It's called garbage can, not garbage can't.
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When Sweetie Belle opens a magical book that contains all the secrets everypony ever had, she's shocked to learn she isn't quite as related to Rarity as she thought.
One of them must be adopted. But which?
And just how dangerous is this book?
A short story about family, being an older sibling, and how volatile books can be when they're magic.
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I liked it, a nice little read
6318875 Cheers, mate. Glad you enjoyed it.
Well, that was an interesting read.
6318889 I should hope so. I've always been told I do interesting things.
"Oh, HapHazred, putting salt in your coffee certainly seems... interesting."
"I see you've put your pants on backwards today. How very interesting."
"Beer for breakfast again? An interesting choice, if I dare say so myself."
So the Inspiration Manifesto was a book designed to propagate lies? Is that why the Truth slew it's influence?
Either way, this was a pretty good story. Pretty fun too. And heaven's knows I've wondered about Rarity after seeing her parents.
6318965 I originally made the Gospel Morale as just a book to reveal the truth for the sake of the story. A little macguffin to appear, and be ignored. Then I ended up coming up with all this backstory I found myself really enjoying for some reason, and I realized it reminded me a lot of the Inspiration.
I'm actually playing with the idea of making a whole slew of these books. I really like them.
orig13.deviantart.net/b556/f/2015/309/b/e/dragon_lady_no_oops_by_hillbe-d9fo096.jpg
If a book like that were real, it would probably be the center of the most popular religion of all time. Books of truth are the center of pretty much every major religion in the world, can you imagine how effective a religion based on a book that tells truths directly applicable to your life in specific would be? Of course it would fail if the creator of the book were known, but if it weren't then it would be treated as the literal word of God.
It would be a horrible curse though. Why think for yourself when you can just ask the book for answers? Why open your eyes and look at the world when the infallible book already knows exactly what you need to know? This concept you've come up with brings up so many interesting ideas!
Excellent story! Talk about the pen being mightier than the sword!
...So, if you keep channeling Terry Pratchett like that, I'm going to have to watch your works.
Mind if I edit?
6319773 Yeah, a book like that would very quickly rise to popularity.
But no imagine a dozen or so other books just like it that tell equally true things that just so happen to be different. It'd be madness. That's why I included the bit about entire nations switching philosophies at the drop of a hat.
I'm glad you like it, thanks for the read.
6320614 Sure, why not. Send me a PM if you want, I'll take a look.
Nothing is more dangerous or deadly than an idea. Written words are like landmines waiting, sometimes for generations to catch the unwary and unprepared.
Added to my one shot bookshelf. Thanks for adding to my arsenal.
6320868 Purty much. I liked the idea of people literally using ideas and words as weapons. You often get movies and books that say words and ideas are dangerous, but I've yet to see them downright weaponized.
Well, outside of Skyrim. But that was more magic than actual vocabulary.
6319863 I've been told I'm a bit similar to Sir Terry. At least for the last two stories I've written: this and Family Resemblance.
Honestly, though, I sort of switch styles to figure out which one I prefer. I am enjoying this sort of thing a lot, though, and I'm keeping it for at least one other story. Although I doubt I could seriously measure up to Pratchett: he's sort of my favourite writer. Of all time. As far as I'm concerned, he's inimitable.
6320878
Memes are one of the most interesting studies in cultural phenomena these days. The idea that 'ideas' can multiply, replicate, and spread like viruses is definitely scary yet intriguing. As the internet becomes more and more ingrained in our lives, memes have the potential to be as devastating as any virus or disease.
If you can find it, there is a graphic novel by Warren Ellis called Global Frequency. One of the stories in it involves a memetic virus literally overwriting the human operating system of our minds and creating a hive mind that was threatening to overtake the planet. Perceiving the idea was enough to allow infection. How do you inoculate yourself against an idea?
6320934 Yeah, sounds pretty spooky.
I had one idea for a different magical book that would essentially rewrite people's minds and opinions to the point of imposing a different identity on them. It'd be that sort of thing the Gospel Morale would have been initially used against: hostile and invasive ideas.
The idea for that book would be that it'd get written, and whoever read it would inherit the personality of the book, essentially becoming a host. The host would then write it's book again, and pass it's identity along in that method.
Great story. I loved it.
6321194 What a coincidence! I loved writing it.
"You know what this is? Oh, you know everything, so of course you do. It's called a lighter. Do you want me to use it?"
6321364 I loved writing that line.
A remarkably good read!
Although I do take some umbrage at Rainbow 's assertion. Blue and yellow are perfectly complementary colors, so long as you use the right shades
Eh, it was enjoyable for what it was. It still feels lacking, if only that the idea of books like the Gospel Moral not really being explored as well as it could have been and the central conflict being resolved rather quickly. I almost want to say this feels like an episode of the show, but it seems like it would be over by the halfway point if it were.
I dunno, maybe it's just my love of darker stories acting up again.
6321399 Oh, I agree. Dark blue and gold, for example, looks particularly regal.
Rainbow, however, seems to be of an alternate opinion. She's silly like that.
6321417 Possibly. Then again, I like to think that people have an innate sense of when something could be better, and I wouldn't simply dismiss it because it isn't dark.
I'll see if I can add some resolution to the Gospel somewhere, or look it over. Perhaps I could find some solution.
6318977 Oh yes, please do! The Rarity/Sweetie story was certainly sweet and heartwarming. But while that's true, and it's presented as the main story, it actually feels like it's the B plot here, taking a backseat to the book plot. That's not bad. This concept of the sentient books and the ancient book wars? Excuse the pun, but this is an extremely novel idea and I love it. I'm utterly enamored with it. I'd really like to see this expanded on.
6321513 Well, keep an eye out. I certainly wouldn't mind using the idea again.
6320878 Look up the SCP foundation. Some SCPs are mimetic ideas including a joke one that basically corrupts any text it touches into fanfiction nonsense. SCP-732
I'll admit, I was worried at parts as to where this would go. Thankfully it wrapped up beautifully, with a very sweet and funny ending. Nicely done
6321652 Sounds like I'll have to investigate that.
6321736 Cheers. Glad you enjoyed it.
I saw this just after reading the 'Under My Umbrella'-comic.
Endline (Sweetie Belle): "Yup, I'm adopted."
Now onto reading it.
You know what I wanted, but then realised couldn't happen? That they were INDEED biological sisters, but BOTH adopted. XD
Nitpicks/style
"Okay. Let's see what made the Gospel bounce off it's table."
- its
And as soon as they're in your head, its stuck there.
- it's
The Gospel Morale sat on the table
Spike was sat on her back
Gospel Morale was sat comfortably in the new library
towards the place where the Gospel Morale sat
- "sat" by whom may I ask?
6321858 I'm afraid the 'sat' issue is borne from me being very british. Where I'm from, being stood at a bar or sat on a chair is normal (if not grammatically correct). It's a speech thing. I'll think about changing it.
No excuse for the it's, though. I'll fix them promptly.
Ah, so it's like (groan) "a ways":
"He was sat" http://painintheenglish.com/case/4796
Please do if you can.
Your writing for the characters are spot on. It's like watching the show.
6322131 Well, I do like the show. I try to keep my stuff relatively accurate.
I'm glad I did a decent job.
I loved it!
It's now one of my new favorites
6322379 Cheers. Glad you enjoyed it.
parents' (Plural possessive gets the apostrophe after the S; this would be a singular parent, and in that case why not name the particular one?)
off
6321858
I would argue that the two you quoted that are just "sat" are fine, but the "was sat" ones should drop the "was".
I like the argument, A book that told secrets.
There was a bit of a crash-down ending. I feel like the story tried to go in two directions, each warranting their own offshoots. The first being the concept of a book that shows hard truths, which would be interesting to read in its own right. The second being the relationship dynamic between Sweetie Belle and Rarity. It could be delved into much deeper than is portrayed in the story, should you choose to do so.
It just feels like there are a lot of threads left loose, and you lost the drive/ran out of time/just didn't get around to explaining them all.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, I just feel like you could have done more with it.
Good read. I'd defiantly read it again some time!
Wow. I haven't seen a FiMFiction story try this hard to be a Discworld story since Fridge Horror. Lucky for you, I liked both Fridge Horror and this for that exact reason. You're not quite Terry Pratchett, but you're close enough for my tastes.
Meanwhile at the libraray:
: "Mother, what are you doing here?"
: Oh! I get to perform my new duty already!" *Flick* *WHOOSH!*
: "That's that taken care of!"
: "Rarity!"
: "...What? Did I do something wrong?"
"Hello!"
Rarity's Mom: "I just came to give this magical book to the Princess, dear."
6323529 Heh, probably. Like I mentioned in a comment down below, I mostly just got carried away with the book part.
That said, I'm still very satisfied with how it turned out. One one hand, you have the hard truth, and on the other, Rarity lying to protect her sister. I'm not sure that even if I originally intended for the story to be about the Gospel, it'd be a bad thing to see Sweetie struggle a little with the uncompromising facts. In fact, from my (highly biased) standpoint, the two work well together.
Sweetie and Rarity have an antagonist and learn that lying can still be morally acceptable, and become closer as a result, and the Gospel gets to showcase the full range of what it entails: caring more about the truth than actually helping people, which is backwards. Like I said, I'm highly biased, but still satisfied with the story at present.
If you want to give the idea a shot yourself, do so, but I'd appreciate my name in there somewhere if you're taking the concept to the point where it feels warranted.
6323523 I generally spent most of my time trying to write in a very minimalistic fashion, and most of my stories tend towards being quite dry and unobtrusive, so the reader wouldn't get jarred by the writing. The story I wrote before this one, Family Resemblance, was one where I tried not doing that, and wrote to have fun a lot more.That one turned out okay, and I had great fun writing it, so I did it again for this one. It had a lot more Pratchett-isms, probably because I grew up on his excellent, excellent books.
I guess this is what one of my stories looks like when I start playing around with words instead of simply trying to convey the bare bones of an event. I think I like both of them.
That was really clever! The idea of the Book Wars is pretty ingenious, I must say. I liked the balance between the serious (Rarity and Sweetie Belle) and the whimsy (Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow Dash). Overall, an incredibly entertaining read, with a surprising level of emotional depth. Bravo!