When we slid into Pinkie's Party cave, some of us learned Pinkie's party plans. But when I got to read my dossier, in private, I learned something that might change the trajectory of my entire life.
Had Pinkie Pie read my soul and provided a vision of a future I could not resist? Or was she once again evilly taunting me, to get me to react? I could help animals, but could I help ponies and help myself?
A My Dinner with Andre meets MLP interlude within Party Pooped. You'll never watch the episode and see it the same way again. The story does not take into account the events in subsequent episodes.
And here I thought that other mare of the Ponytones would be the one to mentor Sweetie Belle...
Madam Pinkie what about ah oh um ya know?
Ya know!
I know
Everypony in Ponyvill knows!
We all know!
So we're good? Spike!
Good real good
Trenderhoof? why not?
This was a nice find, good character portrayal all around.
6168202
Ha! Me, too! But Fluttershy reported it to me and I just wrote it down. It's my job.
It makes sense, though. Fluttershy is a natural, and certainly Rarity discussed that with SB, who I think we will discover is one, too. Of course, would you want your sister, were she Rarity, to mentor you?
6169833
No, not Rarity, that OTHER mare, I forgot what her name is.
6169976
the other mare, I believe, is "Torch Song" http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pony_Tones
I was unsure what to make of this as I read this expecting more from Fluttershy, but the end was great.
This is good. You say that the long sentences are bad? No, they are elegant and refined, like Fluttershy.
So Pinkie Pie can look into the future and that's where she gets her information how to plan parties and she saw Sweetie Belle as Fluttershy's student in the future, with her cutie mark, and this is it what made Fluttershy deciding to make this a reality and to fully overcome her stage fright.
Breathtaking. A magnificent idea.
And the added backstory why Twilight got her fear of cheese and how this is connected to her learning to get good at magic and to become a student of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is simply genius.
A very unique story you told here.
And you tell something that I think could happen too, that Fluttershy helps Sweetie Belle overcoming her own stage fright by singing together with her and even something that I detailed in a fic I wrote.
This story is a guaranteed favourite of mine.
6193026
Shared stage fright! What a fabulous bonding idea. Nice if I'd actually thought of it; I might have been able to tune the story better. I may look up your fic.
The weird thing about writing this was the certainty that filled me that I'd hit on a SB+F story, Fluttershy becoming Sweetie Belle's vocal coach, that could easily happen in the series. Like RD and Scoots. So glad you liked the story. Thanks.
6193778
It's actually what Sweetie Belle really has. In "The Show Stoppers" in Season 1, we saw her expressing fear of singing on a stage in front of an audience. That's why she has it so hard to get her cutie mark, for realizing her special talent, she has to overcome her stage fright first.
And this is the reason why I think that it could really happen that Fluttershy helps her out. I already theorized that we will see that in "Filli Vanilli", but then it didn't happen.
The fic I spoke about is here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/168740/try-it-with-kindness
I wrote it as a pre-episode fanfic for "Filli Vanilli", but it's unfortunately very rushed as I was already in a hurry to get it out before the episode.
EDIT: Put the whole thing as a spoiler. You should really NOT read this comment if you haven't read the story and/or haven't watched the episode Crusaders of the Lost Mark (S5 E18) if you want to avoid spoilers.
First off: I like the story. I love how it fits so well into the actual episode.
But there is a thing that bugs me.
Ofcourse I know you wrote this pre Crusaders of the Lost Mark and I read this after that episode. But I inevitably thought about SB's real cutie mark. From inside the story and Fluttershys point of view it doesn't matter what the cm looks like, since the real one has a note inside a star and there is no way - if Fluttershy saw that - she could guess the meaning of it. In your story it's encircled by a heart, in reality by a crest, doesn't matter much in my opinion.
So now I wonder: what is your intention with the Pinkie Pie of your story?
Is she supposed to be wrong? That would imply that those future parties are just guesses (or wishes). she can be wrong and in this case is. That would mean all the other details could just as well be imaginary. Or even the entire thing might as well be a spawn of Pinkies over-imagination.
Or is she supposed to be right? In that case I would love to see the description of SB's cm edited. But that also implys that Pinkie DOES know the future or at least is EXCEPTIONALLY good at guessing. Or her perception of the world around her (especially in this case for the CMC) is extraordinary. (Which could explain her Pinkie sense as perception of the world around her but her mind not consciously taking notice until her body tells it, but i digress.)
Either way knowing the cutie mark throws the story in a different light than it was, when you wrote it.
Ofcourse I know we can't just edit EVERY story that deals with the CMC in the future at some point. That would imply changing stuff like Five Score, Divided by Four (or at least it's spinoff The Last Crusade) or even super big ones like Fallout Equestria and that is obviously not gonna happen since that exists as a printed version.
But in most of those storys Sweetie Belles Cutie Mark is just a mark to show her talent for music. Which it still kinda does. Therefore the mark itself seems interchangable.
In your case however, I feel like the mark itself is not as important, as the correctness of it. This is of great significance for the perception of the story for the reader who KNOWS the actual mark. If you wrote that story today, would you deliberately chose a "wrong" mark? It makes a world of difference, at least for me.
I'd like to know your thoughts on this scifipony. And possibly other readers' as well.
MfG NIchtraucher
6622122
I'm going to have to reread the story to give you a real answer, and I will at a later time.
The unreal answer to the Pinkie paradox, at least, may be found, maybe, in my story, Pinkie (re)Curses a Lot.
6622122 Thank you for leaving such a detailed and fascinating comment. You get a star.
Update: Fixed my derp. I really was talking about Sweetie Belle not AB.
After some thought, I've answered your questions. When you're done reading it, though, please considering editing your comment to add spoiler bb-code to some of the spoilers you let slip.
As for Sweetie Belle, will I change her cutie mark now that we know what it will have been? No. It is a primary McGuffin in the story. The story falls apart if Fluttershy's positive actions can't influence the resulting mark. Despite that I came amazingly close to guessing the actual mark, it isn't the same. SB's canon CM is so obviously influenced by the CMC's group achievement*, that it just doesn't play right in my authorial mind. So, I won't change it. It almost forces me to tag this story as an alternate universe, almost, but I did change the description and did add to the author notes (crediting you).
As for Pinkie Pie, she is inscrutable. Mapping her ability to warp space, time, and physical laws to a real world context is futile (though fun) as nothing will satisfy all requirements. In the context of the story, I made Pinkie Pie able to foresee the future accurately because it has to be true to make the story work emotionally for me. She has amply demonstrated herself capable in the context of the show of amazing feats. That's how her earth pony magic works. One way to reconcile the set up in the story with the SBcanon CM is to invoke the Heisenberg uncertainty principal. Pinkie knows the future where she has observed it (somehow**), but did she know that Fluttershy would read her files? I don't know. It may well be that now that Fluttershy has read them, and even though she proceeds to mentor SB, Pinkie's reported futures may never come true because Fluttershy is aware of them and would not otherwise have been aware and could now make different choices. Indeed, it is likely to be true because SB's CM ends up a musical note in a star in a shield. Another way to reconcile the story and the SB CM is as you pointed out to assume Pinkie made it all up, or worse deluded herself. I don't like the idea that Pinkie is just a random idiot; it goes against my feminist outlook and against my principals as an author of uplifting fiction. How's that for being convoluted? Madam Pinkie would be so proud. I won't rewrite the story. It makes me cry the way it is.
Thanks for pointing out future reading.
* The CMC's shared cutie marks are so perfect, I am beside myself. By this, I mean their meaning; I'm surprised Rarity didn't make snide comments about their design and their color. The fact that the CMC have the only shared cutie marks, besides arguably the royal pony sisters, is amazing, and deserved, and predictable from their previous episodes. The story potential is amazing. Could they ever let life tear them apart? Will they find that together they are always better than acting alone? I am stoked imagining the possibility of a My Little Pony: Cutie Mark Crusaders spin-off series to succeed FiM.
** For my theories on Pinkie Pie, please refer to Warming Up and Pinkie (re)Curses a Lot.
6625468
A few thoughts on your answer.
Thank you for answering. And yay a star.
I am sorry about the spoilers. Edited.
I believe you mean Sweetie Belle not Apple Bloom.
One influences the future by having knowledge of it and therefore makes choices so the observed outcome becomes a mere possibility or even an impossibility in some cases. Yes, that works for me. And to repel paradoxes like casual loops we can just go with multiverse theory.
That! So much THAT.
I can see how one could write her as just a lucky idiot, but I prefer to see her as someone who has too much going on in her head and sometimes problems getting her priorities straight or concentrating on one specific thing. In my head canon that's how her Pinkie Sense works. If anyone wants to know more, I'd like to refer to the Cutie Mark Laboratories with their video HOW THE PINKIE SENSE WORKS
[youtube=8tU-bs9AGH4]
Give it a watch. (I know they make her out to be kinda mentally challenged, but the general idea how the sense workes made it into my head canon.)
I can see that your Pinkie Pie has teeny tiny bit more power than that and I am totally fine with that. It fits and it works in your storys.
As for your answer about not changing the CM, I can live with that. I didn't have an expectation in either direction. And I will read the story with that in mind. As I said it makes a world of difference for me. So thanks again for the answer.
MfG NIchtraucher
6626961
You're welcome. It was fun. And I did fix the derp.
What you say about Pinkie is so true, and makes her the most challenging of the Mane 6 to write. I am flabbergasted that I was able to write Pinkie (re)Curses a Lot in first person and make it feel like it was really Pinkie telling the story. (I am truly saddened that almost nobody is reading it; to me, disregarding that it is my baby, it feels mind-blowingly revelatory. Not sure if I derped the description or the title or both.) In any case, I much prefer a character who is so caught up in her own thoughts and agenda that she has no real perception that she is truly gifted.