Amtrak recap

So like some people say, you can put an enormous amount of effort into something and get nothing in return, and sometimes you can put no effort into something and get everything in return. So if 148 was the story I put a ton of effort into, then Amtrak is the story I put no effort in to.

So, to start, this fic was made out of 2 parts of inspiration:

First off, The idea that Discord being turned to stone was only a way to contain his physical form when his mental state was actually imprisoned in our world was something I thought of a long time ago. I actually plan to use it in a much longer work that hasn't been released yet, but with a few differences. At the same time, when I actually DID help my brother move into his apartment in Chicago once, I had an idea about a brony (an obvious self insert full of annoying meta references) sitting in a café and slowly realizing that Celestia and Discord were sitting beside him and he starts typing what they are saying.

Secondly, The idea to take it and turn it into a train was directly inspired by where I started drafting the story, on an Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit. So, when you were probably reading my blogpost about why I didn't like the season 4 finale I was writing the first draft of the story.

So, that brings up the question, was the main character and narrator in the story a self insert?
No!

I for one despise self inserts, hell, being a master at self deprication, I once wrote myself into Between Needles and Knives as the Racist, sexist, Cynical theatre Usher who gets choked out in a coat closet by a guy disguised as a woman for comic relief! So If I was to ever write a self insert again it would only be for laughs.

Anyway, because I love things like vernacular and speech traits, I decided to make the main character a bit of a joke on the common traits of a person who lives in Mid Michigan, I am from Detroit, and I can say that there are some minor things like using "Ass" to describe something. Ex:

"I thought she was about to pull out a gun and blow his brains out his ass."
or
"Do my duty as a Michigander and lay a beatdown on his Bitchass."

Further, while it may not seem like much, the original narrator was actually going to be a "Yooper", AKA a person who is front the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but the problem was that as I wrote his first lines I realized that it just sounded so bad that it was borderline stereotypical. Just read how bad this sounds:

"Accordin' to da Internet It takes aboot Ferteen Heur and tweny minute or somtin' like that to get from Chicago to Escanaba."

But anyway, moving on, I also would like to add that what I wrote in the story, about Celestia being a tall thin black lady with one of those fake strands of colored hair in her bangs and Discord being some Hobo looking hipster guy, is how I would picture them looking in the human world. I don't know why, but I always have that image.

which, by the way, I loved Discord's introduction, I feel that the reader could have figured out who he was without him even speaking, especially with how vandalized and flamboyant his actions are, especially how he vandalized a sign that prohibited smoking by turning it into something that encouraged it.

Oh, and don't think too hard about the ending, I just wanted to figure out how to end it with a bit of a cliffhanger because I doubt that I could think of an actual ending.

Also, before a majority of the content was deleted in the beginning, this was supposed to be some meaningful and motivational fic about forgivness and moving on because the narrator had helped his abusive alcoholic dad (who was trying to reform) move out of his house that was repossessed by the bank, but as I reread it, I realized it was too fucking depressing and "wah wah look at me I'm entitled to be a dick", so I deleted it, rewrote the backstory of why he was on a train, and changed the angst narrator to just being a dipshit that was such an asshat that his mannerisms were supposed to come off as funny.

Also, this came out of nowhere, but I don't understand why people began to dispute the role of God in the world because of this fic because it really wasn't intended at all. Like I said before, this was just a simple quick fanfic, there really wasn't anything deeper than what was written. (According to how I see the show's logic) In MLP, Discord has power because Equestria has a high chaos content to it since its a cartoon, there is harmony, but there are also too many things that just don't make sense. He loses almost all of his power in our world because we are governed by rules and laws, almost everything in our world is defined and quantitative, thus Celestia, representation Harmony, which is a synonym for order, would have more power here.

So anyway, that was Amtrak, I seriously put so little effort into it and got such a response back that I am very surprised. Special Thanks to Bathroomstahl for editorial work and I hope you liked it.

Thank you for your time.

Also, I would have posted it sooner, but after I was done with my REAL trainride, I got in my parent's car at the train station and I had a new puppy waiting for me.

Timber Ross.