Writing Twilight's World - Part 5. · 7:04am May 27th, 2015
The Plot Never Taken.
You may not have noticed, but I am trying to write Twilight's World as a Science Fiction story. Rather than treating Twilight as a cartoon character from a cartoon universe I am trying to write her as a real flesh and blood being coming from her own (real) universe. She just happens to be that person we have come to know and love from the MLP television shows.
Do any of you wonder about some of the obvious Science Fiction ideas and issues I never touched on in my story? Here's a list of some of those things.
1) Pathogens and disease: This is a natural idea because Mike and Twilight would have no immunity to each other's pathogens. Sure, diseases do not easily jump across species but sometimes they do.
The reason I have not used this idea in my story is simply because so far it would simply get in the way of telling my story. So, unless my wandering plot-line opens up some room for a bit of medical drama, I can't be bothered with any illnesses.
2) Incompatible biochemistry: A common trope in Sci-Fi is the alien's biochemistry has the wrong Chirality. In other words the alien is made up of left-handed molecules while all life here on earth is made up of right-handed molecules. Twilight would be immediately be faced with starvation, while surrounded by delicious looking foods. This is the idea behind that 'Levulose' diet sugar. Your body simply cannot absorb and metabolize those left handed sugar molecules. Besides, it hear it can give you the runs.
It would be a very sad story indeed, to write about Twilight slowly losing her strength day by day. Tormented by vicious hunger pangs even as she stares at the Cakes and Bread Mike is able to eat. And when she breaks down and does eat his food, she must endure debilitating digestive 'cleansings'.
Nah. That story is way too sad for me, not going there.
3) Toxic reactions: In chapter three, I had Mike give Twilight some 'Aspirin'. Well giving human drugs to animals is not always safe. What works fine on humans can sometimes kill the animal. Did you know that caffine and a related substance 'taffine' found in chocolate is toxic to dogs? Who is to say that common 'Aspirin' would not be toxic to magical ponies.
I have no excuse for ignoring this. I simply got caught up in my writing and had written the full chapter before I remembered I had wanted to explore this very point. After having written that chapter, I did not want to go back and rewrite it. So Twilight ended up getting a free pass.
4) Lactose Intolerance: Nah, it's not a Sci-Fi trope. But I just have to throw it in there. You do realize that a majority of the world's population (not being White Caucasians) are lactose intolerant to some degree or other. They can drink Milk as children, but as they get older they become intolerant.
Here's an interesting story. When the Vikings first landed in North America some 800-900 years ago their colonies did not last very long. An interesting speculation I read was that they shared some Milk and Milk-products with the aboriginal natives. (perhaps the original Thanksgiving feast). Those natives got very sick within a few hours and concluded their new neighbors had tried to poison them. Scratch one Viking colony.
The point I am trying to make is that I see no reason for Ponies to have included Milk in their diet as a supplementary food source. The majority of humans did not manage it, so why assume the ponies did?
They have all that lovely hay to much on − so who needs Milk beyond what their mother provided.
And then it starts getting creepy when you think of where they would need to get the extra Milk from. They would need to get the Milk, lots and lots of Milk from Sentient cows and goats. Did you know that a cow (or any mammal) needs to give birth before it can produce Milk? After a period of time the cow 'dries up'. The cow must give birth again to restart its Milk production.
“Moo-ella, would you consider getting knocked up again? The Ponies want more Milk.” Just. Too. Creepy.
5) Allergies: Personally I subscribe to the theory that most allergies are a result of our 'bubble wrap' society. Children are kept clean and isolated from environmental allergens at a crucial stage in life during which their immune systems should be learning to recognize those very things as being 'normal'.
Anyway, I'm not here to rant about theories. It would not be too far fetched to have Mike become allergic to Twilight (You know, like a dog or a cat allergy). But I don't think I will do this however as it would add nothing to the current story.
- - -
Well that's all I have to say for now. I am currently working on chapter seventeen (17) and its about two thirds done. In the last few days the writer's block has eased up considerably. I think I've finally found the 'path' I was looking for which allows this chapter to progress the story.
Faaaaacts! Where have you learned all this I knew very little of this
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Fact. I am older than your average Brony.
I have decades of accumulated experience and education.
Not to mention the things I learned from reading a lifetime's worth of Science Fiction.
3636790 I guess that explains it .__.
I strongly disagree with what you've said about milk.
1. Yes, inability to digest lactose as adults is common among many peoples. But they deal with it by fermenting milk — some sour milk products have no lactose left, some contain enzymes that break it up. Many cheeses fall into the former category.
2. Yes, the common way to make a cow lactate is by making her have a calf. That way the farm gets more meat or another cow to milk. But any mammal, no matter male or female, will eventually start to produce milk after being sucked regularly. I've seen kittens do that to a male cat.
3. Cheese sandwiches do appear in the show.
4. A single cowhouse in Ponyville had enough lactating cows to produce several tonnes of milk on a short notice in one episode. I don't think they had enough calves to drink it all.
It's safe to assume ponies do consume milk products and cows sell their milk :) What puzzles me is what pigs do. They laze around in mud and don't seem to do anything. The only thing they can give is bristles.
P.S. By the way, aspirin is present in some herbs, that have been used as weak anti-inflammatories for centuries. If I'm not mistaken, it works on horses more or less like it does on humans. My head canon is that the similarity of plants and animals is not coincidental, but is a result of some exchanges in the past (or one world is a derivative copy of the other :) ), thus biochemistry is no more different than between Eurasia and North America. Maybe ponies did discover acetylsalicylic acid and use it too.
3797936 Thank you for your post.
I guess you really do learn something new everyday. (Referring of course to male lactation. (Yuck.) )
Check out my user page - a number of the points you have brought up are similar to a discussion I recently had with 'Sun Sage'. But some of your points were new, so I'll touch on them here.
1) Lactose Intolerance can be moderate to severe. In the severe forms - even Yogurt, Cheese and other fermented-milk products can induce a severe reaction.
1a) In my story - I have accepted that ponies are regular milk/milk-product consumers.
2) The normal hormonal rush that results from gestation is the only practical way to induce lactation on a large scale. I suppose farmers could sit around milking dry cows on a regular basis - trying to induce lactation. But I don't think the cows would cooperate very well.
2a) I will concede however, that if external stimulation can accomplish this feat - then magic should easily be able to do so as well.
3) Yes. Cheese has come up in several episodes of MLP.
4) The MLP show has a huge disconnect from reality. That milking scene was written as humor.
4a) Consider how much time it takes to milk a cow - some 5 to 10 minutes. Twilight pulled out liters (or quarts) from a cow in a few seconds. "Ouch!"
4b) Average daily milk yield from a modern milk-cow is about 21 quarts a day. That implies there were several thousand cows in that cowbarn. That sort of implies the milk-extraction time per cow was measured in milli-seconds. That in turn implies Twilight abused those cows terribly. I will not believe such things about Twilight. Nope - that scene was written as a joke.
5) Applejack's pigs have puzzled me too. I suppose they would be good for sniffing up truffles. But maybe she keeps them as an act of charity (feeding them the rotten/wormy apples.) But rotten/wormy apples could also make good compost - so that theory does not hold up too well.
6) Medications can sometimes work very differently on different species.
Example: Strychnine is a deadly poison to mammals. Birds however can eat it with impunity.
Example: Caffeine is poisonous to dogs and cats, but Humans can consume it in large quantities (though not without being affected by it).
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2. Yes, stimulation is impractical in real life.
4. Good point about thousands of cows. Every building in the show is much bigger on the inside than on the outside. Magic, I guess :) It's sad so few fanfiction authors play with this.
I imagine the milking was parallel rather than sequential. But those moos sounded more like surprise than pain. Magic :)
Or maybe Twilight didn't milk any cows and just took the milk stored from the evening milking. And cows just mooed in surprise.
6. Yes, human drugs may be dangerous to animals. Paracetamol is lethal to cats, for example, and aspirin isn't much better. But if Twilight is anything like Earth horses, aspirin is safe. Of course, giving it was reckless :)
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4) I was actually thinking about how dairy farmers store a week's worth of production in refrigerated vats.
But I will credit you for taking that thought to it's logical (and reasonable) conclusion - the cows were surprised to see several week's worth of milk being stolen.
(The milk scene in the MLP 'Boast Busters' episode is accompanied by actual 'milking noises'. So again I say the scene was too unrealistic - even for 'magic'.)