//------------------------------// // Epilogue, Credits & Acknowledgements // Story: Breakdown // by McPoodle //------------------------------// Breakdown Epilogue: I Can’t Control My Brain So...that happened. I’m tempted to delete that last chapter, but honestly it does a far better job of conveying that particular moment better than I’d be able to do with my hopelessly scrambled memories of that night. It’s been a few months since then. The crisis, of course, is past. Most of the ponies are back in Equestria, and most of the humans are still on Earth. There are a few portals between the worlds, but the bureaucratic hurdles required to actually use one are such that the majority of humans and ponies can do little more but dream of the other world. Not that I’ve really noticed any of this. No, I am quite preoccupied with my own concerns at Shady Pines, my new home-away-from-everything. No internet. No television or cell phones. Not a single luxury. I’ve never been happier in my entire life. Maybe it’s the drugs. Well, of course it’s the drugs, but maybe it’s not entirely the drugs. I feel like a great weight has lifted off of my shoulders, like my brother has actually forgiven me. Or if you want to be a bit less mystical, that I’ve finally forgiven myself for living when he died, that the world is in fact a little bit better for my not taking his place. Danielle and Gary, Wave Rider and Gold Star are fine, or so I’ve been told. Whether they enjoy this state of “fineness” separately or combined I do not know, for my handlers refuse to divulge the details. At this point, all I can assume is that none of them are dead or institutionalized and in my current state, what more can I do for them? Like the “Wolf Girl of L.A.”, in the end they worked out the proper solution for themselves. And Sally finally tracked down Benjamin Tinnon’s parents. I should feel guilty, I suppose, for not doing enough myself. My clients are all being taken care of by my colleagues, waiting until the day when I’ll well enough to emerge from this tranquil repose. In the case of the rich kids who made up most of them, they have no cause to miss me. As for the ponies and ex-ponies...I wonder if I’ll ever learn what happened to them? I’ve told my story to those of my fellow patients and caregivers that are willing to listen. I mean, of course I have—how else do you think you are able to read this tale? I may be forbidden to access the WWW myself, but there’s nothing to stop me getting something of mine out there. It’s my personal nurse who’s doing all the hard work, who published all these chapters, convinced the whole time that I was making the whole thing up. (Hello, Charles, I know you’re reading this.) Well, that was until he decided to go behind my back. Let me just show you the letter he got in the mail yesterday: Dear Charles, As always, it's great to hear from a fan, and I'm happy to report that I not only know your friend Nate, but I know him pretty well. During the merge event, he saved my life. Hopefully he is doing well, and I would not mind at all if he wrote to me. [...] Regardless, I hope that you, Nate, and the rest of your team have a great year. Erishy That little paragraph I removed was...something personal. I don’t feel comfortable sharing the personal details of my ex-client’s lives. Wow. I have changed, haven’t I? I suppose I’ll write her back someday, when I feel stable enough to know that it’s me writing. Whoever the new “me” settles out as. Oh, and the title of this chapter was a Ramones reference. I do in fact control my brain. ...I think. Credits and Acknowledgements My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is copyright Hasbro, with extra credit given to Lauren Faust for creating Friendship Is Magic, and for the crew at DHX Media for keeping the dream alive for four years now. The characters of Celestia, Luna/Nightmare Moon, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Pinkie Pie/Pinkamena, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Discord, Gilda, Shining Armor, Derpy, Vinyl Scratch, Queen Chrysalis, the locations of Equestria and Tartarus, and the concept of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony are taken from that source, with any deviations from canon being the doing of either myself or my collaborators in the PonyEarthverse (PEV). PEV is the creation of Skyblaze Freescript. Dr. Nathan Franklin was pretty much born in this blog post, and then developed in consultation with Hope, PEV’s current organizer. My thanks to my chapter collaborators Masterweaver, 7-4 and Hope, and the PEV IRC group for all of their help. Alright, so let’s go through the references one chapter at a time. (% % %) Chapter 1: This chapter contains a reference to “I.D. - That Indestructible Something”, by Chatoyance. I can’t tell you precisely what that reference is, as it’s sorta spoilerish. The opening is a parody of the stereotypical opening of PEV stories, where a six-foot tall male human wakes up in the body of a two-foot tall female pony. The day names (and PAPA, when it shows up) are taken from other PEV stories. Franklin’s dream was of “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, an 1842 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about a proud sea captain who brings his daughter onto his boat just before a fatal hurricane kills them all. (It is therefore a critique of bringing innocent ponies onto Earth, and foreshadowing of Franklin’s watery fate.) Nathan’s middle initial of “K” is consciously selected to be one letter after the stereotypical “J” used by so many cartoon characters (and that is it’s only significance). The cartoon where Bugs Bunny is brainwashed to think he is Elmer Fudd, complete with the “I own a mansion and a yacht” line, is from “Hare Brush” (Warner Bros., 1955, directed by Friz Freling; I really wish I could find a better site hosting it). Apple premiered the iPad in 2010. “These are the days of miracle and wonder” is a line from “Boy in the Bubble”, from the album Graceland (1986, Paul Simon), and is to me is one of the most representative songs and music videos of the 1980s—the lyric “the way we look to a distant constellation that’s dying in a corner of the sky” could be taken as a cynical view of Equestria, Discord, and his decision to involve us with his affairs.The Los Angeles Times was started by Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner in 1881. It’s owned by the Tribune Company—I used to read a quite-entertaining but now dead blog that did nothing but critique its abysmal coverage of Washington politics. The “flyover states” was a standard insult used by east- and west-coast American liberals in the 1980’s and 90’s to refer to the conservative heart of the country, because they would spend all their time flying from one coast to another without ever stopping in the middle. As referenced in the author’s notes for the chapter, the news about Fluttershy being shot is a reference to Chapter 20 of Hope’s story “Becoming Fluttershy”. Lillian Disney was the name of Walt Disney’s wife, so named because of her proximity to Hollywood power. Contrary to Dr. Franklin’s belief, “Cloudy Skies” is indeed the name of an original pony. I never did wind up using her for anything... Cafe 1919 is actually on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles. I never ate there, so I can’t say for sure if their food is any good. Dr. Norton Nimnul was a mad scientist character from the Disney Afternoon series Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers (1988, created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove), voiced by the legendary Jim Cummings, and the subject of an overly-long fanfic of mine in another life. Like all mad scientists, he was obsessed with controlling the world around him, to the point of roboticizing the animals he captured (naming the character Ivo Robotnik instead would have been way too obvious). Nyssa of Traken was a companion of the Fourth and Fifth incarnations of The Doctor from the “classic” era of the BBC television series Doctor Who, played by Sarah Sutton. This was the era of the show where the concept of “block transfer computations” was used—mathematical formulas capable of reshaping reality merely by being imagined. The first such use wiped out half the universe, including Nyssa’s home of Traken. The idea of using “junk DNA” to scientifically explain werewolves was actually something I came up with back in the sixth grade—my only excuse is that junk DNA was a very popular subject in the pages of Discover magazine back then. Willy McCoy was the protagonist of the song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” (1972, Jim Croce). The mention of the upcoming Third Season of Friendship Is Magic references the fact that the PEV series is set before the “Royal Wedding” episode of the series [you’ll notice I do a pretty poor job of maintaining this bit of continuity]. The bit about “a particular musician’s rap vs. orchestral pony music videos” is referencing The Living Tombstone (and I’m firmly on the orchestral side of that debate). The fanfic “Cupcakes” was written by Sergeant Sprinkles. Stan Gable was the jock character from Revenge of the Nerds (20th Century Fox, 1984, directed by Jeff Kanew). Midnight Sentry is an original pony character. “Ask Researcher Twilight” is a dark Tumblr narrative by Konstantin Vernikovskiy. Officer Wiggum is from The Simpsons (20th Television, 1987, created by Matt Groening), and is voiced by Hank Azaria. Little Lulu is a character created by Marg (Marjorie Henderson Buell) in 1935, known for being a strong-willed troublemaker. She ended up getting her own comic strip, which expanded into various animated and live-action series in the decades to follow. In her fantasy, Lulu is being seduced by “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel (1928). Virginia Slims is a cigarette brand manufactured by Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris). “F.D.R.” is a reference to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dr. Franklin’s namesake—here’s a rather typical picture of him with his cigarette holder. Google Maps is owned by Google, of course. Tubby is Little Lulu’s friend/rival in the comic. (% % %) Chapter 2: “Hoof in Mouth” is a deliberate and common misnomer for “hoof-and-mouth”, a disease afflicting cloven-hoofed animals. It’s doubling for the figure of speech “putting your foot in your mouth”. Buster Friendly is the name of a talk show host from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep (1968, Philip K. Dick) that did not survive the translation of that work into the film Blade Runner (Warner Bros., 1982, directed by Ridley Scott). His job in the story was to discredit the utopian religion of Mercerism that character J. R. Isidore (William Sanderson’s character of J. F. Sebastian in the film) believed in. I mention all of this because Mercerism is based on the idea that watching Mercer’s suffering will cleanse your soul, and Franklin will end up sharing quite a bit of suffering with the reader before we are done. Rum Cay is an island in the Bahamas. Goldie Lochs is an absurdly obvious attempt to disguise the name Goldilocks. It is not a reference to Goldilocks syndrome, rather of Missing White Woman Syndrome, particularly those missing white women who later turn up to have been partying somewhere like the Bahamas, a reference to the Britanee Drexel case [seriously, how many variations of the name “Brittany” are there?]. Hugh Lofting is the author of the Doctor Dolittle series of books, starting in 1920, who of course is the go-to fictional character when you want somebody who can talk to animals. Campbell’s Soup is, surprisingly, made by the Campbell’s Soup Company. They own the Campbell’s Kids (mascots for the brand from 1903 until about the 60s or so), body and soul. Dance Dance Revolution is an arcade game from 1998 created by Konami. The Nobel Prize is the legacy of Alfred Nobel, and the Physics prize is distributed annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Mitchell Larson is M. A. Larson, the author who created Discord for “The Return of Harmony” episodes of FIM. Lauren Faust is also a real person, who has a rather prominent part in PEV. The Wolf Girl of L.A. refers to the once-common story of feral children raised by animals, frequently wolves. Her human name of “Selene” comes from the Greek name for the Moon. I originally planned to give her a much more prominent role in this story, but I later found a replacement for her. The videos Dr. Franklin watches in this chapter come from Chapters 11, 13 and 22 of “Awakening Pink” by Masterweaver, Chapter 1 of “ParaDox: The story of how I became Derpy” by ParaDox Derpy, and Chapter 5 of “Becoming Rainbow Dash: A Brony Writer’s Tale” by Skyblaze Freescript. BaldDumboRat is...BaldDumboRat—no more need be said. The idea that unconscious eye direction indicates what an individual is thinking is derived from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a line of thought developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970’s—it’s not particularly well supported by scientific research. The Joker is a character from the Batman franchise of DC Comics, created by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was a television show created in 1963 for NBC, sponsored by the insurance company Mutual of Omaha, and originally hosted by Marlin Perkins.The Lathe of Heaven as stated, was written by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)—there was a remarkably good low-budgeted adaptation of it made by PBS station WNET in 1980 (directed by David Loxton and Fred Barzyk); the higher-budgeted A&E version from 2002 was nowhere near as good. And as should be obvious, it is the dreamer who is innocent and the sleep researcher who is evil in that story. (% % %) Chapter 3: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [sic] was written by Mr. Stevenson in 1886—periods were apparently in short supply that year. The 1999 movie adaptation starring Adam Baldwin called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was made for the USA cable network, and was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The Xbox video game console is manufactured by Microsoft starting in 2001. The LX is Lexus’ largest and most expensive SUV. “LX” itself stands for “Luxury Crossover”. The 570 was debuted at the New York International Auto Show in 2007. The Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price for the 2013 model is $82,630, which is easily more than I or the majority of my readers make in a year. Harlequin is the name of a book publisher, currently in the process of being bought by the sinister News Corp, that is known for publishing romance paperbacks. Sanctum sanctorum is the Latin name for the “Holy of Holies”, the shrine in the Jewish Tabernacle which held the Ark of the Covenant. Obviously, Dr. Franklin’s use of the phrase to refer to Benjamin’s bedroom is an act of hyperbole. Apple Hill: Consider this an endorsement for the association of apple ranches in El Dorado County, California. My sister and I go there every year, and the apples we buy make for the best pies of the year. “Apples with lightning in them” is a reference to zap apples, from the MLP:FIM second season episode “Family Appreciation Day” written by Cindy Morrow. This episode would not air until two months after the date when this chapter is set, so only ponies could possibly know about zap apples. Twilight Sparkle’s family name: In-joke reference to my mistakenly calling her ancestors Sparkles instead of Twilights in The Best of All Possible Worlds. Miss Minchin: Name of the headmistress who makes life a living hell for A Little Princess (1905, Frances Hodgson Burnett). “Come with me if you want to live!”: Line uttered by the character of Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to Sara Connor (Linda Hamilton) in The Terminator (1984, directed by James Cameron). Of course, the version of the line that everybody remembers nowadays is when it was reused by the T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to John Connor (Edward Furlong) in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, also directed by James Cameron). (% % %) Chapter 4: Götterdämmerung (English: Twilight of the Gods) is an opera by Richard Wagner from 1876, the last opera in the Ring Cycle, about the end of the world. Siegfried and Alberich are characters from that work. Playing “Zeus” with maidens locked in dungeons: A reference to the myth of Danaë. Danaë’s father Acrisus consulted an oracle to find out if he would ever become a grandfather, and was told that Danaë’s son would kill him. Acrisus responded to this prophesy by locking his virginal daughter into a dungeon, never to see another human being for the rest of her life. (See? This is why oracles are better off making their prophesies as vague as possible.) Zeus, being the horny god that He was, fell in love with Danaë after seeing her face through the bars of her prison, and visited her into the form of golden sunlight. She then gave birth to Perseus. When Acrisus discovered this, he thought about killing the two of them, but remembered what the Furies did to those who killed their kin—you do not invoke the wrath of the Furies if you know what’s good for you. So he stuck them in a heavy wooden chest and set them adrift in the immensity of the Adriatic Sea. (Which goes to show that the Furies are kind of stupid, in that this kind of pathetic dodge is actually enough to avert their vengeance.) Of course, Fate being a bitch and all, Perseus grew up, got famous for killing the Gorgon (see Clash of the Titans (1981); don’t see Clash of the Titans (2010)), entered a discus-throwing competition, and accidentally beheaded Acrisus, who was in the stands to see what kind of grandson he had ended up with. What? I loved Greek mythology as a kid, and watched Clash of the Titans (1981) every time it aired on TV, which was a lot. The death of Zeus is not actually described in Greek mythology. Nevertheless, He got himself into a lot of trouble with all of His sleeping around. A “Faustian Bargain” is a reference to the medieval German legend about the scholar who sells his soul to the Devil in return for getting everything he wants in life, a bargain he comes to regret, as the Devil exploits every loophole imaginable. Nodens is the Celtic god of healing, the sea, hunting and dogs—rather an eclectic list, other than the last two. More specifically, in the Lovecraft Mythos He’s the lord of dreams, pretty much the only benevolent entity out there. Because this is the Lovecraft Mythos we’re talking about, He’s utterly pathetic. “Please wait, and the next available operator will assist you” is one of the most loathed phrases ever uttered by an automated voice over a telephone line. “FEE FIE FOE FUM”: Reference to the English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk”. The Dream Master was written in 1966. It’s a pretty obscure work nowadays, I suppose, but it does a very interesting job with the dream worlds it describes, contrasting the Jewish Kabbalah with the story of Tristan and Isolde. The title character is a rather arrogant psychologist who ends up getting his comeuppance at the hands of the woman he is treating, making it a major source for Dr. Franklin. The Host was a 2006 South Korean movie directed by Bong Joon-ho. Aliens was a 1986 American film directed by James Cameron. (% % %) Chapter 5: Officers Lou and Eddie are from The Simpsons, and hang around with Chief Wiggum. They’re voiced by Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, respectively. Lassie is a fictional collie dog character originated in the novel Lassie Come-Home (1940, Eric Knight) who was popularized in multiple movies and TV series. Henry and Alice Mitchell are the parents of the American comic strip character Dennis the Menace (Hank Ketcham, 1951). (% % %) Chapter 6: The mythological Sobek was pretty well covered in the chapter, so I’ll add nothing here. “Hearts and Hooves Day” is a second season MLP:FIM episode written by Meghan McCarthy that came out on...drat. Well, let’s pretend it came out before this particular chapter took place instead of several months afterwards. Great Wave Off Kanagawa was a woodprint created by Hokusai between 1830 and 1833, the first of his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The pillow stuffed into Danielle/Wave Rider’s mouth: This is sort of a tradition with PEV stories, that the first dream contact between human and pony must always end with a pillow stuck in the pony’s mouth, even when the origin of the pillow is completely unknown. Kazookai is the name of a fictional Hawaiian island in the Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers episode “Gadget Goes Hawaiian” (1989, written by Julia J. Roberts). I just noticed that a Google search of “Kazookai” brings up my decade-old fanfiction based on the episode in the No. 5 spot. I...uh, have gotten a bit better since I wrote it. Like the fact that I no longer need to explain which chapters of my Pony fanfics are deliberate parodies of bad fanfiction because nobody can tell the difference... (% % %) Chapter 7: This chapter has no resemblance whatsoever to the graphic novel Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale, which has the subtitle “And Here My Troubles Began”. Terror of the Autons (the first appearance of The Master) was a Doctor Who serial that first aired in 1971. It was written by Robert Holmes and directed by Barry Letts. And I might as well add that Doctor Who is a product of the BBC, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson in 1963. Golconda is a 1953 painting by René Magritte, depicting an array of men in bowler hats and umbrellas floating in space. Carrie Bliss is the name of a fictional junior high school teacher in Indianapolis. She was the central character of the Disney Channel sitcom Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1988), created by Sam Brobrick and starring Hayley Mills. The show later morphed into Saved by the Bell. Arthur Slugworth is the name of Willy Wonka’s business rival in the children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl, 1964). And besides, isn’t that a great name for a character? Jason Taverner is the main character in the science fiction novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (Philip K. Dick, 1974). I covered the details of the book in the next chapter. (% % %) Chapter 8: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” This is a line from the film The Usual Suspects, but originated with the French poet Charles Baudelaire in the prose poem “Le Joueur généreux” (“The Generous Gambler”) in the collection Le Spleen de Paris (The Spleen of Paris, 1869): “La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas.” The idea that Delgado’s Master represents chaos instead of control comes from the commenters on the TARDIS Eruditorum website. Spyro the Dragon is a video game character created by Charles Zembillas for Insomniac Games in 1998, and currently owned by Activision. Figment the Dragon is the mascot of the Imagination! pavillion at Walt Disney World, created by Tony Baxter and Steve Kirk in 1983. The term “loyal opposition”, used to avoid the accusation of treason against the political party not in power, was coined by John Hobhouse in 1826. The “bewigged dragon” quote is a reference to my other fanfic The Best of All Possible Worlds, a story that invoked both the loyal opposition and the French Revolution. That scene didn’t actually take place, but I suspect several of my readers imagined it. The theme to The Bugs Bunny Show, called “This Is It”, was written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston for the premiere of the television program in 1960. Moderna Designs, as noted in the text, is a reference to Time Bandits (1981, directed by Terry Gilliam). In the film it represents everything that separates Kevin from his overly-materialistic parents. The “don’t touch it, it’s evil” line is from that film. The “Swedish behemoth” is Ikea. The absorbent towel “Sham-Wow” is actually supposed to be spelled “ShamWow!”. I refuse to make the correction in the text, on grounds that it’s even stupider than how I spelled it originally. Anyway, the product was pitched relentlessly via infomercials a few years ago, featuring the typical over-enthusiastic audience you tend to see in these kinds of shows. The Price Is Right is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in 1972. Chekhov’s Gun is from a quote from the Russian author Anton Chekhov about parsimony in writing stories: basically, if you’re going to waste the reader’s time telling them about a gun at the beginning of a story, it better get used by somebody before the end. Al Bundy is the main character of the 1987 American sitcom Married...With Children, created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt, and played by Ed O’Neill. Yeah, I’m not linking you to the Conversion Bureau stories. Look them up yourself. And the use of the folding chair as a weapon is probably copyrighted by the World Wrestling Federation. Victoria Brisbane is a character from the Mel Brooks film High Anxiety (1977), played by Madeline Kahn. The character ends the film married to Richard Thorndyke. Professor Zarkov is from Flash Gordon, created by Alex Raymond in 1934. Cera the Triceratops is a character from The Land Before Time (1988, directed by Don Bluth) and its sequels. Pazuzu is the name of the demon from The Exorcist (1971 novel by William Peter Blatty). Carl Fredricksen is the name of the protagonist from the Pixar film Up (2009, directed by Pete Docter), voiced by Ed Asner. Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need is a book by 2005 book by Blake Snyder; the linked Slate.com article was written by Peter Suderman in 2013. Mystery Science Theater 3000 was an American TV show created in 1988 by Joel Hodgson. David Kessler was the main character from An American Werewolf in London (1981, directed by John Landis), played by David Naughton. The character’s sister is actually named Rachel. Dr. Miles Benell was the main character from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, directed by Don Siegel), played by Kevin McCarthy. (% % %) Chapter 9: Blackstock, South Carolina, is the site of an annual music festival. I already gave you the credits for Flash Gordon, except this time I’m referring to the 1980 film directed by Mike Hodges. The storm being described here was inspired by Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York City in late October of 2012. It was called “Tropical Depression Sandy” long after it was obvious that it was a hurricane—at least, that was my impression at the time. Facebook is an omnipresent website created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Prometheus, Heracles and the Nemean Lion come from Ancient Greek mythology, while the other references in that paragraph (Gandalf, Mines of Moria) come from the Lord of the Rings book series by J. R. R. Tolkien. Gilda is from the first season FIM episode “Griffon the Brushoff”, written by Cindy Morrow. Holden Caulfield is the main character from The Catcher in the Rye, a 1951 novella by J. D. Salinger, about a teenage boy obsessed with how everyone around him was a superficial phony. (I assume you all know who DHX Media is, right?) And “Hell Hole” is a song by the fictional (?) rock band Spinal Tap, from the film This Is Spinal Tap (1984, directed by Rob Reiner)—the music video was directed by Christopher Guest. (% % %) Chapter 10: “La Donna è mobile” is a song from the Italian opera Rigoletto (1851, Giuseppe Verdi), sung by the villainous Duke of Mantua. The YouTube link is from the 1982 film directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, with Luciano Pavarotti playing the part of the Duke. “Pink alicorn thing” is my oblique way of referring to the character of Princess Cadance, who is in the PEV series despite not being introduced in the show as of the date of this chapter. That’s why Dr. Franklin mistakes her for a “depowered Celestia”. “The Doctor always lies” is a catchphrase from the Eleventh incarnation of Doctor Who. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was a 1964 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by him with Peter George and Terry Southern. The “previous bodily fluids” line was spoken by Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden. The character with broken “string in his legs” was Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, played by Peter Sellers. (% % %) Chapter 11: “A place where no one knows your face” is a line from the song “Hernando’s Hideaway”, from the American musical The Pajama Game (1954, music by Jerry Ross, lyrics by Richard Adler). When the YouTube link eventually shows up, it’s being sung by Carol Haney, playing the part of Gladys. The YouTube link that actually heads the chapter (and represents the soundtrack of Gilda’s dream) is “Pale Watchers”, from the soundtrack to the video game Bastion (2011, Supergiant Games) composed by Darren Korb. Cave of the Winds is a cave located west of Colorado Springs, Colorado. And Sisyphus is another character from Greek mythology: a wicked man punished in the afterlife by being forced to perform the same useless task over and over for all eternity. (% % %) Chapter 12: Poughkeepsie is a town in upper New York state with a funny name, and roughly the location where this and the next five chapters is set. “There was a man” is the first line in the song “Solitaire”, written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody in 1972, and sung here by Karen Carpenter in 1975. Psycho is a 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and Chinatown is a 1974 film directed by Roman Polanski. (% % %) Chapter 13: For the character of Captain Davis, take Captain Jonathan R. Davis, and then imagine someone as unlike that guy as humanly possible. Sledge Hammer! is an American sitcom created by Alan Spencer in 1986. (Wow, I just noticed how many of my references in this story have mandatory exclamation marks in them.) The mangled quotation of “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves” is from Julius Caesar, the 1599 play by William Shakespeare. The Geneva Conventions establish the standards for how prisoners, the wounded, and civilians must be treated in wartime. The last of them were signed in 1949. Animal Cops: Houston is a reality TV series from 2003. The song “The World Owes Me a Living” was written by Leigh Harline in 1934 for the Disney cartoon short “The Grasshopper and the Ants”—it later became the theme song for the character of Goofy. (% % %) Chapter 14: Jell-O is a brand name owned by Kraft Foods, originated by Pearle Bixby Wait in 1897. (Jell-O shows up a lot in my stories for some strange reason.) The Little Red Wagon is a toy manufactured by the Radio Flyer company since 1930. Copic is a brand of marker pen manufactured by the Too company. I can’t find out what year they were invented—I hope you can forgive me for this oversight. Funyuns (possessing one of the most hate-inducing names in the entire food service industry) is a brand name owned by the Frito-Lay division of the PepsiCo conglomerate, invented by Ray Trinidad in 1969. Hip-hop version of “Art of the Dress”: I made that up without having any particular track in my head, but how about this one by TrickyQuestion? (Once again, William Anderson is a reference I shouldn’t have to explain.) Pony, Ponie, Ponee is also made up. General Edwin Anderson Walker was an ultra-conservative American military officer who was the attempted victim of an assassination attempt possibly committed by Lee Harvey Oswald a few months before the Kennedy assassination. Like Captain Davis, he has no resemblance to the character in this story. Michael Ironside of course played the bad guy in films such as Scanners (1981), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Total Recall (1990) and Highlander II: The Quickening (1991). Mona Lisa is an early Sixteenth Century painting by Leonardo da Vinci. (% % %) Chapter 15: The “Yellow Terror” was a derogatory term used by California newspapers in the first half of the Twentieth Century to describe the consequences of allowing too much Chinese immigration. The first YouTube link for the soundtrack of Erishy’s dream is the first movement of the Violin Concerto in E Minor (Opus 64) by Felix Mendelssohn, premiered in 1845. This performance is with Julia Fischer and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Ivan Fischer. The second link is to the Russian Easter Festival Overture: Overture on Liturgical Themes (Opus 36) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, premiered in 1888. This performance is by the Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fiedler. Dracula is in the public domain, being in the first place a real person (Prince Vlad III Dracul the Impaler of Wallachia, 1431-76) and in the second place the main character in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. “We shall fight on the beaches...” was the rallying cry of Winston Churchill to the House of Commons during the Battle of Britain in 1940. (% % %) Chapter 16: “Deliquescence” refers to the act of something dissolving into a liquid. It was a favorite word of Edgar Allan Poe, who loved having more than one of his stories ending with some poor guy dissolving into goo. The chapter quotes extensively (perhaps too extensively) from the song “Vincent” by Don McLean. The song is about the painter Vincent Van Gogh, but when I was a kid I thought it was about the singer’s depressed brother. “Sandy”: The story is set in October/November of 2012 (or 2011?), so this is indeed Hurricane Sandy. Erishkigal’s Kingdom is the name of the Sumerian underworld. Not a nice place, from what I understand. (% % %) Chapter 17: The title is a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a 1966 British play by Tom Stoppard—much of the dialog in the chapter is inspired by that play. Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) is an Ancient Greek play by Sophocles. The two Matilda’s are quite well covered by the text. “Alice” is from the novel Alice in Wonderland (1865, Lewis Carroll), “Peter Pan” is from the play Peter and Wendy (1904, J. M. Barrie), and “Lion-Jesus” (Aslan) is from the Narnia series of books by C. S. Lewis (starting 1950). Harry Potter is a series of increasingly-longer novels by J. K. Rowling. The Luddites were a Nineteenth Century group of skilled laborers who rebelled against having their jobs replaced by machines. Or, as they are more commonly rendered, a group of drunk yahoos convinced that all technology everywhere is the work of the Devil. Taxi was a 1978 American sitcom created by James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis and Ed. Weinberger. Ruthless People was a 1986 American movie directed by ZAZ (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker). Erin Brockovich was a 2000 American film directed by Steven Soderbergh, Gattaca was a 1997 American film directed by Andrew Nichol, and A Simple Wish was another 1997 American film, this one directed by Michael Richie. Superman is a DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster that premiered in 1938. Star Trek is a joint CBS/Paramount Pictures property, created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966. “Jungle Boogie” was recorded by Kool & the Gang in 1973, “That’s the Way (I Like It)” was recorded by KC and the Sunshine Band in 1975, and “Do the Hustle” was recorded by Van McCoy & the Soul City Symphony in 1974. The deluge of disco references there was a push for my new fanfic “Disco Inferno”. It must have worked, because that work generated enough fans to justify not cancelling it. Oh, and the Bee Gees was a disco group known for their falsetto voices. In case I need to spell out full names: Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama. Oh, and the Doberman’s name was Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, in case you were wondering. A Sharpie is a permanent marker made by a company now called Sharpie, created in 1964 by Francis Gilbert. “My precious” is...no, there’s no possible way you don’t know what that’s from. I have to show some restraint, after all. “Trapped like a rat in a cage” is a line from the 1995 song “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” by The Smashing Pumpkins. The Laughter Song (“Giggle at the Ghosties”) is a song from “Friendship Is Magic, Part 2”, written by Lauren Faust and Daniel Ingram. “Pony Indiana Jones” is an oblique reference to Daring Do, since her episode hadn’t premiered as of the date of this chapter. Indy himself is a fictional character created by George Lucas in 1981 for the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (directed by Stephen Spielberg), and owned by his company Lucasarts. Alan Quartermain is another fictional adventurer, created by H. Rider Haggard for his 1885 novel King Solomon’s Mines. Epilogue (finally!): “I can’t control my brain” is a line from the 1979 song “I Want to Be Sedated”, by the Ramones. “Shady Pines” is a pretty common name for resorts as well as sanitariums (sanitaria?), but if you insist on finding a fictional reference, it’s the retirement home where the Golden Girls live (a 1985 sitcom created by Susan Harris). “Not a single luxury” is supposed to be from the theme to Gilligan’s Island (1964 American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz), but it’s generic enough to be a line from a Weird Al song. Tranquil Repose was the name of the fake rest home secretly run by Davros in Revelation of the Daleks (the Doctor Who serial written by Eric Saward in 1985). “WWW” in this case does not stand for Wild Wild West, but for the World Wide Web, which was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. (% % %) Is it just me, or are these things getting longer with every story, regardless of how short the stories themselves are?