Story update and ideas for future fanfics · 12:41pm Oct 23rd, 2019
I'm making progress on the next chapter of “Earth Ponies Are Blessed With Suck,” and I'm going to try to finish it by the end of the month. After that there will be one more chapter, unless it goes longer than I expect.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed that the sequel hasn't gotten anywhere near as much attention as the first one. I mean, I didn't expect it to get as many views since traffic is down all over the site compared to three and a half years ago, when I first uploaded “Earth Ponies Are Overpowered.” Still, it's weird that “A Series Ends” got more views, likes, and comments than “Earth Ponies Are Blessed With Suck.” I suppose the timing for “A Series Ends” was better – I posted it days before the final episodes aired. I wonder if I waited so long to write the sequel to “Earth Ponies Are OP” that the interest was no longer there. It's also possible that some of the readers who loved the first two chapters of EPAOP didn't like the ending, which made them not want to read any more of my fanfics. Granted, I know there were plenty of people who did like the ending, but it was very much a base-splitter.
Don't get me wrong – I'll still finish EPABWS, but I still feel like whining and speculating about why it isn't getting as many views as I wanted.
Aside from that, I do have a couple of short fanfic ideas that I've been kicking around:
“Death and Discord” – When Princess Twilight loses someone dear to her, Discord takes a quick jaunt to the afterlife to get this pony back. The only problem is that he gets the wrong pony. (Comedy)
“The Secret Life of Equestrian Pets” – The animals of Equestria have always seemed intelligent, but there are few speaking creatures besides Fluttershy who realize how smart they really are . . . Until Angel, fed up with being treated like chattel, leads a revolt, with Fluttershy as his reluctant spokespony. Not a crossover.
...Falls in line with an old fanfic idea of mine:
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But yeah, animal intelligence in Equestria has always stumped me.
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Those critters could probably go "Planet of the Apes" if left to their own devices.
In fact, I think we've seen the middle-step between "animal" and "citizen of a civilization" here:
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"Discord takes a quick jaunt to the afterlife to get this pony back"
Works as a comedy, yes.
Though what about a serious approach? What, if going to and coming back from the afterlife wasn't trivial - but Discord might just be able to pull it off? Could be a mix of high stakes heist / adventure, where Discord has to combine everything in his book (and Twilight's library) to pull off a stunt like this, at the risk of never coming back himself.
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It is interesting to think about. Discord clearly resurrected Sombra from the dead, but is there a reason he doesn't do it all the time? What if there are rules and restrictions? Discord could literally cheat death, possibly by putting his own existence at risk to raise the stakes. I'll have to ponder this idea.
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Well... I'm not sure if Sombra was actually dead.
The fandom certainly didn't seem to think so, in earlier seasons. The way I understand it, Sombra was already immortal. Sombra's horn survived. His body was made of smoke. Eventually magic happened and he came back, that's how it went in most pre-season 9 fanfics.
I figure Discord just took what was there and accelerated the process. Don't remember what exactly he said in the s9-premiere, but if he used the word "revived" or "brought back" than there's still room for how that can be interpreted. Heck, one could even go so far as to distinguish if Sombra's spirit moved on or not and if it didn't (Sombra might have been into some form of necromancy?) that'd be make it much, much easier for Discord to bring him back.
Yeah. It'd feel more... believable, in terms of creating a sense of making the world feel "real", if that was actually hard, even for Discord.
After all, we've seen Discord de- or over-powered before. (Tirek's betrayal, Chrysalis' throne, Grogar's bell, Elements of Harmony) There are definitely things that can stop him.
I imagine Discord might even need help from Twilight - or possibly, just need the help to raise his chances. (Possibly without her knowing what exactly he wants at first, but going along with it.)
alarajrogers even wrote a scene in one of her stories (can't remember which one) referencing Discord having to claw his way back out of the afterlife after getting killed himself, in his younger years - and didn't exactly portray that as a simple task. She's really good at writing limitations for Discord's powers in believable ways; she can even write fight scenes with Discord that aren't one-sided, and aren't just "energy beam, Discord snaps his claw, energy beam, Discord snaps his claw, energy beam". ...Though unfortunately, her taste for darker themes and tragedy (as featured in the linked chapter) isn't exactly my thing.
FanOfMostEverything wrote something interesting.
...Okay, I realize that statement is tautological, but I mean to say that it's topical.
On an unrelated note, what is your opinion on everybody so far flat out assuming any reformation for the villains could only take place decades in the future, thus removing those characters from interacting with present-day Equestria?
[/subtle statement of own opinion]
Trying to come up with a fic to fix that. No clue if I'll get anywhere with the idea in bounded time, I'm not a quick writer.
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I just finished reading FOME's new fic and loved it.
It is odd that everyone seems to assume that Trio of Evil will be unstoned in the far future. I guess that makes it more dramatic for the former villains, but personally, I'd give Twilight a year before she turns them back to flesh and blood and offers them a better way. Just because we didn't see them in "The Last Problem" doesn't mean they weren't unstoned and reformed.
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I know right?
The way everyone jumped to the conclusion I almost assumed they must've shown their statue in the future - but I went back and checked, nope.
The problem is, if this keeps up, this will calcify as the accepted fanon.
And I'd hate to stop seeing "contemporary" stories for these characters interacting with the ponies we know.
There is so much potential for slice-of-life, or even adventure with those three trying to integrate into normal society, it'd be a shame to squander that.
...Then there's the fact one of them's a filly, seeing Celestia turn her to stone when she was helpless and beaten, without any offer of mercy was already jarring enough - I can buy a "heat of the moment" snap decision spurred on by Discord's suggestion and Chrysalis' continued aggression... but keeping her like that for longer than her entire previous lifetime?
Geez! She's not a thousand-year old immortal who has experience with these time spans! She'd be lucky to be able to still walk if she was stuck like that for decades, let alone fly!
Not to mention the fact that they almost reformed each other, without even outside help. No canon villain before has ever done that.
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If only Chrysalis wasn't too afraid to admit her mistakes.
You know what could drive the point home even more? Using that body-swap potion again. Having Angel suddenly look and talk like a pony would be an eye opener to some; especially, if Angel slips the body-swap potion into an unsuspecting pony's drink (that somepony being their biggest "political opponent" for improved animal rights) to show them just what it's like.
Equal rights for animals!
...And that's how Angel Bunny became the first bunny to enroll at the school of friendship:
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(Could also be something for his kids in the future.
)
Actually... fun story idea:
Remember this scene?
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Here's the follow up:
Actually, "She Talks to Angel" revealed something shocking about Angel Bunny: He's never really had anyone else to talk to other than Fluttershy his whole life.
Not other animals, not other ponies. I guess there is an intelligence / interests / communications gap.
Fluttershy is his only friend. No wonder he gets upset when she suddenly has less time for him.
Let me repeat that. In a world running on friendship, Angel Bunny. Only. Has. ONE. Friend.
And leading up to that episode, with Fluttershy having less and less time for him, he felt like his only friend was abandoning him.
...yeah, I can see Angel seeing Starlight as a kindred spirit.
If he'd been born a unicorn, he'd have gone and pulled a Starlight by now.
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That is an interesting idea, but I was thinking of writing a story that focused as much on Fluttershy as it does on Angel. Flutters cares about the physical wellbeing of animals, but she doesn't always understand their emotional and mental needs. She sees the animals, Angel included, as more like small children who need constant care and direction, and not as equals. Complicating the problem is the fact that Season 1 in particular presents animals as requiring ponies to wake them up from hibernation, build their nests for them, and guide them north if they migrate. So either these other animals aren't fully sapient, or they just like having ponies do everything for them (which comes with the price of not being able to choose what they want). However, "She Talks to Angel" removed any doubt that Angel is as intelligent as Fluttershy.
So if Angel ever put his paw down and insisted on being treated as an equal in pony society, it would put Fluttershy in an awkward position of having to be his spokespony, as well as giving her a rude awakening that pets who can talk back aren't really pets.
I do like the idea of using a magical solution for animals to talk with other ponies, though - perhaps there's another potion that gives other creatures the ability to speak ponish that they could drink at the end of the story.
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That "rude awakening" was pretty much what my idea with the "use body swap potion to be seen as equal" was about, so yeah.
Though the "instead of a little bunny making cute angry faces, it's suddenly a pony arguing with you, and their arguments are actually startlingly reasonable"-bit would be a lot more visceral in terms of "shock value" for other ponies, the extra step indeed isn't strictly necessary if it's mainly about Fluttershy's reaction.
.
It's the easy way.
I am reminded of FanOfMostEverything's early works (The Elementals of Harmony series, I believe); there rabbits had like, a secret society, or something - and they were afraid of becoming dependent on ponies.
And again, I point out the housecat-sized cat-people civilization from the IDW-comics, and raise the question as to their relation to the Abyssinian anthro-like cats from the MLP movie... and their common ancestors.
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[comic link]
And it's not like "non-talking animals" are the only ones being treated different from ponies.
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(okay, I could only find this weirdly edited version of that last clip, XD)
Equestria needs more cows and sheep going into politics and big business.
...I don't know if that'd fit in the story, but one interesting visual would be Fluttershy having a dream/nightmare of a world where the ponies are considered pets.
They're "happy"... but they don't know any better.
A vision of a world, where Twilight was never even taught to read. Where Rarity doesn't have the opportunity to create. Where Applejack just runs around aimlessly on somecreature else's farm all day. Where Dash is kept on a leash. Where Pinkie Pie is... uh, okay, she gets a pass I guess, she does the "excited dog"-act pretty well already canonically.
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.
Where would the potion come from, though? Has this always existed, or would this be a new invention? If it's been around before - why has it fallen out of use?
Actually - how come all the creatures across the globe seem to be speaking one universal language, anyway?
The most variation I recall are accents, and the Yaks' peculiar grammar. Is it a global spell effect? A property in magical beings that automatically translates? If so, why are animals exempt from this? And can that be changed?
Also, and this didn't fit in anywhere else in the comment, but this vaguely reminds me of an old orphaned story idea of mine (I got a lot of those):
Hmm, I realize this blog post may be of interest to you, regarding various possible scenarios how everyone could still be saved with a variety of different forms of life extension / immortality solutions. I also made sure to mention "Earth Ponies are OP" and its sequel.