Random Ramblings CCI · 7:29am Nov 1st, 2017
IN WHICH I SPOIL THE DARKNESS
Halloween is officially over, here in the Ozarks. I haven't trick-or-treated in probably 20 years. Part of that is because my father's birthday is October 31st, so that takes priority. Part of it is I'm boring as hell. Part of it is this is my ex's favourite holiday, so it's kinda painful. This year, I spent it with you, my loyal followers. More word-barf below!
So… yeah. Two stories in two days. I've never done that before and will almost certainly never do it again. That "Maud_Burrito" and ODNDAL posted within 24 hours of each other is actually coincidence -- October 30th was the first day I had free to get to the public library to access a computer on which I could easily format and edit "Maud", which had been sitting on this site completed for over a month. And once I got the crazy idea in my head last week to Ponify the 100%-mine dark story I was already working on, well, it just had to be posted on Halloween, didn't it?
Since ODNDAL went up, I've made several tweaks to it to improve its flow. So if you read the story within its first hour or two, please reread it; it should be much better now. I am the type who obsesses over every word. If I didn't, my work probably wouldn't get the reception it does (whether it deserves such praise isn't my call to make).
As many of my longtime readers know, I love inserting references into my stories. It makes me happy when readers notice them and point them out in the comments. Sadly, no one has yet done so except for Coffee, who semi-correctly caught a song reference in Maud's poem -- he thought I was referencing Weird Al, but I was actually referencing the artist Al parodied (kind of like how kids assumed the Flim-Flam Brothers' first song referenced The Simpsons when in fact both shows referenced The Music Man).
"Maud_Burrito" is only the second time I've ever tried to write Maud, and the first time I've ever posted my take on her here. Rereading the story after ignoring it for more than a month, thus seeing it from kind of an outsider perspective, I'm legit surprised at how funny Maud turned out. I'm honestly wondering if I should tag the fic as a Comedy. But my own style of humour IRL is deadpan, so maybe I'm the only one that sees it.
Seriously. She not only makes a pun about the different meanings of the word "pitch", does a stealth insult of a man's dead father and her own family in a single breath, she also references the classic song "Sixteen Tons". That means the story successfully fulfills my Burritoverse Rules -- (1) Insane internal monologue, (2) Song references, (3) The last word in the story is "What?". Also, at least one Dazzling appears. I don't know when Sonata started working at Beulah's, but it will become important later.
Uh, by the way, Marantz Goldbar is a thinly veiled pastiche of Eric Trump or Donald Jr. "Marantz" is, amongst other things, a Yiddish word for Orange. If you'll recall, Orangeglow - an obvious reference to The Donald - is dead in the EQG-verse thanks to Aria, but alive and in power in Equestria. The President of EQG -- or perhaps Über-Mayor, since I eventually plan to show that EQG is ONLY the city and some outlying areas (Camp Everfree is literally near the edge of its Universe) -- "Tightfist Bleedingheart" I think is meant to be John Kasich.
Anyway, on to my little horror story. It's basically what would happen within the Recovery Arc continuity if Rarity's brain was as fucked up as Sunset's. Rarity not taking rejection well is very much canon in MLP, but I brought that to its logical extreme and tied it in to my weird world.
Y'know, I didn't even realize until after ODNDAL posted… I wrote a story about Rarity and Sunset Shimmer without ever once naming either of them. That's gotta break some law of literature somewhere. I think even in Night Of Faded Sun, which is told entirely from Sunset's 1st-person POV, she name-checks herself. Rarity is talking to Sunset for a good chunk of the story but never calls her by name. I could probably give some literary theory bullshit as to why, but let's face it; the real reason must be I am a goddamn hack.
BUT, I still put in shout-outs!! During Rarity's final breakdown, she references both Queen ("Bohemian Rhapsody") and the Excel Saga anime. Sunset's bathroom cactus is named "Albert" -- this is a very obscure reference to Red Dwarf, one of my favourite shows of all time. "Marcie" is of course named for the eponymous character in Peanuts. Sunny's guitar "Mayfair" is, as I've said before, a reference to Nick Drake, whose music she plays when she's in a mood (see Exes Meet). I even make fun of MYSELF in this one -- in several stories, I've included the line "Somewhere off in the distance, a dog barked", which is a reference to the comic The Far Side; but in ODNDAL, I subverted my own convention by having the dog be right next to Rarity.
I really shouldn't have to say this but, half the things Rarity thinks once she's out of her home are completely and intentionally ironic. I.e. every time she gives advice on how to avoid crazy stalkers, which she herself is.
Lastly, Rarity's final line. In the original posted version, it was in English. But as I was tweaking the story to make it suck less, I decided to rewrite the line in French. I did this for two reasons: One, Rarity seems to me to be the type to do this, and Two, the original line was too close to the one I plan to use for the non-EQG version of this story.
As usual, this has gone on for way too long. Thanks for reading. Peace out!
I have to agree, putting references into a story is SO much fun, but it does make me crazy when no one comments on them because I can’t tell how many, if any people have noticed them. It gets tempting to point them out, but then I feel like that would lose the effect.
Also, I always find it intriguing when writers set the EQG world as it’s own universe. It would make sense though, since there ARE blue people and purple dogs walking around. I’ve never noticed, but does the show explicitly say if that world is supposed to be Earth or...?
Me personally, I treated Canterlot as a Gotham City type thing; not a real city, but it exists in our world, located “somewhere” in BC, Canada.
Why is the universe just that city?