Your favorite fanfic passages?

Lots of cons have panels where people read bad fan-fiction for laughs. But they never have panels where people read good fan-fiction. So I'm going to propose one, at every con I go to.

I can't very well read nothing but ponyfiction if I'm not at a pony con, but I don't know much fan-fiction outside ponydom. So: Have you got some favorite passages from any fan-fictions, especially outside ponyfic? If so, please put them in a comment, quoted exactly, with quote marks indicating start and end, and the fandom, the author's fandom name, and a link to the story. The passage must be:

1. Short. The shorter, the more-likely to be included (EDIT: Turns out there is such a thing as too short. Let's say the passage should take at least twice as long to read as it takes me to say the writer and the story's title.) I can read about 180 words per minute out loud, so try to stay under 360 500 words. I'll also read some entire stories under 1000 words. If you want to propose one, just link to it instead of pasting the whole thing in here.
2. Understandable to someone who knows nothing about the fandom. For entire stories, you can include up to 60 words of necessary background information.
3. The excerpt itself must be impressive in some way. It might be well-styled, or very funny, dramatic, experimental, or good in some other way I can't think of right now. I don't want an excerpt from a 100,000-word story just because it's a great story. If its greatness doesn't show in those 500 words, I don't want it. Conversely, I'll use a great passage from even a bad or incomplete story.
4. If it's a story on my Favorites shelf, the odds that I'll include it go way up.
5. It makes it potentially awkward for both of us if you propose lines from your own stories.

Comments

[Mitch H]

I particularly want a passage from Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality.

...why?

She flicked her rosary, then walked behind Tanya. “It had been so long since I’d worn it, it took about two days to get the tarnish off.” Erna’s hands came around her neck to clip it on.

“I’m giving it a better life. So you have to promise you’ll wear it. If you lie, I’ll tell my mother’s ghost to come haunt you.”

“You don’t even know if she’s dead,” Tanya reminded her.

“Then if a forty-year-old lady starts bothering you, you’ll know why.”

(From We Are Each Our Own Devil, straight-up Tanya the Evil fanfic, no crossovers. By victoria_kay)

[Georg]

There is a wonderful quote in the Cadence of Cloudsdale series by Skywriter that was inspired/created/dreamed up by Murcushio. It inspired the entry paragraphs on Chapter 73 of Letters From a Little Princess Monster. Found it (and the details behind it as written by Murcushio which I think you'll appreciate

Arrgh, I can't find the line in the Cadence of Cloudsdale series but I know its there somewhere. I'll keep looking. (Edit: See below where Skywriter responded. It's glorious.)

Most of the rest of Really Good Lines are Wham Lines after a few chapters of setup, which doesn't work well for convention readings. Most of Pinkie Watches Paint Dry are exceptional standalone lines. Small Town Charm has some doozies.

“Oh, that.” Pinkie smiled. “Don’t you know how star spiders work, Twilight? Every five years, all the star spiders in the world come to Ponyville to find a special somespider, get cozy, lay a few eggs, and then go back home! It’s like a single’s cruise, but with more webs.”

There was a pause.

The pause lengthened.

It became uncomfortable.

Eventually, Twilight picked up the field guide again and flipped forward several pages to the “Behavior” section of the star spider entry.

Once every five years, star spiders migrate to the place of their birth to find a mate. This periodic swarm has engendered local mythologies and celebrations, much as the seventeen-year cicada.

Twilight put the book down. She took another deep breath, held it as long as she could, and slowly let it out.

“Pinkie,” she said. “How many star spiders come to Ponyville?”

“Hm.” Pinkie spent a distressingly long amount of time in thought. “What’s the biggest number?”

[Moonlit Sky]

A favorite bit of comedic dialogue from Postnuptial Disagreements:

"Thou art a foul and treacherous Ashikabi, and thy water spell against Yomi was but a child's trifle, monkey."

"'You' and 'your'," I said.

"What didst thou say?"

"'You' and 'your' are the appropriate pronouns when addressing a loathed adversary of superior social rank," I said. " 'Thou' and 'thy' are actually informal. Which, incidentally, is why nobody could stand the early Quakers. In any case, I'll thank you not to butcher Queen Bess's English any further."

Tsukiumi's jaw dropped. Her arms stiffened at her sides and balled into fists.

"Thy insolence is matched only by thy-"

"'Your' insolence."

"But-"

"Informal."

"But they taught me-"

"Incorrectly, clearly."

"How dare you-"

"Perfect."

A favorite dramatic scene from Of The Stars:

“There’ll be another youma in there, won’t there? Like the last one. The... the monster.”

Luna looked up at her charge, who was biting her lip. Now that the enemy was in sight, she had gone very pale, and her breathing had sped up.

‘... yes,’ said Luna quietly.

“And... they’ll probably be expecting me this time, since I killed the last one. Won’t there?’

‘... yes.’

“And... and there will be the smoke-things. Inside the people. But they can come out and... and I’ll have to fight them too.”

‘Yes. You will. If they attack you before you can defeat their master.’

Another silence. Were those just raindrops from the light drizzle still falling, trickling down Usagi’s face? Or were they tears?

“Luna,” said Usagi, quietly. “I... I don’t want to go. I’m scared.” Luna winced at her tone of voice. There was no wailing, no over-the-top dramatics. Frankly, that would have been more reassuring than this... this quiet terror and pleading.

But if Usagi didn’t do this...

‘I know,’ Luna sighed. ‘I know, Usagi-chan, and I’m sorry. But there’s nobody else. I’ve been looking, I promise – there are others, and I will find them for you. You do have allies out there who will help you. But right now, it’s just you and me.’ She felt Usagi slump, and wracked her mind for something to bolster the girl’s failing courage. Inspiration struck.

‘If it helps,’ she remarked casually, ‘Tuxedo Mask will probably show up if you’re facing any real danger. But I’m not sure he’ll be able to handle it by himself, and I’m certain that the people in there would be in more danger if he fought alone.’

Silence for a moment longer, and Luna felt the horrifying fear that maybe Usagi’s nerve just wasn’t up to this. But then the girl’s shoulders squared as she took a deep breath and let it out in a weary sigh.

“Right then,” she said firmly. The fear was still there, in her voice. But dampened down, suppressed by willpower and – Luna suspected – deliberately not thinking about what she was doing.

“In that case, I have a plan.”

Perhaps I'll think of more later, in which case I'll try to come back and deliver it here. In the meantime, hopefully at least one of these is vaguely in the style of what you're after.

[Mockingbirb]

Sometimes, within stories I've written, I have one or more especially favorite lines, but I don't know if anyone but I would feel that way about them.

Edited to add: inb4 some rule-blathering nattering twit starts shouting, 'Kill your darlings! Kill your darlings! I know all about writing, and several other phrases!'

I mean, yes there are circumstances in which one has to remove or alter something that one likes that doesn't work well where it is, but sometimes one likes something that DOES work well where it is.

[Bad Horse]

5767845
If you're self-conscious, send them in a PM. Just please don't feel bad if I don't use them. I've got very limited time; I'm planning on the passages being just half of a 50-minute session. And I have some constraints other than just quality.

[Bad Horse]

5767823

Most of Pinkie Watches Paint Dry are exceptional standalone lines.

I was thinking of reading that whole story out loud, if I can find a copy of the pre-EQD 2000-word version.

[Mockingbirb]

5767858

Just please don't feel bad if I don't use them.

HAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA I can think of so many possible critera for a flower arrangement other than 'is the flower pretty?'

I mean, I would not feel bad. There are probably hundreds of hours worth of 'good lines' and 'good short passages' in fimfic (and even that specific number of hours is just an arbitrary cutoff.) I also know that your presentation has to work AS A PRESENTATION, not just as a 'top ten thousand' list.

Also noting: There would not be time to read ten thousand.

[BronyWriter]

I know it might be cheating, but the line

with all of the quiet dignity and grace that I can muster, I walk up to Celestia and punch her in the face

literally changed my life.

[Anonymous Potato]

I have a couple. All ponyfics, unfortunately—I don't have much experience in other fandoms.

1.

On December fourteenth, at 3:15 AM, Adams woke me with a loud knock on my front door.

"Put your boots on," he said when I answered. "There's a biblical monster in my house."

Biblical Monsters, Horse Voice

The beginning of Biblical Monsters is a classic. It’s efficient and effective.

You probably knew already, but in case you missed it, Inquisitor M once called up a small panel of authors and asked for their opinion on different story beginnings. They were unanimous that this was one of the best.

2.

The photographs he had seen before could not do justice to the sight spread out across the horizon a few miles away. Human architecture had a distinguished squat look to it, with larger objects below smaller objects and tapering as it ascended into the clouds, much like Jon imagined the Tower of Babel with its puny human reach for the heavens.

Pegasi laughed at the concept of simply reaching when they could grab and shape the heavens to their will instead.

Cloudsdale was no mere city. It rose and boiled like a line of storm clouds, all energy and thunderous power where the rulers of the air made their homes like the Greek gods of legend. Humble structures of stone and wood were scattered around the dynamic structure like decorations, little toys on the tops of titanic forces of nature, scaling up the sides of twisting vaporous mountains and stretching across the valleys where crackling lightning arced through arches of braided cloudstuff until watching eyes were baffled by the complexity and forced to blink. It was an impossible city, and more impossibly changed every day while it drifted across the Equestrian continent, adding a building or cloud apartment today, breaking off a subdivision to reside by a ground-bound town tomorrow. That alone would have made it a fascinating sight, but the colors only made it better.

Equestria:1940, ch.3, Georg

This was an important piece for me as a writer. After I'd first read this (especially that single sentence paragraph in the middle), I understood that descriptions are better when they carry tone. And tone was something I’d failed to grasp before.

3.

The next day, he was pulled from fifth period to talk to the school psychiatrist. She smiled a lot, and told him he wasn't in trouble, and invited him to tell her everything because she was just there to help. Quiet Boy told her about Moon Horse, kind of. He talked about how he had heard her say that things were going to be alright, and then they were, and he had made friends and wasn't being bullied quite so much any more. The psychiatrist asked him if he really thought Moon Horse was real, and it sounded like she wanted to hear him say no, so he said no. He listened through the door afterward as the psychiatrist told his mother that the schizophrenic episode seemed like a temporary coping mechanism for a resolved period of severe trauma, and under those circumstances medication wasn't clinically appropriate.

Quiet Boy didn't tell anyone about Moon Horse after that.

Quiet Boy and Moon Horse, Horizon

I confess. I’m lazy. I nicked this from the comment section of CiG’s blog on writing paragraphs.

4.

The sun rises, after an approximate eternity. She sits up stiffly and stumbles to the mirror. She's a mess. She showers and dresses and cooks and eats and somehow manages to avoid two separate car accidents on the way to school and mechanically staggers into her office and puts her head in her hands and finally, finally, breaks down sobbing.

She realizes it's Saturday.

She goes home.

Administrative Angel, ch1, Horizon again. Because we need more Horizon dagnabbit.

Some of these may have benefited from additional context, but I wasn't exactly sure what context I would've added.

I'll come back to add more examples if I can come up with any.

[Skywriter]

5767823
EDIT: I had to delete this reply because I misremembered the passage, which was actually mine. Apparently I don't remember what I wrote anymore.

[Skywriter]

5767823
Sorry, disregard the previous reply. The actual paragraph that was basically written by Murcushio was Cadance's brief vision of the gravity of Cloudsdale from atop the mast of the airship:

There is thunder in my ears and lightning in my mouth. This is one of the hinges of the world, the last and proudest stronghold of the pegasus nation, which devours air and water and produces rainbows and storms, light and dark in equal measure. Their lives spin around me in a whirling tornado, reaching back to their near-mythical progenitors, the Hurricane and the Flower, and forward to a fate I cannot see but can almost touch. I smell bread, and salt, and rain, and sweat, and tears, and love, and hate, and rot, and growth, and I know that I can take this bit between my teeth and pull, it's right in front of me if I only want it enough…

[FredMSloniker]

I tend to recall phrases from fics I read, like 'the ponderous inevitability of continental drift', but as it happens I recently talked to some friends about a section in Cast-Iron Caryatid's Sharing the Nation (specifically, chapter 8) where Twilight is talking to Fluttershy about her forcible ascension to demigod-hood. There are a bunch of quotable bits in just that one conversation, but I'll restrict myself to one that should make sense without any context:

[Twilight Sparkle said] "It’s pain! And death! I don’t get up in the morning and shamble to the pain and death machine for my rejuvenating infusion of pain and death to wake me up!”

There's also this quote from Jeff Hosmer and John Biles's Sailor Moon Z (TV Tropes link because the main site for the fic is apparently flaky, and backup links are here):

Haruka finished off her drink. "So who do you think would win, Noriko?"

Noriko finished off her drink. "What, if Sailor Uranus and Sailor Jupiter had a fight?" She got up and took Haruka's hand and started heading for the dance floor.

"Yeah." I need to find out what all this Yuki girl knows about us, Haruka thought.

"A serious all out fight, you mean?" They started dancing to some fast music.

Haruka nodded. "No holds barred."

Noriko's voice was quieter than usual. "I think only the forces of evil would win that fight."

Haruka lacked any good reply to that.

If I think of any other good ones, I'll post again.

[Wanderer D]

I've read so many fics that trying to remember truly memorable quotes is a bit hard, but if you don't mind me tooting my own horn, one of my best ever (IMO) is:

"And you destroyed this bar in Lower Canterlot... why?" Sunset asked.

"I asked for a Pina Colada and they gave me a virgin version."

"You were thirteen!"

"It was a Pina Colada!" Twilight countered. "That's as 'virgin' as it gets! You don't have to add a chastity belt to it!"

[Common Tragedy]

5767859
https://fimfetch.net/story/1008053834/pinkie-watches-paint-dry
They have a Fanfiction version with a few hundred fewer words here, maybe this is it?

[Bandy]

My favorite chapter in all of fanfic has no words! Botched Lobotomy's blank chapter from "A Life Lived in Hundreds" deserves a shout out for achieving maximum efficiency. Additionally, the below quote from "Look Before You Leap" (also by BL) is pure jazz:

In the bathroom mirror of a middling hotel she catches your eye. Unexpectedly. Both surprised and yet not surprised. Embarrassed and yet unembarrassed. Pleased and yet not exactly pleased. A towel lounges round her shoulders. Disposable toothbrush sticking out her mouth. Oops. Hello. And hold it...hold it...

Gotta also shout-out one of my favorite GaPJaxie stories:

Rarity lay in bed, and clutched a book that did not exist.

She had it wrapped tight in her legs. It was a weighty tome, with a thick cover covered in metal imprints and ornate designs. With it held against her chest, she could just barely twist her hoof down far enough to trace the designs on its cover. There was a golden ring in the middle, encircling an eight-pointed star on an ornate background. Around the ring was stitchwork depicting elaborate, flowery patterns. It had a latch on the open side, to hold it shut.

She could feel it. She could run her hooves across its pages, and feel the weight of the paper stock.

Which she thought was impressive, since there was, of course, nothing there.

And of course this gem of an opening line from my favorite Cold in Gardez fic:

“Have you ever wanted to just, you know, set a book on fire?”

[Georg]

5767885 Yes, I kept looking for that at the *beginning* of a chapter, and it's in the middle of Spa and Order. Thank you!

I should list some of Estee's bits here for suggestions, but most of those are longer bits. Ok, just one.

Carnie loved Flitter.

There had been days when her cat was the only living thing in the world which did.

Cold in Gardez deserves some attention, but I can't remember anything right off the top of my head. GhostOfHeraclitus has some doozies despite being offline for quite some time. Orbiter Dicta has quite a collection, but my favorite (since we are entering politics season again, which is much like flu season without the option of getting an immunization against it) is Civics in its entirety.

...They then take this piece of paper, and put it in a box. Once the day is over, all these pieces of paper are tallied up and counted and tabulated, and we get to know the results, which is to say which group of gormless malicious idiots will attempt to ruin Equestria next. By the morning each paper declares the result a disaster and hires, presumably, escaped mental patients to explain how such a disastrous and unprecedented result came about. These rants, raves, ramblings, and attempts at prophecy then become gospel truth in political circles for the next four years when the WHOLE BLOODY THING STARTS OVER AGAIN.”

Dotted’s gray telekinesis aura picked up the glass, held it as it trembled gently, and then downed it in one go. He grabbed the microphone which couldn’t dodge aside fast enough, and grasped it as if it was a substitute for a neck he wasn’t allowed to wring.

“Your options,” he said, with bleak intensity, “are these. You can be in one of those parties and lie. You can be a voter, and be lied to. Or you can be a civil servant and spend your life cleaning up after things like this. None of these options offer so much as a shred of dignity or sanity. We are, all of us, utterly doomed. Any questions?”

The foals in the audience burst into tears. Behind them, the teacher quietly buried her face in her hooves.

[Emptybee]

A nicely poignant snippet from the inimitable Cold in Gardez:

"He hadn’t done that in a while, he realized. He probably never would again. Someday, years ago, he had slept in his parents’ bed for the last time, and he hadn’t even realized it."

—Childhood's End

[equestrian.sen]

Dramatic:

The Witch of Canterlot by MagnetBolt - Sunset and Balthazar are caught in a series of illusions while looking for a genie.

The streets of Ponyville started to fade. Buildings collapsed into dust.

“That must be the end of it,” Balthazar said, looking around. “I think when it created that river it drew us deeper into the cavern. This isn’t the same room we walked into.”

“No,” I agreed. “This is deeper, and…” He was staring past my shoulder. There was something behind me. I could feel it creeping on my back.

I turned slowly. Massive chains, each link as big as my head and forged out of pure silver, formed a web that stretched hundreds of feet, from wall to wall.

Impossibly, Ruby Drop was there. She was a foal. She was half my size. The chains shouldn’t have been able to wrap around her legs, around her neck, binding her in place so tight that she couldn’t move. They should have been comically large. I could feel the whole thing pulling at my senses like an optical illusion.

She smiled.

“You’re not my friend,” I said.

“I am not your enemy, either,” Ruby whispered.

Poetic:

Closer by Avery Day

There’s nothing wrong with the term long-distance relationship, but it feels wrong; too simplistic. Distance can be quantified in numerous ways, and while you’re gone, it’s something I do to an obsessive degree.

Mileage is the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of long-distance relationships, but there’s so much more to it. How long are we going to be apart this time, and if you don’t know, how long until we get to know?

And when I know you’re coming, counting becomes so exciting. I start by counting everything from months to minutes, and slowly but surely, I stop having to count each one of those units of time as the day draws nearer. But the moment we meet, another countdown starts. It’s an inverse of the last in every way, and even if it fills me with dread, it’s so hard to ignore.

We start with weeks worth of time together, but before I know it, weeks become days, days become hours, hours become minutes. Minutes become mile markers, mile markers become exits, exits become street names. Streets become terminals, and terminals become steps. And steps become precious seconds spent holding each other, waiting for the other to pull away because neither of us want to.

Hilarious while reading as a story, not sure if hilarious while reading as a passage:

A Witch in Broad Daylight by Episilon-Delta - Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are trying to find the rumored Mad Scientist Rarity. They're making their way through the Venus Pony Traps Rarity set up around her castle to catch intruders when all of a sudden...

The Venus flytraps and vines all began surging with electricity. The vines shot up in every direction, becoming taught. The path leading back and the air overhead was submerged in a crisscross of electrified vines. The entire castle side was covered in them too.

When Dash tried to fly up and through an opening in them, they simply moved, reacting to her, closing the gap.

Rarity began to laugh.

“When I told them all my plan to invent battery-powered plants, they all said, ‘what are you talking about? What would that even be?’! Well, who’s laughing now?”

Great name-as-a-punchline:

Compendium by LittleFaerieFire - SciTwi is trying to brew a potion as part of her increasingly desperate attempts to contact an angel. Her protective older brother Shining Armor is pondering her latest attempt.

He wasn't sure where or how his sister had managed to get a bottle of arsenic but in truth, he didn't want to know. All he knew is that it had taken some convincing from his chemistry teacher, Mr. Bond.

Humorous for taking something mundane so far:

First Hoof Account by TCC56 - Cadence will be visiting Sunset's room in the castle soon, and Sunset has no intention to make her comfortable.

Sunset Shimmer's room was not a welcoming place - by design. She didn't want visitors, and the maids were encouraged to do their job and evacuate as quickly as possible.

For starters, the room was in a perpetual state of twilight: Sunset had long since demanded blackout curtains on all the windows to shut out the watchful eye of Celestia's sun. She had also gone out of her way to remove anything even vaguely comfortable for a second pony to sit on - she had one chair, a quilt on her bed made out of the itchiest possible wool (that she put on when she wasn't sleeping), and three tables each at a carefully chosen height and position so the corners would dig into the hip of any pony that leaned against them. A classical painting hung on either side of the fireplace - one of Starswirl the Bearded and the other of Princess Platinum. Both had been enchanted so their illusory eyes would follow anypony in the room other than Sunset. And as a finishing touch? Sunset had enchanted the room to be extremely low humidity - ostensibly to help with the preservation of old manuscripts and scrolls. And while she had her own reserve of drinks hidden away, all she publicly had to offer visitors was cilantro tea.

[equestrian.sen]

5768130
I'm a bit annoyed at myself that that's the best I could come up with for First Hoof Account. It has several exceptional passages, but they're not that short, and they don't have clean cut-offs.

Maybe this will work, under "good in some other way I can't think of right now". Same story, Sunset is buying flowers to ask Cadence out on a date. She's at a shop getting help from a filly Wallflower Blush.

First Hoof Account by TCC56

"Acacia blossom, for concealed love. It tells her you've been thinking about this for a while but weren't sure how to say it."

A pause. Sunset rolled over her planned confession in her mind. Yes - yes, that fit. It was a good point to start from. "But I wasn't sure of it. I wouldn't call it love but I wasn't certain if I was interested or not."

Nodding, the earth pony turned to a nearby planter. "Forsythia," she definitively stated. A quick pull with her mouth, a turn, and she placed a yellow flower with four long, thin petals down. "Signifies anticipation." Then she twisted the other way and pulled out a small evergreen branch with tight blue-ish flower buds. "And arborvitae - unchanging friendship. You want to move forward but you're afraid the answer will ruin your friendship."

Sunset shifted uneasily. That was remarkably accurate. "Uh. Well, I'm not afraid-afraid." A little voice in the back of Sunset's head unhelpfully insisted she wasn't afraid of anything.

Wallflower didn't pay any attention to the objection. She was obviously in the zone and wasn't going to be held back by petty things like another pony's thoughts. "And then yellow iris." That one sent her trotting across the room with her hat flapping like pegasus wings. And she was almost pegasus fast to grab a stem from the far side and bringing it back. Sunset just watched, waiting for the reasoning behind this one. "Iris traditionally means hopefulness," Wallflower answered as she returned. "But yellow instead of blue also indicates passion."

Reflexively recalling the comment a few minutes before, Sunset tried to counter the suggestion. "I'm not trying to--"

And she was immediately cut off. "You want passion, fire-mane." Wallflower insisted a bit too strongly. "Or do you think she's going to like you more if you're boring?"

[Frith]

As I read through the recommendations and the replies, I see an inkling of a useful structure to your Con panel: dividing it into themes. Such as: opening text that sets the scene and tone for the entire work of fiction (like "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." Slaughterhouse-Five); dramatic passages; lyrical passages; humorous passages; passages that are a complete story within the story itself; nested double-enterdre passages; clever word play; culture shock passages where a character does something natural to them and jars the reader into remembering that it's an alien's life story that they're reading.

That passage Anonymous Potato quoted from Quiet Boy and Moon Horse makes me want to read Quiet Boy and Moon Horse. Good quote.

Bad Horse, you might want to fix a typo in bullet point 3, especially if you might copy/paste and reuse your proposal elsewhere: the 2nd word should be excerpt, not except.

Sorry if I'm a bit terse, I have the brain fog, result of an exciting week of dying llama and the eternal rat race at work. Back later with quotes, I know there were some short stories in the For the Love of Faust anthology that made me cry. I only cry if it's awesome.

[Frith]

Right. Back in the saddle, as they say. Who? Shush, you.

Much of which is a great passage of text is in fact highly dependent on context. As in the entire short story. This will not do. But I might have something from https://www.fimfiction.net/story/207379/the-brief-reign-of-princess-twily by Forthwith which stands up on its own. The context is Princess Celestia needs a vacation and young Twilight Sparkle is hell bent for leather to give her that vacation. The passage:

“Ehem. This is a” – Twilight pulled her notecards from her saddlebags – “coup d'état. I have thrown down your pitiful excuse for a guard. According to the second volume of On Matters Extraordinary, wartime policies, section seven, subsection on domestic affairs, bylaws of court proceedings, I demand you suspend court until such time as you can defeat me and reclaim control of the Equestrian government.”

Silence pervaded the throne room. Although she was sure that she would hear them coming, Twilight cast a quick spell to warn her if any guards tried to sneak up behind her. Her eyes, however, never broke contact with Princess Celestia’s.

And for once, Princess Celestia was lost for words and wore a blank look. After an intense stare down, she said, “I cannot do that, Twilight.”

Drat. Twilight clicked her tongue and looked away.

“After all, as you said, I do not currently have control of the Equestrian government.”

Twilight looked back, eyes wide and stinging a bit from the increased exposure, as Princess Celestia continued, “How can I suspend court proceedings if I am not in charge, Princess Twilight?”

Huh? Princess?

The real princess’s horn lit up and Twilight found herself wearing her regalia, although it was shrunken to a normal filly’s size.

“Seeing as you have bested my guard and betrayed me, I shall leave you to your new role while I go…build a resistance or something.”

Waving a hoof, a regalia-less Princess Celestia turned into an explosion of light and disappeared.

Silence once more descended upon the hall, and all eyes turned to Twilight where she awkwardly stood fidgeting on top of Shining.

“Um… Well, uh, Princess, err, ex-Princess Celestia is currently building an army, so we are in a national crisis. Therefore, according to–”

It should be easier to find a quote in something I wrote. I had several descriptions of the moment, as one would do when describing one's life in a journal, for oneself and for a larger unseen audience. It gets interesting when a reader replies from the void and quotes what you wrote right on back to you, not as a question or a correction, but because it moved them. Let me see what's there...

The following quotes are from https://www.fimfiction.net/story/510229/twilights-blog which I wrote over a three year period (and haven't finished). The context is slice of life, minus laundry and shopping lists, in blog form. Mundane, or as mundane as it can get in a magical land run entirely by fantasy horses.

TasermonsPartner liked this from https://www.fimfiction.net/story/510229/28/twilights-blog/xxviii-april (April 28, Spring Rain)

The light rain cooled the air, but the ground below was still warm from the morning sun. That created updrafts of warm air, some of which followed the castle walls and flowed onto the balcony. The air currents brought with them the delicious smells of spring. Fresh green growth, small spring flowers and catkins, the wet embrace of mist, and the rich odor of loam. I closed my eyes and drank in the moment. I think spring is my favorite time of year.

TwilightPB liked this from https://www.fimfiction.net/story/510229/8/twilights-blog/viii-august I too am fond of this passage. (August 12, Look At The Stars, See How They Shine For You):

Meteor showers are waves of shooting stars, the spirits of many ponies, galloping across the sky. Often, they're the spirits of ponies who died too soon. They run to be free, they run for joy, they run in memory of an event, they run to flee and they run to forget. They also run to draw the attention of those they left behind. They run across the sky to wave hello, and good bye. They run because waiting for you is a hard thing to do. And they run because they remember that they were ponies.

OK, only two. If there were others, they weren't moving enough to quote right back at me. I don't think there is a way to search all the comments on FiMFiction for moving/clever/outstanding requoted passages. This reminds me that on LiveJournal/Dreamwidth there is a community called "Metaquotes" that is dedicated to just that, celebrating good prose and clever thoughts. I think the Metaquotes communities have been silent for a few years now. Thus do all things pass and fade away.

[Bad Horse]

5767821
Do you remember what chapter that quote comes from? I'd like to see the context around it, & maybe read a longer excerpt. But the story's 350,000 words, and I can't find it with Google.

Re. HPMOR, it's well-known, great at what it was meant to do, outside of MLP, and I don't want to read the whole thing again to find a good quotable passage 'coz it's really long.

[Mitch H]

5770335

Chapter 24. I chose the passage because it was the most recent one I'd quoted in a discord server's recs channel that wasn't a pony thing. I think I tend to quote comedy bits more often than serious drama.

[Bad Horse]

5767862
Should I ask how it changed your life?

[Bad Horse]

5768777
I'd already decided to use "The Hayloft Song of J. Alfalfafed Poolrock By T.S. Celerybit" from Twilight's Blog. No rule saying I can't use 2 quotes from it, though.

[BronyWriter]

5770348
Made me big in the fanfic community. Published books, wrote dozens of stories, went to conventions... lots of stuff that I don't think I would have done if that line hadn't drawn thousands of readers in to read about my silly Celestia punching human.

[Bad Horse]

5767919
I think so! Thanks!

[Frith]

5770349
O M G Really? Even though I mispronounce 'wood sorrels' as 'wood soar-els'? And even though it's way long?! Wowsers! I've toyed with replacing 'soured by wood sorrels' with 'fouled by rotted smells' but the double meaning of soured (taste and spoiled) by a sour plant is hard to match, even though 'fouled by rotted smells' conveys the general malaise and sense of decay I'm looking for. 'Smells' is weak. There's funeral bells (mushrooms) but they grow on wood, not pasture. ... This is a deep rabbit hole full of dead ends.

Meanwhile,

3. The except itself must be impressive in some way

remains... except - ional. *drum-de-dum-drum rimshot*

edit: ah! fixed! I can rest easy now.

[Bad Horse]

5770351
It changed my life by inspiring me to punch my boss in the face! That convinced the execs that I was management material.

Seriously, that's a fascinating story. Now I want to write about a writer who thinks that she's famous only because of one line she wrote. Or maybe a guitarist who thinks he's famous only for one riff. Mind if I steal a piece of your life like that? If I do, that won't mean it's supposed to represent you!

[BronyWriter]

5770507
Go nuts. Let me know what you come up with.

[Bad Horse]

5770371
Ah, sorry. I began timing readings yesterday, and I don't think I can read the whole thing. I'm puzzled over how to read just part of it, though.

[Frith]

5770918

Just quote the parts you can remember as they will probably be the best parts. Like with Prufrock. I don't know the entire thing by heart, just bits and pieces, such as:

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

and

... Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.

Thus, I would choose a part that I remember (which for me, ha ha, is where I mispronounce soar-ell, which is another reason why . it . is . so . hard . to . fix ), crop it to illustrate flow and context and go with that. The poem has several parts, several scene changes, it should be easy enough to choose one. ^_^

I still think that FiMFiction should have a Megaquotes Community.

[equestrian.sen]

I'm thinking about treating this blog post as a dumping ground for any fanfic snippets that I really like.

Wondercolts Forever by Epsilon-Delta - Sunset Shimmer is trapped in the pocket dimension of Eldritch Abomination Principal Celestia. Principal Celestia wants Sunset to stay in high school eternal of her own will.

Sunset closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself returning to Equestria with overwhelming magical force and beating Celestia into the ground. It didn't feel the same anymore. It didn't make her feel any better.

Principal Celestia didn’t respond right away, listening with a slight smile. Sunset got the impression she knew the answer but wasn’t saying it. That was always something that pissed her off.

“Why did I calm down so much?” Sunset asked. “Because everything here is so calm? Because I’m meditating now? Or did you do something to me?”

“If you want me to 'psychoanalyze' you," said Celestia, "I think it’s simply because you have friends now. You don’t need to force anyone to respect you. You don't need revenge to feel valid if you already do. Do you think I’m right?”

Did Sunset feel valid back in Equestria? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, when Princess Celestia kept her close she did feel loved. She’d always wanted that more than anything, she knew, she just wanted Princess Celestia to acknowledge her. Not too unlike Principal Celestia and Sunset’s new friends did.

“That’s a stupid answer.” Sunset turned and walked away, off into the rain.

Did sunset have what she wanted now? She hoped not.

[Bad Horse]

5771713
I really like that last line, "Did sunset have what she wanted now? She hoped not."

[Bad Horse]

5767932
I can't say I get chapter 1409, but the ending of 1410 is golden:

These days would soon be a thing of the past, she knew, could feel inside her bones--ten years, maybe less, maybe more. Ah, well. For now, life was good. It was a bright and a beautiful day.
Granny Smith burst into tears.

Which GaPJaxie story did you quote there?

[Bandy]

5771874 I like to read 1409 as grief beyond words. There's something magical to me about expressing thoughts with only context in a medium where everything has to literally be spelled out. And the gapjaxie story is If Only, If Only!