"Fanfic [has] been on the decline since the Aeneid." --Anonymous poster 18/03/15
The Writers' Group56,394 stories ·9,291 members
One-Shots18,907 stories ·2,369 members
Twilight is Best Pony6,371 stories ·3,071 members
Twilight Sparkle12,272 stories ·4,753 members
Short Stories5,070 stories ·547 members
Twily's library545 stories ·272 members
Free Twilight Sparkle!5,201 stories ·1,223 members
Another Thursday, and another Book Club meeting.
A bunch of ponies who love reading gather to talk about books! Such a thing would be a dream come true for a young Twilight Sparkle, and it is!
Well...
Most of the time.
Made for /mlp/'s daily 30-min writing prompt. I am starting to believe I'm incapable of writing something under four hours...
Page generated in 0.136 seconds
Total duration
959 users online
288,848 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
That was great. Just great.
My jaw hurts too much from laughing to say any more.
4721564 Thanks! This is my first attempt at real comedy, I'm glad to know I didn't fail miserably.
Twily.... you shouldn't be so concerned so much in the fact those vampony books exist as you should be with the fact so many people put them on such a lofty perch
Miasma he sounds annoying, as an avid reader and a lot like twilight in that aspect, I would have done a bit more errr violent if I lasted a lot longer, but I would of snapped at the
I would yell that he would say they didnt get it when the disagree, call him a hypocrite and then surge.
I would ALSO forge the signature. because I think I would vomit at the prospect of having to meet stephenie meyers,
4721600
You didn't fail, you succedded beyond regonition.
This is a great story that I feel happen too often, especially when you reach collodge level leature classes. I feel like banging my head on my desk when the proffesors go on about secert messages in the text when more often and not, there was not secert symbol meant. They are often at the forefront. You also find out that most of the greatest clasics of all time are the most depressing stories of all time. The Armatime and the Odessy are not even in the top ten just to give a picture. I also feel the sameway about the Twilight stories (the book, not the princess).
4721714 that reminds me of a quote
4721714 Yes! I find it far too often, as well.
Sure authors may use some subtext in their stories, but most of the time the message of a story is told through the story itself.
It's pointless to try and find some sort of flimsy subtext to them.
Still, I'm glad you enjoyed the story.
4721746 Ya' nailed it.
Poor Twilight... to have been mentally scarred by having to endure those "sparkly vampire" books at such a young age. No wonder she turned out so neurotic.
(Oh, I don't know, I found them quite delightful when I was a filly.)
(You would.)
Couple bits of advice, if I may?
(Oh, hay, here we go again.)
(Quiet, you.)
(1)Mixing past and present tenses, such as:
You can't mix past and present-tense verbs in a sentence or paragraph like this. These need to be the past-tense "was" and "that was", respectively.
(Y'know, Ah keep tellin' ya, if you'd cut back on th' coffee, you wouldn't be so "tense" all th' time.)
(*sigh* That joke never gets old for you, does it, Applejack.)
(Nnnope.)
(2) Some of your dialogue attributions are a bit off-kilter, and read strangely. Like this one:
"Doubted" isn't a "speech verb", as such, and really shouldn't be used in this manner. I think what you were looking for is either:
“Is…is Mrs. Subtext going to press charges?” Twilight asked doubtfully.
or
“Is…” Twilight paused before continuing, “is Mrs. Subtext going to press charges?”
Generally, one should stick with the basic "said", "asked", or "replied" attributions, as they're effectively "invisible" to the reader and they don't notice them, and use an adverb to indicate tone of voice ("said doubtfully") when needed.
(3) And speaking of dialogue attributions... yours are almost right, in that you're not committing the usual error of always capitalizing the first word outside the closing " mark as though it were a new sentence (which I see people doing with distressing frequency around here.) However, you're not punctuating them correctly; when you have dialogue followed by an attribution of who said it and how, the whole thing is treated as one sentence, and if the character's dialogue is meant to end with a period, you use a comma instead. Like this:
Also – if you have your attribution coming in the middle of the character's sentence, then you have to put a comma after the attribution before resuming the quoted dialogue. Like this:
(You done bein' persnickerty now, sugarcube?)
(Now, darling, it's no sin for a writer to want to help another writer improve their craft.)
(Yeah, well, no offense, Rares, but anypony who thinks that "Sunset Saga" stuff is "delightful readin'" ain't exactly what Ah'd call a good judge of literary talent.)
(...hmf. I do not have to stand here and be insulted, you know.)
(That's true. Y'all can go anywhere an' be insulted.)
(That joke doth be older than the rocks on Our moon, Applejack.)
...and now, if you'll excuse me, it appears I need to clean this pony infestation out of my keyboard again.
4721919 Thanks, I did this over the course of three and a half hours, and I guess that towards the end everything kind of blurred together, I'll fix the issues.
4721746
TV Tropes, am I right?
4722833 random post on lol pics
The author of those vampony books intended to write good stories.
Sometimes the author's intention isn't what matters
I find Twilight's reaction to be perfectly rational.
Having had a teacher like that, I approve of her response. And I still maintain that Holden Caulfield was whiny bitch.
What a bitch! First she tries to railroad everyone's opinion and then when proved wrong she says it's okay to have your own interpretation?! If I were Twilight, I wouldn't have even been there for her introduction to the next book, I would have just calmly said "That's it, I quit" and walked out the house to wait for my parents to pick me up. I know that wouldn't be as funny, but poor Twilight, she didn't deserve that.
4721919
B-but, I like the pony infestation...
So... Twilight is punished for being right?
this is not what magic of friendship is about.
And the bitch gets to continue spreading harmful influence on foals?
At that line of
I feel Twilight should have said, "And yet, every time I try to raise an alternative interpretation of a story we read here, you belittle me, poke fun at my interpretation, and you also only ask if everyone agrees with your view of the story. I brought you something: it's a dictionary. You might want to look up 'hypocrite'."
4721919 Loved that. Well done character interaction.
4721934 Very well done for the amount of time you wrote it in.
4725826 Twilight wasn't punished for being right--she was punished for doing something wrong.
Destroying something of someone else's, just because they're stupid, isn't a valid reason. Because those things are dangerous, or illegal are valid reasons.
It's good that Twilight's parents decided to punish her so she didn't group up to be one of those individuals that thinks they can treat others terribly just because something bad happen to them. I should know. I work in retail...
4726557
Well then, this story just begs for a sequel. Of the foals, one by one taking all the wrong lessons from various books, and karma catching up with miss Flimsy Subtext as her own teachings backfire against her.
4727540 You're right. I'd totally read that story.
Reminds me of when I went to the anniversary screening of The Last Unicorn. After the movie we had a Q & A with the author and someone asked if there was a meaning or symbolism behind the usage of a unicorn going on that journey. The answer was no, he just likes unicorns and wanted to write a story about one. (I think he said something along the lines of 'I don't write symbols or morals, I'm lucky if I can write a plot.') Sometimes a unicorn is just a unicorn.
4729244
There is some symbolism in The Last Unicorn, although nothing as far as to look for a second bottom. For example, the moment when Molly Grue fsees the Unicorn for the first time, and shouts at her angrily... The meaning is pretty clear if you recall the myth unicorns show themselves only to virgins. But yeah, if you claim that Amalthea's journey is an allegory for the life of Jesus or something like that, then don't complain if Twilight puts your collection of books through a blender :)
4730441 I'm pretty sure that would mostly be research on the author's part.
But yeah, everyone deserved everything the end.
I was going for two degrees in college: Theatre and English. I only have one, however, because of my senior seminar English professor, who graded essays on poems on whether they were 'right' or 'wrong.' To wit: one of the assignments was which version of Wallace Steven's Blackbirds poem was better. I preferred the second, handed in my essay, and my first sentence (I liked the first version better) was circled in red and marked WRONG.
I did what any mature man would do in that situation. As it happened, I had a horseback riding class before my senior seminar. As it also happened, this was a small class (I went to a private, exclusive liberal-arts college [go Hornets!]), and we met in the English Department's lounge, seated in a circle for equality or something.
So, I stopped changing my clothes after the horseback riding class, spent a little bit of extra time near (or in) the manure . . . and then made sure I sat next to her. What was most telling was how quickly my other classmates figured out what I was doing, and helped me get in position. And while I may not have gotten the English degree I so richly deserved, I did have the satisfaction of annoying a visiting professor (did I mention she was a semi-famous poet? No? Well, she was.) who had no idea how to react.
In retrospect, I was so much of a d
k throughout college, it's a wonder I graduated at all.
Back on topic . . . for the aforementioned reasons, this story brought back some memories, and it feels like exactly what filly Twilight would have done. In short, I loved it.
4725826 Er, no. Twilight is being punished for causing a bunch of property damage and nearly getting her parents sued.
4732593
Goddammit, when you mentioned riding gear I was sure you were about to pull out your riding crop and give her a solid spanking.
4733005 You got that right.
Oddly enough, that's also the real lesson Twilight got from "Bright Star's Dream".
I suppose being subjected to the 'Sunset Saga' trumps logic.
4721919
Just one correction to your corrections. "That's" can be a contraction of "that was" as well as "that is", and so that wasn't an error not matter which tense was intended.
4734153
Not according to any dictionary I've consulted, it isn't. "That's" is listed as a contraction for "that is" or "that has":
http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/EnglishContractions.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_English_contractions
http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/contractions.htm
But I can find no source listing it as "that was", and neither The American Heritage Dictionary, Funk & Wagnall's Standard Desk Dictionary, or The New Webster's Deluxe Reference Library lists it as such.
(Dude, you have three dictionaries on your desk? Man, and I thought Twilight was obsessive...)
(I heard that, Spike.)
(Three words, Twi. "Smarty-Pants Incident." Tell me I'm wrong.)
(...I thought we agreed never to talk about that.)
Reminds me of one time when it was the other way around, I thought I saw some subtext in a short story in my AP lit course that my teacher didn't see and decided to do a short assignment on it. Either I proved myself right or I so "baffled him with Bull
" that it was at least a passing assignment because I did get an A- in his course. He was probably right of course and it obviously wasn't the key point, but as J.R.R. Tolkien put it.
"I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other resides in the purposed domination of the author."
Perhaps I found applicability if not allegory in that short story.
4725826
You mean besides attacking her, causing vandalism, causing actual harm to others...
Yes the magic of friendship means hurting people if you feel your right!
4734417
I concede, at least in terms of formal definitions, that you're right. Colloquially I think it would be acceptable, but then we'd be getting into a discussion on the appropriateness of colloquial language in the written word and possibly into the evolution of language from there.
I've been down this path before, it is long and usually unproductive.
Eeyup! I totally have had the same exact feeling as Twilight Sparkle did here! Except the compulsive desire to destroy things...
4734417
Allow me to extend an invitation: English Language & Usage. You'll feel like home with your obsession.
Very cute story. I liked your interpretation of filly twilight stuck in a very repressive "educational" situation. I don't read many SFW stories but yours looked interesting (mostly because I had thought I had seen the story posted before).
I must mention that I really didn't understand this line:
Because in my mind, vehemence means passion, so equivalently you are saying that Subtext was passionate to the point of passion. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Either way, it was a very cute story and I enjoyed it. Good job!
4736175 Vehemence means really strong passion, and sometimes irreflexive or impulsive.
I think I could have worded it better to convey the message I wanted, but what I tried to say was that Mrs. Subtext was extremely passionate about her opinions.
Either way, thanks for reading my story, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Well this is rather depressing... couldn't you have had at least ONE parent back Twilight up?
The story is frustrating and the ending is disappointing. Thumbs down.
4736914 Nigh Light understood Twilight's motives.
Still, that doesn't mean it was ok for Twilight to destroy hundreds of books and probably traumatise group of young fillies and colts.
Idea for an alternate ending:
It was a test all along - Twilight passes by standing up to Flimsy, and gets accepted into the advanced book club.
4733010
That would have been pretty awesome. I had to settle for clothes that reeked of horse sweat and boots that were encrusted with horse s
t.
The really funny thing was that I went to a liberal arts college, which unsurprisingly had a large population of yuppies (the hipsters of the 90s), and drove a twenty-year-old farm truck. Literally; I bought it used from a tractor dealer. To say I didn't fit in was an understatement; I was like a changeling at a royal wedding.
4736924 No, but this was also a time when her parents should have backed her up on Flimsy Subtext being a prat. Every week Twilight was hauled into this woman's presence, forced to parrot whatever this postmodern ninny said about a book no matter how ridiculous, and then mocked and belittled if she didn't. This wasn't a book club, it was cruel and unusual abuse of the love of books.
Worse, it was anti-thought. The foals left her presence indoctrinated with three things: 1) books suck, reading sucks and nothing in books makes sense 2)grownups are right because they're bigger than you 3)agree with the big person or you're stupid.
I would love to see a second chapter where this dumb cluck gets called out on it, too. She should have been dragged over the coals for the fact that the foals left her presence stupider than when they arrived.
4737704 You were a hipster before it was cool!
4737792
No, no, no! Not *called*!
She should live through karmic justice of foals doing to her only what she taught them! And then, when things escalate to fearsome proportions, she manages to sneak a desperate letter from her imprisonment, Twilight performs just as creative interpretation of the letter as was standard on these meetings.
4738660 Or how about Celestia quietly arranges for her to host a reading club-- except the foals are all the authors of the books she's critiqued, disguised as children... (hey, what's the point of being Best Princess if you can't abuse your power a little to humiliate a nit?) Or maybe she sits in on one of these sessions herself?
The ideas are endless.
I see what you did there! Definitely one of the best one-shots I've ever read!
People like the club head are why I don't like book clubs and clubs in general (I don't count an online fandom as a club)
and a few years ago basically told a whole fraternity to go bone themselves when they sent me an invite to join up with them 2 weeks after my returned grade on my 10-page essay came back. This was necessary because they sent MULTIPLE invites through snail-mail as well as several emails and even called me a few times. I had to threaten to take them to court for harassment before they stopped. (I busted my brain and fingertips researching and writing that paper, and they wanted to add a little more unearned polish to their reputation? *Middle finger*Idid that work, not those pricks!)4725826
I agree with you, but sadly life is like that sometimes.
Sometimes, a story really is just a story.
Other times, the trolls come out of their caves.
I dare say that Twilight Sparkle's reaction was rather tame, all things considered. Sure, she does still need to be grounded in order to learn a lesson about letting your anger control you, but that series...
*Reads through comment section*
Very well done!
This was your first attempt at comedy?
Anyway, thanks for writing!
Seriously, thank you. I really enjoyed this, and I needed that laugh.
4736924
No, it wasn't. But the unintended lesson here is that regardless of how right you are, you'll be made to suffer by those who have power over you.
Which, while a valid lesson, is a bit bleak for a comedy.