Friday, March 10, 2017

Dolls In the Springtime Snow

It was just changing from snow to rain when I got up this morning. I had corn meal mush and an orange for breakfast while starting My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The two-part season finale "The Cutie Re-Mark" brings back another villain, Starlight Glimmer, from the season opener "The Cutie Map." Starlight uses a spell to travel back in time to stop Rainbow Dash from creating the Sonic Rainboom as a colt that gave the Mane Six all their powers at once. Every time she does, the future grows progressively grimmer. Twilight Sparkle tries fighting her, but when their magic proves to be equal, she finally asks the frustrated pony what she has against cutie marks...and explains how changing even one group of friends can change the universe.

Spent the next hour and a half changing my dolls into outfits for St. Patrick's Day and late winter/early spring while the snow continued to fall. Samantha sports her mint-green Special Day Dress and red shoes with white tights. Whitney's in the Our Generation Retro purple floral dress (the flower print has green leaves and stems), thin off-white tights with shiny purple shoes, and the lavender cardigan from Kit's original "meet" outfit. Jessa wears the gray leggings from the Coconut Fun Outfit and a green tie-wrap blouse I found at a booth at the Deptford Mall with Springfield Collection sneakers. Felicity borrowed her friend Elizabeth's Summer Dress. It has a quilted petticoat that makes it more appropriate for spring than summer. Josefina's in her green-skirted Harvest Outfit with the beige moccasins and thick brown socks she came in. Molly's shamrock-print dress is a hand-made outfit I found at a yard sale several years ago. I left her in the tights and Mary Jane shoes from last month and added the pink knitted pearl-trim sweater.

Finished out My Little Pony while having lunch and preparing dinner. "The Crystaling" is Twilight Sparkle's niece, the daughter of her brother Shining Armor and the Princess Cadence. To everyone's surprise, the baby is an alicorn, a unicorn-Pegasus hybrid. She's also extremely powerful, managing to break the crystal heart that keeps winter weather out. While Starlight Glimmer tries to reconnect with an old friend, Twilight Sparkle attempts to find a spell that'll repair the heart.

"The Times, They are a Changeling" for Spike when he falls down a hole and finds a changeling, a shape-shifting creature that feeds on good vibes. Most are evil, but this one isn't. Like Finn in the current Star Wars series, he was appalled by the changelings fighting the Ponies and decided to give friendship a try instead. It won't be easy to convince the ponies that he's friendly, especially after the changelings interrupted Shining Armor and Cadence's wedding.

The snow was long gone and melting fast by the time I sat down to work on my story. I added Baron (Darth) Vader to the opening. He's after the Crimson Hawk and is annoyed when Bail Organa won't reveal where they went. He ends up escorting them to the Takodana Inn instead.

Jumping ahead, Mon Mothma has them take another boat to Lothal, this one driven by a Captain Hera Sylendulla. They arrive at the lovely old city to find the fair already in progress. Leia chats with a short, stubby little man about his hawk carvings. They're the Crimson Hawk, who is a local legend in Naboo.

There was a bit of strange weather around 5:30. The sky suddenly got dark, too dark for snow...but it snowed hard and fast. There was even a little thunder and lightning! It vanished as soon as it arrived. I have no idea what that was.

Broke around 6:30 for dinner. I tossed together chick peas, frozen corn, celery, scallions, and diced tomatoes for Chick Pea Stew in the Crock Pot. Yum, not bad. Quite nutty and flavorful. Made Cake Mix Peanut Butter Cookies for dessert.

Ran Elena of Avalor while I ate and baked, and later while online. Elena was a spin-off of Sofia the First, who appears in the double-length pilot episode. Thanks to an elderly wizard, the young princess discovers that there's another princess, Elena, trapped in her magic pendant. The wizard put her in there to protect her from the evil witch Skreeky, who has taken over Avalor. Sofia convinces her family to take a vacation to Avalor so she can find out how to rescue Elena from inside her locket. Even after they get Elena out, Skreeky manages to lock up Sofia's family. Elena and Sofia have to recruit their new friends, including the wizard's grandson Marco and the colorful flying jagurars, to restore music and laughter to their land.

The next two episode had Elena's friends Naomi and Marco trying to prove they were worthy of their postions. Marco has to take on a wizard who is after an older spellbook and can turn people into stone in "Spellbound." "Finders Leapers" has Naomi, eager to prove her worth to the Grand Council, taking charge of a dig to find archeological relics. What they find are the duendes, mischievous, magical elves. Naomi proves that she can be a good leader and as resourceful as anyone when it's she who figures out how to keep them from opening the door to their world.

The bonus episodes show how Elena deals with royals who aren't nearly as proactive and work-oriented as she is. "Prince Too Charming" is Prince Alonso of Cordova. Elena's there to find a place to build a bridge, but he just wants to flirt and show her the kingdom. She shows him how a real royal behaves when the workers accidentally upset a giant who threatens the castle. Elena goes on a "Royal Retreat" with the rulers of other local kingdoms. They all belong to a club ruled by the obnoxious King Hector. Elena goes along with it to get one of his battle cruisers...until he attacks a mother aquatic mammal and her baby. Elena has to decide to go along with him, or follow her heart and save the mother and child.

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