Director's cut: Princess Twilight Uses The Internet · 2:09am Aug 22nd, 2021
First off, I don’t know how I never thought of this story until last month. This is one of those stories I should have pounced to write (or at least thought about) months ago.
I wrote Princess Twilight Uses The Internet was thought up and written for Twilight Sparkle Day, so I tried to come up with an idea that was extra-Twilightly--if that doesn’t make sense, it made more sense in my head
. That is a big reason why I went with a Princess Twilight & Sci-Twi story; it felt more fitting to go for a story with both Twilights for that extra Twilightly feel.
One of the bigger challenges for this story, and partly why the story has the “Random” tag, is that it’s unclear just how much the canon Princess Twilight learned about humans and the EQG human world, and thus how plausible this story really is. My headcanon, which this story mostly follows, is that she knows the basics of how humans live, but some things, such as how we are about nudity, are stuff she just simply doesn’t understand being an Equestrian pony. To her, she’s just following a social rule when it comes to wearing clothing anytime she’s in public in the EQG. There would have been serious mayhem if Princess Twi tried to take her outfit off while at CHS, and around other students, in the first EQG movie!
This next part is more of a fun fact, but while Midnight Sparkle has been mentioned in some of my past stories, this is the first story while she actually had lines. I never thought her first line would be anything like what it was, not even in a couple of Midnight stories I had thoughts about writing, and might eventually write.
‘I’m sick in bed right now, so I’ll take a rain check,’
Next, I’ll bring up the story’s noteworthy cuts and edits.
The first was an edit to how Sci-Twi explained to Princess Twi what “surf the web” means. In the story’s final version, she simply said that it’s when you browse websites. But originally, she pointed out that you do it on laptops or desktops. This confused Bookhorse, because she (in this story) didn’t know what a “desktop” was, and she actually thought that “computer” and “laptop” were one and the same, not that a laptop is just a type of computer.
However, when I was trying to trim the story down, that part of their conversation was something I thought would be better cut. I heavily considered just summarizing Sci-Twi’s computer lesson instead of showing it, but I thought the interactions between the Twilights could make having it worth it. I’m still not sure if it was the right call or not.
Anyway, the second edit worth mentioning is to Sunset’s thoughts about having her feelings for humans re-fired after being shown, in her words, the fucking jackpot. This was added during editing, partly to play off the joke of how Princess Twi was having feelings for humans more and more easily. I also thought it was hilarious and that alone was worth throwing in! I generally take more chances with over-the-top comedy moments in stories with the “Random” tag, so that was another reason I threw in how Sunset was horny, and now is horny again. If the story didn’t have the “Random” tag, it probably wouldn’t have been added.
The third, smaller edit was to why Midnight Sparkle didn’t want to come out when Sci-Twi said she could. In the story’s first draft, she wasn’t “sick” but she just didn’t feel like it. Midnight still told Sci-Twi that the whole mess was her fault and to get herself out of it, so that stayed the same during the edits.
The last noteworthy edit, and is by far the largest, was the last scene with Princess Twi and Sci-Twi at the latter’s place. That scene wasn’t there at all in the story’s first draft, and the story originally ended with Spike telling Sci-Twi that he was thinking about something he “heard” but she didn’t hear. I thought about adding it as a bonus chapter, but since the scene was so short, I just tacked it on the “first” chapter and kept the story a one-shot. I brought this up in the comments, but the idea for this scene wasn't something I thought up on my own. I got it from this MLP comic Dub, and I modified it some.
On a closing note, I wasn’t sure how the views would go for this story before I submitted it. Even the story’s plot and with Princess Twi as a main character, part of me wondered if it might not get the views my stories tend to get, given this was an EQG story. I very rarely write EQG stories. How this story went on to be featured and passed 1,000 views in 3 days told me I had nothing t worry about.
I also couldn’t remember if the story was featured for 3 or 4 days. This bit of memory trouble normally wouldn’t be anything worth bring up. But, because I wasn’t sure, I couldn’t add how long the story was featured in the story’s long description like I usually do for stories that were featured for longer than a day. It’s not the worst thing I have ever forgotten, but still.
(Equestria's) Twilight Sparkle, should wonder why we humans have an interest in cyst lancing videos.
5572501
Given her curiosity, she might actually understand and even want to try watching it herself.
Maybe, just maybe, I will have some fun with that...