Story Notes: 16 (Cherry Pie) · 9:27pm Jan 18th, 2020
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/43135
It begins. Unlike Mr. Jones Goes To Equestria, this is the sequel I intended to write from the start.
We’ve got a long road ahead of us, and starting things off is Cherry Pie. She’s left Equestria in shame, not to mention debt. Especially that last one. I like writing happy stories about happy little ponies. But life is full of bitter disappointments, and not everypony can have a happy backstory. Sorry Cherry. 
But it gets worse for Miss Pie (no relation to Pinkie).
(Insert nonexistent image of Pinkie Pie & Cherry Pie pulling a Babs & Buster Bunny ‘no relation’)
Not storywise, but rather because there’s next to no fan art for her at all. And I’ll be using the bulk of it for this post. Sad, really, that she’s only got 28 tagged images on Derpibooru. Worse, not all of them are actually related to her. Some posters have used her tag just to tag actual cherry pies.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/239944
Seen above with Cupcake (official)/Sugarcup (fan), Diamond Rose, Dewdrop Dazzle, Honeybuzz, & Lily Blossom. We’ll see all of the above (except Cupcake) in the following chapters.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/165286
Cherry Pie’s toy comes with a mouse and a suitcase, and the only snippet we get for her personality is as follows: Cherry Pie travels to find the best ingredients for her pies. She loves to bake for her friends! Well, she’s baking pies and traveling in this story, so while she may not be the happiest of little ponies, she’s in character at least.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1384687
Cherry Pie doesn’t want to be a bad pony. And she isn’t really a bad pony. Life’s already landed some pretty hard blows on this poor mare, who’s barely old enough to be considered an adult. Failed business venture, lack of higher education, and crushing debt. Not a great combo for anypony. Unfortunately for her, her conscience nags her constantly, reminding her that good ponies don’t flee their creditors. And that’s true too. She punishes herself for every minor infraction, not resting until she finds ulterior motives for her actions that prove she’s a bad pony. She’s a supervillain in her own mind. And thanks to her guilty conscience, she’s also paranoid to the extreme. Somepony’s going to see through the web of lies and she’ll be banished to a dungeon on the moon. It’s not healthy, and neither is she.
In other words, unless you want to see her disappear faster than Fluttershy fleeing a dragon migration, don’t play Somebody's Watching Me or Every Breath You Take in her presence.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/1665040
Roseluck, Twinkleshine, and Ditzy/Derpy (and Cupcake, as noted above) won’t be appearing in this fic, but the rest of these mares will. As matter of fact, one of them already has: the pink pegasus resting at the bottom of this image is none other than Duchess Ploomette of the House of Hurricane, Equestrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Equestrian Consul General of New York City. Dewdrop Dazzle & Lily Blossom should be familiar since they already appeared in another image higher up in this blog post.
Now on to the meat & potatoes of this post. Specifically, let’s talk about the format for this fic. My goal is a prologue (check), sixteen flashback chapters (Act I), sixteen Mareiott chapters (Act II), and finally sixteen post-Mareiott chapters (Act III), with an epilogue wrapping everything up. Fifty chapters in all. I’m not going to lie – this is easily the most ambitious writing project I’ve ever attempted. In more than seven years on this site, I’ve compiled a grand total of 295,618 horse words to date. I’ve actually written far more than that, but most of those fics are either ‘in progress’ or ‘deader than Bob Saget’s career’ so we’ll just focus on the published ones. 61,170 of them represent Running On Empty, the longest story of any type I’ve ever written. I anticipate this to run three or four times the length of that one. I’m still working on some other projects as well, but 16 has my priority.
Sixteen different perspectives. Sixteen different stories intertwined. And that’s where the title comes in. 16 is simple, yet represents all of them equally. It’s not just about Snowcatcher, though I know she’s the one everyone is most curious about.
The flashbacks will cover important life events for each of the ponies featured. There are two scenes guaranteed to be in all of the chapters in the first act: a scene depicting that pony’s cutie mark acquisition, and a scene where they become part of the Mareiott family. Please note that the prologue is set approximately five years into the future. All Act I chapters will end with ‘today’ being that pony’s first day on Earth.
I’ll be writing the chapters in alphabetical order. The exact order is spelled out in the story description. I find it fitting that we start (Cherry Pie) and end (Sweetie Swirl) with the only two ponies who didn’t appear in one (or both) of the first two stories.
As each chapter’s from a different point of view, it’s very possible we’ll jump from a sad chapter to a funny one or an upbeat one. It’s why I’m leaving ‘Slice-of-Life’ as the only tagged genre. We’ll cover far more than that, of course, as these characters have a wide range of reasons for leaving Equestria behind. So mood whiplash is almost a certainty. Already, the humorous prologue certainly segued into a sad first chapter.
You may have noticed they’re no longer operating as the Mareiott, but rather The Hotels Horsey. Unsurprisingly, Marriott finally caught wind of their trademark violation. Now they’re parodying The Hotel Hershey in Pennsylvania, with a twist. None of their locations is considered to be in direct competition with the existing hotel (which only has one location in Hershey). Now familiar with Earth’s trademark laws, and still desiring to operate their chain with a punny name, Snowcatcher did some research. Hershey and horsey are far enough away from one another they can make a valid claim. Add to that the nearest Hotels Horsey location to Hershey is located just over twenty-five miles away and right outside the competition zone. But we’ll get to that in a later chapter. The precedent here is Burger King of Mattoon, Illinois:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_(Mattoon%2C_Illinois)
Care Bear Family is a real font, and it really does feature hearts for dots and periods. I’ve used it more than once for fic cover images, including Mr. Jones Goes To Equestria (two examples seen below; note that I used a lower case ‘j’ for his name specifically to get the heart dot). Competition or not, it just seems appropriately cute for My Little Pony.
The cover image is, well, tiny. The sad thing is this is all I had to work with, and some of these had to be enlarged (most notably Snowcatcher’s) from their vectors (or, in some cases, photos of their cutie marks) to this still ridiculously small size. There’s not a lot of love for these early toy ponies (unless you check some of their prices on eBay). I would’ve liked something larger, but could think of nothing more suitable than equal representation for all sixteen ponies. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it – I’m no artist. So if any artists out there are reading this, let’s talk.
At least I can do my part and add one more image of Cherry Pie to the internet:
Source: From the collection of AlwaysDressesInStyle
She's my Cherry Pie. Quite literally, as I bought her many years ago when she was still available in stores. Sweet Cherry Pie. She's my Cherry Pie. Put a smile on your face ten miles wide.
Interesting. And good luck!
I'm so ready for this.