Help Make Brumby Run Even More Miserable (or: Cutie Mark Crusaders Carnivores, Yay!). · 6:34pm Feb 26th, 2015
(All of the following is discussed and quoted with advance permission from BR, who granted consent for bringing this to the blog post.)
With my computer fixed (dying video card) and Shockwave Flash just barely stable enough to see notification lights again, I've been catching up on my mail in speed and desperation. Sitting in the Inbox was a question from Brumby Run, who had seen potential inspiration for a CMC story in a member of my local cast.
And I quote:
Ideas spring forth, welcome or not. Some funny. Some worthwhile. Some that make for great stories.
And some of such horror they should never be spoken aloud...
...but misery loves company. I have suffered a crazed thought, and it will not let me rest until it has been shared. I am so sorry...
The Cutie Mark Crusaders wind up in Canterlot. (A curious princess wishes to meet them? Criminal charges? Parliamentary enquiry?) While they are there, they meet Sizzler and hear the story of his mark.
How much of Equestria is left standing? How badly damaged is the Treaty Of Menagerie? How many of Fhuttershy's friends wind up in a stew?
How disappointed are they when they still don't get their marks?
I'm sorry. I am so sorry. But the thought is in my head, leaving nothing but questions. I have to exorcise it somehow. And misery loves company...
And it worked. Because I immediately began to consider some of the implications of his idea. And sure enough, it made me miserable.
Y'see, he had just hit a question I'd never considered until the moment he brought it out.
And now I had to think about it. A lot.
My reply:
Sizzler's manifest. How the bloody #$%% would that have happened? Did he get hit with a community service roadkill cleanup assignment as a colt and started thinking about things to do with the results? No, that may be little too dark for a fairly silly character, not to mention a little 'serial killers get started this way, right?' for the locals. If we keep it clean, then the friendship answer might be 'grew up with a carnivore best friend'. Invited to that residence a lot. Had a little colt crush on the mother and hung around the kitchen as long as he could stand it. Eventually, started asking to help. Looked into recipes so that assistance would do something positive. Advance things forward... it adds to his somewhat off kilter while explaining a few things regarding how he doesn't quite fit in with the herd. Did he even grow up in Equestria, at least for his childhood? Is there a border town somewhere that's about half-pony, half-carnivore?
Megacrap. Another open door...
Well, you've met your goal of creating company. Thankee.
Might as well set you up for the next dose, then: how were you picturing Sizzler's manifest, first stage to last?
The CMC... locally, I don't want them meeting the sisters just yet, but this is your potential story. If all else fails, there's always a field trip (although you might get a completely coincidental escort of twenty Guards following the class around Because Last Time). Palace tours are simple enough, and Sizzler doesn't necessary stick to the Lunar shift at all times: depends on who needs serving. Easy enough to have them meet, although getting the CMC away from the main group is trickier. Maybe the class goes into the kitchens during the tour and Sizzler has to explain the meat station (scare chord) to everypony? The Crusaders would naturally be intrigued by the idea of a once-per-generation mark, and clearly they've got next...
(Is this post-Gristle? Do you want to risk letting them loose in a butcher shop?)
Getting the meat. Unless you're going for serious Dark (which is your right), they're neither killers nor graverobbers. I can kind of see them trying trapping, snagging themselves a few times, and finally getting a small animal as a live catch -- which, with a single big-eyed look, guilts them into letting it go.
They could be lucky enough to stumble across a fresh animal corpse. Or maybe not-so-fresh. It's not as if ponies have all that much aptitude for gauging meat quality to begin with. If they're shopping... where do they get the bits? All Ponyville has is the pet store. Pinkie won't be happy about having Gummy's pantry raided again, with Rarity and AJ having things on lockdown automatically.
Owlowiscious? Can they make him understand that they need his leftovers, or an extra? How much guilt do they have there?
They need someone to serve their results to. Not one of the pets: they want vocal feedback. Ponyville visitor? Back to Canterlot and try to get into an embassy? Are they dumb enough to try it themselves?
And that's all potentially in the non-Dark version. If you go full-fledged black comedy, I could project all the way into war. Lots and lots of war. Oooh, so much war. The Treaty is ashes, the Princesses throw them into prison, and the last words before the trapdoors drop may be 'But y'don't understand! It was for somethin' important!'
@#$% it, now I want to make a blog post about this and get the group in on it -- but I won't without your permission.
Of course, if you really want to spread that misery around some more...
To which was answered:
Please feel free to use this crazy idea as a blog post. As I said, misery loves company, and company loves even more company. Quote any part of this corospondence you wish.
Along with:
But I can picture a bunch of diplomats sitting around, post Treaty War, all saying "I never thought it would be Ponies that broke the treaty." In front of a pair of very embarrassed Alicorn sisters...
[/hr]
So here's the request. Clearly this story has at least two obvious ways it could go: straight comedy and graveyard-on-Halloween-during-a-blood-moon comedy. I did a little bit of the former above. Some assistance on the latter would help in getting this thing all the way to bloody hilarious, and the former could definitely use some more hashing out as well.
How do you see BR potentially running with this concept? What sort of things could go into the story? Any ideas for scenes?
Note that beyond helping to work through this with anyone else who chimes in, I'm not writing this: Brumby Run prospectively is. The concept just, by mutual admission, needs a little more thought -- and gawds know we've all sort of written as a group before...
ETA: For those who haven't hit the appropriate story, the Treaty Of Menagerie basically says 'All those who consume meat pledge not to take it from any who talk or think.' (Two states which, as Luna notes, are often mutually exclusive.') In the local Equestria, meat supply uses the non-sapient monster species, which makes ranching into a very dangerous profession.
It would be amusing if the CMC ever met the princesses, if only because the princesses themselves (in main series canon, not sure about Tryptych) didn't get THEIR marks until they were already adults, according to Journal of the Two Sisters.
It's my belief that one or more of them, maybe all of them, are aware on some level that they are sabotaging themselves with the crusading -- and do it anyway because it gives them a convenient excuse to hang out as friends, and because it's fun. More to the point, if any of them ever got their Marks, they wouldn't be the CMC anymore, and they're not quite ready for that. Kind of like how Pinkie in one of your stories subconsciously sabotaged her own baking efforts so that she wouldn't have to move on from being the Cakes' apprentice.
2832604
Technically (and locally), Luna's met Scootaloo. I've just been keeping them all apart physically because, y'know, there's basically one level of authority left for the Crusaders to ignore and I've been saving it for a special occasion.
I have the Crusaders more as dragging each other down while sabotaging themselves as a group... but you bring up an interesting question about their dynamic. While they put on an outer show claiming that for any one member to earn their mark would justify the whole thing, the ideal goal could arguably be for the trio to have a triple manifest: one moment, three marks.
In one story comment, FanOfMostEverything described their internal sabotage as the Crusader Crab Bucket: if one looks to be on the verge of escape, the others pull them back down.
Is it really all or nothing? They can't truly believe they'll turn out to have identical talents, do they? A member who gained a mark while the others lagged behind... I can't see that pony drifting away: she'd stay and try to help the others make it. But how do the other two feel? Especially if First-Or-Nothing Scootaloo isn't the pony who gets there before the others?
A single or double manifest, leaving somepony behind -- something would happen to the group dynamics. And you just know someone's tried that story... but it doesn't mean it isn't worth attempting again.
The sisters and marks... all I can say for now is that in the Continuum, the contents of the Journal do not apply. Spectacularly.
Nah, easy way for meat-based mark. Grew up in Canterlot and was friends with a griffon. Was invited over for dinner (with a vegetarian options for him) and watched meat getting carved and cooked. Either boom right there, or asks for lessons and first time he makes a meal for his friend by himself, boom.
Regarding the CMC, I've run across stories where one gets a cutie mark earlier, but usually the rest get them by the end of the story. So it's a short term thing where the enthusiasm carries the one who got it to help the others.
Oh boy. If anypony's going to cause an international incident, it'd be those three. I'm finding it all too easy to picture them scooting down the slippery slope. Goodness knows they're masters of justification. ("Sure, it only comes once in a generation normally, but we're probably a special case!") And depending on the timeframe, there may be one person in Ponyville who might be willing to sample their attempt. Of course, even the Crusaders would at least think twice before taking Discord's advice.
...
Well, Sweetie Belle might, at least.
Still, I'd really rather not dive into the less pleasant scenarios here. This is looking disturbingly feasible as it is.
Thank you and curse you for sharing.
Somehow I doubt the CMC would try anything involving meat. They've got the same instinctive revulsion to it as most other ponies, right? And why would the CMC try to get a mark involving something they don't even like in the first place? On the off-chance that they did somehow earn a mark that way, it would mean working with meat for the rest of their lives. One of the reason Sizzler's got a mark for meat preparation is because he doesn't have that response or he's adapted to it, if I recall correctly.
I do wonder if there's an Equestrian equivalent of the Guinness Book of World Records. If so, would the CMC have an entry for "Most (failed) attempts to discover a Cutie Mark"? In the Tryptych continuum they'd certainly have one for property damage.
Quick question Estee: In the Tryptych continuum, can Cutie Marks ever change? Like if a pony went through a series of events that changed their fundamental nature so completely that they no longer resemble the pony that manifested the original Mark. A change even greater than Luna -> Nightmare Moon -- even after her transformation into an evil nightmare, Luna's Mark didn't change.
2833165
No. To the best of anyone's knowledge, marks are permanent.
Yes, I'm gonna have a lot of trouble with S5.
2833187
I take it you saw that teaser clip with the village full of ponies who all have an '=' sign as a Cutie Mark?
2833200
Regretfully.
*sigh*
There are times when the show's writers induce momentary thoughts of tearing it all down and starting over. And others when those thoughts are a lot more than momentary.
2833253 Sometimes, your head cannon requires you to take certain episodes to behind the barn and...ah, deal with them.
I suspect the Equalists episode is going to be the big one for Season 5.
2832796
Is that related to pony's Herd Instinct?
I'm pretty sure there was an episode where Apple Bloom was watching Big Mac fish, and I know that Rarity and Sweetie's dad goes fishing off the town dock when he should be watching them wreck the parade. So fishing is a possibility for the CMC.
2833556
It's closer to Tall Poppy Syndrome. Those who escape from bad situations will frequently face a 'How dare you!' from those who didn't make it -- along with attempts to keep them from getting out in the first place.
Oh, save me...
Celestia and Luna in Canterlot...
Cadance in the Crystal Empire...
And now Twilight's castle in Ponyville...
If they all are going to need to entertain dignitaries from meat eating nations, they will all need a chef to work their respective meat stations. It could well be that the next generation will spawn three marks...
That might be enough justification for the CMC to convince themselves that they could all get the same Mark.
How deep is this rabbit hole going to get? (Please don't kick me Angel...)
2833755
In Twilight's case, it's easier: unless the sisters are running a diplomacy test on her, she's seldom going to be hosting and in such cases, Canterlot is close enough to permit ready borrowing. Cadence has the real issue: the Empire (in many views) is still trying to reestablish ties to most of the planet and once everyone feels safe going up there, they're going to be throwing a lot of parties.
Of course, the practical solution is probably 'They hire griffons, don't they?' But try telling that to the Crusaders.
2832796
The idea of examining one of them getting their mark (for realsies, not just "HEY I GOT MY MARK" and then it being only one day, but actually, genuinely getting their mark) is an interesting one, and struggling with what it means.
And then, of course, them deciding it doesn't mean that it is the end of their crusading, much to the horror of their big sisters and the rest of the townsfolk.
IT NEVER ENDS.
2833200
You mean the Marksists?
Damn and blast. I think I am going to have to write this.
I have too many ideas for Fics that I want to write, and not enough time. But I have to do this one.
I'll be trying to keep it true to Estee's Tryptych continuum 'verse. Any mistakes will be mine. My writing style is somewhat different, but I hope to capture most of the flavour of the Continuum.
Unless something comes up, I'll make a start this weekend. It may take me a while...
Anyone willing to be
victimspre-readers? (I normally self edit, for this I think I need help.)2833253 Except they're the villains. (Probably) Just like Tirek is a villain, and the spell that switched everyone's marks clearly shouldn't have worked that way. There seems to be plenty of evidence marks can be changed, at least in limited ways but it is a very bad thing. Probably in a, you are at least bending if not breaking a fundamental rule of the universe, there will be consequences. It's just a matter of for who and if you're evil enough you might not care as long as it's not you personally. It's sort of like non-euclidean lovecraftian horrors, it's not that they absolutely can't exist, they just should be impossible, and really, really shouldn't exist, but unfortuneately do. Ways to alter cutie marks are the same.