Thoughtletts
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.”
—Gore Vidal
This quote struck me as particularly relevant to the MLP world, and to my own writing in particular. We writers tend to build characters in our minds like one would craft a puzzle piece, and when we see that spot where he/she would fit, we pop that sucker right in .
In a reversal of traditional roles, we have Spike gives Twilight The Talk. Naturally, I thought about the most probable reason just *why* Twilight had not learned this lesson previously…
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/434757/spike-gives-twilight-the-talk
"So when does the mare lay her eggs?"
"..."
"And how many? Because I've seen couples with one or two foals, but I've never seen more than about three. And how long does she have to sit on them before they hatch into a foal?"
"I think..." Spike closed his eyes and took a deep breath before getting out a piece of parchment and a quill. "Let's get a higher authority involved, shall we? Please?"
(some time later)
"So, my inquisitive student, I understand you have some questions about..." Celestia paused and looked around the library to make sure they were alone. "How foals are made." She cleared her throat, took a brief glance at where Spike was tapping one clawed foot, and continued. "Who do you think we should ask?"
(Naturally, I consider myself an authority on the question since I’ve written stories where all of the Mane 6 give birth at the same time, where Twilight has a little teaspon/tablespoon mixup with her birth control potion, and where Princess Twilight Sparkle lays an egg and teaches *everypony* in Equestria just how infant alicorns come into the world.)
She tucked her tail in against her damp nethers and tried not to think of how that huge object had theoretically managed to transit that narrow passage without waking her up. Even though it had. And somehow she had gone back to sleep afterwards. Until now.
Although pony reproduction had always been an uncomfortable topic for Twilight Sparkle, she was aware of the basics. The bare basics. The somewhat-sketchy process between mare-meets-colt and the delivery room had always been a topic she had avoided in her studies, except for foal development in the womb and infant care outside. The process of going from inside to outside, as well as the actual… act of reproduction, were much like a visual blind spot to her.
Still, she knew one thing for certain: ponies did not lay eggs.
Dragons laid eggs and hatched them by pouring dragonfire across them, thus triggering the magical process of birth. Birds laid eggs and hatched them by holding them close for several weeks as the little birds grew inside the shells. Lizards even laid eggs and hatched them on warm rocks where Celestia’s sun could incubate them.
Alicorns, however…
Sometimes when I go back to clean up things, I find little snippets I’ve done long ago that deserve to be waved about. Like this one about Twilight’s family reunion
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/295578/from-princess-twilight-sparkle-president-of-the-twinkle-nebula-frie-neutron-family-reunion
Spike looked up at the towering dragon standing rather awkwardly at the front door of the Castle of Friendship. The tip of one giant claw was still extended, and the peals of the doorbell were still echoing through the empty crystal hallways as a pleasant counterpart to the screams of terror still coming from Ponyville, most likely because of the dragon, of course.
"Mom!" Spike scowled up as much as he could do while fighting a smile. "You know what Twilight told you. No visiting in the castle without enough warning to calm down the town." He watched as a screaming pony with her mane on fire galloped past, headed for the stream. "It'll take *forever* to calm them back down again."
"I know, son." Glar’dohan scuffed one gigantic talon in the flowerbed, plowing up most of the nasturtiums Spike had been saving for Rarity's lunch sometime this week. "It's just... Well. Your father kicked me out of the cave, and I don't have anyplace to stay."
Thoughts on Season 9 on the Writers Thread
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/395296/note-this-theory-contains-info-from-the-season-nine-trailer-if-you-do-not-wish-to-know-anything-about-s9-prior-to-release-turn-back-now
Since I’ve done a story similar to the S9 trailer supposed plotline, I had to contribute about how Celestia’s plans for the future might go:
"Twilight! Look, it's going to be decades before Flurry Heart is ready to step into our shoes, and... well..." Celestia bit her bottom lip and looked away with a mumble.
"Excuse me?" Twilight Sparkle nosed a little closer to her mentor, then stopped when she saw the corner of a brochure sticking out from under her wing. A little magic freed the advertisement, and Twilight read it with widening eyes. "Princess Celestia! No!!"
"Actually..." Celestia blushed as she plucked the paper out of Twilight's slackening grip. "Look. That's only part of what Luna and I are scheduled to do over the next few weeks. I'll see if the Mister Universe contest in Cobbleo san Lucho will invite you to be a judge next year. Besides--" Celestia lowered her voice and looked around "--they're going to have a wet-wings contest for the participants. Three hundred hunky pegasi with damp primaries. Just think of it. After all, it's been a thousand years for me." Celestia bared her teeth. "And you wouldn't want to get in my way, would you?"
Twilight swallowed, but kept her chin up. "I'll look after things for Spring Break, but I want you back on the throne the week after. And... um..." It was her turn to lower her voice and look around for observers. "Bring back one of those stallions for me, please?"
Monochromatic had to make a Twiluna post. I contributed.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/846615/twiluna
Sooo tempted to write something like...
Twilight Sparkle sat up in bed abruptly and cast rapid glances around the library bedroom. Just one night in Ponyville had not gotten her used to living in a tree, even if it was filled with books, and the way the tree creaked and popped in the town's night breeze still made her jerk awake at the most inconvenient times. Spike had no such problem, and was happily snoring away in his box nearby, like he would be more than happy to continue until noon if left undisturbed. Since the moon was still high in the sky, they both had a long time before dawn, so Twilight settled back down into her bed, rolling over on her side and taking in the view of Princess Luna’s teal gaze at the end of her nose with paralyzed astonishment.
“Pardon our intrusion into thy bedchambers, Champion.” Luna bowed her head and kneeled on the thin rag rug of Twilight’s bedroom, which only made her panicked heart beat faster and her mind whirl with the thought that she had obviously missed some sort of letter from Celestia to explain this. Maybe a note. An entry on her calendar?
“T-t-that’s… okay,” managed Twilight after several minutes of intense breathing that made the faint scent of Luna’s sweaty coat begin to hammer away at the back of her mind. The newly freed princess must have flown down from Canterlot to visit Twilight tonight because… Nothing really came to mind. Nothing at all. Zip.
“As you hath vanquished me with the Elements of Harmony,” continued Luna with her head still bowed, “thy will is supreme over mine, and I shall devote my life to bringing you the pleasure you deserve, for as long as you live. I await your command, Champion.”
—-
Winston, of course, had to put in a stopper:
"My command is let me sleep, damnit," Twilight grumbled. "Slavery is illegal in Equestria, whether by conquest or by sale. Now beat it before this gets even weirder."
—
And I, of course, had to put in a topper:
By the next morning, Twilight had convinced herself that Luna's visit was merely the symptom of an undigested bit of parsnip, or perhaps a result of eating the last one of Pinkie Pie’s special muffins before bedtime, and that the resulting dream snippet was only worth bringing up at the luncheon she had scheduled with her friends because of its odd humor. So while the six of them were gathered for a pleasant outdoor meal at the local restaurant, she related the event to them and awaited their snorts of levity, or perhaps even a laugh or two.
Only to have five sets of eyes staring back at her in disbelief.
“Twi.” Applejack pushed her hat back and took a deep breath. “You do know that the Elements of Harmony were used by all of us, right?”
“Of course she realizes that,” said Rarity rather briskly. “It’s just that she did not choose to accept Princess Luna’s generous offer.” After a brief pause, she went on to admit in one quick burst of words, “She’s going to introduce me at court next week.”
“She’s teaching me how to make Cloudscakes,” said Pinkie Pie with a bounce in her seat. “They’re so fluffy!! And they make such a mess that we have to lick—”
“We’re doing nighttime flights,” said Rainbow Dash quickly, punching the air with one hoof. “Up with the stars and moonlit clouds! It’s a whole ‘nother level of competition! And then there’s the snuggles after,” she admitted. “Awesome!”
“So many of my animal friends are nocturnal,” said Fluttershy almost under her breath. “It’s so nice to have somepony who appreciates them with me. Particularly the owlbears.”
After a long silence, Applejack looked at something interesting in the distance and admitted, “Ah only asked her to help out with the harvest this fall since she loves being out among mah trees, and we can work together into the evening. And dagnabbit if the snuggles weren’t pretty durned good too.”
Kris Overstreet has a new idea for a series about Twilight Sparkle book-walking with the Haycartes method through various stories. I thought I’d give him a little push.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/844653/stupid-sinus-infection-and-the-new-project-revealed
"Twilight! I'm about ready to go! Where are you?" Spike walked around the crystal library calling out her name several more times before giving a shrug. "Meh. Maybe she took my advice and took a walk instead of being trapped inside all day. At least I got her out of her books." He hefted the thick storybook that had been dropped in the middle of the floor and flipped back to the Canterlot Royal Library checkout card. "Oh, heck. It'll be overdue tomorrow. Well, there's no bookmarks in it, so she must be done with it. I'll just take it with me this evening when I head up to Canterlot. She'll be glad she doesn't have to pay the overdue fine. I'm such a good assistant."
Taking a moment to scratch a note and leave it in her crystal chair, Spike headed out the door of the castle, whistling all the way to the train station and his rendezvous with the annual Canterlot Rock and Mineral show. Tomorrow morning, first thing before the sun was even up, he was scheduled to be in line for three wonderful days of gemstones. He'd just have to remember everything for Twilight when he got back.
He never even noticed the tiny pipping cries from the closed book in his bag while he walked.
CoffeeMinion is discussing the NaNoWriMo entry from 2015 about an author trying to write… sexy stories.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/347629/2/stuck-in-the-middle-with-you/the-inevitable-clopfic-drama-nanowrimo-2015
When you used this line, my mind immediately went to the logical conclusion from my own experiences: “Come on. I mean, you’re married, right? Just start with some of what you’re up to with the missus!”
"Are you done yet?"
"Not quite," called out Green Grass. "Almost."
Twilight Sparkle gave out a frustrated huff of exasperation and pawed the ground. "It's unfair! I haven't even had a chance to get started yet!"
"Tough."
"Errraaaahh!!!" Twilight hopped up and down while flapping her wings. "I'm a librarian! I'm supposed to go first!" She hammered on the bathroom door with one hoof, making the entire castle shake. "Come out here right this minute or I'll... I won't let you sleep in the bed tonight."
"You're going to be reading the book anyway," said Green Grass. "Look, if I tore our copy of Hairy Trotter in half and let you have the front--"
"No! Don'tyoudare!" Twilight gave another stern stomp to the bedroom floor, adding to the depth of the pothole she had started several hours earlier. "I don't understand! I promised to give Derpy a blueberry muffin when the new Hairy Trotter book came in if she gave it to me first."
"I gave her two," said Green Grass. "And a head start."
Estee is musing about having one of her stories translated to Chinese for a contest.
SIGAWESOME was wondering how that might turn into a story
I had to put my two bits in
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/844443/because-nothing-has-ever-gone-wrong-with-this-kind-of-request-public-opinion-needed
This also turned into a Never The Final Word entry:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/387377/84/never-the-final-word-vol-2/georgs-googol-translations-estees-because-nothing-has-ever-gone-wrong-with-this-kind-of-request-public-opinion-needed
"You're being sued."
"What was that, Spike?" Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book to where her faithful assistant was sorting the massive lump of mail they had been receiving every day. Some was trash, and got the dragonfire treatment. Some was misdirected to the wrong princess, and got the special dragonfire treatment. And some was of the unfortunate type that actually had to be opened.
"Says here, a translation of your friendship book in Zebrica uses the same copyrighted phrase as--" he squinted "--a two-hundred year old pillar of their religious faith. Yadda, yadda, there it is. Huh. Friendship is magic translates out in Zebrican the same way, I guess."
"Can't they just change the Zebrican translation?" asked Twilight with her eyes drifting back to her place in the more important Book Of The Moment.
"Not without a change in the source material," said Spike as he read. "It turned up when the book was being translated for the West Windies, and since they have interlocking trade deals--"
"Wait a minute." Twilight put a bookmark where she had stopped reading. "They're translating my book into Windiean from the Zebrican translation?"
"Actually," said Spike with one claw on the letter. "They're translating it from the West Griffish Isles dialect, which translated it from Zebrican, which translated it from Tauren, who took it from your original book." He turned the letter sideways and squinted. "Apparently, it's a guide to dating now. Sweet."
The Writers Group is discussing summoning characters. I thought it was worth an example.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/390624/accidental-summon
Ok, break this down a little. You have a scene that you want another character *from another world* to show up in. You have basically two options: pull or push.
In Pull, the scene characters do something that *forces* the otherworld character to their location, such as a traditional summoning with pentagrams or the like. In Push, the otherworld character is most likely already traveling through some sort of aether, and winds up emerging where the scene is (by the characters weakening the barrier, making some sort of flare to follow, etc. The first has been done to death, BUT can still be pulled off with the right amount of flair.
"I don't know." Apprentice Corgith glanced over his shoulder as he followed his friend into the Room of World Pools. "I know the Master did not forbid us from using the device, but he never said we could."
"You worry too much." Initiate Wormwood stopped in front of one of the shimmering otherworldly structures, took the long stick off his back, and dug into his pocket. "Besides, we're only looking for your date to the King's Ball, not some sort of extradimensional monster. We just need--" he produced a small sparkling object, which he then tied onto the line "--the right bait. Matched emerald ear-studs, guaranteed to attract a lovely young lady to hang on your arm and accompany you through the worst of social occasions." Giving the pole a quick heft before Corgith could come up with another objection, he made a quick cast into the middle of the shimmering pool and sat down. "Might as well get comfortable. It can take a while."
Belaying his wise observation, the line promptly went taut, and Wormwood heaved back on the fishing pole. "Oh, this one's big. Hope she's not a porker. Yikes!"
With a sharp 'twang' of high-tensile strength line, Wormwood skidded across the ground, coming up short just inches away from the pool due to Corgith's quick reactions. "She's fighting it!" called out Wormwood. "Get ready with the knife. We may have to cut the line or we'll lose the pole."
"I just wanted a date for the ball!" shouted Corgith. "Not a fight!"
At that, the line suddenly went slack, and a few moments later, a statuesque woman strode through the shimmering barrier with the emerald ear studs gripped firmly in one hand. She was most certainly female, because all six breasts were bound in large but sturdy individual brassiere cups made out of cured leather, and her shimmering black hair flowed down her back, done up in a tight braid with small bones peeking out of it, much the same as her long tail. She smiled at the sight of the two mage-apprentices, with the tips of her fangs just barely revealed under her shapely muzzle, before asking, "Did I hear that you're looking for a date to a ball?"
"Yes?" squeaked Corgith.
That evening, as he escorted a primped and pampered Lady Lavine through the well-dressed crowds at the ballroom, Corgith had to admit his friend really knew how to attract a memorable date for such an occasion.
Justice3442 has a nice multiplexed story about Twilight Velvet in EqG.
I thought we needed one with somepony else’s mother.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/429816/mother-of-midnight
“Now if only another pony will accept friendship as well.” Celestia’s tall form strode across the broken rubble of the ancient castle, stopping in front of a huddled dark pony. “Princess Luna! It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister. Will you accept my friendship?”
Ignoring the astonished gasps from Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the smaller alicorn looked up with tears pouring down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I missed you so much, big sister!”
“I've missed you, too,” said Celestia, leaning down to nuzzle a damp cheek against her little sister.
“And you think that’s good enough?” Twilight turned her head to see a crack open up in reality itself, a blinding gap of pure light that a bipedal figure strode out of. The creature’s body seemed made out of the cosmic fabric of space itself, embedded with the swirl of stars and distant planets, while her mane flowed down from the top of a very tall head, across her back, and almost to her knees. She walked with long, slow strides of her two legs, poised and graceful despite the obvious issues of balance, and drew up to a stop in front of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, slowly tapping one bare foot while the two royal alicorns cringed down.
“Mom!” said Celestia with a note of unexpected panic in her voice. “You said dad wanted to take a vacation of a few thousand years, and that we’d have to—”
“I know what I said,” thundered the heavenly maternal voice. “Can’t a mother come back home to visit for a few minutes without being questioned? Particularly since my daughters seem to have messed things up so badly in our absence.”
“I’m sorry,” said Luna, cringing even lower than Celestia, only to let out a yelp of pain when the creature reached down with one hand even faster than Twilight’s eye could see to grab the smaller alicorn by one ear.
“Sorry isn’t good enough,” she snapped. “Plunging the world into darkness! Fighting with your sister! We leave behind a perfectly balanced world to find this when we come back! Your father wants to have some words with you!”
Celestia, taking advantage of her mother’s back being turned in her direction, stuck out her tongue at Luna. The childish gesture did not go unnoticed, as the creature’s second hand darted out and grasped Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, and Twilight’s treasured teacher just as firmly by the ear and twisted.
“And you, young lady!” she thundered. “You were supposed to listen to your little sister just as much as your subjects! She’s your sister, after all. I can’t believe I carried such a disobedient creature in my belly for so long just to have her turn out this way! Your father will want a word with you too, and I doubt if you’ll be able to sit down for a week! Now come on! Let’s get this over with. And don’t fight it!” she added as the creature stood up and began walking back to the glowing gap in reality with the two struggling alicorns being towed along by their ears. “Act like adults for a change.”
“She started it!” called out Celestia.
“And I’m finishing it!” snapped the creature. “Until you get back, and if you get back, I’m going to need somepony else to rule over the ponies for a while. Like that one, she looks reliable.”
Twilight Sparkle straightened her back and lifted her head as the creature plucked the crown from on top of Celestia’s head and gave it a toss. “Thank you, Ma’am. I’ll… wait a minute.” She barely noticed as Celestia and Luna, complaining all the way, were hefted through the gap in reality, which closed behind the three of them. She was too busy looking with wide eyes at where the crown had landed. And which one of her other friends it had landed on.
TheJediMasterEd wrote a deep piece on Mary Poppins Returns. I’m rather shallow and felt I should stand up for shallowness.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/841948/whose-kite-strings-are-a-lute
I'm willing to say it seems as if you've dug fairly deep in a shallow well, something which people do all the time with my own work. Both Poppins movies (which I loved) are simple escapism, attempts to make old and stodgy creatures, including two children who are getting old before their time, the ability to cast off reality and dream, like children should. Because after all, soon we will be adults, and have to put all that dreaming behind us. And true, they use deeper meaning in songs and stories, but for the purpose of making you let go of that terrible clinging to reality that old adults do so well.
It strikes me that there could easily be a "Twilight, the Early Years" Mary Poppins story in this, where a beleaguered Night Light is sitting in his den one evening, trying to write a Help Wanted advertisement...
Help Wanted: A nanny for a brilliant young unicorn filly who is about to start school. Must be...
Night Light considered the rest of the blank sheet of paper and tried to get his quill to move, but it had stuck quite fast and would not write another line. There had to be something he could put into the advertisement to encompass the situation and still keep under the thirty word limit. Then again, the situation was anything but the kind able to be squeezed into a few lines for a newspaper ad. The rhythmic sounds of Shining Armor practicing his marching in the back yard barely tickled at the tips of his ears, as well as the sound of Princess... That is Cadence upstairs, reading his brilliant little filly a bedtime story involving quantum thaumic particles, something which baffled Night Light right down to his hooves. Give him a pulsar pattern or stellar conjunction and he could talk all day, but outside of that narrow field was very thin grazing.
If only Twilight's mother could continue to care for their precious little filly during the day. Twilight Velvet had sacrificed so much to raise her little Sparkle to this level, and yet the literary bug struggled nightly to escape. His wife wrote as well as his daughter read, and bottling up that creativity for eight years meant that the author Twilight Velvet was about to explode if she did not go back to work at the publishing company right now. She even dreamed of books when she was not stealing a minute or two out of the day to write, which left their brilliant daughter nothing to do but read, and read, and read. Little Twilight read when her father tried to play with her, read when she was in the back yard instead of running around like the other foals, and even read in the bathtub. A nanny for Twilight would find the job trivial if all she did was pass her charge a book when the last one was finished. That may have been what she wanted, but not what she needed.
What she needed was a nanny who... He did not know. Somepony as loving as Cadence, who could not possibly help watch Twilight with all of the Princess responsibilities she was gaining. Somepony as strict as Shining Armor, who could not be more of a Royal Guard Cadet when he entered the Academy in a few months. Somepony as loving as her parents, who could feel her slipping away every day. Somepony... magical.
GaPJaxie’s getting silly. I decide to also.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/840571/something-silly
Now I want to write a story: Why Celestia Has No Shadow
"Actually... I must confess something, Twilight." Celestia lowered her voice and checked to make sure Luna had finished going down the hallway to her room. "You are quite incorrect. I do have a shadow."
"But you don't!" insisted Twilight. "It's perfectly plain. Even now." She waved a hoof under her fellow alicorn. "See!"
"My shadow is not here, Twilight. It's rather... complicated." Celestia took a short breath. "It's Luna."