• Member Since 22nd Sep, 2011
  • offline last seen Sunday

Chatoyance


I'm the creator of Otakuworld.com, Jenniverse.com, the computer game Boppin', numerous online comics, novels, and tons of other wonderful things. I really love MLP:FiM.

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Persuaded by Pinkie Pie to loosen up, Twilight Sparkle uncharacteristically deviates from her routine and finds a street that does not exist on any map, a street that should not be there. Down this road is both a threat, and an answer, one that may help us all reconcile the troubling inconsistencies between Season One, and all subsequent seasons of MLP:FIM.

♥ As Featured On Equestria Daily!

Chapters (5)
Comments ( 308 )

Excellent Typography!

Alpha-Twilight in Beta-Ponyville? Looks interesting...

Also, I apologize for faving before reading but truth be told, I've yet to see you write a story I didn't want to follow. To make up for it, I only gave a thumbs-up after reading this. You, and this story, deserve both.

(for those who don't get what I'm talking about, read Chatoyance's guide to the ponyverses)

Well. This is definately going somewhere. I really like this.

Featured bar here we go!

I :heart: this so much. The trouble with kids' shows is that main characters can't be consistently polysyllabic, even when it fits their characterization perfectly.

Now this definitely looks interesting, can't wait to see more!

Awesome, let's see where this goes.

Now this sounds really interesting. I definitely love the way Twilight is characterized in this, and Pinkie and Dash were also done very well; I love how Twilight made some minute distinction in just how much she was annoyed by the two of them. I'll keep an eye on this one.

Edit after reading more chapters: Nope, this is becoming way too preachy and negative for my tastes. Even the excellent characterization can't save it. It's basically just a massive treatise about how much you hate Season 2 presented as a story. At times you have valid points, but just as often you seem to complain about something being different in Season 2, even if it's not necessarily worse, while being strangely forgiving of Season 1 episodes in which similar things happen.

Where'd you get the map?

Experimental parameters set for maximal whimsy! That line made my day.:twilightsmile:

The premise is sound an I'm curious as to how Twilight will react given her measured and reasoned thought processes so far.

Great story. I mean, if the rest if the story is like the first chapter, one of the best stories I've read. I applaud you! :pinkiehappy:
Also, in before featured.

Now the real question is how she's going to react to beta-Twilight :twilightoops:

Hmm, this looks very interesting.

Of course, the real reason there's a sudden hill (that's not big enough to be called a mountain, really) in Ponyville is because it was plot-convenient to the silly children's show. :derpytongue2:

But still, this might be a fun exercise in parallel universes and multiple copies of our favorite ponies. Consider my curiosity aroused.

So.....what happens when Alpha-Twilight gets rescued by Beta-Rainbow Dash?

So I guess we ignore the fact that in s1e2, an episode directly overseen by Lauren Faust, their first instinct was to attack the manticore?

If you ask me, this is taking it a bit too far. I dont think I will be reading this.

This is good. :pinkiesmile:

But as I'm sure Picollo from TFS would say in response to how descpritive this fic is "NERD!" :twistnerd:

My Head A Splode from the sheer ingenuity and awesomeness in this story.
Definite UPVOTE.

577528

What? Manticore? Throwing Faust at me randomly? What the hell?

Are you even responding to this story, specifically? This story is called 'Around The Bend' and it exists to examine and solve the problems of a lack of continuity. It involves a street and walking. There are NO Manticores. There are NO battles. There IS an impossible mountain. I don't even have a clue what you are going on about.

From my perspective, you just said "Machine Blueberry isn't Gooball Squart, therefore I am not reading this story!" My response is WTF?

Less drinking, more thinking. Stat.

576973

She probably drew it herself.

Also, awesome story! :twilightsmile:

576973

I drew this version of the map, but it is heavily based on the extensive work done by Aurebesh, who analyzed season one images and discovered that the town could be rationally mapped. That is true continuity in action. Here is his utterly impressive effort:
Aurebesh Maps of Ponyville

I took his work, expanded it myself, and then finished the result in the style of The Prisoner. I completed many things, such as the railroad, which he had not placed, and so forth. I am, however, indebted to his tremendous effort. Kudos should go to him.

I love this. I suppose random terrain and stuff showing up in Ponyville is a plot hole. It's brilliant!

Are you going to be addressing the dam?

Waaaaaait a second...
(72 kgrum - 20 kgrum) / 72 kgrum * 100 = 72.2% repeating less frustrating, not 20% :twilightangry2:

...Sorry. With Twilight offering the narrative perspective, I came out of this feeling awfully pedantic. In any case, I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to more or if I should cite the MST3K Mantra. I'll settle for the former, though Twilight may not be the only one who should really just relax. Well, after she's left the Betaverse. She's got full license to panic while dimensionally displaced.

Oh hoho, this is gona be goood :pinkiehappy:

Oh boy, industrial blight and wacky impossibly steep roads. You have my interest and your humor seems to work well here.

All I have to say is that this is a perfectly logical story to produce after your Ponyverses blog. Yes, perfectly logical.

This message is sponsored by the Twilight Sparkle Thought Filterâ„¢ (Registered trademark of Hasbro.) Yes, you too can think like the original Purple Pony: be logical and organized, mistreat your house-mate, worry about everything, overanalyse any situation and get into a panic over absolutely nothing! Yes, the Twilight Sparkle Thought Filter â„¢ will give you hours of anxious fun. Available at all fine multiverse outlets.

577908 ... I don't even know why i'm surprised any more... Bronies sure are thorough

578778
Like trekkies, there are many in this fandom that, in their hearts, truly wish for Equestria to be real. We would not have such a glut of stories about bronies dying and getting Equestrian afterlives, or falling through wormholes and ending up in Equestria, or, for that matter, Conversion Bureau stories were that not so.

Like every fandom of a fantasy where the readers or viewers secretly hope that their fantasy could be real somewhere, the fans try to MAKE it real by detailing every aspect, and checking the whole for consistency. Life is self-consistent, unlike dreams, so if the fantasy can be shown to be self-consistent, then the dreamers can enjoy the notion that, somewhere, somehow, their magic world really, truly exists. Equestria is heaven, it is religion.

Just like L. Frank Baum's 'Oz', I might mention. Baum had many readers convinced that 'Oz' was a real place. The readers, young and old, wanted so desperately to believe that they tried mightily to identify the exact location of Oz from every little scrap of information they could glean. They put Trekkies to shame. Eventually, Baum had to claim Oz had moved out into the ocean and become surrounded by an invisibility shield that was utterly impenetrable to all humans. Further stories were claimed to come not as letters from Dorothy and her friends, but as radio signals, the only thing that could penetrate the Great Barrier Of Oz.

Sound familiar? Great Barrier Of Oz... the Great Barrier of Equestria from the Conversion Bureau stories, far out at sea?

In it's time, 'Oz' was the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic of its day. Adults loved the stories more than the intended audience, and became obsessed with every nuance. They wanted, desperately, to believe that Oz was real, that there was a wonderful, peaceful fairyland ruled by a benevolent magical fairy so very, very much. This fandom is the sole reason Oz is even relevant at all today. Fandom is powerful, y'all.

The same can be said of several other works, but I site 'Oz' because of... many similarities... to Equestria. I am keenly aware of this connection with every story I write, and with every massive work I see other bronies do. We are treading in deep, respectable footprints, everypony.

Remember - the 'Oz' books were not considered classics in their day at all. They were considered to be crap for children, and it was embarrassing for adults to love and adore them. But they did anyway. Just like today, with MLP:FIM.

And that is why I am so adamant about the writers of MLP:FIM not screwing the pooch and destroying continuity.

Because continuity is the magic that makes fantasy worlds become eternal. And classics.

And it is what can make a brony analyze an entire season of images to construct an accurate map of Ponyville.

Or a silly woman in Olympia write over a half a million words on Fimfiction. :rainbowlaugh:

Hoo boy. This is definitely something new :rainbowlaugh:

This is incredibly intriguing so far. :derpyderp2:

Well, Season 2 was more...mature- than Season1. I wonder how S3 will be then. I'm excited.

Anyways, this was actually the first time I actually thought about the crane. Great job! I await next chapter.

what in Equestria? How'd they all become...evil? is that the right word?

579115
No, the right word is 'Season Two'. That's all I'm doing here. Rewatch 'The Mysterious Mare Do Well' and 'Putting Your Hoof Down', as examples. I've used actual text from the scripts. That is the point of this story. I am having Season One Twilight meet Season Two Equestria and its denizens. But, I intend more than simply to point out that the writing has started to fail the show.

I have an answer, a no-prize, a convenient explanation - a way to cope coming. I have, I hope, a decent way to reconcile the paradise of Season One that captured our hearts with the increasingly meanspirited, cynical, and inconsistent bent of Season Two and likely, Season Three.

I am trying to save the sinking ship of writing on the series with a (hopefully) clever explanation. Let's sit back and see if I can do it, or if I just end up looking like a twit. Or a twat. I think I'd rather be a twat than a twit - twits are just stupid, but everypony loves a good... um... nevermind. Too much shipping stories, obviously.

"No, I am your brother"
"no..that's not true. That's impossible!"

Seattle is a city built in a hilly farmland area, like Ponyville. It totally has a death road with a cliff at the bottom. Two winters ago several buses went careening down it. :twistnerd:

That said, the lampshading of the death road does keep cracking me up. Especially 'death road'. I giggle every time I say it.

Hmm... is the mysterious explanation Discord-related? :pinkiehappy:

This... might be genius. Turning a gripe into a masterpiece, an objection into, if you may pardon the vernacular, a great big heart-felt fuck you that successfully uses that objection in an engaging, in-character metafictional romp of spectacular proportions.

Then again, haven't read it all yet. :heart: So here I am, preparing to set sail for Maximum Whimsy.

580583
I wanted to use a character other than simply the ones shown in the actual episode I was referencing. Why? I'm already using words from the actual original script, there is a point where reference becomes merely retelling. I wanted to avoid that. So I did a little mixing. Since the characters in that episode were... completely out of character - so to speak- it is beyond reasonable to expect that the author of that episode, Merriwether Williams, would have taken the same liberties with any given character. Continuity didn't matter to her, clearly, and the characters were just pawns in her script. I felt free to pick any pony at all.

I settled on Granny Smith because I felt that it was the most emotional choice I could make. In trying to show the shock of the discrepancy between the two Equestrias, picking emotional choices is an excellent tool. Think of my choosing Granny Smith as a kind of emotional italicizing so that the discordant experience Twilight is having would be especially felt by the reader. If that scene disturbed or unsettled you, then I succeeded. If you felt nothing at all, I failed.

I'm speculating that Pinkie Pie will be the same one -- in fact, perhaps there is ONLY one Pinkie Pie -- and she'll be, like, "Yup! I come here all the time! You mean you didn't know this place was over here? It's a great shortcut!"

Edit: Or perhaps the Twilight-Pinkie power-swap fic I'm reading is putting out too much influence. But whatever! :D

I will be honest: I thought this was just going to be a somewhat angsty, preachy story about how S2 messed with continuity so often - a topic that I acknowledge as having some grounds, but minimal merit or relevance.

It still kinda is, but it's damn entertaining to read, so I no longer give even one flying fornication.

Only thing that bopped me on the nose was the name "Carrottop". Usual practice is to stick a space in there, giving "Carrot Top". Other than that, I'm curious as to where you're taking this.

Hmm...
Interesting read, good sir or madam.

580994

What this guy said. I still think there are better explanations and ways to route around differences in MWW (And apparently the wedding, although I've forgotten why) episodes than yours, but this is still kind of fun.

You know I don't think that the writing of Season 2 was bad, yes there were some things that seemed unnatural but no one ever said Ponyvillie was a perfect place. :unsuresweetie:

579195

Hey, nothing wrong with a good twat :3

... I'll behave now.

I do think Twilight seems a bit condescending here, but I did enjoy jumping the shark street with her.

581786 Jumping... Shark Street... :rainbowderp:
I can't believe I only just got that.

In any case, I'd definitely see Pinkie Pie were I in Twilight's hooves. In a world gone mad, who better to turn to than the craziest pony you know? Of course, first she has to cope with Fluttersertive. That can't end well...

Well, this is going as well as can be expected. I just hope that Twilight Beta isn't running around Ponyville Alpha....otherwise, the poor mare experiencing this madness will have a lot to have to live down.

You just described almost everything that was wrong with the characters in season two.

Please tell me theres going to be something like this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheReasonYouSuckSpeech but perfectly in character.

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