Edward Powers, by James Patrick Buchanan

(Fade into an archetypal bachelor’s unkempt bedroom.  The audience sees a rapid montage of images of a young man in his mid-twenties getting up, showering, shaving, brushing his teeth, eating oatmeal for breakfast, and lastly donning a sports jacket.  Chobits and To Heart posters, along with RayEarth and Sailor Moon calendars hang on the wall.)

Ed Powers (early version)

Ed is a mid-twenties office worker.  He is slightly overweight, has pale skin, and his medium brown hair is in a mullet-style haircut.

Montage images include (video)

Ed sitting at work, Ed sitting at home while listening to Japanese pop music, Ed sitting on the Central Corridor Streetcar line, Ed sitting at bowling, Ed sitting watching romantic comedy Anime, Ed sitting at the office party - office workers talking around him.

Ed:  (The montage voice over - audio):  “Welcome to the very exciting life of Edward James Powers.  I recently graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in computer programming.  I’m earning a comfortable income at a St. Paul-based auto, home, and life insurance company.  My off hours include bowling Thursday nights, watching Anime at the local University of Minnesota Anime Club Sunday nights, attending Anime and science fiction conventions, and occasional office parties.”

Montage turns to

Ed facing the camera as if he is facing a mirror, he is trying to tie a tie or some other mundane pre-date preparation.

Ed:  “But, that might change today.  I finally landed a hot date with Nancy, a beautiful blonde lady from our accounting department.  Usually, she is far too absorbed in her sports training to get a spot on America’s Olympic beach volleyball team to notice me at all.  We’re taking the Central Corridor streetcar to the Minnesota State Capitol building to see all those unearthly Alien artifacts they found in Antarctica and on the other worlds.  Who knows?  Something exciting might happen.”

As Edward closes the front door to his modest home, he says out loud and to no one, “Who am I kidding?  Nothing ever really exciting ever happens to me.”

Cut Scene.

(Edward is standing in a very long, single file line inside the Capitol building.  A tall, robust, blonde woman fidgets nervously in front of him, occasionally remarking to Ed.  She is complaining about the stink of the crowd, her uncomfortable high heel shoes, and that she is powerfully hungry, etc.)

Ed:   “So, Nancy, are you hoping you got the right stuff to walk the Fringes?”

Nancy:  “What, and leave my chance to win an Olympic gold medal behind?  Besides, I can’t live without my weekly shopping trek to the Mall of America.”

Ed   “Don’t worry.  According to the guidebook ‘ . . . only one in a hundred thousand is attuned to the portals and can travel on the roads to infinity.’  Who writes this stuff?”

Nancy:  “With those odds, I’d rather play the Minnesota Lotto.”

They pass a display of a UNIDA “Future Warrior” battle uniform.

Nancy:  “I wouldn’t be caught dead in something that unfashionable.”

Ed:  “Yeah, I suspect it would be tough to add accessories.”

(Edward stops briefly to consider a floor to ceiling video display featuring UNIDA Colonel Sayuri Tanuma, her life and first explorations into the Fringepaths.  It is entitled, “Humanities First Fringe Explorer!”)

Narration (for display montage playing in the background while other action takes place):  The HK 45 slash four is an impressive bit of deterrent carried as a personal side arm for all off-world personnel.  When things go really badly, our teams can count on these, and other issued weapons, to provide a complete arsenal of options - from high explosives, to suppression fire, to non-lethal sleep.  Consequently, each team member carries the equivalent firepower of a late 20^th Century American army squad.

(Video in background)  A soldier wearing a Future Warrior Uniform, in his hand is a bulky and lethal looking, four-barreled handgun, while an equally impressive twin-barreled rifle is on a gun rack.

Narration:  “On the other hand, the Fringe presents many environments that require undercover operations on worlds similar - yet sometimes very different from our own.  Experienced UNIDA agents, like the well known Colonel Sayuri Tanuma must sometimes operate completely within the social framework of a different world’s social culture.”

(The camera slides back far enough to show Ed and Nancy silhouetted against the floor to ceiling display).

Video continues with pictures of Sayuri fighting against 1980's era Soviet infantry; talking with tall and muscular, Roman Empire, female gladiators; freeing Union prisoners from a Confederate prison camp, and lastly being photographed in the shadow of a huge sculpture of a bipedal alien.

Nancy walks away from Ed, who is paying attention to the screen and stands staring at the flickering images.

Nancy: “I don’t suppose we will get out of here in time to make our dinner reservations - look, they only let one person view the Crystal Key at a time, let’s just go.”

Nancy returns to Ed’s side.

Nancy: “Please, will you forget about seeing that crystal thing today?  I skipped lunch and now I’m so hungry!  Just what is so interesting?”

Cut to:  The big screen now features Sayuri Tanuma smiling, in a film clip of her on the Tokyo University swim team.  She appears to be shorter and slenderer than Nancy.

Sayuri Tanuma’s voice over: “I would never have believed that Humanity would be exploring other worlds in my lifetime.  I thank the Heavens that I was born Fringe Enabled!”

Ed:  “Whoa!”

Nancy: “Oh,  . . .   I see . . .  Well, have fun with your video girlfriend.”

Nancy turns and leaves as Ed continues to stare at the video screen.

High Angle Long Shot of the crowd.

Nancy walks briskly around the Crystal Key Display, and toward the outside doors.  Ed now realizes Nancy is gone, and then makes a bee line to intercept her after she has rounded the corner.  In other words, Edward must cut through the line, past a guard, and the big case containing the Crystal Key to give Nancy a face-to-face apology for ignoring her.

Ed:  Yells, “Wait” . . .   He bumps into an older man, “Excuse me”  . . .   then yells, “Nancy, I was caught up in the action.”

Guard: “Wait.  One at a time . . .”

Medium shot

Ed passes the main display - while a split screen extreme close-up shot shows the Crystal Key pulses a flaming blue for a second, then resumes a faint, but steady glow - Ed does not see this and runs on.

Close Up of UNIDA guard

Guard one:  (into his handheld telephone) “Got one  . . . ”

Guard two:  “Which one?”

Guard one:  “The runner!”

Guard two:  “What’s his problem?”

Guard one:  “How should I know, but stop that runner before he gets away!”

Guard two:  “Will do.”

MS of Entrance - Nancy leaves and two UNIDA guards step up to intercept ED.

Guard three:  “Sir, we have to ask you to step over here.”

Ed:  “But  . . .   I gotta go catch my date.”

Guard three:  “Sir, she’s gone, and I think this is a bit more important  . . .”

Cut to (interior conference room)

Bureaucrat one:  “Congratulation’s sir, you are Pathway Enabled or Fringeworthy.  You now have the opportunity to join UNIDA and IDET.”

Bureaucrat two:  “A new job, a new career.”

Bureaucrat one:  “To explore the Alternative Worlds, to bring back knowledge, medical drugs, and advanced technology for the betterment of humankind.”

Bureaucrat two:  “To live the ultimate adventure!”

Bureaucrat one:  “And, a one million Dollar signing bonus.”  Fade to Black.

Cut to Med. shot

Edward rides in the backseat of a Cadillac Escalade, a blank look on his face as he stares at a check he’s holding with both hands.  (Cut to close-up of check - Edward James Powers - $1,000,000 Dollars!)

Rapid zoom out to extreme LONG SHOT of cityscape (St. Paul) and up to Orbital view of our planet.

Montage with Heroic Music.

The next shots are of Ed doing intense bodybuilding, bicycling on Australian outback roads, learning to use firearms, studying in class, doctors giving Ed both standard and optional biotechnology and medical nanotechnology body augmentations, lastly being tailored for his first Future Warrior battle suit.  At Edward’s graduation ceremony, he clearly has shorter hair, tanned skin, and a more athletic body.

Ed is then shown in his Hatsumi crew quarters, posters of HK weapons, U.S. Marine Field manuals, and copies of Soldier of Fortune magazine are visible.

Next, we see Ed, with several other humans, all dressed in Future Warrior combat gear.  They are in a uniform formation.  The Team leader approaches.  It is Sayuri Tanuma.

Sayuri Tanuma:  “To the rookies, welcome to our team.  To the veterans, welcome back.  First reconnaissance of our target world showed it to be a low hazard environment.  But, keep your eyes and ears open, as we don’t know who or what may be hiding in the shadows.  Once our team arrives on our target world, we will form two person teams and then I'll give your teams their assignments.  We have an equal number of rookies and veterans.  Therefore, each rookie will be assigned their own veteran Mentor.  Rookies listen to your mentor and his or her knowledge and experience will keep you alive.  You have been briefed  . . .  Now, let’s roll.”

They climb into several armored military vehicles, and then drive up a ramp and through the center of a large rotating silver ring, with a dull black center.  The vehicles don’t exit from the other side of the ring, at least not on this world.

The beginning of Ed’s adventure

Copyright © 2007, James Patrick Buchanan

My Father’s wandering spirit

An essay of the life of James Warren “Boo” Buchanan

By his son James Patrick Buchanan

My father’s favorite saying was “Get up, get out there, and walk!”  My father was a man who loved adventure, travel, and had a wandering spirit.

My father was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota on October 02, 1924.  His family relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota soon after that.  Even as a child he loved being outdoors more than being indoors.  He loved exploring the outdoors, by walking or by bicycle.  As a teenager, he would walk or bicycle for miles across the Twin Cities and later Bemidji, but told his parents that he would just be traveling to a nearby park.  My father often rode the Twin Cities streetcar system to the end of the lines and back again, just for the thrill of the ride.

Throughout my father’s adult life, he was attracted to the adventure of travel, especially walking, and thus had many jobs that involve walking.

My father volunteered to be a rifleman / Private First Class (PFC) in the US Army infantry.  He served in the 86th Infantry “Blackhawk” Division, Company k, in the first platoon.  During a telephone interview with his army buddy Charles B. Chedsey, my father, like all soldiers in his company, got a nickname.  My father’s army nickname became “Boo” after an officer mispronounced my father’s last name during roll call.

Mr. Chedsey told me that “Boo, could not run very fast, even if he could shuffle along at a good pace.  However, having the ability to run was a requirement to be an infantryman.  Thus, our company commander put him back behind the lines with the kitchen truck.”

My father had told me that being reassigned to the kitchen truck was good for him and for me, as three days after being reassigned to the kitchen truck, his old platoon was ambushed by Germans and about half the soldiers were killed or wounded.  Mr. Chedsey said that his platoon started with 40 riflemen.  When the war ended, just 12 of the original group were still in uniform.

Mr. Chedsey described my father in these terms:  “Boo was a year older than most of the other soldiers.”  Mr. Chedsey remembers my father as being a very ethical G.I.  “Boo was one of the more intelligent soldiers in his platoon.”  Mr. Chedsey then said that “Boo was a moral soldier, unlike most of the younger rascals who went looking for trouble, he was not a drunkard.”  Mr. Chedsey said that most of the other soldiers in his platoon were smart alecks.

According to his first discharge papers, my father received a Good Conduct Medal.  Yet, my father told me that even during the war, he and his buddies would wander away from camp, explore nearby areas, and make friends with the local people, despite orders not to associate with German civilians.  My father was the leader of these sightseeing tours, even if his buddies sometimes complained that my dad would get them into trouble with their commanding officers.

The only thing that my father admits to looting was a pair of “almost new” Russian army pants that he found in someone’s abandoned home.  My father wore these Russian Army pants underneath his G.I. issue pants.  My father credited those Russian army pants for saving his life and therefore my life.  I would like to know how a pair of Russian army pants found their way to Western Germany.

Once during his walks, my father and his buddies found an abandoned German army Panzerfaust, similar to the American Bazooka.  So, they tested it out on a German wooden farm shed.  They blew up the shed and my father described the Panzerfaust as a “good shed shredder.”  They didn’t stay in the area long enough to find out how the famer felt about their “unauthorized weapons test.”

For about one week, my father also carried around an abandoned German Sturmgewehr 44, one of the world’s first assault rifles.  But, my father didn’t get into combat when he had it and surrendered it to the American military police.  My father was disappointed that he never got to fire that rifle.

Another story that my father told me was the time that he and his buddies were taking an “unauthorized walking tour” of a newly liberated village.  “Boo and his Boys” found a Victorian era warehouse beside a railroad spur.  Inside the warehouse they found a hidden munitions store for navel guns, some of which were fourteen-inch shells designed for battleship cannons.

One of his buddies had had explosives training, so he rigged one of the shells to explode after a few minutes.  My father and his buddies were several blocks away from the warehouse when the arsenal exploded; sending nearby villagers into the street, wondering what was going on.  Even one-half mile away, they still felt the concussions of the exploding shells.  That event discouraged my father and his buddies from taking more walking tours until the war ended.

One of my father’s best-loved memories while riding across France and Germany twice inside Army boxcars named "Forty and Eight" as they were designed to hold 40 men or 8 horses.  Boo spent his time looking out the window, watching the countryside and villages roll on by.  My father explained that as the European cities were heavily damaged from war, the American troop trains had to use roundabout routes to get from place to place.

After he was discharged in 1946, my father became a forest firefighter in the western states.  He then volunteered for the United States Tenth Air Force and was promoted to the rank of corporal.

After he completed his second tour of duty, his parents talked him out of a possible career as a professional soldier and to get a teaching degree.  Paid for with his G.I. Bill, he attended Bemidji State College and earned a B.S. degree.  This is where my father met my mother Delores Ann Burgard, who was a recent Korean War window with two young daughters.  In 1959, my father and mother graduated from college.  They relocated to Duluth, Minnesota where they both joined the public school system.  Over the next few years, my father then earned his Master’s Degree at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

After spending several years teaching high school geography and history, his wandering spirit realized that he just was not suited to teach “rowdy bastards”.  He then spent the rest of his working life as a postal worker, a job at a recycling station, as a land survey worker for the city of Duluth, and finally as a writer of recreation and tourism books.

My father’s wandering spirit got tired of working at one type of job after a few years and moved onto another type of job.  My father loved writing the most, as he spent the most amount of his working life writing his travel books.  My family didn’t make as much income as he could have had if he had stayed at one job, but my family did have his amazing stories.

In the early 1970’s, my father didn’t like having to hunt down walking and backpacking trails from several different national, state, and local agencies.  My father and his backpacking friends wanted one guidebook that had all the trail information he wanted in one place.  There was no such trail guidebook in print at that time.  Also, he complained that he didn't want to keep track of a pile of trail brochures that would be damaged or lost in his backpack.  My father realized that he and his friends needed a book that no one had yet written, so he decided to write his own book.

After discussing this problem with his family, my father decided that he would write trail guidebooks for the entire state of Minnesota, based on the then six geographic regions developed by the Explore Minnesota, the Minnesota state tourism office.  After the books were published, Explore Minnesota reduced their tourism regions to five, while renaming and redrawing these regions.

My father’s first outdoor book was The Minnesota Walk Book, Volume One, is about trails in Minnesota’s Arrowhead region and Isle Royale, first printed in 1974.  As my family lived in Duluth, my father first wrote about the trails that were closest to our home city.

This book’s forward was written by my father and the editorial staff of the Sweetwater Press, a now defunct Duluth-based book publisher. They wrote “The MINNESOTA WALK BOOK is the first in what we plan as a series of trail guides.  The series will grow as we go along.  Future volumes will cover other sections of Minnesota and the upper Midwest.  And this volume will be supplemented as more trails are developed or re-discovered in the Arrowhead Country.”  My father wrote his Minnesota books between 1974 and 1982; but for a number of reasons the planned books for other states never got beyond the planning stages.

This book’s introduction was written by noted outdoor writer Calvin Rutstrum on page eight and nine.  Mr. Rutstrum’s introduction begins with this quote, “Wandering through the country with a light pack is about the most interesting life imaginable and perhaps the healthiest.”

His last paragraph tells of his cooperation with my father.  “We’ve designed this book to be taken along on your backpacking trips and hikes to help you make the most of them.  It should be a personal book since each trail is a different experience to each hiker.  Log space has been provided for notes, sketches, photos – should you want to record your trips.  The idea is that ink on paper lasts longer than memory; at least in details.  In addition to notes, you may want to make sketches of campsites, fishing places, and other locations you might want to remember.”

After Sweetwater Press shut down, the other books were published by Nodin Press.  In addition, Calvin Rutstrum wrote the second introduction to his first outdoor travel book – The Minnesota Walk Book, Volume Two, first printed 1976, page 11.  “In 1956 while I was supervising the building of a trading post and canoe base at the end of the Gunflint trail, a young man with a hiker’s backpack approached me and asked for a job.  It was not a permanent job that he wanted, he told me, but a job that would earn enough money for him to explore the hiking trails on Isle Royale.  He was James Buchanan.

He had the mien and attire of a woodsman.  I had an ample crew, but this young man seemed so in tune with my own elemental approach to the wilderness, I could not deny him his needs.  I simply in one way or another, had to be a vicarious part of the Isle Royale trek.

Years passed before I saw Jim Buchanan again.  He stopped at my cabin en route to the exploration of some river trails.  He was writing books for the hiker.  Devoutly hiking his subject, he has become truly the veteran of wilderness backpacking lore.

This, his latest book on hiking, might be termed a compilation of trails to hike.  My wife referred to it as a hiker’s encyclopedia.

We have had some great trail breakers in our history.  Jim Buchanan, thus, carries on the tradition of such great men as John Muir.  After a long lifetime of wilderness travel by canoe, dogsled, packhorse, and backpacking, I must defer to backpacking as being the method that brings one closest to the real essence of nature, and loser perhaps to the core of happiness.

In Minnesota Walk Book, Volume Three, first printed 1977, page 13, Chuck Bloczynski wrote this about my father:  “With the advent of hiking and skiing as health components, the wish to trace the ‘moccasin trails’ has blossomed into an increased need for up-to-date trail information.  Jim Buchanan has been a skier /hiker all of his life and he has a keen knowledge and awareness of the many benefits of hiking and skiing in Arrowhead Country.  This book will be of great benefit to those who wish to explore, refresh, and inspire as you are exposed to the wonders that await you.”

“This veteran of backpacking lore who has been referred to as a ‘trail breaker’ lends his spirit in this edition to assist you, the explorer, to find the essence of nature, and therefore, a slice of the real meaning of happiness.”

“Happy hiking and skiing!”

In Minnesota Walk Book, Volume Four, first printed 1978, pages nine and ten, the forward was written by journalist Sylvia H. Lang who wrote, “It was a sunny September day in 1977 that I had the pleasure of interviewing (during a hike, of course) Jim Buchanan, for a St. Paul Pioneer Press feature article.”

“Having read with great interest his Minnesota Walk Book Volumes I and II, I was eager to meet the man who had this knack of making me get out of my chair, put on my hiking boots, and head down the nearest trail.”

“Like many people, before hiking with Buchanan I never would have believed that St. Paul and Minneapolis could be such a haven for the walker.  This pathfinding wizard discovered some exceedingly beautiful walking areas in the Twin Cities, and he invited me to find some of these with him for our interview.”

According to Nodin Press editor Norton Stillman, the Twin Cities volume always outsold all the other MN Walk Books combined.

Sometimes, my father’s fans would talk to him, or send him letters.  One couple told my father that his travel books were the most expensive books they ever bought.  They explained that after reading his book, they spend hundreds of dollars buying new camping gear for their backpacking trips.

My father loved nature and protested for the creation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA).  I remember taking car trips, in summer and winter, with him to lobby for that area to become a protected wilderness area.  My father also wrote newspaper opinion page letters advocating building more rural and urban trails.

Our next door neighbor Kathy Reynolds wrote in an email that “Your father never wanted me to mow the (our) back yard for him.  He wanted to see what nature would build.  He would also offer the apples on his tree to neighbors every year.”

Walking was such a major part of my father’s life and identity that when old age deprived him of his ability to walk that hurt his ego deeply.  Needless to say that nursing home life and being dependent for mobility in a wheelchair didn’t agree with him.

My father died from heart failure on June 19^th, 2007.  During his funeral, my father’s ashes were spread over a patch of ground that is between the Willard Munger Trail and the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad.  It is a place where my father can be near a bicycling and walking trail and an active tourist and freight railroad.  My sister Susan told me that wherever my father’s a wandering spirit is now, that she is sure that he’s walking.

Before he died, I had told my father that when I become a successful writer that I’d take him on walking vacations where we would walk Washington’s National Mall to the top of Mount Fuji in Japan.  With a smile, my father told me that he’d make sure that I would keep that promise to him.  That is one promise I made to my father that I’ll now never be able to keep.

In addition to nonfiction, my father also wrote poems, the last one that he wrote weeks before his death is titled, Relationships.

RELATIONSHIPS

Ages pass, relationships last.

In the present time,

They are not worth a dime.

You and I

Our relationship is fine

As long as our hearts are in the right place

For all time.

We work together and play together

Side by side like brothers

Weaving our lives in symbiosis

Striving for a wet oasis

An ordinary person

Striving for higher relationships

Boyfriend, girlfriend, marriage, and children

Defined by a higher position.

-- By: James W. Buchanan

Homemade sanitizing wipes

I soak ordinary cleaning wipes with Isopropyl Alcohol to create homemade sanitizing wipes.

I found a Samsung tablet across Superior Street from the Vision Northland Superior Street entrance

Who would forget their Samsung tablet on a low concrete planter wall, next to a public sidewalk that leads to the Lakewalk?  I saw nobody around me, so I left that tablet where I found it on that wall.

The Voyageur Lakewalk Inn sign before dawn

I love how the red of the sign contrasts with the blue of the sky.

Spider webs next to the entrance lights at 311 East Superior Street condominiums

I see that two hard-working spiders love to build their webs next to these bright lights on Superior Street.

Who is Axton Dylan?

Why is their name painted on this rock?  Why was this rock abandoned on the sidewalk in front of the bus shelter located at the northeast corner of East Superior Street and North 13^th Avenue East?

Journey Unexpected, Part Five

JOURNEY UNEXPECTED

Written by James Patrick Buchanan

(The six central characters realize that their homes and hearts being in Ponyville.)

(Fade in shows that Rainbow and Fluttershy are within a glass roofed, shopping arcade.  The stores are filled with merchandise, some familiar and some alien to the two pony friends.  The trouble started with Chitchat Grapevine a young unicorn mare with a shiny tin colored coat with a polished pewter mane and tail, with the portraits of two ponies talking for a cutie mark.  Chitchat takes a secret digital photo of them with her PDA and then sends it to her friends.  Chitchat’s friends send the digital photo to their friends who rush over to the arcade.  Soon, a pony flash mob surrounds Rainbow Dash, but ignores Fluttershy.)

Chitchat:  (She points at Rainbow with her hoof while telling her friends.)  That’s the hero that gave us all those Pegasus treasures from the abandoned cloud city to us ground ponies.

In response, Rainbow Dash puts on her favorite pair of sunglasses and smiles.

Rainbow:  There’s no need for all of you to get pushy.  There’s a limitless supply of Rainbow Dash to satisfy everyone’s needs to meet Equestria’s greatest flyer.

Fluttershy:  (On the edge of the crowd and speaking in a quiet voice said), Not to disagree with you or anything, but you know that Spitfire may disagree with you about being the best Pegasus flier.

Walking around the assembled mob of Dream Valley ponies is a young Earth pony stallion with a polished stainless steel coat and a metallic red mane and trail, with a push mower for a cutie mark.

Lawn:  (He walks over to Chitchat and then asks), “Chitchat, Rainbow is mobbed by other ponies.  What about talking to the yellow Pegasus?”

Chitchat:  Lawn Care, don’t pay any attention to Fluttershy.  According to my friends’ online blogs that I’ve read so far, the yellow mare is more of an Earth Pony who happens to have wings, than she is a real Pegasus.

Understandably, Fluttershy was a bit miffed at being described as not being a real Pegasus.

Fluttershy:   (She said this to herself with a cute, yet angry face), I’m not as good at flying as my friend Rainbow.  But, I’m still a real Pegasus.

Fluttershy flies over to hover above Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy:  “Rainbow, we’re leaving!”

Fluttershy scoops a surprised Rainbow up in her four hooves.  Fulttershy flies upward and then down the wide arcade hall.  The Dream Valley ponies give chance down the hall, but they give up when Fluttershy, still carrying Rainbow in her hooves escapes out an open window.

Rainbow:  (Exacerbated asks), “Fluttershy, why did you carry me away from my fans?”

Fluttershy:  Some of those mean ponies said that I wasn’t a real Pegasus.

Rainbow:  (With a surprised look on her face said), Well then, I don’t want to be around those Dream Valley ponies if the say bad things about you.  Come to think of it, even Twilight does not get as much attention for being a princess in Ponyville, than Fluttershy and I get from these glossy coated and air-headed Dream Valley ponies.  Let’s fly over to the market and see if there are Dream Valley novels that are similar to the Daring Do novels.

(Transition using the national flag of Dream Valley.)

Meanwhile, Princess Twilight, wearing her coronation dress and royal regalia walks with slow, graceful steps into the Rose Garden of the Dream Valley Presidential Mansion.  She is escorted by Spiffy van Hoosier, a stallion with a brushed aluminum colored coat, nickel silver colored mane and tail, and a tea set for his cutie mark.  Spiffy wears a black butler uniform.

On a brick patio, covered by a canvas canopy stands Cameo Moderator, the President of the Dream Valley Republic.  Cameo is an Earth pony mare with a coat of polished copper, with a mane and trail of metallic green jade, and a powdered wig for her cutie mark.  Cameo wears a white ruffle shirt and a black bow tie.  Being an Earth pony and thus attuned with nature, she often meets with guests in her nation’s Presidential Mansion’s Rose Garden.

Cameo walks over to Twilight.

Cameo:  My name is Cameo Moderator.  I’m the elected President of the Dream Valley Republic.  You have already met my butler, Spiffy van Hoosier.

Twilight:  My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m the Princess of Friendship of the Equestrian nation.

After a healthy hoofshake, Cameo invites Twilight to sit down on a comfortable sofa.  Cameo sits on a sofa opposite Twilight, with a low table with a tea set and cookies on it.

Spiffy:  (Talking to Twilight), I would find it acceptable if you called me Spiffy.  If you need anything, Princess Twilight all you need to do is ask.

Twilight:  (Looking at Spiffy, she said), Spiffy, just call me Twilight.  Also, there is something about you that reminds me of my own devoted servant and dear friend, Spike the dragon.

Spiffy:  (While bowing to Twilight, he said), “As you wish, Twilight.  I have pride in the fact that my Hoosier family has been attending to the needs of Dream Valley’s presidents and their visitors for more than eight hundred years.

Twilight:  Wow that is a long time for a family to have one job.  You must tell me the more interesting stories about your family sometime.

Cameo:  (Asking Twilight.)  Besides you are there any more Equestrian Princesses?

Twilight:  (Turns her attention from Spiffy to Cameo), Besides me, there is Princess Celestia, who controls the Sun, Princess Luna who controls the Moon, and Princess Cadance who spreads love, while protecting the Crystal Empire.

Cameo:  Dream Valley ponies have wondered for generations who or what is controlling the movements of the sun and the moon.  If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the difference between Princess Cadance being the princess of love and you being the princess of friendship?

Twilight’s eyes grow bigger and she appears confused.

Twilight:  I’m not sure what the best way to answer your question is.  Nopony has ever asked me the specific details of our job descriptions or if there is any overlap in our duties.  Come to think of it, our job descriptions have never been written down.  That is something I’m going to do after I get back to my homeland.

Twilight:  (Twilight looks at Cameo’s shoe-gloves, then asks), Cameo, do you know what the shoe-gloves are based on?

Cameo:  There is an old pony legend that says that our ancestors were once legendary creatures known as human beings who lived on another world.  After these humans walked through a magic gateway to our world, these humans became the three pony tribes and other species as well.  But, we both know that’s just an entertaining bedtime story for foals.

Twilight:  Sometimes, even the most embellished of legends are based on a kernel of truth.

Cameo gives Twilight a skeptical facial expression.

Cameo:  Ok, here’s another question.  Why didn’t anypony from the Equestrian nation ever see what had happened to their ancestors’ homeland before your arrival?

Twilight:  I’ve been wondering about that same question.  As far as I know, everypony in Equestria assumed that Dream Valley was buried under a deep layer of ice and snow.  No Equestrian pony had ever thought to come here and see what happened to Dream Valley with their own eyes.  Dream Valley had become more myth than fact.  It took three young fillies, their school teacher, and Spike, my dragon friend, to suggest a journey to retrieve knowledge lost to Equestrian ponies.

Cameo:  The same thing happened with the Dream Valley ponies.  We assumed that all the ponies that had emigrated out of Dream Valley and didn’t return hadn’t survived the journey to a new land.

Twilight:  Cameo, the fact is that about half our world is unknown to Equestrian ponies.  I would think that with all our Earth pony science, Pegasus flight, and Unicorn magic, we ponies would have made a complete map of our world by now.  There are even uncharted areas of my home nation.

Twilight:  Ambassador Twilight, may I call you Ambassador Twilight?

Cameo:  (After Twilight nods her head, Cameo continues by saying), My mapmaking cartographer ponies will give you copies of the maps of my nation, as well as maps of the other known kingdoms on this continent.  What do you say to that?

Twilight:  I say, on behalf of my nation, thank you.  Let’s learn from the past, but also move forward.  Let us work together in friendship and harmony to build a better future for all ponies, dragons, griffons, zebras, and all other intelligent species.

Cameo:  That sounds very nice, but where should we begin to build our friendship between the ponies of our nations?

Twilight:  I can start off by giving you these books on Equestrian history.  I wish I had more to give to you, but I didn’t know that there were ponies living in Dream Valley.

Twilight’s horn lights up as three books levitate out of Twilight’s saddlebags and land on the low table between Twilight and Cameo.

Cameo:  I’ll give these books to the Dream Valley History Museum.  Our pony historians will love reading each detail of how our long lost relatives are living.  Is there anything you want to add, Ambassador Twilight?

Twilight:  I think that our nations should exchange professional ambassadors.  Then, our professional bureaucrats, university professors, and business ponies can consider what trade routes to use for ponies and goods to travel between our two nations.  Cameo, what goods do you think Dream Valley ponies can sell to Equestrian ponies?

Cameo:  Dream Valley ponies would love to trade our PDAs, our canal technology, and our vast, Dream Valley coal reserves for Equestrian trains, airships, and Friendship engines.  Dream Valley ponies joke with each other that if you drag your hoof on the ground here, there’s a good chance your hoof will get covered in coal dust.  Ambassador Twilight, how do we determine how many tons of Dream Valley coal, is worth one Equestrian friendship engine?

Twilight:  (With a sigh, she said), “I see we have many days of complicated and intricate negotiating ahead of us.  Being an adult is so complicated.  And thus, I wonder why when I was a young filly that I was in such a hurry to grow up.”

(Camera pans to a large watercolor of a forested city park.  The scene transitions to a real picture of the same city park with Twilight and her close friends were enjoying a sumptuous, early afternoon picnic lunch.  The friends sat on a plaid picnic lunch blanket in the Royal Stewart tartan.)

On the other side of a brick bicycle path, were cute metallic foals.  They were dressed in cute sailor suits and had a great time playing with their toy sailboats in a knee deep, reflecting pool.  The floor and sides of the pool were covered in ceramic tiles.  Two of these foals were Bard, a silver coated Earth colt talking to his friend Cinnamon a copper coated Unicorn filly. 

Brad:  (In a confident voice, told Cinnamon), “When I grow up, I’m going to marry a Pegasus mare.”

Cinnamon:  But, will your Pegasus mare move to Dream Valley, or will you move to Equestria?

Brad:  I don’t know.  But, that’s years and years in the future, so why worry about it now?  I have much growing to do before I sail away to Equestria.

Cinnamon:  Speaking of sailing away, you sailboat is sailing away from you.

Cinnamon pointed with her hoof to Bard’s sailboat that was being pushed with a slight breeze down the reflecting pool.  Lickety-split, Bard was trotting off to retrieve his sailboat, splashing water around his legs, his underbelly, and his sailor tunic.  The young foals didn’t notice Twilight and her friends.

Rarity:  I do love the illusion spell you cast on us to make us look like metallic ponies.

Twilight:  I have to create this spell, or the fan ponies would never leave us alone.

Twilight had cast an illusion spell to make their dull coats appear shiny metallic and to have Twilight, Rainbow, and Flutter’s feathery wings appear to disappear.

Twilight is using her magic to pour Applejack a cup of tea.

Applejack:  (Smiling, Applejack said), “Oh, that’s ok sugar cube; you don’t have to pour my cup of tea.”

Twilight:  Applejack, we’re friends and neither my wings on my back nor my crown shouldn’t get in the way of me being nice to you.

Applejack:  Thanks Twilight, I reckon I can’t turn down a helping hoof from a good friend.”

Rarity:  Have you seen how these Dream Valley ponies fawn over Rainbow, Fluttershy, and the Wonderbolts?  The Dream Valley ponies smother them with attention like Rainbow obsesses over her signed, first edition Daring Do novels.

Twilight:  By working together, we have collected an adequate number of books for Cheerilee’s history project.  We have also gathered a sufficient amount of information to give to Princess Celestia to tell her all about the ponies of Dream Valley and Dream Valley society.

Rarity:  It will be a shame to leave so many dreamy metallic ponies.

Rarity looks over at a group of muscular Dream Valley stallions and mares lifting weights at an outdoor gymnasium.

Rarity:  But, I will return home for the sake of my family and for my friends.

Applejack:  As much as I’d love to stay and learn more about the art of Dream Valley baking, I’ve got my family’s apple orchard to run and a family to care for.

Twilight:  I see that travel is great for expanding your mind and making new friends.  I’ve seen that Dream Valley ponies have taken their society in directions no Equestrian pony has considered.  But, my friends and I have seen that despite all the wonderful ponies, places, and things in our ancestors’ homeland of Dream Valley, we know that our true place beings in Ponyville.  Let’s start packing, as we should leave Dream Valley in three days.

Rarity looks at Twilight with pleading, puppy dog eyes.

Twilight:  (She amended herself by saying), “Three days?  I meant to say seven days to pack up for our return voyage.  I’ll send a text message to the president’s personal butler Spiffy van Hoosier about our travel plans.  Pinkie Pie, please plan a farewell party for nine in the morning, seven days from now.”

Pinkie:  Yes Twilight, you’ll be pleased with my farewell party planning!

Rarity smiles at Twilight.  Rarity then returns to ogling the metallic coated stallions.

(A barn door wipe shows the audience that Twilight and her friends sitting in the airship’s forward observation lounge.  The airship is flying above the clouds at night.  Lantern light is making contrasting shadows on the walls, objects, and ponies.  Twilight is sitting on a padded chair, uses her magic to bring their friendship journal to her and opens the book to the first blank page.)

Sitting next to Twilight, Applejack appears happy playing her banjo for everypony’s enjoyment.  Spike appears content listening to Applejack’s music.  Rainbow is busy sorting a big pile of Pegasus pony merchandise.

Twilight starts writing in her friendship journal.  “After one memorable farewell party - my airship crew, my friends, and I have settled in our airship for the weeklong voyage back home.  While I’m happy to return home, I also feel sad to leave all my new, Dream Valley friends.”

Twilight smiles at a photograph of the farewell party, her pony and dragon friends, along with the Dream Valley friends she has made.  Standing on Twilight’s right side is Cameo Moderator while standing on Twilight’s left side is Spiffy van Hoosier.  Standing next to Spiffy is Newsie Newsworthy and Panorama, both wearing formal dresses.

Twilight continues writing, “First, this unexpected adventure and all the excitement and enjoyment we have encountered would never have happened if the Cutie Mark Crusaders hadn’t ask a question about how ancient ponies got their cutie marks, if Cheerilee hadn’t asked me to investigate the library of the Royal Pony Sisters, and if my friend Spike hadn’t suggested that we take an airship journey to Dream Valley.  We all owe Ponyville’s Cutie Mark Crusaders, Cheerilee, and Spike our thanks for finding unexpected friends and unexpected opportunities in Dream Valley.

“Second, I’ve learned that the unexpected can surprise and sometimes frighten a pony.  Yet, while our intended goal was to rediscover lost Equestrian history for Cheerilee’s textbook project; during our adventure to rediscover lost pony history, my friends and I found unexpected friends and unexpected opportunities.  It is funny that the unexpected things you find are often more valuable than the things that you intend to find.

“Third, while it was unexpected that my friends and I would purchase Pony Digital Assistants, we will be donating our wonderful tools and the rest of the Dream Valley technology we have purchased or were given to us, to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.  I’m sure that Celestia's students can and will make much better use of Dream Valley technology than we ever will.

“Also, I propose trading Dream Valley coal and their skill in building canals for Equestrian friendship engines and our skill in building railroads.  Most trade agreements are written in boring adult talk.  To make these talks more interesting for all involved, I suggest that Princess Celestia should hire Trixie Lulamoon and Cheese Sandwich to complete these complex trade agreements.  Who can tell what unexpected things could happen if we pair those two professional entertainers together to write out these trade agreements.

“In conclusion, I wonder what other unexpected friends, undiscovered civilizations, and unidentified opportunities remain hidden on, above, or under the unmapped lands and seas of our world?  Whatever my friends and I discover during our future adventures, we will bring the magic of friendship to friends that we haven’t met yet.”

Twilight yawns, and then concludes her entry with, “But, for me it is time for this unexpected pony ambassador to return to my cabin.  Tonight I need to get some much needed sleep.  My friends and I will work to solve tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.”

The end

Writer’s notebook, written for my editors

After years of encouragement from my friends to write a young reader’s book, I wrote Journey Unexpected.  My book’s central theme is dealing with unexpected events and unexpected people, while introducing to my readers to the ancestral homeland of the three pony tribes first described in the Hearth's Warming Eve episode.  I have named this first pony homeland Dream Valley, as the ancestral homeland was not given a name during the episode.

What am I telling my readers in a story about Dream Valley pony society that can’t be told in the Equestrian homeland?  I’m curious as to what could happen if Twilight and her friends decided to return to their ancestral homeland to discover what happened to it and who might be living there.

In addition, considering how many real world people spend their time, money, and effort discovering their ancestral descent and sometimes visiting their ancestral homeland.  Using reality as a guideline, I would imagine that some Equestrian ponies would wish to visit Dream Valley.

My manuscript was inspired by my traveling to foreign nations, finding the unexpected, and getting used to things not found in the United States.  It was also inspired by the television show Connections by James Burke

My readers will see that separated from the Equestrian ponies for more than one thousand years - even before the births of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna - that the Dream Valley ponies developed a civilization far different from that of the Equestrian ponies.  Moreover, I hope my book will be used as an opportunity for artists and writers to reimagine what an alternative pony society could look like.

Dream Valley is also an excellent opportunity to create situations that can’t be done in the Equestrian nation, such as pony flash mobs.

Moreover, I wanted to introduce to my readers the metallic ponies, which over many centuries had become a distinct species of ponies.  These metallic ponies are based upon real world, Akhal-Teke horses.  When I first saw images of Akhal-Teke horses, I thought these images of metallic horses had been photoshopped or the horses’ coats had by dyed that color.  No wonder that these unusual horses are Turkmenistan's national emblem.

Moreover, the Akhal-Teke horses are considered by horse enthusiasts to be the world's most beautiful horse breed.  Therefore, I can imagine that Akhal-Teke horses could be the inspiration to become a successful line of pony toys for Hasbro.

I assume that Dream Valley is on the other side of one of the two oceans that border the Equestrian homeland.  Otherwise, the Equestrian ponies or the Dream Valley ponies would have visited each other’s nations by now.

The Twilight's Kingdom episode showed that the power of friendship is a different and separate force from that of magic.  I propose that the power of friendship can not only be employed to defeat enemies, it could also be harness for constructive uses, such as Twilight’s friendship engine to expand generation four’s storytelling opportunities.  My rationale is that the series has shown that the power of friendship can create energy to defeat villains such as Nightmare Moon; and therefore the same power of friendship could power an airship and achieve other outcomes as well.

My Little Pony:  Friendship is Magic, Copyright © 2010 Lauren Faust, Hasbro Studios, and DHX Media