Story plug: Twilight Loses Her Innocence (Anything to Save the World) · 7:09pm Aug 23rd, 2021
A recent story by Mockingbirb, Twilight Loses Her Innocence (Anything to Save the World), is a fun 2,569 words. It's mostly light humor, but also a difficult ethical dilemma. Much of the humor comes from the fact that Twilight is the only one who can save the world, and only Twilight (and the Twilights among us) would see her choice as a difficult ethical dilemma.
"Oof!" Luna said. The darker of the two sisters slowly stood, and shuffled to the door. "Is that you, Twilight?"
"You two should get up. It's important!"
Luna snorted. She opened the hotel room door just a tiny bit. Through the inch-wide gap she asked, "Why can't it wait until morning? What is it, the end of the world?"
The nerdy high school student said, "Well..."
"Well WHAT?"
"Maybe kind of?"
"Be more specific, Twilight. Or go back to bed."
Twilight bit her lower lip. "I think the most important part of the scientific method is not assuming that we DO know things that we don't really know for sure. Keeping an eye open for the possibility that we might be wrong about something."
"You woke me up to talk about philosophy?"
"I just thought, since your counterparts in the mirror world of Equestria have...certain jobs...and everyone in OUR world seems to be panicking...I mean, maybe it's just a coincidence, and you DON'T have anything to do with it--"
"Anything to do with what?"
Twilight glanced out the window at the softly glowing moon. "The sun was supposed to come up three hours ago."
Okay, the wordsmiths among you may be frowning at "the darker of the two sisters" and "the nerdy high school student". There are stylistic bumps. The main draw for me, besides the bits of adolescent-but-still-funny humor, is the dilemma that it poses to Twilight. (Also the alternate-earth physics.) It's like an Isaac Asimov short-short story--a clever and funny idea communicated briefly--only with more attention to character. I think this is a story FOME, Oliver, Titanium Dragon, Bradel, or equestrian_sen would appreciate. (Let me know if I was right or wrong.)
Hm, thanks; I may check it out.
Can't remember the last time I actually read ponyfic. This was cute—and part of me wishes I had a way to fold it into my courses, given how much I like talking about the rule of succession and the need to consider really wild ideas (e.g. brain in a vat, metaphysical solipsism, etc) if you're going to claim to have very strong probabilistic beliefs.
Thanks for pointing it my way. It was short, and I enjoyed it.
It's good to have my story understood and appreciated by someone whose own writing I have so enjoyed and loved.
It's even better when that someone also gives me well-grounded constructive criticism of my story's prose style.
