Is This the Place We Used to Love? (Musings on Somewhere Only We Know) · 4:23am Jun 7th, 2015
Somewhere Only We Know just had its fourth anniversary and what the actual frickity frack, you guys.
When did that happen? Who allowed this? This story could go to preschool. This story could talk smack to me and draw pictures of itself. People who read this story in high school are in college now. The sands of time grow abrasive. Even now, I feel the claws of Father Time drag across my cheek as I the cold chasms of time whisp--
Ahem.
Pardon, I had a bit of nostalgic panic, there.
It's rather appropriate, though. I most often see this story referred to as a story about escapism. They're not wrong in that assertion (really, any interpretation of this story is correct, as I wrote it to be freely interpreted and a bit ambiguous) but escapism isn't... exactly what I think it is. Or at least, not what I think the crux of it is. Somewhere Only We Know is the sort of story whose relevance grows with time and nostalgia because the passage of time itself is the antagonist.
Yeah, there are humans here and they're jerks sometimes, but that's not what Dash is up against. Rarity or Applejack's new owners don't keep horses well, but none of it would be happening at all, if only the clock had stopped ten years ago. If only the business hadn't gone south, if only nobody had to be sold, if only things didn't have to change, then they could still be together. They could still be happy and young and healthy.
But they're not. So she has to deal with what's here, and this is how she does it.
Escapism is part of this story, certainly. I'm just not sure if it's the main thing. Because Dash's life in itself isn't bad. In fact, of the ponies we see, she's doing the best. Her human does try and kick her awake, but that's the worst of it (to be fair, Dash is an old horse and he was probably worried she was dead). What bothers Dash is her bum leg and her age, but even that's not that bad. Her situation isn't that bad, it's everyone else's and she wants her old one back. She's getting tired and I need somewhere to begin. She's getting old and she needs something to rely on.
Granted, that's also just my interpretation of it at the moment. My interpretations and opinions of this story fluctuate constantly. This is a Death of the Author story as far as I'm concerned. My opinion matters just as much as anyone else's.
Somewhere Only We Know is totally a songfic of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know". That's the inspiration, that's the tone, that's the backbone. That and a cheap St Elsewhere twist.
I never found this song comforting or heartwarming. It's bittersweet at best. The song isn't asking or telling, it's pleading to go back to a good, innocent time. It's coming to terms with the end of an era and not knowing where to go when you can't go back:
I came across a fallen tree/I felt the branches of it looking at me/Is this the place we used to love?/Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?
I once read a review that stated Somewhere was a story about Bronies. They were right, I think. A lot of people came to this show and stuck with this show because it reminded them of when they were younger. So many people delight at how similar it was to the cartoons of their heyday, about how little colorful equines offer them some respite from their own lives, or helped them with depression. Equestria is a sanctuary, it's a good, clean place to rest for a while, fostered by the fandom (especially the 2011 fandom, still in the warm glow of the honeymoon with everything new and happening and optimistic).
As for me, I was going through bad bouts of anxiety in the first half of 2011. It felt like the ground was slipping out from under me, but ponies and the people who loved them caught me before I fell. A welcome rest and a needed uptick to get back on my feet a lot of days. Looking back, I also realize that at the time, a deep chasm split thought my little group of friends. At the time of writing, two of my friends hadn't spoken to each other in half a year. I think Dash's desire to put her herd back together was my own. I mostly remember this because, in the middle of writing the rough draft, I received an IM that, long story short, resulted in mending friendships and the band getting back together.
I went into this thing blind. It went from concept, rough draft, final draft and edits, to EQD publication in a week. That is insane.
While I'm forever grateful to my readers and humbled by how many this story has touched or inspired them, this... really isn't my best story, I think. Partly because it was my first dip into ponyfic, but mostly because this wasn't a story I planned, this was a story I sneezed. As soon as the idea stuck, I flipped open a notebook and let 'er rip, no plan, no outline, nothing. Because the opening was written stream-of-consciousness, I didn't originally start out with Rainbow Dash in mind, it just kind of happened.
As a result, Rainbow doesn't sound like Rainbow at ALL in that first paragraph. Also that paragraph is too damn florid, even for me. Everything after that first paragraph was written over the course of two days, going slower with actual thought and not just running blindly in a field. The voice is a lot more authentic after Dash goes back to sleep, and that's because this time I went in knowing who was talking. I didn't realize the disconnect at all until a review pointed it out. It's also why I never put anything out anymore without running it by an editor. I still like the rest of the story just fine and forgive my mistakes. This was also meant to be an experimental piece and experiments yield various results. Still grouchy about it, though.
FAQ
Where Does This Story Take Place?
19th century America. Exactly where or when, I don't know because it doesn't really matter. Plus, Dash wouldn't know anyway because she's a pony.
What Happened to Twilight, Pinkie, and Fluttershy?
Twilight was bought by a doctor for his house-calls. She led a long, comfortable career before finally retiring to the barn where she still lives in relative peace a few states away. Pinkie spent time as a family pet, then a circus pony, then a pet again. Sadly, dead of colic.
Hey, you missed somepony! Where the heck is Fluttershy?
In universe answer:
Fluttershy died as a yearling, after she spooked and got into an accident. She's never brought up because it's too hard to think about. Dash can at least hope and imagine that her other friends were sold off to nice places, leading nice lives. There's no way to do that with Flutters, so she doesn't. It's also because it happened so far back that it's hard to remember (Dash even has trouble with Pinkie's name, if you recall).
Out of universe answer:
At the time, I had no way to easily write her in without breaking the flow. AJ and Rarity appear because they're easily described, with coats actual ponies and horses have. Twilight and Pinkie can easily be referenced in a line or two, and have names a real pony could have. Fluttershy... well, she has a character trait but a character trait alone isn't quite enough. At the time, I felt there wasn't a time or place to do with without feeling awkward.
It IS fully possible to do, thought. I found a way of adding her in a few months after Somewhere was published. However, I decided against it. Using Fluttershy in a story like this felt cheep. You want easy pathos? You want comment sections with "muh feelz" and crying gifs? Be mean to Fluttershy. I see no realistic result for an easily spooked pony in the 19th century that doesn't end tragically (knackers at best). But to say so would be pushing the story into overboard "feelz" and I approach my serious stuff with a light touch. I'm in the Less is More school of thought. Push too hard and the story becomes hard to take seriously because it's so overwrought.
That and (besides grammar edits) I don't like changing stories after they've gone up. I'd rather it just stand as it is.
This was inspired by Black Beauty, wasn't it?
Not on purpose. Rarity's bearing rein was a shout-out, but that was it. Horses or ponies having a hard time is gonna draw Sewell parallels no matter what you do, first of all. As the book that helped kickstart animal welfare as a concept, it sort of comes with the territory.
That said, yeah the book snuck itself in there while I wasn't looking. It was still pretty fresh in my mind, as I'd only just read it for the first time a few months ago. I'd seen the movie, so I figured I knew what I was in for and it wouldn't be so bad. Turns out, knowing what was coming made the book a million times worse because you just know it's all downhill from here.
If anything, the likely comes from what I found the saddest part of the book and strongly influenced the scene with Applejack. No, it's not the one you're thinking of.
It's just one line: I could not say "good-by", so I put my nose into his hand
It's a small, inconsequential line but the powerlessness of it, combined with knowing what was to come later... yeesh. Even thinking of it still gets to me. He can't change his circumstances, he can't control where he goes or how anyone treats him, he can't even tell the people he loves that he loves them. He can only do his best.
So, the bit where Dash nuzzles Applejack's neck, yeah that was Beauty too.
Random Fun Facts:
- I didn't intend to write a Sad story. A few have stated that they don't think it's sad so much as it is contemplative or a thought experiment. They're right, that's exactly what this story is. It just also happens to be pretty sad and we don't have a Drama tag so Sad is the tag that fits best. Also because if I didn't have that tag people would eat me alive for misleading them. Plus, since these things go up after hours of emotionless editing and drafting, I honestly forget the emotional stuff running through my own work is there. Diamond and a Tether didn't have a Sad tag either, at first.
- Some of you may think the humans in this story are overly cruel. Let me assure you, I consciously pulled back on this story. I pulled back a lot. Reality for a 19th century horse was way, WAY worse.
- I apparently once made someone cry himself to sleep with this story. They may well have been exaggerating, but I like to think it was literal because sometimes when I doubt my writing abilities I'll just remember I made someone cry himself to sleep with my horsewords and feel better. c:
- Apparently, even the Rainbow Dash Presents version of this story still makes people sad. I don't know if that's because the premise of this story is just inherently sad or because it didn't go off the rails enough. On the flip side, it makes me laugh a hell of a lot. I've never been able read the sentence where Dash hurts her leg seriously ever again because of this:
- I'm so happy this story exists. It means a lot to a lot of people, and for all its issues it's still a darn good story. Best of all, it helped introduce me to my best friends in the fandom.
Uhhhhh. I swear I had more planned for this retrospective, but that's all I can think on at the moment. I'll leave the floor open for questions and wild conspiracy theories.
I've always loved this story. It was the first fanfiction I ever read, and it inspired me to read more and write my own. Thank you for writing it.
This was one of the stories that got me into fan-fiction. I went to ponyfictionarchive.net and read the stories on the Recommended list (which never changed in 3 years). It may have been the first fan fiction I ever read.
It struck me powerfully. (I was a little let down when I read more stories. Like the time I was in a Borders and grabbed two graphic novels off the shelf at random, just to see what they were like, and picked Watchmen and the first Sandman.) It started me off thinking of fan-fiction as serious writing from the beginning. For that, I thank you.
I enjoyed the rainbow dash presents version, but I am neverreading your original, because I am afraid of crying and sadness. How is that for escapism? But thank you for writing it. It's cool that such an early member of the fandom is still around.
3128923 I still need to read those two series.
The issues you point out are there, but I maintain this is one of the few 2011 stories that could be published today, and still work. (Off the top of my head, I can think of just one 2011 story I would call better, and that is Bubbles.) I was just on a couple of Everfree Northwest panels, and was fully prepared to list it as one of those stories that have stood the test of time. Things that don't have staying power vanish quickly in the Internet age, so it's a testament that this one is still considered a classic.
This story's origin speaks to the fact of writers being exorcists of their own demons. The sadder the work, the sadder the author at the time of writing. Thank goodness for art's ability to carry us through those times.
Somewhere Only We Know is 1 of my favorite stories. It inspired me to read Black Beauty. When I read about the abuse and Death of Ginger, ¡it hit me that Applejack will soon die a terrible death! It hit me like a ton of bricks. All of the ponies suffer terribly in SOWK. Reading SOWK lead me to read BB which got me to research the dreaded Checkrein:
The checkrein started of as a safety-device. If a ponies lower their heads too low they trip over their own reins. A checkreins adjusted so that ponies cannot lower their heads below horizontal, it is a good thing. Unfortunately, some vicious apes decided that ponies are more pretty with sigmoidal necks. The bad apes adjust the checkreins so they are so tight that the ponies have trouble breathing, are in horrible pain, and suffer permanent neck-damage. ¡Poor Rarity!
Sneezing a story out in only a week, huh? I think there's something to be said for stories that, instead of being slowly constructed, flew straight through the mind and onto the page. This story may have flaws, but it's also a powerful story, and you're the only one who could have written it.
I think there's something to be said for "sneezing out" a fic (love that metaphor, by the way) versus planning one out and then executing it by following the plan. It's almost more... organic, more natural. More alive. Certainly more fun to write.
Reading this post reminded me a lot of my experience with Old Friends; I sneezed that out in a day, I didn't mean for it to be Sad and really couldn't tag it well, it was more of an experiment... etc.
I like to think I was in good company; following in your footsteps, as it were.
3128923
On the one hand, laziness. On the other hand, Somewhere Only We Know should always be recommended.
A lot of people seem to pick this story out as one of the first (or even the first) they read that made them see how good ponyfic could be. Unoriginal guy that I am, I'm one of them. I don't think the flaws you identify really matter all that much as far as the fic's enduring power goes. I agree with Horse Voice: it's all the more remarkable for being a 2011 story that still has that power. (Bubbles is the other one I'd pick out, too.)
Interesting comment about "sneezing out" a story. In my own lesser way, I've also found that: the fic of mine that's turned out to be the most successful was largely written in a single evening. I suspect this may not be coincidental; that stories like that often do have a particular vitality to them. At any rate, Somewhere Only We Know certainly has that, even all these years on. I'm grateful to have been given the chance to have read it.
Somewhere Only We Know was the reason I joined FIMFiction. Just so you know.
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Aww son, Bubbles! That was MY first real ponyfic back in the day. I think that was one I read before S1 ended, somewhere between the premieres of Dog and Pony Show and Cutie Mark Chronicles, and that was the one that really made me sit down and realize there was really something to these here horsewords and maybe I wanted to also write horsewords. It's very rare written prose, fic or not, will actually make the eyewater and Bubbles... well, technically Bubbles didn't either, I wibbled at the audio reading.
Close enough.
Oh! That reminds me! Somewhere got a decent audio reading a little while ago:
I find it interesting that I never noticed that side of what made me write that story until years after it was published. Stuff comes out in ways you don't quite expect or recognize. Not to mention that I think you never quite read a story the same way twice. Either way, I think this might explain why I tend to get really down in the mouth when I haven't made words for a while. It was months between Last Human and Diamond and a Tether and I remember as soon as I had my bearings and my pen hit paper it was like "AT LAST. My arm is complete again!"
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Yeah, sneeze stories are rarely technically perfect but almost always strong and powerful. And certainly worthwhile. I don't get them very often, since that's a case of the muse just possessing you for a couple hours and it's weird mystical magical hoopajoop. It happens maybe once every five years or so. It also has a tendency to shove me back into the writing game after being out of it for a long time.
3128937
Yep, been here since the very beginning!
3129027
Yep. Sad cart pony elsewords aside, I always thought of an Equestrian check rein being the equivalent of a corset. If I can manage to write it in with out being awkward, I'd definitely like to use the idea in a beauty pageant fic I have in the wings.
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Amusingly, this is the only EQD published story that doesn't link back to FimFic because it predates it by a month or two.
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You're both very welcome.
And I know that feel, Bad Horse. I started out in graphic novels the same way and as a result I'm obscenely picky.
3129027
3131322 I'll take a rain check on the check rein, please.
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Okay, but if you use your pony for drafting, you must be careful not to let the pony trip over the reins. The checkrein is not bad, if used only for keeping the neck from dropping beneath vertical; but sadly however, sadists use it for pulling back the head so that the pony chocks, is in pain and causes permanent neck-damage.
I would not know any of this if I did not read SOWK, which lead to BB, which lead to research. PatchWorkPoltergeist inspired all of this.
Post Scriptum:
You can read BB here:
Black Beauty
3131322
You can get that changed, just send them an email and they'll do it.
This was pretty much my experience. I was going through a rough patch in early 2013, and a friend who I didn't know was into it offered me some pony.
And the first one's always free.
This story remains in that special place it carved out in my heart years ago, and I expect it will remain there for a good while longer.
Thank you for broadening the horizons of pony for so many people.