Flow of Ideas · 6:18pm Aug 17th, 2016
There are few things more frustrating than a glancing blow from inspiration; just enough for a title, but not where to take it. Below are two examples.
Firstly, I've noticed a trend this season. "Newbie Dash," "The Cart Before the Horses," "28 Pranks Later"... Not only has Dash not been at her best, Scootaloo's been there to see it. So often that it's enough to make even a dedicated fanfilly realize her idol has hooves of clay. What does that do to her? How does she react? Who does she turn to?
Well, I'm not sure. All I know is that if I do follow through on the idea, I'll be calling it The Long, Dark Night of the Scoot.
Secondly is little more than a title and most basic of concepts, but it still tickles me enough to mention. It came to me while doing some consulting for a Friendship is Magic: the Gathering crossover: Sliver Spoon. After all, she was pretty much an extension of Diamond Tiara's mind as it was. 
That is a good question. Who does Scootaloo turn to?
The only adult that comes to mind other than Rainbow Dash is Princess Luna.
Sure that shouldn't be the long, dark teatime of the Scoot? :V
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... with Luna. That's almost a plot.
This happens to me ALL THE TIME.
Scootaloo could also turn to Cheerilee, I suppose. Or Applejack, if she wants another perspective on Rainbow Dash from someone who knows her well.
Lightning Dust, obviously.
We could well be looking at a situation like the episode of MASH wherein Radar finally has to face what a douche Hawkeye can be.
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I was deliberately avoiding the Douglas Adams reference... and now I find myself wondering why.
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Honestly? I was thinking one of her parents. I usually assume they're alive. However, these are all viable alternatives.
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This one's less viable at first blush, but it can certainly work. Every family has a few black sheep, even if some of them are actually green.
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I'm afraid the reference is lost on me. Still, it does promise to be interesting if I can figure out where to go with it.
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Isn't it frustrating? Though at least I'm getting some good feedback.
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What? Scoots is feeling so unsure of her idol RD now that she dreams about it, and it catches Luna's attention enough that she decides to counsel her in a moonlit dream whilst having tea time, talking about coming to terms with how normal the people we put upon pedestals actually are?
And to throw in a random wrench into the mix, Discord butts in. Because tea biscuits are tasty sweet.
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Discord would be a nice touch, indeed. :)
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Fixed.
Hmmmm... Tricky question, indeed.
Well, I suppose she could make the leap in logic that Dash is like a sister to her, ergo, she may ask Applebloom and Sweetie Belle for advice on the subject of "sisters". Sweetie Belle in particular had her momentary falling out with hers, waaaaay back during the first Sister Hoof's Social --- while before that, she'd been trying to "impress" her big sister and "be helpful".
So... Sweetie Belle was a bit like Scootaloo fan-filly-ing over Dash, maybe?
Other than that, who else to turn to... Hmm, tough question.
... Ms. Cheerilee, maybe? The setup could be that there's another "presentation"-day coming up at school, and the subject is something that practically begs for Scootaloo to bring in Rainbow Dash for class.
(Something involving weather management? World travel? The Wonderbolts? / History of the Wonderbolts? A "Daring Do" book report? Wing-Aerodynamics? Or just: "Somepony you look up to", but that'd be a tad too straight-forward.)
Except, the more she thinks about her presentation, the more Scootaloo has second thoughts.
So she approaches Ms. Cheerilee, asking to change the subject of her presentation. Things may get a bit complicated if Dash already heard Scoots was gonna pick her for the presentation... Or just expected it from what the presentation-subject was.
Some others have pointed out Princess Luna as a candidate. ...Yeah, that definitely fits with the title, as I imagine it would take place at night.
Scootaloo has a nightmare which highlights all of Dash's bad qualities. (Insert bulletpoint list here, then derive possible micro-scene tidbits from that.)
Not sure about the setting of the nightmare... Something involving the Wonderbolts, pranks, and car racing.
Maybe Scootaloo, dreaming herself as an adult member of the Wonderbolts; Except, because of her flight-troubles, she competes using a cloud-cart (and half-way through the dream all Wonderbolts suddenly use cloud-carts 'nowadays'). And she's in the big final contest, she only needs to win this one last race and she will be the world champion ---- and then Dash starts railroading her to the point she gets shoved out of her own cart. And Dash takes the trophy instead of her. Oh, and also, Dash pranks her on top of it, all the while joking around as if it was just harmless fun. Ruffling her mane and all that, just playing Scootaloo's protests off with the same brovado Scootaloo usually goes all "squeee" over. The mask is there, but it's on wrong.
And then Princess Luna shows up, delivering running MST3K commentary on Scootaloo's dream.
Or something.
Or hay, one doesn't have to exclude the other.
Scoots can still go talk to her friends afterward.
Or the trigger for her nightmare can still be that school presentation.
4154821 I keep forgetting that you're far younger than I am. Back before Alan Alda was the Republican candidate from the last few seasons of West Wing, he portrayed Capt Pierce on the dramedy MASH. There was a character called Radar who made a hero out of what most people would agree was an insufferably arrogant pain in the ass bent on driving himself crazy; at one point, Radar got nailed by a mortar shell, Hawkeye got blind drunk after operating on someone he actually knew instead of some random victim of the politicians who failed to keep the peace and staggered out of the OR to throw up. When Radar told him that some people (like him) looked up to him, Pierce made an ass of himself and, well, it took a while for things to cool down. The "Friendship Lesson" was that Pierce was more tolerable as a deeply flawed man than he was as an idol.
Also, remember the Futurama that took place in the war zone that had the robot surgeon called iHawk that had the switch on his chest marked 'irreverant' and 'maudlin'? That's who they're talking about.
As someone who's had the people they looked up to fall off their pedestal more than once, I'm tempted to go the Scootaloo route for this. Granted I don't wanna see Scoots angst the way that I did, you could have her attempt to justify Dash's actions as a means of preserving the image of her in the little filly's mind and, as time goes on, she realizes that it just doesn't stick.
I would vent to my sister and friends, so she likely would too, especially the other Crusaders. Night seems to be involved; are you planning on Princess Luna turning up?
Silver Smith sounds vague, but that just boosts the appeal
As for the glancing blow, I think we ALL suffer from that agony 24/7. You can never please your creative appetite with just one idea; it has to have more and it has to have it now. And it's exhausting
Clearly, Silver Spoon is going to apprentice under Venser.
Outside the context of horse words, "Sliver Smith" is obviously the name of a creature with "Sliver tribal artifact spells have affinity for Slivers". Before you decry affinity for Slivers as horrendously broken, recall that the card type Tribal is mutually exclusive with Creature, and take a moment to count how many tribal permanent cards there are in total for Sliver Smith to affect, even allowing for Mycosynth Lattice and a (nonexistent) version of Conspiracy that deals with tribals.
I'm all too familiar with the phenomenon (note that I have no published stories). It actually happened to me quite recently, when I realized just how secure in his sexuality Naruto would have to be to even come up with his "Sexy jutsu." A few leaps of logic later and I came up with, "Naruto didn't always want to be a girl." Ideally the result would be a series-long exploration of Naruto experimenting with his sexuality and gender identity, but what I have so far seems more like the setup for a one-shot that ends with a female Naruto-in-disguise becoming Hokage and saying, "Surprise! It was me all along!"
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At the very least, he probably has a soft spot for a filly who's caused so much chaos of late. If I work in comic continuity, he's an honorary Crusader himself. I can definitely see him contributing.
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Not all stories require the Unheld Center. If nothing else, Ditzy doesn't appreciate getting metaphysically turned inside out.
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Ooh, there's a lot to go on here. Thank you very much for the input.
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I knew of M*A*S*H, just not the interpersonal dynamics you were referencing. Thanks for the clarification.
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The other Crusaders and Luna are both potentially on the docket. I've been getting a lot of great feedback, including from you. This story may just happen.
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That was actually a typo. I meant to write Sliver Spoon, but got mixed up by the Future Sight card. Again, not sure where to go with it, but I do like the idea of Silver either being a sliver who's somehow imprinted on Diamond Tiara—possibly because her talent is coincidentally similar to the psychic broadcast of a sliver queen—or Silver attracting a hive herself. Have some loyal followers, loyal follower.
I'm curious to see who Scoots will go to.
Slivers are fun and also how I handled supermutants/alicorns in the unpublished Fanfic Chaos of FoE.
I... Fail to see where you're going with the Sliver Spoon idea, can anyone clear it up for me?
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Okay, both of those options surpass even Spoonforge Mystic for "awesome and improbable Silver Spoon", and contain more Narrativium, to boot. One of those stories is going to get written. It's just not ready to claim your conscious attention yet.