It all started with a friendly debate. Twilight thinks that Ponyville could not survive for thirty days without adults, Discord thinks that it could. Discord decides to settle the answer once and for all by putting every school aged colt and filly in Ponyville (plus Spike) into an exact replica of their town without any adults at all.
Only, Discord has to be able to prove to Twilight who won their debate. In order to keep Ponyville adult-free, he pulls filly Twilight from the past, who has nothing more than filly memories. And, while he's at it, he may as well bring in the rest of the filly mane six. Can the town survive for thirty whole days? And will the mane six be able to overcome the social barriers between themselves and the rest of the colts and fillies?
whoa it really cool it sort like this old tv show kid nation
it really cool
6681935 Never seen it, but good to know that the idea is tried and true.
Why didn't Diamond Tiara ask for her butler?
6682133 I am confused. You think she would be more worried about the butler than her own dad? Not that she can't be worried about both.
6682156
Because it's normally her butler who helps her in the mornings.
This gunna be good. Get the popcorn ready!
6682160 Oh, I get it. You know what, I dunno. This is supposed to be old DT, so I wanted to give her some redeeming traits to balance her bully character, so I decided that she is better able to take care of herself than most of the others. It would totally make sense that a butler would do everything for her though.
Everyone knows that her family is rich, but is it actually confirmed that DT's family has servants in the house? Or is that just really popular fannon? I'm going to go with what I've written regardless.
Keep writing! I think that this is fantastic. It's toootaly the kind of thing they would bet on too. Why do you do this to yourself twy
.
6682177
Yes, in "Twilight Time", we see her butler, Randolph.
I lost it.
This isn't a test, it's an endurance run. Who will be the last foal standing?! Who will wimp out first?! Will one of the Mane Six drop out?! My name is Electric Blitz and I welcome you to the first season of Foal Town: Winter Edition!
But in all seriousness, this could be turned into a game show like Survivor or Total Drama.
There are way more people who have favorited this story than there are people who have liked it. I can only figure that this is because the story had rather little comedy in the first chapter when the story was labeled as a comedy, and they were waiting to see if the second chapter be funnier before rating? Hope this chapter shows you what this is going to be like.
6685317 Personally, I favorite the best stories and like the other ones that aren't trash. Your story is good, with comedy and great characterizations.
6685696 That's exactly how I figured it should work (except people have varying standards for what it takes to give a like), and in every other story I have I am pretty sure I have more likes than favs, but this one turned out to be a strange anomaly. Just trying to figure out why.
Why do I feel that the kids will not make it the 30 days before they mess it all up?
6686138 Oh, it will get messed up alright, but hopefully they can live with it.
I'm basically obligated to write chapters for all thirty days. I'd be cheaping out if I ended the story before thirty days are up. Not everyone in the town is obligated to stay, however.
Knowing these foals, Ponyville will probably end up covered in tree sap.
6682177 I like your characterization of DT. She has been shown canonically to have multiple servants, but there's no reason she couldn't have some sort of personal quirk about making her own breakfast and getting herself to school, certainly she comes off as highly independent.
discord 'time to put more fillys and colt into the story maybe a litte tia and lule'
me 'no discord'
discord' but i only want's some fun
me 'no discord
discord' then i'll just put you i---'
me *kills discord whit a laser of doom* 'no discord' *sits down and drinks a cup of coffee*
I added Diamond Tiara as a tagged character since she is becoming a larger part of the story than I initially realized she would be.
Also, a little backstory before I explain something. I've been binging on Fallout 4 since it came out, but my computer doesn't actually meet the minimum ram requirements to play the game, so I have been dealing with the game freezing up for like 2 whole minutes at a time every time I go anywhere. It sucks, and I've finally got fed up with it. I'm not playing it any more until Christmas, when I will get new ram. And, strangely, I don't feel like playing any other video games if I can't play the amazing Fallout 4. I need something to do until Christmas.
So, since this story has been getting a decent amount of attention, and because so far I have updated it every day, I want to give myself a challenge. I want to see if I can overcome my usual procrastination... and update the story every day for thirty days straight. (Sound familiar?) Or at however many days it takes to get to the end of this.
I'm probably overburdening myself, but I just felt like having a challenge, and I have quite a bit of free time. And, I really do need to have a motivation to not sit on my butt all day. If I miss a day, I'll just have to make it up the next day or something.
whoa great job buddy
Finally got around to reading this chapter.
Bad du ba ba ba
I'M LOVIN' IT!
Seriously, aside from a few nitpicking about pacing and rushing through the realization phase, this story is awesome.
Time to fly to the next chapter....
at some point in the near future. Curse you college classes!
6688947 The whole 'all of our parents are gone' thing is not very humorous, but it is a necessity to set the stage. That is why it only has this one chapter, albeit a longer one. Glad you like it though!
I was wondering why Diamond Tiara wanted to spend 30 days with no servants or prepared meals, but then I got it: She wants a month away from her mother. Thanks for making me sad.
6688480 The Commonwealth will miss you, friend.
6690018 I didn't say that. Maybe some of the kids want are happy for an excuse to get away from their parents (I'm not thinking of any one specific one), but the named characters are all treating this like an extended vacation, and most of them will probably miss their family more and more as time goes on. You'll find out more about Diamond's reasons for everything soon enough.
Only two foals aren't aware of their parents disappearance, one barely see them, the other is an orphan. Okay. Now I'm sad.
6691538 Sorry. It will be much more light-hearted after this first chapter, I promise.
I know this is a little on the short side, but I went with this since it's a continuation of the previous chapter. Also, there are only so many ways I can say "the teams threw snowballs at each other". There are fics on this site where there are 20,000 words of snowball fight fun, but I can't do that myself. This story isn't about the snowball fight though, it's about lots of different things that contribute to the overall situation.
And I now realize that I'm already defending myself before anybody has said anything yet.
Next chapter will be longer.
So what was the difference in the taste of the cookies?
(bear with me, I have a diminished sense of taste/smell, and I doubt I would e able to spot the difference in taste unless it was REALLY different)
6694359 Taste is really hard to describe in words. They tasted different than anything I had ever tried. They didn't really taste like cornmeal since there was also sugar and other stuff mixed in. I don't know how to describe it. Flour is the main ingredient though, so I can assure you , they did taste completely different than they should have.
6686195 Well, I hope you're up for the task.
The writers block for this one was for real. This chapter was a doozy to write. I spent at hours thinking about how this chapter would go. There is a farside comic on my user page that jokes about just this sort of thing, but in this case, the percentage it lists was a vast understatement.
By the way, for anybody that is wondering how Scootaloo is riding a scooter through the snow...
She just plows through. Because she's just that good.
Awww, no super strong filly launching the biggest snowball ever ?
6697875 The idea did cross my mind, but I didn't do it. Who would you consider to be 'super strong' anyway? Applejack? Maybe adult Applejack would be considered really strong, but in this scenario, not especially. Twilight is honestly the only pony in town capable of even beginning to do heavy lifting, and I'm trying to avoid the cliché of 'Twilight does everything'.
If, for whatever reason Bulk Biceps was also here, I would totally have done it.
6697893 I would choose the canonical one.
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Too bad Discord decided to mess with time, ARing the mane six and had them completely vulnerable to childish impulses would have been more fun.
6700142 They are subject to childish impulses. They are actual foals. They don't have any of their adult memories. Twilight in particular acts somewhat more mature since I expect she would be, since she has special responsibilities for a filly, like being Celestia's student and helping to raise Spike. If you are talking about anyone else, though, I'm confused. I thought the rest of the mane six have been displaying their foalhood satisfactorily.
Good, good, let the gossip power flow through you.
And Twilight just have to choose the worst possible pony for this task.
I'm going to experimentally change my upload schedule to about twelve hours earlier/later than I have been uploading these, since I think I've been updating this at one of the most inactive times on the site. So, as a result, the next chapter will actually come about twenty four hours from now. On the upside, the day of the chapter title should be synchronous with the actual day of the month in real life from here out, if I don't do another two chapter day over the course of two days, so that's neat.
Short, but very cute.
6705174 Can't have every single chapter be about fun and games.
I would never be able to keep up.
6705184 That is understandable. I actually think this chapter fits nicely.
So Dinky is the first why want to go home. Who will be the first foal who want to stay here forever ?
Of course, that's why Diamond took every foals in her house, she doesn't want to be alone in a house to big for one pony.
It's strange considering she teamed with her for the snowball war.
6705317 Dinky decided to join the smallest team during the snowball fight.
Great story. Wonder if any of the foals are going to realize that Twilight shouldn't be able to hold a cloud.
6709314 She's not holding it as such, it's falling through her hoof, but that doesn't mean that they can't manipulate them at all. It's just more awkward and difficult for non-pegasi.
Or at least, that's what I say. After all, I just can't see non-pegasi passing through clouds as though they were nothing more than mist as "realistic".
Edit: I think that, surprisingly, the cotton candy clouds make for the best example. You couldn't stand on a blob of cotton candy, you'd fall through. It's still perfectly possible to gather it up and throw it though.
I feel the need to say this, though I hope I'm wrong.
A psychology experiment requires the participants to not know what is being tested. This means discord's big reveal about why they're there would be against the experiment. That means three possibilities.
1) he's telling the truth, and the experiment is ruined.
2) he's lying to twilight about who's bet is on what. Think about the bet for a second. Twilight, the paragon of goodness, believes that ponies would fall apart without aid, while discord, who hates order, believes they would survive. Just saying, it makes more sense if they're flipped.
3) the experiment is about something else entirely. Deception has always been used in psychology, so discord lying to the participants about the nature of an experiment? Yeah, that seems pretty likely.
6713767 It's not a psychological experiment, at least not in a manner that requires it to be done without the subject's knowledge. It is a social experiment, but keeping the subjects ignorant is not necessary. Honestly, Discord is probably more likely to win if he does tell them what he wants them to do. He just isn't allowed to directly help them do it.
Now, as for the rest. I haven't actually explained this very much in the actual story, but there is no reason not to tell readers, so I will give this information now.
Twilight and Discord didn't quite have the same idea in mind when the debate was made. Twilight herself is pointing out that the experiment is very flawed. They shouldn't be able to handle the weather, but they in fact do because of special circumstances, which is not what adult Twilight had in mind when she made the argument. They should also realistically have to worry about the consequences of their actions even after the thirty days are up, but because of the nature of the experiment, they can wreck the town. In the real world, Twilight really should be the one to be correct. That is why she holds the opinion she does. She's just trying to be realistic.
This doesn't matter though. If the foals can last for thirty days without actually destroying the town or falling apart as a community (which is subject to interpretation), Discord technically wins the bet. It doesn't matter how close they are to falling apart, just so long as it doesn't actually happen. Which is not Twilight had in mind, but her foal self doesn't know that, and Discord is running the show, and he would love nothing more than to prove that Ponyville can exist in a state of chaos without actually falling apart.
Both of them are kind of right. Depending on which position you prefer more, you can twist the argument into making it look like that particular side is correct. The most probable way I see it ending is Discord claiming to have won and Twilight insisting that he actually didn't and they never do actually agree. There are more important things in this story than deciding who won the debate that actually started it all though.
There is one important fact that you did pick up on, however. Nobody except Discord remembers the exact circumstances that lead to all of this. Discord has not lied about anything, but not all is as it seems.
Hope that all makes sense and clears up some stuff for everyone. And thank you for the comment!
The events of the next chapter will be the first event that occurs over more than one day. As such, I am going to not upload today and buy myself more time to make sure that I go about writing it all correctly. I will also not upload anything tomorrow. On Friday, you will get three chapters at once that describe the next three days.
I'm totally not procrastinating, I swear.