Story Comments from the Author: Tickling Try-Out · 7:41am Feb 10th, 2021
So, I recently hatched up this idea to do a blog post in which I quote bits from a story I wrote and make comments about it. I believe this came about due to being inspired by the "Story Notes" blog posts from user AlwaysDressesInStyle (who is an awesome writer), and the fact that this story, Tickling Try-Out, has produced quite a lot of parts that have really gotten me thinking... after I wrote them.
It feels really weird. Despite me being the author of this story, I feel like I could post a comment on it and sound like a reader while doing so, I would describe it as. Including in question form. I'm asking myself things about my own story, again, after I wrote it.
Are than any other authors who have had this happen? I am curious to know. I haven't thought about any of my other stories this way, so I wonder how common it is.
But aside from that, I think this should be fun, so, let's go!
She flips through the book with good look at each page, checking if there are any moments of her being tickled, and... yes, there are! On the bottom left corner of page 22 lies a photo depicting filly Applejack laying back-down on the grass and having her belly tickled by her parents, as they take turns doing so.
Now, what color is the apple sticker on that picture?
Applejack's eyes move over to that sticker's location, and it. is. red!
And she was in full support of that color, as she can remember this experience very clearly. I remember when this happened!, she thinks to herself. Yeah, that was fun!
This part stands out to me because of my exclusion of a certain... thing about Applejack's parents. The elephant in the room whenever they get brought up.
It appears to me that pretty much every time we in the brony fandom mention Pear Butter and Bright Mac, their untimely deaths are what we discuss. And it makes perfect sense why, but, for this story, I kind of wanted to, you know, not do that? Just focus on the good times?
Of course, discussing a tragic death is very important, and I will do so with regard to Applejack's parents; I just think there's too much of that and not enough of the other side. I'd really like to see a story on this site featuring Applejack's parents that doesn't speak a word about the tragedy. A story that hones in focus on a happy event that occurred when they were alive. Perhaps the scene in the picture I quoted above could be made into a full story taking place as it happened.
Note: Yes, this part does not apply to what I talked about in the intro. I purposely chose not to mention Pear Butter and Bright Mac's passings in this story while I was writing the quoted part above. However, it is an anamoly with regard to that. Everything else I talk about below are things that only came to me post-writing.
Focusing on those pictures of Applejack being tickled, pay attention to the page numbers for a bit:
On the bottom left corner of page 22 lies a photo depicting filly Applejack laying back-down on the grass and having her belly tickled by her parents, as they take turns doing so.
On the middle-right of the very next page, page 23, there's a photo of Applejack having her hooves tickled with a feather by Applebloom,
On the top of page 25 can be found twin pictures of Applejack being tickled by Applebloom again, the first with hooves on her sides, and the second with raspberries on her belly.
Now, get this: In my story Magical Mission: Portal to a New Home, I gave the headcanon that the Apple family arranges their photo albums in a way that the photos are seen in the book in chronological order of them being taken.
So then, if that's the case, then why are the only three pictures in this book with Applejack being tickled all packed so close to each other?
To be honest... I don't know! This completely went over my head when I was writing that part. And when I took notice to it, I was completely unable to come up with a reason.
And that gave me an idea: I'll open up a possible gateway to making a fanfic out of a fanfic! All of the tickling pictures being so close together in a book where the photos are arranged in chronological order; I'll leave it up to you guys to theorize as to why this could be. Sound good?
A story about characters being tickled begs the question "Where are they most ticklish?"
For Applejack and Rainbow Dash, I did not think about this while writing the tickle scenes. Only after.
Taking a look at the tickle scene with Applejack:
Countdown done, and here we go. Rarity points down the feather and starts by lightly stroking Applejack's belly.
She feels the familiar sensation bubble up. This soft, pointed feather running across her belly was without a doubt causing an "I remember this" moment and bringing out laughter... only for her to try and desperately hold it in due to awkwardness. She uses as much brute force as possible to keep her mouth shut, which Rarity notices and isn't going to let hold.
"It's okay Applejack, you can laugh. We're alone here and I'm your friend.", she says.
Determined to get Applejack to let the laughs go where they should, Rarity accelerates the feather's speed to nearly as fast as her hoof could go, starting to really tickle her friend. There's no way in the world Applejack could keep it contained; she bursts out into loud laughter in no more than two seconds.
"Heeheeheehee...hahaha!"
Changing up the tickling, she moves the feather over to Applejack's right side, with the laughing in full flow now. The purple point strokes back and forth, left to right across her side, a sensitive area of hers.
"Hahahaha!" Applejack cannot stop laughing whatsoever and even jumps a bit. The feather then switches to her left side, continuing the pattern.
For the third part, Rarity moves the feather back to Applejack's right side, but this time hovering in a narrow area towards the left. Applejack correctly reads the signal and lifts her foreleg up above her head, onto the pillow, allowing Rarity to tickle the area under. Her laughter even increases!
"Hahaha! Tha-at tickles! Heehee!" Applejack herself didn't even know she was so ticklish there. Memories of it are hard to come by. But now she knows, and continues to uncontrollably laugh and squirm around under the sensation, now knowing what it feels like.
Phase 2 was short-lived, and now comes Phase 3 that might be even shorter-lived. What's Phase 3? Just one thing. For the finale, Rarity blew a great, big, long-lasting raspberry on Applejack's belly.
"Hahahaha! Heehee! Aaah..haha!" The recipient of the tickles let the deep, deep laughter rush all the way through. She hadn't laughed at this magnitude in... as long as her memory can remember, it turns out. To her recollection, she's never laughed this hard.
Looking at what I wrote, my impression is that Applejack doesn't have a "tickle spot", per say; rather, it depends on what exactly is used. Based on the fact that the laughing-sounds text for the former area is bold + italicized whereas the other two have only bold, I find that the text above reveals AJ is more ticklish on her under-forelegs then on her tummy and sides when a feather is used, but, based on the lowest quote box above, a raspberry tickles her more than a feather anywhere.
This is in contrast to Pinkie Pie, who I like to think is always most ticklish on her back hooves regardless of technique or tool.
As for Rainbow Dash, well, note this part:
"Pinkie, I almost can't believe I'm asking this, but could you, uh, tickle me more? Like, with different tools in different areas. You changed the technique every time you switched spots, and that was good, but, like, I'm curious to know what a feather on my belly would feel like, or a brush on my hooves."
I think Rainbow would say she doesn't yet have enough info to determine what tickles her the most. And to be fair, neither does Applejack. Since Rarity used a feather on her in all of the four main "tickle areas", Applejack does know that a feather will never tickle her more than a raspberry, but she doesn't yet know if having her belly brushed or her hooves stroked by a tail would. Those combos never made an appearance.
Still though, Rainbow does have less data, due to, as she mentioned, Pinkie swapping the tool every time a different body part was to be tickled. Of course, there was this part:
"Pinkie, I almost can't believe I'm asking this, but could you, uh, tickle me more? Like, with different tools in different areas. You changed the technique every time you switched spots, and that was good, but, like, I'm curious to know what a feather on my belly would feel like, or a brush on my hooves."
If there ever wasn't blushing here!
"Sure, Dashie! I've got plenty of energy left!"
...
"Thanks.", Rainbow responds.
More tickling it is! Pinkie brings out the feather and points it downward at Rainbow Dash's belly. Round 2.
But the chapter abruptly ended before this "Round 2" was described in detail, and I haven't given thought to what happened in it. So, maybe it's more correct to say that I'm the one who doesn't have data for most effective ways to tickle RD... 
Well, I do have some news related to this story that I'll be posting about in a future blog, where I may announce that I'll expand on it, so... stay tuned!
Now, I'd like to talk about a potential question that came to me and I can definitely see a reader asking: Why is Rainbow Dash's side of the story so short compared to Applejack's side? Like, the entire Rainbow Dash side is shorter than the first chapter of Applejack's side, before any tickling even takes place.
I had to ask this question to myself! I knew in my writing brain during the process that the length of Rainbow Dash's side was correct; like, that's just the way it turned out. But why is it so much shorter?
I gave my own story an analysis, and here are the reasons I think I uncovered:
1. Rainbow Dash developed the desire during daytime, whereas Applejack developed in the dead of night. She had to wait a lot longer to even ask for tickling, which gave her much more time to dwell on it. The fact that it was night very likely played a part in that too; I would know. With nothing going on around me, my thoughts sure become much deeper at night!
2. Rainbow Dash didn't have to spend time wondering who her tickler would be, and that tickler was already in her vicinity. It was a no-brainer for Dash to ask Pinkie Pie, whom was in Dash's house with her.
3. Rainbow Dash has more experience with revealing her "sappy", "girly", "cute", etc. desires. Applejack, not so much.
The thing is, I feel the fact that Applejack doesn't feel any embarrassment when going to the spa actually worked against her. Because, when a desire that she did feel embarrassed by showed up, it was brand new, and thus, more intimidating to her. Such was not the case with Dash, who had already gone through that caught at the spa incident, as this story takes place sometime after the episode Applejack's Day Off.
So, in essence, Dash had a much more linear path. Pre-built experience with revealing these desires, no question as to who she would ask, her tickler of choice being right there and wide awake as soon as the desire came along. Applejack had the complete opposite of this.
So yeah, that's what I think caused the large difference in length. And yes, I only came up with this after I wrote the story. The lengths wrote themselves without me giving any thought to it until afterward. My experience with this story is so unique and strange...
For reference, the ending of this chapter takes place before Rainbow ever develops a desire to be tickled; it bears no relevance to her side of the story.
"Just out of curiosity, what day was it that ya got tickled, if ya can remember? I did it exactly a week ago from today, on Saturday afternoon.", Applejack says.
"I also did it on Saturday!", Rainbow Dash exclaims.
At first glance, these two things might seem incompatible. They sure seemed that way to me at first.
"Wait, if both of them got tickled on the same day, then how does Rainbow Dash being told about Applejack's session have no effect whatsoever on her side of the story?", I asked myself.
Well, they may have both gotten tickled on the same day, but note the times of day:
I did it exactly a week ago from today, on Saturday afternoon.", Applejack says.
I don't think anything would have happened with me that night if I wasn't directly seeing it."
Applejack's tickle session took place in the afternoon, and Rainbow Dash's in the late evening-early night. That did buy RD time to completely forget about that meetup with Applejack earlier. I do find it unusual that she forgot about it that fast, but ultimately, she did. Rainbow did not think once about what Applejack revealed to her earlier in the day, and she didn't have the desire to be tickled at that time; it didn't show up until the evening party. Therefore, no effect.
Which also enables this:
"Because... I got tickled too!", Applejack says excitedly.
A baker's dozen of questions were to pop out into Rainbow's mind here, which results in her remaining silent, enabling Applejack to tell more of the story.
Rainbow totally did not remember that Applejack had already told her she'd been tickled. Nor did Applejack remember she had already told Rainbow. During the restaurant meeting in the epilogue, both of them thought the info was brand new.
(I'm starting to feel like what I'm doing here is finding things in the story that could be mistakes, only to consistently find out that they're not. That there's another part of the story that backs them up. Is that what I'm doing?)
So... lunch today at The Sandwich Club, with a meetup time of 12:15?
I started to picture a comment reading "Wait, I've never heard of a place in Ponyville called 'The Sandwich Club.'"
You're right, because I made the place up!
I have a habit of doing this. I thought-generate businesses in Ponyville that aren't canon. Perhaps because I can't remember the names of any of the canon restaurants in the town
I love that I came up with that name, because I think it's such a good pun. The restaurant's name is a play on the sandwiches known as "clubs." 
I shall address these:
Player 4 speaking: She's totally right there. I don't know jack about what it's like to want to be tickled or how to overcome embarrassment, nor can I tickle somepony properly, so I wouldn't be much help. In fact, I already know I'll have nothing to do with the activities of this story...
That's why I'm not tagged.
Player 4 speaking: Hey, that's my number!
...
Why am I still sneaking into this story?
Sorry about that. Leaving now.
"I dub today... coincidence day!", a human named Player 4 suddenly says off-screen, surprising AJ and Dash. And then just casually walking out the door afterward.
"Uh... forgive me, but... what is he doin' in this story?", Applejack says. "Like, he doesn't participate in ticklin'; he ain't got no place here."
"Honestly, I am confused, but not surprised.", Rainbow responds. "He's done that before, haven't you heard? Earlier in the story?"
I... don't have much of an explanation for why I wanted to do this. I just randomly came up with it and think it's funny.
Alright, I'm going to close this out now. There are probably more things in this story I could touch on, but at that point, I'd be here for an extremely long time. This blog is already huge enough as is.
I really don't know why exactly I thought about things in the story the readers might comment on when no such comments have appeared. It's just... a thing that happens with me. Does it happen to anyone else? I'd love to know.
This blog was a lot of fun; I hope I get to do it with my future stories.
Even if not that, though, I have more blogs coming! My next one will be where I list my headcanons on where the rest of the Mane Six and a couple of background ponies are most ticklish and if they enjoy being tickled. Looking forward to that! 
- Player 4
