>>957322957322 ...What? Advertise like Billy Mays and I'll consider it

>>957394957394

Don't worry--I killed it.

Woosh, I wonder what the aftermath will be like when Twilight expresses her rage.  

Yay another awesome chapter. I don't have much in grammar advice other than saying that I don't really see any mistakes but anyway I'm not great with grammar and crap.

Anywho

I'm surprised this story hasn't received more attention.  I'm not big in the business of trend setting but I hope your views pick up soon.

Seriously?  Only four likes still?  This story is solid, get your act together people and provide some thumbs up.

Alright I am going to be honet:

I am confused about the whole story, maybe it's because I speed read or maybe I'm not reading it enough times to fully understand it, or maybe it's because I read stories from this website late at night.

But whatever, I still enjoyed this story and think you are awesome.

And don't ask about what I am specifically confused about because there are too many points that confuse me so bleh.

>>10334141033414

Well post the first one you remember hitting. In programming, an error at the beginning will frequently render the entire rest of the program unintelligible. Similarly, if there's an idea at the beginning of the story that I failed to explain clearly, that might make it impossible to understand anything that happens after that.

>>10385721038572

Well I guess at around the part with that prophecy thing. That just started confusing me for the most part.

Ah, OK.

In reading My Little Pony fanfiction, I frequently came across the same plot hole, over and over again. Twilight and her friends would get into big trouble, and spend the whole story fighting it. But if they had just told the Princesses, they could have used their magic to take care of it, instantly.

So I thought, "Why wouldn't the Princesses help out?"

Maybe there's something that holds them back, I thought. Maybe there's a type of magic even bigger then they are.

Like a prophesy.

Let's say that the Princesses possess a collection of prophesies predicting all of the crises that will ever happen in Equestria, with vague clues as to how these crises can be handled. For example, there would be a prophesy saying that Luna would become Nightmare Moon, and saying exactly when that would happen. She would be defeated, but not cured. Imprisoned in the Moon for a thousand years, she would then return, and be saved by six mares wielding the Elements of Harmony. Now I imagine this particular prophesy was worded really vaguely, so that neither of the Princesses were able to figure it out before it was too late for Luna.

But Princess Celestia did eventually figure out the prophesy, and once she did, she began manipulating events through the centuries to make sure it came true.

The Princesses are not bound by these prophesies. They are not forced to follow them.

But if they decide to break them, then the course of pony history becomes unknown. Any type of monster could rise to threaten Equestria, and the Princesses would have no advance warning. Or a monster that the Princesses knew would threaten Equestria would appear, but centuries or millennia earlier or later than the prophesy said.

So in a way, they are bound by these prophesies. And that's why, when a prophesy said that Vinyl Scratch had to have a miserable life before she saved the life of Princess Celestia, Princess Celestia decided that she had to allow every part of that prophesy to come true.

Over the course of this story, Princess Luna discovers that a mysterious group of ponies are deliberately causing prophesies to fail, thereby endangering all of Equestria.

Since the protections provided by the prophesies had already been overturned, Luna decided to overturn one more, fixing Vinyl Scratch's problem.

So yeah, that is a rather complicated idea, which I did a terrible job of communicating.

Did that help any?

This was a good story, although I'm kind of annoyed that Vinyl left it still thinking that the Mane 6 weren't the Elements of Harmony.

>>11171761117176

Well, she is stubborn to an almost-absurd degree. If Luna told her they were legit, I doubt Vinyl would believe her. After all, she could be in on the conspiracy!

Vinyl...

Seriously everybrony should read this and Javelin, so far I have really enjoyed them

Lack of views to high quality fics makes pinkimena come out to play

fantastic again, I really liked Vinyl's story about the NMM events, that was seriously... I don't know powerful? I guess... Anyway it was really cool to hear your thoughts about the populace's response, when I was reading I could totally feel emotions dripping from it. And the show thingie is cool, even if it seems to have so many names I have no idea what to call it

>>11265031126503

Thanks, I worked extra-hard on that, even if the stained-glass window in "The Return of Harmony Part One" sort of contradicts it.

Oh, and the show should definitely be called "My Little Pony: Explosions Are Awesome!" Because fan names of things are always better than the official names.

ooooooo.... Selena, you are sneaky like fox

Definitely creepy. Reminds me of Brave New World.

Very interesting. So they have the magical equivalent of radio broadcasts. I guess it's just a matter of time before they develop something akin to television, virtual reality and the internet. Sucks to be a pegasus or earth pony.

Very, very interesting. I love all this worldbuilding.

The RIAT parts of these last few chapters seem a little childish but the part with Pinkie Pie at the end of this one was interesting.

wat.

I don't fully understand what just happened.

>>12169181216918

Explosions Are Awesome is what would have happened in an alternate universe if somebody like me was selected to create the fourth generation of My Little Pony instead of Lauren Faust. It's supposed to be goofy and dumb!

That was great. Pretty confusing in some parts but I think with a few rereadings I'll pick up on all the 'hidden meanings' and whatnot.

It's completely mad that this story isn't popular. I think it's because of the description. My first impression was to ignore this story (and the prequel), because as soon as I saw the word "CD" I immediately thought of The Mysterious Mare Do Well episode, and how so many things were discontinuous with season one. So yeah. The description is a turn off and it's only because I've read some of your other works that I finally decided to read it, weeks after first seeing it.

>>12169761216976

Were you still confused after reading the Epilogue?

You see, there's a prophesy that Vinyl Scratch will save Celestia's life, but that will only happen if Celestia ruins Vinyl's life by not refuting the libelous story that the CD player gives ponies extra eyes.

Luna wants to do something to help Vinyl. She researches the other royal prophesies, and discovers that they are being subverted. She decides that she can break Vinyl's prophesy (and put Celestia in danger), but only if Vinyl is worthy.

That's why she's here to render her judgment. She finds in Vinyl the model of the pony Celestia and Luna are both looking for: a pony capable of standing up to a goddess, a pony fit to face a future after Celestia and Luna are both dead (because they are very much aware of their coming mortality).

The prophesy is tied to "a blight upon the sun", so Luna tosses that comet into the sun to create the blight early and break the prophesy.

Now anything can happen, to Vinyl, to Celestia, and to Equestria.

>>12170981217098

You're pointing at the fundamental flaw of this story: it's too dense. I had about a dozen different ideas, and I decided to shove all of them in there.

If you boil this story down to its most-basic plot, it goes like this: Vinyl's business is sabotaged by a stupid lie by Prince Steadfast, placed in the lips of Princess Celestia. Vinyl does everything in her power to save her company, and fails. Finally the other goddess takes pity on her and fixes everything with an off-stage speech. The End.

It's the most obvious case of deus ex machina that you can ever find. But that's the point: I'm using this plot to explore what it means to live in a world where your goddess, your creator, is your next-door neighbor.

And then on top of that, I thought that nobody would read this if I didn't get the Mane Six in there somewhere, so you have a bunch of parodies of the series, its merchandise, and its fans, in the form of MLP: Explosions Are Awesome.

Throw in several unnecessary cameos from fanfictions I liked, plus setting up a few elements for later stories in this series.

Like I said: it's a big fat mess, it doesn't hold together very well, and it's not easy to summarize.

Too bad that stories I wrote that I like a whole lot more are direct sequels, and so require you to read this.

>>12171081217108 Oh yeah, the epilogue cleared everything up. It was just that I wasn't sure if Luna was 'evil' or at least just really apathetic to the plight of a single mortal compared to all who might be affected by the prophecy. It left me feeling really uneasy about what was going to happen next. It all makes sense now, what with how you showed that Vinyl could see clearly in space with her horn vision.

>>12171311217131

I suppose I should point any further discussion over to this blog entry, which is my definitive analysis of what this story was trying to do. I'll be happy to answer any other questions that you have, here or there.

>>12171521217152 Oh, I'd forgotten about that. Skimming through that blog post was what triggered me to start reading this fic. Gimme a few minutes and I'll read it properly this time.

is that a Zim reference i spy?

>>12892581289258

...maybe.

Okay. Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, or Generic Shopkeeper?

Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Twilight_crazy.png

>>13057491305749

Huh?

I'm not saying it was time ponies, but... it was time ponies. :CelestiaATsoukalos.jpg:

That prophecy is hilarious, I am loving how this starts.

“I’ve been conducting a massive conspiracy to keep Twilight Sparkle ignorant of my favorite Etheric show!”

There is no possible way this won't end badly.

“Oh look, a bookstore!” Dash exclaimed.

Brilliant distraction!

Okay, so Progress, The Doctor, In Her Majesty's Royal Service. Don't recognize the Perturb family or Mentar but they felt like references as well.

Did I miss any? Lord Keen possibly?

That was pretty cool.

Well that was very interesting, and I'm seeing major hints about what's coming next (I kinda already already have a clue since I accidentally read the Vinyl Scratch in Ponyville story out of order, but still, good lead up).

>>13067181306718 It's a Pokemon reference, the police officer, pokemon clinic nurse, and shopkeeper are generally identical in every town, a lot like the Telegraph family was described as.

>>13714271371427

Lord Keen's original. The Perturbs are a crossover with another cartoon--I'm sure you can figure out which one with a little thought. Mentar's a con-artist griffon character from a series that has not yet been posted to FIMFiction.net--see the EqD post here. The guy even has his own fan-composed theme song, so that's got to count for something.

That is quite the specific prophecy... who sent Agnes Nutter to Equestria, again?

And I take it that "the 7015th year of the Solar Alicorn's reign" does not refer to her solo reign, but to the one she shares with her sister?

Damn. I did not... I was not prepared for this. Wow.

Maybe Twilight should be worried about Rainbow getting the Hebe Shebes?

If etheric transmissions only cover Canterlot, how has Rarity acted out etheric plays for Rainbow Dash or Sweetie Belle? From memory? That's impressive...

After all, RIAT’s just an Etheric show...whose main character of Shrinking Violet is a blatant rip-off of Twilight Sparkle.

main character of Shrinking Violet

Shrinking Violet

Well, I feel honored.

I mean, I know it's not a deliberate reference or anything, least of all to me, but... Google "Salu Digby" and you'll see what I mean.

Wow. Twilight's hair trigger is even more sensitive than we thought.

This should be interesting.

Huh. Nopony died. Or even got singed. Wasn't expecting that.

The bit with the stained glass window is pretty clever. I take it that was a later edit?

And now, fillies and gentlecolts... the Ember Island Players.

Damn. This is interesting.

Would it be terrible of me to say I like the diversity of Mr. Wells's Elements of Harmony better than the real thing?

Ooooh.

This is... this is heavy stuff. I mean, between the eyes and the fire pit machine, we just read the only surviving record of Pony Darkseid... and the idea that Celestia and Luna predate the three races of ponykind as a whole, and that there used to be a lot more alicorns...

Very interesting.

Ow. Right in the feels. Didn't this story start with Luna being on Vinyl's side?

You ever have one of those days when you feel like you're standing still without even looking as the world passes you by?

Wait- it was Ten? But you said he had a northern accent, and that's Nine- the "lots of planets have a North" line is from one of the first episodes of the 2005 series.

One of these days Vinyl's going to have to find out what's really up with Rarity and her friends.

Hah! Hebe Shebes evidenced!

Grass grows. Birds fly. Sun shines. Background ponies play background music.

Was there ever any doubt?

I vote yes on the right to judge one's creators. Hell yes. If you write the rules, anything that happens is something you allowed to happen.

>>13880951388095

Well, Celestia started ruling solo, then her sister got old enough to rule beside her, and then there was the thousand-year "gap in coverage", so basically, it's easier to just date by Celestia's reign.

>>13882191388219

Wow, I wish I was that clever, but no, I was just going with the notion of the seemingly-withdrawn student who is secretly a world-class heroine, plus of course a reference to Twilight's coat color.

>>13883731388373

Yeah, I had to back-pedal like crazy after seeing "The Return of Harmony". I'll let you judge how well I handled it.

>>13884751388475

I suppose I should take that as a complement--Explosions Are Awesome is my back-handed complement to Lauren Faust's vision, because it's the kind of My Little Pony series the world would be stuck with if, by some sick cosmic joke, it was me and not her who was hired to create the 4th Generation series.

>>13886671388667

Oops? In my defense, though, David Tennant's Scottish--that's got to count as North as well, right? It's even more north than Northern!

( -- Yeah, she doesn't buy that excuse, either.)

>>13715251371525

Thanks for that. If there's one thing that my version of Vinyl Scratch is missing compared to everybody else's, it's much in the way of actual DJ'ing and mixing. I put this chapter in to make up for that.

>>13890401389040

What's worse, the Tenth Doctor doesn't sound anything like David Tennant. His natural voice is very Scottish, and very different from his Doctor voice- I learned this from the video diaries on the series two DVDs, but it's also backed up by his talk show and Top Gear appearances, among others.

Also: Blue Bubbles is the voice actor for Shrinking Violet, among others. I don't know why I took so long to get that joke.

>>13890491389049

I just love voice actor jokes.

“Maybe next time you’ll think twice before exploiting public information and private trust for private gain,” Selene’s voice whispered in her ear, despite the fact that the pony was several body lengths away.

I have been rebuked by a goddess, Vinyl realized. And every word she speaks is the truth.

ah hell naw!

so it's ok for her to withhold the fact that Vinyl is the prophesied savior of Equestria which is why Celestia wont correct the media. (a lie by consent)  but not ok for Vinyl to lie to try and fix the damage!

Luna need to get the buck of her high horse.

>>14498931449893

Well, it's not exactly Luna's choice. She's constrained by a higher power--if she breaks the prophesy by helping Vinyl out, then all prophesies become null and void, and then anything could happen in Equestria. The whole advantage of having prophesies, to know when in advance the really awful stuff was going to happen, would be totally negated.

>>14530001453000

I see your point and I like the ending.

but Luna did not have to actively try to sabotage Vinyls efforts. She could have just done nothing.

>>14530651453065

Yeah alright, I see your point. She is kinda on a high horse. But at the same time, she was preparing to break those prophesies (because she was nearly certain that others had already been broken), and just as she's about to do the right thing, she sees Vinyl compromising her integrity, and it ticks her off. "I'm sacrificing the safety of Equestria forever, and this peasant has the nerve to not wait like a martyr to be saved? The nerve!" Bad Luna! Blame the nerves of being surrounded by way too many party ponies if you simply must excuse her less-than-princesslike behavior.

>>14530001453000 Unless, of course, said prophecies turn out to be the reason said peril came about, self fullfiling prophecies are some of the worst kinds. Personally, I would say "Screw the rules I'm doing whats right!" to that, but I suppose humans have a better record of screwing fate than ponies. Depending on the work, though, of course.

SHE TOLD HER!!!

I love my head-voices. They're hilarious and weird. Like that one that keeps shouting in gibberish, or the other that's telling me to stop typing this.