though fascinated by the wonders of digital-age technology, recognizes the need to proceed cautiously. Strict limits are imposed on the importation and dissemination of new concepts and devices, aided by the portal’s idiosyncratic notions of whether and how to transform objects passing through it. At this time the country is just beginning to electrify, a process fostered by one of the princess's few concessions: taking action based on research into the false starts and dead ends experienced in the human world during its equivalent period, such as bypassing direct current in favor of going straight to alternating current.
The Portal Mirror
The mirror that generates the portal has been reconstructed with more permanent and less makeshift modifications that also ameliorate its tendency to fling travelers with excessive force. It was relocated to a side wing of the rebuilt Ceremonial Palace in Canterlot, where the coronation and accession ceremonies for Princess Twilight were held (and where Princess Cadance and then-Colonel Shining Armor were married). The mirror resides against the back wall of the main hall, and like the area around the other terminus, the rest of the building houses a consulate for the other nation. A neighboring wing, in turn, is Equestria’s equivalent to the west quadrant of the Campus.
Other People
Princess Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and the rest of the Rainbooms have touched many lives, often to profound effect.
- Flash Sentry is building a career as a capable and versatile session guitarist and vocalist, having discovered his passion is the music itself rather than chasing stardom. Though unknown to the public, he is becoming a name within the industry. He and Sunset remain good friends.
- Celestia and Luna are running the school district. While they long to return to teaching, they know they are doing a good job and know they are needed in it. They seem to be married to their work.
- The Dazzlings, with retrained voices, are doing reasonably well in the music industry, possessing the drive and competitive streak to persevere in a sometimes bruising field. They are less successful with relationships.
- Cadance is still principal of Crystal Preparatory Academy, and somewhat later than her pony counterpart married and had Flurry Heart.
- Shining Armor is employed in network security and periodically serves as a volunteer firefighter. He is, of course, married to Cadance and father of Flurry Heart.
- Camp Everfree and the siblings who own it continue their summer-to-summer existence, supplemented by a trickle of off-season traffic, primarily from the Campus. The young love between Timber Spruce and Sci-Twi long since has bloomed and faded, though the two are on good terms.
- Juniper Montage has experienced some success both before and behind the camera, starting from social media and online video platforms.
- Wallflower Blush is working for a landscaping firm and is showing promise; the Campus is one of her accounts, partly because of her ability and partly because dealing with her involves no security complications. She is able to walk and sustain a day’s physical labor on her beloved gardens, thanks to extensive physical (and psychological) therapy in the wake of a suicide attempt shortly after graduation from CHS. However, running or similar full-stretch exertion remains difficult for her.
- Vignette Valencia long ago exhausted her proverbial fifteen minutes of social-media fame and has ended up in more conventional promotional and creative work.
- The other Celestia and Luna, after a few years of peaceful retirement, found they were going stir-crazy. They liquidated much of their worth and became globetrotting vagabonds, though they make an effort to remain reachable should Princess Twilight require their assistance or advice. They have “waned” physically to roughly Cadance’s size, even their manes and tails reverting to the pastel pink or blue of their earlier days, and have begun natural aging again. Since that started from a point of late youth or early middle age, they have many years ahead of them still.
- Grimoire Lectern passed away several years ago, in the wake of which his bookstore finally closed.
- Pin Stripes has retired from her long and colorful career in the Foreign Service, leaving behind her final post of permanent undersecretary, the most senior position attainable by an FSO. More than one of her progeny and grand-progeny have followed the family tradition of service she established.
Are you throwing out an open source world?
That’s so cool.
What about Spike? Did the blast of magic that gave him the ability to talk extend his lifespan?
Brilliant stuff throughout. Always nice to see people reach beyond high school for this setting, and this makes a wonderful amount of sense. Makes me wonder how many times the Pinkies have switched places... though I suspect that if anyone can tell, its their respective spouses and/or children... who may choose to be in on the joke rather than tell anyone.
And I'm sure you can guess my vote on the Sunset/Sci-Twi situation. I'm fully aware of my biases there.
RIP Olde Bookstore.
This is definitely an excellent start for anyone wanting to play in this world.
I like it. Plenty of logical extensions off of what we've seen and none of it feels out of place. About the only thing that does is that the government is letting poor Twilight see the light of day - a top-tier scientific mind in a field she's basically invented and no other nation has access to? The number of classified seminars alone that she has to be giving must have her scrambling.
Personally I'm intrigued by the Sunset/Raven dynamic. They're two very diverse personalities and with what they're handling I'm sure there's some very interesting meetings going on. (I also admit a small shipper's squee at Cook finding love and the hints of Rose/Tempest .)
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Lectern’s also is open for other folks to use, and I do have an unpublished anthology titled The Campus awaiting completion of the first chapter, but yes—this is available for interested writers to borrow, though I do appreciate some consultation first.
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Good catch. Yes, and I’ve updated to add that.
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I can just see the Pinkies’ families being able to tell—but utterly unable to articulate how they can—and having just that reaction.
Sunset/Sci-Twi does have a siren call.I gave up. They’re together.5158009
Alas, yes, though the building may reopen as a different business or even a different bookstore. Most of my thought has gone into the Campus rather than the bookstore, so I haven’t dealt with that yet.
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With tips from her elders including Cook and strong support from her friends, Sci-Twi put her foot down about having a life, and made that a condition of employment; with her background and ability she could write her own ticket in the private sector, so she had leverage. Also, a lot of her work is in entirely conventional if bleeding-edge technology, and through her contacts she occasionally can call on a guest lecturer from Equestria to cover magical matters. DARPA, which is what I’m modeling the office on, is surprisingly small—a little over a couple of hundred people total, of which almost half is management.
Would SciTwi ever be allowed to even hear of a paper proposing a hypothetical basis for a framework for narrative causality? Given her freindship with Pinkie?
Interesting lay out of a combination of secret base, training school, and foreign embassy. It sounds like each nation gets to control the other side of the portal for security purposes.
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Or, thinking about it another way, perhaps After Sunset and Sci-Twi started dating, Applejack and/or Rarity began to reconsider their feelings toward the other. This way the abundance gains a logical step.
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More or less, though the devil is in the details. I do plan to devote at least one installment of my upcoming anthology to the security arrangements and the dynamics between the Royal Guard and the Marine Corps.
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I’m thinking maybe the other way around—that Rarity and Applejack getting more serious was the impetus for Sunset and Sci-Twi.
(Yes, my resistance is weakening.)I gave up. They’re together.Heh. I get the sense that it was one of those cases where both of them realized they were dating two years into the relationship.
Also, nice to see Spike got citizenship. A landmark achievement in nonhuman sapient rights. (Next step, giving Australia's emus their own nation!
)
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Something very like that, yeah. I’m thinking Sunset and Sci-Twi were in a roommate situation—maybe during university, maybe after, I’m not sure—which they gradually realized actually was something considerably more, and they just stayed together. Sunset, of course, was stated to be bi (though I never have been sure if that was serious or a joke on Ms. Hadley’s part), and I get a vague feeling Sci-Twi is bi only for Sunset. Some individuals in both governments are a bit soggy and hard to light about the whole thing, given the two women’s differing citizenships, security clearances, and access to sensitive information. That can get awkward, which of course is perfect from a storytelling point of view.
Of course, those who matter in their lives don’t care, including HRH, Cook, Sci-Twi’s ultimate boss, and the agencies whose job is to check on such things. Moreover, the two of them understand and accept there are things about their jobs they can’t talk about even with, or especially with, each other, and that was enough for the clearance investigators. Of course, busybodies being busybodies, that probably won’t stop the whinging.
Dealing with nonhuman sapience under the law has a surprisingly long history. Alas, I do not recall his name, but an English jurist back in the late Middle Ages or early Northern Renaissance grappled with the subject in an essay. His example was angels, but the principles he applied would work equally well for extraterrestrials or talking dogs. The basic point was that sapience, not humanity, is the essential element, and he likely would have been delighted by the Turing test.
If there is any higher life form on the planet that utterly lacks sapience, it’s emus.