Thought Dissection 3: Dissect Thoughts With a Vengeance · 9:08pm Jan 26th, 2016
It's been a few months since the last one of these, and I have several ideas clamoring in my mind for my attention. So, once again, I'm asking for your input on what ideas you'd like to see me focus on. Read on to see the list.
Writeoff Entries
The following are already written in some form or another; they just need expansion and polishing, though that may still entail a fair amount of work.
Anything and Everything: The Cutie Mark Crusaders try to make paella and nearly destroy Equestria.
Explainer Horse: Book Horse has to give a talk at Leader Sun Horse's School for Very Good Pointy Horse Thinkers, but can only say the ten hundred words humans use most often.
The Flu Blues: What happened to Rarity and Applejack after Discord infected them with a fictitious disease?
Iron Burden: Iron Will is called back across the Saddlantic to the kingdom of Minos, where he must face the obligations he tried to escape.
Time Enough for Friendship: As Twilight explores her new palace, she meets a very unexpected guest. Star Swirl the Bearded is sitting in her throne, and has a confession to make.
Partially Written Stories
I have some fleshed-out bits of these stories, but other parts are nothing more than an outline.
A Fragile Shell: The tragedy of Señor Huevos, a humble sock of Doodleburg.
One Day I Found a Multiverse in My Pajamas: Sequel to Oversaturation. Ditzy Doo gets knocked out of her home worldline by a magical shockwave and has to navigate probability space to find her way back.
(And yes, the chapter title will be "How It Got in My Pajamas, I'll Never Know.")
Ponies' Verses: Ungula story. A record of planeswalker activity in Equestria before the Mending, recorded in iambic tetrameter by Princess Prudence XXXVII.
Rerouted: My entry into ocalhoun's big contest, based on Undeliverable. After ten years, Dinky Doo decides to do something about her mother's disappearance, with or without the Doctor's help.
Time and Yuletide: At Discord's prompting, Twilight probes into the history behind Hearth's Warming. The deeper she goes, the more questions she raises...
Concepts
These are basically outlines at the moment.
Go Froghemoths!: Canterlot High and Ravnica High are the biggest rivals in Hassenfeld County. (Far more so than with Crystal Prep; CHS wins some of these games.) The upcoming soccer match is sure to make sparks fly, especially after the events of the Fall Formal a few weeks ago.
Molecular Gastromancy: Sequel to Buyer's Remorse. As part of her apology, Picky Pepper got Rarity a table for two during the opening of the next big Canterlot restaurant. There are just a few complicating factors: The only friend free during opening night is Applejack, and the owner and head chef of the restaurant is Mr. Flankington, whose cuisine both Ponyville natives remember vividly.
(Yes, Estee's Mr. Flankington. Needless to say, this won't be Triptych Continuum-canon.)
One Last Job: Rocky's a Diamond Dog whose mouth and paws get him out of slightly more trouble than they get him into. He forms part of the world's greatest crime syndicate, as do Madame le Flour, a griffin expatriate from the Prench Alps; Lintsalot, a disgraced knight of Avalamb; and the genius donkey known only as Mr. Turnip. Their mysterious Boss has come personally to direct their final caper.
Sideboard of Harmony Stories
Hey, I did say I'd try to get some of these in after wrapping up Friendship is Card Games.
The First Demon: Tirek is... different in this worldline. Very different.
Friendship is Well-Armed: Ditzy single-hoofedly takes down Nightmare Moon. Then things start getting weird.
Her Name is Maud: Pinkie realizes she has a third sister and investigates the anomaly.
Musical Manaliths: The long-overdue rendition of Rainbow Rocks, now with far more irate Agent Heartstrings.
Twilight Sparkle's Lonely Marks Club Band: The even more long-overdue Ungula edition of "Magical Mystery Cure."
Where Parallel Lines Converge: Ditzy discovers Our Town during a cross-country delivery. Things go downhill rapidly from there.
Usual affair. Just tell me which ones catch your interest. (And no, I don't plan on getting back to My Little Praetor in the immediate future.)
I would like Explainer Horse: A Horse Explains Things In Small Words.
Explainer Horse
A Fragile Shell
Molecular Gastronomy, only make it about cuisine as a whole and forget about the circle-jerking.
...And if I had to choose from the final section, it'd be 'The First Demon'.
Of the four, Explainer Horse and Molecular Gastronomy are top.
If I had to choose between the two, probably Molecular Gastronomy.
Can't pick one. There are six Sideboard of Harmony options, so roll a d6 and there's my vote. Or whatever would have the most Sunset Shimmer in it.
Iron Burden, Time Enough, Verses, Yuletide, One Last Job, and First Demon are the ones catching my attention.
I like The Blue Flues, Time Enough for Friendship, and Time and Yuletide.
Explainer horse
The flu blues
One last job
...and pretty much ALL of the sideboard entries :P
Of them all, One Last Job is at the top of my list.
Ponies' Verses and Multiverse in my Pajamas. Because both sound good and are closer to being done.
Has to be Molecular Gastronomy for me. I'm a big fan of the character (I'm a chemist myself) and of Estee's work in general. I can only imagine it will be awesome.
I am simply aghast to see this, sir! You forgot your closing parenthesis!
I think I'll try to pick one from each category...
Anything and Everything: The multiverse needs more of the CMC, even if it might not survive it.
Ponies' Verses: I'm a sucker for your planeswalker stories. Having it be in verse is an interesting complication, too. (Multiverse in Pajamas was a close second, though.)
Go Froghemoths!: I haven't seen anyone do anything with Ravnica High yet, and I have good feelings about this one!
Twilight Sparkle's Lonely Marks Club Band: I am very much looking forward to your take on Twilight's ascension. Hope it goes better than Xenagos's.
Hmmm....."Parallel Lines Converge" or "Friendship Is Well-Armed"? Both sound awesome and scary.
Most interested:
Explainer Horse
Multiverse in Pajamas
Ponies' Verses
Anything and Everything
Less interested, but still mentionable:
Time and Yuletide
All the Sideboard stories
Rerouted
Sad to say, but I'd like to see any of the Planeswalker stories. I can't get enough with how you mix Ponies with MtG.
Iron Burden is my first vote.
One Day I Found a Multiverse in My Pajamas is my second vote.
Friendship is Well-Armed is my third vote.
All the Concepts were good, I just couldn't choose
Ones that pique my interest, in no particular order:
One Day I Found a Multiverse in My Pyjamas
Ponies' Verses
Go Froghemoths!
And all the Sideboard of Harmony ones.
I look forward to all of these, especially One Last Job.
Will the third-person omniscient narrator of Explainer Horse be talking the common words too?
I have been struck with a sudden epiphany: the title of Quiet Boy and Moon Horse was influenced, at least subconsciously, by Explainer Horse's recent Writeoff appearance. (I don't think I stole anything else, but the catchiness of the title definitely jabbed at my brain.)
You should totally get Time Enough For Friendship edited so that I can co-release Time Enough For Love at the same time and we can featurebox together. (Not that they're related, just because the title convergence amuses me.) Other than that, I don't have strong opinions.
First choice: One Day I Found a Multiverse in My Pajamas
Second choice: Where Parallel Lines Converge
Third choice: Rerouted
Backup choices: The First Demon; Friendship is Well-Armed; Her Name is Maud
Honourable mention: Explainer Horse (I chuckled, partially due to getting the reference, partially due to the inherent humour of "Pointy Horse Thinkers")
I think I would enjoy Explainer Horse entirely too much. Don't do it. Do it.
The premise of Time Enough for Friendship sounds familiar, but I can't remember from where.
ODIFaMiMP sounds hilarious; do that.
Since I'm a sucker for crossovers, Go Froghemoths! also gets my vote.
And of course you know I enjoy FiMtG, so anything to do with it is good in my book, but to keep my input within sight of helpfulness, I'll pick my
twothree favorites: Her Name is Maud, The First Demon, and Friendship is Well-Armed (I tried to pick just two, but I couldn't)A Multiverse In My Pajamas sounds fantastic, I'd love more Oversaturation content. Explainer Horse comes a close second.
In order down the list;
Time Enough for Friendship: I always look for more Starswirl material, and I don't think I've seen your take on him yet.
One Last Job; This was on your previous list and is a refernce to something else I like. I can't remember the reference, because someone else had to point it out to me before I saw it and I still can't see it on my own and I've forgotten what it was, but I do remember it's a refernce to something else I like and I really enjoy crossreferences to things I like. Most people just call them "crossovers".
Her Name is Maud; Because I like Maud and Pinkie interaction and I want to see more octopus hats. Will there be octopus hats? This might not be Kamigawa but octopus hats seem like something Pinkie would do anywhere.
Twilight Sparkle's Lonely Marks Club Band; Because I want to see how this goes down after Twlight became one with mana and with a junior Void Mage trotting around.
Explainer Horse!
... Can I link to it for people who don't know the hilariousness of Explainer Horse?
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Feel free.
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Okay! Also had a link to your story list there too...
Explainer Horse!: http://writeoff.me/fic/1352-Explainer-Horse
The rest of FOME's Writeoff Stuff: http://writeoff.me/artist/195/scores
Explainer Horse, Her Name is Maud, and Time Enough For Friendship seem really interesting.
Found a Multiverse and Ponies' Verses are tied for my top pick. On the one hand, Magic-playing Ditzy Doo on her own Drunkard's Walk; on the other hoof, an already-partly-written Ungula story.
The answer for me is anything with Agent Heartstrings.
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You may have just given me the idea I needed to tie a story together.