twilightpony | Last Minute Review

The Canterlot Explorer's Society talk is tomorrow. I am calm. I am focused. I can do this.

My preamble will go like this: It all started with a foal's storybook from the Crystal Empire, sent to me to help rebuild my book collection which Tirek had incinerated when her burnt the Golden Oak library to the ground. The storybook tells a cute story about how Winter came to Equestria, and it goes like this. [Read book, project transparencies of the book pages]. I didn't dwell much on it until I had a chat with my friend Moondancer. She had seen a different telling of this story on a scroll fragment in the Canterlot Mane library archives. This led her to do some research. Next thing I knew, she, via a quirk she had discovered in the Haycartes spell, appeared in one of my books and announced to me that she was in the Crystal Empire and that she was on her way north on an expedition! [Place open Haycartes Treatise on Ponies on projector plate, Moondancer appears]. There she is now! (Speak directly to Haycartes book, invite Moondancer up on stage to share why she went and what happened next...) [Moondancer tells how she knew where to go and what to look for and what happened up until she and Lemon Hearts fell into Winter's icy slumber].

...

Thank Moondancer for her help, move on to our expedition.

1. Our gear and supplies. Show examples of horse blankets and boots designed by Rarity. Our camping equipment and yak gear. Short list of staple foods and power cubes. Our yak guide, Machur Lulach. Group picture of us in our winter gear and snow goggles.
2. Map of the route we took, with camp sites indicated. Pictures and descriptions of the terrain. How many hours we walked a day, approximately how far north we went, how long it took, how cold it got.
3. Star charts from Yakyakistan covering portions of the heavens not seen in Equestria but sadly, not as far north as we went.
4. Arrival at Winter's castle of ice, already described by Moondancer, explain how we succeeded in thawing everypony, allowing us to escape and the ancient explorers to disperse. With Winter lurking in the tunnels, there was no time to explore. [pictures by Pinkie]
5. Our rescue by an unknown pegasus constellation.
6. The other cultures we met however briefly: the long eared Cirrostratans, our caribou companion, our guide and our brush with Yakyakistan. [pictures by Pinkie]
7. Home safe and sound. And very skinny. The expedition was longer than originally planned.
8. Question period.

That should take about an hour. I'm going to pack my saddle bags now. That way I can repack them with everything I forgot three or four times before I catch the Friendship Express to Canterlot with my friends tomorrow. Wish me luck!