Bits I liked: Twilight rising into the ceiling while stressing about her check list; crash landing into the library (copy RD but with her own trademark move); Discord singing in the shower, and using Gummy as a nail file (and Discord in general); Rarity's trials as a cat owner; Pinkie sense with giant plant. There was also some very slick action scenes with Celestia fighting Nightmare Moon, and the Mane 6 battling rabid rhododendrons.

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Eighteen years ago, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote, The Physics of Star Trek, an explanation, of sorts, of the speculative science behind warp drives, inertial dampers and matter transfer beams; as often as not explaining why such things just wouldn't work. The book was an unexpected best-seller, which surprised the world of popular science writing. No one expected such a nerdy title to have such wide appeal. But turned out plenty of readers wanted to know about the workings

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Each of our ponies has an lovely name
But repetition is terribly lame
So swap character names for a pretty word
Something sweet, something floral, or simply absurd

We need to choose the right phrase to adorn
Our favourite lavender unicorn
And portray the awesome supersonic fire
Trailing the wake of a rainbow tailed flyer

Elegant parlance should be chosen with care
The talk of a dazzling white unicorn mare
But to match Ponyville's premier pink party filly

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Like many fans, one of things I love about My Little Pony is the strong feminist base. Lauren Faust made it clear from the start that her vision was not the traditional pretty-little-princess line of girls' toys, but would follow the adventures of a diverse group of positive female role models, skilfully crafted to meet Hasbro's requirements, without compromising any feminist

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I originally wrote this as a prologue to Elements of a Successful Tourist Industry, as I felt I needed to explain a bit more about the bizarre AU I had created (and make it clear the story was not just driving a tour bus through the fourth wall). I then decided it wasn't necessary and didn't fit the rest of the story. But it's okay as a stand-alone piece. Enjoy.

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After completing Rainbooms and Rationality - my exploration of the scientific method as applied to My Little Pony, I decided to rewatch that classic episode Feeling Pinkie Keen, and revisit the controversy it generated. This one is the first episode which shows Twilight Sparkle as a 'scientific' pony – not just a nerdy bibliophile who teaches herself to run races by reading textbooks – but, in her own words,

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Okay, my latest work - Rainbooms and Rationality is now out. This is an exciting story featuring science, magic, Scootaloo, with two live sonic rainbooms. Please take a look and let me have some comments - I'm really curious what everyone will make of this one.

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I just added a short appendix to The Art of Rainbow Engineering giving a bit more detail on the science. I did intend to do this when I first wrote the story, but never finished it, as doing diagrams is rather tedious.

Now if anyone in the university asks why I spend so much time on fimfiction, I can say it's a public education project.

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I cycled to the Uffington White Horse today, which was the inspiration for The Equine Comedy. It's a great piece of pony art, and it's nice to know that our ancestors liked pictures of ponies as much as we do.

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I have now finished my second pony fic. This is a set of three silly stories about the Hearth's Warming Eve characters, partly inspired by art and archaeology. It's been fun to write, and I have now wasted far too much time thinking up nerdy academic jokes, which nobody will ever understand; so it's time to release it to the fimfiction community and see if anyone takes any notice.