Story Notes: 16 (Sunny Rays) · 2:48am Feb 22nd, 2022
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/789330
Poor old Sunny Rays...
That was the inspiration behind this chapter. Once my mind altered the lyrics 'Poor old Johnny Ray' from Come On Eileen I knew that was the direction I had to take with Sunny.
A big shout-out to my pre-readers, Snowliasion & Roxylalolcat!
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/110450
"What kind of idiot waits until the last second to put a band together?"
They're all fillies, still in school, they live in different towns, and Equestria's rail network isn't exactly bullet train fast. It's not that Svengallop was stupid or unprepared, but simply a matter of unfortunate scheduling. They did well despite the deck being stacked against them.
Also, Coloratura's band was on standby, just in case.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/839110
Carol Sing is, of course, a ponification of Carole King. When it comes to mentors, Sunny couldn't have better ones than Carol and Coloratura.
Expy's Midnight Trotters doesn't quite count as an Expy* of Dexys Midnight Runners. Since 'dexys' is a drug reference, I substituted a trope name that seemed appropriate. Also, it should be noted that Dexys frontman Kevin Rowland was 28 at the time Come On Eileen was released. Johnny Ray was decades removed from his own biggest hits.
Meanwhile, this is another chapter where I've improvised song lyrics. And you can easily see why I don't do that for a living. This time around, I had no set tunes in mind.
*This is technically an example of No Celebrities Were Harmed. 
Also, while the original version hasn't been ponified to my knowledge, have a remake. With ponies!
https://derpibooru.org/images/2442640
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2569778
Sunny Rays representing G4 in the above image, with Dazzle Surprise (G3), Muse (G2), and Paradise (G1). If anyone was wondering why 'Paradise' was the code word back in Ploomette's third chapter, now you know.
Jazz Hooves makes a return! Exciting absolutely no one. We last saw her in Honeybuzz's chapter, running away from a bee and then slamming into a brick wall an earth pony (Honeybuzz) and breaking a leg. Honeybuzz's chapter took place in Seaddle, and Horsevallis is the pony version of Corvallis, Oregon (Johnny Ray's home state). It means the nearest major metropolitan zone to her is the Seaddle-Tackoma-Vanhoover combined statistical area. Jazz Hooves was shown to be musically talented back in Honeybuzz's chapter, and Sunny Rays, Honeybuzz, and Jazz Hooves are all roughly the same age.
There's a fine line between 'continuity' and 'one degree of separation'. Even though they're not mentioned in the chapter, Honeybuzz and Bumblesweet are in the audience of Sunny Rays' first concert. It's one of the rare moments the twins get along with one another. Well, briefly.
Because Sunny's chapter was running long, the scene where she interacts with them has been added to Honeybuzz's chapter, since her chapter is significantly shorter (prior to the addition, Honeybuzz had one of the shortest chapters of all our ponies and this helps alleviate that a bit). Sunny Rays' chapter: "Then she and I signed autographs until well after midnight, when the last pony finally left." What's been added to Honeybuzz's chapter (conveniently in the chapter notes so no one has to go back and read an old chapter):
Seaddle: nine years, six months, and twenty-one days ago
Bumblesweet and I stood in a line outside the Princess Dome, home to the Seaddle Seaducks hoofball team. For one night only, it was host to Countess Coloratura. The show had been sold out for months, but Jazz Hooves was part of the opening act. She had tickets for our whole class.
Maybe she was excited for the concert, or maybe she was just bored, but my sister was even in a good mood… for once. We chatted as we waited to be let in, talking about everything and nothing. I wish this what all of our interactions were like.
A stallion was walking down the line, checking tickets. When he got to us, he pulled us out of line and sent us with a mare that led us to a backdoor. A bunch of fillies and colts were already in the room, and I recognized several of our classmates. I spotted Tootsie Roll and trotted over to him. “Do you know what’s going on?”
He shook his head. “I’m starting to think Jazz was lying and passed out fake tickets. They’re probably going to send us all to the dungeon.”
I giggled at that. “I don’t think they’d send foals to jail for trying to use fake tickets to get into a concert.”
A stallion walked into the room and clopped his hoof on the floor thrice. “Attention everypony. I’m Svengallop, manager to Countess Coloratura and Sunny Rays. As I’m sure you all know, the countess enjoys meeting with schoolponies before her concerts. You’ve all been chosen to meet her.”
There was cheering as we stomped our hooves in applause.
“All right, settle down. Quiet, quiet. I know you’re excited, but there are some ground rules I need to cover. First of all, no touching Countess Coloratura. Secondly, no talking to the countess unless you’re spoken to first. One picture per pony, so make it count. Any questions?”
Almost every hoof in the room went up and Svengallop groaned. “Not, it isn’t time yet. You’ll meet with her in thirty minutes and the session lasts for an hour, and not one minute more. Does that answer all your questions?” He ignored the ponies that were shaking their heads ‘no’. “Good, ‘cause we’re done here. See you in half an hour.”
Thankfully the mare who’d led us to the room stuck around to answer questions, and the stallion who’d been checking tickets came in with a cart filled with snacks and drinks. I grabbed an apple and a glass of orange juice.
It wasn’t long before Countess Coloratura entered the room, and after a collective gasp, the room fell silent. “Greetings, everypony!” She waved at all of us. “I’m Countess Coloratura. How many of you are here because you know Sunny Rays?”
A bunch of hooves went up, and she directed them to line up in the hallway outside. Once they did, she took them somewhere, leaving the rest of us to wonder just what was going on.
She came back ten minutes later. “How many of you know Jazz Hooves?”
I put my hoof in the air, as did the rest of my classmates. Tootsie Roll was eating another apple, so I flicked my tail against his flank to get his attention. He sheepishly put his hoof in the air too, apple and all.
She directed us to line up in the hall and we did so. Then Countess Coloratura came out and led us to a room down the hall where a photographer was set up. One by one we entered the room and she gave us her signature hoofsies as the photographer took our picture. I could feel my sister’s death glare on the back of my head as I got to meet the countess before she did. Coloratura stamped my cheek as the camera clicked. She patted my head, and just like that I was standing in the hallway again.
Tootsie Roll joined me a minute later, and then Bumblesweet came through a minute after him. She whispered in my ear, “Honeybuzz and Tootsie, sitting in the yard, K-I-S-S-I-…”
I pushed a hoof against her mouth. “Grow up, sis.” I rolled my eyes. All because I got to meet Countess Coloratura before her.
After all of our classmates had had their pictures taken, a mare led us to the stadium where we’d be sitting. We walked past row after row of empty seats and then I glimpsed the first group sitting in the front row. We were heading right for them. Oh my gosh, we’ve got second row seats!
Our teacher was sitting along the aisle and we filed past her. Leading the way, I walked all the way though until I reached the other end of the row of seats. Bumblesweet sat next to me, Tootsie Roll on her other side.
My face flushed red as I heard my sister say to Tootsie Roll, “Honeybuzz likes you. Wanna switch seats so you can be next to her?” He nodded, and they traded places.
I’ve never had any interest in Tootsie Roll. She’s setting him up for failure, and he’s going to blame me when his heart gets broken. We’re too young for love and crushes and all that. What do couples even do? Hold hooves, I guess? I reached a hoof toward him and he bumped it. And that was that. He didn’t speak a word about it, so I didn’t bring it up either. Maybe he already figured out that she's messing with me by messing with him? I don’t care if you play petty games with me, sis, but leave others out of it.
I couldn’t help but notice she’d upgraded her own seat in the process, sitting another seat closer to the center of the row.
The concert was as awesome as expected, and of course it was over far too soon. Fireworks were going off, but much of the audience was leaving. Our teacher motioned for all of us to follow her, and she led us back to the room we’d been waiting in earlier. Our photos were ready, and were distributed to us.
We milled about, and I learned that Sunny Rays was from Horsevallis and her drummer was from Tackoma. Their respective classmates were staying in the hotel at the top of Bay’s Needle.
Eventually the stars of the show trotted in. Coloratura quickly autographed the photos that had been taken earlier, the practiced hoof stamping of a pony that’s done this more times than she could count. Sunny was slow, clumsy, and seemed embarrassed to be there. A stack of glossy 5x7 photos had been given to her to autograph, and she did so.
I’d made sure that Bumblesweet was well ahead of me in line, and took my place at the end. By the time she got to me, I could tell she was eager for the night to be over.
“Didn’t you already come through the line?”
“That was my twin sister, Bumblesweet.”
She paused to think about that. “So you know Jazz Hooves?”
I nodded. “I broke her leg.”
She blinked at that. “Did she forget to pay you her lunch money?”
“Nothing that ominous. She was running away from a bee and smacked into me. Earth pony versus pegasus, head-on, both of us at full gallop.”
She winced. “Ouch.”
“That’s what we both said. Her especially. It worked out for the best though. We’re friends now because of it. If she hadn’t broken her leg, she’d probably be dancing right now instead of being on tour with you. Tell her you talked to ‘the brick wall she hit’ and she’ll give you all the details.”
We chuckled, and Sunny Rays stamped her hoof on a photo of herself and hoofed it to me. “Nice meeting you, ‘Brick Wall’.”
“It’s Honeybuzz, actually.”
“Not anymore.”
“Don’t make me break your leg.”
She laughed. “You’re supposed to say that before the show, not after it.” With a hug, she turned and walked out, following Coloratura to the autograph session the rest of the fans were waiting for.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/924761
My chapter lengths keep getting longer. This isn't intentional on my part, and I'm not sure why it's happening that way. But as the story goes on, I feel more and more like I gypped the characters who appeared earlier in the fic. As such, I'll be bringing all characters up to a minimum of 10,000 words in their introductory chapter. Honeybuzz will still need another scene, and Cherry Pie, Daisy Dreams, Dewdrop Dazzle, Diamond Rose, and Feathermay will need additional scenes as well. Flitterheart and Lily Blossom might get some more words too. Nothing will be plot critical, rather this is just to help flesh out their characters some more. Daisy Dreams in particular - she's the only one of the cast I've never found a voice for.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
The radio plays an ad for Studebaker and Packard wagons. Shown above is a Wagonaire, as heard in the ad. Studebaker was a maker of Conestoga wagons until the turn of the 20th Century, getting into this new field known as 'motorcars' as the business for horse-drawn vehicles plummeted.
Packard was an early automaker, and their cars were very prestigious. During the 1930s Packard started going downmarket (due to the Great Depression), intentionally bleeding the brand name white, diluting its appeal to their longtime clients in an attempt to stay solvent. By the mid-1950s, the auto industry in the United States was consolidating. Willys (makers of the Jeep) merged with Kaiser (Kaiser's automotive division was gobbled up by AMC in 1970, AMC was acquired by Renault, who dumped it on Chrysler when they left the American market in 1987; Chrysler has been bought and sold multiple times in the last two and a half decades, and now finds itself part of Stellantis... but the one constant through all that is Jeep). Hudson merged with Nash (forming the aforementioned AMC). Packard purchased Studebaker in what may be the worst case of failing to do due diligence on record. Packard bought Studebaker in 1954. By 1956 Packards were little more than gussied-up Studebakers and after 1958 the famous luxury brand was gone entirely. Studebaker amazingly survived until 1966, after fleeing to Canada in 1964.
During the 1950s, Studebaker offered a bare bones car at a cut rate price. Painted cardboard interiors? I wasn't making that up. What did they call this stripped down model? In what is certainly one of the least politically correct names of all time, the Scotsman. The idea was to appeal to those budget conscious shoppers with an image of Scottish thriftiness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Scotsman
I enjoy using Studebaker in my stories since they were one of the few producers of horse-drawn wagons that went on to success in the automobile industry. If you've ever seen an ad on TV featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales... the Budweiser fleet of wagons they pull are all Studebakers manufactured circa 1900.
Had Studebaker survived to the present day, they'd be celebrating their 170th anniversary this year. To put this into perspective, Ford's 120th anniversary is next year.
Shown below is a 1958 Packard, end of the road for the marque.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
I never thought I'd be writing about 'the talk'. I like to think I could do better than Sunny's father did. Autodefenstration fail.
Maybe that's why he ran off with all her bits. Nah, he was already getting fat off his progeny's proceeds before that. Quite literally, at that. Somepony really likes cookies, and Cookie Delight really enjoys making cookies.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2428621
The chapters keep getting longer as the story goes on. I could probably write about these characters forever. There's no shortage of ideas, only a shortage of writing time.
It surprises me just how little artwork is out there for Sunny Rays. Of our cast, she's the only one to be a background pony in the show, and she's had multiple blind bag toys and a release as a brushable as well.
Next up is the only one of our sixteen mares to never show up in the series to date. Fourteen of our cast members showed up in Business Trip and/or Mr. Jones Goes To Equestria. 16 opened with Cherry Pie, bringing us up to fifteen, and now more than 200,000 words later, we're finally going to meet the sixteenth and final pony next chapter.
Sweetie Swirl is... up next. Nope, no spoilers.
Someone said Come on Eileen. It must be shared.
I usually keep the chapter lengths kinda the same (or at least, I’m doing that in Destination Unknown), but I also tend to run longer and longer as a story goes on. I think it’s getting comfortable with the characters, maybe?
Also, speaking of cardboard interiors, I used to own a Chevette Scooter and I think the door panels were cardboard, or maybe one step above that.
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I rarely write multi-chapter stories, and this is now almost four times longer than the next longest thing I've ever written. This is new territory for me, but that makes sense!
Chevette Scooter? I haven't seen one of those in decades! I don't even have a photo of one of those! They weren't popular, quite the opposite of the Scotsman I mentioned. The stripped down Scotsman became Studebaker's most popular model (despite the fact I've never seen one), while two decades later Chevy couldn't give the base model Scooter away.
While I haven't shot a Scooter, I have managed photos of more Chevettes than you might expect:
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The Pontiac T1000:
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7c867467-fa6f-457a-a5f1-ae7cf0a3184d/d6nm3sw-6c5bb5c3-ff79-4140-9b52-49ccc8f55cf6.jpg/v1/fill/w_1024,h_683,q_75,strp/random_spotting_by_swiftysgarage_d6nm3sw-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NjgzIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvN2M4Njc0NjctZmE2Zi00NTdhLWE1ZjEtYWU3Y2YwYTMxODRkXC9kNm5tM3N3LTZjNWJiNWMzLWZmNzktNDE0MC05YjUyLTQ5Y2NjOGY1NWNmNi5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.puqVqM9H1oQXw6n7_Gu-T5Opoez8svPyymAWzn3SzQI
And lastly... this thing.
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/7c867467-fa6f-457a-a5f1-ae7cf0a3184d/dazxle9-d5629a8f-7e4e-4e03-bd66-fcabc9321c62.jpg/v1/fill/w_1024,h_683,q_75,strp/mcnasty_by_swiftysgarage_dazxle9-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NjgzIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvN2M4Njc0NjctZmE2Zi00NTdhLWE1ZjEtYWU3Y2YwYTMxODRkXC9kYXp4bGU5LWQ1NjI5YThmLTdlNGUtNGUwMy1iZDY2LWZjYWJjOTMyMWM2Mi5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTAyNCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.zXw5uIE0s3FW-h1VgQO4F4xECO2Wkqs1EeuYUA5Y64E
I’m hindsight, I expected Cookie Delight to be named Cookie Crumbles as an instance of foreshadowing.
Also, Sunny Ray’s remote location made her one of the few ponies of the 16 personally unaffected by Cozy Glow, Tirek, Chrysalis, or Discord. A good choice for a friend to Flitterheart.
I had a thought regarding the question of Sunny's first band being so impromptu. So while Svengallop is a scummy leech of a pony, I figured that perhaps he did what he did to see how Sunny and her band dealt with pressure/potential failure. Useful metrics for such a high-intensity industry/environment.
In a similar way, I've subscribed to the headcanon that Twilight hatching Spike's egg was an unusual unforeseen event. That the Dragon egg and other similar tests were intended to be measures of how prospective students to CSGU reacted to failure. Not at all a perfect system but when used correctly a useful tool nevertheless.
P.S. I googled Chevrolet Scooter and found some pictures. Also, I didn't know about the Packard thing, at first glance it seemed to be merely a silly ponyism. The more you know.
Thanks for putting that new scene in here! While I enjoy the story, I'm also low on time and hungry at the moment, and I appreciated not having to look back for it. :)
Will you also be posting the new scenes for the others in blog posts?
And thank you for writing, story and blog post both!
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That makes a surprising amount of sense.
I do have lots of ponyisms, but this one's because I'm a massive car nerd.
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You're welcome, and yes, that's my plan going forward with further additions to earlier chapters.
You're welcome!
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Yeah, I figure that even if he's a massive "cough" he isn't a total idiot. On the other hoof, we see both here and in canon that Cronyism and Nepotism run freely in Equestria so it's possible he got his job because of connections rather than skill alone.
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In this story, he's very good at what he does. Unfortunately. He has a hoof on what's popular. While neither Coloratura nor Sunny was particularly happy at him mangling their songs, neither one would've ever charted if not for him. The talent was there, but he made them stars.
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Ah, thanks. :)
:)
5638691
All I can offer you is a very blurry picture of one stuck on a snowdrift (it took only seconds to get it there, and hours to get it back off)
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/879533986303606834/945880029257166908/chevette_in_snow.jpg
I don’t have a pic of it, unfortunately, but a junkyard near where I used to live had 36 Chevettes all arranged in a neat row (3x12, IIRC). I have no idea why they were still keeping them in the late 90s.
5641570
Thank you for the photo! That must've been quite the experience. As someone who's gotten a Volvo wagon stuck in snow (a Hummer H2 came to my rescue), I feel your pain.
Either yours required 36 donors to keep alive, or they were planning a Chevette-only demolition derby...
5641604
That one was actually intentional; my buddy was driving (it was his car at the time) and decided he wanted to see how high up the snowmound he could get. The answer was nearly all the way.
I can’t recall if I’ve gotten one of my vehicles stuck in the snow ever. Got wreckers stuck in all sorts of things, and I’ve been stuck in the mud and in a grass ditch before; I also put a shop truck in the ditch once.
It wasn’t for mine . . . it was one of those junkyards that had lots of land, so they’d keep things basically forever in case anyone wanted parts off them. Or maybe the owner really liked Chevettes, who knows.