• Member Since 13th Apr, 2013
  • offline last seen Nov 17th, 2023

mr lovecolt


“Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, only exhuberance.” ~Anne Sexton

E
Source

Twilight Sparkle is asked if things were things.
Then she is asked if the things they were weren't what they were.
Then she is asked if the things that weren't what were were what they weren't were.
Luckily, Discord is there to make sense of it all.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 44 )

Yo dawg I heard you were being meta so we went and applied meta to your meta meta.

Of course, with the one cover of MLP Friends Forever #20, I can all too easily ship Discord and Luna right now.

Lol!

I mean, it wouldn't work without the original to riff on, but it's pretty funny and well-written regardless.

Typo alert: I saw a "jusy" in there.

I like this one. It actually has a moral, even though it's satire. It's meaningful.

Tis great, that's all I can say.:pinkiehappy:

I like it! Very nice:heart:

Oh boy, here we go again!

It only matters if what matters matters, as a matter in fact.

"What did we miss during our bowel movement?"

And...That made my day

"You know," Fluttershy said as she sniffled. "You remind me of The Word."

"What word?"

"The Word with the flower."

I feel old now. I couldn't help but hear the music to this.

"There, that wasn't that hard, was it? See how much time you save when you stop asking hypothetical questions that don't actually answer the question you really wanted to ask?"

This. This right here. Thumbs up.

I'm
So
Meta,
Even
This
Acronym

I love it. Love it love it LOVE IT!

At first, I was like Here we go again, another one of these "Fluttershy asks Twilight deep philosophical question about identity and whether it does or doesn't matter" stories.

But this isn't a rebuttal, or a wacky parody, or even a rewrite. This exposes the entire "genre" for what it is, a cheap way to foment a heated debate where neither side is completely right, nor completely wrong, so both sides will argue forever. The person who posed such a prickly question is then lauded as "smart" for encouraging such discussion, even if the discussion is fairly pointless as it assumes that the real world is split into black and white, good and bad, right or wrong.

The Emperor has no clothes, and this story, like the child, has pointed it out for us.

6488036 Ha, turn it up my friend!
No! We don't stop!
Ha! We rock the spot!
No! We don't quit!
Get ready! Oh! this is it!

...Sorry. I just have that stuck in my head now because of you.

Twilight Sparkle replied as she stared straight out, as though looking past some translucent screen.

"The bird is The Word."

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"IS THAT YOU, PONE NEIGH-YNE?! IS THIS ME?!"

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"HEY, START THE CAMERAS, THIS IS 'EQUESTRIA, THE MOVIE'!"

douchetalks.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/fmj4.jpg
"JOKER CAN BE PONE NEIGH-YNE. I'LL BE A HORSE!"

Is this a thing now? XD

There's some good writing here, very funny, but I'm not sure it doesn't cross the line a little by dismissing all philosophy-based idea fic as an ego grab on the part of the author. There are hundreds of reasons to write, and to suggest that for one specific genre of story we can boil them all down to "lol this will make me look smart" is a disservice to a fic that elsewhere proudly proclaims that there are two sides to every question.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

Amazing. You absolutely destroyed me with this one. :D

Why to ponies like asking

6497433
Well, this story is exactly what it is complaining about. I'm not sure if that's intentional meta-comedy or not.

I reviewed this story!

My review can be found here.

6497433
6506376

Think of it this way. Imagine two story outlines:

Story One:
After the Changeling Invasion, Twilight Sparkle begins to notice certain characteristics about Fluttershy: how every animal seems to love her, how she seems to 'feed' off of this love, her staring ability. Rather than talk with Fluttershy about it, Twilight Sparkle begins to spy on her. As the ponies of town take notice, they learn what Twilight is doing. A whisper campaign begins, culminating in all of the townsponies refusing to let Fluttershy take care of their animals.

Story Two:
Fluttershy asks Twilight a hypothetical question about if one of their friends was a changeling. They debate about whether or not who they are is more important than what they are.

Both story ideas say the same thing. But which story would you feel more emotionally drawn into? Which story would take more effort to write? I was so frustrated with the original story exactly because it could have been a great story, had it been more than two characters discussing a hypothetical situation.

6507049
I think it is important to recognize that something requiring more effort to write has no bearing on its goodness; things aren't better because they require more effort to produce. And things aren't better for being longer, either.

Those two are very different stories. GAPJaxie's story is supposed to be short, punchy, and ambiguous. The question there is "Would It Matter If I Was?". It is about Twilight being directly confronted with the possibility that her friend is a changeling, and having to make the decision as to whether or not it DOES matter, with her friend confronting her over it. It is also meant to make the audience question whether Fluttershy is actually a changeling, and a big part of the appeal of the story is making the audience wonder along with Twilight about just how hypothetical this question is, as well as feel Twilight's guilt over whether or not she should be worried about it. We're being taken on a ride with TWilight, here. But it doesn't linger on it excessively, or actually answer the question of whether or not she is a changeling, because the question is "does it matter?", not "Is she?"

The other story is focused on paranoia and distrust on the part of Twilight, who is, in that case, spying on Fluttershy but failing to confront her. It is a much longer piece, and less focused on the immediate issue of trust between Fluttershy and Twilight; the question here becomes "Is Fluttershy a changeling?" instead of "Does it matter if Fluttershy is a changeling?" The two have different focuses, and different feels to them. Twilight and Fluttershy's conversation was short and intense; this would be more long and drawn out, with more tension and hurt feelings over the long term, and potentially much more damage from fallout. Its not the same story and it isn't asking the same question.

A better example of a long-form version of GAP Jaxie's story is Who We Are by Kits, which is a story about one of the Mane Six being a changeling, but no one knows who - and they have to struggle over the course of the fic as to whether or not it matters who the changeling is, as well as with the question of which one of them it is.

6507561
Damn, the world must be ending. We actually agree on something. :derpytongue2:

6505554 Thank you, and thank you for the review. I'm really wondering if I should try to focus on being more random. I've noticed a lot of people confusing the categories of Random versus Comedy.

6507561 Thank you for that. Even though we disagree, I'm appreciative that you still took the time to review it and feel it at least worth reading.

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and flew down from the ladder. She placed a hoof on Fluttershy's withers.

"What are you saying, Fluttershy?" she asked, waiting for the inevitable mumbling. "Just say it."

"We need to make sure not to stereotype all changelings just because of one encounter."

"There, that wasn't that hard, was it? See how much time you save when you stop asking hypothetical questions that don't actually answer the question you really wanted to ask?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said as she flapped her wings. "I do get it."

OH MY GOODNESS.

I HAVE SEEN THE ERROR OF MY WAYS. :rainbowhuh:

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

6508256
I like crackfics. :V

6508288

Marvelous, dear child, simply marvelous. Everything is going...

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according to plan...

Follow DISCORD!

this is the best one.

Yeah, this was probably the most enjoyable of these I've read. Good points all around, and leave it up to Discord to drive home the main point.

Now hopefully this god-awful fad will die. But we know it won't.

The LoHAV stories had a similar satire story, and it did nothing to stem the flow.

I, uhm- what? okay.

"Don't say bowel movement. Just say sh--
*****
"--it has to have a reason."

AHAHAHAHA I GET IT! Sh-it HAHAHAHA

I had a laughing fit as soon as a bunch of random stuff started to happen in the story, especially the "Bird is the Word" part, Big Macintosh singing "All about that flank", and the ponies asking Twilight "Would it matter if/I was/were?". :rainbowlaugh:

Also, the singing part with Discord and Twilight was fun to read, too. :twilightsmile:

This reminds me of going on a ride in Disney world where a character called Figment is going around trying to express the idea of Imagination on a ride about the five human senses.

"So, wait, what is the word?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"No, What is the second basemare."

8879908
Silly dreaming Twilight! Everyone knows that

What have I just read :twilightoops:?

Alright, let us see here. Do I get this straight?


D is for Dreaming of a world you wish to write,
I is Imagining the creatures which reside,
S is for Situations they may or may not fight,
C is for Comprehending each and every side,
O and R both stand for Objectivity with every single being,
Regardless of how you make them first appear in what you are...
"Dreaming".



D is for Daring to imagine,
I is for Immersion in the world,
S is for Stop Stereotyping,
C is for Cliches to destroy,
O is for Original Tales that
ARE not Restricted by the trite conventions of the masses;
that is how one becomes...
Daring!

So, basically he gives an advice on writing fiction?..

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