Sonic Rainbigot: aftermath, genesis, and minor story breakdown. · 4:25pm Jun 29th, 2013

Well, that was unexpected.

...is it possible to have a story get a four-digit number of readers without having any degree of war break out in the Comments section?

*sigh*

Okay, minor Writer's Workshop here where I try to figure out what my mental underlayers were doing, plus I just felt like being honest and putting this stuff down. You know the drill: on the count of three, everyone find a pillow and commence snoring.

As one person did guess, Sonic Rainbigot was, in a way, a partial response to the fight which erupted over and within the comments on Canterlot Deportation Agency. I wound up stuck with some very long thoughts about how there are always people who hear only the words they wish, or even wind up hearing ones unspoken. And how even words meant in innocence can be taken the wrong way or twisted and thrown back at the speaker. As stated in a previous blog point, it often seems to reach the point where there are no truly safe words or statements on the Internet, nothing which can't backfire.

That got me briefly (and mostly subconsciously) thinking about The Pony Most Likely To Say The Wrong Thing In Just About Total Sort-Of-Innocence.

Three candidates emerged. Pinkie, who can rush through something without examining it first, but truly doesn't mean any harm at the time. ("This donkey is really, really bald!") Twilight -- well, as she's emerging in Triptych, she has a tendency to do what con artists call talking past the money: she'll keep going with a vocalized line of thought after she really should have stopped it, and it gets her in trouble. And of course, Rainbow Dash. Always Rainbow Dash, who too often says exactly what she's thinking with no self-censorship -- or just outright laughs in someone's face -- and doesn't really care about how everyone else reacts to it until after, if at all.

(Rarity's too aware of Canterlot social graces, Applejack could easily miss a social trick but she's having a hard enough time in the extended tale and I wanted to spare her here, and Fluttershy would have needed to spontaneously speak to a complete stranger of her own free will.)

Let's just say RD came out of that pack rather quickly. Social graces? Boring. Thinking before speaking? Why? And awareness of linguistic tripwires? Um... no.

The actual story itself emerged in about a four-hour rush, including initial edits. (One of the reasons I'm trying to backtrack myself on this.) For the timeline and plot, I wanted to keep it short and simple, taking place over two days. Offensive thing is accidentally said (or rather, thing which is unknowingly offensive) fairly early in the morning during the wrong situation with exactly the wrong unicorn. RD is out of sight and range for the rest of the day while the antagonist is running around getting muck raked in all directions. Find out about the backlash quasi-early the next morning (or as early as RD ever gets up without a shift to work), discover what had happened and how her words were used. Friends explain. Princess summons her in and has The Talk. Open apology press conference, get to the main punchline, and camera lens slowly irises in.

(On the record: while I did want to touch on media/public hysteria and how easy it is for words to echo outwards in a hurry -- think about any ten celebrities who've destroyed their lives via Twitter or Facebook and how we've seen ponies moving and freaking out as virtually a single unit under herd mentality -- I wasn't thinking of Paula Deen at the time. At all, on any level that I know of. I've been happily ignoring her for what I know of her career: give me Chopped, please, not her show in any way. That was a pure coincidence of timing -- but I don't doubt it did a little something for the page views. Right theme, right week.)

Rainbow in the story... as the character who most needs to come out on top (although Twilight can be a closer second than she herself might want to think about), I feel she's at her funniest -- and sometimes, her most sympathetic -- when she's off-balance and frustrated. In a way, she limits her chosen environment so much that it's easy for her to go into fish-out-of-water mode. She needs to win, but only understands (and even acknowledges) the rules of a very small number of games -- none of which take place in the social webs. I also wanted to put Rainbow Jerkass aside for a while: she gives up her chance at a first-day publication because to her, Rarity's happiness and security are more important. Having her pick up so much dress knowledge on sheer background osmosis just felt like it would be funny: she's learning without trying or wanting to -- and that may be the best way to educate her on a large number of subjects.

(Yes, I'm aware she never gets the book in the course of the story. I figured Twilight picked her up a copy the day after the conference.)

Miss Lue Viton is pretty much a background antagonist without real dimension, but this didn't call for a fully realized villain. The name was picked for pretty much the exact reasons you might be thinking it was: knockoff handbags, easy availability of. Incidentally, if you're walking through a major city and someone on the street spontaneously offers to take you to a third-floor pop-up store where you can get some impossible bargains on designer names, be aware that this is how horror movies start. And if it's not a horror movie, it is not an original.

Well, ninety-eight times out of a hundred. Trucks do mysteriously lose shipments, y'know.

I went over Murdocks in the story's Commentary section and won't repeat it here except to say Diamond Tiara still has a very obvious career path awaiting her should she want it. Same discussion situation for Princess Havehock having learned of Miss Viton's views and working to provoke -- but I can add this: I wasn't consciously thinking of her doing an epic trolling at the time. Then again, with a really good manipulation, it can be hard to tell the difference.

As for the latest Commentary War... honestly, I should have seen this one coming. I both invoked a news organization and touched on the subject of bigotry in Equestria, saying each and every member of the three main pony races don't necessarily always live in perfect Harmony: something was going to happen. *sigh* Still not gonna censor the way I work -- I'll just be more aware of what might be on the approach in the future.

So, with most people having gotten some degree of enjoyment out of this one -- back to Triptych for a while, although there's always a chance of another short piece along the way.

Eighty followers. How did that happen?

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