Random Rambling CDXIX

IN WHICH I ACTUALLY POSTED SOMETHING
It's that time of year again: January 20th, which means a new Mayor Mare story from yours truly. Words follow, but first, enjoy Twice.

I'm Alcohol-Free as I write this, but I probably won't be by the time I'm through…

So, uh, yeah. It's been awhile. Literally four months since my last blog. Pretty pathetic from a guy who used to scream into the void at least once a week and pump out a story every month or so on average. What happened? Well, I can't exactly say "life" because the point at which things were most stressful also resulted in my reasonably decent 2020 output. So what, then?

To put it bluntly, I just stopped caring.

Maybe Trump's defeat took some wind out of my sails because it meant no more Orangeglow insanity to write about. But that's not really true because in my EQG world where he's canonically dead he remains a threat through flashbacks because, thanks to a certain purple humanoid who is significantly less good than her equine counterpart, he learned the Secret Of The World without realizing it. Spoilers much? Not really and I don't care.

Like I said in the afterword to this year's Mayor Mare story, its plot was based on a real event. My city of residence is -- WAS -- home to one of the largest motorcycle rallies in North America. Not as big as Sturgis up in South Dakota, but still a big deal. Up to a quarter of a million bikers descended upon this town of 90,000 (75k ten years ago). The fact that, unlike Sturgis, this is a University town with a large leftist population forced to deal with, well, the most stereotypical Fags -- the South Park definition, by the way -- in existence, was causing more and more tension between locals and bikers with each passing year before the pandemic. Many locals were getting tired of the Confederate paraphernalia in addition to the noise. The rally was cancelled in 2020 due to 'Rona. It was set to happen in 2021 but the rally permit was pulled last-minute due to a plea by the local hospital saying they didn't have the staff to deal with 'Rona patients and bikers at the same time. Some bikers came anyway but it was a subdued affair.

This year, the rally organizers decided to just flat-out leave because, a few years ago, the voters here (myself included) agreed to a extra penny added to the sales tax to fund a new police station, road improvements, and most controversially an ambitious plan to rehabilitate a creek which had a massive parking lot built over its source and move said parking to a new garage across the street. The project finally broke ground a few weeks ago, meaning that -- not this year but next -- the bikers will lose the Main Stage area. Bikers already lost a LOT of parking due to a local church selling its abandoned (huge) parking lot to be redeveloped into an apartment complex.

People complain about parking garages, but I personally would rather build up than have ginormous at-grade lots that stand empty most of the time.

Ponies don't drive cars, so I had to come up with an alternative -- they pull wagons. I imagine some can be quite tricked out.

Y'ALL may disagree, but I felt I included some humorous lines in this one. I wanted to tag it as a comedy -- a comedy of dialogue perhaps -- but one time many years ago when I did that on an early Sunset story someone got onto me (I don't think it was Moth, RIP) because they found the story too depressing to be funny. And maybe I'm just not funny unless a story goes into true surrealism.

I always enjoy the banter between Mayor Mare and Raven. They've been working together for years and I've now written them together in several stories. Raven being the sober voice of reason and Meyer being mostly drunk or hungover.

Noodle Incidents abound in this one -- Spike in jail in Canterlot, biker-ponies entering the remnants of Twilight's basement lab and getting themselves killed, Mayor Mare doing something with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle (hint: it's distilling moonshine again).

And of course it wouldn't be one of my Mayor Mare stories without part of City Hall collapsing. But this time it wasn't even indirectly the Mayor's fault!

Yeah, as much as I like writing the Mayor's dialogue, this story sucked horse apples. I know it.

I have no idea what I plan to do next. I could finish my crappy "novelization" of the EQUESTRIA GIRLS parody series and thus get back into the heads of Sunset and Sonata. Or I could send Apple Bloom back into the Everfree Forest now that Granny Smith is "dead" but AB knows the real story. Or I could just fade away for another year.

Last week, for the first time since the pandemic began, I ate at the local burrito place. Regretfully, it did not spark any story ideas. I think that well has truly run dry. That's fine -- I accomplished everything I wanted to in the Burritoverse. Only Sunset's and Apple Bloom's stories remain untold. Well, also Pinkie's, but I gave away that story about 250 posts ago and I'm not going back. Except for maybe the intro movie, I have no particular interest in G5.

To be honest, I'd much rather spend my time rewriting the story of Sonic 2006 (which really was, I think, intended to be Sonic Adventure 3 but of course fell flat on its face) to not suck. If I could fix Anon-A-Miss while keeping its core intact -- AND I DID -- I can do it with '06. I've been loving the hell out of the IDW StH comics in a way I haven't since early Archie back in the 90s when I was still a child. Nearly all of the new original characters are great. I'm especially partial to Belle The Tinkerer -- a.k.a. the Good Badnik. Incidentally, she was created by STH's first female head writer (Ms Evan Stanley), who also created other new girls for the comic, all of which are characters who would be cool to see in the games -- which I guess is the best possible praise for a comic based on a video game franchise.

It's literally freezing -- beyond so -- outside this evening. Not much snow on the ground (and much of what we had melted in the sun despite the cold). So I will probably drink some more eggnog (which I spike myself – I'm very particular about that, unlike the mayor).

Some friends of mine in Oregon got the 'Rona despite being vaccinated. I'm also vaccinated but go out of my way to avoid going outside even more than usual these days. I hope omicron-'rona peaks soon. After nearly two years I'm getting really fucking tired of wearing a mask, but I hate the anti-maskers & anti-vaxxers even more since the continuation of the pandemic is their fault.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. I'm sure I'll be back eventually. Take care, whoever reads this, and, of course…

Peace out.