Consider Ponyville.
Up close, you can see three young fillies with another, perched at the top of a steep hill while at the bottom, a ramp lies waiting for their arrival.
But we shall not tarry there to see the inevitable conclusion. Instead, consider the bakery at Sugarcube Corner, where a young apprentice baker is stuffing the oven with a freshly constructed cake filled with confetti and fireworks in the hopes of making a discovery in the field of party science.
No, we shall not wait for the explosion, no matter the drama and awesomeness it promises.
Perhaps we should examine the boutique instead, where a young farmer holds herself as steady as she can while her friend constructs a work of art around her. It is a scene of balance which is hinted at by the few dry apple leaves in the artist’s mane and the traces of mud on her hooves from a more physical labor which is just as much a work of art as her current endeavor.
But no, this is not what we seek either.
We shall travel past the park, where a young musician plays with eyes closed in front of her bowl of bits, her music and heart meant for only one other. Past the house filled with junk and love finally reunited, the home of pure music divided and united by the same, a post office filled with lost letters, a shop filled with clocks and other bits of timey-wimey merchandise, a young dragon running in the direction of an upcoming disaster, a dozen mares caught in song about the love of a reluctant stallion.
No, what we want to see is over here, where there once was nothing but grass until the memorable day when a crystal castle appeared in a flash of rainbow light.
And now there is nothing but grass again. Strange. Perhaps what we want to see is not here.
Let us away into the sky, past the colorful drifting home of a colorful pegasus, up into the air past the clouds, past the city perched on the edge of the mountain, past any and every thing until we reach…
Glass.
A strange thing to find up here, thin and protective around all that we have seen so far. Perhaps we should go a little further until we can see the castle appear, floating in a timeless void. And inside the castle, a young alicorn driven to sleep by her intense fatigue is holding the fragile glass container we have just left. Her forelegs are wrapped around the cylinder of glass and life, with her lips constantly moving even in her fitful slumber.
“I can fix it,” she mutters through gritted teeth. “This time, for certain.”
Note: This story is about two sentences different than the version on the It Could Have Gone Better writeoff, in which it placed 20th out of 39. The original went “What’s going on, what’s going on, is that it?” instead of “What’s going on, what’s going on, Oh that’s it.”
More than a little creepy, especially given what recently happened to the bottled city of Kandor…
2.bp.blogspot.com/-SzTX4_-ajEA/WyJTJiTznQI/AAAAAAAA0is/xlRVt1SY54MqEbfC9R52y7ySzG_uGUgMQCLcBGAs/s1600/mos%2B3-05.jpg
9047485 Most likely due to New Author syndrome found in most comics.
Old Author: There we go, I've set up a popular environment with familiar landmarks for the readers that they like and NPCs that have a positive affect on the story construction and flow.
DC Comics: This comic isn't selling like it did, even though it brings in 80% of our revenue. Let's bring in new blood.
New Author: Let's destroy every bit of background the old author had, kill off his NPCs, and make the hero into something nobody will recognize.
DC Comics: Gee, there's been a dip in circulation with the new author. Don't worry, it will pick back up.
DC Comics: Gee, the dip has turned into a 25% plummet in revenue. I wonder what happened.
DC Comics: Now circulation is down to 50% of what it once was and all our advertisers are jumping ship. I don't understand why, because the SJW reviewers just love the new style and story lines.
DC Comics: Well, the comic is down to about 30% of its previous sales. I guess it was headed down when we fired Old Author anyway. Let's reboot it with even more social features and bring in some more of New Author's close friends.
9047510
Okay, SJW are the least of the problems the comic industry has.
9047510
At least the number of Kryptonians has been whittled back down to Superman, Supergirl, and Superboy (Jon Kent), though we now have Jor-El to deal with (curse you, Dr. Manhatten!). Frankly, I’m starting to get a bit tired of all the “legacy” and “family” characters that have been introduced in the last decade or so—it’s becoming almost as bad as the number of X-Men. Yes, I understand that the publishers are trying to bring more diversity to their character lineups, but do we really need:
The Flash
Two Flashes, Barry Allen and Wally West. It has very quickly (see what I did there?) become very confusing determining which Flash others refer to. What’s worse is that both characters had long publishing runs as the titular character and have solid fan bases.
I’m personally in the camp that thinks DC should have let Barry Allen rest in peace after outrunning a tachyon and saving the universe in the original Crisis, but that’s me.
Batman—he should just open a recruiting office in Gotham and be done with it. Let’s see:
Green Lantern. At least they have a reasonably plausible in-setting excuse—they’re space cops! Of course there’s more than one. (Pay no attention to the dead Ganthet stuffed in Kyle’s refrigerator).
Spider-Man. No, the “Clone Saga” doesn’t count. Mostly.
The Hulk
It’s all become more than a tad ridiculous. We even have an evil version of Captain America (Captain Hydra?) now who’s not quite from an alternate timeline (see Dark Beast) or a clone of Steve Rogers (see Red Skull)! Who’ll give me odds on him having grown a goatee by the next time we see him in print?
Ah. The addition of the timeless void certainly puts a different spin on things than my original interpretation of the piece.