twilightpony | Reaching Out

I was still hesitant about trying this new cross referencing Haycartes spell, I still have flashes of what it was like to be trapped in a book for days, but around midmorning I put one hoof on my nose and took the plunge. I chose an old favorite, Thornhoof's Brief History of Canterlot and I tried to connect it to the books activated by the Panequestrian Haycartes Society.

I had no success this morning. Either nopony was connecting books at that hour in Canterlot or my timid first attempt wasn't strong enough to bridge the distance from Ponyville to Canterlot. I decided to connect to a book in my own library instead; I chose Samule Lawnson's Whinnypiafficon of the Equestrian Language. It was not a happy marriage. Samule tore into Thornhoof, criticizing and trying to change every little bit of the latter's upstart New Equestrian spelling and sentence structure. Thornhoof was getting a little indignant at being interrupted every time he opened his mouth. Between the flattened ears and Samule winding up his hindquarters to buck his way through Thornhoof's Canterlot, I could see where this was going. I dropped the link. OK, lesson learned: no dictionaries. Not a great start.

This afternoon I tried again to link to the Panequestrian ponies through my Thornhoof. Success! I managed to establish a link, somepony was cross referencing a Hardy Bays book with what was probably a Shadow Spade novel. They seemed to be getting along better than my earlier attempt with the dictionary. I didn't meet whoever it was who was casting the spell in Canterlot, but the historical figures in my book wandered out into the expanded landscape and vice versa for the fictional characters activated by the pony or ponies in Canterlot. The historical characters were more interested in telling anypony who would listen all about themselves than they were in having a real conversation with the fictional characters walking through the streets of old Canterlot. It probably didn't help that none of the characters looked to be all there, and then they vanished. I think maybe the pony or ponies activating the Canterlot books was/were having trouble holding the Haycartes spell stable. I tried again to link up but most of the links broke the instant I reached out to them. It could have been from be the added strain that I caused by casting all the way from Ponyville. Suffice to say, it wasn't much of a Ffjordian book-world experience for me.