Pinkie Pie sets TD on fire. · 5:26am Jan 9th, 2013
Hello everypony/loyal reader of TD's wacky adventures/misfortunes in Equestria.
Wow, we have come a long way, haven't we? I never expected the story to become even half as popular as it is and to that I say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! If I could give every reader who liked, thumbsed up, commented, gave constructive criticism a thousand dollars I totally would. That's how much I appreciate you guys.
Now, I hate to do blogs like this, but I have gotten a ton of negative comments on one part. Not negative as in 'I can't read this story anymore' so much as 'I really, really, really hated this part." I am of course referring to the scene in Chapter 7 where Pinkie Pie sets TD on fire for breaking a Pinkie Promise.
Now, I have explained my stance on this to a lot of people but I think this is easy and I can get all of my thoughts out better this way.
Before we begin, yes, I know that it was out of character for Pinkie Pie to concoct a revenge like that. Would the Pinkie Pie of the show do that? Absolutely not.
But here's the thing, I'm not writing episodes for the show. I'm writing fan fiction. By default the TDverse is not the universe of the show because TD never shows up in the show itself. Now, obviously I haven't deviated a large amount from the characters of the show so I do have to make an effort to at least make them recognizable as Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Rainbow Dash etc.
So, there are a few reasons why I put that scene in and indeed stick by it.
On a tangent, though, I would like to state that I did a round of edits to the story, adding a few things and changing a few in the first two chapters. Long story short, I added a scene in chapter one where we see TD interact with his brother. I put this in to give TD a more human connection and to develop the character a little more. by showing that he has a positive relationship with his family, it makes that much more sense that he is so driven to get home. It also gives TD a reason to be so good at snarking: it's how he interacts with his family. He's so good at it because he's essentially practiced it for twenty years.
Another thing that I ultimately changed, based very much on the constructive criticism of The Archive, is the beginning of chapter two. Instead of half of the Mane Six smashing him around in a manner that clearly shows that they're trying to kill him, they do something similar to what Luna did when she snapped his spine, that is to say, they lost their tempers and went a bit too far in trying to restrain him. AJ and RD still beat up on him and Twilight uses her magic to put him five rooms down, but by making them not actively trying to kill him, it's more in character. Again, they still attack to try to restrain him, but they don't try to violently murder him.
So, I do have a willingness to change character actions if you point out that something somepony does is OOC and I end up agreeing. I will not change Pinkie Pie setting him on fire. Again, was it out of character? Yes, yes it was on some level. I say that because it is not OOC for Pinkie Pie to go berserk when somepony breaks a Pinkie Promise. That Regan MacPinkie Pie crack was essentially accurate if you've seen The Last Roundup. Another thing that I take a little wiggle room from is when Applejack apologizes. She says she's sorry (an admittedly weak apology) and Pinkie Pie says
"Well I heard an I'm sorry in there so that'll have to do for now."
For now.
Implying that even though Applejack apologized to the point that Pinkie Pie is satisfied enough that she isn't hunting her down, Pinkie Pie still implies that the whole affair isn't over. Now, did Pinkie Pie set Applejack on fire? Probably not but again, fan fiction.
Now, we've established that Pinkie Pie setting him on fire was OOC, but to me (and for the sake of the story) that fact isn't as important as how everypony reacts to it. What Pinkie Pie did was OOC, but think about it, if somebody read a script for your life, dear reader, and had a series of red pens with which they used to circle moments in their life that they deemed 'out of character'. The darker red the pen the more OOC it is. Everybody has a moment where the guy grabs the darkest red pen. Well, this was one of Pinkie Pie's.
Like I said before, the fact that she acted a bit OOC where a situation arose where we know that Pinkie Pie loses her mind when those situations arise, isn't as important in the overall world of the story and the relationships of the characters as how everypony reacts to it. If you recall, the other members of the Mane six and TD all called her out on it and was immediately deeply remorseful. She didn't try ti justify her actions, she didn't get defensive, she knew what she did was wrong right away when the others called her out on it and she makes every effort to apologize as soon as possible.
Because of her actions, which are admittedly based off a stretch of the character, the relationship between Pinkie Pie and TD develops into something a bit more positive. TD learns more about how Pinkie Promises are sacred to Pinkie Pie and Pinkie Pie learns that there are boundaries that you don't cross and that you need to think about how another person will react to something like that before you do it and why.
"But BronyWriter," you say, "Pinkie Pie does! If you recall the show, she refuses to prank Fluttershy for that very reason!"
To which I say, you're right. But Pinkie Pie's perceptions of Fluttershy and TD are very different. She wouldn't dream of pranking Fluttershy, even something that everypony else on the planet would see as completely harmless, because it would hurt her feelings. Her interactions of TD so far are that he's much stronger emotionally and he could take something like that. Somebody in the comments for that chapter compared setting somebody on fake fire with popping out of a friend's closet dressed as a zombie. I take that analogy and apply it to this. Pinkie Pie expected the prank to go like that: TD would be scared but he wouldn't be scarred. The purpose of both is to instill fear but not permanent fear.
Was Pinkie Pie wrong? Absolutely she was and she fully admits her mistake. When TD and Pinkie Pie meet in the clearing, she says that she didn't think about how he'd react to it. She only thought about the physical aspect of her prank, that he wouldn't be harmed at all, and not the mental one. It blew up in her face when she didn't think about it all the way. Now, I just became an RA at my university and that's one of the first things they teach you about pranks. Everybody has heard stories about a prank that went too far because the prankster didn't think about it all the way.
Also keep in mind that this is a universe with magic in it. Fake fire could be just as common as a dribble glass in the MLP universe. Until the show proves otherwise I as a fan fic author have that wiggle room, particularly if I can make some case for it.
tl;dr, I'm sure, but to summarize, 1. Pinkie thought he deserved it and only intended it as a small scare, nothing that he would be scarred by.
2. Fake fire could be something pretty common in their universe, especially considering that magic is all around them. It would have to be at least sort of available if Pinkie Pie can get her hooves on a jar of it.
3. It was mean, even if unintentionally, and when she was called out on it, she apologized in some pretty extreme ways.
4. It's a way to show the differences between their worlds and develop the relationship between TD and Pinkie Pie.
If you agree with these points but you feel that I could get them across better in the story itself and if I did then it would improve it, please tell me! I'm always looking to improve it!
At any rate, thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoy more of this story and the sequel!
I LOVED when Pinkie set TD on fire!!! BEST PRANK EVER!!!!
I don't care what ANYONE has to say about it! It was FANTASTIC!!!!
Resisting urge to just say "cool story bro". I never saw a true problem, since it was a prank of sorts. Just a cruel one. She could've gone with the flow and made him a cupcake
Wow. This blog speaks a lot about how good of a writer you are. You have demonstrated both strength by defending your actions and supporting them with reasonable arguments and humility by accepting criticism in order to improve your work for the better.
Bravo to you, sir.
I agree with your decision to have Pinkie set TD on fire. It was funny, and she was upset. Upset people (and ponies) do strange things. Things that are often not completely logical. The reactions of every character afterwards were great and totally in character. Besides, fiction is only fun if the author gets to step out a line a little bit.
...And now I have to go reread the first two chapters... Excellent work, sir. I eagerly await updates.
692653 To be honest, I was tempted to at least write a real TD Cupcakes chapter, something that I would never actually publish but that I would write just to see where it went. I didn't end up doing it but I really wanted to for a bit.
I still cannot believe she snapped his spine... and I agree with your points.
It seemed plenty in character for me, in fact her apologizing seemed a bit more OOC XD
692659 I would kind of like to know what TD would be like in that situation... How he would react. Suppose only you will know
I'm glad you stay strong and consistent with your decisions and his character though. Instead of him suddenly banging a new species. I just realized how dirty saying "plot hole" is.
692782 I'd be curious too.
Fiii-reeee! Burn TD! Burn! HAHAHAHAHA-
Yes, I loved that part. People bitch too much.
don't think this needs to be worked into the story itself. If people really need a further explanation I'm sure there are enough people that would post a link to this blog. Not everything is explained the the work itself and they don't need to be. Explanations involving what you choose to write into your stories should be left in the comment or blog sections. Stuff like this I see has a sort of behind the scenes kinda stuff where people get to hear from the author outside the book to get a deeper look and author's perspective on their decisions and characters and other whatknot that wasn't addressed in the story.
I respect your reasons and think they are good enough to satisfy any problems that people had with Pinkie's prank. If not then I don't think anything short of deleting the scene will make them happy.
~Have a good one.
I honestly found the pinkie pie pyro scene hilarious
Coulda been worse, there could have been a dose of murder in there. I think that would've added a slightly darker tone to the story.
I never really thought anything bad about that scene, it added a pretty good conflict to the story.
I didn't think Pinkie really broke character too much at all, for all of the reasons you mentioned here. Now, if it had been real fire, it would be a different story. Pinkie doesn't seem to know boundaries or react as expected in many cases (see the same episode where she demonstrates that she draws a line at pranking Fluttershy,) so while strange and a bit extreme for her, it fit well enough with my view of her canon character.
I read that chapter while listening to this:
Dunno why I like this, I just heard it in Far Cry 3 and thought that it was fitting to the chapter.
I count this scene as one of my favorite scenes in this fanfic along with the Blueblood trolling and TD and my reaction to Cloud Kickers pick up line
Pinkie lights someone on fire? I was planning to read this story, but now I really want to
If I wanted more canon, I'd watch MLP. I like when fan fiction breaks the norm and explores topics the children's show can not... and I have no doubt in my mind that if I landed in Equestria, and broke a Pinkie Promise a little fire would be getting off easy. After all, I've read cupcakes and I'm pretty sure that's canon.