Journey Unexpected

by Dances With Unicorns

Chapter 17: The excitement, fun, and opportunity of the Unexpected

Chapter 17: The excitement, fun, and opportunity of the Unexpected

Eight days later, the friends find themselves sitting in the airship’s forward observation lounge. The airship is flying above the clouds at night. Lantern light is making contrasting shadows on the walls, objects, and ponies. Twilight is sitting on a padded chair, uses her magic to bring their friendship journal to her and opens the book to the first blank page.

Twilight’s eyes lit up as she says to her friends, “The Cutie Mark Crusaders are going to love these descriptions of how the ancient ponies earned their first recorded cutie marks to appear on pony flanks.”

Sitting next to Twilight, Applejack appears happy playing her banjo for everypony’s enjoyment. Spike appears content listening to Applejack’s music. Rainbow is busy sorting a big pile of Pegasus pony merchandise based on none other than Rainbow.

Twilight starts writing in her friendship journal. “After one memorable farewell party - my airship crew, my friends, and I have settled in our airship for the weeklong voyage back home. While I’m happy to return home, I also feel sad to leave all my new, Dream Valley friends.”

Twilight smiles at a photograph of the farewell party, her pony and dragon friends, along with the Dream Valley friends she has made. Standing on Twilight’s right side is Cameo Moderator while standing on Twilight’s left side is Spiffy van Hoosier. Standing next to Spiffy is Newsie Newsworthy and Panorama, both wearing formal dresses.

Twilight continues writing, “First, this unexpected adventure and all the excitement and enjoyment we have encountered would never have happened if the Cutie Mark Crusaders hadn’t ask a question about how ancient ponies got their cutie marks, if Cheerilee hadn’t asked me to investigate the library of the Royal Pony Sisters, and if my friend Spike hadn’t suggested that we take an airship journey to Dream Valley. We all owe Ponyville’s Cutie Mark Crusaders, Cheerilee, and Spike our thanks for finding unexpected friends and unexpected opportunities in Dream Valley.

“Second, I’ve learned that the unexpected can surprise and sometimes frighten a pony. Yet, while our intended goal was to rediscover lost Equestrian history for Cheerilee’s textbook project; during our adventure to rediscover lost pony history, my friends and I found unexpected friends and unexpected opportunities. It is funny that the unexpected things you find are often more valuable than the things that you intend to find.

“Third, while it was unexpected that my friends and I would purchase Pony Digital Assistants, we will be donating our wonderful tools and the rest of the Dream Valley technology we have purchased or were given to us, to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I’m sure that Celestia's students can and will make much better use of Dream Valley technology than we ever will.

“Also, I propose trading Dream Valley coal and their skill in building canals for Equestrian friendship engines and our skill in building railroads. Most trade agreements are written in boring adult talk. To make these talks more interesting for all involved, I suggest that Princess Celestia should hire Trixie Lulamoon and Cheese Sandwich to complete these complex trade agreements. Who can tell what unexpected things could happen if we pair those two professional entertainers together to write out these trade agreements.

“In conclusion, I wonder what other unexpected friends, undiscovered civilizations, and unidentified opportunities remain hidden on, above, or under the unmapped lands and seas of our world? Whatever my friends and I discover during our future adventures, we will bring the magic of friendship to friends that we haven’t met yet.”

Twilight yawns, and then concludes her entry with, “But, for me it is time for this unexpected pony ambassador to return to my cabin. Tonight I need to get some much needed sleep. My friends and I will work to solve tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.”

The end

Author's Note:

After years of encouragement from my friends to write a young reader’s book, I wrote Journey Unexpected. My book’s central theme is dealing with unexpected events and unexpected people, while introducing to my readers to the ancestral homeland of the three pony tribes first described in the Hearth's Warming Eve episode. I have named this first pony homeland Dream Valley, as the ancestral homeland was not given a name during the episode.

What am I telling my readers in a story about Dream Valley pony society that can’t be told in the Equestrian homeland? I’m curious as to what could happen if Twilight and her friends decided to return to their ancestral homeland to discover what happened to it and who might be living there.

In addition, I considered how many real world people spend their time, money, and effort discovering their ancestral descents and sometimes visiting their ancestral homeland. Using reality as a guideline, I would imagine that some Equestrian ponies would wish to visit Dream Valley.

My manuscript was inspired by my traveling to foreign nations, finding the unexpected, and getting used to things not found in the United States. It was also inspired by the television show Connections by James Burke

My readers will see that separated from the Equestrian ponies for more than one thousand years - even before the births of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna - that the Dream Valley ponies developed a civilization far different from that of the Equestrian ponies. Moreover, I hope my book will be used as an opportunity for artists and writers to reimagine what an alternative pony society could look like.

Dream Valley is also an excellent opportunity to create situations that can’t be done in the Equestrian nation, such as pony flash mobs.

Moreover, I wanted to introduce to my readers the metallic ponies, which over many centuries had become a distinct species of ponies. These metallic ponies are based upon real world, Akhal-Teke horses. When I first saw images of metallic appearing Akhal-Teke horses, I thought these images had been photoshopped or the horses’ coats had been dyed those colors. No wonder that these unusual horses are Turkmenistan's national emblem.

Moreover, the Akhal-Teke horses are considered by horse enthusiasts to be the world's most beautiful horse breed. Therefore, I can imagine that Akhal-Teke horses could be the inspiration to become a successful line of pony toys for Hasbro.

I assume that Dream Valley is on the other side of one of the two oceans that border the Equestrian homeland. Otherwise, the Equestrian ponies or the Dream Valley ponies would have visited each other’s nations by now.

The Twilight's Kingdom episode showed that the power of friendship is a different and separate force from that of magic. I propose that the power of friendship can not only be employed to defeat powerful enemies, it could also be harnessed for constructive uses, such as Twilight’s friendship engine to expand generation four’s storytelling opportunities. My rationale is that the series has shown that the power of friendship can create energy to defeat villains such as Nightmare Moon; and therefore the same power of friendship could power an airship and achieve other outcomes as well.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Copyright © 2010 Lauren Faust, Hasbro Studios, and DHX Media

Comments

[Dances With Unicorns]

I’ve finished editing the online story, “It Was Suppose To Be A Costume” by Admiral Q Ponyform. Please read it and give it a like, if you enjoy it, when you have the time.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/288621/it-was-suppose-to-be-a-costume