OPP Chapter 5 notes · 5:44am Nov 29th, 2013
A huge thanks to my pre-readers: Humanist, AnormalUnicornPony, metallusionsismagic, Woonsocket Wrench, and my parents—who once again saved me from myself.
Important note: Lecul deCheval’s name has been changed to Lecol deCheval.
Ponyvillians assumed that everypony would know them, and didn’t bother with signs.
I’m sure most of my readers know the joke about asking an old-timer in a rural area for directions.
“Just a couplea miles down the road, turn where Smith barn used to be.”
“I’m not from here.”
“Well, that’s easy. Just look for where there ain’t a barn.”
It’s good for a few chuckles . . . but let me tell you this: I attended township planning meetings where they were discussing the name of the road I live on. You see, in a two mile stretch, the road goes by five different names, and houses on that road have five different streets in their address. One of the gentlemen attending the meeting—a farmer—had a different street name for his house and his barn . . . which shared a driveway. The local post department knows them all but the county 911 dispatcher might not. Long story short? I had to change the street name in my address. (For what it’s worth, Google Maps doesn’t know where my house is.)
The curved beams being because the wood in the forest isn't straight is a reference to theRedBrony's The Last Brony Gets his Wish. I told him I was stealing it, and I did.
Calkins (there’s a bunch of variant spellings) are for traction on a horseshoe. Some shoes are designed to only be used on one surface, in which case they’re part of the shoe. Others have a provision to screw them in, depending on what type of surface the horse is to be working on. Since the ponies generally seem to have some type of flooring in their buildings—and they have both paved and unpaved streets—I’d assume that they’d have removable calkins, or wear over-shoes (like the snow boots we’ve seen in the show). I’d further assume that a Canterlot unicorn would wear a shoe that was geared towards university hallways and paved streets, while Ponyville residents would be more likely to wear ‘off-road’ shoes.
These are the temporary style, screwed into the shoe.
And this is the type that's molded into the shoe.
Wainwrights work on wagons; felloes are the curvy wooden part of a wagon wheel.
The arboreal cephalopod is an endangered species. Visit the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus’ fact page to see how you can help save these creatures!
Dale seemed to be focused on Featherbrain’s wings, almost to the point of rudeness.
A reference to Mood Wings by Tchernobog.
“Are you sure [he eats carrion]?” Fluttershy looked back at Dale, then Lyra. “I, um, don’t want to contradict you, but from what I can see, his teeth look just like any other stallion’s.”
This is for all the stories where the ponies know a human’s a meat-eater because of his small, useless canine teeth—which horses have, too!
I was initially going to have Fancy Pants riding to Ponyville in a combine, which is a shorthand for "combination baggage/passenger car." They were used on rural routes, where a full-length passenger car wasn't justified. However, given the unrealistically short cars (bigger on the inside!) in the show--and the fact that googling "combine" only gets "combination harvester" results--I elected to simply have it be an older coach.
This is a combination harvester
This is a coach/baggage combine
Fleur is depicted as a shallow trophy wife in the show, as well as in one of the comics. However, there was at least one fic. which had her as a jewel thief (or something like that). I can’t remember the name of it. Regardless, as much as we like Fancy Pants, one assumes he wouldn’t be hanging around with a super shallow mare unless she were either a great status symbol for him (she’s a landed noble, she’s got 3 cubic acres of money), or if she’s smarter than she acts. Those of you who have been with me since the beginning know I prefer the last option.
Barneigh’s is a reference to Estee’s One Tenth Bit.
Ponyville Express office: One of our local newspapers is written and published by the owner of the local bowling alley. He’s a terrible speller. Still, in a small town, you take what you can get.
“A coat of lime”--also known as whitewash. It’s a paint made of slaked lime (which is left over from carbide lamps) and chalk. Sometimes it’s dyed. It forms (over the course of a few days) a hard coat which has mild antimicrobial properties, and was one of the common ways of painting barns back in the day.
The description of the shop is largely derived from the shop where I work--at least in the sense of the general clutter, walls in need of paint, and so on.
The warrant is a general description of a ‘charge sheet’ for a court-martial. I was able to find a PDF online of Hawaii’s rules, and a (ca. 1985) Navy charge sheet (which I presume is their version of a warrant). I’d have done more research if this were the US military—but they’re ponies. Their version probably isn’t quite the same.
Yea, unless you know about trains, no one is going to have a clue what a coach combine is.
Also I agree with you, she is smarter than she acts.
Other wise an excellent chapter.
Ooh, so much information! I like Fleur as a more-than-meets-the-eye pony. I'm just glad Featherbrain didn't think he was staring intentionally, that would definitely made things worse. ;)
Trainnnsss...
The Lunaverse has a thief-turned-good Fleur. Maybe one of those stories laid the seed?
Fleurdeliser?
Ah, the Scrooge McDuck approach to wealth. Sounds like my kind of lady!
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theblogpaper.co.uk/files/imagecache/photostory_image/files//files/photos/Pink-Gundamwill%20challis2009The%20Cute%20Transformer1238.jpg
You were thinking of Diary of an evil pony, no?
1553020 wins the cookie on this one. It was indeed Fleurdeliser I was thinking of. I couldn't find it 'cause I assumed it had an adventure tag, and limited my search thusly.
1553278, now I've got another Fleur story to add to my list
(also, why isn't there a fleur emoticon? We need one. Right after Luna.
1552985) I think I only read one Lunaverse story (can't remember which one, although it had Trixie [I'm sure that's not helpful]). I don't recall Fleur in it, but it was a while ago.
Horses do have canines, but they're quite a bit smaller than the rest of their teeth. Human canines are taller than the rest of the teeth by more than a couple millimeters, aren't placed in entirely useless positions like horse canines are, and are decidedly pointier. Horses have more molars than humans, and human incisors are much thinner than horse incisors, relative to the rest of the teeth.
Besides that, the entire shape of the jaw is different. Horses have a much longer jaw, and a large amount of space between the incisors and the molars. Human teeth are evenly spaced throughout the jaw, and the human jaw is much shorter and blunter. The horse jaw is specialized for grazing, the human jaw is a generalist's jaw. Unless Fluttershy has had close contact with other primates, I doubt she'd have seen anything like it before.
1553164 yep, just fell out of my chair on that one. :D
I've always liked smart Fleur... Besides if you could pull off being silly whenever you wanted, wouldn't you? Smart doesn't mean stuck up afterall
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More people should, but I can't change what my readers know going in. I can, however, hope that they learn something after reading.
Who knows,next time you read a Western or watch a movie, this might be useful.
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My Broadway Limited California Zephyr set (with an A-B-B-A consist of F3s) is my favorite. True, it cost more than my car, but . . . worth it!
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True. You'll also know I oversimplified (which is why I was specific about stallions--not all mares have them). Partially a dig at all the "Ermagerd, I can tell by their teeth they're dangerous predators!" that pervades HiE fics.
Varies, but I'll give you that one. My upper canines are longer than my incisors or molars (didn't measure); my lower are not. I've known people who had nearly-vampric canines, and others who had them just kind of blend in.
debatable--turn your volume down; the music on this video is stupidly loud.
It looks like the horse is going for him with the intent of using its canines on his arm. However, I'm not an equine specialist by any means; maybe it's a horse-equivalent of non-lethal force.
Absolutely true. 12 incisors, 24 molars (I think), up to 4 canines, and maybe some superfluous wolf teeth, too.
IRL, yes. Totally true. In canon . . . maybe.
(here's an excuse for more pictures!)
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121210094303/mlpfanart/images/0/0c/Sparkler_holding_a_bag_in_her_mouth.png
canon
ponyderivative.com/images/single/rarity/rarity-looking-up.jpg
somewhat more equine
fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/127/4/9/mlp___twilight_sparkle_and_spike_by_bittersweetdisease-d4yvrcc.png
very equine
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2awekxvmX1rtn484o1_500.png
dangerously equine
Personally, I like the semi-realistic portrayal (say, a halfway point between Rarity and Twilight in the preceeding images). As such, I'll accept that they probably have smaller eyes than depicted in the show, and their legs aren't made of marshmallow. I think their jaws would be shorter than a real equine's, crowding the gap--but it would probably remain. Maybe an expert on herbivores knows why it's there. This portrayal isn't what all my readers want, of course, so I try to be somewhat vague on descriptive words (large eyes, rather than eyes the size of Dale's skull)
Going with the assumption that the small brushables are accurate representations of the ponies, and comparing to my roughly-in-scale poseable Dale, their mouths are bigger. I'd post pictures, but I kinda forgot my deviantArt password, so that's out for a little bit.
I don't disagree with your conclusion. Granted, that's assuming that dentation is roughly similar on Equestria, but since that's the argument I'm making too, I can't refute it.
My thought, though, was that Fluttershy isn't a dental expert. What she knows, she knows by observation--for example, she knows that Mr. Bear has very different teeth from Angel Bunny. Since she didn't go as far as to pry Dale's jaw open and take a close look at his teeth, she probably only would have seen 8 incisors, 4 canines, and possibly 4 pre-molars. At a quick glance, it would look reasonably close to a pony's teeth to her. An actual dentist--or even the vet--might draw very different conclusions, of course.
I'm not a horse specialist either; the little I know, I know from the internet. But, given that the cyclist didn't get kicked, and how quickly the horse backed off after the bite, I'm assuming it's more of a warning than an attack. Horses can bite off fingers by accident, so if he escaped with just bruises the horse probably wasn't actually trying to hurt him.
Don't approach wild horses, folks. It's a really bad idea.
I was assuming that you were writing the ponies as closer to the realistic end of the scale, since you were using real horses as an example. But even in the canon, in-show pictures, pony jaws and noses protrude significantly from the rest of the face. "Canon" ponies probably have smaller jaws than humans in terms of total area, but it would be a relatively elongated and narrower jaw. Especially ponies that have a body type more like the alicorn body, like the Fleur picture you posted.
Alright. I can agree with that.
I really like your writing, by the way. I just found this story a couple of days ago, and read the whole thing start-to-finish. Not many authors do the language barrier thing well, but I like the way you're handling it.
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With the oversized heads, their jaws are bigger than a human's. (I put a Lyra and my Dale stand-in side-by-side) I think that even a real pony--scaled down to MLP-sized--would have a larger jaw area; its teeth would be similarly sized to a human's, I'd imagine. Maybe just a little bigger. It's not something that we're likely to get a good answer for in canon, unless one of the ponies goes to the dentist (even then, Rainbow's wing X-ray didn't exactly resolve anything).
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Trains are always worth it. Oh, have you ever heard of that massive set in hamburg?
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Miniatur Wunderland? Yeah. If I ever go back to Germany. . . .
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I want to visit there someday.
Germany as a whole, I mean. Though I would definitely stop at the wunderland.
3srs5me
I lived in a similar area once, and all of the stereotypes that come with such an area you described were present. I mean no offense, but that place was hell. No internet (before anyone says it's not that bad remember that you're using it now), no cell service, and it was miles away from civilization. If your car broke down there, you would be completely screwed. It was the kind of place from horror movies where asking for directions got you killed (obvious exaggeration).
That was one of the first stories I've read on this site and still one of my favorites. I've accepted it as canon for so long I didn't realize it was a reference.
I don't remember if I commented this before, but I thin they can eat meat too. It's just not useful or healthy. Kind of like how cats can technically eat grass even if they're carnivores. Which brings me to laughter when Fluttershy suggested he could eat some of Opal's food. Dry food doesn't taste bad at all, honestly. I wouldn't eat dog food, but I think it would be funny to continue reading this only to find out you actually tried it. I used to try animal food when I was younger. I don't remember eating dog food, but I do know that I did. I remember that dog biscuits taste exactly like they look (like rock and cardboard), but cat food tasted like dehydrated chicken and beef. I still find it weird that Fluttershy was so willing to provide food for her carnivorous animal friends unless they couldn't get it themselves. She would be less willing to just find something in the everfree if there were an alternative that took her out of the chain.
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Where I live right now isn't that remote, although there are a large number of internet users out here who rely on satellite internet, because cable isn't an option (and we occasionally can't make outgoing calls on the landlines because 'all circuits are busy'). Internet outages are somewhat commonplace, although they usually don't last for more than a few hours.
I grew up in small towns, though, so I'm pretty familiar with the culture . . . when I was a kid, going to McDonalds was a big deal, since the nearest one was 20 miles from our house. Now just about every small town has one. . . .
Yeah, I think I read it back before I was a member, or maybe shortly after I'd joined. Another one I drew a lot of inspiration from was Three Magics by Arkensaw Pinkerton.
Horses can, and do. In some cases, domestic horses were fed meat (in small amounts) when forage was short, and they can get some nutrients from eating meat. In small doses, it won't hurt them, but of course you can't feed a horse a mainly meat diet. That would kill it.
Some horses (this is not common) will actively hunt game. Usually, they stomp on their prey, and then eat it. Icelandic horses would hunt fish that way, and I've seen a video of a horse hunting baby birds. They're not very good at it, so they can only catch prey which is unable to easily escape.
I haven't tried dog or cat food, and probably won't. Had we had dogs or cats when I was a kid, I'm sure I would have. I used to eat anything that caught my fancy in the backyard, and more than once my mom had to call poison control after I'd been caught eating a potentially toxic plant (I know I ate poinsettias and rhubarb leaves).
Thus far, she's brought a dead, partially-decomposed woodchuck, and grubs . . . I don't think either of them would offend her sensibilities. Fish, I can see her catching and bringing to Dale (although some of it revolves around personal headcanon). I can't see her actually killing and butchering a wild animal for the purpose of feeding it to someone else; I can see her being complicit in the delivery process. After all, just consider the Mane 6's pets. Aside from Fluttershy, all their pets are omnivores, or obligate carnivores--and they have to get their food from somewhere. Some of them might hunt in the wild, but I can't see Gummy having much luck being turned out to catch his dinner. . . .
2601956 You give very thoughtful and timely responses, and you don't skimp on details. That's very respectable, and you illustrate your ideas well. I'm finding myself drawn more to this story and further away from what I usually read now. To be honest, I usually take what's written as acceptable canon as long as it aptly fills in blanks left by the show. You make a great point with Gummy, and I'm now intrigued at how he eats. No doubt Pinkie Pie has tried feeding him his dietary requirements in the form of cupcakes to make them easier to digest.
Yes, I did that on purpose. That was to tie together the headcanon thing and Gummy's toothlessness and it just fit so well I couldn't ignore it.
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My philosophy is if you took time to read and comment, I owe you a response. After all, without readers, what would I have? 300,000 words of nothing.
Heh, since you're here commenting on a blog post, you know that I love details.
Thanks!
I agree with you, and I appreciate the viewpoint. A lot of readers get wrapped up in their particular headcanons, and aren't willing to explore beyond that. I've read my fair share of stories where I've come out of it thinking about how the author's view doesn't jibe with my own, but as long as it's well-written and plausible (or has an AU tag), I'm not bothered at all.
Well, that does explain a lot of things. . . .
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It's probably not the story you're thinking of, Fleurs only major appearance have been A Canterlot Morning and the only other character is Octaivia, Trixie doesn't appear at all. In fact I don't think Fleur's cat woman like background has been discussed in universe in the L-verse yet. Likewise Fancy Pant's role as a sort of Bruce Wayne figure and the director of the L-verse version of the CIA has only really been covered in chat. He's also Vinyl Scratch's dad.
1611630 En din vaji ku.
There's a series of comics where Fleur is a former Royal Guard that Fancy hired as a bodyguard.
https://www.derpibooru.org/737929?q=the+secret+life+of+fleur+dis+lee
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She might be kind of a badass. Although I think she's more smart than strong; then again, with unicorn magic, she might not have to be strong.