How far will one stallion run to escape what pursues him?
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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AWEsome
Gift idea for Twilight. Give Rainbow a thesaurus for more varieties of awesome.
5991293
Rainbow is too awesome to read a book about dinosaurs.
What if the pictures were painted poorly?! D:
5991302
Then you market it as a children's book and advertise the paintings as having 'whimsy' that is scientifically designed to inspire a child's imagination.
Sometimes I feel bad for doing that to my son. He HATES when I use spit to wake him up.
I don´t feel anymore ! MWHAUHAUAHUAAHUAHUAHAUH !!!!!!!!!
5991305
5991305
Hmmmm. *Looks at the quote then back at you* Yep.....
The 668 chapters are scaring me. I'll be back in… three years.
5990347
... So... If Celestia deliberately creates a situation that causes broken ponies... it's basically their fault?
Like, it's one thing to forgive Celestia for screwing up generations of ponies lives over experiments, especially once she has actually completed a good version of her experiment, proving that she was in fact not just throwing those ponies' lives away for nothing and was in fact trying to genuinely help the whole time, just failing to do so.
But it's bullshit to put the blame entirely on those ponies for having fucked up psyches when Celestia created the situation that screwed them up. If Celestia deserves no blame, then neither do those ponies (in a broad sense).
The true job of RD
5991336
They're very short chapters... about 2k words each. Makes them very readable.
Now, if the chapters were increased to 20k to 30k and the chapters in this story were reduced to 200ish, would it be more readable? Or would 30k word chapters also feel daunting?
5991357 Really, a lot of short chapters would be better than a few ridiculously long chapters, at least presentation-wise.
5991366
That's what we have. A lot of short chapters. Most of them clock in at about 2k words and take 10 minutes to read. 20 if you are hunting for the many hidden clues, easter eggs, and hidden messages buried in the text.
5991375 Oh, interesting! I've heard a lot about this story, mostly from Rage Reviews, and you know what their opinion is. I wanted to check it out for myself before making an opinion.
When you use pictures do you get fauxtos
5991386
The story is far from perfect. I started writing it to teach myself how to write a long epic and manage multiple overarcing story threads. The beginning is a bit rough, there are some parts that are less than perfect, but things smooth out and get better as time goes on. It is still a work in progress and with each chapter that passes, it gets a little better, or at least that is the goal.
To be fair and honest, it is a totally mad, totally insane writing project. Catalogue most of the adult life of a pony as destiny chases after them. The original concept included the foalhood years as well, but I cut to the chase (heh) and started the story off with the protagonist as an adult. The story will continue until the funeral, which ends the story.
When I first made the story, I mistakenly believed that it would be around a million words or so, maybe 1.5 million... because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. It seemed reasonable at the time. Now, almost 2 million words in, and we are approaching the end of the first year. I must say, the learning experience has been both daunting and humbling. It almost seems crazy to keep going at this point, but the story has to be told. Part of writing a big epic is finishing it, seeing it through, so I fear I must keep blundering forwards.
Before reading, you should know, I am an absurdist and I think zen dadaism is hilarious. I am also a discordian. As such, I write about very silly, very absurd subjects... and that not all of the opinions in this story are my own. In fact, I hate some of the opinions presented in this story. Bucky was never intended to be a likeable character, or even a hated character. He was created to reflect the absurdity of the situation as he bumbled through his life and tried to make due with a destiny that he never wanted.
What if a pony had a destiny where they were meant to be the most terrible villain that ever lived, the most hated being on all the planet, the most unlikeable, detestable, horrendous monster you could imagine... but then said, "no?" when forced to confront their destiny.
After saying no, the chase begins in earnest. Bucky keeps running, and life keeps conspiring to twist him into the villain he was meant to be. He does horrible things, despicable things, awful things... he's done things that make me, the author, feel sick to my stomach when I have to write them and I've grown to hate my own character... but I sort of love him too because he's stupid. He's as dumb as a sack of hammers and he steadfastly refuses to give in. He's horrible, mutilated, and gross, because villains are supposed to look hideous. That's how you know you are dealing with the bad guy, he's the most disgusting looking fellow around, like the Emperor in Star Wars or Jabba the Hutt.
And somehow, Bucky just sort of bumbles through life, trying to make the most of a horrible situation, even though life does everything it can to make him unlikable, unlovable, and despicable.
Edit: TL;DR If you don't like surrealism, The Chase might not be your cup of tentacles.
There seems to be a word missing. Or there is one too much. Or it's just Coco talk.
5991549
Nope, that was me... monkey sorry.
This is a big step for the Crusaders, and all of them need a talk or two on the subject. Some of those talks are more helpful than others. Still, it's nice to know that Dash is happy with her role of court jester.
Also, remember to discharge your foals regularly. (Though Harper learning some respect for her electromancy is a good thing, so long as she doesn't take it too far in the other direction.)
Typos spotted:
Missing "his."
One word.
5991349
She didn't create broken ponies. She created a situation that was designed for them to prosper. But in the end it's the actions of the people in the situation that can lead it on its designed path, or down the other way into hell. Celestia's problem, as previously stated, is that she trusts TOO MUCH in the goodness of ponies, when as we've been shown they're about halfway as bad as humans. Which is pretty bad, and will take opportunities that arise to fuck up their neighbor's shit. And if everyone is fucking up their neighbor's shit, then everyone's shit is fucked. You cannot blame the architect if the tenants decide to cut through the foundations of the building. If they're determined to do it, there's nothing you could have done better to stop it aside from sit on their backs and make them do everything you wanted - which removes choice and freedom, and that is something you've complained about before and cast aspersions of tyranny on the Crown for even the idea of removing such things. But if you don't, then your plans and experiments and hopes for tomorrow rests on the decisions of your subjects - and they are so short-sighted, so selfish and living in the present that by and large they don't CARE about improving the country for their descendants. She left it to choice, she left it to personal freedoms, and they made their choice in their freedom to screw it all to hell. I couldn't blame her for that aside from being too trusting in inherent goodness.
They were given the power of choice, and a situation meant for them to improve in. They chose not to do what was right or even use basic common sense. If they had a lack or somesuch they should have asked the Crown for help. Instead, those ponies fucked it up. Why would you assign greater blame to her? It's like blaming the gun for firing a bullet that kills someone - she composes the situation (the gun), the populace (the person holding the gun) pulls the trigger to fire the bullet (the decision they each made on their own) and it kills the victim (the rest of the populace/the plan/the goal/the better tomorrow/common decency/common sense/prettymucheverythingbecauseholyshittheywerestupid) instead of using it to defend themselves or whatever analogy just escaped me at the moment.
You get the picture. It's practically ingrained in us, without particularly realizing, to blame the leader for the actions of those who follow. The reason why that is is because it is easier to follow, and we intrinsically value the easier and thus more efficient path as a matter of course. It's simpler to blame one person for the actions of many, than bring the many to light for their crimes. Typically we replace that leader and expect the new one to be able to make all those others behave, which is just as stupid as believing it was the first person's responsibility. Point being, as a people we have serious blame-shift issues, and worst of all we try so hard to justify it - and as long as you don't think about it in-depth, those justifications sound perfectly fine. Usually when the brain gets to 'well they were in charge' it takes that thought and spreads it to cover the rest of the situation.
If you're the mayor of a village, and a hundred of your hundred-fifty citizens decide, without any real particular reason, it's time to start a riot, people are going to blame you (even/especially the rioters). Meanwhile you're just completely flummoxed over why this is happening while you struggle to do something about the situation when it's finally brought to your attention. But it won't change the fact that every finger will be pointed at you, even though you didn't make the decision to have a riot, nor did you intend for anyone to riot at all. See the issue here?
5991616
Honestly, I don't hate the cosmicorn... I'm ambivalent toward him just because I don't know anything about him, and personally believe that strife is inevitable in any world (and, to be honest, that strife can be a net positive for the world broadly... and possibly is in fact extremely important to the act of living. To the point where people in lives without much conflict will go seek out conflict, even to divert themselves. Hello videogames!) and that, as much as he seems to be affecting the world, I get the stronger sense he is pretty hands off and mostly just creates long term destinies and converses with people.
However, to someone living in the world, who's intelligence is not significantly different from a normal ponies' intelligence (the alicorns), I cannot not at least hold them to at least similar standards that I hold "mortals" to. I don't see them as "an existence beyond mortals who cannot be judged by those standards" I see them as "a leader who failed, who has the actually fairly controversial dilemma of how accountable they should be held to their mistakes, either out of ignorance or out of a failure of priorities (often a moral failing)."
That often you have to allow the leaders to keep going because no one else is qualified to lead at the time, and they can learn from their mistakes or grow, and if they aren't given that chance you could just have neophyte leader after neophyte leader, immediately cast out when their inexperience becomes obvious.
But then... you seem to usually go further than that, and say not only that the alicorns cannot be punished because they have to be in charge and are possibly still the best choice, even though Celestia failed considerably over the past thousand of years, you then go on to say that no one should even criticize or even be upset at them for their failures.
Another d'aaaaawful chapter. Poor Luna.
Get her, Bucky.
5991774
I've never said that. People can and will be upset over anything - and in that anger they will typically unfairly criticize. It will always happen, and because of how damned hard-headed people are, it's to be expected rather than considered wrong. Which I don't personally agree with, but that's not the point of an ethics discussion.
It's because of the way you view immortals insofar that we tend to have any disagreements at all. I've spent a long, long time pondering just how differently someone would see things if they've lived so long. We'll never actually know, but given what we know of our own minds, they technically -are- an existence that far removed from us. In the way that an old war vet confined to his rocking chair is incomprehensible to the smallest child, so too is the child incomprehensible to the elderly man. Their experiences and memories are too different, the value they place on things external and internal too alien to one another. And that's only the difference of about 60-70 years. What about 200? A thousand? Three thousand? A decade is all it could feasibly take for someone you know to be completely different the next time you see them, a whole new person wearing the same face. So when millennia are involved, when you start measuring in epochs rather than revolutions around the sun, how can you say you know how best to judge someone like that?
The difference with the alicorns comes in the fact that Celestia and Luna have always tried to better understand their subjects, and with all the subjects they've had over their years of rule (minus a thousand for Luna) they'll have a better understanding of a person than the person themselves or other immortals who keep themselves distant rather than trying to stay amongst said mortals. Thus with the greater understanding, greater knowledge, greater experience leading to greater wisdom, that typically means they will make less mistakes in a situation with the factors they -personally- control than any mortal would. Because they are uniquely empowered to do better thusly.
What I'm saying about THIS situation with those failed experiments is that the deciding variable in whether it went right or went wrong was the PEOPLE. Not Celestia. She's probably made other mistakes not mentioned directly in the story, mistakes that are specifically her fault. But saying she made broken ponies is just blaming the leader for the choices of the people who were allowed that freedom of choice and ruined everything with it. That is on them. Those cities failed because of the people, not her. I, and the story, have already pointed out her specific issue with those experiments being her lack of practicality when it came to ponies. Overall, they are a good people - but when so selfishly focused they sacrifice that goodness for acquisition and status rather than the betterment of those around them - which I believe Celestia was banking on.
Ponyville's main difference to the prior experiments is that the ponies DID choose to be generally more helpful and held a better degree of integration. From those failures, progress was born, the key to a better future was found. This is the exact point of my earlier posts, when we make sacrifices of people or animals or capital or resources or land or nature itself for the advancement of something like... cars or some crap, only a couple people complain. When an obvious leader is dealt failures that become sacrifices for progress of a wholly better tomorrow, everyone gets up in arms. Same situation, but the difference is there's a known face to apply all the indignation to. Thus the blame-shift, even/especially those responsible for the failure, and those who (had they been present in the experiment) would have also been part of those responsible for the failure, will point fingers. Plus those who cause themselves to feel demeaned because they overestimate their own importance and thus anger themselves and direct it at that one, knowable face.
It's so bloody obvious and basic a thing that in politics this is why we have people who speak for many who make decisions, so all the hate is focused on one person while the ones more/truly responsible for the fiasco get away scot-free. It's inherent hypocrisy in the way our minds work, and most of our society not only doesn't bother to realize it, they don't comprehend it when you tell them or show them, and tend to get defensive or angry when you keep attempting to, formulating reasons and justifications as to why they shouldn't listen and should be upset with you.
5991336
In 3 years there is likely to be, and forgive me for the meme, OVER 9000!!!!!!
Harper has got to be a high-level Lightning Elemental to have that much lightning magic at such a young age. It's practically leaking out of her all the time without her being able to fully control it. Hopefully she won't have as many problems now that Bucky is working to help her excess lightning magic drain off.
I wonder if Harper's lightning magic will be stronger than Luna's when she grows up. After all, the lich knew there was something unique about her.
5992295
Harper: Type 3 - unicorn.
Luna: Type 5 - alicorn.
Harper has a slightly overdeveloped thaumaturgical system for her age and since her body doesn't know what to do with the excess energy, it is converted into electricity.
5992262 I could reply with the original video, but TFS' version is funnier.
Holy shit guys, these paragraphs. It's like trying to read a government document about street laws. Skip and run that red light. That's what good ol' uncle papi use to say. :P
5991902
I'm getting mixed signals here. You said you didn't say that (presumably referring to "you then go on to say that no one should even criticize or even be upset at them for their failures."), but then said basically that they should not criticize Celestia for supporting say... a city of only females, even though it created hostile misandrists, or House Avarice because they enslaved other ponies for centuries, and anyone who is angry at her is... essentially a fool for being so, because she only had centuries to notice this problem and didn't.
Or do you just mean something subtly different from that?
The reason Ponyville succeeded is much more than just because the people in it were more virtuous.
It clearly succeeded because the balance between the genders and between the tribes is important, on a physiological level, to pony psychology. That is the success. Celestia had been supporting solutions that did not have that in it, Fillydelphia and Canterlot being among the most prominent of those. She failed to create environments that would cause the ponies to succeed, and supported those as solutions to ponykind's psychological woes even though they were fundamentally flawed.
I'm sure there were good people, potential heroes, potential amazing people in those places too (although I don't think they had potential divinity there... unless Celestia's been missing the target in a much more significant way for the past millennium), but the situation squashed them, instead of supported them.
It turned that heroic young mare into an embittered misandrist, who can't look past her bitterness.
It turned those powerful unicorns into repressed elitists, either afraid of themselves or so self-absorbed they inflict terrible things upon their fellow ponies.
Ponyville succeeded because it encouraged the best in ponies and supported them, instead of the opposite. Those talented mares and powerful unicorns became heroes, instead of villains, or instead of being helpless their entire lives. And the story is pretty clear: this is because of the superior balance of the tribes and gender and the positive situation the city was in, and Celestia was at least partially responsible for that.
And... if it's unfair to blame leaders on failures, then it's also unfair to give them credit for successes. Which means Celestia can't take any credit at all for Ponyville, because it was just the case that she rolled the dice twenty times and got boxcars once. But if it's down to her finally finding the right circumstances, she can't blame the people for not excelling out of the shitty unproductive situations she created (or allowed to be created, with the mind that it would be probably good for the country).
5991436
I have to disagree with this one. It's too cliche and predictable. Hell, there's even a two-part G1 MLP episode dedicated to this very idea being wrong (Fugitive Flowers).
Hell, going to your Star Wars references, I'd say Emperor Palpatine was at his most insidious and damaging to the galaxy when he was there as the polite, mild-mannered Senator Palpatine. Then there's Count Dooku. Aristocratic, noble-spoken and elderly gentlemanly. Villains who are hideous, disfigured, evil and "look that way because that's how they're supposed to" come across as just boring to me.
As it has been turning out here, it's more interesting when the hero/anti-hero is the scarred one while the villain comes across with a polished image.
5992820
My comment was made in a mildly sarcastic sense, acknowledging the fact that villains tend to be ugly inside and out as a trope.
How does one spot a 'bad guy' in a crowd?
Well, think of the measure's Bucky's gone through to preserve his image as a warlock. Illusion now maintains of his image of having the Taint and keeping up the aspect of his metal claws.
Bucky is almost self aware as far as villains go though.
Drained, Chapter 3, The Black Cloak Files
The irony here is, Bucky, as one of the Answers, really was meant to be the villain.
"With nothing but pictures, there can be no typos." Don't worry, she'll find a way...
Since when is Apple Bloom an egghead? Both SB and Scootaloo know that she can be sassy when she wants to be.
5993149
Cultural image does have an impact I suppose. For me though, I'm more suspicious of the friendly, affable, good looking individual, who smiles at everyone they speak with than I would be of someone of Bucky's looks.
5994343
An earth pony might tow the line. British culture doesn't exist here.
Somewhere out there, some has said "challenge accepted"
Watch it happen.
6261206
6393231
smudges are typos in picture form.
and then there's animation errors and wardrobe malfunctions and all kinds of motion picture typos.
Omg. This is why Twilights not as popular as Applejack. It's like the universe just clicked on a joke.
6261206 Gave the typo's a wedgie.
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mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-700706-1-Donny_Swineclops.png
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I found my first typo since starting this saga.
Harper turned her head to look at Bucky, and lightning coursed along her stubby horn as she did no. “Nooooo!”
Should be "as she did so."