Admiral Biscuit Predicts the Future, and a New Contest! · 1:21am Oct 24th, 2022
Now that I've got your attention, let me first indulge myself by telling you how I, Admiral Biscuit, predicted the future through fanfic.
I promise you this is relevant.
Y'all might remember Ponies vs. Pizza. If you didn't read it and want to, the next part is spoiler-y, so I'll put in a picture of a pony eating pizza, and you can just scroll ahead until you see the next pony with pizza.
As you will recall, the ponies didn't understand how pizza was meant to be eaten, assumed it was some kind of soup bowl or something, and chose to lick the toppings off it rather than eat it in a more conventional fashion.
And let's be honest, pizza is very much a hand food. You can, of course, eat it with a knife and fork if you want to, but the idea is you take a slice in your hand and eat it that way (the same applies to sandwiches, of course).
While there are plenty of Equestrian species who can deal with hand food, it's not the best choice for earth ponies and pegasuses. So of course they wouldn't know how you're supposed to eat it.
Which brings me to my prediction of the future. WanderingPony has brought to my attention that Papa John's now offers Papa Bowls, which are "your favorite pizza toppings in a bowl, but without the crust."
Somebody's been reading my stories, and wants to pony-proof pizza 
This brings me to the contest.
Write a story with a native Equestrian misunderstanding Earth 'technology.'
Could be a pony, could be some other species. 'Technology' is deliberately broad; it could be a food item (like pizza), a computer, an automobile, an elevator--let your imagination be your guide.
It shouldn't be a social custom--not knowing how the three seashells work would qualify for the contest, being unaware that humans don't lick each other as a form of greeting would not qualify.
Since it's not a contest, there are no prizes.
Since it's not a contest, there's no deadline.
There's also no word count limit (low or high). In fact, while the original contest required* stories to be standalones of publishable length on FimFic, for this one individual chapters in a compilation will be accepted, although those might not be able to be posted in the group that'll hold them. If it's a million billion words long, I might not read all of it.
Pony (even EqG-ified) in Equestria Girls is acceptable. Any generation is acceptable as well, although if you're doing G1-G3 you're gonna be dealing with a more limited audience.
For my non-American readers, something unique to your part of the world is encouraged.
Here's a link to the group; there's not much there except for some empty folders and a banner of Twilight drifting a Lincoln Continental. I'm counting on all of y'all to fix this 
Also, Parsnip featured on Equestria Daily, so yay!
I remain completely convinced that the first introduction of social media was what destroyed Equestria at the end of G4.
🤔 Hmm...
5694114
You might be right.
There was a G5 story where Sunny had a dream/vision/trance thing where she met Twilight in person (er...pony) anyway Twilight said that Equestrian magic was directly tied to community/fellowship/etc. Her push to develop Equestria came from a good place, but why bother learning how to cast a light spell when you can simply flip a switch? Why bother knowing your neighbors when you can chat to a quilin or dragon 2500 miles away?* It wasn't a one and done apocalypse that killed Equestria but a slow decline a death by a thousand cuts kind of deal.
*=I acknowledge the hypocrisy of the above statement
5694134
All I'm saying is that I could see Opaline as a social media founder who wants everyone using her app no matter how bad it was for the broader society. She probably invented ClipTrot, or at least is cursing that she didn't.
In the G5 eps she's literally gaslighting Sunny through a beta-release chat app.
5694134
You might like "Intern" (GaPJaxie).
Future Twilight is Middle Managment & she's convinced the world is a better place because of it
Hmm... bit occupied with other stuff at present, but this is worth considering for the future...
I've had this *exact* idea for years. Now I have motivation to write it!
Does ponies in Equestria using and misunderstanding a technology from the human world count?
- MLP: FiM
- Comedy
Rainbow's hooves poked at the keyboard. "I heard illegal computer hacking is super cool. So I knew what I had to do next."- MLP: FiM
- Equestria Girls
- Dark
- Comedy
Rainbow Dash tries a new prank: hack the Internet to make hyuu-mans look at pictures of her butt. It turns out a lot better and more G-rated than expected.5694114
That is plausible.
In order to count for the contest, the ponies discovering an misusing the internet would have to happen on Earth or in Equestria Girls.
5694134
I rarely talk to my next door neighbors, but spend plenty of time chatting with people online all over the world.
5694150
As my contests tend to be, y'all trade the lack of a prize for no deadline. If it's something you're interested in writing at some point in the future, do it! Whenever you've got free time
5694166
Yay! Looking forward to it!
5694174
Technically, no . . . also, based on some online circles, RD is using the internet right.
That having been said, there's a reason the contest group has a folder for 'not quite in the not-a-contest,' and I added both
Might have to give this one a crack!
...As soon as I discover my seemingly misplaced writing spoons. <.<
5694589
Sometimes a little bit of inspiration is all it takes to get the muse whispering again. Other times, well . . . hopefully they show up. Mine keep getting re-shuffled here and there, but I can usually find one or two if I look hard enough.
Papa Johns is actually kind of late to the party, here. A number of places have been offering this "in a bowl" option ("burrito in a bowl", "burger in a bowl" -- I kid you not) for a while, now, to appeal to people who are doing "Keto", "Atkins" or other very-low-carb diets, or who can't eat bread. (With varying degrees of success, I might add; some of those same places have also quietly dropped them from their menus because they didn't sell.)
Either that, or someone in their product-development department was inspired by the Animaniacs episode where Wakko calls the pizza place and says "I'd like forty-two pizzas, six with no crust"...
5695048
That is true, although I think that a burger in a bowl (with more lettuce, maybe) and a burrito in a bowl (again, with more filling and less 'crust') isn't the same thing as a pizza. To my mind, it'd be the same as a 'cake bowl' which is just the frosting and decorations on the cake. If a person was on a keto diet, I don't feel that a bowl of melted cheese and pizza toppings is a good alternative; it'd be better to get a pizza with a non-wheat crust.
Heh, it's been so long since I saw any Animaniacs episodes . . . I always loved Rita and Runt.