//------------------------------// // Postscripts, Credits & Acknowlegements // Story: Parade Coverage // by McPoodle //------------------------------// Parade Coverage Postscript #1 Not too long ago, there was a nation of humans ruled by a cruel despot. His subjects obeyed him, but out of fear instead of love. Humans by the thousands were sent into the earth to mine the minerals that made him rich, but he refused to share his riches with his people, and the humans who made him his fortune were locked away in hospitals to waste away, in hopes that everyone would eventually forget about them. One day a human named Andrei, whose health and sanity had been destroyed in the mines, broke free of his confinement. To the humans he met, he preached a message, not of hatred for his captor, but of forgiveness and laughter, a philosophy he said he learned from an imaginary pink friend. He was quite mad, you see. The despot caught Andrei and executed him on live television, as an lesson to the others. The populace responded to this “lesson” by rising up and overthrowing him. In respect for Andrei, they did not execute their former leader, but instead tried and convicted him of his crimes and then “retired” him to the same generous retirement home where he had sent his miners. He ended up not lasting any longer than they did. To posterity, these events became known as the “Pink Revolution”. Postscript #2 With four days to spare before the cross-worlds portal would be reopened, Twilight Sparkle and Spike returned to Ponyville. Upon reaching the library tree, the exhausted dragon excused himself to go straight to bed. Twilight used her magic to take a large steamer trunk downstairs where she could examine its contents without waking her assistant. After moving aside innumerable mementos of a largely friendless childhood, and delicately moving her Smartypants doll where she could watch the proceedings, she proceeded to dig out an ancient-looking blue scroll and carefully unroll it. “‘Beyond forest, meadow and stream, beyond ocean, mountain and desert, lies the Swamp of Fomalhaut.’ So said the human Voltige as he sat at the hooves of the Princess.” Twilight read aloud. This time, she vowed, she would not fail to uncover the lesson that Princess Celestia had once promised was tied to this story. Credits & Acknowledgements My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is the property of Hasbro, with the fourth generation interpretation of this property courtesy of Lauren Faust and the team she created at DHX. The characters of Princesses Celestia and Luna (and Nightmare Moon), Discord, Twilight Sparkle (and Spike and Smartypants), Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy are all respectfully taken from that source, as are the locations of Canterlot, Hoofington and Ponyville (and Equestria itself, for that matter). All other characters (including the announcers) are my own creation, and are not meant to be representative of any actual Rose Parade announcers. The Tournament of Roses Parade (usually referred to as simply the “Rose Parade”) is produced each year by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. The parade being depicted here was the one from 2010. I wish to express especial thanks to YouTube user Music213, who posted the performances of not only every band in the parade, but also every BandFest entry for that year as well. America’s Got Talent is a television program on the American NBC network, produced by Simon Cowell alongside Britain’s Got Talent, Arabs Got Talent, Canada’s Got Talent, India’s Got Talent, Românii au talent, and dozens of other shows, all created as part of their sinister plot to take over the world with the atrocious grammar of the phrase “Got Talent”. Natural Balance Pet Foods is, unsurprisingly, a pet food manufacturer headquartered in Pacoima, California—one of those city names that just begs to be pronounced with a Jerry Lewis voice. It was founded by actor Dick Van Patten. I swear that I did not make up Tillman the Snowboarding Bulldog—he actually was the star attraction of the Natural Balance float in 2010. The Ohio University Marching 110 of Athens, Ohio, is under the direction of Dr. Richard Suk. The song “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” which I used was part of their program in the 2010 Bandfest, but in my opinion the particular performance I linked to from earlier in 2009 was superior. “Separate Ways” is a 1983 song by Journey. The Western Haflinger Association is an appreciation society for the Haflinger breed of horse. The Humboldt University of Berlin is a German state university, the successor of the Charíte mental institution where I put the portal between Earth and Equestria in “The Best of All Possible Worlds”. “That’s What Friends Are For” is a 1982 song written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. The version I remember was sung by a group led by Dionne Warwick. Star Trek is the jealously-held property of Paramount Pictures, and don’t you forget it. “Knights of the Round Table” is a song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, directed by Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones). The statue that Rarity comments on is a replica of “The Thinker”, by Auguste Rodan (1902). The museum itself is the Norton Simon, an art museum frequently appearing as a backdrop in Rose Parade telecasts. The Living Museum of the Horse was originally founded as the greatest stable in France by order of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon and Prince of Condé, in 1719. He believed that when he died that he would be reincarnated as a horse, and wanted a location worthy of his new form. Coincidentally, the “Condé” name in America became “Conday”. “Brush My Horsey” is meant to be this world’s equivalent of the original My Little Pony franchise (created by Bonnie Zacherle in 1981), but without a TV show tie-in. Die Hard is a 1988 film directed by John McTiernan. It rocked. Flickr is the property of Yahoo, Inc. YouTube is a subsidiary of Google LLC. The actual 1976 bronze medal in team dressage was won by the American team, which included Edith Master and her horse Dahlwitz. The character of Edith Conday is in no way, shape or form meant to represent Edith Master. The pooka is a creature of Irish folklore, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen more of them in FIMfiction. They are usually depicted as being more benevolent than the one I had Edie imagine. The unnamed second band in Chapter 5 was the Millard West High School Wildcat Marching Band, from Omaha, Nebraska. Here is a link to their BandFest performance, which consisted of the pieces “Autumn”, “Stuck Part 1 and 2” and “Tribute to America”. Rainbow Dash saying she’d go crazy if she was ever stuck in a bed was an obvious reference to the episode “Read It and Weep” written by Cindy Morrow, which since this story takes place right before the end of “The Return of Harmony Part 2” hasn’t strictly speaking happened yet. “The Return of Harmony” was written by M. A. Larson. The word “okay,” commonly written as “OK,” is of uncertain origin, first becoming prominent in the American presidential election of 1840. “The character of mercy” is a paraphrasing of “The quality of mercy” speech from the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (1596). The Roman Empire (27 BC - AD 476 in the west, 285 - 1453 in the east). May it rest in peace. “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is a folk song first published in 1858. In the 2010 Rose Parade, it was performed by the Conroe Tiger Marching Band, under the direction of Bobby W. Heathcock. Amdo and Kham are two of the varieties of the Tibetan spoken language. Pay no attention to the snarky graduate student. The planes flying overhead in the parade were Navy F-18 fighter jets, manned by pilots of the Fighting Redcocks of Strike Fighter Squadron 22, operating out of the Naval Air Station at Lemoore, California. Finally, the story Twilight reads at the very end is “The Frog Princess of Fomalhaut”, from “The Best of All Possible Worlds”. The human Voltige is an alias of the philosopher Voltaire.