1. The Street That Wasn't
AROUND
THEBEND
By Chatoyance
Chapter One: The Street That Wasn't
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
- Gloria Steinhoof
She was precise. Organized. Rational. She certainly was NOT an 'old fuddy-duddy McFuddy pants' nor was she in the least 'Captain Clockwork of the Prissy Pony Fussy-Gussy No-Fun Patrol'. That last one had been Dash's, but the first was unmistakably Pinkie's work. Rainbow wouldn't have said the second slight if it hadn't been for Pinkie initially saying hers. Twilight calculated that logically, she should be angry first at Pinkie Pie, to the amount of seventy-two kilo-grumbles, and only secondarily annoyed with Rainbow Dash for the remaining twenty-eight kilo-grumbles... no, make that only twenty kilo-grumbles, eight could decidedly be reserved for that apple muffin that wasn't setting well in her stomach. Yes. That was it. Exactly.
Twilight had left Sugarcube Corner - in a properly calibrated rage - at precisely two forty-six in the afternoon. Not that anypony could tell from the clock tower, of course. The Ponyville clock tower had been six minutes slow for the last three days, and this had annoyed Twilight no end. Worse, this was not the only instance where such an inaccuracy had occurred - last month the clock had been fast by eight minutes for nearly two whole weeks! It was Twilight's intent to lodge a formal complaint with Mayor Mare at precisely two minutes past three, a time she had carefully reckoned her grievance would receive optimal attention and response.
The Mayor would be stepping off the train at that moment, back from her visit to Canterlot. Doubtless her first act would be to check the clock tower to see if her arrival was on time. That would certainly be the first action Twilight herself would naturally take upon arrival. The discrepancy would be immediately obvious, of course, and this could be exploited to maximum effect. Attention to detail was everything.
"So what if the clock is slow? That just means more time to have fun!" She wasn't sure if Dash actually believed what she had said, or if she understood the fallacy and had intended the statement as a jest. Rainbow had sounded quite serious, in her way. Twilight knew Pinkie had understood - Pinkie Pie was far more intelligent than most ponies gave her credit for - but yet she had agreed with Dash and even suggested deliberately altering the clock in the tower so that they could live the whole day over and have twice the fun. The notion was absurd. Pinkie must have been joking. Of course she was joking, Twilight finally decided. Pinkie might be odd, even quite bizarre, truth be told, but she was not actually irrational.
The worst of it all, though, had been Rainbow's suggestion that Twilight was fundamentally unable to act with spontaneity. Dash hadn't put it that way, of course, it was unlikely Rainbow could even spell 'spontaneity' much less use it in a sentence, but that was the jist of the entire row. Why was it so important that she 'loosen up'? She was 'loose'. All of her joints bent smoothly. She was 'loose as a goose', as someponies were known to say. But, Twilight thought, loose or not, at least she wasn't unhinged.
Chuckling softly at her clever internal jibe, Twilight resolved to put her spontaneity to the test. Rather than taking the most obvious path to the train station, which was Stirrup Street just off of Horseshoe Lane, she would... take a shortcut! Twilight shivered with the exciting feeling of such daring exploit! Yes, a side path, perhaps one that might be just a miniscule amount more expeditious because of being a more direct overall angle than the main thoroughfare. But which side street? Twilight had memorized every map of Ponyville that was in the library. She searched them in her mind.
There were many things Twilight appreciated about Ponyville, and one of them was that it had a simple, relatively straightforward layout. Unlike Canterlot, with its endless maze of twisting roads, secret passages, roundabouts and corkscrew tower paths that wove above, through and upon the living rock of the mountain, Ponyville was simple. It was a roughly oval town with a large central plaza, and a very uncomplicated layout. Set on a wide, flat, river plain between mountains, with the only change in elevation being very low, rolling hills, Ponyville comfortably reclined on the rich farmland, unlike the tight, twisted-up, multilevel labyrinths of Canterlot.
Twilight grinned. She would not take the main path, not this time! Pinkie and Dash were wrong about her. She would just... arbitrarily choose a street. She would pick the street on a... whim. Yes! A whim! Twilight couldn't help but chuckle - it was all so exciting, to deviate from her well crafted plans in such a manner. It felt... almost naughty! She couldn't wait to tell that annoying Pinkie - and twenty-percent less frustrating Dash - about her adventurous turn of attitude. She knew what fun was, by Luna!
She didn't even see what street she had turned onto. She always checked the signs, this time she hadn't! It was exhilarating to just... go... down a street and not know what street it was. It was almost scary! It could be any street... no, that was not correct at all. In point of fact, she mentally noted, the street she was on could only be a subset of the total number of streets within Ponyville, defined by the fact that they specifically branched off of Stirrup Street, where she had previously been. That meant that the number of possible streets she could potentially now be trotting upon had to be exactly...
No! No cheating! If this experiment in spontaneity was to have validity, she could not ruin the data by coloring it with the bias presented by her own knowledge of the town. That was why she had deliberately stopped running the maps she had memorized through her mind moments ago. The street she was on must remain unknown in order for maximal whimsey to be achieved. This street must be... indeterminate.
She was on 'Indeterminate Street'. That was the name she would use to identify it. Of course, she mused, in giving the unknown street a name - even an arbitrary name, a label she herself had chosen - had she not in fact just defined the street, making it in actuality 'Determinate Street'? Twilight stopped suddenly and shook her head. AUGH! Now she was thinking just like Pinkie. She did not want that. Sweet Celestia, she definitely did not want that.
The time! What was she doing? Twilight Sparkle looked up to check the face of the clock tower - which she would correct within her mind - but there was no way to see the tower. The tudor-styled buildings were just too high. The street was lined with tudor cottages, inns, and shops, all two to three stories high, with no gaps or gardens or open areas. It would help if there were a commons filled with some pavilion tents - they were simple to look between, and the clock tower face would be easily visible. But this street was all close construction, thatched roof buildings rising above the cobblestone street. Occasionally a cart containing produce or trinkets to sell blocked the way.
Oddly, there seemed to be nopony around. This was a market street, yet it seemed completely empty. The air felt curious and oddly stale. Twilight felt the hairs of her withers rise. Even the lighting seemed strange, somehow. Was it sunset already? What time actually was it now?
Suddenly, the cobblestone gave way to a very strange surface. The surface was flat, smooth, and looked like it had been sculpted, or poured. It was gray and flat, with tiny cracks in parts of it. Here and there in the occasional cracks, the odd stem of grass poked through. Whatever this strange walkway was, there was precious little drainage to it, it was nearly of one piece, divided into large, square, flat slabs that abutted one another. Was it some kind of clay? No, it was very hard. It must be rather rough on hooves, Twilight thought.
The gray stuff started just after a cleft in the ground. It was a crack, about five hooves wide, that ran from somewhere between the buildings on the side of the street where Twilight was, all the way across the hard-packed earthen road, where it vanished into the small gap between the buildings on the other side.
The buildings on the far side of the crack in the ground were odd, too. They seemed to be much taller, four or five stories, and not all of them had thatched roofs. Some had... something unusual... tile perhaps? It was hard to tell. They seemed to be built with more than just wood and wattle and plaster... the beams were braced with metal! The bases were made of the same gray stuff as the walkway there. And the firefly lamps one normally saw had no openings or hatches in them. The poor insects would suffocate, and if the lamps had been made for candles, the problem was just as bad. It was very perplexing indeed.
There was an odd smell coming from that part of the town, too. It smelled like oil from a lamp, only more intense. And there was faint smoke in it, but not from fireplaces, and the scent of metals in it as well. It was then that Twilight noticed the signpost.
She decided to countermand her previous rule and find out where she was. The sign said that it was 'Shark Street'. Shark street? Impossible! Twilight knew every single street in Ponyville and there was no Shark Street. More than that, no pony would ever name a street after a predator - and in any case, the ocean was hundreds of miles away. The only way to even know what a shark was would be to look in a book. Twilight knew her books well, and the image on the sign was definitely a member of the clade Selachimorpha, the caudal fin was a definitive indication.
Shark Street. There was no Shark Street! Was this a joke? The thought of Pinkie Pie-like city planners and builders existing in the world confounded Twilight. Whatever all of this was, it had been here for a long time. The road sign was far from new, the strange walkway was old and cracked, and the extra-tall buildings beyond the cleft in the ground had sat there for many, many seasons.
This was beyond bizarre. Worse than that, none of it fit into Twilight's neat and tidy understanding of Ponyville. Nothing bothered the purple unicorn mare more than things not fitting, not making sense. This did not make sense in the least, and the deep horror of this challenge to normalcy, organization, and outright order instantly placed Twilight's original goal to accost Mayor Mare far down on her internal list of Things To Do Today.
This needed to be dealt with. This needed to be understood. This... improper street had no business existing, and Twilight resolved to get to the bottom of it. This sort of disruption of proper topography needed serious redressing, and she was just the mare to do it. Just how big of an insult to cartographers was this? How much of her current maps would need to be completely redrawn? This decidedly required a reconnaissance to find out.
The first issue was the crack in the ground. Twilight peered over the edge. It was dark and ran down as far as her eyes could see. It wouldn't do to let a leg slip down there. There was only one thing for it, if she wanted to continue - a gap of five hooves was too large to comfortably and safely step over. It would require a light hop. A 'Hop, Skip, and a Jump' as Pinkie would put it. Not that Twilight was particularly well disposed towards Pinkie right at the moment, but it really was what she would say.
Twilight decided that the hop and the skip were entirely superfluous and went straight for the jump. She stepped back a few paces to get a slight running start, then gave a little leap and found herself safely on the other side. It was easy, foal's play really. Now she was entirely on Shark Street. The smell in the air was even stronger now, and she began to hear strange noises coming from all around her. Busy noises, like hammering, only much faster and much more powerful. Metal on metal sounds. Pumping purrs like steam devices, only far more fierce and insistent. And voices, many, many voices.
Twilight followed the sounds around the corner, which banked sharply to the left. Her hooves hit hard on the flat, gray walkway that bordered the road on both sides. It felt uncomfortable, and sent shocks up her cannons through her fetlocks. She decided to walk in the road instead, at least it was the hard-packed earth she knew.
The area ahead widened out. It was a flat green, the grass nibbled... no, cut... close to the ground. And in the middle, jutting out into it, was something vastly more disturbing than a street that wasn't on any map.
It was a street high in the air, on what looked like the cliff-edges of a narrow mountain, right smack in the middle of Ponyville. It was utterly impossible. Ponyville was a rural town set in a flat river valley. But there, without any question, was a terribly tall, high cliff, on the top of which was a road which descended rapidly from some other place higher up. Very high up. And that was not the worst of it - the narrow, precipitous road itself, after a steep curve, ended in an abrupt and improbably unsafe, unguarded, utterly deadly... cliff.
Twilight gawked at the impossible cliff-road far above her. She stared, open mouthed in sheer incredulity. There were no mountains in Ponyville. Ponyville was flat, with low rolling hills. It was a river plain. That's what made it such good farmland. Worse than that, a mountain in the middle of the city would have been noticed. Somepony would have definitely put it on a map. She herself would have noticed a mountain in the middle of Ponyville over the last year, no question. She looked around her - had she somehow been teleported somewhere else?
The clock tower was there, she could see it now. There was the city hall, she'd know that anywhere, it was unique to Ponyville. She could see the leafy top of her own home, the Golden Oak Library. This was Ponyville. There was no question this was Ponyville, and it was impossible, and her mind began to break, and it hurt.
It was as the headache began that her heart skipped a beat, fear rising in her soul. There was a carriage, some sort of a conveyance, heading down the narrow, high, impossible road that ended in an abrupt cliff. The ponies in the carriage were screaming, filled with horror and dread. The narrow road they were on was deathly steep, without any way to turn off of it that did not end in a fatal drop. But this, in itself, was not the reason the ponies in the carriage were screaming, though it was certainly a very good reason indeed - no, the reason they were screaming was that the carriage was picking up speed in that certain way that Twilight easily calculated as Having No Brakes.
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Excellent Typography!
Alpha-Twilight in Beta-Ponyville? Looks interesting...
Also, I apologize for faving before reading but truth be told, I've yet to see you write a story I didn't want to follow. To make up for it, I only gave a thumbs-up after reading this. You, and this story, deserve both.
(for those who don't get what I'm talking about, read Chatoyance's guide to the ponyverses)
Well. This is definately going somewhere. I really like this.
Featured bar here we go!
I
this so much. The trouble with kids' shows is that main characters can't be consistently polysyllabic, even when it fits their characterization perfectly.
In before it gets featured.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/225/400/sweetie%20belle%20that%20is%20beautiful.jpg
Now this definitely looks interesting, can't wait to see more!
Awesome, let's see where this goes.
Now this sounds really interesting. I definitely love the way Twilight is characterized in this, and Pinkie and Dash were also done very well; I love how Twilight made some minute distinction in just how much she was annoyed by the two of them. I'll keep an eye on this one.
Edit after reading more chapters: Nope, this is becoming way too preachy and negative for my tastes. Even the excellent characterization can't save it. It's basically just a massive treatise about how much you hate Season 2 presented as a story. At times you have valid points, but just as often you seem to complain about something being different in Season 2, even if it's not necessarily worse, while being strangely forgiving of Season 1 episodes in which similar things happen.
Where'd you get the map?
Experimental parameters set for maximal whimsy! That line made my day.
The premise is sound an I'm curious as to how Twilight will react given her measured and reasoned thought processes so far.
Great story. I mean, if the rest if the story is like the first chapter, one of the best stories I've read. I applaud you!
Also, in before featured.
Now the real question is how she's going to react to beta-Twilight
Hmm, this looks very interesting.
Of course, the real reason there's a sudden hill (that's not big enough to be called a mountain, really) in Ponyville is because it was plot-convenient to the silly children's show.
But still, this might be a fun exercise in parallel universes and multiple copies of our favorite ponies. Consider my curiosity aroused.
So.....what happens when Alpha-Twilight gets rescued by Beta-Rainbow Dash?
So I guess we ignore the fact that in s1e2, an episode directly overseen by Lauren Faust, their first instinct was to attack the manticore?
If you ask me, this is taking it a bit too far. I dont think I will be reading this.
This is good.
But as I'm sure Picollo from TFS would say in response to how descpritive this fic is "NERD!"
My Head A Splode from the sheer ingenuity and awesomeness in this story.
Definite UPVOTE.
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What? Manticore? Throwing Faust at me randomly? What the hell?
Are you even responding to this story, specifically? This story is called 'Around The Bend' and it exists to examine and solve the problems of a lack of continuity. It involves a street and walking. There are NO Manticores. There are NO battles. There IS an impossible mountain. I don't even have a clue what you are going on about.
From my perspective, you just said "Machine Blueberry isn't Gooball Squart, therefore I am not reading this story!" My response is WTF?
Less drinking, more thinking. Stat.
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She probably drew it herself.
Also, awesome story!
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I drew this version of the map, but it is heavily based on the extensive work done by Aurebesh, who analyzed season one images and discovered that the town could be rationally mapped. That is true continuity in action. Here is his utterly impressive effort:
Aurebesh Maps of Ponyville
I took his work, expanded it myself, and then finished the result in the style of The Prisoner. I completed many things, such as the railroad, which he had not placed, and so forth. I am, however, indebted to his tremendous effort. Kudos should go to him.
I love this. I suppose random terrain and stuff showing up in Ponyville is a plot hole. It's brilliant!
Are you going to be addressing the dam?
Waaaaaait a second...
(72 kgrum - 20 kgrum) / 72 kgrum * 100 = 72.2% repeating less frustrating, not 20%
...Sorry. With Twilight offering the narrative perspective, I came out of this feeling awfully pedantic. In any case, I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to more or if I should cite the MST3K Mantra. I'll settle for the former, though Twilight may not be the only one who should really just relax. Well, after she's left the Betaverse. She's got full license to panic while dimensionally displaced.
Oh hoho, this is gona be goood
Oh boy, industrial blight and wacky impossibly steep roads. You have my interest and your humor seems to work well here.
All I have to say is that this is a perfectly logical story to produce after your Ponyverses blog. Yes, perfectly logical.
This message is sponsored by the Twilight Sparkle Thought Filter™ (Registered trademark of Hasbro.) Yes, you too can think like the original Purple Pony: be logical and organized, mistreat your house-mate, worry about everything, overanalyse any situation and get into a panic over absolutely nothing! Yes, the Twilight Sparkle Thought Filter ™ will give you hours of anxious fun. Available at all fine multiverse outlets.
577908 ... I don't even know why i'm surprised any more... Bronies sure are thorough
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Like trekkies, there are many in this fandom that, in their hearts, truly wish for Equestria to be real. We would not have such a glut of stories about bronies dying and getting Equestrian afterlives, or falling through wormholes and ending up in Equestria, or, for that matter, Conversion Bureau stories were that not so.
Like every fandom of a fantasy where the readers or viewers secretly hope that their fantasy could be real somewhere, the fans try to MAKE it real by detailing every aspect, and checking the whole for consistency. Life is self-consistent, unlike dreams, so if the fantasy can be shown to be self-consistent, then the dreamers can enjoy the notion that, somewhere, somehow, their magic world really, truly exists. Equestria is heaven, it is religion.
Just like L. Frank Baum's 'Oz', I might mention. Baum had many readers convinced that 'Oz' was a real place. The readers, young and old, wanted so desperately to believe that they tried mightily to identify the exact location of Oz from every little scrap of information they could glean. They put Trekkies to shame. Eventually, Baum had to claim Oz had moved out into the ocean and become surrounded by an invisibility shield that was utterly impenetrable to all humans. Further stories were claimed to come not as letters from Dorothy and her friends, but as radio signals, the only thing that could penetrate the Great Barrier Of Oz.
Sound familiar? Great Barrier Of Oz... the Great Barrier of Equestria from the Conversion Bureau stories, far out at sea?
In it's time, 'Oz' was the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic of its day. Adults loved the stories more than the intended audience, and became obsessed with every nuance. They wanted, desperately, to believe that Oz was real, that there was a wonderful, peaceful fairyland ruled by a benevolent magical fairy so very, very much. This fandom is the sole reason Oz is even relevant at all today. Fandom is powerful, y'all.
The same can be said of several other works, but I site 'Oz' because of... many similarities... to Equestria. I am keenly aware of this connection with every story I write, and with every massive work I see other bronies do. We are treading in deep, respectable footprints, everypony.
Remember - the 'Oz' books were not considered classics in their day at all. They were considered to be crap for children, and it was embarrassing for adults to love and adore them. But they did anyway. Just like today, with MLP:FIM.
And that is why I am so adamant about the writers of MLP:FIM not screwing the pooch and destroying continuity.
Because continuity is the magic that makes fantasy worlds become eternal. And classics.
And it is what can make a brony analyze an entire season of images to construct an accurate map of Ponyville.
Or a silly woman in Olympia write over a half a million words on Fimfiction.
Hoo boy. This is definitely something new
This... might be genius. Turning a gripe into a masterpiece, an objection into, if you may pardon the vernacular, a great big heart-felt fuck you that successfully uses that objection in an engaging, in-character metafictional romp of spectacular proportions.
Then again, haven't read it all yet.
So here I am, preparing to set sail for Maximum Whimsy.
The heck?
I'll keep reading in hopes of getting less confused
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They were in the Everfree Forest, and there was an apparent monster in their path. You'll note, however, that even so instead of just attacking it right off the bat they tried to find away out of the situation without having to do so. Fluttershy came to the rescue with her innate compassion for all beings.
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This was a direct joking reference to Rainbow Dash's comment of needing things to be 20% cooler. While not mathematically accurate, it was meant to be 20% because of that.
*camera pans to a well-dressed stallion with a coiffed mane*
Twilight Sparkle; a no-nonsense mare with a heavy dependency on routine, organization, and continuity. She is well aware of her need to "loosen up," but until now she has not had the courage to do so. Having deviated from the beaten path for the first time, she is about to realize just how justified her fear of the spontaneous is; for she has just made a right turn onto a one-way road to...the Twilight Zone.
I made an account specifically for this.
I'm gonna be harsh on your fanfiction.
Your writing is like a shitty Sherlock Holmes novel.
Too many details and confused+pretentious thoughts running around with no sense.
You even used a crappy reference from season 1 ''Hop, skip and a jump''. What is up with fanfic writers always doing this?! It
And now for your....story.
You touch on the crappy negative characterization of everything, the world, and all the characters.
I'm actually surprised you haven't wrote mini-scenes involving what would a real person do if he was in Rainbow's shoes, in Mare Do Well.
Or Applejack in TheLastRoundUp, and a few others.
If you want to have a chatter about how bad season 2 was or a discussion on why it was below average...then there will be people there to help you. You just need to keep in touch with them, you already proved that you can attract them.
But I wouldn't delude myself for things to go for the better. My Little Pony is notorious for being bad, even since the start.
A lot of people wanted it to end in season 1.
You don't need to show the fans how bad season 2 was, it's like trying to tell girls how bad Justin Bieber is. It isn't worth the time, no matter who they were.
You need to learn to let go of this and find other activities for you to enjoy.
You can't stay deeply involved in ponies forever, you know.
Ehh... sorry. Really. I just... I got a few paragraphs in, and I can't stand Twilight Sparkle. Which is unusual for me, because Twilight is best pony. I just think you laid it on a bit thick. I really don't want to read five chapters of that.
However, I really liked Kilo-grumbles.
Edit:
It seems that, after reviewing some of the comments, I may need to give this story a second chance. You are clearly a very talented writer, as well as highly intelligent, and it seem's that this story is far more then a bit of comedy, and more of a serious criticism of the show itself. For that reason, I will read it. Tomorrow, though, because I'm tired
Edit number two:
And now, having read the entire first chapter, I can say I understand now. indeed, while some inconsistencies might be overlooked, an impossible, nonsensical change in the geography should be noticed. Alright. You win. I'll read the other chapters as well.
Jumping to Shark Street. I see what you did there.
I hate the writers Merriweather “Every Pony is a Flankhole” Williams and Dave “AntiScience ProGenocide” Polsky. Nice artwork. Twilight Sparkle literally jumps SharkStreet.
The fans royally rolled the Mysterious MareDoWell through the coals. It is 1 of the 3 worst episodes:
* Feeling Pinkie Keen for AntiScience
* Mysterious MareDoWell for being fractally bad (bad in every way on every scale).
* Too Many Pinkies for ProGenocide.
After noticing a comment of yours on 27 Ounces I decided that it would be best to read this first to properly grasp a few things before I decide to go and finish the very long chapters of Severed Roots by Bad_Seed_72 (and the head onward to 27 Ounces if things go as planned). I've heard many, many things about this particular story and a few other things, all of which I have taken with enough salt to kill a lot of people until I read this story for myself, keeping some of the salt aside until after I'm done.
Needless to say, I've sure got a lot more salt then I know what to do with. Onward to chapter two.
578917 epic speech is epic
Oh my, I can't help but feel a tad bit insulted at the presentation of Twilight's methodical and, in its own way, quirky nature. But at the same time there's not a lot I can criticize. Caricaturized, perhaps~ But the description's not really wrong in its essence. This is indeed how OCD book ponies act~
Extraordinarily detail oriented to a fault? Check.
Careful attention to time? Planning down to the minute? Check.
Estimates then allocates anger numerically? Check.
Dwell on numbers till she's at multiple decimal places? Check.
Maintain her checklist for the day's tasks? Check.
OCD-driven attention and reverence of regular patterns? Check.
No I didn't just spent fifteen minutes finding synonyms and rephrasing till that list was just perfect, what are you talking about.Though her thoughts here do feel a little frantic and... uncoordinated~ She keeps losing focus! I could, perhaps, blame that on Twilight intentionally going against her habits and operating in an intentionally unstructured way... it might well be leaving her a little frazzled.
Alternately, that might just be the way she is—ADD—and is, in actuality, why she relies on checklists—because she cannot rely on her own mind and gets easily lost in thought, losing focus.
Whatever the case, the reading is a bit, mmmm, distanced, perhaps. Still fun, though~!
I will also note that her thoughts are... gritty in a way. Or perhaps serious in a way that the show isn't. Yet this feels more like Twilight than anything I've seen from the show remotely recently.
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One of my spouses has OCD, so... since I utterly love a person with the condition, I would like to think I can... hopefully... represent it in a roughly correct manner. My spouse makes lists too, and it is because she cannot trust her mind. In her case, she has developed memory problems after a mini-stroke during an epileptic seizure. She used to have a perfect memory - far better than my own ever was. It's been difficult for her. But she does well with lists!
Cover image: I saw what you did there.
I've managed to get about a third of the way through the actual series, and I can definitely see where it jumped the shark. With rocket powered jet skis.
I'm debating whether to sit through the whole series or just enjoy the ones true to the original concept.
I haven't even gotten to the episode with the cliff yet. That doesn't even make sense.
Love your story as always, sis.
I just noticed the font you used on the map of Ponyville.
Be seeing you.
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YES!! Oh, sweet YES!
I adored The Prisoner on so very many levels. I see it as a metaphysical joke.
On one level, everything in the series is so powerfully meaningful: the Pennyfarthing bike representing the Big Wheel of governance and society and the Little Wheel of the individual, the Village as a microcosm of society and this same relationship, the Butler as the hidden power behind everything, the use of spheres and circles to represent the globe of the earth and the universality of power structures, as well as reinforcing the Pennyfarthing model of hierarchical power, Rover as the amorphous power of legal and social enforcement, and on, and on, and on - even the number six having the numerological meaning of completion and wholeness, relating to the empowerment of the character to overthrow convention, the ape at the end representing the fundamental animal drive that created such hierarchy and the meaninglessness of it all... but of course, all of this also represents the relationship of the individual to the universe as a whole and all of it has to be so very deliberate and chosen because it all fits and makes so much sense. Every episode a lesson, every scene packed with deep symbiology that cannot be denied, and for which entire college thesis have been written...
And on another level, the very true fact that nothing in the show was chosen at all. They had to make the series on a budget, and McGoohan just threw stuff together on instinct alone. The original Rover was a silly robot that fell in the ocean, they had no more money, so they used a weather balloon. The Butler happened to be available, so they used him. The Pennyfarthing bike was tossed in because it looked cool. Six was chosen because it could be used for the joke 'six of one, half a dozen of the other'. All of it random. Like a tarot deck, the deep and meaningful symbology was never intended at all - it comes from our own minds, from our own creation of meaning from chaos. Pareidolia of philosophy. And that's the joke.
Does The Prisoner mean so many powerful things? Yes, and no. It's magic. It created itself. Somehow, a perfect moment happened, and a follow-up series to Secret Agent Man accidentally became a college course on political philosophy and individual liberty filled to the brim with identifiable symbols and hidden meanings. And yet nothing was intended, and it was all random chance. It's just our minds inventing meaning.
And that is the most magical thing of all. God damn I love it.