Why are our fics My Little Pony?

This is an idea that has been in the back of my mind for a while now, and since I still don’t have any story ideas I suppose I will talk about this here.

Over my time on Fimfiction I have seen a lot. I've seen good stories, and bad stories, I’ve seen stories that make me furious just by the way they are written, and stories that elicit no reaction from me whatsoever. But lately I have had a thought, I have begun to wonder why we want to choose MLP and the world of Equestria as a platform for these stories to begin with.

Now let me make a disclaimer here. This is a highly opinionated look at how I view some of the things I see in pony fanfiction stories. If I happen to give an example of something that happened in a fic you know of or liked, please know I don’t mean to attack these stories or authors. This is my opinion, and you can disagree with it at your leisure if you choose. I would also like to avoid debating on this topic as I am not good at it and I don’t like such confrontation. You can make a comment saying how you disagree with me; if you do, I will read it but it is unlikely I will reply.

Equestria and the world of MLP is expansive and colorful, and does have a lot of room for great fanfiction to be written. However I believe stories also have to have a reason for being pony.

Think of it this way. If you write a story where ponies are constantly doing things like being on computers, driving cars, using guns, using smartphones or anything of that nature, I think you might need to ask why your fic is MLP in the first place. Using computers and driving cars are things that could really be more easily done with humans, or any anthro creature.

Yes, you can write an anthro fic, but that is a different topic entirely. You can also modify these items to be useable and acceptable in Equestria, but I feel that just creates more work for the author than they need to, especially since Equestria has alternatives. Instead of a computer, use a typewriter; instead of a car, have a carriage or some other wagon; instead of guns have spears or even crossbows; instead of having a smartphone, have a normal phone, or even a telegraph or two-way radio. Now I understand this is not applicable in every single circumstance, and if your story requires Twilight or whoever to be on the internet then you can’t replace a computer with a typewriter or a smartphone with a regular phone, but it’s still something to think about.

I feel like the idea and benefits for writing a pony fic are lost or devalued when a writer ignores the abilities they have opened up to themselves by making the fic pony-related in the first place. Why have a changeling shackle or tie up a pony when they can just stick their hooves down with changeling goo or put them in a cocoon? Why have Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy run through a forest when they can fly? Why have a unicorn character pick something up in their hoof when they can use magic? And so on. Again I understand that these alternatives are not applicable in all situations, but I have seen stories where stuff like this happens and where the story didn’t have any reason to not use the alternative way, and that’s what I am talking about.

My overall message here is that I think that to make a really great fic and to make it have purpose and all that, you have to do things in the fic that can only be done with MLP, that can only be done in Equestria. For example, a human can’t teleport themselves through a door or fly unless they had some superpowers. But Twilight and Starlight can. Or if a pony is being haunted by some kind of nightmare it would make complete sense to have Luna intervene and help that pony, which is very unique to MLP. I feel like an author should be able to make a great fanfic using what the show already offers canonically.

Now I am not trying to be some fanfic nazi saying “If you don’t write a fic this way it’s shit and you should be ashamed!” No, not at all. But what I am saying is that I personally believe these are the building blocks that are essential to making an immersive and organic ponyfic. Using what the show already offers, and using the pony-unique abilities that are opened to you by setting your fic in the MLP universe or Equestria.

That’s pretty much all I wanted to say. That topic has been bugging me for a while so It was good to finally get it off my chest. I have been trying to get the inspiration for a new fic but every time I get an idea it’s either NSFW or I don’t actually wanna work on it. I’am trying though, trust me. This blog today was actually made out of a desire to WRITE SOMETHING... So yeah.

Comments

[Daemon of Decay]

That goes all the way back to the beginning, when it would be a story about anthro, original characters on Earth who maybe happened to interest tangentially with another human with striped hair called "Rainbow" Dash. The further you get from the source material, the less it inherently ties into the show - and the more suitable it would be just to be original fiction.